Busy As A Whole Hive of Bees plus a little Stitching

Remodeling and rebuilding on the house and now the excitement of finally having begun training for my new job! This has been such a busy time I sometimes feel as if I scarcely have time to think about stitching, much less do any.

But I did manage to finish a small piece during the HAEDless SAL. I do enjoy this stitch along because it helps me to focus on what I need to be doing.

Here are before and after pics of my little kit A Family is a Circle of Love from Dimensions.

Reviewing the kit:
I enjoyed stitching this, even though at the end I realized that the light blue and the dark blue strands provided were off. It appears that the two were mixed up as far as amount goes. I could have written and asked for more of the dark blue to do the writing but I just used the light blue. I could also have pulled some from my stash. It actually shows up much better than in this pic so I'm not bothered by it.
The kit came with everything needed, including the black frame to hang the pic with and a needle. In the future I will remember to check the strands against the supply list before I begin. I almost always do but this was such a small kit I skipped that step and didn't realize until the end that there was too much lt. blue and not enough dk. blue. Other than that it was a fun kit and I like the result. The directions were easy to follow. I will probably hang it in our bathroom if the bathroom is ever finished!

I've received a couple of great charts lately that you haven't seen so I'm going to share pics here. I usually don't mention names because I never think to ask if the person gifting it minds until I'm sitting here typing.
One is SK Spider Queen from HAED.

Isn't she divine? And very hard to resist I might add!

Another is QS Treasure Quest:

 

 I hadn't thought I would do a Spangler any time soon but he is just so cute!

 Now this next one was a surprise from Prunella Puddlejump:

I have no words to say how Much I want to stitch this one! And there is another, sort of a companion piece that I would love to have as well.

Now this last one may or may not be a new start for me at the end of June as part of a SAL. Owl in a Poppy field. Depends on finances really, and time. But it is a cutie. What do you think?

I may ask if I can stitch the smaller and less expensive to kit up QS Treasure Quest instead, finances allowing of course. But I just love the colors and the owl is captivating.

So, I'm basically saying I have almost no time to stitch at the moment and all of these beauties tempting me on!
I should also note that all of these are Heaven and Earth (HAED) designs and are available here if you are interested in any of them for yourself.

No sewing since I no longer have a sewing space and I'm unsure when I'll be able to set something up again, but I've several pieces I'm looking forward to sewing when I do. There is a dress from the Colette book and I still have that retro pattern and the purple denim waiting for life to settle down again.
Don't you just love having things to look forward to?

Happy stitching until next time.
Karen

Happy News and Stitching

I've had the happy experience of being hired to a job I very much wanted! Super excited about that and will begin training at the end of May.

Oh, and I have a used car to drive again, and hopefully that will go well.

In not so bright news my dryer finally died. It had been ill for some time.
I've decided to wait until I begin work to get another so it is clothes line time for me again. At least it isn't winter this time.

After a few days of it I knew I needed a better way to carry the clothes pins with me so I made myself a clothes pin apron out of an old pair of scrubs.

It isn't very pretty but I whipped this thing together super fast. I took an old pair of scrub pants with an elasticized waist and cut them off. I cut them down the back and stuck some bias tape on for ties and then just folded under a seam and stitched it all down all the way around. The pockets are full of pins in this pic and it works perfectly since I've been using it these last couple of days. Maybe I'll add a big pocket to the front that I can reach from either side but it really isn't needed. Very happy with this one!

On the stitching front, my new order of stitching seems to be agreeing with me.
Here is All Dogs go to Heaven after a few more stitches of blue.

And here is one of the kits I got back in Feb.

They are really sweet and I'm enjoying them even though I'm not fond of back-stitching.

Now my Mystic Garden BB SAL should be further along, but it was slowed even more when I had to frog part of what I'd stitched on it. Here it is all stitched back up and I am pleased to say I am finally half way through the first page.

There is a little progress.

Now does anyone remember my Mini Eternal Promise? I was supposed to give it one weekend per month, but then my stitching just went south. Well now that it is back I gave Eternal Promise its 2 days. I didn't take a picture to share with you because there just isn't that much to see.

I also put a very few stitches into Mini Cheshire Cat, but again, there isn't much to see so no pic yet.

I hope you are all enjoying your stitching. I'm trying to find time to make the most of mine before I return to working full time.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Plans, Hopes, Possible Rotation and a bit of Stitching

Lets begin with the stitching. I decided to take part in the HAEDless sal this past week. I didn't get quite as much stitching time as I'd hoped but Frederick has seen a little progress.

I do love Frederick. I wanted his kit for a long time and now that the fabric isn't too stiff to work with I'm enjoying stitching him. With the usual caveat that I still don't care for blending threads and back stitching.

Earlier this week I finished off some coasters I'd cut out a week or so before. These are the quick and super useful kind, and we needed them asap to keep our hot tea mugs from sticking to the table and making rings, so nothing fancy here. I wanted them to reversible so I didn't use any binding, just a couple of old scraps and some poly batting. They are about 4 inches square so they will hold a good sized mug. I whipped up 4 of these but I am sure I'll be making more before long.

If only I could crochet again without hurting I could make a couple of really attractive ones in no time. Still, these are old quilt scraps and I like the colors.

As to a stitching rotation, I think I've got that worked out as well.
Again, nothing fancy here. I'm afraid my stitchy bug will run off again if I try to pen it down to too much! I've simply divided my stitching into five categories.

Smalls-Things not much bigger than my stitching piece. Little kits, etc.
Mediums-Say something like Frederick
Mini's-Thinking mostly of those HAED mini's here, but anything approx. in that size zone.
Large-Bigger than a mini and smaller than a BAP
BAP- Charts sensible people find to large and stitching addicts have a stack of waiting to be worked.

My rotation, or really it is just a goal, is to give a few days a month to each category. I'm not swearing to work on this piece or that, I have too many wips with probably 2 more coming this year, to just pick 2 or 3 to work on. With the smalls and mediums I'll have the satisfaction of having finishes more often and at the same time still be making progress on everything else. I could just stitch on one piece until it is finished, as I did for so many years, but then I'd get bored.

So what do you think? I'd like opinions, as this one is completely new to me.

There is a lot going on right now, I'd tell you about my strange day today but I'm being a good blogger and trying to stick to the subject.

I still haven't taken a picture of my Colette pieces so sooner or later I must get to that, and I haven't cut anything new out. Life is busy and my cutting area is buried in heavy house project junk and a window unit air conditioner. So hopefully soon.

Well happy stitching my friends!

Karen