stitching – A Petite Slice of Life

Posted on February 28, 2021February 28, 2021 by AJ · 3 Comments

SAL Update

When I was a teenager I loved the work of Paula Vaughn and my grandma very kindly bought me the Paula Vaughn cross stitch book “A Quilt for All Seasons”. I immediately started on the January one. I’m not sure when exactly this was, but the project then languished on a shelf in my spare room for twelve years after I moved into my condo. Last year I heard about this SAL and decided it may help me actually get this project finished.

Here is where I was last update:

Here is where I am now:

I really had plans to finish the first page by this update, but unfortunately I’ve had quite the three weeks! I’ve had Covid, three of my appliances broke, and then to top it off I’ve had problems with my visa due to the appliances. I am really ready for life to go back to quiet and boring so I can spend more time stitching!

Make sure you check out all the other members of this SAL as the projects are truly spectacular!!!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

Posted on February 7, 2021February 7, 2021 by AJ · 19 Comments

SAL Update

Wow these three week periods go fast!

Here is where I was three weeks ago:

And here is where I am now:

It seemed like I had done so much until I put the pictures right by each other! Well the next week is supposed to be sunny but cold so maybe I’ll get more done.

Make sure you check out all the other members of this SAL as the projects are truly spectacular!!!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

Posted on January 17, 2021 by AJ · 14 Comments

SAL Update

I don’t ever feel like I’ve gotten much done, but in December I posted all the pictures from the year and could actually see that I have made progress this year. I’m a firm believer that every stitch is a step towards completion.

Last month, I had gotten to here:

This month it has still been difficult to get enough light to stitch by, but I managed to work a solid two hours on it. It’s also tough to find time along with teaching, running, reading and knitting, though every nice day, I tried to grab at least a few minutes!

This month, the project looks like this:

I’m still off by a couple of stitches here and there, but hopefully I’ll keep that edge perfect and the next page will go better. I have definitely learned not to hop around so I don’t have to change colours. It’s better to change colours!!!

Make sure you check out all the other members of this SAL as the projects are truly spectacular!!!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

Posted on December 6, 2020 by AJ · 12 Comments

SAL Update

For the past twelve plus years, this cross stitch project sat on a shelf in my spare room. This year I was determined to make progress and this SAL is definitely helping!

Here is where I was three weeks ago:.

Here is where I am now:

I haven’t made much progress this time as it has been exceptionally gray here. I am having a tough time working on this project when it isn’t nice and bright out. I really need to find a good light! If anyone has a good suggestion, I would love to hear any suggestions of good lamps!

Make sure you check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects in this SAL!

check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects!

Posted on October 25, 2020 by AJ · 28 Comments

SAL Update

Stitching:

This year I am determined to make progress on the project that sat on the shelf in my spare room for eleven years. It at least sits on my coffee table now. This is where I have been for the past two months after the tea disaster:

This is where I am right now (and I’m still working on it, but didn’t want to forget to post):

It doesn’t look like a lot of progress, but it actually is. Usually after I make a mistake, I don’t touch the project for years, but these past three weeks I have figured out my two areas of mistakes- one the blue coming down horizontally is a couple of stitches out here and there so I am trying to work around that to get it back to right to move forward with. Secondly, I didn’t realize I had misidentified some of the squares on the overlap column so I am now lining up the first and second page to make sure I am using the right colour.

There is a little bit of blue added to the bottom and a little brown and cream added to the top. It feels good to at least have some progress to report, though it’s not as much as I was hoping for.

I have also determined that I don’t actually like stitching on my couch in my knitting corner. I have determined this time that I do much better sitting on my floor cushion where I can have my threads somewhat spread out to the side of me. Stitching seems to go much faster when I can just reach over and grab the colour I need.

Well hopefully this is the start of steady progress!

Be sure to check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects! Jenny Avis Claire Gun Carole Sue Constanze Christina Kathy Margaret Cindy Heidi Jackie Sunny Hayley Megan Deborah Mary Margaret Renée Carmela Sharon Daisy Anne Cathie Laura Sherrie

Posted on October 4, 2020 by AJ · 17 Comments

SAL Update

Stitching:

This year I am determined to make progress on the project that sat on the shelf in my spare room for eleven years. It at least sits on my coffee table now.

Ok I have to admit that for the second month in a row there has been no progress, however, in some ways there has been.

Last update I told the sad tale of my massive tea spill. Thankfully the immediate submersion into soapy water seems to have saved my stitching. I cannot see any trace of tea staining 🎉🎊. This episode definitely shook me and I was really worried to even look at the project because it might be ruined after all this time and work. However this month, has seen the project put back into the hoop and I have put a couple of stitches in, but not enough to be noticeable. I am finding it really tough to determine where I am right now. I’m not sure how to solve this either. None of the stitches I can identify seem to be right. I have sat down to figure it out but realized this was going to be a longer process than I was expecting and didn’t want to be late in getting this update out, so have published it, before really getting a handle on my location.

I promise to keep trying to solve the mystery so that hopefully there will be noticeable progress next update!

Posted on August 23, 2020 by AJ · 28 Comments

SAL Update

Stitching:

This year I am determined to make progress on the project that sat on the shelf in my spare room for eleven years. It at least sits on my coffee table now. This is where I was at three weeks ago:

Here is where I am now:

I am frustrated with myself as I am finding that I had made a bunch of mistakes around the basket. I am trying to resolve the issues now so they don’t carry across the entire design.

I had planned to be done to the end of the first page of the pattern all the way down, but unfortunately I only made it about halfway. At least I am pretty sure you can see the progress this time. It was really neat to get to do a different colour with the blues in there.

I am looking forward to being able to get the whole thing to that column so that I start the next page at a “clean” row.

Be sure to check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects!

Posted on August 21, 2020 by AJ · 19 Comments

From Full to Empty in Moments of Waking

I was expecting to have a very busy day, but within moments of waking up, 2/3 of my plans were cancelled. Thankfully I managed to be productive anyways and have ended the day with a nice treat.

Exercise:

The one plan that wasn’t cancelled was my run. I did an 8km run with Dennis out on the Dyke. It wasn’t my best run and it wasn’t my worst. I think I just went out too fast. It was nice to have the jump in mileage though!

I also got another NourishMoveLove workout done this evening. Can you tell I am enjoying these workouts. This one was a twenty five minute booty, cardio and core band workout. I do like how she does the whole workout with you and that the workouts seem to go very fast. It is a little tough to watch a woman who just had a baby, beat your butt though!🤣

House:

I seemed to have a lot of energy today and got my dishes done, all of my laundry done, and my living room tidied up.

Knitting:

I let myself do an hour of knitting on my new Weekender project this morning. However, I didn’t know her entire hour would be spent casting on. I had never done the tubular cast on before so didn’t know it took six rows! I guess it’s good to learn something new.

This evening I have gone back to the project and am just at the boring rib stage.

Stitching:

I want enough progress that it can be seen on Sunday, so I spent an hour stitching this afternoon while the sun was out. I don’t know if I’ll quite make my goal, but I should be close.

Sewing:

I had bought material for four tank tops yesterday and I don’t want to be the person who has the material hanging around for years, so today I got busy and made a second tank top. I managed to make many mistakes on this one too, but also managed to fix them, so I’m taking it as a win.

I wore the tank for my workout this afternoon and it was super comfy so there will definitely be three more. I did buy enough material for two in each fabric, but I think I will look for a different pattern for the second in each.

Cooking:

It was also on my list to make up my second Fresh Prep meal today and I actually managed to do so. Tonight it was Lemongrass Chicken with Nuoc Cham and Romaine Salad.

It was supposed to be a barbecue recipe, but I just did my chicken on the stove. I also learned that Nuoc Cham refers to an Asian style dressing. The meal was quite yummy, though I don’t feel like it was worth the cost with it being mainly salad.!

Friendship:

This evening I got a text from my running buddy asking if I was busy I was immediately concerned and thinking she needed a ride to emergency as I have had this text in the past and I knew she had been experiencing abdominal pain for about a week.

It turned out she had just come from emergency and was waiting for a prescription to be filled and wanted me to meet her for coffee. A way better circumstance!

It was a lovely treat to get to finish my day having tea with a friend and talking knitting!

Well, I’m going back to knitting as I try to decide if I should run tomorrow or not?

Have fun!

Posted on May 31, 2020 by AJ · 16 Comments

SAL Update

Stitching:

This year I am determined and it at least sits on my coffee table now. This is where I was at three weeks ago.

And this is where I am now:

I hope you can see the change in the curtain this time. I have made myself sit and do an hour of stitching each day after I finish my work day. I do find the curtain tough because the colours are so similar to the colour of the Aida cloth! It makes it very difficult to find the holes!

Be sure to check out everyone else’s progress! Welcome back to Helen who is returning g to the SAL. There are some amazing projects! If you’re interested in joining, just click on Avis’ link. Helen Jenny Avis Claire Gun Carole Sue Constanze Christina Kathy Margaret Cindy Heidi Jackie Sunny Hayley Megan Deborah Mary Margaret Renée Carmela Jocelyn Sharon Daisy Anne Cathie Laura Sherrie

My weekend:

I had an awesome weekend with my mom. I glued myself to her side for the weekend, well except for my 10.75km run in the rain this morning with Dennis.

We didn’t do anything super exciting as we’re both still not going around in public a lot. We watched several Hallmark movies and did a puzzle. The puzzle was a lot more difficult than we were expecting! A very low key weekend, but it was awesome to have company!

Have fun!

Posted on May 10, 2020 by AJ · 20 Comments

SAL Update

I am sorry this is so late!

Stitching:

This is a picture of the project that has set on my shelf for the past eleven years). This year I am determined and it at least sits on my coffee table now. This is where I was at three weeks ago.

And this is where I am now:

Can you see the change in the curtain?

At first I counted how many stitches I did each three weeks, but these last two I made goals for what to work on. Last time I had decided it needed to be either back stitching or the curtain and I went with the curtain, but didn’t get as much done as I wanted to:(. I just find the curtain tough because the colours are so similar that I’m continuously afraid that I’m going to mess it up:(

Be sure to check out everyone else’s progress! Welcome back to Helen who is returning g to the SAL. There are some amazing projects! If you’re interested in joining, just click on Avis’ link.