You're Invited!

To come to a stitch in on Saturday, October 21st. You can come to stitch (or knit) and plan to bring along some of your finished or unwanted charts for a chart swap. Sandy from The Queen's Stitch should be coming and I hope that Nancy, Carol, Ann and Joyce can join us. If you are within reasonable driving distance of southern Maine and would like to join us, please let me know and I'll send you directions. The more the merrier!

I'm happy to report that I finished up the stitching on my SBEBB Halloween exchange and have been busy today working on the finishing part. I'm trying something different this time so I really hope my exchange partner likes what I stitched! I also packaged up Gaby's autumn exchange gift for my yahoo group and will be mailing both packages out on Tuesday or Wednesday. Whew it's nice to be finished with obligation stitching for a bit. That means I can head to CATS next Thursday with a clear conscience and something new to start!

Aniza's Birthday Exchange

I just had an adorable Hallmark ecard that Aniza has received her birthday exchange in Malaysia so I can post a picture. I ended up finishing it into a little pillow because the first method I tried didn't come out exactly right. I was trying to make it like one of the JBW hanging pillows butI just couldn't get my ribbon to hang right and when I tried to iron it, I melted some of the ribbon so this was the end result. This time I used perle cotton for the tassles because it was the best match in color. I'm not sure I would use it again though. I'm glad it arrived safely in Malaysia and that our SBEBB birthday group has concluded without a hitch. Happy Birthday Aniza!

Cozy

Doesn't the "king" look cozy? This is a picture taken this morning with the "king" reclining among the pillows. He leads an easy life doesn't he? And he looks so innocent but don't you believe it.

Full Moon Fever Continues

Barbara asked kindly how I was doing after my fall last week. My ankles are much less sore and I know have three matching bruises forming on my left leg. As if that weren't enough, I walked into a tree branch yesterday and now have a scrape just under my right eyebrow. And tonight as I was getting ready to leave work, I could not find my keys. Two trips all around the hospital and out to the car, a good 45 minutes before it dawned on me that I had worn a coat to work this morning and guess what I did with my keys? Yep, I had put them in my pocket and totally forgotten I wore a coat because it was hidden behind the open door. It's either the full moon or menopause which I'm not buying so I'm blaming it on Luna.

Thanks for all the kind words for Susi and me on our redwork. This was another great SBEBB exchange. Hopefully, I will be able to show Aniza's birthday exchange gift soon as well. I was a bit later thank I had intended to be in mailing it out due to some finishing complications. Aniza's was the last of my birthday group exchanges so that is finished for the year. I really enjoyed being a part of the group and seeing all the lovely things that were created.

I also forgot to show you my finished sock. This is the one that Cowboy got into not once, but twice and I finally finished it off last week. Now I must cast on for its mate and try and finish it by Sept. 21st so I can at least say I finished one official pair of socks for the Summer of Socks KAL which I have done so poorly at.

Although I love being in exchanges, I'm going to take a break and try not to sign up for anything for the next two months or so. I really need to get knitting on some Christmas gifts and finish some stitching for myself. We shall see how long that intention lasts!

Redwork Scissor Keep from Susi

I receieved my SBEBB redwork exchange piece on Friday and am so thrilled with what was stitched for me. This is the absolutely wonderful scissor keep that I received from Susi. It is stitched over one and contains a wonderful pair of red scissors. The inside is a luscious silk fabric and the ribbons are attached with the teeniest red heart buttons. She did an absolutely fabulous job and I thought using a magnet to attach the scissors is just so clever. I never thought of doing that but it makes it so quick and easy to get the scissors and to keep them within the scissor keep. Thank you Susi - I will treasure it and put it to good use!

Elisabeth has also received my gift to her so I'm going to post the pictures I took before I mailed it off. I made a litte pocket from a JBW Designs chart. It was originally intented to be a photo pocket using linen banding but I just used regular linen for mine. I think I will definitely try this technique again.

Clean Bill of Health

Tonight Cowboy had his one remaining stitch removed by the vet who was very pleased with how well his incision had healed up. We got a clean bill of health and barring any unfortunate incidents, will not have to go back until his yearly check up in May.

I also had some stitches removed today from a mole that was excised. I was expecting to get a cancerous report and it was - highly pigmented basal cell carcinoma. The margins were very clean so my doctor is confident that everything will be fine. I have to go back every four months for the next year but with no other occurrences, I can go to twice a year. I urge you to make having a full body skin cancer screen part of your regular health check up. I had gotten very lax about it, even knowing I am a prime candidate for it. The mole was on the back of my neck so it was hard to see often until my hairdresser asked me if I had had it checked out. I made the appointment and am very glad I did.

It's a full moon tonight and boy don't I know it. This morning I put too many sweeteners in my coffee - yuck! - without enough time to make another pot and at lunch time I fell down the back stairs at work, resulting in two banged up and sore ankles, a bump on my knee and a sore tailbone. Then I got home and realized the check my neighbor had put in my mailbox that I forgot to pick up last night was picked up by the mail man. Of course she hadn't put a name on the Pay To part so now it's floating around somewhere. Needless to say, she's not that happy that she will probably have to stop payment on it. I offered to pay the fee and I'm going to call the post office first thing tomorrow to see if they can find it. Of course it only has "Patrice" on it which is what my neighbor calls me. Cross your fingers that it will be recovered!
I'm going to bed!

Weekend Progress

Thanks to a long three day weekend, I was able to send off two exchange pieces, sew the buttons on my HIH Halloween Medley and make a fair amount of progress on my autumn exchange piece. I chose something my exchange partner liked and I must say there is a lot more detail than I expected. But I'm nearing the finish point and I've decided to finish it as a no sew cube so that's progress. This is a picture of my HIH piece with the frame my friend Nancy ordered for me. I hope to get it to the framers this wekend.

Thanks for all the well wishes for Cowboy. He didn't have to wear the elizabethan collar much this weekend as I was home. His incision has pulled together nicely and I think the vet will be very pleased when we go on Thursday to have the remaining stitches removed. We are back to our usual 30 minute walks and he's been quite energetic so I think he's pretty much recovered from his ordeal.

I'm getting quite excited about CATS now that it's finally September. I will be heading down to pick up Nancy on the 28th for the drive to Hershey where we will get to see Jo and Cathy again as well as meet up with Joanie, Carol, Leslie and hopefully others to stitch the weekend away! I can't wait! Anyone else going?