Happy November!

Assuming anyone reads this, I don't have any picture updates for you today. I have finished one piece and started on another but as they will be Christmas gifts and there's the possibility of the recipients reading this post (ha! now that will keep certain people wondering!) I can't post any details or pictures. Suffice it to say that I'm very pleased with the one that is done and am making good progress on the other. All that has cut into my stitching time on WF, though. I have gotten some work done on her, but will wait until I have more so that a picture will be worth posting. If all goes well, I will be done with the first page and started on the second by Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, so that this isn't a total waste of your time, here are some things to celebrate this month. My comments are in brackets.
Weeks:
1-7 World Communications
4-10 Chemistry
5-9 “Dear Santa” Letter [write early - avoid the rush]
8-14 Pursuit of Happiness
11-17 Geography Awareness
11-17 Random Acts of Kindness [nice to do all year]
12-18 Shallow Persons Awareness [don't be one!]
18-25 Bible

Daily:
2 Plan Your Epitaph
3 Cliché [but not on your epitaph!]
3 Sandwich [try something new or revisit an old favorite]
8 Cook Something Bold and Pungent
11 Veterans Day [thank a Veteran]
13 World Kindness
14 Teddy Bear
15 America Recycles
17 Chocolate Celebration [I thought that was every day]
18 Mickey Mouse
20 Great American Smokeout [encourage someone - or yourself - to quit]
23 Buy Nothing
25 American Thanksgiving
26 Electronic Greetings [tell someone you’re thankful for them]
30 Stay Home Because You Are Well [now there’s a good way to end the month!]

Bookmarks Done!

I finally finished stitching and putting the backings on all my bookmarks. Dorothy sent me hers as well - they are so cute and beautifully done! - and the package is on its way to St. Judes Hospital. Here's a picture of all dozen of them. Mine are the two "I [heart] to Read", the rose, the elephant, the ghost and "Read" with the little animals on the letters. I'm thinking of trying to get people to do a batch for a late spring mailing. It really feels nice to do something creative and then send it off to brighten a stranger's life, particularly a child's. If anyone reading this is interested in participating, please let me know.

Mid-October Update

I finally had time to sit and work on my WF, and I completed another whole portion of her wing. One more portion of wing and half of her lovely face to go and then I'll be done with the first of the four pages of design. Obviously, she will NOT be done for this Winter! But I will continue to take advantage of my Sunday afternoons and holiday time and finish her for next Winter. So here's the latest look at her.

Bookmark #5 Done

I kind of zipped through bookmark #5. It was a bit different, as it used a single thread over 18 count. It was fun and simple enough that I could work on it while watching TV - so I did. Isn't it cute? The fabric and pattern were a kit. I changed up the colors slightly, so I would could use floss I had on hand, but they're very close to what the pattern specified.

Just one more bookmark to complete for the package to St. Judes. I will go through my patterns tonight and set up a new kit. We're busy for a lot of Saturday, but I'll try to get a start on it. I've designated all Sunday sewing as purely WF time. I may work on WF at other times, but any sewing on Sunday is on her. Once I finish the last bookmark I'll start on the Christmas present I plan to do. I also need to choose and make a gift tag for my office Secret Santa gift. Busy hands are happy hands! Meanwhile, here's a picture of #5.

Ah, September

I don't have a favorite season. My favorite time is the beginning of each new season - the first snowfall of winter, the first crocus in the spring, the first time it's warm enough to wear short sleeves with no coat, the first nip in the air that brings out all the snuggly clothes. So I'm happy to see Autumn arriving with all its glorious, intoxicating colors. I love switching out the flowery summer decorations for the rich, deep leaves and bright chrysanthemums.

Stitching, however, is a year-round pleasure. I've been going great guns in my "snippet time" (little bits here and there) and am nearly done with bookmark #5. I'll have a picture of that to post next time. After this, I have one more bookmark to do by October, and then finish them all to send to St. Judes before Halloween.

I have also made some more progress on Winter Fairy, as you can see. Got more wing done and a little bit of her hair that frames her face. However, barring winning the lottery and thus having nothing to do but sew all day every day, I've reluctantly come to realize that there is no way she'll be done by this Winter. So my goal has shifted to finishing this first page and getting a start on the second page by Thanksgiving.

I have one other project to start after I finish the bookmarks, but that is a Christmas gift, so I will not post any descriptions or pictures until after it's been received.

End of August update

I haven't updated for a while but I have a lot to show you. We had a very nice vacation in Vermont, although never as long as we'd like. It was rainy a lot of the time, and the light wasn't good for my WF project so I finished bookmark #4 instead. I hope some child at St. Jude's will enjoy this little ghost. Of course, once we got home it turned sunny and hot again. Before I got back into cross-stitching, though, I made some cute rice bags for all my college girls - I have 5 this year. The bags will be nice for them at "that time of the month". Meghan and Tracy picked out the fabric and I think the other girls will like it. We got Meghan safely back to college and then I settled in for some stitching time on Winter Fairy. In spite of having to do some frogging, I finished a wing and got most of WF's lovely shoulder done. Ahhhh! Wish we had, say, another week of vacation so I could sew a lot more! Oh well, back to work this week and then we'll have a 3-day weekend for Labor Day.

Update-August 9th, 2010

What a great date - 8-9-10! lol Yes, I am easily amused.

Been making some more progress on WF. I finally finished the skirt on this page and have moved on to her wings. I will have about 45 minutes most afternoons this week to sew while waiting for my daughter's bus, so I expect to get a lot more done. The wings are fun and work up quickly, partially because I'm so happy to be off that darned skirt for a while! I've also gotten some sewing done on my fourth bookmark, the ghost. I'll post a picture of that when it's completed.

I was getting a little concerned about the creases in my fabric from folding it between stitching times, so I got a mailing tube and am keeping it in there. The tube isn't quite as long as my fabric, though, but someone at the Yahoo cross stitch group recommended the simple solution of putting a plastic bag over the end. I had been keeping everything in a large canvas bag, but it was a lot more bag than stuff. Now that I have a different way to hold the fabric I've transferred all the rest to my handy-dandy DMC cross-stitch organizer. It holds all my floss, needles, patterns and other accoutrements, and is much neater. The tube with my fabric fits between the handles when I carry it.

Enough details, if you're here you probably want to see the update photo, so here it is.