I'm BBBAAACCCKKK!!!

So - it has been a ridiculously long time since I've posted in here.  Part of it was just being busy, and part of it was that I had lost my stitching mojo for a while.  But - I seem to have it back!  (And, by the way, thank you to those who were concerned that I hadn't posted for a while - it does make you feel good when people "miss" you!).

Anyway - when I resurrected my stitching mojo, I stitched a little bit more on my Vegas picture - but I'm not posting a picture until I finish the page I'm on.  But as a reward for finishing a row of blocks, I started a new project!  (That's a way to jump start mojo right - start something new!).

The something new I started is a Lizzie Kate - always a fun easy stitch.  I found it when I organized my stash over New Years - I knew I had the pattern, but I didn't realize that the pattern came with the fabric and the threads - so no work to kit it up!

The pattern is a 2008 Special Edition called "Christmas is Forever".  Here is my progress so far:

And here is the sideways picture of what it will look like what it's finished!  LOL  (I can't figure out how to rotate the picture on here, but you get the general idea.

As is always the case with a Lizzie Kate pattern, it's been a fun stitch so far.

My Southern California Stitchers group had a LOVELY get together yesterday.  Six of us descended on one the home of a very generous group member, and settled in for about 6 hours of stitching, talking, laughing...and oh yeah, lunch!  We had a great time, and that's where I got a lot of time in on this project.

I'm hoping to get back into a rhythm of rotating my projects AND updating my blog!  Wish me luck (I think I vow to be a better "blogger" every year!  LOL)

Finished the Cross Stitching....

So I finished the cross stitching on Spanish Geometric Sampler, now it's time to do the beading.  I've started it a little bit last night - the beads are purple and green.  (Well, not purple and green - purple beads, and green beads).

I've finished some other things, but they're for gifts and I'm not sure if the recipients read my blog or not, so to be safe, I won't post them here.  Once the giving occasion(s) go by, I will post pictures here (and I will look really prolific!).

Anyway, thanks for checking it out.

Boulevard of Dreams Progress

Well, after another couple of weeks of stitching, I made a LITTLE more progress on my HAED. This was actually taken last Sunday, but I never got around to posting it.

It seems like I go in spurts with my blog....I'm either writing LONG entries and posting pictures faithfully every week, or I'm viewing it as a chore to update. Since I cross stitch for fun (my two jobs are enough work - I don't need more!), when it feels like a chore, I just don't do it! LOL

I also have a few little finishes - however, they are gifts for people who may or may not read my blog...so I don't want to post them here. I think I can safely post them on some of my stitching groups (selectively) and not ruin any surprises. My best guess is that most of you know me from a Yahoo group (or two!) so you can check there to see my pictures.....

Thank you all for sticking with me - whether I'm posting like crazy or posting sporadically!

Spanish Geometric Sampler

Well, I finished the third page on the Spanish Geometric Sampler. The fourth page is the smallest of the four pages (the pattern's not evenly divided). This is a fun travel project! After the stitching is done, then it gets a bunch of green and purple beads - that's green beads and purple beads, not green and purple on the same bead! LOL

Okay - going to try this posting again. I thought I had it, but alas, the picture didn't work! I found that out when Gabi and Julie sent me messages and said "Nope, didn't work!"

So, I thought I would try it a second time. I can't pull pictures into my blog from blogger, but I can seem to "push" them from Picasa, so that's how I'm doing it. We'll see if it posts better this time!

Anyway, AS I ALREADY TYPED ONCE....LOL.....I've been remiss. This picture was taken on July 12th, two days after my "Page 1 is done" picture. It was the progress I made from the time I took that picture until the time I took my HAED out of my rotations for a couple of weeks. I was working on a couple of little things, but they're gifts for people who sometimes check out my blog, so....can't post them here.

Meanwhile, I've been BUSY the last couple of weekends. Two weeks ago was my sister's 50th birthday party with the family. We went to a lake near my parents' house, and had a nice day. My other sister and I had made her a poster with pictures of her, and we all bought her gift certificates to pamper herself - a massage, and a manicure / pedicure. So hopefully she'll take advantage of it!

Then last weekend (Friday) we went to a free concert in the park with that same sister to see a Rod Stewart tribute band. It was a nice evening - people bring chairs, blankets, food, and drinks and hang out and listen to the music. They even had a dance floor. Saturday I had a reunion with some former co-workers from a job that I worked at from 1989 - 1999. There were about 30 of us there, and it was an awesome day. We were at the beach (always rough! NOT!) and had beautiful weather. Then on Sunday I had tickets with friends to see Mary Poppins (the stage version). I LOVED IT!!! I think I enjoyed it more than my friends 7 1/2 year old daughter, and I'm proud to say so. Mary Poppins is my favorite Disney movie.

Then last night we went to our county fair. I like to go look at the arts and crafts stuff, and the fine arts stuff (photography and painting). I was a little disappointed in the stitchery....it seems like every year there is less and less. And I hadn't been last year (and I don't remember if I went the year before) but they've changed how they display the stitched stuff. It used to be that in various sections there would kind of be themes....and there might be quilts, china paintings, knitting, crocheting, sewing AND stitched stuff that fit that theme (Christmas, Halloween, Babies, Patriotic, Weddings). Now they have a spot for cross-stitching, a spot for knitting, a spot for crocheting, etc. I liked the old way better because people who might be looking at the knitting might see something cross-stitched and become interested. Now unless you're already interested, you're not going to see the stitched stuff. The stuff that was there was pretty, but there just wasn't enough of it!

Anyway - this is a LONG post - I sure hope the picture works this time.

And in a minute, I'm going to try to post a picture of my Spanish Geometric Sampler.....

Page 1 Done

Okay - so this is my first HAED ever - and I'm counting each page as a "mini-finish". So I've finished page 1, and I'm getting ready to start page 2.

Some statistics (probably only interesting to me, but.....LOL)
Started - 5/15/11
Finished - 7/5/11
Days Stitched - 25 Days
Time Stitched - 79 1/2 Hours
Stitches - 7,840
Percent Completed - 3.73%

Now onto page 2 - more of the same, blues and purples! :-)

Queen of the Needle Update

The lighting on this picture isn't perfect - I took some with a flash and some without. Surprisingly, the ones without flash washed the color out until the fabric looked white (it isn't - it's pink). This one was with the flash, and the colors are a little "truer".

I don't feel like I made a ton of progress this week on this one. I finished the leaves in the row of pink and white flowers, and then I stitched the white flowers and the pink flowers. It's hard to see in the picture (I should have taken a close up of just that row). The white daisy looking flowers have smyrna crosses for the centers and satin stitches for the petals, and the pink flowers are just straight stitches in three different colors - I think there are something like 36 or 40 stitches in each flower. It took a TON of concentration because it wasn't just counting! The next row is pansies.

If you aren't familiar, it's a Just Nan pattern. There's a medallion type thing that goes in the middle of that spot with the top of it being between the two pink flowers in the middle. It's kind of challenging (not in a bad way) in that it requires some concentration on my part because of the specialty stitches. The white lacy stitching on the top was supposed to be pearl cotton, but I gave up because I couldn't get the stupid needle threaded! Sad, but true!

Any, thanks for looking!