Tuesday, February 13, 2024

That's No Excuse!

 If I start out whining and telling you how tired I was from traveling and how many jobs had to be caught up on and how dull and gloomy the weather has been and how I had no energy or motivation to get back into the swing of things ...would that get me off the hook for not blogging for almost 2 weeks? nah! I didn't think so because when I go back and read what I have just written it simply sounds like excuses. Lame excuses. I can hear my mom now when I would come up with perfectly valid reasons why the dishes weren't done or my homework was undone or why I was 10 minutes past curfew.. Wendy! ...that's no excuse!



So I will simply and sheepishly say, I am sorry and that I will try to do better.

Not too many updates on stitching. I did manage to start finish 2 small cross stitch projects in the last 2 weeks and I have another almost complete.


Here is one of the completed stitches. the second one is not photographed yet so it will have to wait until my next blog post.

I also started another quilt. It is to be a gift so it will have to take a front seat to some of my other projects. 

I have not forgotten my book with this years goals but first things first.
So many things I want to do! I have a hard time concentrating on just one project. I came across this photo on Pinterest and it describes me to a T !

The direction of the dialogue in this post just seems to confirm the above photo. My mind is all over the place while writing this, so you will need to really pay attention or you will come to the end of this post, shaking your head and saying to yourself; "what in the word is she talking about"?


OK back to the quilt I have started this week. This is hopefully what the quilt will look like.

Soulshine Quilt Pattern by Southern Charm Quilts


 and these are the fabrics I have chosen. I think it will be quite pretty when finished. I have all the pieces cut and hopefully tomorrow I will get a bit of a start on the 120 flying geese blocks. (stay tuned)

We have unseasonably mild weather for February in Canada; almost no snow but Boy Howdy we had a pretty drive to church last Sunday with all the hoar frost on the trees. 








even the spider webs looked pretty.

My Christmas Amaryllis is "struttin' her stuff" these days and I just had to share a few pictures to show you how pretty she is.





I will leave you with a few pictures of the most photogenic one in the house these days.  I keep my camera handy because you just never know when she will be posing for another pretty picture.
......and here's Bella!





Even the smallest feline is a masterpiece of nature”  
Leonardo da Vinci,









 

Monday, January 29, 2024

I'M FINISHED!


finished 2 cross stitch projects, a couple of knitted dish cloths, and a vacation. We have been on the road for 2 days and will be getting home tomorrow, "Lord willing, and the creeks don't rise."

 I mean that literally . . . . there have been flash flood warnings since we left Hilton Head yesterday. Pretty heavy rains today through North Carolina, West Virginia and on into Ohio. The water is high and fast in some of the rivers we could see along the highway but so far all is well.  

These days it is not very often that I get in my 10,000 steps, and especially on a travel day. Yesterday after a 5-6 hour drive we arrived at Sunset Island North Carolina. Found a place to park the car and headed to the beach. My letter was written and we were on a mission to walk down the beach for several km each way to find Kindred Spirits Mailbox. If you have read Nicholas Sparks novel entitled Every Breath, you will know exactly what/where I am referring to. 

I listened to the audio book on my library app





A little snippet of the 4 page letter I left in the mailbox. I also sat on the bench and read several letters left by others who had been there before us the same day and many days before



By the time we got back to the car in the beach parking lot we had logged on 13,127 steps.(the app my husband used said it was about 100 steps more, but this was on my phone so it is the picture I snapped.  A little further than I expected but worth the walk.

Here are 2 of the cross stitch projects I finished stitching while I was away. They still need to be framed but that will happen later.

This is a chart from 
Black Bird Designs called What Remains. 
I made a few changes to the chart by adding 3 sets of initials in memory of my mom and dad and brother and 2 sets of initials for Mr. O's mom and dad. 
I also charted a sentiment and added it to the bottom of the design. There was to be a row of birds stitched across the bottom but I omitted them and added my initials and the little sentiment and a few additional stitches to balance things out.


The second finish is a small flower basket that was a freebie called Refuse To Wilt,  distributed by Needlework Press during the pandemic. I printed it out with the intention of doing it right away but like many patterns it got crowded out by others and took a while to materialize. 

I know I said I would show you the projects that were hidden away in each of the project bags that went on vacation with me (from my last post) but I don't have everything at my fingertips here in the hotel room so it will have to wait til I get home. 


As promised, here are a couple of cool pics of some starfish and jelly fish from some of our beach walks.


Huge jelly fish washed up on the beach





Some of these starfish looked like they were doing yoga poses for me


one of many many sand dollars



we walked by this caution sign every day
YIKES
  

I have made a decision which book I am going to concentrate on for my quilting projects this year.  My plan is to chose a book and pick several projects from that book to get done this year. None of them are full size quilts so I decided to go with 6.  I think these will be just the perfect thing to whittle down some of my scraps. 
My book choice is Autumn Bouquet by Sharon Keightley.


CANDY BASKETS  33"X33"

HOLLY'S GARDEN 23"X23"


TREASURES FROM THE SCRAP BIN 21"x34"


ITTY BITTY ROSES 12"x12"
(this one might end up a little bigger)


MY LITTLE BOHO 23"X23"


GOOSE CROSSING 75"X75"

This is the largest pattern in the bunch but I will not be doing the full size and I have plans to make some other changes to it as well.
I am getting a late start to this challenge but I think I can pull it off.

 I have wanted to do some of Sharon Keightley's patterns for a while so I am expecting to really enjoy this challenge.
I am excited to be getting home;
So many things I want to get done...

The best way to get things done, is to simply begin.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”



















Friday, January 19, 2024

THROWBACK THURSDAY AND A LITTLE UPDATE

 Most of you who know me, know that I very often posted about my quilting projects quite frequently and especially when travelling. My sewing machine has travelled many many thousands of miles. However in the last few years since I wandered back into cross stitching again, I have found cross stitching and knitting to be more travel friendly. it takes up less room in the car and a lot less time and space to pack for a trip. Most of my projects (yes that is project-S plural because I have more than 1 on the go) are all living in their own project bag.  That makes it very simple to grab a project bag or 2 or 5 and I am ready to go. I will post a link to the blog post mentioning my return to cross stitching HERE

So what project bags got to go on vacation with me this trip you ask?

Project #1


Project #2


Project #3


Project #4


Project #5


Project # 6


No Project in this one as far as I know...just a little comment


Project # 7




Project #8


Project # 9
Wait. . . . How did that happen? I was only planning to maybe bring 5.  Those sneaky little things...they snuck into my tote when I wasn't looking. (Unless Mr. O. threw in a few more projects thinking I might finish all 5 and need more to work on. He is really thoughtful that way) Now I realize that the curious among you might want to have a peek inside each of those bags to see what I am working on and I plan to show you a few at a time in the upcoming blog posts.
I also realize that if you went back to the above link you might have noticed a cross stitch project that was only half done.  Hoffman's Christ at 33.  I am very happy to report that project is finished and framed and hanging on our wall at home. I will try to find a picture and show it with the next blog post as well. That project was over 10 years from start to finish, so I was extremely thrilled to finish it.

P.S. I hesitate to tell you that I only packed 6 skirts for this trip but somehow 9 projects made the cut. Sigh.....

I should mention that I have been doing more than just stitching, and I have a few more lovely beach pictures to share as well. I managed to get a couple of very unique ones of some of the ocean creatures.

"Going on a trip. I need about 3 projects to work on. I've packed 20 just to be safe."