New Rotation Update

Well, I didn't get as much of a chance to test out the new rotation as I'd hoped I would, but from what I've seen I am liking it quite a bit.

The first was Mini Soul Mates and saw very little work due to neck pain. Since it is the one that will come up every other 3-day rotation is actually saw some stitching the second rotation. I was able to finish the first row of 10 across and make a small start on the next row of 10.  Here is where I left off on it. You can see it better if you click on the picture.

I have also put the GK pattern of I am Half Sick of Shadows back into the rotation and have nearly finished the first page. For those who don't know, this was the piece I first started just before my neck was hurt a couple of years ago. I then re-started it and for some reason set it aside, last year. I think it was during my Basilisk addiction right after I was first RAK'd that pattern. Here is the progress on it so far.

On my wild card Sat. I worked a bit on one of the bookmarks I received as a mother's day present.
I will do an in depth post on that kit shortly, so no pics just now.

And finally, Cheryl's bouquet is in a three day rotation right now, luckily it overlaps a day or two with the HAEDless SAL, so I will still be able to take part in that this month. Still, my time for this rotation is pretty limited so we will have to see how it comes out.

Happy Stitching everyone. I hope everyone US side enjoys their Memorial Day holiday.

Testing Out a new Rotation

Happy Mother's day to all the mothers out there. Thank you for all the hard work you do and love you give.

Today I am one week in on testing out a new rotation and I haven't decided yet if I like it or not. It goes like this: Three days on one project (Sun. through Tues.), the three days on the next in line (Wed. through Friday), then Saturday as a free day for anything.
It is strange after doing the one project a week rotation since Jan. with a Wild Card every other week. Obviously I don't see the same amount of progress but I also don't have time to get bored (one project was nothing but black this time). I decided to choose one project as this goes along that will be worked on every other 3 days, so it would go something like project 1, then 2, Sat. project 1, then 3, Sat. I plan to start that at the end of this first round if I stay with this type of rotation.

I used DH as a random number generator, just listed and numbered the projects in rotation and yelled out, pick a number between 1 and 6 (or it may have been 7, I can't remember just now). He picked 3 so the project that would see the most time in this kind of rotation is Mini Soul Mates.

Anywho, this week's progress is below.

First up is Basilisk with the end of the pheasant and a bit of flowers beginning to show:

Wed. through Friday was Needle Maiden with lots of black going across. I think she is a little over 3000 stitches now.

And another page and bit of black to go, then I will stitch back across, which is another 2-3 pages of black before I hit any color again! Oh well, I'm still enjoying it. A solid color is not exciting but it stitches up worlds faster than confetti.

Assuming I get any stitching done with the (literal) pain in my neck that kicked up again quite severely last night I will be working on Mini Soul Mates, which of course, I'm at the upper right hand side and that is solid black across, but only a page or so. Sigh. lol.

Re-start and the Rotation

Here is a pic of Mini Soul Mates about a week after the re-start.
I'm stitching her across from right to left. I am pleased with her progress.

I am working out a new rotation to include the wonderful new starts but I haven't quite decided what I want to do. I've enjoyed the one I worked out for this year, having a wild card week every other week, but I am thinking about changing to less than a week just so I can have the fun of stitching on different ones more often. We'll have to see, there are dozens of ways to work a rotation.

Unfortunately I have hurt myself (neck) working in the yard and don't know when I'll be able to stitch. Nothing serious but darn it, not now!

On a brighter front I was able to confirm yesterday that my Walmart has started carrying DMC floss again. This is great news because it it not only much closer to home than Michael's and Hobby Lobby but the cost per skein is 10 to 13 cents lower than what others are asking. On my budget that makes a big difference.

I also took part in the HAEDless SAL again and got a little work done on Cheryl's Bouquet.
 Before the SAL:

And after:

Have a happy day!

Having to Restart

Is not fun, but at least it is only half a page of stitching.
I'm referring to Mini-Soul Mates, shown below. I had put a few more stitches in when I realized that I had not correctly measured the width of the fabric. I generally allow 3 inches all the way around for framing, but only allowed 3 inches total but thought I added the entire 6 inches. Sigh. There was plenty of room top and bottom but not enough side to side.

I re-started yesterday and got about 200 stitches in. I could have left a row off but I would never have been content with that and would have thought about it every time I worked on it. Here is a reminder of what it will look like when finished.

Have a great week.

To continue with the last post

Since blogger is acting a little funny it is easier to do a new post than to continue with the other.
Here is a project that my husband did while I was off.

Yesterday I wanted to pad my computer chair since I'm not able to do a lot of moving around right now. I didn't think to take a before pic but I wish I had, the upholstery was torn and the plywood base of the chair was exposed and flaking.  DH cut a new chair seat using the old one as a template. We used left over MDF, left over quilt batting, and left over corduroy fabric as a cover and now I have a comfy new chair seat and we didn't have to spend a penny.

I am also taking part in the HAEDless SAL working on A Bouquet for Cheryl. I don't know how much more, if any, I will get done this week but here is my update so far. It is nearly half done. The bright blue floss is so cheerful.

Next time I will be examining my rotation to see if I need to make any changes to it.

A Variety of Projects

First up is a Photo of Phuan from last years HAED freebie SAL. I haven't worked on it for awhile and it was fun to put a few stitches in during my flare-up when I couldn't get much done.

I have so much on the go right now that I decided not to participate in this years Freebie SAL but there are some great patterns in it and I have been enjoying watching everyone's projects coming along.

Since this week was a wild card stitching week I caved and worked on Needle Maiden, the lovely RAK I posted about before. Here is my progress so far at 2000 stitches.

  

A new start is always exciting! I really wanted to start The Tree of Life, but I don't have a piece of fabric large enough, and, like QS Christmas Venice Nights, I don't have the floss to kit it up. So I will have to save up to get those projects going, but I have so many lovely things to work on I can hardly believe it. I feel a little greedy for wanting to start those two as well. The stitching addiction!                                                   

Surprises are the Best Fun

And can really lift your day.

This lovely chart was a gift from Liz aka Radidragon over on the HAED bulletin board.

Isn't it the loveliest thing?

It is available here

Now I have to tell you that I don't go around requesting RAK's, even though it must seem like it since I've posted about them before. On the other hand I'm certainly not going to pass one up! It is simply a matter of how really warm and wonderful the people on the HAED bulletin boards are.

The people over there are great, and great enablers, and it is just wonderful to be a part of a group of such fun, caring people.

I will do a better update when I have more time. Until then check out the other great stitchy blogs listed on the side bar (and trust me, no, this is not all of the ones I keep track of, I just haven't gotten them all up there yet, same for sewing). Hope you have a wonderful week-end.