My latest finish was the first shoe for the Hagatha’s Slipper class that I took recently from Margaret Bendig. I finished this part up on Friday night, so now I just need to do it again in reverse for the opposite side.

What caused me to stray from my challenge? Well, once all of the Halloween designs started coming out recently, I knew I was doomed. I *love* Halloween stitching! Here are my latest purchases that I picked up at my LNS yesterday when I was there for our monthly Saturday Stitch.

Click to enlarge

I’m going to leave my 25 Projects page (also linked at the top of my blog) in place. After I make a few purchases from the St. Charles fall market for TNNA coming up in a couple of weeks, I plan to get back on my challenge and make NO MORE purchases until I finish the remaining 14 projects to reach my goal of 25.

Speaking of the St. Charles market, have you seen one of the new designs coming out from Paulette at Plum Street Samplers? I’m not usually much on the whole Adam & Eve samplers deal, but this one is a MUST have for me! It’s called “Garden of Eerie” and cracks me up every time I look at it. What an incredibly fun design!! (Hey Darla, did you spot there’s a vulture on it?! ;))

Paulette has three other designs coming out at market as well. You can see them on the Kelmscott website since they are the distributor for her designs.

Oh yeah, as long as I’m confessing, I should probably ‘fess up to not sticking with my new rotation plan either. I am actually in the process of reworking it though, so I’m not saying yet that I’m completely abandoning it. I’m playing around with a concept that Terri mentioned to me. Rather than selecting particular designs to incorporate into the rotation, each slot would be a particular theme instead. Here is what I’ve come up with so far:

10 hours on current projects (started within the past 6 months)
10 hours on older projects (started more than 6 months ago)
10 hours on seasonal projects (Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc.)
10 hours on samplers
10 hours on canvas projects
10 hours on “anything goes” project(s) of my choice

I’ll just have to decide if I want to go forward with it. I made it through three slots of the previous rotation I had set up and found myself hating it the whole time. I think it’s the rebellious child in me. I just want to stitch on what I want when I want without some stinkin’ rotation telling me what to do. ;)

I have a couple of floss toss pics to share with you all as well. I think since this entry is already getting pretty long, I’ll save those for another day.

Until next time …

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This month things were a bit different than normal. We generally just have an open stitching class and everyone works on whatever they want. This month we were divided up into two separate groups because some were taking a class called Hagatha’s Slipper designed by Margaret Bendig. The other group followed the usual format and stitched on whatever projects they liked.

As for me, I did a combination of the two. ;) I started out with the class group until Margaret had gone over the basic instructions for the class, and then I moved back over to the main group so I could spend time with Dana, Terri, and Darla. Here’s a pic of the class model along with the progress I made today:

While I was at the shop, I also picked up some fibers for a chart I’ve had in my stash for a couple of years, but have never gotten around to stitching. It’s Voodoo Bob (a.k.a. Voodoo Boy from Haberdashery Designs). After seeing Missy Ann finish her Voodoo Boy, it has me hankering again to want to stitching. Since I’m not a fan of Kreinik, I’ve opted to go with Accentuate for mine. The fabric I’m going to use is some 32-count Black Ask Lugana by Sassy’s Fabrics from my stash.

There were also a couple of fantastic finishes that people showed off today. The first is Mermaid of the Pearls by Mirabilia stitched by Lisa who works part-time at the shop. The other finish was actually a framing finish as well. Olga brought in her beautiful version of Margaret’s Plum Blossom Kimono. She opted to go with a red & green colorway and had it framed using double silk custom-cut mats. It’s gorgeous!

Well, I guess that’s it for now. I’ll post pics of my start on My Lady’s Quaker soon. Yes, I started yet another project. I’m hopeless!

Until next time …

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You’ll likely notice a lot of metallic ribbon and braid near the top this month. That was from the Multiplicity class that I took. It was a fun piece to work on, but I was glad when it was finished so I could have a break from all those metallics and get back to some floss. ;)

We’re also down to last call for my blogiversary/1000th post giveaway. As of the time I’m writing this, there is about 25 minutes remaining to enter. I’m going to try my absolute best to get the winner announced tomorrow as promised. However, my DSL modem/router died very late Sunday night and I was wouldn’t internet access at home until last night when I replaced it. Losing two days of internet access at home resulted in me getting way behind in adding the names of the entrants to my list. As you can tell by the number of comments I’ve received, it’s a bit of a daunting task. Anyway, if I don’t get completely caught up tonight, then I’ll finish up tomorrow night and announce the winner on Friday.

Until next time …. when I announce the big winner …. ;)

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Design: Multiplicity
Designer: Margaret Bendig
Fabric: 18-count white mono canvas
Fibers: Kreinik braids & Rainbow Gallery Fyre Werks ribbon
Click image to enlarge

I really love this color palette! It works really well with the color of my living furniture which is kind of a sage green microfiber. I really wish I could capture these colors better so you could appreciate them more fully. Photographing metallics is a real PITA! Here is a list of the colors I used along with a coordinating reference point in the piece:

Kreinik braid #4002 (Spiced Chai) – Smyrna border
Kreinik braid #4003 (Ginseng Gold) – background of the wicker/basket looking stitch
Kreinik braid #4004 (Earl Grey) – fill-in stitching on the sides
Kreinik braid #4005 (Sugar Cube) – top of the large overlapping stitches on the side
Fyre Werks FT33 (Moonglow) – light color woven stitches in the center
Fyre Werks FT50 (Old Gold) – dark color woven stitches in the center

As I mentioned, this piece was a very fun stitch. I enjoyed it so much that I’m actually considering stitching it again. I think it would be very cool to do it on black canvas using orange & black fibers for a Halloween look. What do you guys think?

Anyway, now that this piece is finished (project #10 on my 25 finishes challenge), I think I’ll be going back to Mary Wigham this weekend.

Until next time …

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As of Sunday evening:

As of Tuesday evening:

As of Wednesday evening (colors are off in this pic – taken with my iPhone):

Thanks for the compliments about the additional fibers I picked up for my Mary Wigham sampler. In addition to the comments posted, I also received a few emails from people asking for my conversion. I’m still playing around with the fibers I picked up this weekend to see which will work and which won’t. Once I have it all worked out (hopefully by Saturday), I’ll post the full conversion.

Also, I’m aware that I still haven’t posted my Blogiversary giveaway information yet. I have taken the picture of what I plan to giveaway, but I haven’t had time to type up the names & find links for a various charts. That’s another thing I have on my To Do list for this weekend. Since I’m closing in really quickly on my 1000th blog post, I’ve decided to make it a joint blog candy giveaway in honor of both events.

Until next time …

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When we arrived on Friday night, we immediately drove over to Needle Nook of La Jolla for a bit of shopping before going to the hotel. We got there about a half hour before they were closing, so we didn’t have a whole lot of time to look around that night. The shop is divided into two different storefronts on the same block, and we only made it through the first one. We did go back later in the weekend and did a bit more damage in the second half of the store though. ;)

During the course of the two trips, I ended up with a good selection of neutral over-dyes in my quest to still find the last few I need for my Mary Wigham sampler. I also picked up a Namaste Buddy Case. These things are so cool! Each side is magnetic, so things like scissors and needles are held in place. Now, I wouldn’t recommend turning it upside down or anything as the magnets are that strong, but it is enough to keep things from just randomly falling out. I don’t think anyone would ever realize this case wasn’t actually leather if you didn’t tell them. It’s really nice faux leather!

The main purpose of the trip was to attend the 2009 Stitch In hosted by the San Diego chapter of the American Needlepoint Guild. The project for this year was a frame weight design called Multiplicity taught by my friend & local teacher, Margaret Bendig. Here is my progress as of last night:

As you can see, I opted for a neutral color palette for my frame weight. She did offer it in a variety of different color options. I snapped a photo of several of the finished models with my iPhone, so it’s not the greatest in the world. Here is it though to show how differently this piece looks done in different colorways:

The orange/brown combination wasn’t a option for us at the class. After seeing that version though, it really makes me want to stitch this again in orange & black for Halloween.

In addition to our class kits, Lindsay and I both walked away some goodies, too. Lindsay won a bit basket full of Southwest-inspired canvases & fibers in one of the opportunity ticket drawings. She entered about three different drawings, and actually won the one that she wanted the most, so that was very cool. Sadly, I completely spaced and forgot to take a picture of what she won.

While I didn’t win any of the three opportunity ticket drawings I entered, I did win a door prize. I got a set of three Lizzie Kate Seasonal Boxers. The bundle included Spring, Summer, and Winter. I clearly need to buy the Autumn kit now. ;)

One of the ladies who was taking the class is walking in the San Diego 3-day Cancer Walk in November. Her granddaughter made a bunch of scissor fobs for her to sell to help raise money for her and her teammates for the walk. She was only charging $5 each for them, so Lindsay and I each bought a couple of the fobs. Since it was going to a really good cause and they weren’t that expensive to begin with, I chipped in some extra donation to help out her team.

On Saturday night after class, Lindsay and I headed up to Carlsbad to hit the outlet mall for some shopping. We only went to Crate & Barrel (very disappointing) and the Fossil store. Neither of us bought anything at C&B since it wasn’t very thrilling, but we had no trouble spending money at Fossil. Lindsay picked up a couple of cool watches, and I picked up a watch & a purse. We talked about hitting the Coach and Dooney & Bourke stores, but ended up deciding against it. We figured we’d spent enough money already during the weekend. Here are a couple of pics of what I bought:

After we left Fossil, we decided we would drive over to King’s Fish House for dinner. I started rifling through my purse to get my keys, but I couldn’t find them. I looked into the car and my heart just about sank when I saw them sitting in the seat. No worries I thought, I just use my AAA keycard that I keep in my wallet. It was then that I remembered I pulled it out recently when I went on vacation to help reduce the bulk in my wallet. I meant to put it back in my wallet when I got home from vacation, but completely forgot. So, no keycard. Instead, I had to call AAA and have them send someone out to rescue us. Thankfully, from the time I placed the call until we were driving to the restaurant was only 25 minutes! AAA FTW!!!

Well, this is turning into a novella at this point. I will end by saying we made it safely home and had a great time this weekend!

Until next time …

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The online cross stitch shop Volarium is giving away a copy of “Cross Stitch Letters Bible” by Valerie Lejeune. I recently thumbed through this book at my LNS and drooled over all the various alphabets.

The book has over 700 pages and contains over 800 alphabets! It retails for $52, but this is someone’s chance to win it for free. You have until July 19 to enter. Full details of the giveaway can be found in this post on their blog.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, I’m still on vacation. I’ll try and post again in a few days when I’m back home with pics from the Ellen Chester class I took as well as some vacation photos.

I will close with a couple of teaser photos from my vacation. The first is a close-up shot of cherries growing in an orchard located at the Chateau Chantal winery just north of Traverse City, Michigan on the Old Mission Peninsula. The second photo is of the Old Mission Point Lighthouse found at the end of the peninsula. I’ll share more details about both of these locations in a forthcoming vacation wrap-up post.

Until next time …

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On Friday, we headed over to Pasco for the day. I had an appointment with her brother Kevin to get another tattoo. I had him do a piece in memory of my beloved grandmother. She grew beautiful irises and loved hummingbirds, so that was the inspiration for the design. Lastly, I had him add in “Gran” in a nice script since that’s what I always called her. Here’s a pic of the finish product taken immediately after he finished it:

The colors are a bit softer now that it’s healed for a little over a week. I’ll take another photo to post once the healing process is completed. I know you can’t really tell from the pic, but it’s on the side of my right thigh about halfway up. As a size reference, it’s probably about 6″ across at the widest part.

On Saturday we just kind of hung around at Tracy’s house. I got in quite a bit of good stitching time on Moonlit Garden. It’s the Loose Feathers #22 design from Blackbird Designs. Here’s my latest WIP photo of this design:

Design: Moonlit Garden (Loose Feathers #22)
Designer: Blackbird Designs
Fabric: 30-count Broomstick Brown from R&R Reproductions
Fibers: Weeks Dye Works
Progress as of June 23, 2009

On Sunday, we headed over to Seattle. Her dad was riding in the 100-mile Livestrong Challenge, so we went over to be his cheerleaders. Even though he had to ride through some rain and a bit of hail at one point, he still finished the full 100-mile ride and raised nearly $1000, too! WTG Jim!! Here’s a photo I snapped of him right after he finished the ride:

Monday was my last full day in Washington. We just kind of took is easy most of the day. We did head over to Moses Lake mid-afternoon to take in a movie. We went to see “The Proposal” and had a great time. It was a really fun chick-flick to see together. Of course, it didn’t hurt that it starred hunky Ryan Reynolds either. Oh yeah, Sandra Bullock was in it, too. The main cast was rounded out with Craig T. Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, and Betty White (who was hilarious!). In an ironic twist of art imitating life, Reynolds is actually a Canadian married to an American (Scarlett Johansson).

After the movie, we headed back over to Tracy’s place and spent the rest of the day just hanging out and watching TV. We both did a bit of stitching, too. Tracy spent some time working on Psalm 145 from Little House Needleworks. Instead of working on Moonlit Garden again, I did a bit of guest stitcher work on her Sistine Chapel project. I’m still amazed she decided to undertake this project, but I must admit that it was kind of cool to put some stitches in it. Here’s a photo of me working on it with the full 2.5 yards of linen sitting in my lap. Following that is a photo showing what I stitched on the piece.

That’s pretty much it for the photos from my trip that I’m going to post to my blog. If you want to see more, you can find them here.

I’m also nearly a week late posting my monthly photo for the Totally Useless SAL. The new moon fell on June 22, but I was still out of town at the time. I actually haven’t had much time for stitching since I got home, so even though it’s nearly a week late, it’s still pretty accurate.

In this photo, I temporarily set my ort bucket on my canvas WIP of Plum Blossom Kimono by Margaret Bendig. This is a class that I’m taking through my LNS, and I’m behind on my stitching right now due to my vacations. Canvas projects just don’t travel as compactly as cross stitching projects. ;) You might also notice the quarter on the canvas. It’s not actually sitting on the canvas. It’s a needle park that was given to me by my friend Cindi. It’s a California state quarter mounted to a rare earth magnet. She gave one to my BSF Darla, too. You can see a better photo of it here.

Now that I’ve rambled on so much, I thought I should finally explain why I used “Updating on the Run” as the subject for this post. Even though I was on vacation last week, I’m heading out again tonight. I have an all-day class with Ellen Chester at the LNS today, but then I’ll be catching the red-eye to Detroit tonight to spend some time with my friend Nick. I’ll be there for nine days, and I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for updating my blog while I’m gone. If you want to know what’s going on with me, the best option would be to follow my Twitter feed (info in the side bar on the right).

Well, that’s it for now. I desperately need to get into bed since I have such a long day tomorrow. I still need to finish packing, too. Eek!

Until next time …

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