WIP Wednesday, October 21,2020

Hello Everyone! I’m finally back with a cross stitch update! It’s not that I haven’t been cross stitching, it’s that I’ve been busy traveling between Virginia and Georgia and starting to unpack so I haven’t had much time to show my progress. Yesterday, I finished the last kitchen box. Yeah! We arrived back in Virginia late Sunday afternoon and on Monday, I was determined we were not going to eat on paper plates any more. I had the movers pack all the kitchen breakables and of course, I found the everyday dishes in the next to last box I opened. I unpacked those first, then continued on with the rest and finished unpacking about midday on Tuesday. I have a few more critical things to get unpacked before moving on to my sewing things, but I have opened a few of those boxes, too, to pull out some fall cross stitch pieces and mini quilts. I need some fall decor!

Anyway, let’s get on to some stitching, then I have a few pictures at the end of the first walk we took on our lake.

First up is my finished Bittersweet September, Rewards of Merit Pinkeep by Blackbird Designs. I love the fabric, 36 ct Soft Porcelain, hand dyed by Misty of Luminous Fiber Arts. I stitched one over two using some of the called for colors. The GAST Tomato was difficult to find, so I used DMC 900 and love that color in the flowers and letters. I don’t know if I will make this into a little pillow or a flat mount to put onto a picture frame.

The next finish is a little pumpkin by Barbie Petal Pusher.

It’s stitched on 28 or 32 ct cream Lugana. This was a piece of fabric given to me by a friend when she was destashing. I plan to make it into a little pillow. I’ll be posting it on IG using #thegreatpumpkinsal hosted by @cynthiabrew. Visit the hashtag to see some wonderful pumpkin stitching for the month of October.

The little pumpkin is part of Barbie’s Fresh Picked Pumpkins pattern that you can find in her Etsy shop.

I started the larger chart, Let’s Talk Autumn, by Hands On Design. I believe I’m stitching it on 18 ct Aida, but I’m going to check the count. I also picked this one for the #thegreatpumpkinsal, but I’m not sure if I will be able to finish it by the end of October.

Since I did not spend any time on Anniversaries of the Heart at all since I finished the last block early in August, I thought it was time to work on that again.

I’ve made good progress on Elizabeth Jane this past week and will continue to work on it until I finish. I’m stitching this in memory of my MIL Ruth. I still hope to finish the entire piece this year. Next, I will be stitching the bonus chart included with this pattern and it’s a double block. When I finish EJ, I’ll continue with that one with no breaks. I’m going to try to get back into a stitching schedule of sorts, so this will become my morning stitch.

I kept all my current WIPs with me so they are not packed away. I need to spend a little time going through them and prioritizing for the rest of the year. There are some Christmas WIPs that I want to work on and I want to start a few new ones, too. We’ll just have to see how the time goes.

Just in case you were wondering about the quilt, this is Atlantic Flyway by Deb Tucker I made in 2015. I love this quilt and I have it hanging over the opening to the basement stairs. It was machine quilted by me on my Pfaff QE4.0.

My daughter met us in Georgia last week and helped us clean the old house, then we spent a few fun days with her and our son. She brought her embroidery with her so I thought I would share her progress. She’s doing a fantastic job on this, which is her own design from one of her photographs. She now has prints available in her shop at Emily Hotinger Photography, if you want to take a look.

After finishing unpacking yesterday, my husband I walked on part of the lake path on our side of the lake. The little cove in the picture above is behind our house. The trees line the lake so we can only see a little bit of it now, but I’m hoping during the winter, we’ll have a nice view.

The leaves are starting to get pretty here. It was a beautiful day, too, in the upper 70’s.

We went around one of the many little fingers which opened up to this view. That’s the small mountain ridge to the east of us.

We also went by Mr. Young Buck. He kept an eye on us. We’ve seen him behind our house a few times. We ended up walking about 3.3 miles. The trail around the lake is about 8 miles, so we still have lots more to explore.

Today we’re going to take the day off. I’m packing a picnic lunch and we’ll drive through Shenandoah National Park and on the Skyline Drive. It’s not far and I’m sure we’ll be visiting it many times.

I hope to get back to a more regular blogging schedule over the next couple of weeks. Thanks for stopping by today and thanks to all those who have shared kind words on our move.