My Tropical Quaker Sampler - Week 1

Well I think I finally have my grove back!  Last Sun. I  put a few stitches in this sampler, which is intended to be a Christmas gift, for my step daughter.

From there it was completely downhill.  I made some many beginner errors of being off, I spent a great deal of time cutting out the stitching, restitching, only to find out I was still off.

It's as if, somehow during the hiatus, I forgot how to count and had no spacial ability to see I was off.

I said it before and I'll say it again that sometimes the easiest charts are the same ones I have more problems with.  Not to be deterred, (must be that German ancestry stubborness), I finally whipped out the red hand quilting thread and ran some graph lines.

And from there, I was off to the races! Page one is almost completely finished. Happy with that progress considering I didn't have much stitching time, and I spent a lot of that time as stated before, stitching, ripping out, restitching, ripping out again.  If I didn't have that, I may have been well into page two.  But I prefer to have glass half full of what I did complete!

Status on the baby blanket!  Not good! I full intended to post a picture of that as well.  Except I found I somehow added 2 stitches that weren't supposed to be there.  Once again spent much time ripping out row upon row of knitting.  So the only thing I could share would be a pile of lose yarn!  The joys of crafting!

I suppose I could have just knitted several stitches together to get the count corrected, but I would know.  I'll just have to knit faster to recoup.  Good thing the baby isn't due till December.  Here's a good laugh - this baby blanket is supposed to be able to be completed in 8 hours. I suppose there are people out there that could do it, but it isn't me!

Until next week happy stitching!!!!!

Yippee! Back to cross stitch!!!!!

My husband and I made the hour and a half trek from our home in Manassas to the apartment and town home, my daughter and my son are living on this year in Harrisburg, Va.

On the truck, where the rest of the things, my daughter couldn't pack in her Smart Car.  She forgot that she had a puppy to take back with her to school and all the doggie paraphanalia that goes along with said puppy, including the actual puppy.

Loaded on the truck was the couch, cushions, and some pillows with pillow covers for my son's bed.  Good riddance!!!!!! Two projects that had been looming over my head for weeks.  Plus my basement seems so huge without all the extra furniture being stored there until move in was possible.

I did the initial tuck in of the slip cover for them.  Off to lunch with the kids, a trip to Walmart to pick up things they forgot, and the back in to car for the ride home!

I walked in the door, fed our dogs, got some laundry going, and set up for my next project.  Cutting fabric, putting in Velcro, finding the correct scroll rods, breaking my floor stand down from the last project, and rebuilding for the new!

This was not what I intended to do next!  But since this is a gift, hopefully for Christmas, I decided I better get started on it.  This will be for my step-daughter who is a Florida girl through and through!

My Tropical Quaker Sampler

Wal D'Champs (WDCDesign)

White 14 ct. Aida

DMC

I managed to get a few stitches in last night.  But schedule is pretty full today, so I don't know how much I'll be able to work in it. But it's started!

The colors are luscious!  No specialty stitches, just plain cross stitch.  Why the Aids instead of linen you might ask? 

Because this another large piece and Aida is a lot cheaper than a piece of linen.  Especially since I'll have it professional framed, once completed.

Still knitting on the baby blanket and a scarf.  One of these days I'll post updated pictures on those as well.

Until next week, happy stitching!  I know it will be for me!

Another week of no stitching!

So sorry for my late update, but I have been trying to finish the stupid slip cover for the couch.

I already missed one deadline to have it complete, and my son didn't seem all that happy about it.  Since then, I have been working on it almost daily and all day long with little to show for my efforts. The arms of the couch were giving me quite the challenge and I think I finally may have got them at least acceptable.

If I thought the love seat was a difficult, try working with twice as much heavy fabric.  Tuck it in the couch, pin it, haul if off the couch, drag all that fabric with me to the sewing machine, sew it,  take it back to the couch, retuck, repin.  You get the picture?  It makes me recall why this type of sewing is not my favorite thing to do.

I am really making headway, but it's so slow going.  Because I missed the deadline, I'll need to bring it, once completed, to Harrisonberg. I will be, so doing the happy dance, when this baby is a picture in my rear view mirror!

I bought a few more pieces of fabric from the LNS that is closing its doors.  Even with 40% off, it's still a pretty penny!  But in the other hand for about $80 I got 3 pieces that are about a yard each.  In addition I order a yard of 14 ct. White Aida from fabric.com.  One yard, 60" wide, grand total including postage was About $15. I accidentally ordered a fat half of 36 ct. on eBay, on their buy it now feature, when I was trying to figure out how much a fat half would be, and hit place order, instead of the back button.

That was $45 I wasn't planning on spending this month.  Not that it won't be used.

I also knitted on the baby blanket, but too lazy to pull it out of the bag to take an updated picture.  Next week!

Here is a picture of the tin topper I made for myself, not finished completely yet.  I have to line the box and add some gold thread to the top.  Just not on the priority list to finish right now.

Until

Next week, happy stitching!  Even if it's not me doing the stitching!

I couldn't stand it!

With all my projects that I have going, and there are a lot, my determination to stay away from cross stitch barely lasted a week!  Thus the xstitchaddict call sign.

But does my promise to myself really count when it's a project I'm thinking about giving as a gift?  A not necessarily a project for my own personal use? Well to be completely honest, the first one would have to be for myself, so I can work out all the kinks. Dont want to mislead anyone.  

I started stitching the tin topper chart for Altoid tins.

Since I already discovered when we went on vacation that the tins are the perfect size for carrying your extra stitching needs.  Then Rebecca Dorrie of Samplers and Such sent me a picture of all the charts she had made to pretty up the ordinary tins. I just couldn't resist. 

I figured if I did the first one for myself, work out all the kinks. Then perhaps I might do one for a friend that lives in my area, who has been a real godsend at times when I truly needed help. 

Onto other pending projects.  The cushions for the couch are completely finished.

The drop cloths for the couch have been washed and dried several times, and are awaiting tearing out the side seams so that they can be sewn together in one huge piece of fabric.

Meanwhile I have been knitting away on my second baby blanket too.  The yarn is even softer than the chenille yarn was.  With the left over yarn thought about knitting up some scarves to give to my niece. The niece that is having the baby, her younger sister is still in grade school and I thought by knitting up scarves for her, out the of the same yarn, she wouldn't feel so left out.

Meanwhile after getting all the seats for the couch finished, I had quite a bit of extra fabric.  I asked my son if he wanted me to make some extra throw pillows with some pillow forms I already had.  Nope!  Happy with the four plaid ones I had already recovered and are the ones that came with the couch.

But in checking out my craft storage room he found two pillow forms 24" X 24" which I had bought for some project and now can't remember which one. He latched onto those and asked me to cover them so he could use them in his bedroom. But wanted different fabric.  Off to JoAnn's to pick out fabric.  He picked out some type of sweatshirt fabric based on color and softness. Of course it wasn't on sale. Luckily I had a 40% off coupon, but 2 yards still cost over $11.

Another project to complete before he's back to college in the middle of August.  Continued updates to follow.

Until next week, happy stitching!

 

A week of not one single cross stitch

Making this post a bit earlier than some of my more recent posts.  Still lots of projects to complete before I get back to my favorite hobby which will always be cross stitch. A day without stitching is truly a day without sunshine!

Today the hubby and son leave for Harrisonberg to begin the big move for my son into the town house.  I put the final stitches in the love seat cover this morning.  Nothing like working under pressure and a deadline.  Gets the heart beating that's for sure.

But this means I have to start sewing the cover for the couch.  Bigger piece, a lot more fabric, and even less time to complete it. But at least I know what I'm doing this time and hopefully won't make the same mistakes from trial and error on the love seat. Biggest lesson learned, don't cut until absolutely necessary!

I do have one cushion cover almost done, which means 2 more to do.  I still need to wash and dry drop clothes several more times.  Plus Dixie is still awaiting her haircut. Not to forget doing laundry and making a stab a house cleaning so that I won't be featured on an episode of Hoarders!

I have also managed to continue the knitting in a the baby blanket.  It has become my new take along big project. Surprised at how many rows I can finish while wasting time. Even took it on the boat with me yesterday and was quite pleased when I got home to find that I had reached 31" which means I can start the final 8/9 rows of seed stitch for the final border on the end.

However, more yarn awaits me for another blanket when I couldn't decide on yarn choice, so I just bought it all!  No additional pressure.

Not to say with all this going on that cross stitching is never out of the back of my mind.  I was so tired of looking for the hardware that goes to my various stands that I decided to do something about it. A trip to the local Walmart store I found exactly what I needed in the craft department for storage.  And for less then $4.00, soooo worth it!

I also have been keeping my eye open for charts do something personal for my youngest son and step daughter. Backtracking in my blog, earlier posts you can see the pieces I stitched for my oldest son and my daughter.  I think I finally found something for my step daughter who lives in Florida.  She just moved into her very own apartment.  When she was here recently she didn't seem all that impressed with some  of my reproduction samplers. 

But if I'm going to stitch something, even as a gift, I want it to be fun for me too!  After searching the net, I finally found this chart that was available for download.  Nothing like instant gratification. 

It's called My Tropical Sampler.  Think I'll just stitch it on white 14 ct. Aida when I work it into the rotation.

Guess that's about all for now.  Until next week-happy stitching in whatever form it is!

Ann Pegg -1877 Finish

I put the last stitches in Ann Pegg yesterday. 

I have made a solemn promise to myself that I won't look at, think about or dream about or pull any cross stitch to work on until I have made some major progress on other pending projects.

I must have the love seat completely finished by this weekend.  Hubby and son are taking it to Harrisonberg for the beginning of the big move into the townhouse.  

Getting closer to completion. This is a picture without the cushions.  It's all trial and error. And my back is killing me from hunching over on the floor.

Decided I would give my back a bit of break and have been knitting away.  Of course, while doing laundry!  I'm always multitasking. 

I have made some progress on the baby blanket as I've been taking it along with me while waiting.  Last week it was for an oil change and car inspection and the many appointments and meetings for my husband.  It's better then me impulse buying by going through stores just to waste time.  And I am saving money.

More to spend on crafts!

Until next week happy stitching whether it's on a sewing machine, knitting or cross stitching!

Juggling too many balls!

A few nights ago we went to dinner with a guy who was in DC, who worked with my husband at a law firm in our area.

After catching up with my husband, and talking to my daughter, he turned to me and said "and what are you doing?"

My mind went completely blank.  The only thing I could think of was "I cross stitch!" I have been pondering that question and my response ever since. 

I am more than just a stitcher, I do more than just stitch.  I am the taxi cab driver for members in my family that have no driver's license.  I am everyone's personal shopper. Including groceries and picking up items for new apartments and new townhouses. 

There isn't a day that the washing machine and dryer aren't going. I put all out clothes away.  In the drawers in the closer.  Unlike my children who will dress out of their clean laundry baskets.  I won't see all my laundry baskets come back to the laundry room until they head back to college.

That doesn't include cleaning up the kitchen for all my family members who leave dirty dishes in the sink and don't know how to load or unload the dishwasher.  

I also take care of pets.  Letting them out, letting them in, feeding them. Taking them to the vet.  I had my oldest son's cat while he was deployed. I now have my daughter's puppy, in addition to my two dogs, who isn't housebroken yet, and am constantly cleaning up accidents.  Suggest everyone buy stock in paper towels cuz I'm going through rolls like Sherman through Atlanta. My poor Dixie is badly in need of a grooming and I'm wondering how to work that into my schedule.

Not including running the sweeper and cleaning toilets. There is no maid that shows up in the middle of the night and makes these things happen. The beds don't get stripped and remade by themselves, and I have never found a piece of chocolate on my pillow.

I was the general contractor when we did our master bathroom renovation.  Picking out everything and purchasing it to save money to stay in budget.

I am a professional painter when I need to be, along being a interior decorator. 

I volunteered to make slip covers for a couch and love seat having no idea what I was doing or what I was volunteering for.

Plus I have started knitting a baby blanket for my niece who is having a baby boy in December.  According to the pattern it's a one day knit.  I know it will take me longer than 8 hours.  

And not to forget finishing Ann Pegg.

And yet these things don't cover the personal dynamics of being a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend. Of being the voice of reason at times, to listen to woes, to be a fixer of problems, to tell them the truth even when the don't want to hear it.  Sometimes being a referee and mediator.

So I am more than just a stitcher. I do more than just cross stitch.  I wish I had thought of all these things when I was asked the question.