Sickly stitcher

June 2019

I have been so sick with a nasty bug my husband brought home.  He got it first and has had it for most of a month.  I got it a week after he did.  It was one of those really nasty bugs with a horrible cough.  We both ended up getting bronchitis really bad, sinus infections, and he got ear infections too.  I'm just now starting to feel like I might live.

While I was sick I didn't want to work on my current project.  I'm knitting a baby blanket for a baby that was premature.  I really don't want to give him this bug but I also don't want to mess it up because my brain is matted with snot.

I decided to work on some small cross stitch kits.  I have this one piece that I found that my mom made.  I have it in a shadow box that I made when she passed away.  Recently, when I was looking through a box of things that were hers I found the pattern. Hers looks like the picture but I had to use what I had in my stash.  The chicken looks grey in the picture but the colors used say they are light blue, medium blue, and white.  I'm not a big chicken person but I know I've never seen a blue chicken.  I really didn't have any of the right colors other than black, white, and red and maybe the yellow so my chicken looks different.

16th Finish, 3rd in 2019

I ordered that fabric on Amazon and it sure looked a lot darker in their photo.  I was pretty disappointed when it arrived and I saw the actual color.  I'll have to try again to find a brown fabric that will look more like burlap.

I spent some time looking online to see if I could find more kits like this and I found two on ebay that I got for $4 together.  One is a bag of sunflower seed and the other is peas.  I made the sunflower one first because I love sunflowers.  I did make a small mistake and missed a few back stitches on the inside of the D but when I make it again I'll do a lot better.  I think I'd like to add some french knots on the middle of the sunflower next time and it will be fun trying different floss colors.  I made the pea one next and when I sewed the two pieces together I forgot to just sew the long sides before flipping.  I sewed the bottom too so it only has one red seam.  That's okay, I'm sure I'll be making a bunch of these.  They are all filled with lavender and are magnets.  I'm going to keep looking for more of these kits on ebay.  I know there are several more that are bags of stuff like this.

14th finish, 1st in 2019

15th finish, 2nd in 2019

Another finish!

13th Finish, 6th this year

This is Woodland Hedgehog / Woodland Whimsy Series #2 by Just Another Button Company.  I used the called for threads (Gentle Arts & Weeks Dye Works) but I changed the fabric to Gerabaldi's Needlework on Etsy.  It's Hand-dyed 28 Ct Brittney in CELADON.  Finished on Oct 29, 2018.  The pattern came with the 5 buttons.

This was my first time ever not stitching on Aida so I learned to stitch over 2 threads.  It was also my first time ever using hand-dyed and over-dyed flosses or anything besides DMC.

I finished an ornament

I started this ornament kit on Oct 10th and finished it Oct 19th.  This is my 11th finish total and the 5th this year.  It is an old kit I've had for years in a box in my garage.  I have been cleaning out my garage and just decided to make this one to gift to a relative for Christmas this year.  I was thinking the finished ornaments would be great to slip into a Christmas card.  It's a Stitch 'N Hang kit from nmi.  It says it's a reindeer but obviously the designer has never seen an actual reindeer.  This is just a deer.  This kit was done on perforated plastic with some kind of string instead of 6 strand embroidery floss.  The string is about the same thickness as 3 strands of floss.  I had a difficult time because working on it hurt my hands and I also ran out of 2 colors.  I found a green floss in my stash that was close enough to finish but the light brown was too different.  I ended up blending 2 colors.  The needle is bigger to for the larger thread so it was harder to push it through holes that already had thread in them.  It does look nice and I'm glad I got it finished.  I took a break from stitching after that to let my hands rest.  My right hand and wrist feel a lot better now.  I have more of these kits so I'm not sure if I'll do them.  I'll wait and see.

Finish 12, 5th this year

Wheel Decide decision helper

I found this website where you can make a wheel you can spin to help make decisions.  I decided to add all my various projects I have going on including cross stitch, needlepoint, and knitting.  I also decided to add a 15 minutes to clean or declutter and time to read.  I'm hoping this will help get me out of the rut I'm in where I don't feel like doing anything.  Now I'm trying to see if I can embed it on my blog.  Let's hope this works.  Here is the link if you want to make your own wheel.

I finished a project

I finished The Old Diving Helmet finally.  I actually had to look back at my instagram to figure out when I finished it.  Looks like it was about September 28th.  I'm pretty happy with it and can't wait to get it in a frame along with the Vintage Octopus.  Both of those patterns are by LunaRiverCrafts on Etsy.  I did them for my bathroom which has a stormy ship theme.  My shower curtain has a large picture of a ship on it and the walls are blue and ragged with a gray/blue glaze to give it a stormy look.  I love it and can't wait to get my cross stitch pieces in there.  Next I really want a mermaid.  I have a pattern but that one will take a long time to do.

11th Finish, 4th this year

I've been feeling out of sorts and haven't felt like starting anything new.  I do have a needlepoint kit that I started but I really haven't been working on it much.  I haven't even felt like reading, which is very strange for me.  I usually read at least 4 books a month or more and I have only read one book for each of the last two months.  I've been very tired too and sleeping way longer than usual so I've added Vitamin D3 to my daily supplements.  I hope it helps and soon.

I'm still alive

I've just been sick.  I started out with just a little head cold and thought I was going to get off easy.  My whole family got sick except my oldest who is supper healthy and never gets sick.  He's almost a vegetarian and doesn't have an ounce of fat on his body and has always been very healthy since birth.  I say no fair but what good does it do?  Anyway, my husband ended up getting the plague from work.  It was horrible and he missed most of a week of work last week and even some golf!  That should tell you how bad it was.  Anyway, he started to get better and I thought I was in the clear.  Nope.  Now, I have it and I've been coughing just as bad as he was.  I hate being sick but since I take immuno-suppresant drugs I tend to always get everything going around.  Oh well. 

I have been working on my Vintage Diving Helmet from LunaRiverCrafts on Etsy whenever I can see well enough.  Now I'm at the very bottom and I'm running low of the color DMC 435.  I just ordered some more from 123stitch.com and I also ordered the stuff to kit up another project.  I still haven't worked on the other one I have kitted up. 

I'm not sure if it is just because I'm so new at cross stitch but I just want to focus on one thing at a time.  I want to get this diving helmet finished!  Every time I think about starting something else I find I can't stop thinking about the project I'm working on.  I haven't even worked on Max's Moon in ages.  It also seems that counts all other hobbies too.  I haven't been able to focus on reading much either.  I only read one book last month and so far this month I've only read one.  That is very unusual for me.  I haven't been interested in making jewelry or crocheting or knitting either.  I guess I have tunnel vision. 

I do love the Morgan Lap Stand I got to help with the ulner nerve entrapment (which did get better btw).  I got the stand with 7" and 10" hoops.  They work so much better than the wooden ones it isn't even funny. 

Okay, I need to go to sleep and let the cold medicine work.

TTFN!

Finished a Christmas Ornament

My arm started feeling better this week and I was able to work on a Mill Hill Kit I had. It is the Celestial Sleigh kit and I Finished it on 9/7/18 It was a quick stitch until I got to the silver thread stuff which I did not like working with. It wanted to separate into three thinner strands that splayed out as far from each other as possible. The beads took more time but they sure made it look pretty. I just love blue and silver. I used to have several different themes for Christmas and switched between them all the time. I had them all in labeled tubs and I would tell my boys which ones to pull out each year. After a while though, my heath got so bad I struggled to decorate the large tree we had. We got a smaller tree that is easier for me to decorate and I cut down to my one favorite theme - the blue and silver with snow related items. I have a lot of glittery snowflakes and ice cycles and the tree has white lights. This ornament will look great on it this year. I'm so proud that I FFO'd it right away instead of putting it off. I backed it with thick blue scrapbook paper.

My 10th Finish, 3rd this year

I did finally get my lap stand. I got the Morgan 7-Inch and 10-Inch Lap Stand Combo Hoops. I just got it yesterday so I'm trying it out now. So far I really like it. It works so much better than the cheap wooden hoops I had. The fabric stays taught so much better. So far I have not had to re-tighten it but I have been sick and not stitching as much.




TTFN!