My daughter is no longer a little girl

This weekend was the women's retreat I attend once a quarter, and we had a coming of age ceremony for my daughter. It was great, fun, and driven by many tears as we gifted my daughter with presents and knowledge.
Now, unfortunately, no one even thought to bring a camera, so there are no pictures; just memories.

But have no fear, I do have a picture for you. Here is Mill Hill's Spooky Garden, which I completed this weekend.

All thread and beads that came with the kit, but done on 14ct Mushroom Aida.

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I lost several chunks of time last week from the migraine, so this week is a surprise to me. The end of February already! You know what this means?

For me, it's end of month reports at work. I swear I just finished them last week.

TAST week 8 - Fly stitch

Woo hoo!!! I caught up with the weeks!
This weeks stitch is the fly stitch. I've just done the basics again, but I can see the possibilities are endless.

I also wanted to share one of the things my mom brought back with her from grandma's.

As you can see it is stained (don't know what with) and someone has even already started working on it.

However my grandma doesn't know who so it was probably one of my aunts. Mom found it in a drawer that had 45 year old fabric.

As the piece is stamped with the pattern, I won't be washing it until I finish it. Now why mention it here?
What a great way to use the new stitches I'm learning!

TAST Week 7 - Feather stitch

Week 7's Take A Stitch Tuesday stitch is the feather stitch.

I decided to just a row of free handed feather stitching.


Creativity is at all time low. I'm able to catch up on the stitches of the past several weeks because I have a migraine. The repetitive nature of stitching allows me to lull myself into a stage where pain is almost nonexistent. Unfortunately, as soon as I stop, the pain comes back with a vengeance.

This particular migraine of mine is lasting longer than the ones I've had over the past year or so, but by no means my worst one to date. In the small snatches of lucidity between med doses, I'm realizing that I'm losing blocks of time. It is always interesting to come back later to find what I have done during that time. Boy is it a good thing that I've trained myself not to say something stupid to my boss during these times.

TAST Week 6 - Algerian eye stitch & Eyelet

I finished up the tipi I started with on the Chevron stitch.


I did the top portion of the tipi with the Algerian stitch.


And the door was done with the eyelet.

What a girl needs...

Over on Donna of Quilt Pixie's blog I saw a meme that has me in giggles.

In Google search you put your first name and the word "needs" (without the quotation marks).

Here are some the results...

• Lisa needs braces
• Lisa needs a tree
• Lisa needs to more clearly communicate to clients
• Lisa needs to handler lower conditions
• Lisa needs a job!
• Lisa Needs Help
• Lisa needs work
• Lisa needs to think

This is just the first two pages of results. The braces were repeated....a lot. The tree is my favorite.

And what do I want?
Apparently many very naughty things my children are not allowed to read about. And with lots of people too.

Mom's are the greatest!!

Unbeknown to pretty much everyone, last weekend I found that my sewing machine has bit the dust.
Well, not completely. I push down on the pedal and it goes slow, then stops, then fast, stops, etc. This is not me playing like I’m in stop and go traffic, but rather like I was in driving class in high school; pedal to the floor.
When I told my mom what it was doing When I harassed my mom for giving me this shoddy piece of decade old equipment (5 years ago when she bought a new one for herself), she said that it sounds like the timing is off and I could go get it repaired. Now even if fixing it would only cost $50; that is still $50 more than I have right now. So what did I do? When I got a call from GS, I took and decided to use the money to fix my machine. After all, I’m ‘banned’ from stash purchasing for myself until I get at least 25 project completed.
So this morning I drop off my daughter at my mom’s house (Grandma has hired her to clean her house every other weekend), and did some ‘shopping’ through her stash of materials and patterns make DD a slip for next weekend. Immediately after I had asked her to come over during the week and work on it, she asked me to drive her to Walmart and Joann’s. This is not an uncommon occurrence; we can spend D-A-Y-S at Joann’s. And have. But as soon as we walked in, she headed straight to the sewing machines and said, “Happy Mother’s Day! Really, you can NOT go without a sewing machine.”

So I came home with this:


Simple, yes, but I don’t need much.

A RR, a finish, and a present

I've gotten this month's RR piece finished, for Dana.


Quite honestly, it took my son a couple of hours to pick which flowers to stitch for Dana's piece (he liked them all). In the end, with the help of his sister, he chose June, since that is when his birthday is. He has been a great help in picking out the patterns to stitch each month as I'm liking everything and having trouble deciding.

Next up is my very first finish of 2007!

It is "Peppermint Nick" by Jeanette Rees of Jemini Designs, from JCS 2006 Christmas Ornaments. On 28 ct. Ice Blue Alma, with DMC regular and rayon thread, and WDW thread.
After I get him cleaned, pressed and made into an ornament, he'll have a fuzzy scark and will be holding a candy cane. This is the ornament my daughter has picked for this year's tree.
This makes nine projects finished in my 25 project challenge.

And lastly, the reason the challenge has been easy, I recieved a package from Diane at PALS for the Month color exchange. February's colors were pink and red with a theme of hearts and Valentine's Day. And Diane sent me a package of finishing stuff...mostly.

What you see is:
• fabric with red and pink hearts
• red and white tulle
• 4 skiens of DMC (white, 304,349, B5200)
• finishing cord in sparkly red and sparkley white
• package of size 26 needles
• heart-shaped key ring (I have one like this in purple, but I LOVE the blue)
• bookmark
• notepad with magnets


Did I miss anything?


I just hope Leigh likes what I got for her.


Recently, my mom dropped off some 'craft stash' which she got from my grandmother, who is cleaning out her house. She brought several different stacks of material, including some she remembers her sisters wearing when the were 6 or so (shall we just say the fabric is over 50 years old), as well as some very brightly colored yarn, dolls heads, and I don't know how many yards of a yellow and brown wool. Also, some prestamped doilies to be embroidered. Unfortunatly, they are stained and I don't want to attemt to clean them, as the stamping will wash off, until I can finish them.
I have some friends that I'm going to let have first dibs on what I'm not going to keep, and then I'm thinking of post pictures here to see if anyone else will use it.

TAST Week 5 - Chevron

I'm officially running behind, and will catch up slowly, until things at work settle down. Week 5's Take A Stitch Tuesday stitch is the Chevron.
I recieved inspiration for mine from Christine of Lady Jane's Journal.
As you can see, I'm not quite done yet. Ok, I'm not even close. However, I'm planning on using week 6's stitch for the 'door' and....I don't know. It's still working itself out in my head. I'm paying homage to my hubby and son heritage, with a, not so historically accurate, tipi.



For a look at the Native American Tipi, check out The Tipi: Traditional Native American Shelter - by Adolf Hungrywolf.

Color me pink!

Usually when I get quoted, it is by my children and words I try really hard NOT to say in public (but just ask my boss, that doesn't always happen). I'd blame my mom, who can make a sailor run and hide, but quite honestly, it's both that and working in "male" jobs most of my life. Believe me, I've been privy to both women's locker room talk, and men's; women will win every time with subject and description, men win with feeling.

Back to the original train of thought...

Margaret of Life, needlework, and everything was reading my blog and liked what I had to say about using my stash.
It makes me all giddy inside that there are people out there who read this blog. This blog originally started as a way for me to blow off steam when I got upset at work, and is evolving into more conversations with others. It's kinda cool!


Oh, and Sharon, about my need for a stitch book...
It more my need for books than anything else. I've seen your new bookshelves (lovely by the way, I'm jealous). After 8 years of marriage, my house is still decorated as bookcase eclectic. And we won't mention the dozen or more Rubbermaid bins of books stored in the garage.


Like Margaret, I've been inspired by Christine's (Lady Jane's Journal) Chevron pyramid. I have an idea forming in conjunction with this week's stitch. Let's see if I can get it at least down on paper this week.

Wow, me drawing. Any weird phenomena occurring?

I said "yes" to what?!?

First of all, thank you to everyone who has recommended a stitch book. I will be checking them out to see what I want to get the next time I'm allowed in a bookstore.

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I agreed to take a commission for a couple of cross stitch pieces from GhostStitchers last Thursday. Of course I got home that night, looked at the calendar and kicked myself. The first of the month! I'm inundated with reports due at work, working 9+ hours a day to get them done (the load slackens off around the 20th of the month), plus my medical problems of late, and the children. Did I forget my husband in there somewhere?

This is not anything new though. I have a tendency to "overload" myself with work, not necessarily to see how much I can take, but because, I know it all works out in the end. It drives my husband to distraction too, but he is an organized list person, who doesn't like deviating from the path ~HE~ has set.

Me? I ~LIKE~ the path less traveled!

Gets me home from work quicker too.