The birthday party was a huge success. We had a potluck luncheon. And as always, the food was spectacular! We had everything from soup to nuts [well, not soup but almost everything else] and a fantastic strawberry cake. The birthday girl even brought a dish to share - the pimiento cheese.

Next week we will be meeting at my house. Normally, all we provide is a beverage (hot tea is always nice) and a dessert. Some hostesses provide a salad, or perhaps scones, or something extra. However, I have been craving soup and my husband doesn't like soup. So, I am taking advantage of having a nice little group and making soup, knowing most of it will be eaten at lunch. The stitchers get a nice soup, I get to have soup, and hubby doesn't have to eat it. The best of all worlds.

 I continue to plod along with the afghan. Frankly, I am getting tired of it. I need to take a break and do something else for a day or two. Since I am at the halfway mark, I think I will give myself a week off

I have several ornament charts picked out to do, so one of them is going to be stitched this week.

 the 'M' isn't really lopsided ...
just the photographer ----->

Our daughter's husband had a 'little' party to celebrate her 50th birthday. They live in a large house, and every corner was packed with people from all parts of her life! Our son and his family did not make it down ... their newest [now just 4 1/2 months old] has decided that she absolutely does not like riding in a car, and to prove the point, she screams [not a cry, but an actual scream]at the top of her lungs the entire time she is in the car. They wonder how she can keep it up. They also decided that they just were not going to ride for 6 hours testing whether she would every stop screaming. Several other members of the family did make it, though ... Daughter is in the green shirt, hugging her son.

I have managed to get more done on the afghan for Meri [aka The Screamer].


OK ... something is wrong here. Those pictures were supposed to all line up. I don't seem to have the skills needed to make it work, so, here they are ... they way they want to be on the page.

 The "I" didn't take too much effort. So far, it has been the easiest.

I am almost through with the one from the Mary Ann Blackburn booklet.

I didn't make it to my stitch group today. After the big party, I seem to have developed a cough complete with sneezes. I didn't think anyone in the group really wanted me to share it. Next week, we are celebrating the 75th birthday of one of the stitchers. We will have a pot-luck luncheon. I am trying to decide what I want to bring. Good thing I have a week to make up my mind.

Normally, Wednesday come and go without much notice. Not today. Husband has a meeting this afternoon and showed up at the breakfast table in his organization shirt. This only alarms me because we still have 2/3 of the basement to move around before the water proofing guys come in. Being togged out in his 'go-to-meeting' duds means nothing is going to get done today. Mostly because he won't be messing up the shirt and I won't be traveling down the stairs. [My knees object to stairs as a general thing - but today is a really bad day - funny stuff that arthritis.] Granted we still have three weeks until they come, but, we have over 40 years worth of accumulation in that basement to shove around. They asked for 4 feet from each wall. Some places that is easy. Others, not so much.

On a much more pleasant note, my stitch group met at Greensprings Village [a retirement community] yesterday. Our hostess treated us to lunch in one of their restaurants. Everyone agreed that lunch was spectacular. Their special of the day was a Caesar salad with fried chicken, and the dessert of the day was orange cake. Yum.

I am almost finished with my current Tuesday project - the topper for the wooden box in the Mary Ann Blackburn booklet. Just a part of a bird's wing, three eyelets and my initials need stitching. Then I need to find another project to work on Tuesdays. I can't carry a really fussy project because we spend far more time chatting than stitching and I lose track of where I am.


The afghan for Meri continues. It should be finished long before Christmas ... which is a good thing because we have to ship the gifts to New York. These gum balls were fun!

My daughter is turning 50 next weekend. Her husband is preparing a slide-show of pictures of her throughout her life. All of her friends have been asked to contribute. We have sent hundreds of pictures. That means that even more slides [yes, slides - we have a large box of slides that no one made prints from] had to be gone through and sorted. My husband won that chore. I sorted through even more pictures that did make it to albums to find ones that I thought would scan well. Turns out we had lots and lots of pictures that didn't seem all that fuzzy when we looked at them, but when the scanner looked at them ... fuzz grew.

I stitched 'La Trappestine' for her ...... It only took 10 years to complete. Well, that is misleading. I started it in 1992, but put it aside because I had made some errors that I didn't want to fool with fixing that day. I found it again this spring and decided it was time to finish it.

This isn't a very good picture, but it is the best I have. LA TRAPPESTINE written above the lady, and her skirt billows a bit more than shows here. But, it does give you an idea of what she looks like. This is sooooooo different than my usual choice in stitching.





I am continuing with the afghan ...

Only 20 letters to go .........
And then I get to do a Christmas stocking for her ... but I'm pretty sure that won't get done in 2012.

Missed My Own Deadline, Again

I was thinking I would post once a week. Well, unfortunately, the best of intentions often go by the wayside.

I am still working on the afghan and have a couple more letters to share.

I don't really like the 'C'. I think it looks like it was over-achieving and trying to go on to be a 'G'. But, I'm not changing it.

I love this little duck. His crooked little beak looks like he tried to break out of the afghan and failed. But, I give him of credit for trying.






My Tuesday Stitch group met in DC yesterday. I don't like to drive there, so I depend on fellow members for transportation those days. We had a full car - 5 of us - Thanks, Sallie. Another stitcher's husband drove us to Sallie's and my husband picked us up  - Thanks, guys.

I wish I knew how to change the alarm clock in my head that reminds me to post. I think the one I have is a couple of days out of whack.

A Day or Two Late ... or even more

I thought I would get back to this almost a week ago. I don't know where time goes, but it surely does go.

I am stitching again, but not as much as I did before the carpal issues. Here are a couple of the things I did since last September -

I always did love
"The Raven", so it
just seemed obvious
that this should be
one of my projects






Just a nice little Quaker ... on the diagonal








Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of the birth sampler I did for the new grandchild. Maybe when we head to Long Island next time I will remember to take a picture of it to post.

I have started working on an afghan for Meri. It is going pretty fast, so it will probably be done by Christmas. I hope so anyway. It is a pretty basic alphabet, BUT, it fits in the squares. I am using the Charles Craft Afghan for Alphabets, and the DMC chart for the child's alphabet afghan.

I did alphabet afghans for her sisters - Becca got 'old fashioned toys' and Eme got  a floral alphabet. The boys both got lighthouses - Bryce's was lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay, and Xander's was lighthouses in the Long Island area.

I'm Back ... Maybe

I've been encouraged by friends to go back to blogging. So, for today at least, I'm back.

The really big news is I have another granddaughter. My son and his wife welcomed their fourth child on June 1. Her name is Meridith Olivia. She was a big baby, as were her siblings. She was christened on August19. . . on her sister Eme's ninth birthday.

My oldest granddaughter received numerous first places at the Twirling Nationals in July. I am extremely proud of her and her talent.

My oldest grandson became part of the American Youth Baseball of Fame in Cooperstown this summer. His team didn't make it to first place but and a great time.

The other two were also busy, but, didn't get huge awards like these. More on them later.

I have gotten back to stitching, and, again, more on that later. For today, a brag.