Autumn the First – an Update

Well, this past weekend was awesome – we might actually have a Fall this year! The highs all weekend were right around 80, with sun and big puffy clouds, a nice breeze, and down in the 60s at night. We had the windows open both mornings, until the sun came around to the front of the house, though, with the crap we have in the air right now (ragweed and whatever else), open windows might not have been the best idea, but it was nice to air the place out. So if we can keep this around for a while, I will be more than happy; we shouldn’t have anything like a freeze here before Thanksgiving, but I suspect that’s probably not going to play out that way this year 🙁

In honor of the perfect Fall weekend, I finished Autumn Row, and finish-finished it 🙂 And while I was at it, I finish-finished Spooky Row, too, while I was at it. Here’s Autumn Row, which was about 3/4 done when I left IHOP on Thursday:

And a shot of the fabric I backed it with and the trim on top:

And then Spooky Row (which I think I finished last year?) It was on the same piece of fabric that Autumn Row was on, so I figured, while I was doing one, I might as well do the other:

And then the fabric and trim:

The rest of the week, I continued on with Secret Victorian Garden, and got the left side house done, parts 6 & 7. The blackwork parts on this one were less thought-intensive than the design in the top house (or I was less tired when working on this one), though I do wonder if the 3rd & 4th repeats of the roof parts are going to be reallllyyyy boring 🙂

That’s the progress for the week. In other news, we went to the county fair near home on Saturday. We went through the exhibit hall – there were exactly 2 (yes, two) pieces of counted anything. What a sad showing. But even if I’d had anything framed and ready to go, this is the fair that has very exact size limitations to what can be entered (11×14 inner, 2″ frame – 15×18 max size), Magical Butterfly is the only thing I think would have met their requirements 🙁 It was a pretty sad showing. There were a LOT of photos, though none particularly blew me away. There were also some beautiful quilts, which leads me to believe quilters are the only needlecrafters who are really interested in fairs around here. And after that, we actually ran out of things to do; it just isn’t as much fun now that the kids are grown up and not with us; we even look forward to the food (our one night out on the deep-fried town, I guess) – but after wandering around too long, we decided to leave, and hit the hibachi on the way home instead 🙂

This week, I will continue on with Secret Victorian Garden at home, and for my travel projects, I have some new Christmas/Winter MH Bead & Button kits – Believe and Winter Woods; I have them both ready to go, so check back next week to see which one I pick 🙂 Happy Stitching this week!

And just so you know, it’s Orb Weaver Season: