Stitch Along update

I am trying so hard to finish the cross-stitch part of my secret project that Santa has been getting neglected. I did manage to finish the dark red of the bow in the last three weeks.

Here is the last update.

This is where I am now. The bow is complete.

 

I have to roll the scroll frame to start stitching the package. I may change scroll frames and put it on my stand. 

Thanks so much to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other talented bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. You will see a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, 

Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan,

 Deborah, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy,

 Anne, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen  

Thanks for stopping by!

An absence of care

 I finally had plans for last Sunday. I had been anticipating going to a local outdoor craft fair to get a few new items. That plan came to a crashing halt when my mother's care agency didn't schedule an aide to be with her during the day. The night time aide couldn't stay. I ended up staying with my mother the entire day until the night-time aide returned a couple of hours early. What I realized is that I can no longer substitute as my mother's aide. She is too weak and I am not strong enough to help her. I was unable to get her showered so I just washed what I could. Once I helped her to change her clothes and sit on the couch in her den, I couldn't help her get up again the rest of the day. Unfortunately the muscles in her legs are so weak that she can't get up from a sitting position without someone helping to lift her. She is very resistant to this process. She wants to help herself, but after a few attempts at getting up she gets frustrated and distracted (a result of the dementia) and just stops trying. I was quite sad by the end of the day. 

Hubby was great and brought over my secret cross-stitch for me to work on, but I hadn't returned the chart to the work bag so I couldn't work on it. Instead, I started sewing the ribbon bands on the hats on Mom's Overall Sam quilt blocks. I will share these blocks with you someday soon. I am trying to finish this quilt for my mom while I can get some of her imput. 

I have been exclusively stitching the secret cross-stitch. I am feeling the crunch to get this completed. Here is another peek.

I will be trying to add some more stitches to this today.

At night, when I can't see to work on cross-stitch, I have been adding rows to the Baby Elephant Blanket. I have 20 rows completed out of 106. Except for untangling the yarn skeins every so often and counting the stitches, this is a fairly quick crochet stitch.

Yesterday I found some time to start on the next 10 blocks for my daughter's quilt. 

Thankfully the care agency has cobbled together aides for my mother tomorrow. I really hope they can get a steady aide soon for Sunday to Tuesday. Maybe Hubby and I can figure out something fun to do today.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Need to find time

School has started so there is no daytime crafting going on. After school has been filled with physical therapy for my shoulder (twice a week) and a daily visit with my mother. That means there is little time at all to get some crafting done. I have to concentrate on my secret stitching as that is time sensitive and I need to leave time for framing. Here is a sneak peek of it.

I am fairly close to being done with the cross-stitch though what is left is comprised of little patches of color. I am hoping I can finish it by the end of this month. Then all that will be left is the back stitching and some cording. 

I have returned to crocheting the Baby Elephant Blanket. There are 106 rows to the graphghan part. I have finished fourteen of them now.

This has no time frame assigned to it, so it will just be when I feel like working on it.

Our son visited us over the Labor Day weekend. We went to a local waterfront park on Monday which was surprisingly empty despite the gorgeous weather.

There were a lot of boaters though. This park has its own marina and there are several others in the local area.

When we got back home Hubby and son competed in hitting golf balls into a pool float in the back yard.

I finally planted the pretty coneflower that I bought at a farmstand a couple of weeks ago. I love the color.

I have been reading a lot at school. I just finished "The Guardian" by Nicholas Sparks. Another tear jerker, but this book also had a sense of suspense to it. It was good, but not a book to read before bed. I will now be reading "Becoming" by Michelle Obama as well as "The Last Garden in England" by Julia Kelly.

Hubby and I went to Jones Beach yesterday to walk on the boardwalk. We were again surprised at how fairly empty it was. There were rip current warnings so that could have partly been the reason. It also could be that families were busy with school activities and sports.

The seagulls were having a enjoying a swim/bath in a "pond" that must have been formed when we got the remnants of Hurricane Ida. 

You can see the ocean with many container ships in the distance.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

First Stitch Along Update of September

I only worked on Santa a little bit these past three weeks as I need to spend most of my stitching time getting my secret stitching finished now that I am back at work.

The last time that I updated Santa I had started stitching the medium red color on the bow. 

That color is now finished and I have begun adding the dark red color. I think you can easily see the progress that I have made this time. 

Thanks so much to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other talented bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. You will see a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, 

Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan,

 Deborah, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy,

 Anne, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen  

Thanks for stopping by!