Mairmaid's Song Progress

This is a pic of my current progress on CHS/Barrick Samplers Mairmaid's Song. I'd love to be able to get this finished this weekend. Not sure how long all the satin stitched water around her tail fin will take. I'm hoping it moves along fast. My goal had been to finish the verse this morning but as you can see I still have one more line to stitch and then the vine beneath the verse. Her fin is going to be a little time consuming also. It may be my focal point tonight. I'm off tomorrow so plan to stitch as much of the day away as I can. Yes, I'm in serious need of a life.

Thanks to everyone for your comments on my previous finish. It was a fun stitch. I'm hoping to work some crocheting in in the next few days too. I have several afghans all kitted and ready to go.

Some Stitching

The piece above is an Olde Willow Freebie-Mermaid 2002 I believe is the name. I started it a year or two years ago, set it aside, found it in a drawer and couldn't remember why I hadn't finished it. Then I found a mistake in the crab in the bottom left corner, frogged it and finished up what little stitching I had left to do. Since Olde Willow Threads weren't available in my area at the time I started  stitching this piece, I converted the Olde Willow Threads to Anchor, then converted the Anchor threads to DMC and then I  pulled  out my trusty DMC color card and converted the DMC to Six Strand Sweets. The water was stitched with a blend of three DMC colors and right now I can't remember what they were. I changed the design up a little. On either side of the word *mermaid* there's supposed to be a stitched a heart. I didn't really get that so I left it off and may add a small seashell to either side of the word. There's also supposed to be a heart next to the two fish swimming above the water in the center right, I didn't really get that either so I left it out of the piece. I looked around for a small fish button to place there but I don't know I might leave it as it is. This weekend I should have picked up a frame for it and forgot so I'll try to get it framed next weekend.

Sure felt good to finish something for a change. The rest of the weekend I've spent working on Mairmaid's Song and will take a progress pic tomorrow. I want to get as much as possible done on it before taking another picture. There's nothing better than stitching and watching four back to back episodes of Poirot on the Biography Channel, especially if the DH is off watching football with his friends.I enjoy quiet Sundays.

Other than these two projects I've mainly been planning future projects, quilting, crochet and cross stitch. I popped into JoAnn's to pick up some DMC for Carriage House Samplings Haunting Mermaid and determined that maybe before sticking the flyer in my purse I might ought to read it. They had huge sale going on and I picked up Scarf Style : Innovative to Traditional, 31 Inspirational S . Some wonderful projects, knitting and crochet, in there. I was able to scoop up the book using a 50% off coupon. That ROCKS! 

Also picked up three fat 1/4s in green so that DS#1 could give me a clue about what shade of green he preferred for his quilt. Of course he chose the batik green. I'll try to get an accurate representation of the colors tomorrow. Couldn't get anywhere close today. At least now I have an idea what color he likes best. Now to figure out what other colors to add to it.

Don't You Hate It.....

When you finish a really good book and then all books pale in comparison so you just don't bother reading anything else? That's the way it's been for me since I finished reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I plowed through those 700 pages in about two days. Nothing got done when I got hooked on this book. Now I can't seem to really get into any other book.

Been doing a lot of big project dreaming these days. Not that I don't have a gazillion large projects started, I'm just dreaming about all the other ones I want to start, and possibly finish in this life time. Finished projects may be in my future though. The woman I work for is once again trying to sell the restaurant and this time while the family will miss the income, I'm so ready to be a SAHM again and get my house and life in order for a change. One of the things I've noticed over the last few months is that while my income makes a difference, it really won't make that much of a difference in the quality of my kids' lives. That income basically finances our eating out and their lunch money. Other than that I've used it for my "luxury" purchases(that would be stitching, knitting, crocheting and quilting necessities and the occaisional CD or DVD). If we budget and pay very close attention to how we spend the DH's salary things should be ok. Yes, I'm kitting stuff up like a crazy lady. I hope to purchase a few yards of neutral lugana in several different counts for future TW projects and scoop up some charts I want, but other than that I'm pretty well set on the stitching front. I have several skeins of sock yarn for learning to knit socks, and probably three or four crochet afghans all kitted up and ready to go, just no time to work on them. I also plan to stock up on some favorite colors of Red Heart for some quickie ripple afghans. I know there are acrylic snobs but for a splash of color thrown across the couch or the foot of a bed you can't beat Red Heart or the price. For the Red Heart snobs, I'm slowly kitting up an afghan out of Hip to Crochet using Classic Elite's La Gran Mohair. "Slowly" is the keyword in that sentence. This is going to be one pricey afghan but I haven't really been able to find anything comparable or less expensive that I like or doesn't make me sneeze. I thought about subbing Caron Simply Soft and in the end if the price is too much for me I may do that but I like the idea of working with some different fibers for a change.

This weekend I worked on my Mairmaid's Song and while I don't see the end in sight I do believe it might be close if I stay focused. The satin stitched water around her tail fin is going to be a pain. I'm definitely investing in a laying tool before I start on that. That part of the stitching is at least a week off, if not two weeks down the road, so plenty of time of purchase a laying a tool and figure out how to use it.

Mouline Rouge and And They Sinned are supposed to be my Sunday football projects but due to a bad, bad cold I opted to work on the much easier to see 28ct Mairmaid's Song. I'll definitely stick with it through the end of the week or until I can stitch for 15 mins without having to blow my nose or cough my head off.

I've reinstalled my EQ5 software and plan to try again at designing DS#1's Ohio Star Quilt. Green is his favorite color so I'm going to stock up on as many green fabrics as I can and play with complimentary colors. My initial idea of a tropical Ohio Star didn't work out, so it's back to the drawing board.

Testing

Decided to try posting from the lap top and see if run into the same technical problems.

The answer, no I don't. Must be some kind of setting the kids have the desktop on at the moment. I seem to be able to write from the lap top just fun, even have paragraphs. Hmmmm. What could they have done? I even asked DS#1 what was wrong, he kept saying just use "tab". Now why should I have to use tab when all I need to do is hit enter? Someone better start telling me something or no one will be touching a computer in this house for a long, long time.

Did I mention in my earlier post about the cat pulling the wrist cord on the digital camera and it crashing to the floor? Not a good thing. The face plate came off the front, batteries went everywhere. I'm pretty sure it's beyond repair. When the DH gets home from work he's going to take a look at it but I couldn't get it to work so I don't really think he's going to be able to do much more than I did.

Summer Cold

The last week has been interesting. DH got a staph infection in his left wrist and I came down with a summer cold. I do believe the DH topped me on the sick-o-meter. He came home Monday night with a lump on his wrist the size of a golf ball and red streaks running up his arm. Not a good thing. We took him to the ER thinking it was an infected spider bite only to be told he had a staph infection. They put him on an IV antibiotic, sent him home with two more antibiotics, and some Tylenol 3 for pain. I was a lab tech for years and had only heard of staph infections in the hospital or in nursing homes. Now I have learned that there has been an outbreak of staph over the last year or so. I thought it might be related to the large number of Hurricane Katrina evacuees we have in our area. I'm wondering now if in areas with lots of evacuees if there has been an outbreak of staph infections? DH is loaded down with Purell and Germ-X. So hopefully this will not be a recurring problem. I have the summer cold from hell. I can't seem to shake it and it's making me nuts. Runny nose, fever, chest congestion. Ick! Well for some unknown reason Blogger, my computer, my keyboard, won't let me create a new paragraph. What is up with that? Have my kids changed the setting on the computer? I've pressed every button on here and can't hit enter and go to the next line. Then again I am hopped up on Nyquil so who knows? Wednesday was my 20th Wedding anniversary and it truly sucked. DH was sick, I was sick, we tried to go out and have fun during the day but finally gave up, came home, took some Nyquil and went to bed. We hope to celebrate at another time. To Cara and Jennifer, thanks for the comments. Cross stitch is my first love. I'm a novice knitter and learning as I go, I hope to be able to knit some socks in the near future but haven't had time to sit down and figure it all out. The JCS ornament issue is always fun to look through and get me in the mood for Christmas. Christmas! It's not even Halloween yet! I picked up some Caron Simply Soft Brites yarn this weekend to crochet this Caron International Yarns and Latch Hook Kits afghan. If the link doesn't take you to the pattern, click on Simply Soft Brites, then free patterns, then the Brite Nites Throw. It's a granny square afghan, simple and hopefully quick. I'm in the mood for happy colors and I think working on this will brighten my mood a lot. Quilting has been on my mind a lot too. I have so many ideas and no time to work them out on paper and then with fabric. Very frustrating.

Weekend Dreaming

Yes, a weekend full of crafty daydreaming is in the works for moi. To the left is the new Interweave Knits Crochet Special Issue, the new issue of Piecework is pictured  in the middle and to the right, ahhh, the much anticipated 2005 JCS Ornament issue.

Now to find the time to flip through the pages and let the daydreams begin.

In other crafty news I have put the first stitches into Long Dog Samplers Mouline Rouge.

European Cross Stitch - Long Dog  -If you scroll to the bottom of the page it's the design on the right.

This is my first attempt at stitching on 40ct linen. I'm using one strand of DMC 498 on 40ct Lambswool linen. I can't decide if I like it or not. The holes are easier to see than I thought they would be but I can only work on it for small blocks of time or I start to get a headache. Once there's more to show I'll take a progress pic. I don't care for the 11x17 Qsnaps I'm using. They are kind of bulky and awkward to work around. I guess it will take some getting used to.

With all my recent stitching my carpal tunnel is acting up and my right hand and fingers keep going to sleep on me. ARRGGGHHHH!

Finally, A Little Bit of Stitching

The last week has been great! I've reclaimed my stitching and boy does that feel good. Below is a picture of my current WIP(a.k.a obsession). It's Mairmaid's Song by Barrick Samplers/Carriage House Samplings. This piece is becoming one of my all time favorites. When I picked her back up after letting her linger for months in my "to stitch" pile I had only stitched the large leaf at the top in  the center, the black border working my way over to the fish in the top left corner which had also been stitched, other than those areas everything else has been stitched over the last week. Have I been a stitching machine or what?

 

Labor Day

Today was about as quiet a day as anyone could hope for. I spent the better part of the day working on my Barrick Samplers/Carriage House Samplings Mairmaid's Song sampler. Truthfully it's the only project I've touched all week. I'm loving it. If you scroll down about 8 designs you can see Mairmaid's Song at this link:

Carriage House Samplings - Old Favorites 2

If I can find my digital camera driver disc, I'll post a pic of my progress. I had to run system restore yet again on the family computer and the printer disc and camera discs are missing.

I took a break from my obsessive compulsive stitching to hang out at the beach for a little while this afternoon. It was a great day to be at the beach with the exception of the biting flies! I hate those things and have yet to determine what purpose they serve in the circle of life.

Here's hoping my evening will be as quiet as my day. I hope to make more progress on Mairmaid's Song. It's great to have the stitching bug back again. Seems like forever since I enthusiastically picked up my needle. Now I don't want to set it down. I dream about stitching when I'm doing something else. All I think about is getting home and settling into the old stitching spot and crossing as many Xs as time and family will allow. I know I need a life. But right now my stitching life is good!

Crazy

Seems silly to write today about anything other than the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Please donate to the American Red Cross. They do good things for so many.