Listening to Chris LeDoux

and dreaming of some wide open spaces, sheep, horses, land as far as the eye can see and no neighbors for miles and miles.

I've been trying hard to come up with a pattern to make a Huswife or sewing roll. Yesterday morning before work I sat down and drew out a pattern but I guess I need to find a "real" pattern for a Huswife. I can't decide if the pincushion inside the sewing roll is attached or if velcro is used to hold it inside the roll. I think it'd make more sense to make the pincushion removeable but what do I know? There's also usually a needlebook inside the huswife, is it removable or basically just a flap that covers the designated needle area? My attempt at designing has only brought up more questions so now I'm sort of lost. It's not like I could start on it today, but I hate being so clueless. I could use the mentality that it's my own design it can be made anyway I see fit but that usually backfires on me. A little knowledge can be a good thing.

I'm getting excited about my stitching weekend. Trying to decide what project to take with me to work on. I have SamSarah's Always Be a Wildflower just about kitted up and plan to use 28ct fabric so I might make it my weekend project. I've been wanting to stitch this for a while and it'll make a nice pillow for the couch on the girly end of the living room. That's as good an excuse as any for starting a new project isn't it? I learned from my last stitching retreat a few years ago that it's really a waste to take more than one or two projects. I tend to talk more than stitch so I'll take Wildflower and maybe one other project. I need to see what I've got all kitted up. I do have an old BC Christmas Zipper started so it might be a good small project to toss in the bag too. I may bring my Carriage House Samplings Houses of Hawk Run Hollow design or Mairmaid's Song. Both are started but are larger projects. I think Wildflower would be easy to work on at the LNS, the hotel, airport or even the plane. I like having a choice though of what to work on. I need to decide on a book or two to throw in the bag in case I get stuck somewhere for hours on end. That's the curse of flying standby, it's cheap but a pain if all the flights are full. I don't fly very much and am kind of nervous. As much as I enjoy hanging out with my stitching friends I hate leaving the family too but this time I have a cell phone. Much easier to stay in touch, also the miracle that is the iPod. I so *heart* my pod. It's the greatest invention ever! I'll have my whole CD collection in the palm of my hand. It amazes me every time I pull it out. Ok I'm easily impressed. Was going to carry the laptop for blogging and email but I don't think I'll have too much free time on my hands. It's also one more thing to keep up with and I worry about it getting stolen, because I would leave it in the hotel and not lug it all over the place with me.

Yesterday I ordered a ball winder from Knit Picks. I'm so excited. I've been trying to roll balls using the cardboard thing out of the toilet paper roll. That's just a pain in the behind. I've been saving up for one and finally when I checked my little envelope I had $42 in there so I splurged. Now I'll start saving for an umbrella swift. It'll take a little longer to hoard up the money for that purchase but I'm patient. I can't decide whether to order the metal one or the wood one. Patternworks carries both and I've got plenty of time to decide. I think I should order the larger wood one because then I would never have to upgrade but the metal one might last longer and I worry about the wooden one breaking easily.

I'm getting ready to go through all my cross stitch projects and make a list of what I have started. I'm quite lost at the moment as to what I have started and where I'm at other than Fairy Grandmother(FG), Mermaid of the Pearls(MOP) and Dragon Isle(DI). These three projects I've been whining about them for what seems like years. Time to close the book on each of them. FG goes to my grandmother, MOP will go to my niece and DI is for DS#2.

Right off the top of my head I know I have the following projects in various states of progress:

Carriage House Samplings-Houses of Hawk Run Hollow
Carriage House Samplings-Mairmaid's Song
Hester's Needle-Liberty Sampler
Mirabilia-Lady of the Flag
Teresa Wentzler-Fantasy Triptyche and Trade Winds
Design Works-Cowboy Boots
Examplar Dames-And They Sinned
Olde Willow Designs-Mermaid freebie(2001-I think)

My mind is blank after this but the last time I counted I had over 40 WIP. So I definitely need to take some time and figure out where I'm at, what is close to finished, what I'd love to pick up and work on again, etc. I'm terrible with rotations though. I love starting projects, I get bored and start something else and now I have this overwhelming mess of projects that need to get some attention. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of free time these days. I keep hearing various rumors about the state of my employment so I guess I'll just keep on showing up, drawing a paycheck, and then when I'm out of work at least I'll have a stitching plan. I will also keep kitting stuff up for future stitching too. I have several Mirabilias I want to get kitted up and ready to go.

At the top of the list are these:

Garden Verses

Sleeping Beauty

Christmas Elegance

Fairy Idyll

I've had all these charts in the stash for a while. I still love each design, so it's time to get them kitted up for future stitching. Garden Verses doesn't have any beads or braid so it'll be pretty inexpensive to kit up but the others call for beads, treasures and braid, it'll take me a while to kit them up. Good thing I'm in no hurry to start any of them.

I've also been planning some sampler quilts for each of my boys. I've been searching for blocks that can easily be pieced by hand. The first few blocks will be state blocks representing where they were born and various states we've lived in. I figure this will be just the shape of the state appliqued onto good old muslin(or maybe I'll try hand dying some fabric for the background of the state blocks), then I'll do a pieced block with the state name in it, you know Ohio Star, Arkansas Trouble, etc., then maybe a house block with a pieced house and embrodier our address at the time on the block, a block for each of their schools, then blocks that represent their interests. It's all in the planning stages. I may try to do a family tree block for each quilt. I do dream big don't I? Now to start collecting fabrics, find block patterns and play with the EQ5 software.