A bump in the road on the way to normal

The day after my last post, March 5th, my mom was approved to move into an independent living community, so I called a mover to see about getting on his schedule. I thought it would probably be around the end of March, so imagine my surprise when he said he could do it on the 10th--which left me four days to pack up an entire apartment entirely on my own! I got it done with about half of Saturday to spare, then the move and unpacking took the next two days, and then the next day I spent cleaning the old apartment, so pretty much an entire week was spent with no time to do anything but the most necessary chores at home and then fall into bed by 8:30pm because most mornings I was awake for the day by about 3am, thinking of all the stuff I had to get done that day. Did I mention that I was also going to my friend's house next door twice a day to take care of her cats while she was out of town? So yeah, this has been a pretty awful month, with almost no stitching time until the last week or so.

Last week I had to spend a few hours at the hospital while my mom had an outpatient procedure done, so I took Harvest Tiny Town with me and set up in the cafeteria:

After a latte and a muffin, I passed the time stitching, and I got enough done that I was able to then finish it up last Thursday:

It was stitched on PTP Chalice Newcastle linen, and the Harvest Frill is also included in the piece. It joins three other Tiny Towns that I will be sending to my finisher later today or tomorrow, to be finished into drums:

Thursday was also the first day of a show that two local EGA chapters put on in Green Bay. I had planned to go on Friday, but then learned that we would be getting a few inches of snow that day, so I decided to go Thursday evening even though I was really tired. I am very glad I decided to drag myself up there, because aside from seeing all of the beautiful work done by the members, I found a load of gorgeous Just Nan designs on the rummage tables, all for just $18:

It turns out that Enchanted Hearts was the very first class project Nan designed in 1994, and it's very cool because the stitcher has included all of the printouts from a message board where participants were "meeting" and the instructor was posting tips for stitching each band every day for a couple of weeks. I ended up starting the sampler on Saturday morning, and by last night I was already into band 9 of 14:

I am very happy that the original stitcher didn't use the embellishment pack, because it comes with this sweet little bit of lace that will be used for band 14:

It was so nice to finally spend a weekend in my craft room, working on this sampler, with college basketball on in the background and just feeling the serenity that comes with my stitching. Although, on a side note, my Fighting Illini will now be playing my husband's Iowa State Cyclones in the Sweet 16 this Thursday; we've weathered a lot together in our soon-to-be 33 years of marriage, but this could get ugly... :D

Another wonderful thing that happened last week was that Amber from Rensel Studio emailed to let me know that the pieces I sent to them back in February 2023 were finally done--that is always a very exciting email to receive! They will most likely arrive later this week or early next week, but here are the photos that Amber sent:

Mirabilia's Lady of Mystery conversion

Nora Corbett's Luce Mia

Nora Corbett's Victorian Christmas Eve

Amy Bruecken's A Little Batty

I am beyond thrilled with the work they've done on these, and can't wait to see them in person soon; such a long wait, but totally worth it.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Slowly getting back to normal

Thank you so much for the well wishes for my mom; she continues to work on getting her strength back in the rehab facility with no big setbacks, so I'm hoping we're past the worst of this particular episode.

I've been a bit all-over-the-place with my stitching lately, as I'm still finding it difficult to settle down and get back into my normal rhythm on any one project. I did finish Kitty Love, the Mill Hill kit I was working on in my last post, and I think he's adorable:

This one wasn't extremely bead heavy, but it's still fun to see the before-and-after photos:

I have Puppy Love all ready to go (in case of emergency!), even though as the years go on, I find myself going from being a dog and cat person to leaning more into just being a cat person. This is what Puppy Love will look like when stitched:

I worked on Miss Pink Mushroom quite a bit and am still enjoying her. I would have to rank orange as being one of my least favorite colors, but there's just something about a little orange lady that makes me really like it in this design:

Last Friday I received a lovely package from Cecilia of Heart in Hand Needleart with some of her new releases from the Nashville Market, which took place this past weekend. Two new Tiny Towns, including Frosty Tiny Town, for which I stitched the drum model, Frosty Frill and a book containing some of her Collector's Hearts from the past 20+ years:

There are six of her Hearts in the book, a few of which include both the original version and an updated version for 2024, as well as a new design called Kindness, which is the round piece on the cover. It's a beautiful book, really a pleasure to look through. I'm hoping to play with some colors and stitch Kindness soon in a different palette than is called for--I'm thinking some purples and pinks, but who knows what I'll end up with when I go stash diving.

I decided that before I started any of the new designs I would make myself finish Harvest Tiny Town; I'm out of empty Qsnaps right now anyway, so I have to finish it so I can frame up a new one! I made just a bit of progress last night, but am hoping to get close to finishing by the end of the week:

For most of February I kept seeing posts on Facebook about Leap Day SALs, where you start something on 2/29/24 and try to finish it on or before 2/29/28. I honestly didn't think I would have the energy to get a project together and be able to start it on time, but things had settled down just enough that by February 26th I decided I would make Mirabilia's Lady of the Flag my Leap Day start. I had bought the kit on clearance many years ago at Hobby Lobby, so all I had to do was pick a fabric; I decided on BANG!!! Cashel linen from Crossed Wing Collection:

Unfortunately, even though the fabric said it was "approximately 24" x 27", which would have left just enough border at the top and bottom, it turned out that all three pieces that I had were only 26" high and were too short to use. So, I went stash diving and came up with a piece of PTP's Mystic on Edinburgh linen; while it won't look like a starry sky, I do think she'll glow on this fabric so I'm reasonably happy with it as a backup. I made a very small start on 2/29 (and now I have four years to finish!):

I also decided at the last minute to create a Facebook group for a Mirabilia Leap Day SAL, where people pick a Mirabilia or Nora Corbett design (or some people are starting more than one) and try to finish it by 2028. I've committed to finishing Lady of the Flag and then giving the chart away to a member of the group at the end of the SAL, so I'm hoping that will make me get her done for sure.

For now it's back to Harvest Tiny Town, and then I'll decide if I want to try to finish Miss Pink Mushroom or make some progress on Lady of the Flag, or start another Tiny Town, or maybe Kindness...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!