November/December Goals

Ahh, that time of the month again. Time to review my progress for the month. I did extremely well. Here is what I had planned for November.

1. If beads arrive, finish Stargazer- YES
2. Finish and mail Karen’s RR-YES
3. Complete my rotation on Bordeaux Sampler-YES
4. Stitch one Christmas ornament-NO
I also did rotations on German Garden, Baby’s Garden and Butterfly Rest. A very good month wouldn’t you say.

And now on to December:
1. Get to the halfway point on German Garden
2. Work on my Trees piece
3. Get to the halfway point on Baby Garden
4. Finish one Christmas ornament (I have one started from a long time ago)

The Waiting Continues

Yup, I am now officially three days overdue. Baby Saunders seems to be quite content to stay right where he is. The doctor thinks that once things gets started that my labor will progress relatively quickly, but it is just a matter of the little guy deciding the time is right. Just in case he decides to continue being stubborn (now did he get this trait from his mommy or his daddy;)), we did schedule an induction for Wednesday December 5th. I was hoping we could do it a little sooner, but that was the earliest that the hospital could accomodate an induction that was not medically urgent. So we wait, but at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

With my extra free time now that I am off work, but as of yet without a new baby, I have plenty of time for stitching. I have made some great progress on my rotation. After finishing my German Garden slot I did about 6 hours on Just Nan’s Baby Garden. It is coming along nicely. I started at the bottom with band ten and have now finished most of bands 7-10.

After that the next slot in my rotation was supposed to be Brightneedles My Lady’s Needlecase, but I couldn’t find any good size 28 needles. I tried to work on it with a size 26, but it just wasn’t going anywhere over one on 32 ct fabric. Thus I tweaked my rotation a bit until I get my order from One Star’s Light that inculdes some petite 28s. So I decided to pick up Butterfly Rest instead and over the last two days I have really gotten into working on her. I can’t believe I haven’t worked on that piece for over a year. She really is a lot of fun:) I’ll show you a picture later today.

Late Fall Gardening

Tonight I finished my rotation on my new focus piece, Liz Turner Diehls German Garden. I had to do some frogging as one of the left hand circle was two stitches too high. I am proud of my progress though. I would love to have this one done by the end of the year. It might be possible. We shall see:) Here it is so far!

Alright…off to be pregnant for at least one more day. I have my forty week appointment tomorrow. I am hoping that things have progressed a little more. I am really ready to meet my little guy!

Grapes, Grapes Everywhere

So here is my progress on Bordeaux Wine Sampler. I spent a lot of time backstitching little wine stompers and rhodes stitch grape clusters. This is the last progress picture I can find which is wierd as I know I have worked on it since. Oh well.

And here it is now.

Now I am on to work on my new focus piece, LTDs German Garden. Hopefully I can have a finish on that soon too!

Guest Room Pictures

In addition to making the curious chicken curtain discovery (read below), we also took delivery on some new guest room furniture this morning. I am very excited because for the last two years this room has simply had a bed on a metal frame. I can finally say we have only one room left to furnish. Yeah! Here is what we got. The pink chair actually came from his mom’s house when she moved. Now we can have guests and they will have a place to put their stuff:)

A little later today I promise I will have some stitching pictures since this is a stitching blog. I have made some really nice progress on Bordeaux Sampler.

ETA: Here is a pic of me from Wednesday after my most recent doctor’s appointment.

It’s Shake N’ Bake and Allen Helped

Sitting on the floor, I stared absently across the room at the curtains. The mildy tacky yellow and blue floral curtains, whose print pattern was shared by all the living room furniture of the previous owners, whose loud, awkward coloring has stained the aura of our living room for over two and a half years.

Gradually my gaze tightened onto the surface of the curtains, onto a flattened spot back lit by sun. Something seemed odd about the flowers — I perceived a depth, like old woodcut scene. It *was* an old woodcut scene. These were not flowers, there was something there, something…

“Are those…”, I stuttered, “…chickens?!”, I exclaimed as I rose to my feet, alarmed. Leslie, nearby and only dimly aware of my stirring, muttered a disengaged “uh-huh”. I went to the curtains and stared into one of the blue splotches that covered it’s surface. Much to my horror, I saw a rooster. A rooster, a hen and four chicks.

“CHICKENS!”, I gasped, the frightening revelation washing over me like waves of cold terror. “We have chicken curtains!”

Spectacular Finish

Thanks to CJs generosity, I was finally able to finish up Stargazer this evening. She sent me the last little bit of beads that I needed to finish the piece. I am so increadibly pleased with how fabulous she turned out. Here she is in all her glory. If the baby still isn’t here by the weekend, I will take Allen out to shop for a frame for her. YEAH!!

Stargazer by Mirabilia
Stitched on 32 ct Silkweaver Starquest linen
Started: January 2, 2007
Finished: November 19, 2007

To keep with the blue theme of this post, I also have some pictures of the baby’s nursery. Allen finished hanging the border and replacing all the outlets this weekend. Now we just need to put away all the tools and put the rest of the baby “stuff” where it belongs in the room and we will be set. No rush as he will be sleeping closer to us for a little while at least.

Here are his two dressers. Hanging on the taller dresser are the wall hangings that match the border and crib set we picked.

Here is his bookshelf and the corner of his crib. When he moves into the room we will put the glider in the corner by the window.

And last, his crib and a pregnant Leslie in her jammies in the doorway:)

And now time for bed:) I am a sleepy Leslie!

No the world is not coming to an end

Yes, I really am posting for the third time in three days. It is a miracle:) Tonight I was able to finish Karen’s Neighborhood RR. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out and it was an enjoyable stitch. Well, it is late and Allen is finally home from his day off-site so I think it is time for bed:)

Thank you…

stitching bloggers are just fantastic. Everyone is always so supportive, generous and caring. I really have loved being a part of this community. With that said CJ, if you read this, thanks so much for your offer. I tried to email you back, but it came back undeliverable.

In other news, It is increadibly hard to believe that tomorrow marks my being pregnant for 38 weeks. Over all I can say is has been a pretty good experience minus some of the irritations of the last two weeks (ie: never ending cold, swollen feet and a sore back). I certainly know I am not the type of person who would LOVE to be pregnant on a regular basis, but the end result will certainly outweigh any minor discomfort along the way. Unless our situation drastically changes we will be doing this again in another couple of years. In the mean time, I just have to sit around and wait for baby to make his appearance. At this point, I am struggling with when to stop working. I want as much time with my little guy after delivery so I am a bit worried about stopping working too early, but I am also getting a bit uncomfortable. My inclination at this point is not to go back after Thanksgiving weekend even if I haven’t gone into labor.

Alright, now time to get off to a better way of spending my evening…stitching of course. I should have a finish on Karen’s RR for you tomorrow night. YEAH!

Neighborhood RR

So far this weekend I have been working on finishing up Karen’s Neighborhood RR. I really like my choice for this one. All I have left to finish at this point is a few more light green leaves and the stars in the sky. I really hope Karen likes what I have stitched for her.

In addition to working on the RR, I had hoped to finish the beading on Stargazer. I ordered the beads I needed from an ONS I have had good luck with in the past, but I have heard nothing about this order since I placed it almost three weeks ago. I also ordered some of the new Miras at the same time. I emailed to try and get an update on the status of the order, but have heard nothing back. If they had the beads in stock, but were waiting on the patterns, I would happily pay extra in shipping to get the beads. In the mean time, I tried to find the beads at a local bead shop. They do not carry mill hills, but I thought I could find something close enough to the beads I was missing to fudge it. No luck…the color I found just isn’t quite close enough. And so I wait on a finish so close I can taste it. Ahhh, one of these days I will be able to show her too you all finished. In the mean time, I will be placing German Garden in my rotation as my focus piece. Even though I am not stitching as much as I would like, I am still pleased with how far I have made it through my proposed rotation, especially with the add ins of RR stitching. I am pretty close to half way with this round and one WIP (Stargazer) that I pretty much consider finished. YEAH!