6 Fat Men - May 28, 2012 Update

6 Fat Men SAL 5/30/12

I wish I could take a picture and it be straight.  I know one of my photo programs will do that but its not the one that the pictures open up in so...

I got a little tired stitching whitewash so I added another border.  I actually think I'm making progress.  I've started on my 3 skein of whitewash floss.  I think its Weeks DyeWorks.
I thought I would pass that on just in case anyone else has to order it.  Hoping next week to be able to get "Snow Friends" finished and then start on the empty frame which has a bigger house and you guessed it another snowman!

If you've been watching the news this past week you know that Seattle is having a really ruff time with senseless shootings.  Today alone we had 6 shootings with 4 of them not making it.  The local news has reported that the shooter was caught and that he shot himself in the head and died and then several hours later they changed that to he was still alive.  I just don't understand what is going through peoples minds.  Taking innocent lives isn't the answer to any ones problems.  Although they were talking that it may have something to do with a couple.  I have also heard that they think it has to do with the economy.  Over the last week we have had 11 shootings.  This time last year the news reported that we had 3.  That's to many too! 

IT MIGHT BE WOODY WOODPECKER!

On a lighter note this is a picture taken out of my sliding glass door in my backyard.  Can you see the redheaded woodpecker on the right tree about 2/3's the way up the tree?
We get many different birds here but this is one of my favorites.  He was huge!



My daughter and two of my grand kids will be here tomorrow for about 5 days.  I have no idea what well do for entertainment but we'll have to figure something out.  Maybe a ferry ride to Port Townsend or Friday Harbor.  We haven't been to either place in a long time.

Happy stitching!  Looking forward to seeing everyone's progress also!

Season's Baskets Lizzie Kate

After 7 weeks I finally got this back from Michael's Crafts.  I'll be positive for a few lines anyway.

I love the frame and although I only wanted a 1/4" showing all around we had to go with a larger amount to get frame made for it.

So if you can enlarge the photo you can see that to the left of the Autumn basket on the edge of the fabric there's a stain.  Yes a stain!  Wasn't there when I dropped it off and it wasn't there 2 weeks ago  When I picked the picture up yesterday evening there wasn't a stain on it.  By the time we got home (it was 3 hours later) and I took the brown paper off of it a stain started to show.   This morning the stain which I'm sure is some kind of oil was twice as big.  So I went off to Burlington to show them what had happened since picking it up.  I talked with the store's assistant manager and the guy who did the finishing.  He told me the stain was on it when he started framing it but it didn't show when he put the picture together.  I really like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt but someone in the store got oil on it.  Anyway they took the backing off and the stitching out.  They told me that there was no way that it could have come off the frame and that there wasn't any kind of "stuff" back in the work area that could have done it.  It amazes me that they framed 2 things for me in less than 6 months and screwed both of them up.  The assistant manager asked what she could do to make me happy.  I wasn't happy and I wasn't willing to put an even larger frame on it to add a mat and wait another 3 to 7 weeks to get it back again.  So I took my money back.  I have the frame and everything and will be taking the pins off the foam core and try to get the stain out.  If that doesn't work it could turn into a quilted wall hanging or if all else fails I could re-stitch the piece.  I never do anything more than once.  Well I have made 2 different quilts 2 times (they were lap size except for one which was a twin) but that is all.  I don't like to re-stitch charts over.  When I'm finished I'm finished no matter what it is. 

We haven't made any plans for the Memorial Day weekend other than:
1. Go to the dump.
2. Paint one of the guest rooms.
3. BBQ baby back ribs
4. Go on a bike ride everyday (weather permitting).
5. Go to the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning for scones and fresh veggies.
6. Stitch on my UFO from 1995
7. Monday I will stitch the day away on my 6 Fat Men SAL.

The weather is suppose to be nice again tomorrow but they are predicting rain for Sunday and Monday.  I just hate the gloom that is ever present in Western Washington.  I suffer from SAD
and its really hard to get out of bed on those mornings.

I hope you all have a safe and fun holiday!



Fat Men May 22, 2012 Update

Hope everyone stitching the "fat guys" got a chance to stitch yesterday.  I'm making progress.  I'm not going to worry about how much I get stitched any longer.  I'm a slow stitcher.  I should be finished with the second chart after stitching next Monday.

I'm still working on the Christmas UFO.  Looking at the chart (I can't believe I didn't make a working copy) it looks like I've made lots of progress but when I look at what I've already stitched it doesn't look like it.

Next, I'm  in the Yahoo Group Friendly Stitchers!  Gillie has just announced a Christmas?Winter Challenge and swap.  I can't decide if I should sign up or not.  I want to.  I have until June 21st to make up my mind.  I'm trying to find a chart to stitch.  I was a bit worried because there aren't to many new Christmas charts out yet but today she said we could get out of magazines from last year or check for a freebie!  I think I can even handle that.

Last Saturday I went to Auburn Washington for Pet Palooza with my rescue group.  We didn't get to many apps for Chihuahua's that I know of but today we got word that a vet tech put in an application for Shorty (yes Shorty the Chihuahua).  Shorty has Liver Shunts.  I'm not to sure what that is but I know he has to have special food and medication with each meal.  He can get very ill very fast.  He is the cutest little guy.  I held him all afternoon!  He's a tiny little white Chihuahua.  I think he may weight 3 pounds and that just might be soaking wet!  We're all very happy for Shorty!

In one month my sister and I leave for our "Sister Vacation"!  Every year we take a vacation together.  We are going to Springfield Missouri to visit our cousins again.  When we were growing up we only saw them once.  When my sister graduated from high school she and a friend drove back from Ventura California.  We went back 4 years ago and had a blast.  This time I will be looking for some cross stitch shops to check out also.  We fly into Tulsa Oklahoma and I've already found "The Sliver Needle" to visit there.  We'll also be going to Branson and I know there's a shop there also.  Wow - 3 new places to visit.  I probably should start making a list of the charts I have and the over dyed floss so I don't buy duplicates.  I do that way to often.  I don't mind when I buy floss I already have but a chart - not good!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day stitching or even out in the garden enjoying the sunshine.  We are back to the gloomy weather here for a few more days.  We got a good 3 inches of rain in the last 2 or 3 days.

A Slow Start. . .

My day is off to a slow start.  I have lots of things to do but don't really want to do them.  I've hired a gal to come mop floors, clean bathrooms and dust etc every other week and I need to get some things put away so she can start - TOMORROW!!!  This house we live in has no storage in it.  Not the kind I'm use to anyway.  For some reason storing things like towels and linens under the bathroom sinks doesn't really do it for me.  That's where the storage is.  My husband has put shelves in the coat closet and taken a half bathroom apart and added shelves to it.  I've gotten rid of 6 large boxes of clothes which are to big but they were under the house in the storage room he built there.  So that didn't really help either.  (Re-reading that makes me think I'm nuts as there should be plenty of storage now but I guess we just have way to much "stuff")  I have 2 guess rooms which require bedding and extra towels.  I can also put up cots in another room so there's more bedding involved there also.  Sometimes we have as many as 10 extra people staying with us for vacations or holiday etc. 

Then my husband calls me from work a few minutes ago and asked if I'd like to live in The Netherlands for 4 years!!!  I said no!  I couldn't come up with a good reason except my family, my children and my fast growing grand kids all live here.  And my 5 Chihuahua's.  Another big reason is once I fly that far away over the ocean I'm not going to be doing it again for 4 years when I come back home.  I've agreed to move to Texas for 5 years!  I think that should be good.  I have to say I don't have an adventurous bone in my body.  I'm a real homebody!  I love being at home.  I usually don't go anywhere except for once a week when I will either go into the larger city 30 minutes away or go to Starbucks in the late afternoon with my husband and then we do the grocery shopping.  I live in a beautiful place but don't shop here because you can't buy anything but food, coffee or pizza.  We have two clothing shops.  One is for men and the other is for very tiny women. And very expensive.  The tiny people I know who shop there go for the clearance sales.   As you can see that's not me.  You can't buy socks, undies or shoes here nor clothes.  Sometimes you can buy sweatshirts at Walgreen's (a drug store).  They are cheap and look it too.  We do have a very nice kitchen store where everything is over priced. And now that the economy is so bad we have tons of thrift stores.  Every once in a while my husband and I will go downtown and walk through them.  I'm even lucky enough to find some of the glass that I collect at a great price.

I should stop complaining and be thankful the sun is shining today.  The birds are all singing and the dogs aren't barking - not right now anyway.  They've all been out on the back deck in the sunshine and it looks like they are all starting to wander back inside and claim their spots on my lap.

Sorry for the rant.  I'm going to go and do some stitching now and I'll get to putting that "stuff" away this afternoon!

Have a wonderful day what ever you decide to do with it!
Well the dogs are all barkng now since we just heard a rather big boom!  I think it was the trash truck!

Time for a 6 Fat Men SAL Update

I feel like I made some progress on the 6 Fat Men this week.  On Sunday night my husband went in for a sleep study.  And when he's gone over night for business or in this case his health I tend to stay up late.  Real late.  So at midnight (it was Monday then) I pulled out my project and stitched for about 90 minutes.  Then I was able to stitch on it later in the afternoon and evening again. 

It was amazing that there is nothing in TV on Sunday nights late.  I did happen across a TV channel that I've never seen before.  It has old movies from the 1980's and then some other old TV shows.  I watched this old movie with Bo Bridges
and Susan Serandon (spelled that wrong) in it.  It was about this crazy young man.  Of course I missed the first half hour which must have had all the important details in it.  I finished it and at 1AM The Outer Limits came on.  That show is as good today as it was back then.  I really enjoyed watching 2 of them.  Did The Outer Limits always have spaceships or aliens in it?

I went by Michael's yesterday to check on my Lizzie Kate Season's Baskets that I dropped off in April.  I checked 2 weeks ago the day it should have been ready and it wasn't.  So anyway it took 2 gals about 15 minutes to finally find it.  I was getting ready to panic.  I rarely stitch, sew or quilt anything twice and this would be no exception.  Finally she came out with it in a folder.  It had been pinned and the note with it said they couldn't get a frame 4 1/2".  Geez I wonder how long that had been sitting there with the note attached.  So I agreed to have them add a 1/2" to the width and the length.  She wasn't wanting to do the length but did agree.  I got a phone call this morning that the frame had been ordered and they had put a rush on it.  I've decided that from now on I'm going to be framing my own needlework like I did in the past.  It all turned out every bit as good as the job they do there.  I can even order the pretty frames and spend less money.  Why didn't I think of that the first time.  I'll have to find a place to have glass cut.  We have a couple frame shops in town and with the savings on gas I can get it here.

I haven't started on any new projects but continue to work on the UFO I pulled out last Wednesday.  I still haven't put the needle book together but did get more floss to stitch the scissor fob and the pincushion.

Hope everyone is having a great week with lots of warm weather and plenty of stitching.

The Workbasket website

http://www.theworkbasket.net/free

I love acorns!  I was reading a blog post where they had an acorn exchange.  The acorn was cross stitched and I just had to have that pattern.  It was sewn into a needlebook.  I finally found the site.  Its called The Workbasket.  This site has some very nice free cross stitch patterns.  Now if only my printer would print.  Its always something in the computer world isn't it?  I can't wait to stitch this little beauty!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  Here in Anacortes its actually sunny and warm!  Very warm!  I havn't put a single x to fabric in 2 days now.  But I've been reading a lot of blogs and finding some fun things.

Sandy

Lizzie Kate Mystery Club

I just signed up for the Lizzie Kate Mystery Club through Bush Mountain Stitchery.  I hope her prices are good because I didn't check around.   I believe the first chart is being mailed on June 27th!  You can order just the 3 charts (one a month for 3 months) and then you can add to it with a special color (I guess) fabric, and the Weeks Dye Works threads.  The owner Maeann won't charge your credit card until she ships and she is offering free shipping.  I've never done a mystery but I do love Lizzie Kate's designs so it should be a fun stitch.

Anyone else going to join in on the Lizzied Kate Mystery Club with me? 

Hummingbirds

I just had the most incredible thing happen.  My sliding door was open and I heard this buzzing noise and saw something buzzing by.  I thought not another bee!  It got behind the mini blinds and couldn't get out.  I realized it was to big to be a bee.  It was a beautiful hummingbird.  I got the broom to chase it out of the house.   That didn't work so after a few tries I decided to try and pick it up.  I expected it to fly away.  It didn't.  It sat in my hand and let me look at it.  It wasn't in a panic.  It was the most amazing creature.  I was so excited that I didn't even think to take a picture of it in the window or in my hand. 

Wednesday's at My House

On Wednesday's my friend Jo Ann from Mount Vernon comes to Anacortes and we stitch together.  We've done this on and off for the last 3 years.  Originally we made cards for Chihuahua Rescue and Referral where we met.  She was new to the group and we just hit it off.  Together we made cards.   We finally stopped making cards as we had more than we could ever sell.  Then we got together and would go to lunch, chat and watch "Hoarders" on TV.  

Anyway on Monday I worked on my 6 Fat Men SAL, on Tuesday I was sick most of the day and also tried to decide which chart I wanted to stitch next.  On Wednesday I just couldn't decide so I pulled my UFO box out.  It has about 6 unfinished cross stitch Santa's in it along with a set of 6 wool felt Christmas mittens ornaments and a sampler stitched over 2 on linen!  The mittens are complete except for blanket stitching them together.  I hate to blanket stitch because of spacing. I decided to pull out one of the Santa's and started working on it.  The date on the bottom of the chart is 1995!  When my husband and I married back in 1986 I started cross stitching a Mr and Mrs Santa ornament for us each year.  I have about a dozen.  In the UFO box are 3 more plus I've also found a set online and printed them out.  I'll never catch up but I do have a nice "collection" anyway. 

The picture is of the one I decided to finish first.  I don't have the red plastic frame anymore.  I'm sure I made the decision back in 1995 that I wasn't going to use it.  I'm thinking about making it into a wall hanging so I'll be going into that quilting fabric so some fabric! 

I hope everyone has a project their working on whether its a brand new chart, a SAL or a UFO!  I'm hoping for great progress on this one until Monday when I can again work on my 6 Fat Men SAL.
Have a great weekend, hope you all have sunny skies and warm weather!

6 Fat Men SAL Monday May 7,2012 progress

My progress seems so slow to me.  I know I say this every week.  I haven't checked the other 11 gals who are stitching along with me.  I should start another project but I'm afraid to start to many things at one time.  If I were really smart I would get out the box of UFO's from the 1990's and work to complete them.  I'll take a picture of whats in that box and post it soon.  The first chart "Snowed In" is complete except for the random white x stitches.  I'm thinking about stitching white seed beads there.  Anyone thinking about adding any beading to their snowmen?

Stitcher's Paradise 2

Stitcher's Paradise

These two pictures are my new charts that I bought at Stitcher's Paradise in Las Vegas.  I also purchased 2 magazines.  One is the 2006 Ornament magazine and I can't remember what the last was was.  I love the Shaker pin cushion and will have to keep an eye out for a chart that will fit it.  I almost bought the Shaker box that matched it but it was $149.00 and I decided NOT!  I do collect Shaker boxes and have a high school friend who makes them.  Her husband teaches wood working at the community college in Escondido CA.  She took his class and is now making her own boxes.  I have a new picture of one she just finished, I should also post it. 

Since returning from Las Vegas I've gotten a chest cold.  I actually never get sick.  The last time was 4 years ago when I caught that nasty flu going around.  We were in New York for 2 days and I was fine but the morning we woke up to start the cruise part of our trip (New England - Fall Colors) I was sickly.  During the cruise it rained and rained and rained.  It was so bad that the pockets in my rain coat filled up with water and melted my cough drops!  I trudged along and had a great time.  When we were at the airport to fly home they had a sign that listed to warning signs of this flu going around and I had all but one!  It took months to get over it.  I sure hope its gone soon.

And lastly this is a needle book that I stitched and its ready to finish up.  I haven't really decided how to finish it yet so it maybe sitting for awhile also.  Its a set I down loaded from a website.  There's also a pin cushion, a scissor finder and a scissor holder.  I plan on stitching them all.  I'll have to go to JoAnn's and get more of the DMC varigated thread.  I think I will stitch some of the pieces solid peach.

6 Fat Men SAL Update

Here's my update for Monday's SAL.  If you compare it to last week you'll see all I got done was the last word "heart", the line under "my", the scarf and some more white.  I finished the snowman's face and did some of the right side of his body.  My friend JoAnn came over to stitch with me.  She is just now learning to Cross Stitch.  She isn't slowing me down by any means but I've just been very chatting lately.

Okay honestly I have been ranting a lot lately.  I told my husband I was going to be a mean old lady.  My
last 2 rants have been; the amount of men murdering their family members and pets.  Burning down the house and then taking their lives as well.  I don't understand why they can't just leave the family alone.  We've had 3 cases of this in Washington State in a very short amount of time.  And my last rant was on the 1st  May Day.  I never had a friend/neighbor put flowers on my door and run nor have I ever watched people dancing around a pole and wrapping it in ribbons.  Doesn't that sound like a lovely spring day?  Instead we had riots in Seattle with lots of damage. 

Monday if fast aproaching with any luck I will get lots of stitching done!

My friend Kristi

Finally got some pictures of Kristi and I on my computer.  Kristi is on the left and I'm on the right!  Kristi's laughing at me because I told her that I heard if you look up when you get your picture taken your double chin won't show!  I think it worked although I look kind of silly!  I haven't mentioned that I have lost 36# since early February.  That's a whole new post for another day.  Its wonderful to have my best friend back in my life!  We are across the street from New York New York Hotel and Casino!