I really was planning on writing every week since it was summer. But the best laid plans of mice and men.... I didn't get to do what I wanted. So here is what I did all summer. I worked on the last plastic canvas seasonal stickup. Bridget had cut the guy out for me but I hadn't finished him. So, I worked on him and finished him on July 4th at almost midnight. I think he turned out pretty cute. I used the smaller version and a couple of pictures online to create the one I stitched. You can't see but the entire back of the guy was stitched in blue. Then I put two yellow Rhode stitches for the buttons. I was thinking that Uncle Sam usually has on a coat with tails, so I stitched it that way. That same weekend, I put the spots on Theron's Yoshi egg. I thought he wanted light blue but he choose royal blue instead. Now I need to crochet his Yoshi amigurumi. The first full week of July I participated in Vacation Bible School. We had a great time. Only a total of 10 children showed for the week with 6 coming every day. Our theme was "Mighty Kingdom". The kids had a great time painting, gluing and putting stickers on things.
As for my crafting and stitching I worked a lot on stitching and some on crocheting. First up is my Rose of Sharon. The progress you see is from June. I was at Jennifer's house early in the month stitching on it. As you can see, I was working one color at a time (which is kind of difficult for this pattern). The lower front section of the dress that is a few rows, I had to take out and put back in. Because this is such a color changing pattern, I made a copy of the chart to highlight my progress. Well, I decided to try to fill in the areas rather than run one color down the full length of the pattern. So, I was highlighting my progress on this pattern when I dropped my bright pink highlighter on the dress. I had to pull out a small section of thread. Then, use a Tide pen on the fabric to remove the color. And, finally restitch the area. I was so upset, I almost threw it away. I didn't but I can still see the slight pink area on the dress. My friends say that they can't see it. I hope they are right.
Next up is the Tiramisu. I am behind again. In June, I finished April and May's band. I still have to finish June and July's band. June's band has two colors and is about as wide as May's band. July's band is a single color and about the size of the second band. August starts tomorrow so I need to get busy. I love blackwork; it is very easy to stitch but you have to follow the pattern carefully. I chose to stitch it using several shades of one color, orange. I signed up for this class though EGA twice but didn't get enough finished to turn it in to be evaluated. Now I hope to finish it by December. I look at the pattern and think man this is going to be hard and a lot of work. But, when I start, the stitching goes really fast. I just have to make myself sit down and work on it. I think I will work on this today.
As you know from my previous post, my mother had found several projects that she started but hadn't finished. I started with the ones that were nearly finished. So here they are. One was the Hip Hop pattern and the others were seasonal kitchen towels. The Hip Hop pattern, Mom had stitched the letters A through N and part of the rabbit. I finished it quickly once I figured out where I made my mistake. She is very happy with the results. She had me put both of our initials on the fabric. The first towel was the gingerbread people. My mother was stitching it for my sister Bridget. The gingerbread people were nearly finished. I finished them and the border. The jingle bells towel I'm not sure is finished. I finished outlining the words but we couldn't find the pattern. The Thanksgiving towel, I finished the border, added the g on the end, and outlined the words. My mom gave Bridget her towel and put the other two away.
As you know, my sisters, Jennifer and Bridget, our friend Theresa, and I attended the stitching retreat at Silver Needle. We drove up to Tulsa for the weekend (a 11 - 12 hour trip). The week before I had gotten my contacts and tried to wear them. I burned my eyes with the cleaning solution (I didn't realize that you were suppose to wait after using the solution before putting them in your eyes). My eyes were horrible. I had to wear sunglasses all the time and when I walked the wind hurt my eyes. They are better now but still slightly light sensitive. Anyway, Jennifer help me finish the JABC pumpkin with our buttons on it so we could display it on our table. It turned out adorable. Sharon from Chicago (she sat with us this year and last year) said that it made her want to finish her pattern the same way.
While we were at the retreat we had a great time meeting Amy Bruecken and Miranda Weeks. Even though I am allergic to wool, I had a great time dying the wool and making the project. While stitching, the girls and I played a sort or game. We all brought 10 projects along to stitch on. Every hour we would draw a chip out of cup. The chips were numbered 1 to 10 or 3 chips had words on them. The words were "seriously" which meant the person who drew the chip picked the project, "awesome" which meant take a snack break, and "yeah yeah" which meant shopping for an hour. When you look at what I brought, it doesn't look like I stitched a whole lot but I did a lot of the borders on all of the projects. Well one of the projects that I brought was one of my mother's. She had completed the red part of the apple and the leaf at the bottom. I put in the white spots on the apple and the two leaves at the top. I didn't finish it at the retreat but the Monday after we returned home I did.
Last but not least, my friend Sharon from Louisiana came to visit this week. She drove up Monday and stayed until Wednesday. We had a great time. I gave her the grand tour of Sumrall (15 minutes) - Monday Night and of Hattiesburg - most of the day Tuesday. For lunch, she didn't want to go to any fancy or expensive restaurant; so I took her to Glory Bound. We had the trio appetizer (we chose chipotle lime, sundried tomato pesto, and original humus) and the surf 'n turf gyro. It was delicious. At night we sat around looking through her patterns and talking. She has recently moved and wanted to deplete her stash. So I, being the craft hoarder that I am, accepted everything she didn't want. We also stitched and I tried arm knitting. Arm knitting is really easy to do. I knitted this scarf in about 40 minutes. The scarf was for my friend Liz. I told her if she didn't like it that I would take it out an crochet her a scarf. She didn't like it; the hole were too big. She said that she would get caught in it. I agreed. I really didn't like the scarf but I love the shawl pattern and the cowl pattern. So I will take this apart and crochet her a scarf. Then I going to buy the yarn and arm knit myself the shawl and cowl.
Now that I have bent your ear (or strained your eyes) long enough, I will say adios. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Sharon
