Happy June!

I've been nibbling away at everything through all the madness with Auntie.  She's refusing to allow caregivers in her home and she's too stubborn and forgetful to admit that she needs them so that's been taking up my life.  I keep reminding myself that I was a stubborn fool when I was young, and then I grew out of it, and it's a gift to get old enough to grow back into it and I'm glad I can be there for her.  It makes me feel better but I'm still worn out all the time.  Thank goodness for cross stitch!

I got the top of the arm on my octopus:

One wee flower on Autumn Meditation:

More petals on my Zinnias:

All kinds of stuff on the dinosaurs - the wings are started on the pteranodon and the leaves on the trees are blooming (I know it's flowers that bloom but I don't know what to call it when leaves do it).

My spaceship is taking off!

Oh wow I'm working on another octopus - I guess I'm more of a fan than I knew, haha!

There's a Japanese garden not too far from us where I go to watch the fish and forget my problems:

I didn't notice this guy for a long time! I'd never make it as fish, lol, I'd be the one that aimlessly swam right under his beak.  

 Kuna says let her sleep!

Bookmark Finish!

This is some perfect spring color to balance all the rainstorms we're having.  I'm in heaven with this weather, I shouldn't say anything with all the flooding we're having but I wish it would never stop!

Here's "Blackwork Bookmark" by Susan Penny in from Cross Stitcher Magazine, April 2019.  Stitched with leftover threads from a kit.

DH had a very reasonable question about why this was called blackwork, haha.  It's funny that the    technique is named for the color, I guess backstitched bookmark would be a better title.  

In other stitching news, I'm glad I take pictures because otherwise some of these I wouldn't know that I had gotten anywhere at all!

Dinosaurs has more sky:

Zinnias has more leaves and flowers and it almost says Zinnias now instead of Zinntas:

Aliens has more of the stuff around the blast zone:

Triskele is almost done:

Celtic Angel has more wings growing - this is being stitched with the charted threads but it's on ivory aida instead of the blue in the picture.  It's amazing how much more purple the model looks!

And Octopus's Garden joined the rotation, there's a little more seaweed and border done:

Auntie thinks people are sneaking into her house and smoking her cigarettes and turning her lights on and off - she's definitely getting more suspicious in general, I think just because she can't remember anything at all now.  Sigh.  I'm meeting with a lawyer to get the conservatorship going and she may be ending up with a stranger coming into her house to take care of her.  She hates the idea but we're getting right up to the edge of what I'm willing to undertake in the caregiving line.  Double sigh.  I love her like crazy but I am so looking forward to going back to my proper job!!!

A WIPocalypse Finish!

 One great thing about taking care of Auntie is I sure have a lot of time to sew!  It's perfect stitching weather this weekend, cold and threatening to rain!

 This is "Reversed Sampler" by The Stitcherhood, stitched on 16ct metallic Aida with WDW Peacock thread:

I have a few patterns in this genre of living simply, renouncing worldly goods, being happy with what you have, etc. They make me smile because I have a gajillion patterns and a dresser full of fabric and a closet full of thread, but I guess I still have the dream of a Zen life where I own nothing.

My 3 WIPocalypse pieces are "Sistine Chapel" by HAED - I don't know what I stitched this week because with HAED's you don't - you're just stitching blindly and trusting that the design will emerge.  You can tell Kuna wanted to investigate the chart, haha:

"Era of the Dinosaurs" by Riolis, the sky has more blue:

and "Underwater Kingdom", also by Riolis, more tentacle is curling:

I'm expecting these guys to take all year.

These next projects are semi-WIPocalypse pieces because I don't expect them to take that long to finish.  I've thought that before, haha.  In order to complete all my WIPs before I expect to be dead I need to have a finish every 11 days, so I'm trucking along with my smaller WIPs to keep everything on track.  My nexy finish is due February 2 and I'm expecting it to be this one.  This is "Harvest Sampler" by Jane Chandler, which got some acorns and a couple of pumpkins outlined:

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"Autumn Meditation" by Carolyn Manning, which has some of the central branching started:

Both of the designs are from Just Cross Stitch, December 2020.

I also got some more flowers starting to bloom in "Zinnias" by Polly Carbonari in Leisure Arts magazine:

And some humans are getting sucked up in "Aliens" which I got on Etsy:

The WIPocalypse question of the month is have you ever been to a retreat - not exactly.  I was in a SoCal Cross Stitchers group that met at a craft store called the Tall Mouse every month, it was kind of like going on a retreat, maybe. ?   I only ever take my stitching and some scissors when I travel, I stitch in hand and I stitch on Aida so I don't need bright lights and big magnifiers and such.

I finish up with Kuna refusing to look at the camera because she wants to get up and smell things instead of getting her stupid picture taken, haha:

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So Close!

I ran out of thread! I had known that I was off by 1, but I couldn't figure out where - everything I counted was right, edge to edge, landmark to landmark, frontwards and backwards, up and down.  I finally decided I was hallucinating and just went with it but then of course I found the problem when I was zooming to the finish and had to frog a huge chunk and that meant not enough thread.  Ack! So this is  "Reversed Sampler" from the Stitcherhood, waiting for some WDW Peacock thread:

In other WIP news, I started growing my  "Zinnias":

There are some leaves on "Autumn Meditation":

Some blue on "Aliens":

More sky on "Dinosaurs":

And the top band on "Harvest Blessings":

A Cardinal Finish!

 My first finish of the year, Mr. Cardinal:

This pattern came from Cross Stitch Crazy, it was part of a series of birds.  I don't know the year, the issue, or the designer because at some point magazines stopped putting all that on the pages. I love all reds and the bird was backstitched in white, a first for me!  

In the meantime I've been loving all the rain we've been getting in California, it's great stitchy weather! I cued up Inspector Morse and got some more sky done on Age of Dinosuars:

  

More of the black outlining on Aliens:

Some of the corner on Autumn Meditation:

more of the top of Harvest Blessings:

and I got to the bottom of Zinnias:

First week down!

I've been kicking 2023's a#%  so far!  New Year's Eve we took our traditional sunset photo, we celebrate at sunset so we can go to bed haha.

We knew it was sunset because of the time, but some rain was rolling in.  

Kuna looks like she's not looking forward to this year - I thinks she could tell it was going to rain and she wanted us to get inside.  I love love love the rain and she has suffered through some wet walks with me!

My final TUSAL result for 2022:

This beautiful creature won the "Sweepstakes Award" for the most beautiful float! This is the float I worked on for the Rose Parade, in all her glory! Some of that yellow was made from flower petals cut by me, and I couldn't have been more proud that we'd won if I'd designed and built the whole float myself!

My stitching has been diligent! I got to the bottom of "Zinnias" from Leisure Arts Magazine, year unknown but I'm guessing the 90s.

Got a flower started in "Autumn Meditation":

Started the letters in "Harvest Blessings":

"Winter Cardinal" has a chest:

 

"Sistine Chapel" has some of the border - there are four colors in this space, believe it or not:

I have a picture of "Reversed Sampler" so I did something but I don't know what:

And I finally took a picture of Aliens:

I'm trying to stick with a finish every 11 days, so I'll probably be stitching Cardinal like crazy to finish him by the 11th - fingers crossed!