Slow Weekly Stitching

A friend of mine asked if I would like to join a crafty Meetup group with her. It meets once a week at a local Panera Bread restaurant. I have attended the first 3 meetings and hope to be able to attend somewhat regularly once work starts up again. Going to these meetings helped me finish Peace, Love, Coexist which you can see here. 

This week I asked the other women who are attending whether I could take photos of what they are working on and share them on my blog. I did not include photos of the stitchers themselves as we are just getting to know each other. I hope you enjoy looking at a variety of Slow Stitching.

My friend Randi is making this pretty shawl. She recently used this same yarn to make a tank top for herself without using any pattern.

The woman who has organized this Meetup group is also named Randi. This is the needlepoint that she is currently working on. 

This vase of flowers is being stitched by Susan. Click on the photo and you can see the incredible beading that she is doing.

 Wendy is stitching these cats. Look at the variety of stitching in the frame. 

This piece by Harriet is almost finished. It is so pretty.

This is being made by Helene for a little boy. I love the checkerboard border.

This beautifully shaded Stargazer Lily is going to become a two-sided pillow. Dianne has already finished the other side.

As you can tell, many of the members of this group are needlepoint stitchers, but there are some more knitters also.

Deb is making this pretty striped baby blanket.

Judy is making this absolutely gorgeous shawl with "yarn" that looks like film. She says that it is no longer made. What a shame.

 Those of you who have followed my blog for a while, know that this pretty purple Two Harbors Poncho is being made in my favorite color. This is being knitted by Karen.

There are a few cross-stitchers also. This pretty table runner was made by Kat. She was working on a matching napkin during our meetup. 

 So what was I working on you ask? Well, Baker Beach is too big to bring with me, so I am trying to finish my 2015 Prairie Schooler Santa. 

It would be nice to have an ornament for each of my children this Christmas.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. On Monday, I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are up to. My son is visiting this weekend, but I will try to find some time to work on Baker Beach. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Finished

I have finished the stitching of my Summer of Love Challenge piece. I have called it Peace, Love, Coexist. Gee, I wonder why?

Here are some close-ups.

 I tried several new stitches.

 I am pretty pleased with the result.

I submitted these pictures only as I do not have the time to finish this into a pillow (or something else) before the submission deadline of August 15th.

I was originally going to finish this as a tote bag, but I am afraid that the embroidery would be ruined. I am debating making this into a pillow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Little Bits

I have only stitched a little bit since my Midweek Post, mainly because Hubby and I made a two day trip to Saratoga, NY. As I have stated before, Hubby is a big horse-racing fan. I thought I would get some stitching done in the car, but I got engrossed in Nora Roberts' Key of Knowledge and couldn't put it down. 

Besides that I found the road to be too bumpy for accurate stitching. While we were in Saratoga, I did find the Gloversville Sewing Center nearby. This is a small quilt shop, but I did manage to find some items to purchase.

The beige fabric is for a future quilt. I just fell in love with the swirls on it. The Journey Bag pattern looks easy...I hope so. The fat quarters are to complement my Summer of Love piece in a tote.

I am almost done with my Summer of Love Challenge. I just need to fill in the yin yang symbol and add a few French knots. Maybe a flower between Peace and Love and near the heart.

 I hope to finish it today.

Baker Beach is giving me fits. Something about the way I am currently stitching is making my right shoulder ache. I had worked on it for about an hour last Wednesday and it was aching slightly all day Thursday at Saratoga. I woke up in the hotel Friday morning with my shoulder absolutely screaming. Thankfully, an dose of Aleve calmed it down enough to be bearable and as the day wore on it felt much better. Yesterday, I sat down with Baker Beach again for only a little while and this morning that shoulder is twinging. I really want to finish this soon. This is where it is as of Saturday.

I am still working on that orange color. There is a whole lot of it.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Summer of Love is on the top of my to-do list today. Tomorrow I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Midweek Post

Just because I am in the mood, I thought I would post a midweek update on some projects. First, I finally got around to blocking the shawl that I made several months ago. 

That isn't sun fade on the picture. That part of the shawl is white.

You should take note that I still haven't woven in the ends. I should have done that before blocking, but I didn't have a tapestry needle near me and was too lazy to find one. 

I didn't finish the 9th page of Baker Beach in July as I planned. I have been trying to finish my Summer of Love piece by the submission date so Baker Beach has been neglected. The orange color that I am working on has a whole lot of stitches.

Summer of Love is almost done. I worked on it over the weekend on my front porch.

I got some more stitched last night at a new stitching group that I am going to.

I am debating whether to just send a photo or to actually finish this as a tote bag as planned and send the whole thing to the exhibit. 

Can you see that we had three bunnies at once in our back yard this week? There are two near the fence and one right in the middle of the grass.

This one was relaxed enough to get some grooming done.

I had to buy some bunny repellent for a new rose bush that I planted as they were eating the leaves. I hope it works.

That's all for now. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer growing

My Summer of Love piece is growing. You might be able to see what I have planned for the rest of it.

The tracings are faint and the fabric is wrinkled, but the word LOVE will be on the upper right and COEXIST will be around the bottom. 

We had our first harvest this summer. Some small orange tomatoes.

Our two plants have lots more that will be ripening soon.

This little robin is growing up quickly. He and his two siblings have been making a lot of noise in a nest along our fence.

Hubby and I think he may have made his first flight to our deck railing. You can see that he still has some of his downy baby feathers.

He stayed there for several minutes and had a little trouble returning to the top of the fence.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I will be trying to finish my Summer of Love Piece. On Monday, I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Days

Most of my summer days are going like this. First I take a brisk half hour walk around my neighborhood. After breakfast, I spend some time working on the Summer of Love Challenge. This is where I am so far.

Then I spend several hours preparing for my Fall university Precalculus course. I want to be fully prepared with assignments and tests prior to the Fall semester.

I usually find time in the afternoon to work on Baker Beach. I now only have about one and a third pages left.

Two days a week I tutor in the afternoon and I also visit my mother a few days a week. I help her around the house or I take her out running errands or to doctor's visits. 

I try to go in our pool a few afternoons before dinner (or after) also. Since the weather has been in the nineties this past week, the pool has felt like bath water. Just the way I like it. I am also trying to read some books. I finished Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and I am now reading Mrs. Lincoln's Rival by Jennifer Chiaverini. This is the same author that writes the Elm Street Quilt Series, but this is an historical novel. I read Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker a while ago and really liked it so I decided to give this book a try.

All in all, this is a really enjoyable way to spend my Summer.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. Tomorrow I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Unintended Journey

Hubby and I went with our son to PA on Sunday to help him finish setting up his apartment. He will be living about 140 miles from us. We left Sunday morning around 9 a.m. and encountered absolutely no traffic. The entire trip took just over 2 hours. We crossed two bridges and traveled in 3 states. Wonderful! (Please note that the speed limits range from 50 to 70 so this is just about right).
We went food shopping with our son so that he could stock his kitchen and refrigerator. Then we helped him continue to empty moving boxes and waited for his replacement furniture. When we were in PA over a week ago, his new bedroom furniture was delivered by a crew that was less than careful. The furniture was scratched and missing parts. He was quite disappointed. A visit to the local store had a replacement delivery scheduled for Sunday. Well they brought a whole new bedroom set (he needed only the dresser, one bedside table, and bunky board replaced and the bed slats that never came in the first delivery). What they didn't bring this time were the bunky board and the bed slats... the latter didn't come either time and this is a platform bed so the mattress sits on those 14 slats. How in the world did they think that would work? Hubby and I went to the local store to complain again while our son waited at his apartment for the delivery crew to return with a possible solution. This delivery crew had promised to bring temporary expansion bed slats so that he could at least sleep on the bed. The temporary bed slats came and he used the bunky board that still needs to be replaced. He can sleep on his bed and he is supposed to get yet another delivery in two weeks. He started a new job on Monday and can't take days off for a delivery so he needed to schedule it on a weekend. 

Now after the long day of organizing the three of us went out to dinner at a local restaurant. Our son just moved into a planned community and there are a bunch of restaurants within walking distance. This park-like setting was just outside the entrance to our restaurant. 

 Isn't this a great fire pit?

 The little fountains change color.

 Here is the street that is right outside his apartment building.

 The building with the spire is the local supermarket.

After dinner, Hubby and I started the drive home around 8 pm. We expected to get home between 10 and 11 pm. Well that didn't happen. We had little to no traffic all the way through PA and not much on the New Jersey Turnpike (I95) until we approached the Goethals Bridge. Now Hubby and I live on Long Island, NY. You must go over a bridge in order to get off the Island (or take a ferry to Connecticut). The Goethals Bridge leads from NJ to Staten Island, NY which you can then drive across to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge which gets you to Long Island. As we approached the exit to the Goethals bridge we encountered standstill traffic. We sat in the exit lane for over an hour until Hubby got fed up and decided to try another route. (Note that my two phone apps continued to tell me that home was only 1.5 hours away even after an hour of sitting at this exit but they also said that the alternate routes were even longer.) Now our alternate route was to drive North of Manhattan (we were South of it) to the George Washington Bridge, then turn East to the Throgs Neck Bridge onto Long Island. We stopped at a rest-stop right before the GW bridge, because by now we were on the road for 3.5 hours. There was traffic leading to the GW bridge, but at least it kept moving even though it was slow. Our journey home finally ended at 1 am, 5 hours  (and many tolls) after leaving our son in PA. If you do the math.....140 miles (more because of our detour) in 5 hours means we averaged 28 miles per hour. Really?! Ugh.

The moral of this story is to think twice before moving to a home on an island. Hubby and I grew up on Long Island and it has always been a hassle to get off and on when traveling by car. We don't plan on spending our retirement here for a variety of reasons. I certainly won't miss the traffic, but that time is still several years away.

Thanks for stopping by!