A Quiet Weekend

I just love quiet weekends. We didn’t have a whole lot going on this weekend so we opened up the windows and settled in for a relaxing weekend. Allen spent time working on a school project while I did some cleaning and stitching. My shoulder is starting to feel better since I had a massage last Thursday. At the end of the session, the massage therapist (who specializes in Thai massage) looked at me and tells me I have a knot the size of an apple at the point where my neck meets my shoulder. She wasn’t able to completely get it out without severely hurting me so I go back in a few weeks for another session. At least now I can stitch without my stitching hand going numb. Always a good thing:)

So here is what I have been up to over the last few days. Friday night was the Barnabee’s Quest SAL. I was able to finish most of part 2. All that is left is the bees and honeycomb backstitch in the separating band. I was very excited as I finally found the dmc color I needed to finish the bunny. He looked horrible with the giant hole in his side. I really hope to get pretty close to finishing all the stitching next Friday. Not too much left.

I also worked a great deal on my Dragon RR. This and my Mystery Exchange have maildates of April 15. Since Allen and I are probably going to visit his family for easter, I plan on bringing my Mystery Exchange to work on. It is just the right size piece for a long weekend. I am probably a little more than halfway done with the Spring Dragon. It is weird though as the pattern calls for a lot of half stitches, but the model on the cover looks like it is stitched all in full crosses. Oh well, I am stitching it as charted and it looks good.

Now I am off to stitch more Rhodes grapes on my Bordeaux Sampler.

A Boy and His Wii

So, after many months of patience and waiting, Allen finally got his Nintendo Wii last night. There was a little note in our mailbox stating that they had tried to deliver it, but couldn’t without a signature. With much reluctance, I headed off to the post office to pick it up. When Allen arrived home from work, it was a lot like a scene out of some of his dad’s old Christmas home videos. Needless to say, stitching and American Idol were put aside last night to hang out with Allen and play Wii. I am very proud to say that I Wii-bowled a 145 and performed several major surgeries with only two fatalities. Quite an interesting evening.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts about my neck/shoulder. It is actually starting to feel better. Unfortunatly, feeling better means I need to rest my arm, which means minimal typing and stitching. I wouldn’t be so heart broken to cut out the typing, but I would fall sooo behind at work. Stitching on the other hand…I think I am in withdrawal. I also learned last night that Wii Tennis is not good for anyone with any kind of upper body discomfort. Right now I am being bad and stitching anyway.

Not much stitching…

I haven’t been stitching much this week. At the beginning of the week, I was still catching up on things after my trip to Boston. Later in the week, I started having discomfort in my stitching arm. I think I either pulled a muscle or pinced a nerve in the right side of my neck. I have tried stitching off and on during the week, but I always seem to end up feeling uncomfortable. I think I need to take a day or two off from stitching:(

I do have a little progress to show for the week.

Monday and Tuesday I stitched some of the Rhodes stitch grapes in part 3. They are quite pretty and I enjoy stitching them. Hopefully my arm will feel better and I can finishing them this coming week.

Wednesday and Thursday, I tried to work some on Stargazer, but didn’t get enough done to warrant a picture. Friday though, I did get a fair amount done on Barnabee’s Quest. I am almost done with part two now. Just the honey comb on the bottom and one color left in the bunny. I am also planning on leaving some of the boarder stitching until I finish the whole piece.

I also stitched a bit on my Dragon RR this week. I am really enjoying working on this piece. The colors are so vibrant on the Ghost Gum fabric.

The rebellion has been squashed…

…and some semblance of order restored. I returned from Boston this morning to find that my home and my blog had been taken over by The Cooper Cat himself. What a naughty little boy. He had Allen and Zoe doing his bidding at all hours of the day and night. He was constantly intoxicated on cat grass and doing whatever he pleased. I would like to say that I have set him straight, but Cooper’s little “coup” did little to change his day to day existance. Now that I have come home and “restored order”, Cooper still gets his way, does what he wants, chases Zoe, drools on Allen and gets high on cat grass. The main difference is that he no longer has unrestricted access to this blog, although he is sitting over my shoulder providing “quality control”.

I must say that I am quite glad to be home. Although Boston was pleasant in and of itself, it was cold and the conference was not particularly stimulating. I did have plenty of time to read, though and was able to reread the first two Harry Potter books and made a good start on Eragon on the flight home. Now to get some good stitching in. I did bring a Mira holiday fairy kit with me, but found it hard to stitch with my hotel room’s set up.

Now off to bed before i fall asleep on the computer!

Cooper d’état

My owner has not returned after several days, apparantly abandoning me with my sister and her 2nd tier pet, the human male. In the absence of leadership, I, Cooper D. Cat, am SEIZING control of this household along with the related blog.



My first cross-stitching efforts are proving difficult, so I have determined that the format of this blog will change to one primarily concerned with napping, eating, and chasing. And napping.

So it has been said, so it shall be done.

His Excellency, LORD COOPER…. out.

This week in stitchville

So, I have been a busy stitcher this week. Wednesday I pulled out Stargazer made some good progresson her. I was having such a great time stitching on her that I couldn’t resist her. Thursday, instead of stitching on my German Garden, I worked on her some more. I now have stitches going the entire width of her skirt and probably have 20-30% of the cross stitch done. I am definitly about halfway through the bottom page of the pattern. When I finish my Barnabee’s Quest SAL, I will probably start working on her two nights per week and she should be done in no time:)

Friday as usual was my night with Barnabee the Bee! He is such a fun little guy. I have finished the bands up through band 14 with the exception of a few stitches in the over one violets. In order to feel like I got a lot done, I worked on the border and then used that as a guide to stitch on some of the simpler bands. I got easily frustrated with the backstitched verse in part 1 and I wasn’t quite prepared to tackle that last night. I really loved stitching the watermelon and the herringbone stitched border. The space in the herrigbone band will eventually be filled in with an over one bunny.

In addition to working on these two pieces, I have also started my Seasonal Dragons Round Robin. I am stitching this piece with Jenna, Outi and Christine. We are all stitching the same piece, but everyones piece will be a little different by virtue of who stitches each season. It will also be neat as we are stitching the seasons in a set order so we will each get to stitch all the dragons. Our first maildate is April 15, so I plan on doing an hour or so of stitching here and there to get it done in time. So far it is stitching up pretty quick. Here is my progress on the Spring Dragon after about two and a half hours.

I am stitching them on a piece of 32 ct. Ghost Gum linen by Stitches and Spice that I purchased from Carol when I was first thinking about joining this RR. It is very pretty and I like a lot better than the plain black that was suggested. I still laugh when I think about the color name as I imagine Casper the friendly ghost chewing gum. It produces quite the image in my mind:)

Wine Stitching

Just a quick post before bed to share the last two night’s progress on Bordeaux Wine Sampler. I had hoped to get all the blackwork done, but it didn’t quite happen. I might take a quick hour later in the week to finish it up. This really is a fantastic stitch and I can’t wait to hang it out in my kitchen. And I even got a really good picture of it this week.

Tonight I worked on Stargazer, but didn’t have time to pull the camera back out. Will share pics tomorrow. Now off to bed as I have to get up at a painfully early hour for my annual physical…ick!