Longest Day of the Year-Almost

I have decided to join Jo of Serendipitous Stitching on her SAL. I have to do it over two days or I won't get much stitching done.  My goal is to get some work done on a crazy quilt square. I also plan on kitting up some things and getting my basement room to look a little less like it exploded. We shall see.
Here is my work on Drawn Thread Sampler:

I have almost finished another row! And I managed to finish all the 4 sided stitch on one set of little squares.
My plan is to pull Reptiles and stitch on it a little over the next few days. I will try to post photos of what I get done.
Hope you all have a great day!

A Finish for Gifted Gorgeousness

I finally got this done!

I will frame it and give it to my mother in law for her birthday!

A Rotation-Kind Of

I decided I needed to start a rotation to get some of my bigger projects moving forward. Last week I pulled out my Christmas stocking and worked on it.
This is the last photo I believe I showed you about a month ago.

 Here is where I am today:

This week I will try to work on Drawn Thread Sampler. Hopefully I will make progress to show you.

This Stitcher is So Slow!

I am sure most people who signed up for Gay Ann Roger's Drawn Thread Sampler are done and have moved on by now. Not me! I am as slow as molasses!
Here is what it looked like on May 31:

 This is where I am today:

It took me several evenings of lots of stitching and ripping and stitching to get this far. Now I can't find my master photo of the piece to see what I need to do next. Although I may do the little bits that are between the small squares. Oh! And it looks like I need to do the four-sided stitch around all of them too...Do you think I can finish this by next March? I am beginning to wonder.

May Stash Diet

Sigh. Do you ever not want to weigh yourself because you know what the scale will say? That is how I feel today. But I figure I need to post something this month as I did not in April.
March Total-                                                       $214
Money for April and May                                     50
cards sent                                                                 9
ANG Pilot Finished                                                25
Mailed away pilot(to my mom) &finished           25
Threads                                                                    20
Eleanor                                                                   337
Patchwork of Peace                                               225
Total                                                                        -238 

Now that is sad. I am a slow stitcher and the question is whether I will ever finish all these pieces. The other question is the cost of needlepoint vs cross stitch or embroidery. There is a good discussion of it on Fiber Talk , which is a podcast about fiber arts. I find I enjoy needlepoint more and tend to finish more canvas pieces than cross stitch, or at least big pieces. I also find that needlepoint goes faster (if you aren't doing basketweave or some of the background stitches) than cross stitch. But the expense is real. I don't even touch hand painted canvases because they are out of my price range. But I admire my friends who do beautiful work on them.
Why am I writing all this? Probably guilt. I feel guilty that I broke my diet. But I am hoping you will not judge me on it and I hope to be back in the black before the end of the year.
I will try to post a photo of Drawn Thread Sampler soon. It is moving forward, if ever so slowly....

Ever Feel a Little Obsessed?

I do. Right now all I want to work on is Reptiles. Here is the last photo I took of it:

 And this is where I am today:

I am ALMOST done with that stinking first page! I want to work on it all the time. Especially instead of stitching on Drawn Thread Sampler! And the Eleanor class starts tomorrow. Guess who isn't ready?
My boys are back in Ohio for internships and graduate school. I miss them, but am eyeing their room as a place to escape from the cat to do some stitching. Now you can't walk in their because of the disaster they left, but I see possibilities!
Will try to do a stash diet report tomorrow. It will be bad is all I am saying.

My Little Project

I am getting tired of Mill Hill kits. Yes, I am fickle. I want to work on my big projects but time and life issues do not allow. So Mill Hill bead kits follow me to doctor visits and when I have 10 minutes before bed.
This is where I left Benjamin in March.

 He tagged along on quite a few places so he is looking a lot better.

I think when he gets to the beading stage I will look for a different small project. I have plenty of Mill Hills to do, but I think I need a canvas piece to relieve the stress of all those little x's.