Lots Going On

I've been cramming in a lot of stitching with my stitching peeps since the new year started. I regularly stitch on Monday mornings. Last Sunday we spent the day beginning our guild's alphabet sampler.

We had already selected our fabric and threads and stitched our guidelines with sewing thread. The sewing thread doesn't shred and is easily pulled out after all the stitching is done.

We are stitching from the top downwards. This pic shows Algerian eyelets in the centre of the blue flowers. We also stitched guidelines before stitching the Coral stitch for the stems.

B is the bullion stitch which will be at the ends of the stems. C also is the Cretan stitch which we used for the green leaves. The letters are stitched with Sulky thread. It's very nice to work with and a bit thinner than #12 perle cotton. Beads will go in the centres of the empty crosses on the letters but I will do them after so they don't interfere with my Q-snaps.

We will get the stitches for D - H at the February meeting. I'll participate remotely while I'm in Texas as I'll miss the February, March, and April meetings.

We continued stitching at our guild meeting on Wednesday.

For Show and Share, Bernie brought in the ornament she received at our Christmas ornament exchange. It had been created by Jeanette.

Carol brought in the Alphabet Sampler she had stitched years ago with the Monday morning group. She did it in off-white tones.

I've also been working on my Hello Fall piece, using the tent stitch with two threads over one. It's like doing needlepoint or petit point. (It's upside down - have tried to rotate it 180 degrees to no avail).

I also started this My Soul is Fed piece. I bought the pattern on one of my stitching road trips.

I'm using 28ct linen. It's very soft and nice to work with. The pattern calls for 'fancy floss' but I'm just using DMC.

I have the perfect spool for it when I'm done. I had purchased it last summer at The Old Tattered Flag on our summer stitching road trip.

I've started planning projects to take with me on my winter holiday. I'm taking this bee sampler. I bought a couple of the Classic Colorworks skeins. I'll use others from my stash and fill in any colours with DMC floss.

I found Gingerbread and Hazelnut to be very close in colour. I will probably select a different colour for one of them.

Poppy gave me some wonderful Christmas gifts.

A donkey apron!

OMG, it's so cute! It would be perfect to wear when I'm spinning as the fabric is a smooth twill.

She also gave me two quilt patterns and several fat quarters for the Leafy one.

I think I need to take my sewing machine with me when I go on vacation.

I have been toying with the idea of trading in my car for a newer model. I thought I'd be able to get a decent trade-in value for it as it has been well-maintained and has low 'kilometrage' considering it is 6 years old. I spent a week or so looking at various models and brands. I wasn't offered enough for my car that I wanted nor found a car that had all the features that I wanted (without extra ones I don't want nor want to pay for like a moonroof or leather upholstery). I've decided to keep my car and drive it for 6 more years and replace it then. Although it doesn't have a couple of new features I would like (power liftgate, backup camera), it has lots of others I like and is still very comfortable and is running well.

It looks like we will be taking Skip's car south again to try and even out the kilometrage between it (a year newer) and mine.

So now I'm busy with making the arrangements to be away on vacation. However, Barb is hosting a stitching day tomorrow while her husband is away on a golfing trip down south. Monday morning will be my usual stitching group and next Saturday, Jen1 is organizing a quilting road trip for Barb's birthday.

While in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) I'll be spending some time shopping at Judy's Stitchery Nook, and plan to attend meetings of the Embroiderers' Guild of America - Tip of Texas. With birding, stitching, and possibly some sewing/quilting, I should be able to keep myself productively occupied whilst in the sunny south.