A MONTH?!?!

How in the world did a month go by without a blog post?  WOW!  Funny how the blog in my head is up to date and filled with photos and witty posts while this one languishes.  Ah well, let's forge ahead and I'll see if the photos remind me of anything.

First is this one:

For the first time in ages, I took a photo.  TUSAL is hosted by Daffy Cat at It's Daffycat and requires you to save all those bits and pieces of thread that you would normally throw out.  I'm using an old Yankee Candle jar to hold mine.  I have had to tamp this down a couple of times but I should be good through the end of the year.

The next photos are for my  and  check-ins:

It's About Time.  I finished another column and started the next since my last post.

Turns out that bit of gold in the lower right corner I mentioned in my last post is part of a bird

I am stitching a bit faster now that I have modified my key to this:

I took the three pages of the original key and cut out only the bits that were important to me: symbol; color number; and, color name and taped them onto one page and put it in a page protector.  I am surprised at how much time this simple change saves me.  I just have to do the same thing with my other HaEDS.

Santa and the Mouse is moving right along. 

This is a very messy stitch.  I do need to figure out a better way to start a round piece

 and finally Shakespearean Fantasy.  More black, more greens and almost another column finish.

I am looking forward to getting to a "clean" page as all this filling in stresses me and my hobby should not be stressful.

Oh yes, I mentioned Gifted Gorgeousness and WIPocalypse.  Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching and gives us an opportunity to thank everyone that has been so generous with stitching gifts or to show something that will be a gift.  The patterns for It's About Time and Shakespearean Fantasy were gifts from Kate at A Kowgirl's Stitchin and Pull the Other Thread respectively.  Santa and the Mouse is a double entry as it was a freebie from Heaven and Earth Designs (now retired) and it has Santa giving a gift (or will once I get a few more columns over).

WIPocalypse is hosted by Melissa at Measi's Musings and is an incentive to tame the WIP monster.  I've been participating since 2012 and have cut down my list from 25 to 18.  I know, that doesn't sound like a lot, but given my limited stitching time and the fact that the majority of my pieces are BAPs, I'm very pleased.  Melissa provides topics each month and this month's is: What online stitching communities do you enjoy?  I remember my first foray into the online needlecraft world, it was RCTN.  It was slow and clunky by today's standards but oh my, I found people from all over the world that stitched and a few in my own backyard.  I was, and am, a fairly solitary stitchery because of location so to be able to talk about various designers and problems was amazing to me.  From there fancier bulletin boards came into being and I was able to see photos of others work - that was probably not so good for my wallet and it introduced me to the concept of STABLE (stash acquisition beyond life expectancy), but a huge step forward.  I still read several bulletin/Yuku/Yahoo boards but most of them seem to have migrated to Facebook.  I do belong to two or three Facebook groups, but it is not my preferred platform, so I am not as active as I used to be on the bulletin boards.  My most used social media is my blog roll.  I can get lost for hours, clicking on not only my but others blog rolls. I enjoy seeing what others are stitching or crafting and I like that I is all in some order.  Facebook seems to one long stream of conscience and I have difficulty following one conversation.  I suppose that's a factor of being old and in the future, I'll pine for Facebook's simplicity.  I have also watched Floss Tube videos when I'm learning a new technique but I don't follow anyone.

A few more household chores and I'll be free to stitch through the weekend.  And just maybe I will get the post that is already composing itself in my head onto the blog.