I had a great time stitching on Friday night for the Let’s Stitch blog’s weekly stitch-a-thon (SAT). My piece of choice this week was the new Sea to Shining Sea silk thread pack series from Diane Williams of Little House Needleworks.

I actually started this piece earlier in the week on Tuesday after getting home from the polls. I volunteered as a poll worker at my local voting precinct that day and felt like working on something a bit patriotic to unwind when I got home that night. Since this series is called Sea to Shining Sea, it seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

Here are my before & after pics for the SAT:

For some reason, must be the difference between taking the photos in daylight vs. night time, the fabric looks different in each picture. It’s 32-count Natural Raw linen as called for in the chart. The fibers are Belle Soie silks from Crescent Colors which are included in the thread packs.

Yesterday I went an all-day stitch tomorrow at my LNS. As usual, we had a great time and lots of good food. We always have a potluck and it seemed like this month everyone went for either hors d’oeuvres or desserts. There’s wasn’t too much in the way of “real” food, but we all enjoyed it none the less. I stitched a bit more on Sea to Shining Sea and also stitched on an ornament. I won’t be posting a picture of it though since it’s for an exchange coming up in a couple of weeks.

I know I’ve been remiss the past few weeks since vacation of getting my weekly walking schedule posted. I’ll try and get that posted tomorrow to help hold myself accountable. I really need to focus on it all the more now because not only is it training for my half marathon in June, but it will help me earn Activity Points for Weight Watchers. I realized this weekend that I really need the accountability of the meetings, so I went back on Saturday morning and rejoined. Even if it was cheaper, trying to lose weight on my own just wasn’t working. I’ll just have to find some other places to cut back a bit to help offset the cost of the $40 monthly pass to WW.

I do have a couple of areas in mind already on how to cut back a bit on my expenses. I’m planning to help accomplish that goal is starting to take my lunch again which will save me not only money, but calories as well since I’ll have more control over what I’m eating. The other plan is to start making my own iced coffee at home rather than stopping at Starbucks or McDonalds. That should actually save me quite a bit as well since I would normally stop a couple of times per week for coffee.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

BeckySC over on the Let’s Stitch blog challenged all of us to pull out our oldest UFO this week and work on it. I actually have two UFO’s about the same age (both started within a two week period of Sept. 2005) that I’m hoping to work on this week.

The first is Celtic Christmas by Lavender & Lace. I pulled her out yesterday and worked on her for a couple of hours. Even though it’s a bit difficult to see, I feel like I made good progress on her since I got some of the missing portions of her skirt filled. Here’s a couple of photos.

Before (as of January 2007):

After (as of yesterday:

I have to say, after seeing these comparison photos, it makes me really glad I recently purchased a new digital camera. LOL It shows the colors much more accurately than the first photo since I am stitching this on a cream linen.

My other UFO project that I’m hoping to work on some this week is Rosemarkie by Long Dog Designs. I love this project so much, but about all I have left is the backstitching. Have I mentioned just HOW much I detest backstitching? I.hate.it. Here is my most recent progress photo of Rosemarkie. I’ll post an updated one later in the week after I work on it as well.

Before (as of February 2007):