Nothing to Report

My husband and I are in Europe with our Grand-daughter. And yes, I have done NOTHING. I brought some small needlework projects but have not even opened the ziploc. But sure am having fun!!!!!

New Projects ...

With all the talk about not starting a new project, does one really need an excuse to not or to start a new project? My answer … NO! After all I have finished up a couple as far as I can go without finding the correct accruements.

So with that said, I have started the ANG 2010 mystery project. My girlfriend has her dream Southwest motif home now and I would like something to present her. So am doing this in southwestern colours and will frame and give it to her.

My color way:

I bought this little holder in the hopes to make it easier to stitch with both hands. It has been so hard to stitch, using a laying tool, all the while holding the frame.  It is held between the thighs as you sit which should make it easy to utilize while traveling in the RV.

  It would have to be made for regular sized stretcher bars and here I am using the miniature ones. But ingenuity reigns and spare pennies and dimes act as shims and do it well.

In the meantime, I continue to look for the finishing accruements that I need and as I find them, the UFOs will be finished. My needlework storage corner of the RV is the small space between the laz-i-boy and the wall with everything in bags to keep it clean. I have been using Ziplocs forever but I recently read an article where it was said that one should put things in cloth bags, not plastic. In fact, pillow cases work very well. Also, that when storing supplies in plastic boxes. There should be holes to allow for breathing. Of course that doesn’t fair so well in the light of ants and spiders. Guess some netting could be glued over the holes to prevent their entry. So that will be my next step in the organization of my supplies here in the RV.

I miss ...

I sure do miss having internet at the ready like I did in Colombia and Panama. Here in the RV we don't have access and bought a new fangled "MiFi". Of course, where we are parking, in state parks, there is no telephone service to connect into. What could be worse?

Have I been busy? Am I busy?

Since our return to the good ol’ US of A, my handwork has been limited to needlework,  Oh I have a stash of UFO’s that would be a mile long if laid out end to end, to choose from. I have limited myself to finishing the most recently started ones and one that has been on the go since I married in 2001.

Does the actual finishing of an UFO mean that you finish the actual stitching, or the whole in its entirety? If it is the latter, then I have finished nada but I sure have enjoyed the stitching that I have done while traveling.

As I traveled home from Colombia, I finished up the “S” of the Christmas blocks. Now all I have left is the MERRY. This is a much bigger canvas and as such, needs to go onto stretcher bars. Back to the drawing board as I need to get sizes and “do I or don’t I” have any. Then I attacked the Enchanted Sleigh, and finished it! Now to make it into a Christmas pillow. So again, I ask, does this constitute a finish of an UFO or not? The making of the pillow awaits the finding of the right fabrics.

Once back in the RV, for however short it was, I discovered some UFOs that I had left behind. One of them a giant Christmas Stocking for a door hanging. Pulling it out, I find that it is all but finished, so now I need to find some fabric for backing and flannel for lining. One more for the completing pile before anything new is started.

Our first outing in the RV was to Rayne, LA where we attended a RV rally with our friends.

 

What a wonderful time we had there and during the off time I was able to work on the online group stitch-along project, Hallowe’en Treat. I got it to the point where I now need to find the buttons for it. I know what I want, I know how I want to do it, but I can’t find the buttons.

Traveling across the lower SW tier from Louisiana to Arizona, and visiting in Arizona, I completed the 4 small motifs for Christmas cards that were started and used in Colombia as teaching aids. I plan on putting them into a form that can be framed by the recipient if so desired. 

Traveling to Canada and visiting my parents, I almost finished my Santa ornaments. Unfortunately I discovered that the fibers in hand for the Mounties’ pants was black where it should be a very dark navy blue. Unable to find what I needed in Edmonton, I then put it aside until I could order the correct color. If one is going to make a statement, it should be correct! Of course I could have continue with those cursed French knots in the moustache but procrastinate there I will.

Whoopie, in Edmonton I found the buttons that I wanted for Hallowe’en Treat! When I get back home …..

...back home  (to the RV) and they have been put on

I have a table cloth that I started in Panama and will have to find it so that I can get it finished. It was originally for the round table in the RV and here I am, back in the RV and the table cloth is NOT finished yet.
  Talk about not finished: this is it! And it is a total of 36inches in diameter, not all covered but with the various motifs going around the outside border. It is a whimsical Santa on white opalescent even weave, and I want to make a a whimsical flying Santa on a stand for table-topper.

As you can see, we have done an awful lot of traveling since our return. Stitching is always taken along to wile away the hours. But I am anxious to get back to sewing. After all, I now have a new Miss Betsy – Janome 6600P to replace the one that I had in Panama. It will be thrilling to get it out of the box and start stitching.

But in the meantime, one of the many chores that I promised myself is to organize all my thread/fibre/UFO stashes so that I no longer buy extra simply because “I don’t know if I have it!” So out comes the excel spreadsheet program and I start. This of course, leads to other chores, like winding all the embroidery threads onto those small cardboard bobbins so that they can go into the box in an organized fashion. Then what to do with the specialty fibres? They need a box as well. So one good deed leads to another, which leads to another, and so on ….. In order to organize my quilting in the RV I also need to devise a boxed method of doing this. I want all the project supplies for each project together – I guess the organization will be the listing of the projects and then going through and completing them. This remains to be seen.

So as one can see, I have lots of plans, and I have actually accomplished quite a bit amidst all of our escapades. For now, “go forward, Shirley, go forward…”

Back in the US ...

Reverse culture shock - every heard of this? Well it happens when one returns to one's own culture from being in a different culture for some time. It happens when you are confronted with stores like WalMart, Albertson's, Safeway, etc and the many many choices of one thing that has to be made: It happens when you find yourself answering in a language other than your native language: It happens when you make or use a gesture that is not appropriate in your own culture but is the way it is done in your previous culture. And so the list goes on...

My husband and I returned to the US from our various assignments with Peace Corps. We postponed a decision on the next proffered assignment as we felt that we needed some time back home, in the US. What that means too is that we are now back living in our motorhome (home-on-wheels) as a full timer. It also means that I no longer have space for stashes of random supplies. I have to make choices as to what I will carry with us as we head out on the highways.

First stop, the storage unit for the RV and the supplies and suitcases that returned with us from overseas. I had to turn away, the choices were just too much. We made the RV roadworthy, we loaded what we thought we might need for a couple of weeks and headed out.

I have been lucky, I have been able to do some needlework in the downtime and on the road. Of course the first time that I reached for needed supplies and they weren't there, I cursed my lack of initiative in organizing better. I finished stitching the last letter of Christmas, the "S". Yea gods, I don't have a small enough sewing needle to go through the hole on the adornment. It is in my sewing kit, which is, where? Yes, that's right - the storage unit in a suitcase.

Since our arrival back, I started a stitch-along project from the online stitch group that I belong to called Halloween Treat. This was to be done during the March meeting, so I ordered the supplies online to be here when I arrived. You got it - not everything arrived, backordered. So I stitched here and there with what I had. Of course, I had forgotten that I had a stash of fibers in the motorhome and when I remembered and then checked, why, of course, I had 2 of the 4 missing threads. So now I can stitch more. Then I remember, oh yes, I need halloween buttons for the project. Nope, not here - you're right! in the storage unit.


And now for the piece de resistance!!!!!!! My new sewing machine arrived yesterday, where we are currently parked. Yup, all my supplies are in the storage unit, including basics like scissors, thread, and fabric/projects waiting for continued work, all started while out of the country. The question now is, where will I put it to sew? My inside table is a round 2 person table. hmmm should I perhaps buy a small table that will fold flat?

So what is one to do? Why, start a list of things to get from the storage unit next time around and DO NOT buy any new supplies. Just finish up what was found in the motorhome and continue with the needlework projects as well. Oh yes, I can also put all my stash of threads into an excel spreadsheet that I can then put on to my iPhone for carrying when I do get into the shopping mode. Heck have already made one stop at a needlework shop and bought a couple of skeins for an idea of a project and guess what, I already had one of them. By golly, I definitely need the excel file. And a specifically sized plastic box to house the quilting supplies - if the box is full, I first have to finish things up to get more. That is just the way it has to be - life on the road once more.