One More Post

I hope those of you that celebrate had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Our turkey was done an hour and a half early causing a bit of stress while trying to get everything else ready and on the table.  I don't know why I was surprised as it seems to have become a tradition for it to be done significantly earlier than the recipes all call for.  I have had the same problem in three different ovens, so it's not the oven.  I have used different roasting charts, so it's not the directions.  I have even called the turkey hotline and used their directions - still early.  Of course, as soon as I factor in the time difference, it will take two hours longer.

I took last week off, except for Friday, and had a very relaxing time.  I even had a good time at work yesterday as it was VERY quiet and I got a lot done.

I did some stitching last week - one I can't show right now and one I can.

Here's my progress on Chatelaine's Japanese Octagonal Box:

Before:

After:

Hmmm, not a lot of progress but every stitch counts.  I haven't looked at my cards to see what will be on the stand this coming week, but as the day is fast coming to a close, I suppose I should take a look.

I am still mulling my 2013 project list.  Nicola at Stitching By a Cornish Seashore is hosting a Scarlet Letter Challenge next year.  While I love Scarlet Letter charts, I do not have any in my stash and I am on a stash diet so won't be buying any, but I will definitely be watching every one's progress.

Extra day of stitching and some stash

Yes, I had an extra day of stitching this week.  The ice I mentioned in my previous post decided to pay another visit Sunday night/Monday morning.  They postponed the office's opening until 11.00, unfortunately that sort of timing doesn't work with my train schedule the absolute last train leaves right around 7.40 and gets in around 9.10 so the building wouldn't be open and I'd have no place to go for 2 hours and given that I would have had to leave the house at 6.50 to catch the train and it was still icing at 6.00, I did the only reasonable thing - took a day of annual leave, went back to bed and slept until a decent hour of course getting up at 4.00, *anything* later than that is a reasonable hour! and stitched the day away - safe and sound in my warm house.

Before I show my progress, thank you all for the comments on my IHSW progress.  I tried to do the email response thing, but couldn't get it to work.  I'll need to do some research on that as I feel bad doing generic "Thank yous".

Here is the stitching:


Japanese Octagonal Box by Chatelaine
Stitched on 32-count light blue Belfast with recommended fibers and beads

And here's the stash:

I used some of my Christmas money for the above,  I usually say I'm going to budget my gift money out through the year, but what usually happens is that it gets lost in the checkbook, and "life" gets it instead.  So this year I ordered early and with sales, so only a portion is going to "life".  So let's see, the thread you see in the left corner is a portion of my order of "Fat Tuesday" from Carrie's Creations.  I just love the purple/gold/green color combination and plan to use this for Ink Circles' Cirque des Cercles.  Speaking of Ink Circles, have you seen Willow Berries? Love the little pops of red.  Moving clockwise, the fabric is a piece of 32-count Summer Sky Jobelan that I'm planning to use for Deep Blue Sea this year's big mystery piece from Chatelaine.  I know a lot of people are going dark blue, but most of the fish, coral and other critters actually live in fairly shallow water so I decided mine will be Not So Deep Blue Sea and I just really like this fabric. The carded fibers are the Petite Treasure Braids and Petite Silk Lame a new fiber for me for Deep Blue Sea.  The skein of thread is Waterlilies Bermuda Reef - the only fiber that Martina didn't list a DMC substitute for.  Rounding out the purchases is Alexandra's Dream by Dimples Designs with the 32-count Platinum Belfast, and the necessary blending filaments, cord, braid and beads. 

Change of stitching tomorrow so Eightsome Reel from Papillion Creations will take its place on the frame for a week.