Stitching Blahs Still in Progress

Ironically, I posted about my stitching blahs and Loretta over at Stitching the Night Away is having a blog hop where stitching bloggers can post a response on their own blog.  Her first topic is Stitching Blahs.

Well, I'm still in the blahs and you can read about it down below the Blog Hop info... 

Maybe I'll get some good ideas and get my mojo back.

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here. 

ONE OF THOSE WEEKENDS...

Ever choose a new design to stitch, kit it up, sit down and begin stitching only to decide after you've been stitching for a short time that you can't really get into stitching the design?

That's what my weekend was like.  I have three small designs that I kitted up to carry with me when I'm out and about or just want something quick to work on.  I started one design and just couldn't get into it.  I don't know if it's the fabric I chose, the fact that I'm stitching it over one or just me, but I had to put it down after 30 minutes.

Even walking away for a bit and coming back to it didn't work.  So I pulled out another small design I've been wanting to stitch for quite a while now.  Had everything ready to go, just had to stitch it.  Nada! Nothing. Not happenin'.  Couldn't get into stitching that one either.

Decided to get a snack and take a catnap instead.  I think it was only 5 or 10 minutes later, Dottie was barking up a storm.  Taco, the brown squirrel, decided to get into the bird feeder again.  So much for my nap!

Picked up the stitching again.  I just sat there staring at the fabric and few stitches I had put in.  Still couldn't get into stitching.

I looked through my other designs in waiting, but just couldn't find anything that I really wanted to stitch.  I gave up.

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 I decided on the floral design for the Box Finishing Class.  I was able to find the perfect coordinating fabric in my STASH and pulled out a bag of miscellaneous trims I bought at a garage sale last year.  I'm all ready for the next assignment!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Mother's intuition told me that when my youngest asked to have a family dinner last Friday night, she was going to make some big announcement.  Of course, mother's intuition also had me thinking of all the possibilities...quitting school, moving away, changing majors...and something other really disturbing possibilities I won't mention.  We had a really nice dinner and just as we were finishing dessert, she had a funny smile/scared look on her face when she announced that she had a secret to tell us.

She didn't even look at us when she said this was the longest she'd ever kept a secret from us.  Mother's intuition had my heart pounding.  She finally informed us that she has signed on to join the Army ROTC.  Whew! I can finally breathe again.  She was very well informed and answered all our questions in a calm, adult manner.

I'm actually ok with her decision to join the Army ROTC, in fact, I can even say I'm proud of her for making such a decision.  She's talked about becoming an officer in a military branch since she was in junior high.  Since she's going to be in her second year of college next year, she will have to attend a training camp at Fort Knox later this summer.  She will take military classes in addition to her college classes and I guess nothing really changes with the college requirements for her major and graduation.

Hoping for a week with some stitching!  Have a great week!

Until next time,
Happy Stitchin;

Hubby Does Listen...

I guess I really do have to give my guy credit.  When I think he's not listening to me, some part of his brain IS listening.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was catching up on reading the newspapers that had accumulated, there was an ad for a floral shop.  The ad had pictured a fresh flower bouquet with a glass flower frog that was included with the glass vase.  I admired the flowers and mentioned that the glass flower frog could be used to as a scissor frog.  It appeared to me that Hubby wasn't even aware that I had spoken.

A few days later, Hubby walked past as I was looking at someone's TUSAL post on their blog.  He glanced at the picture of the jar with the threads and asked why stitchers would keep their thread ends.  I don't have an ORT jar, so this was something he'd never seen before.  I explained it to him, but he still didn't understand why stitchers keep their thread ends.

I didn't think about it anymore, but Hubby must have.  Last weekend, Hubby presented me with this:

 
He made me my own scissor frog and ORT jar with a canning jar and some wire mesh!  So cute, he even went into my sewing/craft room and found some of my scissors to put in the jar before he gave it to me.

On a side note, my daughter, the soon to be high school math teacher, told me that a good stitcher wouldn't have any threads to put in the ORT jar because they would calculate and know exactly how much "string" they needed so there would never be any ends to cut off.  She rolled her eyes when I tried to explain why there would still be ends to snip.   

LUNCH WITH MOM
I took last Tuesday afternoon off so I could take my mom out for lunch.  We went to the brand new Olive Garden and had a great lunch.  After lunch, we went to the local vacuum repair shop to pick up mom’s vacuum that had been in for repairs.  It just so happens that the vacuum repair shop is also a quilt shop.  

Mom walked right over to the first display table and fell in love with all the pretty fabrics.  She’s never seen the jelly rolls, layer cakes, charm packs or fat quarter sets and didn’t know that there is such a thing as fabric designers.  While she loved all the fabrics, she could not believe the prices (this particular quilt shop owner keeps her prices about double what other shops are).

Mom asked me to take her to Hobby Lobby because she’s never been in one before.  I figured the day was all about her, so we went to Hobby Lobby -- and JoAnn Fabrics and then Walmart too.

 MOMMA WENT CRAZY!!!!!

Mom put herself in the motorized cart and took off!  I tend not to follow too close when she’s driving the motorized cart because she’s not that great of a driver -- oh, but she assures me that I don’t need to worry because she’s better at driving her car!

Next thing I know, she’s pulling bolts of fabrics and stacking them in the cart and ordered one yard of each.  On to the yarns and then through the art supplies.  She cruised through the entire store and filled her cart.  

I kept asking why she needed all this stuff.  After all, she hasn’t sewn, knitted or crocheted in years, never did any artwork, scrapbooking or beading and quit cake decorating when she retired.  She would only say that she wanted it.

It was the same when we went to JoAnn’s and Walmart -- more purchases.

14 different fabrics!  “One yard of each, please.”

My camera didn’t capture the colors of these very well, but these are my favorites.  I just love the owls and those little birds.

Three fat quarter packs and eleven remnants!


Much to my surprise, these all ended up in my stash!  Mom decided I just had to have these fabrics.  And all that other stuff she bought will be distributed to my sisters and mom’s granddaughters.

Mom thoroughly enjoyed our lunch and shopping that day and I guess that’s what matters.


A SMALL FINISH
 

I stitched this Lizzie Kate design and finished it into a magnet for my sister’s birthday.

PLUM FLOSS 

I found a project to use some of the plum floss I won from Victorian Motto Sampler (here).  I am trying to decide if I want to use this stitched piece for the Box Finishing class I’m taking through one of my yahoo groups.  

My other options for the Box Finishing class is the Spring Basket (here) piece or stitch another design, but I don’t have any other particular design in mind.

VISUALIZATION and MY NEW PLAN

I recently heard -- again -- that visualization is helpful when one is working towards a specific goal.   I also heard that it's been proven that if one visualizes themselves working out, they get the benefit of the workout as if they had actually done the workout.

Have you ever sat down with your stitching and have the TV on?  Of course, I think we all do, right?  I usually get more out of the program when I'm stitching because I'm a better listener and my mind is more alert than when I'm not doing anything except sitting in a trance in front of the TV.

So, since I don't seem to have enough hours in the day, I've decided that when I sit down with my stitching I'm turning on a workout program and take advantage of that visualization technique to get the benefits of a workout while I'm stitching!  I figure it's a WIN-WIN!  I'll let you know how it works out.

Doggies love their sunshine!  Snickers is enjoying sunning herself in the early morning sunshine.  I had to take this pic from across the room and I'm surprised she even looked in my direction.  She's feeling better with disc problem in her back, but she has a respiratory infection that  she is now being treated for. 

Hope you all have a great week!

Until next time,
Happy Stitchin'