Unexpected Turn of Events... and SHS Report

LHN's Home of a Needleworker

In reference to my previous post, I was busy stitching the "sisterhood stitching (SHS)" (photo above) last Sunday and almost finished it that night. Unfortunately, I run out of some DMC threads and had to re-evaluate the design so I can substitute other colors. But when I'm done re-evaluating it, I decided to stitch more quaker medallions. I intend to finish stitching SHS in 2 days so I can mail it out right away to Zohrah (in Singapore) - the 10th stitcher of SHS - but due to unexpected turn of events, everything I planned changed. Zohrah dear, if you're reading this post, I will do my best to mail the pattern early next week - granting the roads going to our post office are all ok otherwise it will be postponed again.

To walk you through my SHS piece, it was stitched on tea-dyed 28 count linen and majority of the recommended floss were used... I started stitching it on Sunday at around 1PM as follows: borders, wall and roof of the house, wordings, remainder of the house then part of the alphabet. Majority of my stitching time was while watching the superbowl with DH, during the afternoon anyway. The rest was finished on Tuesday. I'm planning on finishing this piece into a bolster pillow with crazy patchwork and/or primitive style fabric. But we'll see, I might change my mind this week, and just finished it into a rectangular pillow instead. :)

I'm a little bit disappointed with my finishing accomplishment this month, so far anyway. It's almost 10 days already and I only managed to (100%) finished 6 pieces. On the other hand, my stitching accomplishment is awesome. I met my target of at least one piece a day goal... I stitched about 6 or 7 medallions, plus the SHS and matching fobs for the quaker medallions. Photos above and below are the outside and inside look of my finished pieces. The red biscornu is about 4.5" square and green is 3.5" square. I finished AMAP's latest CP into a neck pocket, with multiple compartments at the back. There's a slot for scissors and a couple of "thread covered" thread rings. I crocheted the hanger using Bernat Frenzy yarn... This would be perfect to carry on stitching classes or get-together. The pinkeep is about 3.5" square. It's been a while since the last time I made a pinkeep using this method. I usually embellish the edges of this finishing with Mill Hill seed beads but I decided to keep this piece simple. I just added pins with colorful heads for extra fling. The "floral" pop-up needlekeep/pinkeep is 3.25" sqaure when closed. The ties are made of crocheted blanc DMC #5 perle cotton, adorned with "red flight" wooden beads. The "bird" pop-up needlekeep/pinkeep is 3.5" sqaure when closed. I used satin ribbon (adorned with "red flight" wooden beads) as ties. The wooden beads got pretty pattern, too bad my camera couldn't capture the beauty in them.

I have more stitched medallions to finish tomorrow and will upload photos here once they're done... so come back to check them out.:)

Quaker Smalls

If not for the unexpected turn of events, I could have finished more... We were once again hit by another ice storm on Monday (started past midnight). Before DH went to work on Sunday night, he told me if the roads are not ok on Monday morning, he'll just gonna stay at the hotel. And he did... as he was advised by his "first shift" co-workers of the severe road condition he's supposed to go through. Do you think I stitched on Monday? Well, hard to believe but nope, I ended up doing some chores and reorganizing my craft stuffs... particularly jewelry making and cross stitch stash.

On Tuesday morning, DH came home (carrying our Monday mails as I didn't go to the mailbox that day... toooooooo cold... lol) just to pick me up and go back to the hotel right away. We're supposed to have 12" of snow but thank goodness we only got about 7". We didn't able to open our mails, DH was so much in a hurry that he wanted me to pack immediately. I didn't even brought much of my stitching stuffs too... I just grabbed my pre-cut 5.5" square linens, lots of red DMC's, and SHS stuffs. On our way to the hotel, the roads were kinda bumpy already due to heavy snow falls. Needless to say, I stitched a bunch of quaker medallions at the hotel during my 3 days stay there.

We checked out on Thursday noontime then went straight to the hospital for DH's appointment. His doctor's monitoring his blood every 6 months, due to unbalanced white blood counts. We're 1.5 hours early (he thought his appointment was 1PM, it's 2PM actually... lol) so we had lunch first at Chef King Buffet (my fave Chinese restaurant in town) then spent the rest of our time at a nearby video house. I ended up getting DH 3 DVD's (Planet Terror, Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End, and Superbad) as part of his birthday gifts. Though his white blood count is still unbalanced, his doctor accured us it's nothing serious and shouldn't worry about it. We already got a second opinion last year, as suggested by his doctor, and the result was negative on leukemia. However, DH's blood has to be monitored every (at least) 6 months. We got some groceries before we went home... and the first thing we did once we're home was calling MIL, of course. lol

Friday went smoothly... I didn't stitch but finished the quakers in the photos above. However, my Saturday was a little hectic again. Me, Katie and SIL were supposed to go at the YMCA (so Katie can swim, part of her leg muscle therapy) but she had fever on Thursday afternoon so SIL postponed it. They still picked me up at 10AM though, then went to an estate auction were MIL and her older sister was. No craft stuffs so don't be surprised I went out empty handed... lol mostly tools, furnitures and housewares.

At around 12:30PM we went to a social event for handicapped kids. We only stayed there for about an hour then had lunch at a Mexican Restaurant "Uncle Jack"... Our last destination for the day was Walmart, SIL got some groceries while me and Katie looked for more High School Musical items. I got her a red shirt and another bracelet, while SIL got her HSM 2 soundtrack. I already lost count how many HSM stuffs I got for Katie, but I'm sure she'll be very happy with all of them.

I guess I better sign off here... my eyes are falling and my fingers and brain doesn't coordinate well anymore. Gotta go to bed and get some rest but will be back with avengence soon. lol