Lot of Things to Talk About

I think that I can officially say that I have gotten back into my stitching groove. I know that I've said this before, but this time I really mean it. I have gotten back into the groove.

One of the stitching projects that I have decided to start is a baby quilt. I know that there is will be a new baby niece or nephew in our future, so I thought I would get an early start and get moving on it. And I had the whole thing planned out in my head, too. I was going to do squares with animals and then put them together into a baby sized quilt. The first animal up? You guessed it! A panda:

The problem was that when I finished the first square, the rest of the animals that I had picked from the book...well, I just was not jazzed about the project anymore. That is the best way that I can describe it. Just not jazzed. And I knew that was why I stopped after the first square. What's a stitcher to do? Some projects do get left my the wayside, but I knew that I didn't want that to happen to this one. Then I heard the call from the stash closet. Again, I'm hearing voices. Other stitchers tell me this is normal. MJ is not so sure about that and thinks that I'm a little crazy, but I have reassured him that other stitchers tell me they hear the same voices. Anyway, I started going through my stash because I was getting restless and felt the need to start something, but I was not sure what I wanted to start. I found this Disney book by Leisure Arts that I bought a long time ago and started leafing through it. I found this:

Little squares with Disney characters and I thought that would be perfect for a baby. So I put away the flosses that I pulled for the animals and pulled the floss for Mickey and his friends and started the first square:

He's coming along quite nicely, don't you think? They are quick to stitch and I really love the bright colors. Perfect for a little one.

I have been very lucky to meet and become friends with stitchers from all over. One of them was looking to reduce her stash and had something that I have been looking for:

Monopoly is one of M's favorite games and we have several versions of it in the game closet: regular Monopoly, Star Wars Monopoly (we actually have two different versions of Star Wars Monopoly), Electronic Banking Monopoly. As you can see, we like the game of Monopoly. M saw the leaflet sitting by my table and was very excited. All I've heard for most of the day is "Are you really going to stitch me a Monopoly board? Can we play on it?" Ummm...I think I see a stitched Monopoly board in my future.

More work has been accomplished on the Nativity table runner as well, too:

I have about half of the page that I'm working on left to do and then one more page left. It's been a fairly quick and easy piece to work on and I have enjoyed it. This is the piece that got me back into the stitching groove and I think that because of that it this piece will always hold a special place in my heart.

I said at the beginning that I know that I have gotten back into the stitching groove, which makes me happy. And just how do I know that my groove is back? Because the HAED pandas have re-emerged from the stitching bag!

I picked up the HAED this week for the first time in months. It's strange that I can gauge how I am feeling by what, if anything, I am working on. As I have gotten better and felt more and more like my old self the harder projects have come out. First I started the table runner. One color, easy stitching. Even though it's big, it's not hard to work on. Then I took out the Disney kit and finished that off (and I took that to get framed the other day. I'm so excited!). And now I have returned to the HAED pandas. I remember how much I loved this piece, but I have to say that all of those little confetti stitches are going to drive me batty! I actually have gotten a little farther on it since I took this picture, although I didn't quite finish the page I was working on before I moved onto the next one. Like I said, all those confetti stitched were grating on me, so I started the next page, which large blocks of blue sky. I can go back to the confetti stitches later, right? They're not going anywhere.

So here we are in May. the school year is almost over and the summer is approaching. We had a long and snowy winter here on Long Island and I am so glad to finally have warm weather and open windows.

Have a happy Memorial Day!