Finish #5 for 2013

About 1am today, I finished the final mystery from Sticklounge.  Unless something drastic happens, the group will close at the end of June.  I've had a lot of fun stitching what was offered over the last three years.  Just to reminisce, I think I'll pull some pictures back up.

and finally there is the last mystery

Now, Dorothy is back on the q-snaps so I'm going to go pour a hot cup of coffee and work on the bargello band for a bit.

The end is in sight!

This shows part 8 of Purple Garden.  Part 9, the final part, will be released October 1.

Next up is Frosty Knotgarden again.  It's getting close too, I just get burned out on the repeats so it takes way longer than it should. 

Purple Garden update

Page 7 of Purple Garden came off the q-snaps about 6 last night. 

Which is about the same time as my DH got home from Oklahoma.  Don't ask my why he thought he had to go.  Originally, he was going to take part of our play set down to be set up at his parents "farm".  First problem.  Dang slide was way too big to fit in the car.  Ooops!  So he went anyway.  That was ok though.  Gave us a quiet weekend.  Or as quiet as 10 8-9 year old boys could make it.  Yikes!  I don't think half of them knew how to close a door though.  This morning at the bus stop, one of the other moms told me that her son told her that I was the best mom ever.  What a compliment!

After I took Purple Garden off the q-snaps, I went looking for fabric for the Sticklounge new start.  I had pulled out Petit Sampler and looked at it and thought about it...just couldn't do it.  Don't ask me why.  I'm still debating on what color I'm think of for the new start.  I have a piece I got off e-bay last year called Chocolate from Silkweaver.  The more I think about it though, I think this will look better on a piece of plain white.  I'll have to dig through my stash some more.

So, after much deliberation, Lust came back out and I actually managed to put 100 stitches or so into it.  My goal is to at least finish page 9 and start page 10 before I move onto something else.

Andrea, in answer to your questions

Jewelweek is Jewelweed.  My fingers are dyslexic sometimes.

Gandy Dancer 1141 is actually OMG Red 1141

Wattle & Daub Premium is Wattle and Daub in premium weight.  You can find it in the drop down box for size.  I think it's the third option in the drop down box.

Custom color for Jade.  Vikki has a custom forum where people twist custom colors.  If you can get people to purchase 10 minis, Vikki will dye it.  It's cheaper to buy minis this way.  This one would cost $4.50 in the mini forum.  I did post in the main forum asking if anyone else would be interested.  I'll send you an e-mail and let you know.

Purple Garden and 15 Project Challenge

I am finally getting caught up with this one!  I took a little break from the repeats in Winter Watergarden  to return to the repeats fo Purple Garden.  This is parts 1-6.  There are just three more parts to go which are similiar to the very bottom.  I got part 7 in my e-mail this morning so I'm set to go. 

After I finished this part of Purple Garden I put Petit Sampler back on my q-snaps.  I had to finish making supper and it was getting dark so I didn't work on it last night but I did bring it to work this morning.  After the boys went to bed I did put a few more stitches into Winter Watergarden. 

Andie at Stitchitandie is doing a 25 project challenge.  She's not buying any more stash till she has 25 projects completed, with exceptions.  I've decided to join.  But, I've got a few changes.  Since sooooo many of my WIPs and kitted projects are BAPs I'm going to do a 15 project challenge.  No more stash till I finish 15 projects! 

I do have a few exceptions though.

1.  HDF FOTM and VFOTM. 

2.  Fibers needed if missing from kitted projects. 

3.  Missing beads, treasures, etc that are needed for kitted projects.

So, here's the beginning of the list.

1. Chatelaine's Winter Watergarden

2. Chatelaine's Spring Knotgarden

4.  Chatelaine's Watergarden

5.  Petit Sampler (with Sticklounge)

6.  Purple Garden (with Sticklounge)

7.  Bygone Stitches One Nation

8.  Chatelaine's Frosty Knotgarden

9.  Mirabilia's Garden Verses

10.  HAED Mermaid of the Deep SK

11.  Chatelaine's Summer Knotgarden

12.  Stained Glass Window (Sticklounge)

13.  Adriana B (Sticklounge)

14.  Christmas tree skirt (kit)

15.

Several of these are so close to being finished!  By the end of the year, I would love to be able to cross at least three or four off my list.

My weekend...

The following picture is one I'm not proud of.  This is one of the desks in my office.  Since we moved back into our house after the tornado, this desk has been in this space.  I've meant to finish stripping the old finish off and restrip it but life has gotten in the way.  So, this desk has become a dumping ground for books I've read and just haven't gotten taken downstairs to the book shelves, bills that have been paid, etc, etc, etc. 

My to do list that I wrote this spring included this desk.  I was going to build a cabinet for everything that needs to be filed.  You can see my plans here.  I had planned on refinishing the desk and putting it in Jakob's room for homework.

Enter my husband...

He's decided that he needs to start doing his plastic models again.  So, he needs a desk to be able to them on.  Which is going in the spare bedroom so he can close the door and the cats won't be able to get to them. So we made a trip to Menards (a local home improvement store) and I bought a bunch of lumber.  By the end of yesterday, this is what that lumber looked like.

 Then I decided I was done for the day.  It's hot and sweaty in the garage! I much prefer the a/c!!

Purple Garden was still up and I finished part 5 last night.  I really like those darker flowers around the center!

This morning, I stitched on Winter Watergarden this morning and started some laundry while I wondered if it was going to rain again.  Can't hang laundry outside if it's raining, you know, it kind of defeats the purpose!

This afternoon, at Ed's prodding, I started putting my little cabinet together.  Here's what it looks like right now.  It needs a little tweaking so the drawers open all the way.  Ed helped me figure out how to install the hinges, but I need to change where they're installed to make them work the way I want.

I still need some paint after my tweaking is done, but I haven't decided what color to use.  I have some white, which is easy.  The walls in my office are called Seringetti Sands (that name has stuck with me for 6 years!)  It's kind of a tan color.  So white would definately work. 

Anybody in blog land have any suggestions?

What did you do this weekend?

Sunday update

I finished part 4 of Purple Garden with the Sticklounge group last night.  I figured I should probably post progress on something so they didn't decide to kick me out of the group for non-participation!  I'll probably get part 5 tomorrow. 

After I finished this part of Purple Garden last night I pulled out the Friendship heart and put a few stitches on part 3.  This isn't a very big part, so I should be able to finish it today.  I also brouht up Winter Watergarden since part 6 was released last week.  It ist a very large piece so I should be caught up again in a week or so.

Later!

Purple Garden

I finished part 3 of Purple Garden last night.

I have lilacs in the yard which are trying so hard to bloom. If we could get some sun and warmer temps, they would fit right into this little garden.

Playin hookey!

I've been naughty this week. Monday and Tuesday, I stayed home from work for no good reason. It's been a very long March at work. To make a long story short, on Feb 1, the server at work crashed. It took a month to get the data restored and installed on a new server. So the month of March involved all the work from February and March. Fun!! Not. I did get caught up by the 15th of March though. So I thought I deserved a couple days off. Here's what I've gotten accomplished this week. Part 5 of Homage to Japan. Those rows of squares at the very top were supposed to be every single color in this piece. I decided I didn't want to do that so I picked out one color for each row. It stitched up much faster this way! Part 2 of Purple Garden. Looking at the chart of this one made me realize that I had looked at it wrong. I only needed the darkest color for the central motif on the larger motif in the top left corner. This part stitched up in an evening. Part 3 came out Friday and I'm planning to pick this piece back up is just a little bit.

Part 4 of Winter Watergaden. I had the upper leaves on this one stitched up Thursday night since Martina was kind enought to release this part a day early. We went out to supper and got groceries last night though, so I was only able to to get the third leaf done and finished part 4 today. I really love these leaves! I did find a counting error in the trees while stitiching part 4 but I'm not going to tell where it is. I'm NOT going to frog the trees!

I also picked up Frosty Knotgarden for a little while this week and got the upper right side of part5 and 6 done. 1900 ABC also got some attention. I got about half a page done on that one. Both of those will make an appearance here when they make some more progress.

Anyone want a free husband? It seems that we had too much together time this weekend. For the last I don't know how many years, my DH has worked Sunday - Thursday. Sunday was the day for me and the boys. I got lots of stitching done on Sundays! Well, that has all changed. He got his schedule changed to a normal work week and we spent the whole weekend together. What's more, he decided that he needed to clean all day Sunday. He brought the shop vac in and cleaned every nook and cranny he could find. Ugh! I did get some stitching done this week though. First up is Purple Garden that I'm stitching with the Sticklounge group. There is a motif that goes in upper left corner but I'm debating on the colors. I just ordered some more of the darkest purple so it may wait till I get that. Then I pulled frosty Knotgarden back out. Apparently, I'm not getting enough winter themed Chatelaine! I don't know if this part of the border is supposed to be snow or what but it stitches up fairly quickly, if I get my stitching time. There is absolutely no way I'll have this finished by the time the next part of Winter Watergarden comes out Friday, but I'm hoping to have this side totally finished!