Give your mom a hug!

For once, I don't have any stitching pictures to share, quelle horreur! Except for a small Mill Hill beaded ornament that I took to the laundromat with me, all of my stitching time has gone to a model that I've had in my possession since last October. That is when my life took a bit of a turn, and it has taken six months to get back to what feels like normal.

Last September, the day after her birthday, my mom ended up in the hospital with double pneumonia. I won't go into details, except to say that after she had to be intubated, the doctor told me she had a 50/50 chance of getting through it. But get through it she did; two weeks in ICU, another three in a rehab hospital and then she came to live with us. And just last week she was able to move into her own apartment, only 10 miles from our house (instead of 170 miles away like her house was). Here is a pic of Mom and her Sadie, not too long after she came to stay with us:

When Mom moved in here, so did her four cats and Sadie; added to our four cats and dog, it made for quite a menagerie. Here is a pic of what critter dinner time looks like in our household (there are seven kitties in the pic, and Sadie's eyes are glowing at the end of the counter!):

Mom can only have two pets in her new apartment, so she took her dog and one kitty; as I now have seven cats, I think I qualify as an official Crazy Cat Lady!

So now that my life has pretty much returned to its "new normal"; I'm hoping to really buckle down and get this model finished. Karen was kind enough to send me a project that she had no immediate need to have returned, but now I just really want to get it done. And then it is time to slay another WIP! ;)

I'm Doomed...

...DOOMED, I tell you! Nora Corbett released two new Pixies today, and I love them both! Here is Tulip:

And, my favorite of the two, Maidenhair:

And as if wanting to start these wasn't bad enough, there is a new Passione Ricamo design being released (which is already in the mail to me!) that is really calling to me, as well. It is called Medieval Enchantment, and I just love the rich colors:

Back when I stitched Laura's Poinsettia Fay design, I submitted the finished photo to her Stitchers' Gallery, and in the note I mentioned that I would love to see one of her larger designs with a similar combination of reds and blues; looks like I will finally get my wish! Here is Poinsettia Fay, just to give an idea of how pretty the colors look together:

It seems that no matter how hard I try, I cannot get my WIP pile any smaller! Oh, woe is me...  ;)

Thinking A-HAED

A large part of the reason that I decided to make 2012 the Year of the WIP was because I purchased my first HAED chart, but I would have almost felt guilty making such a huge start when I have so many WIPs around. Back at the end of December, I bought all the floss I needed for the HAED; it uses 89 different colors and requires 190 total skeins. A few days ago, I sat down and got the floss organized, as it was taking up quite a bit of space:

Someday, hopefully, all that floss will be transformed into Foxglove Ball, by Aimee Stewart:

The stitch count of this design is 625 x 833, so it will be 25" x 33.25" on 25ct linen, stitched over-one. I'm thinking I would have had a better chance of actually finishing this if I had started it 10 or 15 years ago! ;)

I Don't Like Backstitching, But...

...it really can add to a piece. Last night I finished up all but the backstitching on a Gorjuss design found in issue 249 of Cross Stitcher (UK) called "Laundry Day". This morning I took a picture of it before I started working on the backstitching:

This afternoon I finished it up, and even though there isn't a huge amount of backstitching, it really made a big difference:

So now I have this cute little piece, and absolutely nothing to do with it. Into the "finished, but nothing to do with it" bucket it goes.

And for those who may have wondered, no, this design wasn't in my WIP list (hanging head in shame). But when my magazine came, she just called out for me to stitch her. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it!