Stitching Right Along

It's July 5, the day after Independence Day and I have to say that yesterday was probably the most enjoyable 4th of July that I have had in years. MJ's cousin, S's, birthday is July 2 and every year since MJ and I have been together (17 years) we have had to spend the 4th with his cousin for his birthday. It was okay when S was married and lived in a house with a yard. After he split from his wife and he moved into a small apartment the whole family was expected to go there on July 4th, and be happy about it. Apparently, everyone was..except me. Now, I have two boys. When boys feel like they are cooped up they tend to get a bit...rambunctious. MJ's aunt would get angry when the kids would get loud, and it has not been enjoyable for a very long time. This year, for whatever reason, S decided to keep his birthday "small" and only my in-laws were invited to go. Which meant that we were free to do anything we wanted. So, since MJ's brother and his wife, J and A, and their kids were in town we invited them and MJ's other brother and wife, T and T, over for a barbecue. The kids (my two boys, two nephews and one niece) spent hours in the back yard having war gun wars, eating good burgers and hot dogs, and making gooey smores. It was a great 4th of July!!

I got very little stitching done on the 4th, but I have been working steadily since my last post. Miribillia's Cinderella is kitted up and ready to go and it's calling me from the closet, so I thought that I should work on something that I have a decent chance of finishing sooner rather than later. Since I only have one more page to go on the table runner I thought that I should pick that up again and try to get that done so that I can add Cinderella to the rotation.

This is getting to be a VERY big project. I never realize exactly how big is really is until I take the hoop off and take a look at the whole thing. Its size never fails to amaze me.

This is the start of the last page. I've got the lettering on the bottom border done, a few buildings, and a palm tree. I guess I should really think about how I am going to finish it when it's done because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and with every stitch I put in that light gets a little brighter.



I have been doing alot of work on the HAED recently (more on that later), but last week I felt the need to work on something easy. Sometimes I just need that, and I think that I am not the only stitcher out there to feel that way. I want to stitch, but I don't want to have to think really hard about it, so I finished the next square for the baby quilt:

Daisy Duck fit the "easy" part that I was looking for. The nice thing about these squares is that I can finish one in about a week and feel like I managed to get something done. Mickey, Goofy, and Daisy are finished. That just leaves Pluto, Minnie, and Donald. Then I can put the squares away until I need to actually put the quilt together.

I have a request for another baby quilt with the Disney gang on it. J and A are in the process of adopting their second baby from China. They have two biological boys and one girl who has already been adopted from China. A asked to see the squares that I finished and what the others will look like and really liked them, and said that she did not know if I was planning on making a quilt for their baby when she comes home from China, but if I was could she have that. Since I have made a blanket or a quilt for all of her kids, of course I was planning on making one for the new baby. So, in the future, I will be working on these again. At least they're easy.

And last, but never least, is the HAED. That has received alot of attention lately. 11 pages down, only 58 more to go!!

More blue skies. Lots and lots of blue skies!

Now that the 4th of July festivities are over with, it's a quiet night. I have my stitching and a good ball game on the television to carry me through the rest of the night. Stay cool, everyone, and happy stitching.