No Stitching Pics Today

Sorry all, but there will be no stitching pics today. I am just feeling too lazy to pull anything out right now:) I do have a few stitching things to share, but they will have to wait until tomorrow. I have done a fair bit on my rotation on M9 and got a start on Karen’s neighborhood RR. I should have enough done tomorrow night to make it worth sharing:)

I do have some images to share as my mom and sister were kind enough to throw me a baby shower yesterday. It was nice and relaxed and I think everyone had a good time. Becca and some friends did a lovely job decorating and I got some wonderful gifts. I am particularly excited about all the books I got to read to my little guy. As soon as Becca sends me her pictures I’ll share the decorations, but in the mean time this is what I am looking like at almost 36 weeks pregnant.

I can’t believe that I have a little over a month left. His room is just about done. We put up more than half the border and will be replacing the outlets next weekend. After that the furniture gets put in place and the room will be all ready for him. Next weekend we will also be having fun trying to wrestle car seats into both of our cars:)

Just to add a little awww factor to the blog this evening. Here is a cute picture of Zoe and Cooper this afternoon. The last couple of days, Zoe has been trying out some new nappy spots other than her usual chair in the living room. She revisited her old chair in the basement, an upside down cat bed in the guest room and here she is on the arm of the couch next to a comatose Cooper. If he had been at all conscious, he probably would have chased her away.

Finally Finished….

Yeah, I finally finished Winter Dragon on Outi’s RR. I am soo excited. I really enjoyed the majority of this Round Robin, but all the backstitching with blending filament on this one was not one of my high points. With the finish of this, my stitching obligations for this RR are officially over. The final maildate is not until December 1, but I didn’t want to get stuck on it around the time the baby came. I am glad that Jenna was able to accomodate me by sending Outi’s on to me early as I don’t think I might have given up if I had also had a new baby in the house:) Thanks. So here he is an now the lovely fabbie is back to Jenna to stitch Autumn.

In other stitching news I am about half way done with the beading on Stargazer. Now that I am done with the Dragon for tonight, I am going to treat myself to some beading the rest of the evening. (On a sidenote…if you ever stitch Stargazer, I would definitly purchase two boxes of the Mill Hill beads #03037. I only made it about halfway through the symbols for that color before running out and I know only about 4-5 beads got sacrificed to the couch gods:) ). Then tomorrow it is on to my next rotation slot, M9. As part of my 5-10 hours committment to each slot, I am also setting myself some reasonable little goals for each slot. On my M9 slot, I would like to get one more of the outer staircases done.

Neverending Beading

Alright I haven’t been around for a while. Work has been increadibly busy lately. I had two days last week where I ended up staying afterhours to finish up reports. I don’t have to do that very often. I think it is just the combination of having one or two short notice assessments and wanting to make sure I stay on top of everything at work. With knowing that I am going out on maternity leave sometime in the next 6ish weeks, I am finding I am less likely to leave less pressing things for “catch-up Friday” like I normally would. I am doing my best to not do too much each day, but I hate the idea of leaving things half finished for one of my poor co-workers to try and figure out when I leave…especially as you need a decoder ring to decipher the handwriting on my assessment notes:) I can’t believe how little time I have left!

Since the last time I posted, I actually have been stitching. I got a little bit of work done on Outi’s Winter Dragon, but still feel increadibly frustrated by it. I ran out of two colors of blending filament from the kit I was using. One of the colors is now discontinued and I couldn’t find the other at any of the generic craft stores that usually have plenty in stock. Fortunately there was a LNS near where I had lunch today that happened to have both colors. Other than the ick of backstitching with blending filament, I am also frustrated that the colors that were chosen for back stitch are so close to the cross stitch colors. After spending what feels like forever stitching a snowflake it doesn’t even look like I have stitched anything. I will be so proud of myself when I finish this one.

On an extremely exciting stitching note, Thursday I finished all the stitching on Stargazer. Last night and today I have been working on the beading. I started with the beading around her head which requires a lot of focus and counting as it is not close enough to the cross stitching to have easy reference points along the way. It is fun though. Once I get into the skirt, the beading should go increadibly fast as it will just be filling in empty areas between the stitching. I am really looking forward to a big finish soon.

Here is a full length image, minus some of the beading at the top.

And a close up of her face and torso.

September Progress and October Goals

I can’t believe we have reached the end of September already. It really was a blur for me and I am sure October will go by even faster. When I looked at my palm this afternoon to check my work schedule for tomorrow, I was a bit scared by how much time was blocked off for different activities, both work and home. Hopefully I will get some stitching in:)

Let’s see how I did for September…
1. Finish my house on Carol’s Neighborhood RR-Done and in the mail tomorrow
2. Stitch Winter on Outi’s Dragon RR-Almost finished
3. Finish page one on StargazerDone, along with half the stitching on page 2
4. Stitch another bridge on M9Nope

Since I worked out a new rotation system after I made these goals, I ended up working on German Garden instead of M9. All in all a very good month.

Here is what I would like to accomplish in October:
1. Finish and mail Outi’s Dragon RR
2. Get close to a finish on Karen’s Neighborhood RR
3. Finish the stitching on Stargazer and start beading
4. Do one rotation on Baby’s Garden
5. Finish on bridge during my M9 rotation

Can’t Think of a Title!

Well, my brain was to broken to think of any form of a title for this post today. It has been a pretty busy week/weekend. Things are getting into full swing at work, not a moment to stop and catch my breath. Then this weekend, Allen and I busied ourselves with chores about the house. This included a marathon session of assembling items of furniture. We put together the baby’s crib and when Allen finishes the touch up paint and outlets next weekend, I’ll post some pics. My new sewing table also got put together this weekend. Allen bought it for me for my birthday and we just got around to putting it together. Since Allen and I moved in together, my sewing machine has been on a table that is too wide for the foot lever to reach the floor very well. It made sewing a bit ackward, especially considering how short I am. Such a short cord seems like a poor design on the part of the sewing machine company. Now I can hem my pants and fix our family room curtains without dislocating my right hip:)

On the cross stitching front, I spent most of the week working on Outi’s Winter Dragon. The majority of the dragon stitched up quickly, but then blending filament came into play. That seriously slowed me down. I eventually got exceedingly frustrated with the backstitch (which also used blending filament) and decided I needed to take a break. Here is where I got to.

I plan to get back to it tomorrow night. I think if I spend a little time on it each night this week along with a little stitching on something else I will finish it without wanting to throw all my spools of blending filament in the garbage disposal:)

While I was on a break from Winter Dragon, I finished up my next rotation on my focus piece, Stargazer. I am now up to her shoulders and even got to start on her hair a bit. I should easily be able to finish all the stitching on her the next time she comes up in my rotation. I am really looking forward to starting the beading.

Next up in my rotation is my “small” slot. I will be starting Baby Garden by Just Nan. It is not really that small, but as it is significantly smaller than most of my other pieces, it will count for now. It looks like it will be a fun piece to stitch for baby.

As I head up to bed, I will leave you with a cute pic of Cooper. I was hanging out on the couch eating a sandwich and he kept glaring at me. I was getting scared there for a bit:)