There are no words...

for the devestation that I am seeing on TV. My heart is sore today as I think of the tragedy and loss experienced by so many and the seemingly overwhelming process of restoring so many lives, cities and towns. Mother nature is an awesome force that we tend to take for granted. But lately she has been reminding us in technicolor pictures of just how powerful and uncontrollable she is. Please consider contributing funds to the Red Cross or the United Way or similar agencies.

A One Day Finish

Talk about instant gratification! I was able to start, finish and put together my wonderful little tin pin which is the first of the Essy's Friends kits from Lois at the Elegant Stitch. The picture does not do justice to how cute this little pin is and it was surprisingly easy to finish considering I tend to be finishing challenged. The piece is stitched on special pink fabric dyed by R&R and uses WDW threads in gorgeous colors. Plus is has a heart in it which I love to stitch. I can't wait to wear it to work. Once that was completed, I decided to get started on my Legacy Halloween Sweetbag exchange piece. After putting some stitches in, I'm not sure I'm going to like my choice. I can always keep it if I don't because there's plenty of time to stitch something else. Maybe it's just that it feels weird to be stitching with two threads on 32ct - after working on Plymouth so long, anything other than over one seems huge!

Aaah Saturday!

One of my favorite times to stitch is early in the morning on Saturdays. I roll out of bed, make a cup of coffee and then sit in my stitching chair for at least an hour. I rarely sleep until 7am so that means I usually can get a good bit of stitching in before I have to get going on all my Saturday errands. This morning I started stitching on the first Essy's Friends kit from Elegant Stitch. I love starting a new project and to be able to after finishing Plymouth is a very good feeling. This little project won't take long and if I'm lucky (and ignore all the housework) I can probably finish it today and start something new tomorrow! Heavenly I think. I've signed up for the automatic for the Essy's Friends kits and I think the next one will be shipping this coming week. I can't wait to see what's next.

Thank you Brenda Keyes!

Last night I finished my Plymouth Sampler by The Sampler Company designed by Brenda Keyes. This piece is my masterpiece and I'm so thrilled to have finished it. I've loved this piece from the moment I started stitching it and now that it's done I love it even more. It is such an accomplishment for me - the largest over one piece I've ever (and probably will ever!) stitch. It was done on 30 ct. evenweave with DMC and the colors are just so gorgeous and brilliant. The whole design is just incredible. Can you tell I'm on cloud nine??? I'm going to press it this morning and take it to the framers. I can't wait to get this one hanging in my house. Now it is on to a lot of small projects which will be such a relief after this BAP and the large ones still unfinished and hiding upstairs.

Nothing is easy....

in Maine. I apologize in advance to any Mainers reading this that take offense but it's my blog so I'm going to write what I think! I moved to Maine for the chance to work with a great boss and career opportunity. I have lived here 4 months as of next week. Nothing is easy here. Last night for example, I decided that I was in the mood for BBQ so I went to the only local place I know of that does good BBQ and it was closed. Now this is a small town area and I understand that. But what I get frustrated by is the effort it takes to do anything that was once normal to me when I lived in New Hampshire. To go to a Target takes 45 minutes and there is only ONE mall in the whole state. Yes, you read that right, ONE MALL - 45 minutes away. I'm used to having two large malls only 15 minutes away. We had a great Italian restaurant in town that has had to close because locals don't come in except for special occasions and the owner was running out of money to keep it open. That leaves one other decent restaurant that's open year round (but closed on Mondays) and it's up for sale!!! However, there are days for happy dancing, like when you finally find a sushi restaurant and it's only about 25 minutes away - and it's open all year round. Woohooo! You have to treasure these little joys.

I often feel like I've been dropped into an alternate reality where no one here understands the language I am speaking. Blah blah, blah....etc. I didn't know that much about Maine before moving here - maybe I should have checked a few things out first! Like the fact that there is immense wealth along the coastline but it's often from outside of the state and that the majority of people live a really tough life and are very much in the lower income bracket. I am embarrassed at what a snob I have become and I never realized it until I moved here. I'm learning quite a bit about myself as a result of moving to Maine and I know it will be a growth experience for me. But I'm learning things about myself that I'm not really liking. I look at as an opportunity for personal growth but boy is it going to be painful! Life is good.

Progress is pleasing!

I was able to put a lot more time into my Plymouth Sampler on Sunday evening so here is an updated photo as of Monday morning before I left for work. I just have to fill in one more color on the outside right border and then finish up the letters on the bottom. I am hoping to get some more progress done after work today. In anticipation of finishing this piece soon, I picked out my pattern, fabric and threads for my Legacy Halloween sweetbag exchange. As soon as I finish Plymouth, I am going to start my exchange piece because it always takes me forever to do the finishing and I want to be ahead of the game on this one. It's always a pleasure to go through my stash but it can be distracting! So many projects, not enough time and paging through my freebies is mind boggling. There are so many small designs that I look at and think "that wouldn't take long at all to stitch"! I did find something in the freebies that I'm going to incorporate into a Christmast present for a friend though so it was a productive stash review.

New Beginnings

This is my first post as a blogger. I've been thinking about doing this for a while as I think it's a fascinating medium to learn about a lot of different things. Blogging for me will be mainely about my stitching but probably a bit about my new experiences here in Maine as well as other things that come to mind. Today I have been working hard on finishing my Plymouth Sampler by Brenda Keyes. I'm hoping to be able to complete it before the end of the month and I'm pretty on track as long as I get some good stitching time this week.
This was my progress a week ago. I've since finished the tree and the water below the cart and am working on the side bar which is a mirror image of the one on the left. Not much left to go and I'm really excite dto finish!