Weekend getaways and stitchy stash!!

I've had a lot going on lately.  It's been busy.  

A couple of weeks ago I had a fun weekend getaway with my friend Laura.  We try to have a few weekends a year where we meet and stitch and do fun things.  

We started out our weekend at the famed Whistle Stop Cafe.  We had such fun looking around in all the little shops and boutiques in the area.

This year we had tickets to hear Jenny Doan speak.  She's the owner of the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  

On our way to hear Jenny Doan speak.

We also had tickets to go on a dinner train.  Neither of us had done this before, so it was exciting. 

Here's the train before we boarded.  They keep the shades pulled until the passengers start to load.  The inside was beautiful and restored to it's original 1940s style.

Laura did a really detailed post of our train ride that you can see here.  It was a really lovely evening.

We also usually do a gift exchange and this time was no different.  :0)  

We both read a lot, so we usually exchange some books or book related items as well as stitchy stuff.  There is another book mark, but it's currently in use.  :0)

Patterns and fabrics!!  :0)

This past weekend my husband and I had a getaway to the Smoky Mountains.  This was the first trip away we've had since our kids have been, "grown," and we could simply leave them at home to hold down the fort and not worry.  They did great and we had fun.

We took the tram up to Ober Gatlinburg, just so we could see all the Fall foliage.

We stayed in a quiet little hotel in Severville and had a lovely view out the back door.

I did some stitchy shopping as well.

On the stitchy side of things, I have been working on a model stitch for a designer.  I'm almost done and hope to be finished by the end of this week.

I also started the Gettysburg Address pattern that is being done as a SAL in my and Laura's FB group ~ Patriotic Stitches.

I didn't get much done because the lighting in the hotel was really bad.  Then on the way home, the roads weren't great.  Lots of bumps and this fabric has the teeniest holes ever.  I had to give up until I could tackle it at home.

I found fabric to do the finishing on my pumpkin needle accessory set.

I really love this and can't wait to go back and do the beading on the two pieces of the set I have done.  The third and largest piece is the needlebook and it's on hold because 123 was out of stock on this orange fabric.  But I hope to go ahead and do the finishing on the scissor fob and biscornu soon.

I bought a couple of needleminders for the first time in forever.  I make so many of my own, I rarely purchase them anymore.  But these came from an Etsy store in Australia.  Shipping was really inexpensive and I got the smaller of the two for free because the seller said it had some tiny imperfections.  Truly, it looks great to me.

So that's what I've been busy with!  No more weekend getaways planned until next year.  I'll be *so* ready by the time the next one comes along!

The Wee Beastie

Since last Saturday, I've been working on my Terrance Nolan pattern.  It's part of the "Professor Fizzby's Wonderous Strange Collection of Wee Beasties" series.  This is the Mother of Pearl Morpho Butterfly.

It was at this point when I started.

These are my progress pics from this week.

There is so much kreinik going on in there, you just don't know.  But I have a method of threading my needle and then knotting at the eye of the needle that basically takes away any fraying, etc.  So it takes away most of the "issues" kreinik can cause.

I got a package from 123Stitch this week that looked like it had really been through it.  But luckily the contents were ok.

Part of what I ordered was my fabric for the Gettysburg Address SAL.  If you would like to join in on the SAL, please join Patriotic Stitches on FB.  :0)

And, just because ~ here's my 16 year old best girlie ever.

Happy Stitching everyone!!

A method to my maddness

I have a bag where I keep all of my threads for various projects.  

Many of these threads are on rings, with each ring being matched up to a certain project.  But recently I've been having trouble always remembering which ring is for which project.  Some of them I know by sight, but others I've found that I have been getting them confused.  So I needed a way to label these individual rings.  But how to do that?

I decided to take an extra thread bobbin and write the name of the project the threads belong to and then attach the empty bobbin with the name onto the ring.

It's taken away my confusion and it's helping me stay organized.  I wish I had thought of this years ago.

I got some happy mail today.  I had ordered this little silhouette of a lady stitching.  She is sitting atop my little box I've been making stitched pieces for.

Isn't she the cutest?

And lastly ~ I finally got my Honeybee Happening piece framed.  I might be as happy as a chubby lil' peacock can be, lol.

That's all I've got for the moment.  More wip updates to come soon. ~~~

A lil' update

Nothing huge to share but a bit of WIP progress.  I have gotten a bit more done on the dragon's tail.  Although I did have to stop the last time I worked on it.  I got my thread tangled three times in a row on the back, having to frog it out each time.  At that point, I figured it just wasn't the project to work on in that moment.  This is stitched with three threads.  So even with using Thread Heaven, I have to be careful about tangles.

When I got flustered with the dragon, I wanted something easy to stitch on.  So I decided to pull out my current pillowcase pair that I've slowly been working on, off and on for most of this year.  I always like to get one new pillowcase pair stitched per year.  This is a vintage pair I found on Ebay last year.  I've really been enjoying working on these the past few nights.  They are both the same, so I'll just show one.  I'm at the same spot progress wise on both.

Earlier in the week, I worked some more on the 1 over 1 skin on my Mira.  She now has hands and a start on her decollete area.  Very slow going on this, but I can't wait to get her face done.

And I also finished the stitching on the pumpkin biscornu.  I need another piece of this fabric to stitch the needlebook.

I might see about going back to the dragon tonight to see if we can make nice with each other again, lol.

Gettysburg Address SAL

My friend Laura and I run a stitching group on Facebook called Patriotic Stitches.  We are all about patriotic and Americana themed stitching.  We are hosting a SAL starting on October 29 (although you can jump in any time after that date if you wish) for the Primrose Needleworks pattern Gettysburg Address.  (Currently on sale at 123Stitch as of 10/21/16.)  

We would love to have you join us for our SAL or simply join us in our group if you enjoy patriotic stitching patterns.  Click the link above for the group ~ hope to see you there!