Back to Stitching

Back in 1992 I was in a craft shop with Mom and FabHub.

I wasn't really thrilled to be there.

I didn't DO crafts.

Then I found this counted cross stitch pattern of my favorite classic car.

I said "I can do that."

They laughed.

I said "No really, I can do that."

So they bought the pattern, fabric, and floss and said "Do it then."

And I did.

Then I went to the local needlework shop and found some more patterns that I liked.

And I did those.

Don't look too closely. They need to be cleaned.

All I did was finish and then wrap them up sometime between 1993 and 1994 or so.

Some of them were started and finished while I was stationed in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.

That didn't help with keeping them clean.

This one is called "Happy Together" doesn't it look like FabHub and me?

Ok, quit laughing. I am not blonde.

This one was meant to represent our farm.

It still does. I love it here.

This is from a series that Grandma Klein sent me. It is called Midwestern Barn.

There are more in the series. I should find them.

This one was absolutely done while in Saudi Arabia. 

I distinctly remember craft nights in the common room. 

One of the girls knitting or crocheting, another doing some embroidery, and me doing this CCS.

This one, I don't know why I did it. It turned out very nice though.

After I got out of the Air Force I also did a couple of Indian dream catchers. I gave them away as a Christmas present in '94 or '95. I haven't seen them again. They were nice though.

This is my latest purposeful start and finish.

Garrett's Birth Announcement

I bought it a few years ago with intentions of finishing it for my sister and her husband's first baby. 

They finally told me there was a due date and I had to hurry to finish it. 

They were on time. I was late. 

But at Christmas of 2009 Mom and I added the denim border and wrapped it around a photo album. 

It turned out really nice.

Guess what.

They are pregnant again.

I need to make another birth announcement.

Which has inspired me to finally complete a project that I started in late 1993.

And finished on 30 January 2011.

Completing it was originally inspired by FabHub's desire to have and hunt beagles.

We don't have or care for beagles anymore. They are kind of whinny.

The one in the picture is slightly modified to resemble my pup Wrinkles.

She was killed by a neighbor dog many years ago.

It was a really bad experience.

SO ANYWAY...

I just felt like I had to finish that one before I started anything else. 

I have a pattern to start for the new baby.

I also have a pattern coming from Heaven and Earth Designs.

Some day. 

It went to the printers several days ago and status finally changed to In Print.

So I am hoping tomorrow it will be shipped.

It is a full coverage picture. No backstitch. No partial stitches.

Hours and hours of work.

Once it gets here I will have to figure out what fabric I need and make sure I have all the colors.

Then I will have to find some fabric.

The local store doesn't carry what I think I will need.

I am sure they can order it, but the store is 25 miles away in a town I don't go to very often.

And if they are only going to carry the most basic and common fabric...

So, while I would like to support the local store, I will probably end up ordering online.

I have to get to sleep now. Our gym opens early in the morning and I have been procrastinating on that too.

To finish up our trip to Iowa I have a few more pictures to share. The evening before we left Uncle Billy, otherwise known as Bibby, found some spare change in his pockets and wallet I think, so he and Garrett took a sit on the floor to feed the pig.

As you can see that is one of his favorite activities.

Another of his favorite fun things is to read.

He loves to pretend and has quite a supply in his basket to work through.

Garrett is a pretty happy boy most of the time. 

We really enjoyed our visit and look forward to seeing him and his parents again soon.

Luckily there is a trip being planned for July when we hope to meet another family member.

Garrett will make an awesome big brother.

The next day we headed home. 

This time instead of the snow there was lots of fog.

This was taken at about 10am. At least traffic was light. We had good luck with that pretty much the whole trip. It seems no one else wanted to be driving north for the holidays.

We stopped outside of Dayton, OH on the way back. There is a shorter route, but we wanted to stop at the Rocky Outlet store in Nelsonville, OH, so we took the long way around.

The Hampton Inn that we stayed at had an attribute that I wish could be in more hotels. It is pretty simple. I don't know why they don't all do it. 

Put a hook or three on the wall in the bathroom so that a person can hang their travel bag. Pretty simple right?

Makes a big difference in my hotel happiness. 

This was a welcome sight after nine days of travel. 

Back across the border.

And now a week later we are back to this.

At least it is Saturday.

Have a great winter be back later!