Finally, progress piccys

Finally!!!!

I finally have progress piccys for you. But first, fill in the blank for those of you who watched Sesame Street as children.
One of these things is not like the others
One of these things just isn't the same
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I've got the second verse down pat, but I can't remember the words to the first verse. I've been singing it all day, lol. It got into my head from an ICHC pic, and now it's stuck in there. Grrrrrr... And I have a cute story to tell before pics too. I woke up from a short nap today, and found that Yes Dear was not on the bed. (This week, she's been sleeping in the living room for some reason. Usually, she's up my butt as much as possible.) So I sat up, and my knees fell outward from the center. So I had a sort of diamond. The points were the places where my knees bent, my feet touching together, and the place where my legs attach to my trunk. I called her and made kissy noises. She came running in (Mommy's awake, I get petted!!!!!!) and jumped up on the bed. She took one look at the way I was sitting, and promptly climbed into the diamond and laid down. I must have petted her for fifteen minutes before she got up and left. It was too cute!!! Made me wish I kept my camera by my bed, lol.

Now, on to progress pics. I have quite a few to show. I'm gonna start with Midnight Hunting (Dracolair Creations), on which I'm pissing myself off. I started the wing last time. And even though I know I don't count long distances well, I tried it anyways. The wing is made of two light blue areas. They aren't large, but they're distinct. Then, each expanding ring is a darker blue. So you get concentric rings around a blue area, darkening all the way out. It's very pretty. I did the two lighter areas last time I had him out. They're widely separate, which should have warned me. I fear nothing though, so I soldiered on and did them both. I also did the first ring around them. When I started doing some of the color in between, you know what happened. I was off by one. Both vertically and horizontally. So I'm frogging. Luckily, I found out now, before I put too much in. I went ahead and pulled out part of what I did last week (you can see the frogged spot in the photo), and started pulling out what I did last time that was off. Luckily, I could leave in a good portion of what I did this week, so I was happy about that. I also got the border on the left side all done down to the page break. It's been so fun this week after that though. I did and didn't make my goal. I made part of it, in other words. But I sort of changed it halfway through, because I got distracted by the wing. I went ahead and worked on the left side border, which you can't see cause I have since moved my Q-snap. Then, I got distracted by the wing. My original goal was to finish up the border on the left, and the border on the top. So I got the left side done, then abandoned the top to work on the very intriguing wing. It has these really cool things on it. You do the top half or bottom half or right side half or left side half in one color, and the other half in another color. (Luckily, I'm using thirty two count fabby over two.) So you come up at the left top, go down in the center, come up at the right top, go down in the center, etc. So you have what looks like a child's version of sharks teeth. (Or any animal, really. I've seen dogs with this kind of teeth, and cats, and dinosaurs, lol.) It's really a lot of fun to do (for me). Teeny little stitches though. (I love that too, lol. Y'all know how I like my teeny over ones, lol.) It was looking really good till I realized I had to frog. Still, I should have known better, lol. I have no one to blame but me! Yes, I AM a dork. But in a good way, lol.

Next up is my other rotation piece (Midnight Hunting ended on 7/14), Frost Moon (HAED, Nene Thomas). I only got a little bit of time to work on it Monday, but I got pretty good progress for it. I went ahead and did the few confetti stitches first. (There were about five of them.) Then I did color number two (about a hundred stitches). Now I'm doing color number three, which is the rest of the column of ten by tens. I checked it against what I have, and all the stitches that should have been done before I started this have been done. So now, it's all fill in. It will go very quickly. My goal on this one is to have the ten by ten column done by Saturday night when I finish it up for this rotation. Also notable about Frost Moon, it is the beginning of the new rotation. They go by so fast when I only work on them a week. I'm still not used to how fast it seems. (I LOVE the colors in this. It's freaking gorgeous.) Hopefully, I'll finish up what I want to since it will be going so fast. It's gonna be six hundred stitches over Friday and Saturday, but that's very doable for me. They go really fast when you're not crossing them, lol.

Next up is my Sunday project, Beach Romance (Janlynn).She's coming along very well, I think. I got the rest of the green done. And then I put in a lot of white in her dress. Now I'm working on a light violet color that I really like. It's looking good, if I do say so myself. I love the shades of green in it. And (more on this later) we went over to mom's for dinner on Wed night last week. It was mom, me, Amy, and David and Vin. It was a good opportunity for me to remember to ask Amy if she wanted me to color match the flowers from her bouquet. She thought that would be a great idea. They're charted in white, but her flowers were vibrant blues and purples. Gorgeous. So she finally sent me the link to the wedding pics (I posted a few the other day). I went in and looked at the flowers, and then I pulled out my large huge stash of variegated threads. I LOVE variegated threads, and I use them for my hardanger. (Drives Vicki crazy, cause she charts them for perle. She keeps saying I need to use perle, but I love my six stranded flossies, so I use them. Such pretty colors...) Anyways, I found the perfect match. It's the floss I bought myself for my birthday last year. It's almost a perfect match. The blue isn't quite right, but the floss is beautiful. So I'm gonna use that. (It's Silk'n'Colors Grape Soda, if you want to look.) The pic's not very big, but I can't get a good one either, so it's the best I've got for now.) So I need to remember to take that with me next time I work on it. And thanks again for the French Knot Tutorial that allowed me to do French Knots again. Cause there are a LOT of them in the flowers.

Next is Time To Go (Witch Stitch'n'Bits), which is my Tuesday SAL with Vicky. She mentioned last time she was jealous of my progress while she was on vacation, and didn't have it with her. Don't worry, Vicky, I'm quite sure you'll catch up to me. I have to admit, I'm glad I took the pic where I did. I had it off the Q-snap to take a piccy cause I'm gridding the next page. And I took it with my desk light on, and it's extremely bright. It's also a CFL (compact florescent lightbulb), and so it shows EVERYTHING!!! You can actually see that there's a little black, and a lot of brown in this project. In the previous pics, you can't tell them apart. I was really excited by that. And yes, I DID finish the page last week, like I said I was going to. I got a little start on page two today, and then realized that I had to grid it first. Ugh, lol. I hate doing it, but love being able to check the grid against my stitching to make sure I'm in the right place. It's looking good, I think, despite all the brown. One down, fifty five to go, lol.

And lastly for today is Noah's Sub (Stoney Creek). (I don't have an answer yet on showing the quilt project, so I'm skipping it again.) It's coming right along. I finished the bands I was working on last time, fixed the orca's top stitches, and started another band. I'm going to alternate so I don't get all the fun stuff done and have only sky. (It hasn't bored me yet, but the longer I go on boring stuff, the more likely it is to bore me.) I still love the colors in this. The purples are so pretty. I love them. I've decided to do all of the orca on this page first, and then I'll start alternating with the zebra. There's hardly any of it on this page, but you'll see most of the orca on it. Just his tail is on the next page. I'm really pleased with my progress on this one, but this week it's my second fave (Frost Moon is my first. I absolutely adore this chart. Nene Thomas is a genius). That's all of the progress I have to show.

And I do wanna tell you about dinner at mom's house. She invited myself, my brother, and my sister in law over for dinner for David's birthday. She made lasagna, which was delicious. It was a fun time. We finished dinner and went in the living room and chatted for a while. David's talking about renovating his Sandal Ct. house (my dad's old house) for him and Amy to live in maybe. I suggested that by the time he starts revnovating, we'll know how I'm gonna do in school. My suggestion was the do the garage renovations (he needs lots of garage space for my dad's tools, and he still has my dad's classic car out there too), and wait on the house ones. It's a nice little house (little being the operative word) and great for one person. If I was able, I would love to live there after I finished up school. Or even during, if I can manage to get up the money. I told him straight up though, I need to prove myself to him before he can let me live there. He's known me almost since birth, and he's seen me struggle with school and obligations in the past. I have no problem with him waiting a while to make sure I'm gonna be able to cut it before he starts thinking about letting me live there. I've been thinking when I get a good job, I'd like to get a nice little two bedroom house. One room for me to sleep in, and one room for what mom calls my "junk". (NO, it's NOT junk.) She labels my books and stitchy stuff junk because she doesn't want to take the time to say, "Charts, fabric, floss, books, charts, kits, and accessories. She hasn't figured out the word stash yet, lol. I'd like to put five bookcases in the spare bedroom so I could display my sixteen boxes of books. And I'd like to put my stash all in one place. Right now, it's in two places in my living room, and in a place in my bedroom, and in the living room closet. (I have lots of stash.) Oh, and my HAED charts are stacked next to my desk, too. I have stuff all over the place, lol. So that's what's on the table atm. I told him when I get a job, I'll buy the house from him. (He got all Alpha about that. "I'll set a price, and that's what you'll pay." Since he's done so much work on the house, I have no problem with that. I know my brother, and he's a good guy. He'll get out of it what he put into it (and he'll probably get more from me than he would another buyer cause I've seen all the work he's done to it), and I'll get a nice house. He can leave the tools in the garage, and use the garage space. I'm hoping I can get him to teach Patrick, my son, how to cut the grass with the tractor out there. I'm sure he wouldn't mind making some money by cutting it for me, and it would be a nice way to see him once in a while. (Yes, this is all REALLY early. I'm planning way ahead, and who knows what's gonna happen. We'll all have to see what goes on.)

That's pretty much it for me tonight, folks. I'm gonna head for the balcony in a few, and get a good chunk done on Time To Go, after I finish a little bit of gridding. I hope you're all having a good night. Oh, and for those that commented on my last entry (thanks, btw), yes, I do realize I won't have time to do anything but school except maybe on the weekends. I understand that I won't have time to stitch or play or read. I'm okay with that. I may be able to find some time on the weekends, depending on homework. We'll just have to wait and see. Love the comments, though, so keep 'em coming!!