A Work in Progress

Robin posted a WIP challenge awhile back and I entered. My sampler guild usually has a stitch-a-long, but this year, we are to choose a piece already in our stash (started or not) for completion. My piece for both of these is Moira Blackburn's Keep Me Sampler which was the one I was stitching at the first guild meeting I attended back in 2006. I've done a little more on it since this photo was taken. My mini-goal for the week is to finish the top right (fence, vine, border) with a bonus goal of finishing one of the trees on the right. And maybe figure out if/where I went wrong on the border on the left. The plan is to stitch on this pretty much exclusively until it's done.

I purchased this MP3 player a few years ago so that I could download books from my library. Only problem was I couldn't get the required software from the library to download onto my desktop computer. I got around that for awhile by downloading the software onto a laptop, but then the laptop died last summer. I had been thinking of replacing it, but at the moment, my desktop does most things I need it to (although it can be slow about it) and it seemed extravagant to buy a new computer just to download books. I do have an I-touch and an account at Audible, but I really prefer the MP3 player at times since it's small and fits easily into my pocket so that I can listen to books while I clean. Besides, the books I put on it are free. Today after looking at the Best Buy ad as I do every Saturday, I thought I'd try to download the necessary software one more time. And lo and behold, it worked! Cleaning the house was much more pleasant while listening to Meg Cabot's Size 12 ...

Here's my first finish in my 25-project challenge. It's the Eye on the Sparrow chart by Silver Creek Samplers stitched on an R&R fabric with a Sampler Threads conversion from Shakespeare's Peddler . (No affiliation, just a happy customer.) I started it during my trip to Colorado over spring break to visit my 91-year old aunt and finished it the beginning of May. This verse has special significance for me since it talks about the lilies of the field and Susan is from the Hebrew word for lily. I'm a big-time worrier and planner (remember how much I like to make lists?) so this reminds me to relax a little bit--OK, a lot--and try to go with the flow. While I was working on this piece, I was totally unaware that there was going to be a major change in my work life. I am a speech therapist and have worked in my present school district for 19 years. During that time, I've worked in several different buildings, but have always been in one of my elementary schoo...

I mentioned in a previous post that I had been on a bit of a buying spree. I took advantage of the Pajama Party sale at my LNS although I shopped from home in my pjs and got the chart, fabric and threads for Drawn Thread's Cici's Casket. Then I put myself on automatic for Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart and ordered fabric so that I could stitch all the charts on one piece. And finally, I picked up Carriage House Samplings Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow and Suzannah before they go out of print. I'm done now and a 25-project challenge is officially beginning. No more charts until I've completed 25 cross stitch projects. My husband predicts that LNSs will go out of business when I'm on these challenges, but I'm sure that you all will be picking up the slack for me, right?

When I was a child, we had a May Day tradition of delivering baskets of flowers and small treats to someone's doorstep, ringing the bell and running away before we could be discovered. Did anyone else do this or is it just a Midwestern tradition? We always had lots of fun creating the baskets out of construction paper and pipecleaners, or when truly pressed for time, Dixie cups and pipecleaners. Since I've outgrown that kind of May Day fun, I'm thinking of a different kind of basket, using these fun fabrics for Mojo from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co., a pattern I ordered immediately after seeing it on Nicole's blog. (That woman gets me into more trouble since her posts on Scrap Basket Surprises sent me running to get that book also.) My Mojo is still in the planning stages as I don't have background fabric (my LQS is moving at the end of the month and I'm hoping there will be a sale). And anyway, I have another project or 5 out on my cutting table.

In March, I was given the opportunity to take an early retirement but I decided not to take advantage of it for several reasons. I thought I just wasn't ready to be home all the time and then there was the pesky problem of health insurance for our 18 year old daughter and 20 year old son. But I tell you, almost from the moment I let the school district know that they were stuck with me, things have gone south. I have been overloaded with paperwork and too many meetings. I've had to discipline a third grade student for a bullying remark (not my usual role), and had to deal with another student who tends to lash out at me when asked to do work. I'm sick of all the people I work with and how some of them can't cut the parents any slack. Looking forward to the weekend and trying to keep in mind that we only have 30 school days left.

I posted here about my son's 20th birthday. Here are the front and back of the Turning Twenty quilt I made for him using mostly fabrics from Moda's Atlantis line. The back has a panel from the line in the center and I also used parts of another panel for the front of the quilt. My son is hoping to work in marine biology so he loves the quilt, but it's awfully bright for me since I'm more of a Kansas Troubles kind of girl.