Holiday Weekend

I had great hopes that I would get a lot of crafting done this extended holiday but alas, it wasn't meant to be.  BUT that didn't mean I wasn't busy.

I have around 300 stitches done on my Holy Grail cross stitch.  It is where I am getting into some color so that I took a picture.

It's not much done but at least it is started.  I'm doing three threads on this Aida.  I didn't think that 2 threads showed up much.  It's hard to see in the picture but the border on this is white.  I am packing up my Mini-Owl and will be taking THAT to work.  I am finding out my lighting at home isn't good enough for me to do it at home.  That will be fine though.  That gives some a cross stitch to do at work and one to do at home.  I am finding my enthusiasm for WORKING on quilts isn't there in the summer months.  I'll do more on my cross stitch in the summers and when it gets colder (or when I find a test pattern I want to do) then I'll do a quilt.  I did see, however, some table toppers that would be nice for the holidays.

My friend Sue Cottle, yes I know you'll read this Sue, mentioned I might be a hoarder.  While I don't want to confess to being one, I think I might have to.  Perhaps if I just say I am not a hoarder but a collector it will sound better.  So this next picture is for Sue.  Here is my organized stash for embroidery floss.

I actually have a couple more project boxes but this will suffice for now.  :)   The stack on the left is for individual projects.  The Holy Grail one is underneath the purple box.  The purple box holds my Critter Christmas Cross Stitch threads.  The stack on the right (oops, I'm missing one of the boxes), is my overall stash.  Each of the boxes is marked on top what DMC numbers are in that box.  That's not a horder...it's a collection....right?

Crafting isn't the only thing that I have been working on.  I've been cooking too.  This weekends new recipe was Pumpkin Butter.  It turned out great and it was made in the crockpot with minimal ingredients.

Since I only used (1) 15 oz can of pumpkin (pure/puree/solid pack) it doesn't make much at a time.   Of course since I cooked it down that also reduces how much it makes.  The red container is one cup.  I could have put it all in the container on the left but I will be taking the other two containers to work and see if a couple of people want a taste of it.  I know that I will be making more of this.  You aren't suppose to can it but it does keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks and in the freezer for 6-9 months.

Back to cooking and stitching.  I hope everybody has a safe weekend.

Another D'oh Moment

Yes I had another d'oh moment.  Remember when I was talking about the embroidery floss for the Mini Owl cross stitch?  I went to Lotti's Keep, the closest cross stitch shop, which was 15 miles away, and managed to fill in the last of my missing numbers for both the Mini Owl as well as William Morris' The Holy Grail: the left side - arming the Knights.  I had a nice talk with the owner and drove back.  Between what I had gotten in DeKalb and what I had gotten at Lotti's, I had around 40 skeins to wind on bobbins.  Before I would tackle that job, I decided to go out to the kitchen and get something to drink.  As I was passing through the craft room I glanced down and there it was.  There was a plastic container full of bobbins that I had wound earlier and what picture was on the top of that plastic container?  What picture was taped to the inside of the CLEAR plastic container that would tell me what the floss in the container was meant for?  Yep, you guessed it.  It was a picture of the William Morris The Holy Grail.  Clear as day I could see what it was.  Where was it when I was looking for it?  Where was it when I was buying the 40 skeins of floss that I thought I needed?  Yep, It was another D'oh Moment.  Of course it isn't a total waste since I will eventually use the floss but still....

To take my mind off of it (or pretend to take my mind off of it), I did a little more work on the Mini Owl.  Not enough to really make a difference but at least I was able to work on it again.

Then to justify the buying of the embroidery floss, that I didn't need, I pulled out the fabric and started to work on The Holy Grail.  I didn't take a picture yet of that because the first 200 or so stitches are all white.  Somewhat boring to work on and somewhat boring to look at.  As soon as I get some other colors in it, I will take a picture.

I hope you all have a great night/day and even better tomorrow.

Guess what I am doing this afternoon!

When you see this picture I bet you will guess what I am going to be doing this afternoon.

Yep, you guessed it.  It's floss winding time again.  These are most of the colors I need for the counted cross stitch chart for William Morris Holy Grail detail Arming Departing Knights by Orenco Originals.  I started to gather the floss since I need 4 colors to carry on with my mini owl and I can't find them all locally.  Of course I also couldn't find all of the 48 colors I need for the Holy Grail chart either.  I'll just carry on my search for the numbers.  I can probably find it at the cross stitch shop in Rochelle, IL.  I thought I wouldn't be able to get there until Saturday but I checked online and Lotti's Keep is open today according to their Facebook page.  I think I'll run over and see if I can pick up the missing colors.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Here is my update on my Mini Owl.  This is around 1400 stitches.  It's coming along but slowly.  That's ok.  I'm doing it because a)I love to do cross stitch and b) if I hurry it won't be relaxing and the stress relief that I look for when I do cross stitch.

Wish me luck!  I'll let you know how it goes.

Scary Picture

Brace yourselves!  I am posting a scary picture.  You might have guessed it...it's a picture of me.  I thought I'd post another one since I've lost some weight.  Since March 1st, I've lost:

45.6lbsTotal Lost

1.9lbsAverage Weekly Loss

Sorry about the background but it was the only place I knew that had a full length mirror.

Another shocker is that now that I've started to feel better, and now that I found where I put my clip on magnifiers, I started to take a few more stitches on the cross stitch project (mini owl).  Of course that means I needed to make some more needle minders.  I found some cute buttons so used them this time.  What do you think?

Yes that is my mini owl that they are attached to.  I'm making slow progress on it but then I've never been a fast cross stitcher.  Actually I've never been fast in any of my crafts.  I will get it done though.

Break time is over so I have to go.  I hope everybody has a wonderful day/night.

Until next time....

Happy Days!

Hello, remember me?

I haven't been feeling good lately so haven't done a blog post recently either.  My apologies to all my readers.  It's surprising sometimes how drained you get when you aren't feeling well.  In my case it is a pinched nerve.  I am better but still use a cane to walk with just in case I get wobbly.  Muscle relaxers are fun stuff at times.  :)  

Since I haven't been mobile for any length of time, I haven't done any stitching either.  :(  

I came back to the office today and much to my surprise (and delight), my herbs that are growing in the AeroGarden shot up quickly.  They were planed on 8.7.17 and this is what they look like today.

Chives in the front, Lavender in the middle, and Sage in the back.  I think I will have to cut my chives down soon but that's alright.  I love chives on potatoes so I might do that.

My lunch hour is over with so I must go back to the desk and weed through everything.    I hope everybody has a great day/night.  I will soon be getting back to stitching and when I do, I'll share pictures.

Bye for now.

I can post now!

I have now gotten permission to post pictures of a pattern I tested for The Quilt Pattern Magazine.  Go visit them at their website:

http://www.quiltpatternmagazine.com/

Any of you who have followed me for a bit know that I love The Quilt Pattern Magazine.  Look over to the right side of the blog.  Yeah, that's it.  See that new spiffy green tag?  The one that says I am a Pattern Tester for the Quilt Pattern  Magazine?  Yep.  Just got that.  Pretty cool isn't it.   Right below it is my I love TQPM (The Quilt Pattern Magazine.  :)

Anyhoo (my brother Tony's favorite word), here are two pictures of the pattern I tested.  I am posting two  different ones just because some of the colors show up better in the lighter pix (Drifting Leaves 2) although Drifting Leaves 1 is more accurate for the darker fabric etc.

It was a little different.  Seeing the grey/silver stripe on the left as the tree from which the leaves are falling from and doing a little sweep of my quilting lines down at the bottom as the wind.  Still it will be good to hang up when it gets cooler.

Just had to share my news.  

Everybody have a great day!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yep that's right.  I am 61 years old today.  Wait...is that correct?  Hang on while I dig out a calculator.  Yeah, that's right I have to use a calculator now to verify my age.  Oh well.  I still love my birthday because it beats the alternative.  So I dug out my Queen of everything cup to use today at work.

I also put some flowers that I received from a friend on my desk and let my friend George the Dragon help guard them.

Along with the flowers came some caramel brownies but I didn't think of taking a picture of them.  They were washed down with some wine.  Perhaps that is why I forgot.

I didn't forget, however, to snap a picture of my progress on the mini owl.  You can just start to see the rings of the Celtic part showing up.

Well it's after 8 a.m. which means I should get to work but wait!  There's more!   One of my co-workers brought in treats for me AND flowers.  Thank you Debbie!

I hope everybody else has a great day!

Welcome to July!

Can you believe that it is already July?  I can't.  This year is flying by.  I don't have much to report, or at least that I can show, right now.  I'm busy working on a test pattern which means no pictures or anything else until I get it finished and it gets published.  I finished one up to report on and now have a second one.  Hang in there.  I'll be back to working on other projects which I *can* show you after the 15th.

In the meantime how about a picture of my tomato plants for my aerogarden?   I think I almost killed off my lettuce but that's ok.  I got to eat it around 5 times.  I think I cut too much off but only one type of the lettuce really did good.  I'll have to think if I want to grow that again or not.

BUT here are the tomatoes.

I think that I caught about 5 or 6 tomatoes in this picture.  These are small than cherry tomatoes.  Would that make them about the size of grape tomatoes?  They are called mini cherry tomatoes so we'll see how large they get.

I received my areogarden catalog in the mail and am tempted to either do herbs or regular flowers next.  Now sure which.

Back to the Test Pattern.

Everybody have a safe  and happy holiday!

Hump Day!

Welcome to Hump Day or what some people refer to as Wednesday.  I've been sick with allergies and other monthly problems but was in the office today and guess what!  The tomatoes are in bloom and the lettuce needs another cutting.

I'm finally working again on my test projects which is a hard thing to do when your eyes are having trouble focusing.  I think I might have to take in my cheaters to see if they will help.  But since I can't show you my progress on the test projects, let me show you DeKalb, IL weather as of around 5 p.m. 6.14.17.  I took some pictures when I left my building.  I thought that the cloud formations were interesting.

It's time that I sign off because my eyes don't like to focus right now.  I'll try to post later in the week.

Everybody have a good day.

Manic Monday

Aren't all Monday's manic?  Today especially since it was the first day back to work after vacation.  I'm making through all my emails (100) of them and am now on lunch so I thought I would catch up on some blogging.

My vacation was pretty good.  Didn't do much but relaxed.  The last two days were a bit bothersome since the allergies kicked in and even with my Benedryl Chasers after Zyrtec mornings, I still was sniffling all day.  It's not as bad today so that is good.

I signed up to do a second quilt test pattern and went and bought the material for that.  I am about 1/4 of the way done with the other test pattern so that is good.  I got lazy and didn't even work on quilting stuff for most of the vacation.  Still I should be on track for turning in the results of testing.

Yesterday I did manage to work on my mini owl cross stitch.

That is approximately 1000 stitched.  I want to finish up that last 10 x 10 block (where you see partial stitches) tonight.  I'm debating if I want to start on the Holy Grail one.  I might since I have all but one color of floss for it.  I'll see how I feel.  I need to make sure to spend more time on quilting right now because of the test patterns.  In the hot weather, however, I prefer to work on cross stitch.

I came back to work and couldn't believe how large my AeroGarden was.

Theresa, my friend who works at the Graduate School convinced me to snip it because the lettuce was just sitting there.  Hopefully that will rejuvenate it.  :)  That being said, here is a picture of my first lettuce harvest.  Not a lot but enough for a side salad.  The leaves are nice and tender and tasty.   Yummmmm.

That's the report for today.  Everybody have a great day.

Vacation Thursday

That's right.  I'm on vacation or staycation as it is called and I should be very productive.  Notice that word should.  That should tell you how my staycation is going.  That's ok.  I am relaxing and that IS what a vacation is all about.  So what have I been doing?

Well I've been catching up with some of my gaming friends on the internet.  Offering sympathy to some and congrats to others.  I signed up for a second test pattern from The Quilt Pattern Magazine.  I know.  I must be a glutten for punishment since they BOTH are going to be due around the same time period.  I have been going through old pictures (Throw Back Thursday after all) and I am slowly been working on projects.  So let's get to the pictures shall we?

I posted on Facebook my group of pictures for Throwback Thursday.  I thought my cousin in Alaska might be able to identify them and that led to a nice back and forth conversation on Facebook about the pictures.  They are from my mother's side of the family and Gayla (my cousin) is from that side and has done quite a bit of research into that ancestry.  Thanks to Gayla I found out that my Grandmother Chamberlain (Mertie Christman) had sisters and brothers!  Really?  I never knew that.  We only ever knew Grandma.   It turns out that Grandma's siblings in order of birth were:

Besside
Mertie (grandma)
Effie
George Ray
Elizabeth
Hester

WOW!  That's a lot of new relatives, especially knowing that they had children and married, etc.

This was my throwback Thursday collage.

Then I found out that the kids were Grandaunt Bessie's.  This is Grandaunt Bessie.

This is Grandaunt Bessie and was also the throwback Thursday photo that Gayla posted. :)

We also talked about trading off some recipes which led me to look around AND I found some of my mother's recipes that I inherited had recipes from some of my relatives.  I love how mom would make notes and rename things.  For instance she had "Ethel Koltz's Pistachio Salad" and then at the bottom of the index card the recipe was written on it said "Ethel is married to a 2nd cousin in Hinckley.  Great people!  I love those notes!  Now Gayla has some new leads to look up since I remember that the 2nd cousin was called Harold.  It will be interesting to see what she can find out.  I also ran across an older cookbook.

Mom also made notes in that cookbook.

The check marks were recipes she was interested in making and the note about the sorority refers to the time she was a sorority cook as well as their housemother.  She drew two salaries for that and had fun.  She did that AFTER she retired (for the first time).

She also liked to makes notes in the back of the book.

Perhaps after my tomatoes and lettuce are ready to eat I'll be putting in a recipe (or at least their picture).  Speaking of their pictures, I snuck into the office this week before anybody was there and took these pictures of the progress of lettuce and tomatoes.

Aren't they doing great?!

I didn't let those things distract me from trying to do some crafting.  Besides signing up for another test project (and yes I am working on them), I collected up and got organized another project for cross stitch.

I have only one skein of floss to get but am having trouble finding it.  I need to double check the pattern and make sure that I didn't mark down the wrong number.  The other skeins are all wound up on the bobbins and put into my plastic storage for the project.

The company I got the pattern from also included cards which have the symbols already printed on them.  So I took some of the floss and put them on the cards.  That way I don't have to carry around the big box if I don't want to.  

That's all for now.  I hope everybody has a great day.