Another UFO bites the dust.....(and a few rants)....

Well things are still chugging along here. I have been fighting a case of bronchitis for over a month which caused me to have to reschedule my shoulder surgery to the middle of April. I'm on my second round of antibiotics and finally starting to feel better.

On the good side, I finished up another quilting UFO. This is a scrappy strip quilt which I made for DH's car - he likes to keep one in the back which serves a multitude of purposes. It was fun to do and I like it. I have been trying to finish off at least one UFO per month and this was #3 so I'm on schedule so far. (That's the husband's feet peeking out at the bottom - I made him hold it up).


I also finished off the last of the Shepherd's Bush (2003!) monthlies, so I can wipe out 2 UFO's on my list. This week I picked up Brenda Keyes' "Plymouth Sampler" and did a bit of stitching on that but I haven't gotten very far.

The husband and I have busy doing some work on the yard. We had 3 ficus trees die off the winter before last because we had a bad frost here in the southwest where a lot of trees are not frost-tolerant. We had them taken out last fall and then built a raised area in our yard. We planted 3 new trees (frost tolerant ones!) and I have a place to plant flowers which is nice. Here is corner of the yard in 'before' state showing the dead trees, and now the 'after'.


It sure looks a lot better! We also are putting artifical "pet turf" in the area on the side of our house that are dogs use. We had real grass there first that wouldn't grow (not enough sun), then we tried 2 different kinds of rock. So this is our 4th incarnation of the area and I think the doggies will be very pleased to have something grass-like again. Supposedly this turf is pet-friendly, very durable and drains well. (Maybe your'e wondering why our dogs aren't using this nice patch of grass in the picture? Well that's in our backyard and our dogs can't go out there when we're not home because we have an unfenced pool. Even though they both swim great, we don't need the worry about an accident or having wet dogs tromping through the house all day!)

I decided I'm going to sound off on a few of my stitching pet peeves today. These are not huge issues in my life, just little annoyances. Maybe these bother some of you as well, or it could be that I'm the only one! I'm not going to name any names because this is not meant to bash anyone, I love stitching and the designers. I have no creative sense myself so I'm amazed at the things they come up with. But....sometimes I just get a little bit peeved......

• Certain designers need to move on a bit. When they have a successful theme run of designs, they seem to keep it going too long. Am I the only one who notices this? For example, they'll have Spring Tree, Winter Tree, Summer Tree, Autumn Tree, Valentine Tree, Christmas Tree, Blue Tree, Red Tree, Teacher Tree, Nurse Tree, ad infinitum. Know what I mean??
• I'm not real fond of patterns you have to buy in pieces. In the quilting world, this became popular several years ago - once one designer tried it, everybody else started doing it. You would often have to buy one block pattern per month, so that you ended up frequently spending upwards of $100 to just get the pattern. Now of course it's a free world and they can market their work any way they like, but I really don't want to spend that much on some of these projects, let alone the cost of supplies and framing. After all, I can buy a book from some designers for $25 or $30 and get several great designs in it!
• I wish patterns would list the alternative thread choices like Homespun Elegance does. Of course it's up to me to check it out myself I suppose, but I've had a lot of patterns where they used an overdyed floss for like 6 stitches! Great if you have it already but not really worth buying just for that. I know that this generates sales of thread which is good but it would be nice to have the alternatives listed for you.

Thanks for stopping by - can't believe more than a month has gone by since I blogged. I don't know how some of you have time to keep yours up so often!