Yellow Pears

Monday my time was devoted to working on The Pear Tree by Little House Needleworks and I almost got it completed. I thoroughly enjoyed working on those lovely yellow pears. I thought about staying home all day today (Tuesday) because it was snowing, but I volunteer at church and needed to get my work done there. It is supposed to continue snowing here through the night and that should give me a good excuse to stay home all day tomorrow (Wednesday) and perhaps finish this sweet piece. Then it will be back to Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow and the highly neglected blue quilt.

Inventory

Today I HAD to do the laundry - no putting it off for another day. So I trudged downstairs, sorted my dirty clothes, and began the process. Since I haven't been working down in the basement lately, my Quilting Studio has become a dumping ground and was a total mess. I do not like messy rooms. I like to be organized and neat. While the washing machine chugged away, I began the process of cleaning up, putting away, and organizing the Quilt Studio. At first it was overwhelming.

I reminded myself that you can only do one thing at a time, and therefore I picked up one thing and put it away. Then another. Then another. Little by little the surfaces got cleared off and order was beginning to be restored.

As I organized I also made a list. Mind you, I have made thousands of lists, but this was going to be the ultimate list and would be recorded on an Excel spreadsheets, printed out and put in a notebook titled "Projects". How could I not get things done that are so highly organized as to be recorded on a spreadsheet and housed in a lovely 3-ring binder?

There are:

Quilt Projects

7 projects almost ready for quilting (needing backings and/or bindings)

6 quilts ready to be quilted

14 unfinished quilt projects in various stages

Counted Cross-Stitch Projects

10 completed CC-S projects needing finishing (pillows, wall hangings, and/or framing)

15 Little House Needleworks patterns/kits ready to start

10 other CC-S patterns/kits ready to start

5 CC-S projects started

Knitting

5 projects in various stages of completion - three scarves, one sweater, one shawl

Other crafts

1 wool project (wool purchased) not even designed yet.

ATCs promised for the next five months

Uncounted and not in the inventory are various plastics bins and tote bags into which I did not even look because I was already stressed enough.

Have you seen the program "Hoarders" on A & E? I'm not a hoarder, but I am a "UFOer" and perhaps I need help.

At least I got the laundry done. : )

Block #1 done

Block #1 of Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow

by Carriage House Samplings

o n 28ct Jobelan "Lambswool"

using DMC

As experienced stitchers know, the Hawk Run Hollow series calls for 40ct Linen using silk threads. My poor eyesight and small budget keeps me from this ideal, but I really love these stitching works of art and have therefore chosen to do a few of the blocks on 28ct with the more affordable DMC threads. My plan is to finish them in a quilted wall hanging.

Today I found the Hawk Run Hollow series designer's blog and have seen a preview of the Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow piece which will be out next month. Oh my - I LOVE it.

Just too many wonderful designs to possibly get them all stitched, sewn or knitted. Meanwhile, the blue quilt awaits my attention. And speaking of the blue quilt, I sent for Judy's new book and I'm sure I will want to do all her designs too. My head is spinning.

It is all too much to think about, so I'll make popcorn and grab my Kindle for some reading time.

same old...........

Happy February First

I'm working on the same old stuff.............the blue quilt and

stitching on CaHRH and knitting on the pink scarf.

The reason none of these projects have advanced very far is because I have a LOT of other activities that occupy my time:

1. I read a lot - books and magazines.

2. I'm currently watching The West Wing DVDs again for the 3rd time.

3. I attend a lot of church activities.

4. I spend way too much time reading blogs.

5. I do an inordinate amount of Sudoku puzzles.

6. I sleep a good 8 hours every night.

7. I eat three meals a day and take time for 142 snacks.

8. I write lots of emails to family and friends.

9. I sit around and think up excuses for not getting things done.

Quick gift

A Lazy Girl Bag makes a great quick gift especially if you fill it.

I was invited to a friend's house for dinner tonight and knew that there would be another guest, so I sewed up these Lazy Girl bags to bring instead of flowers or candy. What woman doesn't need lots of bags to organize all her stuff? I'd make hundreds more to get such a good home-cooked dinner as I enjoyed tonight - and an evening of great conversation.

And at noon today I had a yummy lunch with my good friend, Brenda. What a great day!

It never ends...........

The amount of unfinished projects hidden in this house never ends.

I needed to get something out of the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet housed in my office closet and in order to get to that drawer I had to take out tote bags, brief cases and shopping bags that were in the way. What on earth are in all these containers? I wondered. In the tote bags and shopping bag were almost finished forgotten knitting projects - better known as AFFKPs.
One of the AFFKPs was the blue monstrosity in the picture below. It started out as a quick scarf - something to keep my fingers busy, made with cheap yarn on big needles. As I knitted along I realized that it was too wide to be a scarf, so I started calling it a shawl. Then it got too long to be a shawl and would have drowned a little old lady had I put it around her shoulders. So then I began calling it an afghan. When I pulled it out of the tote bag (beautiful bag that my friend Lindsay made for me), I realized that it was truly almost finished and it was time to bind it off and say in my perfect French accent, "finis". Ooh la la.

As I went to empty the tote bag, I found another knitting project buried at the bottom of the bag - a pink scarf. Yes, another almost finished forgotten knitting project. It never ends...........

Finished, but not done

Halloween may not be around the corner yet, but this is a project I started last August and finished stitching today. Eventually I will make it into a pillow. The fabric on the right will border the stitching on the front, and the leaf fabric on the left will be on the back of the pillow.

Witchy Witchy Winifrid

The Trilogy

stitched 6/1 on 7 count Klostern "Sand"

using DMC

Although the original pattern called for 28 count and Weeks Dye Works threads, at the time I wanted something BIG that I could do on vacation without having to drag along my special light and magnifying equipment. It undoubtedly would look better in the smaller version, but a pillow is more practical than getting it framed.

The original pattern also calls for a trinket to hang around her neck. I think I will go through my buttons and find something appropriate to add as a neck decoration.

To those looking to see my progress on the blue quilt - it is slow going. I have about a third of the pieces cut out and am sewing them in groups of ten to keep from getting too bored. Doing things assembly-line style becomes too tedious for me, so I have to break it down into smaller sections. And I take lots of breaks - to read, to stitch, to eat, and to look at blogs.

Yes, I read a lot of blogs. I don't often leave comments because they all sound alike - "oh how pretty", "that sure is beautiful", "nice job", etc., etc. However, I do enjoy reading quilting and stitching blogs, I do think what others are doing is pretty & beautiful, and I probably should leave more comments. Not leaving comments is another aspect of my basic laziness.

Today I am grateful for - getting the last three skeins of #310Black DMC floss at my local JoAnns.