Finish #6 for 2026

 

Finish #6 for 2026.  Finished Lizzie Kate - ABC's of Parenting.  28 count Lambswool, one over one, and used suggested Classic Colorworks other than I thought Queen Bee might not work, so I picked Ye Olde Gold instead.  I have stitched it before, on a different fabric, and didn't remember.  So I bought the pattern again, and picked a different fabric before I decided to look...  It's fine, and finished. 

Here is another photo as I was making progress...  before I got it finished.

Then I picked up Lizzie Kate - ABC's of Christmas.  Filled in the letters with the white before taking the photo.  I did grab something else to start, but I have not put this away yet.

I've been working on sorting out my kitchen cupboard after the measuring cup shattered.  I was also trying to take apart my moms old office chair to toss a section each week.  A friend helped me - cause I could not get the swivel part off.  So he got it off, and then got the rest of the glass cleaned off the shelf. 

Then I got a letter from the county because my mom's house had not been mowed.  It was awful.  So I had to hire somebody.  I asked a guy that I know had connections.  He went to look...  and gave me an estimate.  $2600.  It was not just mowing...  This guy is a crew of four guys...  And it took them four days.... they loaded out 18 loads of trees and bushes.  They basically cleared it down to dirt.  

I went down to talk to the county lady... she asked if it was now mowed.  I said - there is not any grass left...  there really kinda isn't.  It's crazy.  She offered to come look right then... it was 2pm Wednesday.  I think she figured I had to be bluffing...  I wasn't.  But she came out to check, and they still had 5 loads on the driveway to take to the dump - trees and bushes and brush.  So she took me off the list of problem propertys....  and closed my file.  In the end... it cost me $12,500.  Not kidding.  The penalty if the county is not happy after a week - is $750 a day....  Seriously.    And we were not sure where the line was that would make her happy.  He said the it really costs to stop and start.  Once the equipment is there, you do everything you need.  So he did.  And it needed to be cleaned up to sell it...  so get it over with.  So he took it down to dirt.  I told the county lady - it's not gonna have grass for a while.  The budget got blown to pull everything out.  Yard guy guesses it would take $10,000 to put grass back on it.  The yard guy is interested in buying it...  

When you need men to absolutely just save your butt... these were the men that could do that. 

While there, I grabbed the vacuum from moms house... I brought it home, immediately spent an hour trying to fix it, it needed to be cleaned out... new belt.  Then I started it, it worked about two minutes before it sounded awful again...  and started to smell like it was gonna burst into flames...  So that meant it wasa getting tossed.  I have another one just like it - I decided since I have had two other ones, and the other one blew a motor... it was time to just toss it too.  

But the trash is full of the office chair - there is a line to get in my trash now.  I did get another vacuum.  I am still cleaning up the dishes.  And I tossed expired food.  But again, not enough room to toss all the expired food.  I am trying... I have some more things I want to toss from the kitchen...  Even if the plan is to toss things, and I did... then it doesn't all seem to fit back in the cupboard again.  And I want to get rid of some other things from other cupboards, but I don't have room to put it in the trash...  I keep trying... it just feels like I am losing if I can't actually put it in the trash and have it go away.

Another new start...

 A new start - Modern Folk Embroidery - A Winter  Kaleidoscope.  On 28 count antique white jobelan, one over one, using dmc 498.  Started with 16 skeins.  Not wild about the color, but it was what I had with the same dyelot in my stash.  The pattern is 20 pages, this is the lower right corner, pages 19 and 20.  And page 19 is completed.  I was hoping to do the annual pattern, but it's not something I wanted to do, so I picked this one, and will see if I can do 2 pages a month.  But I'm starting it now, these are my two pages for September 2024.  

I picked up Lizzie Kate's ABC's of Christmas, and added more to it, while waiting for this to arrive.  Here is an old photo.

And after adding to it.  It's on a steel gray fabric.  Using the Weeks suggested floss conversion.

Slow Random Progress...

 Modern Folk Embroidery - MFE2021 SAL - Completed October section.

Courtney Collection - Pelican (reversed).  Filled in another lower row page something.

Lizzie Kate - ABC's of Christmas.  Where it was when I picked it back up, and where it was after I worked on it.  The right side half is almost filled in.

The Scarlett House - Floral Motif Sampler.  Filled in areas randomly. 

In the last month...

Official Snow Guide - Lizzie Kate
This was a new start and a finish.  It was one of the charts I got during the LNS closeout shopping.
Stitched on mushroom lugana 28 count, one over one, with most of the fancy flosses.
Finish number 16 for 2019.

This is called Scroll Pillow - it's in the same magazine as the other pattern I started.
It's on a Colour and Cotton evenweave called Lunar.  Using dmc 154, which is a wine purple, and the material has a hint of the same wine color - they just had to be tried together.  It's not a big design - this is side to side complete.

And as I pointed out, it was not only buy all the things, it was start lots of things.
So I started the Lizzie Kate - ABC's of Christmas on Dapple 28 count, one over one.
But was still buying more, and so this didn't hold my attention very long.  But the idea was stitch Christmas. 

We The People - Erica Michaels
This was a new pattern, new start.  I ended up trying fancy flosses, but the floss dyelots were not a good combo together.  So I went back to the four suggested dmc colors, and picked the two that were a great combo on the fabric.  3781 and 829.  Other colors were way off from the pattern cover photo.  Those two at least got me closer.  The fabric is Colour and Cotton - Treasure Map, I think.
It works really well together. 

Christmas Is Coming - Shakespeare's Peddler
New pattern, new start.  On Colour and Cotton - Sampler Gold, I think.  28 count, one over one, fancy flosses.  This ended up being the Christmas stitch.
And there was another small start, not worth bothering to show, cause this already shows I went off the rails.
I have stuff I want to order, but have made up my mind I need to finish something, or maybe a couple of somethings, before I order MORE.

And the blood bank plan went out the window.  My iron level failed, so I am deferred for 2 weeks.  So I got a total of 20 donations in for 2019.  There was only one more possible for my blood levels with their rules, and I failed.  Also banned me from the New Years day donation.  But I was having to wait till the one from a year ago dropped off to be able to give.... now I have two spares to start the year.