Busy Times – Catching Up

December already, and like this time last year, we are awaiting white stuff to fall from the sky – you know, January weather. I am not sure I can handle two winters in a row 🙁 That’s why I moved south, to get away from all that. We are also a foot above average for rainfall this year, already, so I’ll be curious what the grand total is come 12/31. And California can’t get a drop to save them…

In health news, I am down to my last 4 chemo treatments (out of 16) – so ready to be done with this. All things considered, I’m getting through it with a minimum of complications – lots of fatigue, neuropathy in hands and feet, and needing my hair to come back in because I’m cold, but it could have been a lot worse than it’s been. Cancer sucks – it sucks more when you are perfectly healthy except, you have cancer. Surgery, I assume, will be sometime in January. So very over it. Working from home part time, to keep my exposure to germs as limited as possible, has lowered my blood pressure quite a bit – not having to drive through hell on I-85 every day is probably the best part of this whole experience; not really looking too forward to getting back to that part of my life, to be quite honest. Maybe I can work out a more accommodating work-from-home schedule for my new normal in a couple of months – it clearly has at least 1 benefit. DH has a new gig, too, and is on the other side of town now, so he’s enjoying not having the stress he’s had for the last 25 years AND a short drive. He comes home for lunch every day – just long enough to spin up the zoo, who are also going to hate the day I have to go back to the office. Meh, it is what it is…

Exciting local news – and hoping to not put a whammy on it – but our MLS team, Atlanta United, is in the final for the MLS Cup today! I have no idea why it took so long to get an MLS team in this town, or why they thought it wouldn’t be popular; 70K crowds when they open up all the seats at the Benz, in a town where a large percentage of the population is not from the US. Hint: American “football” isn’t popular many places outside of America, but you know what is popular almost EVERYWHERE besides America? Football, or soccer. So with a large foreign population, wouldn’t it stand to reason an MLS team might be a good investment?

GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLL!

So I have been doing some stitching as part of my stress reduction during my treatments, though as I posted last time, some of the meds I was on affected my vision for a while, so I resigned myself to working on some easy-on-the-eyes projects, and blew through a few canvas work pieces during the fall. I had started the Terracotta Celtic Knot Quilt by From Nancy’s Needle when I posted last, and I finished it shortly after that post:

Terracotta Celtic Knot Quilt by From Nancy’s Needle, using all called-for threads on 18ct deluxe mono canvas.

When that was done, I broke out another FNN kit, Two Haunted Houses, which ended up being a lot smaller than I thought – there sure were a lot of threads in this piece:

Two Haunted Houses by From Nancy’s Needle, using all called for threads on 18ct deluxe mono canvas.

After this one was done, I decided to switch gears a tiny bit and broke out a Laura J Perin design, Fluorite Fantasy. Her designs are a couple of degrees harder than the quilt-block-style designs from FNN, so I had to put in more brain power. I also changed out the bling a bit – the chart came with a few items that were supposed to be glued-on gems; ummm, no, we’ll replace those with actual Swarovski sew-on beads, I’m not gluing anything to the front of my stitching. This was the first time using YLI Ribbon floss, which was interesting, and a couple of new-to-me Rainbow Gallery threads, and lots of Caron fibers. While it was more brain-intensive than the previous 2 pieces, it came out really cool:

Fluorite Fantasy by Laura J Perin, using all called for threads on 18ct deluxe mono canvas.

When my chemo drugs changed (after 4 treatments of 2 drugs, one being the “red devil”), I felt I was able to get back to the AAN pumpkin and finish up that last little corner, so I did:

AAN Pumpkin from a fall Just Cross Stitch – all 11/0 Czech beads on 28ct Dense Fog.
Ewww, shiny!

That might have been a stretch for my brain, so I went back to the FNN kits and pulled out one more easier piece, Patriotic Stars, and went through that fairly quickly:

Patriotic Stars by From Nancy’s Needle, using all called for threads on 18ct deluxe mono canvas.

These kits have been so helpful as I work through this treatment; not sleeping right, needing distraction – this must have been that rainy day that I’ve been saving up for…

I needed a break from canvas – my thumb was actually getting sore from the big-ass size 24 needle I use for these, and the rougher canvas, so I pulled the top thing off a pile, which happened to be a Liz de-stash, Pumpkin Patch Farm by Victoria Sampler. I dug out a piece of Cocoa from Silkweaver, and after sorting the silks in the kit, dug right in. I really liked all the herringbone stitches in this piece – it was a fun little band sampler, though I think the over-1 leaves was a bit more than I needed at the time, but I powered through them:

Pumpkin Patch Farm, from Victoria Sampler. I think it’s 32ct Cocoa from Silkweaver, using all charted silks.

My WIPs were all feeling severely neglected since all of these new starts/finishes left them languishing in the drawers, so I decided to work on Ink Circles’ Anatolia for a bit, and did several rows across all pages including borders – LOVE these Carrie’s Threads colors!

Anatolia, by Ink Circles – Carrie’s Threads on some 32ct cream linen.

And lastly, I dug in my travel bag and pulled out Halloween Resurrection from Lone Elm Lane, and finished it, too. I looked up the Shaker box they sell that this design is intended to go on – $160 for a box! I guess I will figure out some other way to finish this – I can probably get a round frame at half the price of what I am sure is a really nice box, since I don’t really have a table surface big enough to hold that box:

Halloween Resurrection, on 32ct Vint. Stormy Night, using all called for threads.

Since I cleared out some room in the stash, I had to buy myself a new Chatelaine for my birthday present to myself – I caved and bought Gardens of London Mandala, which will have a TARDIS as one of the phone boxes, and the Night Bus might make an appearance, too, if I can work it out 🙂 I’ll be kitting this up after I get done with all this health stuff, as a little reward for surviving 🙂

Chatelaine Gardens of London – future project 🙂

That’s the news for now. Assuming I do not post again in the next few weeks, Happy Holidays to all, and Happy Stitching!

 

3 thoughts on “Busy Times – Catching Up”

  1. I’m so glad to see you stitching up a storm. It’s lovely to see. The London Chatelaine looks fab. Sometimes I wish I still stitched and seeing that is one of those times. Wishing you well. Cxx

  2. Wow, you have powered through some stitching. I am sending much love and healing thoughts and I am glad that your adjusted work situation is helping matters. I know you are focussed and determined and I know you can beat this!

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