"A New Face" for my blog!

Hi all,

Well, it's taken me a while to just get caught up with life and we are at the mid point in January! I guess that means I am either moving too slowly, or life has a lot more stuff going on than I really need to have happening! Ha! Ha!

How do you like my new Blog background? I just found this really cool place to download free backgrounds, and it is just so much fun! I am going to be playing with backgrounds I'm sure in the future. There were so many to pick from that I had a hard time deciding which one to use. So you'll get to preview all my changes as they come along .

All kidding aside, I am not the smartest when it comes to computer knowledge, and figuring out how to do things. I have wanted to change my blog for a long time, but hadn't found information and sources for the backgrounds. This time I happened on it quite by accident, but it was a wonderful surprise for me. Now I can have something pretty to look at and not be quite so ordinary . I love color and design, and there were just so many cute and playful and interesting backgrounds that I am sure to be changing them quite a bit in the future, just for the pure fun of it!!

What's new? Well, I have managed to get through our Family Reunion which was held on Dec. 27th, and we had a wonderful time! WE always do!! Which I guess is a good thing. It's a bit of work but well worth it! Now that that is done, and the Christmas decorations all taken down from both inside and outside the house, I am into the cleaning and organizing mode. This is a normal condition for me in January. I try to clean spaces, like the garage!! Closets and drawers, and just get rid of things if I can to make life a little less busy. Not all people struggle with clutter and collecting, but I do, so as much as I'd love to keep it all, it's not practical, and I really do enjoy it when I have cleared spaces and everything looks very orderly and there is actual space to store new things should I get the notion to buy something...and you know I will .

One of my goals for the year is to stitch more seasonal designs. I want to make a lot of pieces for all the holidays and seasons, and I've been thinking that making them up as flat folds, and stand up pieces, or door knockers will be a great way to get a lot of pieces stitched without having a lot of finishing costs. I can do most of the work myself anyway, so that really does save me money in the long run, and I can 'get creative' with the designs and finishing. It's fun! And I love experimenting with ribbons and other elements to decorate the stand ups or flat folds or bags so that they look unique. One of the best places for me to get ideas though is my own LNS (Stitcher's Garden in Albuquerque). The people there do such great things with their finishing that i learn something new every time I go there. AT least I get lots of new ideas for my own fnishing, and it really does inspire me to try something new as well.

This house has lots of windows, and the window sills are about 6" deep, or so, and you can easily put the flat folds there for decorating spaces, and they look nice and have enough room for displaying. So that is the plan for 2009...more holiday and seasonal pieces for my window sills and also for the doors. I love making door knockers, and bags that can be hung on the door with some pretty artificial dried flowers in them. I've only ever made one stand up in the past, but I am eager to learn how to do more of that this year and create some interesting pieces for my kitchen bay window. It's just nice to see some new pieces in the house now and then and I really do enjoy creating them.

What else? I have started logging my charts on my CrossMagic program. I hope to get all my UFOs and WIPs posted and then will post my list here. Or a link to my list if it is too long . I don't have any idea really how many I have, so that gives you some idea of where I'm at with it . Not a good sign!! Anyway, they will eventually be where you can see them and I can keep track of them as well. What I am hoping is that 2009 will be the year for really getting down to some serious stitching so I can clear a lot of the backlog of WIPs and some of those UFOs as well. I'd like to start some new things, and seriously the only way to do that without guilt is to finish osme of the current projects. Starting new projects is always a lot of fun, but after a while, they start bothering your conscience if you just keep stacking up new unfinished projects. WEll, I've done that, and so it's time to get back to stitching more and starting fewer projects. THe end result will definitely be worth it...so that's another goal for 2009.

I've started working on my Marquoir Sampler. I'll get a picture posted before long here, and I am also working on Elizabeth by CHS this week. I'm working on my rotation, but haven't exactly figured out what I want to do. I'll post it here whenever I get it all written down. Hopefully I will have one FOCUS project, which most likely will be Marquior until it is finished. Then I will have one smaller project, which may be some smalls, or my CHS Elizabeth piece that I'm working on. I also have some other projects I really want to get back to....Carnation Sampler is one of them, and the Many Years Sampler which is a redwork sampler. Loving both of these samplers is the reason I want to get back to them fairly soon and they will take Marquoirs place when complete it as my new Focus Project.

Starting a new year is always exciting to me. I love opening a new calendar and planning my year . Yes, I really do that. I sit down and put in what I want to do that year, and try to break it up so that is sort of in reasonable and manageable pieces. This year organization and sewing projects are going to fill January and part of February. Painting will finish off the month of February. March is still pretty cold, so I won't be outside that much, but the trimming of bushes to some degree will happen during March. Otherwise I will just be stitching more and maybe doing a little sewing and decorating inside the house. Thankfully I don't have a long list of projects to do this year, inside the house or outside. Exercise will be on my list as a serious item, and I hope to really make some progress this year and get into a comfortable routine so that I can be consistent with it. That seems to be the problem most years, the work outweighs the exercise goal by miles, and so it ends up squeezed out of the schedule most of the time. Not a good thing, and I am turning that around this year. God willing of course.

Since my goals revolve a lot around my stitching this year, I am going to keep a journal near where I stitch so I can post my work on a daily basis, and the time spent on each project. I"m still trying to figure out the best way to do this so I can keep track of what I do on each project. It will be interesting to see just how much time goes into these works of art . I'm sure it is more than I imagine.

Right now I have in front of me a bunch of gorgeous blues and teal colored Vikki Clayton silks...they are so pretty. I am thinking these would be great for a Quaker sampler, even on a soft tan linen....I'm really liking these brown and teal and pink and brown combinations these days. I may be looking for another new project to start, or maybe a set of smalls using these colors pretty soon. They are just so pretty together, and there are about 15 of them.... in Gloss greens, Hemlock, Chrysocolla, and Faded Denim. JUST YUMMY!!! Nothing like pretty silk threads to stir your imagination!!!

Promise to get some progress pics up soon of my Works in Progress....also, I am working on a WIP Elimination Challenge (part of the WIP/UFO section on the Legacy Embroiderer's Guild Board) -- hopefully I will get a lot of my WIPs and UFOs completed this year. I've posted a lot of my projects on that section in their current state of completion, and hopefully by the end of the year a lot of them will have actual "finish" photos posted as well.

Wishing you the BEST YEAR EVER!!! God bless!!!

Cathy