Time to Rotate

I completed my third pass on Snow White Discovers the Cottage, a Disney Dreams Collection vignette about 9:30 this evening.  This time it went really fast and I'm enjoying stitching it.

Tomorrow night, I'll pull out the French Country Cat again and will finish it before putting it down.  The only stitching so far has been done at Angels' games.

A Day to Myself

Kyleigh is with her dad and other grandma this weekend and David and Janice went to the JPL open house in Pasadena so I had the house to myself today, well, me and the cats anyway.

I spent some time this morning frogging the misplaced stitches on the January Cottage and also stitching on Snow White Discovers the Cottage. 

This is what the January Cottage will look like when it comes up in my rotation again.  I should be able to finish it next time.

David and Janice both said they had fun at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory).  We first went in 1997 just before they launched the Pathfinder and Janice was really excited when she saw the actual launch of something she'd seen "in person" (I think it was a model, but still...)

Today they saw a tape recorder that David worked on back in the early 70's.  David is/was an electronic engineer and Odetics was the first company he worked for after graduating from college back in 1972.

David was taking a picture of Janice and one of the other visitors offered to take a picture of the two of them and here it is.   On a side note, David has been doing the Optifast diet through Kaiser Permanente and has lost over 100 pounds so far. 

One last picture, this time of just Janice; I really like the background.



The Frogs Have Come for a Visit

I've been stitching on the January Cottage from Country Cottage Needleworks for the past few days and have been really enjoying it.  I surpassed my goal for this rotation of finishing the house, the letters and the top border and decided to keep going and try to finish it completely. 

Unfortunately, I made a big mistake last night and now need to rip out (frog) the tree, one snowflake and leaves at the bottom and part of the snow, since I didn't discover the mistake until tonight when I stitched the second set of leaves and wondered why I had four stitches between them and the next snowflake and not two.  Fortunately, I lined two snowflakes up with the snowman and the window so they can stay.

The problem?  I lined up the top lefthand stitch of the tree with the snowflake instead of lining up the top righthand stitch so I'm off by two stitches which is throwing the border off and I don't think there's a way to fudge it because the bottom border is the same as the top border, only upside down.

So, I decided to set this aside for now and move on to the next project in my rotation.  This is Snow White Discovers the Cottage from the Disney Dreams Collection, the vignette version that's only 5" x 7" and is done on 16-count Aida instead of 18-count Aida.

I forgot that I hadn't taken a picture of it when I stopped stitching last time and stitched the light tan of the tree before I remembered.  The scanner would only give me a black and white scan and I didn't feel like fighting it so this is with my camera.  The colors are really brighter than this.

Changing Projects

I've been doing a rotation for the past couple of months, but instead of using time, I'm using blocks with a block being approximately 1000 stitches or 10 10x10 blocks when that makes sense and deciding on how much I want to complete when it doesn't.

The first project in my rotation is Forest Chapel, a painting by Thomas Kinkade adapted for cross stitch by Candamar Designs.  This is the smaller version and will be 6" x 8" when complete.  I don't have a picture of it for the start of this rotation, but below is where I'm at now.  Only two more passes and it should be complete.  (I don't know why this is scanning crooked; this is the better of the two scans.)

My second project is the January Cottage by Country Cottage Needleworks.  I don't have much done on this one because I was using Fiddlers Light and I didn't like the way the white showed up--it basically didn't --so I started it over on a 28-count Jobelan from my stash; I'm not sure of the color, but it's pretty close to what's shown.  I plan to do the house, the rest of the top border and the rest of January before switching to the next project.

A Busy Saturday

Janice does the audio/visual for the Women's Retreat for our church and she had a brunch planning meeting this morning for this year's conference so Kyleigh spent the night at our house.  I went into our bedroom to finish gathering her things and this is what I found on the bed.   These two are Pumpkin and Soxie and they love containers of any kind.

I've started sewing again and I even bought myself a new sewing machine.  My old one was purchased in 1972 and didn't do things like automatically thread the needle, sew on buttons, etc.  So far, I've made Kyleigh a blouse which I forgot to take a picture of and a dress.  The dress has silly band type animals all over it.  I picked out the fabric, but she picked out the pattern and the buttons.  She was playing in the backyard when I went to take a picture so this is what I got.  I have a second dress in process, but I tried the top part on her today and the head hole is almost too small.  Fortunately, there is more than emough extra width for me to cut it down the center of the back and insert a zipper.

Once Janice got back from her meeting, we drove down to the new Hobby Lobby in Laguna Niguel which opened a couple of days ago.  Kyleigh managed to fall asleep about two minutes before we arrived so we put her in her stroller and she slept the entire time we were there.

Janice brought supplies for several projects including stuff for more "baseball bracelets" which I showed you yesterday.  She had a 40% off coupon and spent almost $40, but her most expensive item was only $4.47 so it didn't help a whole lot. 

I only bought three items and one was 40% off.   I bought a magnetic seam guide for my sewing machine and the two charts shown below.  I now have the whole set of these Disney Dreams Collection Vignette charts (the 5 x 7 ones) and I have four of them in progress, two of which  (Snow White and Bambi) are currently in my rotation.

Friday Night at an Angels Game

I know it's been a very long time since I've blogged, but I've decided that one of my goals for June is to blog more frequently.

Janice, Kyleigh, Bob (the provider of the tickets) and I went to the Angels game tonight.  Kyleigh carries a backpack with a blanket, a large purple rally monkey, her Angels sweatshirt and a knit cap that looks like a monkey head.  Tonight she decided to turn the backpack into a drum as demonstrated below.

On Friday nights, they put on a concert prior to the game.  Tonight it was the 6 Hour Band and this is the stage where the concert takes place.  The band was taking a break, but they're broadcast live on the scoreboard during the concert and at one point,  I watched the camera pan the audience.  Kyleigh had abandoned the "drum", but was jumping around and dancing.  When we got up to our seats, one of the ushers told me he'd seen her on the scoreboard. 

During the game, Kyleigh and Bob entertain each other by playing with the monkey, a hat or anything else that strikes their fancy and I usually cross stitch, because if I don't do something in addition to watching the game, I get bored and want to leave.

Janice usually watches the game, but tonight, she brought something along to work on.  This is a bracelet made out of a baseball.  She did the blanket stitch around the outside during the game.  She's planning to give this one to Super Halo Woman who is a friend of Bob's.

This is another bracelet that she made, also from a baseball.  She's made several in Mommy size and Kyleigh size and has had several requests for them.

Finally, this is my cross stitch project.  It's French Country Cat by JBW.  This is the result of stitching at two Angels' games.  I'm using DMC 501 on white Aida and it will be going to WOCS for a quilt made up of variuos French Country Animals, all in the same shade of floss.