Now where did I leave off??

Well once again my poor blog has been neglected for awhile.  Life has just been a whirlwind the last few months - I've had a family reunion out of state, work travel and a vacation to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday, been sick with a bout of bronchitis and generally just trying to make it through the days.   I've got more work travel coming up in November so there's not much rest in sight for awhile.

I'm trying to get a few blogs read each day - apologies that I've not been able to visit and comment as much as I'd like to.   I find that all the seemingly unending bad news is stressing me....it's bad enough with the government shut-down, health care insurance concerns, and constant calamities we have to read about....but there have been 2 sudden deaths of people I knew at work in recent weeks, and we found out a friend of ours had passed away in August and we didn't even know he had been ill.   These things have all been on a mind a lot lately especially when I look at all the work stress my husband and I go through.  I'm trying to just focus on the important things in life and letting of some of the other worries go.    I know that many of you are struggling with your own personal concerns and I'm noticing again a lot of my favorite bloggers have been missing for awhile.  Siobhan over at Notes from Blue Hen Hollow, Katrina from The Needle's Promise, Amy's blog from Down Sunshine Lane, Margie over at Three Cool Pugs & Me, Teri at Chocolates for Breakfast, and so many others I miss reading.  I did finally remove about 15 blogs from my reading list that haven't been updated in over a year.  It's always sad when someone "falls off the grid".  I hope you all are alright and still stitching  and that you just have been too busy to post.  We miss you!  Did everyone go to Instagram or Facebook and not tell me?  I still like reading stitching blogs even with all the other social media available.   I think we're all just struggling with not enough time to keep up with everything.

There hasn't been a lot of time for stitching but I'm trying to get a few moments in as I can. I took some projects with me on my work trip but we worked so many hours that it was late at night before I'd have 15 minutes to relax and then I'd be too tired to stitch most of the time.  I did start on LHN's Needleworker and enjoying it.  I've always wanted to complete a grouping of stitching-related pieces for my sewing room someday so this will fit right in.  Here's my progress so far - I'm stitching it on 36-ct Lakeside Linen Vintage Basketweave - this linen has a hint of rusty red in some areas and goes well with the floss colors.  I  didn't want my piece quite as big as the chart called for so I switched to using 36-ct instead of 32-ct linen. Pardon the wrinkles.......

I'm still working away on Winter Silhouette from my last post and also started one of my With Thy Needle & Thread projects - the valentine box sampler which has been on my list for a long time to do.  I found the colors called for a bit too muted for me so switched them out for brighter flosses.  My camera broke and I'm using an old one I have but I'm having trouble working with it...time to look at getting a new camera I guess. I've always struggled with taking decent digital photos...someday when I have time I'd love to take a class so I can improve but this is all I've got for now!

I spent 2 weeks in South Bend, Indiana for work recently.  Although I spent 15 years of my life in Chicago and its suburbs, I'd never really been to "Michiana" as they call the northern Indiana/southern Michigan area.   I was working a lot but I had a weekend in-between the two weeks on my own and I drove up to a little town on Lake Michigan to stay.  I enjoyed visiting the lakefront, seeing awesome vacation homes along the shore and wading in Lake Michigan.  We were forced out of our hotel in South Bend anyway because the whole town and surrounding area hotels were booked up with rabid Notre Dame football fans for a home game that weekend.  I did get to go wander around the campus one day and was glad to get the opportunity.  It's a beautiful university that's for sure.

My feet in Lake Michigan...

Notre Dame campus......

I visited neighboring town Mishawaka, home of the famous Spinster Stitcher.   I passed a PetsMart store there and couldn't help wondering if that might be where Stewey gets his dog biscuits!     The best part of my trip was I got to visit 2 great stores and buy lots of stash!   I've ordered from Ericas.com website before but never knew it was based in South Bend.  I was searching on my phone for quilt shops I might be able to visit while I was there and up popped Ericas - what a great place it is!  It's mostly quilting supplies but they do have a small cross-stitch section and knitting, embroidery and other crafting supplies.   I got some great patterns for some bags, packets of gorgeous wools and some trinkets.  Then I visited House of Stitches LNS in LaPorte, Indiana which was only about 20 minutes away.  Oh what heaven!!  I've heard of this shop for years and years and finally got to visit it.  I think the ladies working there probably were wondering if I would ever leave because I spent about an hour and a half there ogling everything and pulling patterns and linens and asking about this and that. 

A few snaps of the shop.........

There happened to be 3 other ladies visiting the shop from out of town and all of us were having a great time shopping.  It's a fantastic shop and I spent a bundle of money as you can see.    Even though I have a LNS where I live, it's so much fun to visit another shop and see different stitching models and products.  House of Stitches has a wonderful selection of linen - the most I've ever seen, and it's just an amazing place.  I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance to go.  Here's my new stash spread out on the table.........

I stopped in a little antique store down the street from House of Stitches...I'm always on the lookout for vintage sewing notions as I want to do a shadowbox display someday for my sewing room.  Well I found some old button cards for a dollar each and look closely at the top item - these are some sort of devices to hold your bra straps in place I think but look at the brand name - "La Jeanne" - couldn't be more perfect for me!

You know, at first I felt kind of guilty about buying all this stash. I have more stash than I'll ever get stitched in this lifetime and I certainly don't "need" anything....but that's okay!  I'm going to enjoy just having it even if I never stitch it.  I've worked full-time in a stressful profession for over 35 years and my stitching and quilting hobbies are my only real vices (well...not counting Diet Coke and nice soaps from Crabtree & Evelyn....)   I have no kids to send to college and if nothing else, some day someone will get some bargains on eBay or at the local thrift shops when I'm gone or too old to see to stitch!    In the meantime I'm going to enjoy my greed and revel in my stash.  I'm doing my bit to keep this industry going!

Coming soon.....

I've been working on sewing some project bags and hopefully in the upcoming weeks I'll have them up for sale on my blog. I like making bags and things and what I like about these new ones I've done is they have a clear vinyl front so you can easily see what's in them.   If they don't sell I guess then I'll have some gifts to give away to friends this Christmas!