Hello June, Hello Sunshine, Goodbye WIPs

Bird Rescue

Good news on the bird rescue front.  I found the little guy had joined the family of other blue jays in the front of the property.  I feel much better now.

We are finally having sunshine and breezes so I expect we will dry out for the summer.  I am VERY happy about that.  It means I can stitch on the screened in porch and on the patio....once I get rid of the moss that is!  Everyone is enjoying the fantastic weather!

17th Century Irish Garden, Liz Turner Diehl

I simply cannot continue this project; not enjoying it in the least and am not excited about seeing it finished.   Nothing wrong with it; I simply am not enjoying it.  So I have put it away for a while.  This is as far as I am going right now.  I could not even bring myself to finish the last corner before giving it up for now.  

Pumpkin Swirl, Glendon Place

Still beading this project.   I am taking it out of the rotation until I get back to California in November.  I am confused and the original pattern is in my book there so this project and the other Glendon Place dessert series projects will have to wait until next year.

Old World Vinery, Chatelaine

Have a good start on this project.  Of course, I am loving it.  I really enjoy the variety of specialty stitches and watching it come to life.  Thus, my addiction to these wonderful designs.

Knot Garden, Chatelaine

Making good progress on all the DMC portions of this project.  It is a great one to work on when I am outdoor and waiting around for something.  There are specialty stitches and beading, but I choose to leave them until the end so that I can launder this piece when all the DMC is finished.

If you are a Chatelaine addict like I am, you might notice that I did not do the little birds that are supposed to be sitting on the gates.  I decided to leave them off.  

Dragonfly Dreams, The Sweetheart Tree

As if I need another project I was inspired by the latest fabric of the month from Dye Stitch Love.  It is called Faerie Whispers and think it will be perfect for the Dragonfly Dreams (and Bumbler Bees).   These two two small pieces (about 50x50 stitches each) are perfect for when I do not have the patience or concentration to work on any major projects.  I have to say that so far I am not really enjoying this project.  I want to do it, but I think other charts have spoiled me.  Also, these pieces are really tiny.

I love the fabric, but this tiny little stitching....I just don't know


Blue Heron, Imaginating

Since we have Blue Herons on the river this will be a good project for the guest bath.  It is straight cross stitching on a piece of jobelan "Winter Storm."

Mini Mandala 05, Chatelaine

I could not resist starting another Chatelaine that is smallish.

June will be busy with chores and getting ready for our trip in July.  I have some finishing to do and getting things kitted and prepared to travel.  More on that in a later post.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Hope your summer is off to a great start.

Heading East at Last

Since our first park did not have internet access, these are the first two days of our travels.

Day One

It has been a heck of a day.  

We were less than two miles from the house and all the dashboard electronics went haywire.  Telling us we had no gas, no turn signals, no other things that we are supposed to have.  

So, we went straight to Santa Maria to the RV repair and spend a couple of hours there.  Finally they figured out they just had to reboot the computer.   All worked fine and we headed out.

We got about 5 miles to the highway and the repair shop called saying we left a dog there!  WHAAAT.  Sure enough, little Jazz left the coach while I was prepping to leave so we had to go back to get her.  What a dufus.  She was pretty contrite for a couple of minutes.  The manager said she had wandered into the shop area (thank goodness she didn’t just wander out of the area) and, although he said she would not come to him, he got her to follow him into his office where she whined and barked until we got back to pick her up.  What a ninny.  I, of course,  was having a spell.  I could not believe it.  I am SO careful when we are traveling.  Whew.

Finally we were on the road for sure only about 3 hours later than expected.  Tonight we are in Mojave.  We did not take the route through the LA area this time.  Although the roads are smaller and windier, it is a lot less stressful than going through the LA area for three hours of traffic.  Especially with the late start we got. 

This is a very nice park with lots of trees and that lovely desert breeze blowing.  It is fantastic.   We got in too late to get the WIFI code so this post will be done tomorrow.  

I got some work done on my needlepoint project Autumn Leaves by Laura J. Perin.  It is one of her on-line classes that I started last year during our trip.  Since I usually only do needlepoint while we are traveling the projects go a little slower than my others.  I am looking forward to finishing this by the time we get to Texas.  Here it is so far.

  

And this will be our first trip with our new recliner seating.  We replaced the couch that made into a bed with the two recliners and are anxious to use it.  Of course, based on this photo it does not look like we will get much chance!  

Day Two

An nice, uneventful day of traveling.  The weather is fantastic.  Warm and dry.  Every time we make this trip I remember how much I love the desert.  Weird I know.

I worked on Autumn Leaves today.  I had a real hard time.  You would think that it is simple but those zig zag parts in the upper right corner made me crazy and I ripped them out a couple of times.  Good thing I ordered some additional thread!  

Anyway, I have decided that counting in needlepoint and counting in cross stitch is distinctly different.  It has to be.  I had all sorts of trouble and finally ended up just adjusting the pattern to fit what I put in the third time!  Crazy.  I also did not even attempt to do french knots with Krenik metallic braid.  Seemed like a better idea to do little crosses.  I am still hoping to get this finished by the time we hit Blanco, but I am having a few doubts now.  I am having a little trouble with the bottom right corner zig zags but perhaps a fresh look tomorrow will get that section finished up at least.  Then I can work on adding more of the gold braid and perhaps tackle the middle section.  

We landed in Tonopah (you should hear the GPS try to pronounce it).  A really nice park and all is well.   We are all fine and looking forward to a good night of sleep.

  

Thanks for visiting.

Mid March

It has been a busy and interesting few weeks.  Rocking along on all these WIPS.  But no finishes this month so far.  Trying to do some serious organization before I have to pack up and head East in about a month.

I am sure it is my imagination, but there have been a plethora of little annoying things happening in the past few days.  Makes me stressed and ill tempered.  Nothing major,  just those minor things that get on my nerves and distract me from what I want to accomplish.


17th Century Irish Garden, Liz Taylor Deihl

 I have determined that the Madeira Threads that are with the Irish Garden will have to be put on bobbins as I pull out one strand.  I am not sure I like the Madeira threads as much as I like DMC.  They seem alot "thinner" and prone to tangling and shredding.  So far this project is coming along nicely.  The chart is different in several ways but it is not bad once I get the hang of it.  The instructions are not as clear as I like but it is testing my brain power!  Lots of fractional stitches and back stitching so far but not enough to make it a pain to stitch.  I think the cats are really cute.  There is a story about them that I will put with the finished project.

Books Reading Books, HAED

Still working on the same page.  Try as I might I simply cannot figure out the parking method.  I am going to try once again on the next page.  I would like to at least do the page in some kind of systematic order rather than scattering all over the place.  It makes the tiny holds of the 18 count Aida harder to count than it needs to be.  I really want to figure out a better system as I have many pages to go to complete this project.

Lavender Fields, John Clayton

I find this a little boring as I thought I might.  I am just about 2/3 of the way done and would like  to finish it this month.

Gardens of London, Chatelaine

I finally got the top part of the buildings done.  Now moving on to the left side......more buildings.  Here again, perhaps being able to park my threads would be helpful.   I put it on a different size Qsnap and have not decided if I will try a large scroll frame again until I get to Texas.

Grace Needlepoint Project, Dimensions

Had to do some riding in the car last week so I got a little more accomplished on this project.

I also ordered a new kind of frame.  I am trying to find an easier way to work on the large Chatelaine designs I have kitted and ready to go.  While I like the Q Snaps I dislike moving them around and I do not like the way the excess fabric as to be wadded up.  In particular, because I know I will not be able to launder the chatelaine design projects I am concerned about constantly messing with the stitched areas.  I look at it and it looks like some of the stitches are worn.  Probably my imagination.

Here are the "fabric stretchers".  I have not yet put them to use.  I have been trying to avoid starting a new project!  I put the marks on the bars for lining up the fabric.  They are from Just a Thought.  I have two of their stands and am anxious to use these bars.

Pumpkin Swirl, Glendon Place

And last but not least, I frogged the incorrect stitches from Pumpkin Swirl and put it back on the scroll bars.  It was one block off so the center did not line up correctly.    I have been beading as I go so  I think I will just finish up the stitching before I add any more beads.  I hope I can get this done this year.  While I like this project and have a couple of other Glendon Place dessert series kitted I am not sure I will be starting another one any time soon.  It is not that they are hard, but they are a little tedious with all the beading.  Time will tell I suppose.

I seem to have a few projects that I have put aside (at least six).  I call them my TWIDME (this WIP is driving me crazy).  Pumpkin swirl is only the latest.  They are haunting me lately so I think I will try to get back to them one at a time.

That is it for now.  We have a busy few weeks coming up; guests and birthdays and packing for our trip.  Hopefully I will be able to put in a little stitching time.

Thanks for visiting and for putting up with my ranting!