Finally Stitching

It has been an absolutely lovely week. My birthday (we won't say how many) was Thursday and I received among other things several nice-sized gift certificates from work. Now I have to decide if I want to get a new needlepoint canvas and the threads that go with them or some gorgeous linen and threads to stitch some of the Ink Circles or Needlemania designs I want to stitch. Decisions, decisions. Then on Friday, Dave & I went to Jerome for the day. It's a lovely old copper mine town that is now an artisan's colony. We spent the night and came home by way of Prescott and Wickenburg. Now I'm getting ready to get back to work on Cirque de Circle. I'm about 2/3 of the way through. This is the first cross stitch design I've ever wanted to immediately stitch again. There are so many beautiful color combinations of threads and fabrics. It's hard to choose just one.

But my nemesis is still staring at me quietly whispering "What about me? I want to be finished too." I've never had a project that I feel less inclined to finish that Gabe. But I've promised my friend he'd get it and by golly he will. When I don't know. But he will get it.

I've also been knitting on an afghan for my son's in-laws for Christmas. It's knit in squares and if I knit just 1 square a day I'll have it done in plenty of time for Christmas.

The best thing about all this is that I really feel like I'm getting back in the groove of stitching. I feel Like I'm coming to the end of a long drought. Oh, how I've missed not stitching. Anf how glad I am to have my old friend back again!

Well, who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Not only have a recently learned to needlepoint but I just got through learning how to post pictures to this blog. This is a picture of the needlepoint class I just finished taking at the shop. The original colors were red and green but I thought that was too much like Christmas. I used Watercolour in the color called Forest Fire. My first thought was to use orange as my primary color with green as the secondary one. But I couldn't find 3 oranges that looked good together. So I decided to go with the green as my primary color and the tan as my secondary one. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. It is more like autumn colors than I realized. I actually had a lot of fun with the class. There were 2 other students and it was interesting to see the colors everyone picked. It always amazes me to see the same design stitched in different ways and how it almost looks like a totally new design. That's the Cirque de Circles is. I love to go to the Ink Circles website and see how everyone has interperted the design. Now that I've finished the needlepoint class, maybe I can make more progress on CDC. That's the hope anyway.

Poor Gabe! He's still just sitting on my stand waiting for me to finish stitching him. I swear if I wasn't doing this for a friend, he'd be in the closet. I really dislike stitching on him. But I decided if I can work on a page at a time and just finish one page, maybe I can feel like I'm making some real progress on him.

I'm so ready for cooler weather. It feels like it will never be fall or winter here. I do know traffic is getting worse so our winter visitors are coming back in full force.

Well, I'm going to go watch a little Nascar and see if I can get some stitching on CDC done. It's working us really fast and I'd love to see it done.

Making Progress

Well, I spent quite a bit of time yesterday working on my needlepoint project for class. I was able to finish the basketweave section and start on the checkerbord one. I've almost got that finished. One more row and that part will be done. I probably won't be able to finish all I need to by class on Wednesday. I'll probably just block off what we'll be doing then and finish the rest later. I know, I know. You're probably thinking that it will end up in a pile of other WIP's. But I really like the colors and it's been a challenge learning some new stitches so I do plan on finishing it very soon after the class is over. Quite frankly, I'm tired of not finishing things. I have tons of stuff just waiting to be done and all I can think of is starting something new. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. I read somewhere that the average stitcher has 14 unfinished projects. Well, I guess I'm way above average then! Can you make New Year's resolutions in September? I'd really like to finish some of these up. I can hear them in the closet yelling finish me, finish me. Maybe it's time to rescue some of them. But I must finish Gabe first.

Well, we're off the the baseball game today. D'Backs vs. the Padres. Did I mention I really like baseball? There's something about being at a game, eating ballpark food and spending quality time with David that I really like.

Time Passes

Where did the summer go? Seems like only yesterday that my daughter was home from college and my son & his wife were here for a week. That was in May. And now here it is Labor Day Weekend. We took Sherrie back to Flagstaff Thursday a week ago. I've always loved Autumn: the colored leaves, football season, the anticipation of Thanksgiving. Now it seems like the older I get, the faster time moves. A common complaint, I'm sure.

With that in mind, I'd better get busy and work on my Christmas stitching. I really only have one thing that I definitely want to finish. I'm knitting an angora scarf for Sherrie and I'd like to get it done for Christmas. It does get pretty cold up where she is (Northern Arizona University) and I know she'll appreciate. The only problem with it is that angora sheds. I'v ehad lots of the stuff stick to my lips and get up my nose while knitting with it. If I have time (there's that word again), I might try knitting an afghan for my son and daughter-in-law. But if it doesn't happen, that's ok. It could be for Chris's birthday in January.

My needlepoint class is going well. This coming Wednesday is the last of the beginner's group. I'm quite pleased with the way mine is turning out. When it's all done, I should take a picture and post it. The colors are very Autumn-like. It's been interesting to see the colors the other ladies have chosen. They're all so different yet equally beautiful. I've learned alot in this class and hopefully will be able to take the intermediate class being offered in January.

I've made little progress on Gabe or CDC. Most of my free time has been spent doing the homework for the needlepoint class. Since I only have one more class, I hope to get back to stitching on both of them.

Well, I'm starving and lunch isn't quite ready, so maybe I'll go find something to tide me over. Happy Labor Day!