December 4 - trying again!

I started 2021 on a roll, stitching every day and making some progress on my pieces, and then things began to change fast!

My daughter had moved back home while she searched for a new job. In early May, she was offered a position, accepted it and by the end of the month she had packed up all her stuff, sent everything back East, found an apartment, and headed out on the drive cross country. She is now living in Manchester, New Hampshire (3000 miles from here) and enjoying her new job and her new apartment.

We are still in some sort of pandemic mode. We're all vaccinated and boosted, but still being careful. So far, we have been very fortunate that no-one has gotten sick.

My sister found out in early June that she had a blood cancer, and would need a bone arrow transplant. I probably would have been a good match, but I am too old (I didn't know there was an age limit!). She was very very fortunate that an almost perfect match was found for her, and she had her transplant in early September. She is doing really well, although she still has a long road of check-ups ahead of her. But we are all very grateful this year!

Time has seemed to fly by and now the holidays are here and I'm in no way ready! But at the same time it feels like life has also slowed sown, and my past life of being frantic at this time of year has passed. Every day is precious, and the most important thing is to be grateful for what we have and those around us, and there is nothing wrong with slowing down!

I feel like my stitching time has been hit or miss for most of this year. I have had periods where I felt like I was accomplishing quite a bit and other times when I felt like my stitches were few and far between. I have also spent lots of time reading, and its hard to do both at the same time...although I did listen to all of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series while stitching this summer, and a couple of other audio books!

So let me share some of what I was able to finish over the past months since I blogged last...

My focus piece for Semi-Sane Stitchers was Quaker Christmas II by ByGone Stitches all year, and while I thought I might get it finished this month, now I kind of doubt it! But I have made some progress! Here is what it looks like now:

I also had some other finishes, so I think I’ll just post some of them here:

A Good Mattuage byLizzie Kate

    Melody’s Song by Silver Creek Samplers

At Our House from Lizzie Kate

Through the Storms by Silver Creek Samplers

Henna Mandela from Ink Circles

Relentless from Ink Circles

Autumn Squirrel from The Blue Flower

Olde Pewter Letters from primitivebettys

Grace Quaker Sampler from The Sampler Cove

So, I guess I did get some stitching done after all! And I also realize that I am very rusty with my blogging skills, so I am going to leave it for now! If you’ve gotten this far…thanks!  

Until next time, please stay safe and be good to yourselves and others!

Where did April go???

 Hi again! It feels like the month has just flown by...once again. Maybe it’s me?

I felt like my stitchy bug was back, at least until the last few days. Didn’t make as much progress as I’d hoped, but as a wise stitcher told me, any progress is good progress!

I thought I might be able on catch up on my March WIPGO pieces, but that didn’t happen. I did better with my April picks though. My first piece was ‘Winter Band Sampler’ from Little House Needleworks, and I had a finish! Now I have stitched all four of these seasonal samplers and am trying to find a way to display them. I’d like to be able to change them out each season.

My other April piece was ‘At Our House’ from Lizzie Kate.I didn’t finish this one, but I think I can with a few more days’ stitching. The fabric is actually a much brighter blue.

My  May WIPGO picks are ‘Queen of the Needle’ from Just Nan and ‘Prayer of St. Francis’, another Lizzie Kate design. Let’s see how far I get on these!

My focus piece for Semi-Sane Stitchers is still ‘Quaker Christmas II’, and after having to frog a couple of motifs, I still managed to make a little progress.

Still also keeping up with the Alpha-My- Bet challenge, also with Semi-Sane Stitchers. My piece is Lizzie Kate’s ‘Autumn Alphabet.

The last piece I have been stitching on is ‘Relentless’ from Ink Circles. I added two more of the fill-in colors. I’m hoping to finish this by June.

I think that’s pretty much all I’ve been working on. I have been reading a lot though too, and I have another series of books to recommend. These are not cozies, but they are really good legal thrillers. The books are written by a Portland author, Phillip Margolin, and the series is the Robin Lockwood series (set in Portland, as well). There are four books so far, and I’ve just finished the fourth. All really good. The first is called ‘TheThird Victim’.

So, happy stitching and happy reading! Stay safe and be kind,

lynda

TUSAL & catching up

 It has been an interesting month...some good...Jeff and I got to take a couple of long weekends away, and we both received our COVID vaccines...I had my second last Friday, he gets his in a couple of weeks. We can’t wait until our family is all vaccinated, so we can get together again. It’s been way too long and I need my grandson’s hugs!

We also has some sadness. Our little Fiona passed over the Rainbow Bridge. She was diagnosed with diabetes and passed two weeks later. Fiona was my brother-in-law’s dog, and he asked us to take care of her when he passed. We had five wonderful years with her and miss her so much.

As far as stitching goes, I didn’t manage much! I think my stitchy bug went on spring break! My March WIPGO was a disaster. I decided to scrap one of my March picks...a sampler from Little House Needleworks. I think I may re-start it at some point on different fabric. I just didn’t like the way it was looking. So, I substituted with a new start...Henna Mandala from Ink Circles, but did not meet my goal. I also did not meet my goal on Quaker Street and only made a little progress.

Quaker Street

Henna Mandala

I’m doing better with my April picks, so hopefully I’ll have better progress next time.

I also made a little bit of progress on Relentless, also from Ink Circles. I added the first color.

I did get lots of reading done though, and found a great (new to me) cozy mystery series. It’s called the Little Library Mysteries, written by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli. Interesting characters and great stories.There are four in the series, and I hope she adds more!

Oh....I almost forgot my TUSAL! I actually managed to get it posted on time for a change. Most of those Orts are from frogging I had to do on Quaker Christmas II.

So, until next time, I hope you are all staying safe and getting lots of stitches in.

Be kind to yourself and others....

Lynda

    

  It has been almost a year since we went into lockdown for COVID...so much has

happened during that time...sometimes it seemed as if time had stopped, other times it was flying by. We have been fortunate not to have been sick. Right now we are waiting patiently for our turn to get vaccinated, and look forward to a more normal and peaceful world.

Most of my time has been spent either reading or stitching. I did finish some WIPs and also moved some of mine to the UFO closet. Maybe they’ll see the light of day at some point in the future!

One of my goals for this year was to stitch every day...and so far I have been! I’ve also joined a few challenges, so we’ll see what happens there.

One of the challenges is WIPGO...kind of like stitching bingo. Two numbers are drawn each month, and we stitch whatever project shows up in that space on our WIPGO boards. In January, I meant my goals and actually had a finish for one...47 Hearts by Silver Creek Samplers. I started this in 2015...probably one of those start everything in January things, but for some reason, I never got back to it. It turned out to be a quick stitch after all!

 

My second project for January was Grace Quaker Sampler by Sampler Cove. I added 4 more motifs and have 4 more to go for a finish. This was started in 2018.

My February pieces turned out to both be Quakers. I had a page finish on Halloween Quaker by Lila’s Studio, and some progress on Quaker Street by Marjorie Massey.

For March, I will be working on Quaker Streets again, as well as The Mary Ann Myers Sampler from Little House Needleworks. We’ll see how far I get!

In February, I also participated in the ‘I Love to Stitch 2021’ challenge, stitching each day of the month for at least 30minutes. I chose to work on Relentless by Ink Circles and finished all of the borders and started a tiny bit of the color fill-in.

I’m really hoping to keep this up...

Please be kind to yourselves and others.

Until next time...

lynda