C is for: Cross Stitch, Crowns, Cats

After posting last week, I took a look at the picture of the Santas cross stitch project, said some short words, and pulled out the seam ripper. After removing and restitching several misplaced motifs, I continued on, and here's where that project is to right now:

But that isn't the only thing I've been working on this week!  My uncle, my dad's best friend, has been going through some serious health issues.  We've just gotten the word that it is not cancer, however, which left all of us much relieved.  But I realized I've never made him a quilt.  So I pulled out this stack of blocks I'd made, and set to work.

The block pattern is known as Crown of Thorns, or Single Wedding Ring.  Since 30 blocks was good to make a quilt, I cut muslin and a border fabric and got to stitching.  Currently that project is at this stage:

I plan to baste it tomorrow while the boys are at school.

And!  Since Squiddle is now a double digits age, for his big birthday present we gave him the choice of either a computer or a phone.

He said he wanted a cat.

Okay.  Our cat, Sushi, is very much a me cat and really doesn't let other members of the household interact with him much.  He's 15 and remembers all too well being chased by little boys.  So wanting a pet of his own was a reasonable request for Squiddle to make.  After Wonderful Husband mulled it over for a while and got used to the idea, he agreed.

Last weekend, Squiddle and I went to the Humane Society, but they were having an adoption event that day so it ended being very disappointing for Squiddle.  No kittens left.  I kept an eye on their website, though, and picked up Squiddle after school on Friday.  He had been leaning toward a ginger cat, but this lovely little fellow was meowing his head off and reaching for Squiddle through the bars, so I think they chose each other.

Meet Ramen, our newest family member.

A New Start

Before I put the magazine that the Nutcracker pattern was in away, I decided to make the other pattern I quite fancied in it.  It's smaller!

So I decided to challenge myself and stitch it on even-weave linen. ^_^;;;;

The pattern in question:

How far one week of stitchery has gotten me:

Counting over two threads instead of one has been a bit tricky - especially whenever I'm not doing a long line of the same thing one after another - but surmountable.  It probably helps that I'm working at the same gauge and literally using the same needle as the last project.  Less cognitive dissonance, or something.

Finished! And Birthday #1

I finished the Nutcracker cross stitch!

My sister-in-law, who also does stitchery, shares my first initial.  So I imagine, some centuries down the line, our pieces in museum collections somewhere, getting conflated. :)

I have started on another piece, also Christmas themed, from the same magazine.  After it's done, I can put the magazine away.  And, putting on my Big Girl Panties, I've decided to level up my skills a notch and stitch it on even weave linen.  28-count linen translates to 14-count Aida, though, so it's essentially the same gauge and I'm using the same needle.  I'm 3/4 done with the outermost border, and haven't screwed it up so far.

And we had a birthday in our family this week!  Squiddle is now ten years old, and will be getting a kitten in a week or so, as soon as the rest of the kitten supplies he wanted have arrived.  But he's also very Pokemon obsessed, so I tried my best at decorating a cake for him.

He was so excited and said that a Pikachu cake was even better than the rainbow cake he had requested.  At which point I informed him that his cake was, in fact, both:

His cup, I think, ranneth over.

Catching Up

Whoop, I missed a week!  I'll excuse myself by saying we had visitors from overseas, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law.  (Hi, Mary!  Hi Kate!)  They flew home yesterday, so today has been stripping and remaking all four beds, and doing a good bit of laundry.

I did a little bit of quilting stuff while they were here - helped Mary get her next quilt basted, and worked on some blocks from the Gig Harbor guild's brown bag abandoned WIP challenge, as well as helping the pair of them go through my (too many) totes of fabric and take what they wanted.  I also submitted three quilts to be shown in the guild's show in October.  One is the rainbow bed quilt I made for Squiddle a couple years ago; the other two are my red hearts and teal windmills mini quilts.

And, I took Kate with to this month's meeting, where Marie Bostwick gave a very good talk about being an artist.  It still feels weird that someone whose books I have been reading for years now lives in the same town and belongs to the same guild I do.  I purchased Marie's newest book, asked her to sign one of the older ones, and also bought her first Cobbled Court book as a gift for Mary to read on the plane. 

And I maaaay have purchased some things off the Treasure Table.

A bag of dinosaur fabrics to become this year's Christmas quilt for a certain 6yo boy.

A selection of fabrics for various projects.

A few magazines, some oversized rick-rack, and two patterns.  The one on the right is in the lead to be this year's Christmas quilt for a certain 9yo boy.

There were two separate stacks of Disney princess squares (same size) so I grabbed those, and this purple that goes with...

...and then I went digging in my own boxes yesterday, unearthing these, which also go with.  (I think there is still one more Frozen-themed remnant out there somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.)  These will make 6yo Niecelet's Christmas quilt.

And, speaking of Christmas, I'm almost done on the Nutcracker cross-stitch!

I just need to finish the backstitching on the rightmost nutcracker, and then I get to worry about washing and pressing it, finding a frame, getting it laced, and purchasing a mat.

One More Done

I'm on a pause for a few other crafty projects that I really should be plugging away on.  But at least I have continued to work on the Nutcracker cross-stitch.  And last night I finished the Santa nutcracker and started in on the next soldier nutcracker....

Two more to go, and then this project will be done!

Misc. Stuffs

A few weeks ago we went waterfall hunting up the Olympic Peninsula and found two.  Ludlow Falls was less than impressive (though the walk through old growth forest was indeed very nice on a hot day), but Rocky Brook Falls is a new favorite!  Just enough scrabbling over boulders to keep Squiddle and Jazzy entertained, and their parents stretched.

Next time we'll bring swimsuits and be prepared to at least do wading in that lovely pool at the bottom. And there was a neat branch fence in the parking area:

Meantime, I have been working away at the cross-stitch project, and Santa nutcracker actually looks like a Santa now.

I have only the white to do (cuffs, beard and whiskers, hat bobble), and then the backstitching.  Maybe I'll have him done by next weekend?

The garden is beginning to produce cucumbers.  My raspberries are all done in for the year, but right on time the blackberry bushes are finally ripening.  We've found a new use for the McDonalds Halloween Happy Meal buckets we got last year, as the boys and I went and picked in the bushes in the far corner of the tract last night.  Well, Squiddle and I used our buckets.  Jazzy just conveyed the berries directly into his mouth. ^_^

Messes, Un-messes, and Progress

Ugh.  Yesterday I started cleaning up my work area in the workroom.  And, of course, in order to tidy, you first have to make a mess:

But!  On the bright side, I got a small ongoing project done.

At some point in the past I'd bought a small sack of 2" squares.  Many of which got sewn into my current project, on the right.  But finally I've finished getting them all neatly stacked, as you can see in the two containers.  Now what to make with the rest of them....

And, of course, I've been stitching along on my cross-stitch project whenever the boys are in their swimming or rock climbing classes.

The soldier nutcracker is done, and I'm now working on the Santa nutcracker.