Small happy dance over here- finished the confetti on my current page of stitching! I've been slowly working my way through a page of probably half or a little more solid confetti stitching taking one stitch at a time and I'm ready to start the last page and partial then the big happy dance can begin and Josh will finally have his dragon. New picture coming soon.

But that's not why I stopped by today. Actually, Josh is the reason...



Found his trains set up like this last night. Note the long line of cars waiting to cross at the gates. I asked him about it and he told me they're all waiting for the train to go. What most of you don't know is that we live near (as in we cross at least twice a day) a busy crossing that feeds right into a big train yard. I think we've officially spent too much time waiting at the tracks for the trains to go by:)

IHSW Results

So the Errand Saturday and Hermit Sunday idea worked out pretty well this weekend. On Saturday we saw my parents, Erich's parents, all the grandparents at various parts of the day, went to church and then out to dinner with my Dad's family. Then we rewarded ourselves with a pajama day Sunday- we all stayed home, slept in, hung around in our jammies, watched movies, and I got some good stitching time in. Probably would have been a little more productive if I'd left the iPad upstairs in the bedroom but I got quite a few stitches done in between games/surfing.

Here's the before/after...





Wanna see what everyone else stitched this weekend? Click on the cute crab at the top of the post to see the whole list of last weekend's hermits and don't forget to mark your calendar for the next SAL weekend too (every third weekend of the month).

March TUSAL, IHSW, and everything else I've been neglecting

How did it get to be the middle of March already? This year has been going by way too fast! So I've done it again and managed to miss TUSAL. I'm not too late, only a few days this time...



Not that you would know by my orts or lack of but I don't think I've put any more in since the actual TUSAL date. I think all the orts from this year are from QS Pirate Dragon which probably isn't helping my pile grow much since its all over 1 stitching.

The dragon has grown some since last time though, he's really starting to have a pretty filled in body now. I suppose it would be nice if he had a head too but that will be coming soon.



So since I haven't been stitching, just what is it I have been doing you ask? Well, most if it isn't really all that interesting but Josh and I did help my mother put together a family dinner for my grandfather. Josh even helped Great Grandpa blow out his candles...



So that's about it for now. Normal weekend plans for my weekend off- some visiting family, a few errands, church and pajama Sunday. We've started attending the Saturday night service instead of Sunday and it we really like it. Since all our running is done by Saturday night Sunday has become a sleep late, nice family breakfast, play/craft/watch movies kind of day. It's a nice start to our week and I think it's here to stay. It's pretty good for my stitching too, fits right in with IHSW which is this weekend too so don't forget to click and join or at least see what everyone else stitched this weekend.

February WIPocalypse

Thanks for all the kind words about my dragon, hoping we'll actually see his face soon! WIPocalypse time once again and I'm back with the one project that's been getting all my attention recently, bet you can't guess what! Never heard of this SAL? Check it out on Measi's blog and join us.

So the optional themes this month were Little House Needlework, love/family, and white/red. I'm going to stretch a little and say that my dragon fits all but the LHN- it's a labor of love for my son and I did actually put in a few red and white stitches this round. Close enough, right? Anyway, here's how he looked before and now...





Sorry for the slightly fuzzy pics if you look at the full size. I've really got to start using the iPad instead of my phone for the pics. I think I originally said I was hoping to see the end of this page before the end of the month and there's no way I'll make that but I'm happy with the progress I did make despite all the time visiting Erich's dad in the hospital. He is home now, by the way, so we've got our fingers crossed that all will be well now. New goal is to have this done by the time I leave for Oklahoma which isn't actually until the first week of May so i think that's doable barring any more unforeseen problems. I've got half the current page and partial that I'm working on now and one more full page plus partial above it. There are some pretty big blocks of color once I get through the dragon himself so it should go fairly quickly.

Not too much else going on around here except that we've had pretty steady snow from the remnants of the storm that hit the Midwest this week. It's not enough to close schools but enough that I'm not going out today.

IHSW Results

So this past weekend was IHSW and I'm 2 for 2 in participation this year. The calendar has been on my side in 2013 as I've been off work both rounds this year so far so I actually have been able to get enough stitching time in to show some visible progress. Once again, QS Pirate Dragon was my focus and here's how I did...





Not too bad, the dragon is really starting to take shape now though I'd forgotten how dense the confetti is on the dragon himself. His tail looks great but it took me forever to muscle though all the confetti and his legs are proving to be quite a challenge as well. I think I might switch back to filling in the sky to the right of the boat for awhile to switch things up a bit. Still hoping to be able to mark at least one more page as done before the end of the month, we'll see how close I get.

In sort of related news, found out this weekend that I've been picked to be part of a conversion team at work to help out while some companies my company has bought are trained and converted to our computer system. That means a two week trip to Tulsa, OK and some pretty good stash opportunities. So far my friend Google has helped me find Stitchworks and The Silver Needle which I'm told are right across the street from each other and will keep me occupied in my off time. If anyone knows of any other stitchy places I should visit while in the area please by all means point them out to me. My credit card and husband may not thank you but I will:)

Late TUSAL and IHSW plans

So it's been awhile again, lots of stuff still going on around here. My father-in-law is still in the hospital. That's been a bit up and down but he's out of intensive care for the second time now and we hope well on his way to recovery. We're trying to maintain something that resembles a normal schedule for Josh but there's only so much we can do with all the trips to visit at the hospital. We are trying to do all our errands and visiting today so tomorrow we can stay home and have a family pajama day. I think we could all use it and its supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow too so staying in and hermiting is probably a good idea. Probably would be good for the stitching too especially since its IHSW weekend.

Speaking of the stitching, had my first 2013 finish the other day. It wasn't a WIPocalypse finish but I've been dragging my bag of Shepherd's Bush ornaments around the hospital with me and finally finished As Bethlehem Slept from the JCS ornament issue. No pic yet but I'll get that taken for next post. I'll get the exact issue too, it's from the series that ran 2000-2007 but I'm not quite sure which year this is from at the moment.

I have been working in my QS Pirate Dragon at home and am slowly seeing dragon legs forming.



That's from Thursday and will serve as my "before" shot for IHSW. Hoping to get a lot more done between tonight and Monday afternoon when I go back to work.

I know it's a little late but I also have TUSAL orts to show...



They're all from the dragon, lots of brown and some green on top this time.

Oh, and me more thing before I leave you for the night- looks like Angela received my package from the giveaway earlier this month so I can now what I sent her...



I tried to put together a few things for her new house as well as some stitching things with a Valentine's Day theme in mind so she got some Dinky Dyes, a Victoria Sampler kit, a cut of Silkweaver fabric, a small storage container, a candle, some cute little seed pots that hopefully grow pretty flowers and some strawberries, and a cupcake box to hold it all. I think she enjoyed it and it got to her before her move which is what I was crossing my fingers for.

WIPocalypse 2013

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to stitch in 2013 lately with the beginning of the year and beginning of the WIPocalypse SAL and all. I think I'm going to try to carry on with a similar theme to last year's WIP killing theme- Give some love to every WIP and finish more than I start. I know my stitching habits well enough by now to not even pretend that I won't start anything new so I've made my list with a few of the projects I've been wanting to start at the bottom and the intention of adding a few of them to rotation as I hopefully finish other projects. I haven't decided if I'm going to follow the optional themes yet but maybe after I finish QS Pirate Dragon. That is the one WIP I must kill this year and sooner rather than later since it is for Josh. Here's where I stand at the beginning of this year's WIPocalypse SAL...


Nativity by TW



Polar Lights Sampler by Chatelaine



QS Pegasus and Castle Bubble by HAED/Josephine Wall



Dragon Moon by HAED/Lisa Victoria



Fish City by Stoney Creek



Garden of Wishes by HAED/Molly Harrison



Watergarden by Chatelaine



The Storyteller by TW



Fantasy Triptych by TW



QS Pirate Dragon by HAED/Lisa Victoria



Dragon Master by HAED/Myles Pinkney


No real starting pic for that last one. I did start it on 12/31 but there are so few stitches in at this pint that it really doesn't deserve a pic yet. I hope to change that a little later this year as soon as I'm done with QS Pirate Dragon. This is the list of potential starts for the year. I'm going to try to stick to it with the possible exception of some ornaments or possibly some other new start if we get to take our long trip to Poland.


~Pretty Pumpkins by Glendon Place (not started)
~Frosty Woodland Pillow by Donna Giampa (not started)
~Holly and Berries by Kandace Thomas (not started)
~Mill Hill Christmas Village kit (not started and I haven't decided which one I want to do this year but I want to stitch another one)

Good luck everyone, see you all next check-in!