Happy 4th of July!

Happy 232nd birthday to the USA!

Some photos!

To make up for the lack of photos lately...

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First, here is the current view of Coq au Pins...as of Saturday night's work on it. Chicken at the top is completed, as is the 1st side of the scissor pocket. And even though I was dead tired, I went ahead and got a small start on the 2nd side of the scissor pocket before I called it quits.

The scissor pockets are a bit of a change from Chicken...they have a few tiny elements of over-1 stitching. It's been awhile since I've stitched over 1, though, so I had to adjust my brain a bit.

Helen commented that she can't visualize turning a rectangle into a chicken. I can understand that! While I don't have personal experience with it, I do know the basic premise is that the rectangle gets folded in half (the fold line is right down the center of that large geometric motif in the middle), then the edges and ends will be whipstitched together to form kind of a pyramid shape.

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And here is the progress on The Hubby's ornament. This is from last year's JCS Ornament issue, and without grabbing the magazine and looking it up, I can't remember who designed it.

It's going to be a bit larger than I had initially visualized - more like a mini-banner than an ornament - but we'll make it work. And I might finish it differently than what the magzine shows...that might make it a bit smaller.

The fabric is a really pretty sage green lugana, but for some reason, it looks quite blue in the photo. Guess it picked up some blue from the bright blue skies we've been having lately.

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Saturday I got bitten by the ambitious bug and did something I've never done. See, I needed to do my walk/jog and get to the post office that morning and I was trying to decide which to do first. The Hubby suggested I walk/jog TO the post office...yeah, right. Knowing where the post office is in relation to our house, I would have been gone all day. Then he suggested I ride my bike...I thought about it, did the math, and in my crazy "Exercise is GOOD!!!" mind, I decided to do it.

So I aired up my tires, attached my GPS to the handlebars, figured out a way to carry all the items I needed to carry - envelope, money, pepper spray (rural dogs can be a PITA sometimes...), cell phone (just in case I needed to be rescued) and off I went. 11 miles and 1 hour later, I arrived back home. That's right...11 miles. I thought that was pretty good, considering I haven't really ridden my bike in about 3 years. My legs were jell-o the rest of the day...but I did it. I killed a few birds with that stone - got my exercise in, got my envelope mailed, and saved some gas $. Yay me!

I don't know that I'll make a habit of biking to the post office every time I need to go, but it's nice to know it is possible and that I can physically do it. If we lived in town or had a safer route for biking, I'd gladly leave the car in the garage more often.

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For some reason - and I'm NOT going to complain - our weather has taken a nice turn and it's been perfectly *gorgeous* outside for the past couple of days. Comfortable temps (upper 70's to low 80's), very low humidity, lots of sunshine, puffy white clouds, nice breezes...just beautiful! We've even shut off the A/C and have the windows open. Pretty rare for late June around here. And the good news is that it's supposed to be like this for the rest of the week...awesome!

It was so pretty that I snapped a few pictures yesterday.

Here is our first watermelon. Back in the early spring, The Tot said she wanted to grow watermelons, so we decided to give it a shot again. The last time we tried to grow watermelons, they didn't turn out so well. We got maybe 2 melons and they were pretty small. It's still early to claim this year's attempt as a success...but fingers are crossed.

This one is a bit bigger than The Hubby's fist, so it's got some growing to do yet. But it looks normal, color-wise, so hopefully that's a good sign!

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And here is the view behind our house. I love the fact that we have lots of green space around us, that we're not in the middle of a subdivision or a large city. I like my space, I like my scenic views, I like not having neighbors right on top of us.

The only thing is that I wished we owned more of that green space behind us. We know who owns it and have made it known that we would be interested in some acreage if they ever decide to sell, so we're hoping that works out someday. Until then, we can at least enjoy the view!

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Well, The Little Tot is up from her nap and and fussing to come out and play, so I better get going here. Thanks for your visits and your comments! Enjoy your week!

Stopping to catch my breath a bit...

...and thought I'd take a moment to leave a small update here in Blogland. Busy-crazy week is going well, just busy-crazy!

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In the latest stitching news...I finished the stitching on Chicken the other night. YAY! I've now moved on to the scissor pocket. I have the outer border of one half done and am filling in the designs in the middle. Since I'm doing some work on it here and there this week and it's constanly changing in apperance, I'll wait and show pictures after Saturday night's regular session.

I've not been working on anything else this week so far. I've worked on Coq au Pins during Bible School time, and then by the time we get home and I get The Tot all tucked into bed, it's too late to drag anything else out...so I continue working on Coq au Pins. I'll probably switch things up and work on The Hubby's ornament tonight, though...those have a more pressing deadline than Chicken and her toys.

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I've had quite a few comments and compliments on my stitching lately. Thank you for taking the time to leave a little note! I always appreciate hearing from you! And a couple comments/questions that need a follow-up:

Dani: I'm a huge Sinatra fan and I felt the need to subject my blog visitors to a taste of my obsession...LOL! I put a few non-Sinatra songs in there, including "Be a Clown", which is actually Judy Garland and Gene Kelly singing. It's from the movie The Pirate. There's also another Judy song in my list, "Get Happy", which is also from another movie with Gene Kelly, Summer Stock.

Cathey: Coq au Pins comes from Twisted Oaks Designs. And Chicken turned out a little larger than I had envisioned. Chicken's stitch count is 146 x 76...so over 2 on 28-ct fabric, that's 12½ inches by almost 5½ inches. I don't know how the flat measurements will correspond to the folded up and assembled measurements...but she's not going to be a teeny-tiny thing. She's definitely bigger than the little chicken pincushions that are making the rounds in several exchanges lately.

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A side note:

Josi, if you are reading this, I've been trying to e-mail you regarding the fabric. I sent a reply earlier this month which you apparently didn't get, and I sent a couple replies from 2 different accounts after your most recent message saying that you hadn't heard from me. I don't know if they're getting caught in your spam filter or what, but I just wanted to let you know I'm trying to get in touch with you!

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Well, the spider guy just left - good inspection, zero brown recluse activity in the house, near zero activity in my garage - and I need to hit the treadmill while The Little Tot takes a nap, so I better scoot.

And just so I don't have a pictureless entry...

I know I've shown this before but I like it. I just love The Little Dog's attitude toward my photography attempts. :-)

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your week!

Another finish and a couple pictures

So mark me down for *another* finish...what's this, the 3rd one in the span of a week? WOW! My needle must be on fire or something...

May I present Part 6 of the Checkerboard Mystery SAL (the bottom row). I cheated a smidge and actually put the last stitches in today. My stitching time was much slower last night, as I was watching the women's gymnastics Olympic Trials and I kept stopping to watch those amazing athletes do their thing. Anyhoo, I stitched until I could stitch no more Sunday night/early Monday morning, but I didn't quite get the finish. So I took a rare moment after lunch while the girls were entertaining themselves and added the last little bit...and voila! It's finished. All ready for Part 7 now!

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And since it's been awhile, I'll show what Coq au Pins looks like. I'm *this* close to being finished with Chicken. I've gotten over to the far right edge, now I just need to complete the alphabet up the side (W, X, Y and part of Z) and the little motif to the left of those letters. Then Chicken's stitching will be finished.

I kinda-sorta tried to fold and manipulate the fabric into the general finish-finished shape of Chicken, just to see what it'll look like...it's going to be a decent sized pincushion! Although I seriously doubt Chicken will ever be poked with pins. I foresee a special display place for Chicken and the other Coq au Pins accessories, along with the other 2 chickens in the series.

Chicken's designated night is Saturday, but I may get some additional work on it this week. The Tot has Bible School each night this week, and instead of driving her to church, coming back home, then driving back in to town to pick her up, I'll probably just stay in town for the 2½ hours. I know at least 2 nights I'll be completely kid-free (The Little Tot will stay home with The Hubby)...so I'm thinking I may go sit at the library and pass the time by stitching on Chicken. And thoroughly enjoying 2½ hours to myself, which is something I haven't had since before The Little Tot was born. I'm so much looking forward to this...if I were a dog, I'd be drooling in anticipation. :-)

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And since I've forgotten this twice already...

Do you currently subscribe to any stitching publications or have you in the past? (Either in print or online) If so, which ones?

The permalink to this post is: http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/06/sbq-stitching-pubs/

I currently get Just Cross Stitch, but when my sub runs out at the end of the year, I don't think I'll renew it. I enjoy reading the articles and looking at the designs, but I rarely stitch things from the magazines I have...so I'll read the articles at the library and save my money for other things. I also used to get Cross Country Stitching (someone my MIL knows was selling magazine subs and she got that one for me) but I also let that one go. And even though I myself didn't sub to them, I have a whole stack of magazines that my mom and Granma used to sub to back in the 80's and 90's - Leisure Arts, For the Love of Cross Stitch, Cross Stitch and Country Crafts, and more.

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Thanks for all the comments regarding the uber-green kid-haters I mentioned in my last entry. Nice to know that I'm not alone in thinking that mindset is more than just a tad bit extreme.

And more thanks for the comments regarding my recent finishes. It's nice to read compliments on my work, especially from such talented stitchers. :-)

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I may not be around much this week...between Bible School every night, my online class, a birthday party Wednesday afternoon, the spider people coming to do a quarterly check Thursday (I don't know if it was ever mentioned here, but we had brown recluse spiders sharing our house with us...while I can overlook some insects getting into the house, I wasn't real keen on having poisonous spiders around), and the girls and I meeting up with my mom and Granma at a quilt show on Friday, I've got a busy week ahead of me. Come Friday night, I'll probably be doing nothing but sitting in a chair and staring at a wall!

Thanks for stopping by and have yourself a good week!

Another finish

This one came as a bit of a surprise, but I finished up my Summer squares for the Fair and Square round last night. I wasn't necessarily looking to finish them, but it worked out that way. I'm happy with how they turned out and I hope Paula likes them as well! No pictures yet, of course...but they'll follow soon. I hope to get these out in the mail sometime this week.

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Something I forgot to include in my entry yesterday...a map showing which US states I've visited:



http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/map.php


I saw this on Chiloe's blog earlier this week and thought it looked like fun. I used the states where I've spent some time - lived, spent the night, stopped and eaten a meal, visited someone, etc - as opposed to ones that I've just driven through on the way to somewhere else. If I included those, I could add a few more.

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Way off topic here...

Sometimes I stumble across a new-to-me blog by following a link from a link from a link. Many times I find a blog that's interesting. Today I found one that really bothered me. I won't list the blog, because I don't know if that's good 'Netiquette, but I will have my say on what I read.

The blogger is apparently an uber-green blogger. A recent post was about people who choose not to have children to save the environment. There were some quotes from people that really disturbed me...things along the lines of "people who have children are selfish and irresponsible" and "children are no better than SUV's" and the like. Others said that having biological children is unethical and immoral and that if you MUST have a child in your life, you should adopt. And others said that if you MUST have a biological child, have only 1...2 or more biological children in a family is plain wrong. One commenter favored mandating birth control - her idea was to insert IUD's in every girl at the age of 12 or 13 and the girls would have to have a strongly compelling reason to have them removed at some point if they decided to have children. And one even mentioned that she was doing her part by having abortions when she accidentally became pregnant (pro-choice or pro-life aside, I find her mindset extremely sad).

?!?!?!?

What the heck kind of alternate universe did I stumble upon? I would love to think that this was a joke, that it was an April Fool's Day kind of entry...but it wasn't. There are people who honestly think this way...and that's quite scary. I'm all for doing what I can to conserve - we recycle just about everything possible (and since we don't have curbside here, I have to drive it to the recycling center...but I still do it), we use flourescent bulbs in just about every light source in the house, we use common sense when setting the thermostat, I limit my driving trips, we grow some of our own food, etc. But in some people's eyes, because I've had 2 biological children, I'm playing a huge role in the decline of the environment? What the heck?

I really hope this is a far, far fringe mindset regarding children and the environment, that there aren't many people who really and truly would compare a child to an SUV. But to know that it does exist, that a few people think like this...yikes. Last I checked, folks were just as free to have children as they were to not have children.

OK, better move away from that topic now. And a note to myself...when I come across stuff like this in the future, just keep moving.

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As soon as I finish here, I'm off to get Chicken installed in the Q-Snap and hopefully get to work. The Little Tot should be ready for her afternoon nap, The Tot is watching the Gymnastics Olympic Trials on TV, The Hubby is getting ready to go to church...so the chances are good for me to actually get some stitching done during daylight hours! Rare, I know...

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!