Monday Update

I already showed my readers what I was up to last week pretty much. I had finished Turkey Time and Thankful Pumpkins. Saturday we went down to our cabin to finish closing things up and get a look at the pond progress...

It's a big hole now. The guy is working on the finishing touches as soon as we get some dry days. This picture is looking the same direction as the last pictures I have shared. This is showing the dam area and the hole in the middle you might see will be built up too. Right now it is working as a drain. We had a lot of rain lately and the pond was already trying to hold water. Right by the tractor is where the water line will stop and we will make a beach area there with sand. It's hard to tell how deep it is in the photos. The pond will have shallow areas and at the deepest spot will be 19feet deep. Perfect for fishing and swimming. It's been an amazing process to watch and I really look forward to seeing it all finished.

Jeremiah had fun riding around the big 4-wheeler to check it all out. This picture also helps to show how deep the pond is better. We covered up our storage trailer and AC unit so they are all bundled up for winter. We will miss our weekends there but Spring will be here before we know it I'm sure.

Sunday we carried in our Fall tubs from storage. Time to put all those goodies away so we can decorate for Christmas. I love Christmas decorations. The lights. The beautiful bright colors. It's a lot of work but when it's done it will be worth it. This coming Saturday we are planning to go get our Christmas tree. After the chores I got busy on the Foxwood Crossing sleds I started at retreat. I had 2 of them mostly finished. Just needed to add a few lines of backstitching to the 2nd one to be completed. Then I was able to finish up the last two and get them mounted to the sleds. So yep I have another finish to celebrate...

(Finish #30) November 25th, 2018

Snowy Visitors from Foxwood Crossings

Stitched on Perforated Paper

Threads are Suggested DMC

Started Nov 15th. Took 2 Days.

I just LOVE the way these turn out. Plus it's a finished finish. Wohoo! I hope you all have a great week. The Beer Dragon is coming back out for a few days.

November WIPocalypse

It's the last Sunday of the month which means it's time for a WIPocalypse update. This fun blog SAL is for us to stitch all our projects before the end of the world. Yeah right! I think since I keep adding to my ever growing pile of WIPs I will help fight off the end so I'm sure doing my part. I like using this SAL to keep track of what days I've worked on what projects. It's so nice to look back and see what I've worked on since the last check in. So let's see what's been keeping me busy since Oct 30th...

Frosted Pumpkin Halloween Sampler -- 5 Days is all I needed to finish this one off...

Beer Dragon -- 6 Days I started this new cutie and got a lot of progress on it already...

I have 3,400 stitches in now. I really love working on this one. It's going to be for my hubby and he can't wait till it finished.

Durene Jones Calendar -- 2 Days I started and finished the November design...

Snowy Visitors -- 1 Day I got a start on this set of sleds from Foxwood Crossings at the Hoosier Retreat. I'm working on them today so will have another update on them tomorrow for my Monday Update...

Thankful Pumpkins -- 4 Days I started this one at the Hoosier Retreat and then finished it off when I got home...

Turkey Time Freebie -- 3 Days Another start at the Hoosier Retreat. I finished this one first when I got home. Couldn't pass this one up when Erica Michaels posted it on her Facebook page...

As you can tell I've been getting lots of stitching time. It's been great. Only 5 Days of no stitching done. We also get a fun question to answer with our post...Question of the Month: What new stitches or techniques did you learn this year? The only thing new so far this year is to stitch on 40ct fabric. I had stitched on the 40ct silk gauze before but now I tried fabric. I really enjoyed it and can definitely see doing it again sometime.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been up to. Please come back.

Monday Update

I was going to title this post...Monday Update/Hoosier Retreat Wrap Up/November IHSW/New Project Galore/Beer Dragon WIP Progress but I figured that was way way too long. So you get a Monday Update post instead haha. But get ready....we have a lot to discuss.

Thursday morning we woke up to an ice storm. Great. But we braved the ice anyway and headed out. Luckily the roads weren't as bad as they looked once we got going. Jeremiah and Mom delivered me to Warren, Indiana to meet up with two fantastic friends. We went the remaining 3 hours together and Mom and Jeremiah made it safely home. On the way to the retreat we stopped at a stitching store called Fancy Works in Bloomington, Indiana. I of course had to do my part to support the store and I made some purchases...

2 pieces of Fabric Flair fabric (1 featured in a new start coming in this post), 2 Erica Michaels petites, 2 threads for the Mermaid Kisses pattern, and the new Hands on Design Year of Celebrations. After shopping we made it to the lodge right when it started to get dark. I got this picture a different day to show you the lodge we stayed in...

There is a longer part of the building to the right you can't see where the bedrooms are. It's shaped like a L. The kitchen is closest to the parking lot. You can also see the main stitching room. So the hallway with the bathrooms and bedrooms is behind this part. It's located at Camp Rivervale church camp in Mitchell, Indiana. We have attended retreat here several times and it's just amazing! We love every second here. Especially now the staff even caters our food and it was just delicious the whole time! This is my bedroom area...

It was very comfy. (Yes that's a Daryl from Walking Dead blanket. You can't see my Tinkerbell sheets at least haha.) One of the girls that made the trip with me shared the room with me. This is my stitching area...

This is the whole room we have setup for us...

The round tables on the left are where we eat our meals. We also have a wall with yummy snacks and some drinks...

It's just a perfect setup. We ended up having 15 in attendance this time. We had so much fun catching up and solving all the world's problems with our chats. We all really needed this together time. We shed tears. We laughed a lot! It was simply wonderful. Now onto the stitching part. My goal was to work on several different pieces with new starts and progress on the Beer Dragon thrown in. Plus my major goal was to actually get more stitching done than the Pennsylvania retreat which was actually easy to do haha.

Thursday I started work on a new set of 4 sleds from Foxwood Crossings...

As you see from the picture this one is called Snowy Visitors. I'm stitching it on perforated paper using the suggested DMC threads. Since I stayed up till 3am that night I was able to finish up 2 of them! They sure go fast.

Friday I started another new piece...

This is called Thankful Pumpkins from Lucy Beam. She was setup as a vendor at the Pennsylvania retreat. I'm using a beautiful piece of fabric I fell in love with at House of Stitches but it was marked 28ct and we figured it must be 32ct which is okay because it was actually what I wanted to begin with. It's called Flash Lugana. The threads are the suggested Gentle Art threads. I really love how it's turning out. I didn't got to bed until 3am again because I was just enjoying working on this one so much. 

Saturday was Beer Dragon day. I got 600 stitches added to it...

Here it was last time...

Saturday night I was really tired so was in bed by 2am haha. Sunday we only had a few hours to stitch since we started to clean up at noon. I still had time for one last new start though. I started the 2018 Erica Michael's Thanksgiving freebie she just released on her FB page. I can't find a finished picture to show what it will look like. Here is my WIP though...

The fabric is a 40ct Ivory Fabric Flair and it's my first ever 40ct other than silk gauze. I bought it at the Fancy Works store because I've really been wanting to try 40ct fabric. The threads are the suggested DMC. There is a mix of over 2 and over 1 in the design. I love the difference in the two as you can see in the progress. So much fun. But it was time to clean up and head home.

See what I mean. I got a TON of stitching done. 3 New starts. Good progress on my Beer Dragon for one day. Definitely a successful IHSW for me. I'm one happy girl. Now to get ready for Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a great week. For those in the US Good luck getting ready for Thanksgiving. Hope everything you make turns out yummy and delicious.

DUCJC Day 29

Today was the last of the 3 sleds in the Snow Grateful set. Here is a reminder of them...

Here is the new finished one...

I sure loved working on these little sleds. I think next year at PALs I will definitely have to look at the other ones closer and see if there are any others that need me to buy them haha. This makes my 5th finish of the 31 new starts. Wohoo!! Tomorrow is another fun PALs memory. Yes I know I know another beach piece haha. Forgive me.

DUCJC Day 23

Jeremiah picked another of the Snow Grateful sled pieces today. Here is a reminder of what they look like...

Snow Grateful from Foxwood Crossings. I started and finish the middle one on Day 4. Today I started and finished this one...

He took off his hat and filled it with birdseed for the cute little cardinal. We get cardinals all the time here. We love watching the birds. We had a bit of bird related excitement yesterday morning. A small hawk landed right outside the window Jeremiah was sitting by and had breakfast with Jeremiah. Unfortunately it was a little sparrow that had been eating at my bird feeder so I felt a little bad. It was really a neat experience though for Jeremiah since he could see every feather he was so close. Guess it is the circle of life.

Tomorrow's piece is another one I couldn't wait to have picked. I love the fabric and the pattern. Have I teased you enough?? Only 8 new starts left.

DUCJC Day 4

Here is today's pick...

This is actually 3 projects so I guess you get a sneak peek on 2 future picks. It's Snow Grateful from Foxwood Crossings. The one Jeremiah picked was the middle one for today. Guess what?!?!

I finished it!!! It's even a finished finish. I finished it with an hour and half to spare before my update so I picked up the Year of Whimsy January piece again and got a little bit more on it...

Bead Bird Finish

 (17) October 25th

Bead Birds from Foxwood Crossings

(Limited Supply of these so might not be available to purchase.)

Bought 2 kits of Bead Birds at 2015 PALs Retreat

Took 4 Days

I finished my little bead birds. I was doing a lot of other things so I'm sure I could have done them quicker if I had tried. Sometimes life just intervenes in stitching time doesn't it? I love being in love with my cross stitching I know sometimes I lose my mojo and I just don't feel like stitching at all. Right now I have the opposite problem (if it can be considered a problem haha). My mojo is in over drive. I want to work on everything at the same time. I have so many pieces SCREAMING at me it's hurting my ears. I picked up Let's Be Wicked by Ursula Michael yesterday after finishing my birds. I worked on it at the PALs Retreat. I'm so close to finished I know I should make myself finish it. But my other new projects are yelling Me Me Me!! So we'll see what wins.

I'm also going to link up to the Monday Stitchery Link Party. Stop on over to see what lovely projects people have been working on. It's for anything needle and thread related.

Spent my GC and New Start

I had fun shopping with my gift certificate I won at PALs Retreat. Here is what I got...

I got the Christmas and Halloween issues of the Just Cross Stitch Magazine. I saw them at PALs and knew I would have to get them. They have a lot of great things in them. Then I saw the new Dec issue was on there too and look at the pattern for the stocking. Of course I need that one. I think I'm going to have to get a subscription to this magazine again.

 

 

I also got 3 new Imaginating designs....Let's Deck the Halls, Let's Be Proud, and Let's Get Spooky. I just love working on these patterns. I also ordered the white evenweave for them.

Yesterday I finally made time to start the Foxwood Crossing Beading Cardinals. Here is what they will look like...

I got all the white stitched and the green beads added...

I have two more bead colors to add. These are very limited edition. She said she only had a few left and won't be getting more. I got a set to do for us and a set to give to family. They are FAST. Just need to make myself get off this computer and get to work haha.