The last of the RR Bands

I have mostly finished my EPIC RR.
And by mostly, I mean that I've finished stitching my bands for everyone else.   All I need to do is stitch my band on my RR (which I'm half tempted not to do, actually, though there's plenty of space).

First, I finished Melanie's RR.
Melanie's had more traditional elements on hers, and was a very, very long and very skinny RR.  I think she mentioned that she was going to turn it into a table runner.   I had a few inches left at the bottom to work with.

I had been playing on a website with freebies and had downloaded a bunch of letters that I really like, and as Melanie's last name starts with an S, I wanted to use that (since mine starts with an S, I thought it would be fun).     Her husband also knows me as the ferret lady, from back in the day when I had several, so a ferret was necessary.    Pancho, my clear favorite, was also known as Emperor Pancho as a joke on the old bulletin boards, so a crown had to show up!  And voila! A band I was super proud of and had a lot of fun stitching.

Next was Belinda's.   She is the designer behind Tor Rhuann designs.   And her RR was looking very clean and crisp and I wanted to do something more along the lines of blackwork.   We all know I'm into Octopuses and other cephalopods, so I adapted some regular cross stitch octopuses into blackwork and just created my own squidlings.    I did end up adding a kind of seed stitching to the octopus heads because I felt like they needed something a little special.

The two end guys are worked in Bethlehem which is a nice overdye that uses a lot of purple and green, and then the two guys in the middle are purple and green solid overdyes.   The squidlings look black, but they're not, I used Royal Purple, which has a purple/blue overdye effect to it.  I'm super happy with the design, and judging by the instagram comments, it's my most successful band so far.

As for my RR, it took a turn I did not expect, and while I'm not at all unhappy with what people stitched at all, I did feel it necessitated a change in what I had planned to stitch for my band.  Hopefully I'll get to that one soon and I will officially take it off the WIP list (wouldn't that be nice!).  While I'm technically done with the obligation part of the stitching, it would be unfair to call it complete at this point, I think.

And in other news, I started a new project that I was itching to do before I get back to my rotation.  It should be done today/tonight, so I can't wait to show that off.

On a Roll!

With this irritating cold, I've been such a bum, just binge-watching Netflix and stitching.

I finished another RoundRobin piece, which means once I stop by the PO tonight, I'll finally be down to one in my possession!  YAY!  And I know what I want to stitch on the last one, I just need to chart it out.  I'm going to give myself a week or two before I get back to that one (unless the next one gets mailed to me, in which case I'll have to hurry again ;) )

I did a band from Esther's Waves by Northern Expressions.  I picked a band I liked, and I chose colors from fibres in my collection.

I used a Needle Necessities I originally acquired for a custom piece I did (of my uncle's artwork), Sassy Brass (by Crescent Colours), and Bark (WDW).

I love how it came out - it looks SO MUCH like Tiger's Eye, which is my favorite semi-precious gemstone.  I kind of hated to give the Round Robin back, because I loved it that much.

Here's my band (colors are a bit off, it was late when I took the picture):

Here's the whole piece:

And here's Mona, "helping" me.

I also stitched on Thanksgiving Fairy while hanging out with some friends while watching the SuperBowl (poor Panthers, oh well).

WIPocalypse - January

So I'm a week late... oops ;)

My main goal for this year is to start as few projects as possible.  At first I was on a total "new project ban", but then I realized that there were a few small things I'd like to start/finish and I didn't want to guilt myself.

But in the meantime, I'm still trying to plug away at WIPs/WIsPs/UFOs.

So far this/last month, I put a few stitches in my WWCKD and Thanksgiving Fairy by Mirabilia, as well as the Round Robin that I've fallen so far behind on.

I have already chosen what I want to do on the next RR (I have two more in my possession), and I know what I want to do on the last one, but I have to design it first, so I'll be doing my RRs slightly out of order.

Here is Thanksgiving Fairy!  I finished her skirt and started in on her wings.  I was out of town when I was working on her, and somehow the Black Coffee that is used for her boots was MIA, so I'll get to that later.   Because she's so small, I bead as I go.

Here is my contribution to Kay's RR.   I used the octopuses from Hands On Design's "Octopus Dance" from their Square*ology "Ahoy" series.   I stripped everything down to one octopus and then flipped it and placed them next to each other.  I used Weeks Dye Works Bethlehem for the main color, and Argyle Socks for the other shade.  I reversed the angle of the stitching so that the varigation came out opposite on each octopus (does that even make sense?  Well, you can see!)

Here is the whole RR:

January 24- Topic: Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!

Hallo!  I think this is the third? year I've tried to participate in WIPocalypse.  In 2014, I was off to a great stitching start.  I got a little derailed last year, right around March, but now I'm trying to get back to it, and my only real competition is that I got a PS4 for Christmas, and boy do I love me some videogames. :)   I am still plugging away at PS3 games (most notably the Assassin's Creed series), and I fell into Diablo III on the PS4 (I had never played before).  I really want to play Grim Fandango again, though - I had that back when I was a PC gamer ;)

I have all of my WIPocalypse goals listed here, and most of my pictures of pieces here.

I'm going to try to get back on "schedule" with Zodiac Mystery.   It's a 12 month mystery, and I stopped stitching on it after February, so I will try to pick it back up in March.

As far as non-stitching goals, I do have two quilts I started last year that I'd like to go ahead and finish, one is Bonnie Hunter's Allietare mystery quilt, and the other is a bloomin' 9 patch that I started at my quilting store.  That's about it, which isn't too bad..

And then there was that one time that I stitched again!

It has been for*ever* since I've updated, but to be fair, I haven't done a lot of crafting.

I finally did finish Wendy's "Lady" for her RR.   Her theme was... well, Ladies, and I thought I would get creative with mine.  I posted the start, and I had gotten a bit done on the skin when I realized that the skin was way too dark to represent my pale, pasty self, so it took me a bit to get it fixed.

But I really do like the way she turned out.


But what have I really been up to?  I finally finished the LadyCave!   I have a nice little desk area (my laptop fits great on it, though I've been thinking I should go back to a desktop - it would have more power for what I wanted to do, although it would be paired best with a tablet so I can keep on interneting downstairs).   I finally got my wireless printer up an running, I've organized all of my books and stuff, and I even have a litte drop table with barstools that I'm using to keep my TV on.  I just got an AmazonFireStick as well, which is awesome, because while I'm doing genealogy (or whatevs), I can watch TV and when guests stay over, they can also hang with the Netflix of AmazonPrimeTV if they want.

Here it is with the bed down - plenty of space to walk around the bed!:

And with the bed up (the image quality is annoying, either way too much light is coming into that window *or* the overhead light bugs out my camera phone).
That's Mona's pillow on the ground in front of the bed (my first quilt hanging on it), and my yoga mat down (of course) with blocks on it.   I've finished all of the touch ups and now I just need to get a better/brighter light kit for the fan/light combo.

Oh, and re-do the chair.  I'm going to get rid of the caster wheels and reupholster with this print from Spoonflower.

I will probably update the blog next with the games I played at the last gaming con I went to (the weekend after Labor Day, around the last time I updated the blog)

I've also gone on a trip to Phoenix to our National Meeting, where I became a committee member for one of the National committees (woot woot!)

My other big "thing" is that I've started the Genealogy Do Over, led by Thomas MacEntee, and I'm excited that the Do Over (currently in it's 4th cycle) will have a year long "Do Over" cycle next year.  I feel like a lot of the topics don't get the time I want to give them, so YAY! for that.   I will probably start a genealogy blog next year to document some of the things I'm doing, and in the meantime I'm excited that the research and documentation I have is going to be so much better than it was before.

In that picture, the "mess" in the corner (the several boxes and bins) is ALL papers, photos, etc from my family genealogy that I got when my grandmother died.  It all needs to be scanned and analyzed, but because it's been a while since I did my genealogy, I wanted to see if there was a way to make sure what I had was good, which is what brought me to the Genealogy Do Over, which is amazing.  I love the hard core documentation and story telling I've gotten into on that front.

But mostly I'm happy to get back to some stitching.   I have so much stuff on my plate, I always feel overwhelmed and like I'm neglecting my favorite hobbies.  I do get a little dismayed over any renos I do in the house because I know we won't be there for a long time, but the committee I joined is place dependent (I'm representing our District) and for 3 years, so I can reasonably expect to enjoy all of my work for at least that long ;)

My revised (and much more realistic) goal for the year is to get caught up with the Zodiac Mystery.

And (because I have so much free time), I"m threatening to join in Quiltville's Mystery Quilt next year :D

Labor Day weekend's Labors

First, I'm going to kvetch for a bit.    I've been cranky, really cranky, because I feel like the deadline to get the bed finished (in reality, yes, a friend can sleep on a mattress on the floor, but I want them to have a proper bed) is getting way too close (less than 2 weeks!).

As I was reading/watching the instructions re: the bed, I realize that I needed a 5/8" hole saw/forstner bit.  For some reason I had forgotten that little part.  I had the 1", I had some holes pre-drilled, but I had 4 5/8" holes that had to be done.  

Now, for those who don't know (I didn't!), 5/8" is an odd size and not something your local big-box store is going to carry.  In fact, when I was looking for something, there was a woodworker who happened to be in the same section as me and he let me know that he had to go to a specialty store in Raleigh for it.

So I did what any modern-woman would do.  I ordered it from Amazon.  I paid extra for the overnight shipping so that I would get it on Monday and could finish building the piece, which gave me 3 weeks for sanding and staining, which I believed would give me plenty of time.

And then Monday came around, and I waited for the part.  And waited for the part.  So I just decided "eff it, I'll just skip my Tuesday  night game night to work on the bed", and it still didn't show.  Wednesday, I checked my tracking info, no updates.   No updates for days.  And I called the specialty store, and lo' they did not have that part in stock (it was on the website), but they could order it for me, but it would take a week to get.  And Amazon just issues me a refund, because they're like "um, this is totes lost, we don't know where it is, and oh yeah, there are no more of them in stock."

Great.

I did find one online and ordered it in time for the Labor Day weekend.  The Other Half was out of town for the weekend, so, honestly, I just vegged out on Saturday being a lazy introvert, and stitched and binge watched the last season of Once Upon a Time.  And the 2nd forstner bit appeared.

But as of Sunday, all of the components of the bed are built!  Now just staining and assembly are left.

I'll have my bed done, I'll get my garage back to park in, AND I'll be able to finish the lady cave! (I'm waiting to see where exactly the cabinet fits, since it has to be anchored, before putting up the wall shelves).  Now I'm back to happy :)

And I stitched some this weekend, too.

I worked on Wendy's RR.   Her theme is "Ladies"  So of course, this is how I interpret it ;)
I did stall out after doing a bit more than this.  I had converted and played with a pic I found online, and I'm not happy with the skintones.  They're entirely too dark, IMO (especially if it's supposed to resemble my pale Eastern European self).

When hobbies collide...

And since I was binge watching TV, a bit lazy, and wanting to work on something mindless that would give me a palate cleanser before I go back to fighting with my Lady, I started this piece.  One color down, 4 to go:

This one is a mystery until I get it done.
But it will go in my office, because I find it inspiring in a hilarious way.

And just for the sake of completeness, here's the update on the bed!
I labeled a bit (you'd have to click and get the bigger size to read it, I'm sure).  The cabinet should take the rest of the week, and hopefully I can get the bed over the weekend?

The worst part (haha) is that I want something plain, so I was not going to decorate or trim out the murphy bed, but I did see some simple trim ideas that I did like.  I think I can go ahead, and finish the bed, and then just stain the trim and attach it after it's in place (so it won't kill my deadline to get the bed moved in and functional).  Why do I have to have ideas?!?!?!

Throwba... Oh wait, I have a "finish!"

I've been neglecting this blog again, but then again, I've been neglecting a lot.  I blame it on the nice weather.  There are so many things that can get done outside right now.

But I finally(!) finished the next installment of the RR I'm working on.   I've said before that I'm one of the stalled spots, but it looks like I will un-jam, soon!

I already have charted out my next bit for the next RR (I was actually halfway done with it when I realized how much I hated the colors - oops!).

In the meantime, I finished Lynne's RR - she included books with blackwork and Assissi designs to choose from if we were "stuck", and I found something PERFECT, but the shop owner/designer was "on vacation" (on Etsy), and as long as I procrastinated, they still haven't come back, so I went back to the googling-board and found and adorable Blackwork Wine Bottle piece by Cotton Season on Etsy.

The cobalt blue is ThreadGatherer's SNC Texas BlueBonnet... because Texas, and it's the color of the local meadery's bottles (I tend to mead it up much more in the winter, when I warm up their Spiced Apple and chase away the chills from me bones).

The green is Bejeweled from Crescent Colours, and has a lot of variation to it.  It reminds me of the prettier green bottles that some of the red wines (my usual go to) come in.

The red is Vikki Clayton Dragon's Blood, so that it actually looks like the red wine that lives in that green bottle.

And the aqua is DMC (3766? Gah, it's written somewhere) because I didn't have an overdye/silk/whatever that was the right color to represent Vinho Verde, which is the bulk of the white wines I drink.

Because the pattern was a little tall, I chopped off the stem of the glass and everything at that level.  I actually was super happy with that idea, because I use stemless wineglasses at home, so it continues to be more "me."  I added another row just to keep the relative dimensions right.    I shortened the necks of the bottles (except the Vinho's) to also help keep the proportions straight.

Blackwork Design by CottonSeason Finished 08-26-2015

I have a hard time with blackwork, for some reason, and I spent a lot of time frogging.  Once I could figure out a good pattern (like working the green in vertical rows, or working the circles in rows in the blue bottle), I did a lot better, but it did take me a bit to get rolling.  I'm very happy with the outcome, though :)

And of course, when I went looking for this pattern in Etsy, I run across an adorable Blackwork pattern of wine glasses I think I need.  Hah!

And just for fun, I'm throwing some pictures in of what I'm really working on right now - the Murphy bed I want to put in my lady cave.   Essentially, I will be building the bed & the cabinet as separate pieces, taking them back apart (well, some of it anyway) and staining it, putting the components back together, and then assembling the two pieces together in place.   So far I'm *almost* done with the bed.  I have to put the panels on the bottom of the bedframe (the panels will face you when the bed is closed) and then start staining that.   While those are staining/drying/whatevering, I'll assemble the cabinet (The part that the bedframe folds into) so I can stain that.   With the limited space of a one car garage, I'm trying to do this in serial so that I'm not bumping into myself constantly.

This is my set up before I really get started.
I cheated and had the lumber place cut my wood for me ;)

My requisite "I work better when lubricated with alcohol"
Though, really, I was too hot and busy to actually drink anything.

The frame all done.  It just needs the plywood/veneer face panels put on.

And Mona being ladylike... just because.

Round Robin Update

Huzzah!   I finally finished my band on the round robin to ship it out to the next person.   I should have mailed this off in April - that's how far behind I am.   I have a second round robin already, but I have a plan for that and should have it done this week.

There was a third round robin that I went ahead and sent on, because it was getting ridiculous.  I'm so glad to have a good group of friends to be doing this round robin with.  They've been utterly patient with me and we all just keep going.

I think part of it is, almost everyone has had a hiccup at some point (though mine is the worst) and since it is a group of friends, it's not as formal as an online one would be (thank the baby octopus - after my whole stress out situation from March-June, I would have been banned from ever participating in one again!)

So here is Annette's.   She only gave a color scheme (Thread Gatherer Silk N Colors - Halloween Confetti) and asked us to put our initials at the end of our band.

I decided to have a little fun with it.  All but the copper color in the Sandworm was stitched in Dinky Dye silks or the Thread Gatherer supplied.   The Coppery color is an overdye, but I don't remember which one off the top of my head.

Here's my band below Kathy's:

I liked the way it came out... somewhat normal, but a lot of fun. I really like the way the colors worked on the satin fan band.

Left

Right - showing off my adorable Sandworm's face.

Here's a breakdown of the bands:

1. Herringbone stitches - a band from Tywyn Sampler, my favorite stitch of all time.
2. A fun stitch I've been wanting to try - that one is done using the Halloween Confetti threads
3. Sandworm from Little Alien Schoolgirl (by InkCircles).  I love that pattern, and Dune is probably my all time favorite sci-fi (overall.
4. Both of those bands are from a pattern in an old JCS that I have never gotten around to stitching.

Cocks and Demon Goats - Round Robin time!

And today, on an icy, awful day, when I'm trapped at work (University is closed, I'm "essential", so yay me, I'm here!  Go soobie!), I present to you - my latest round robin contribution.

This bit is for my friend, Melissa.    If you knew me, and you knew Melissa, you'll understand how this band came to be.   But essentially, she picked a set of patterns from the Antique Patterns Library for us to choose from, and a color scheme she would like us to stitch.

I went through the entire bunch of patterns, found some things I like, but did not find the one thing I was looking for.   Roosters (better known as cocks, also known as the Official Bird of Subversively Dirty Minds).    She granted permission for me to use a stylistically appropriate bird, and I combed through some antique patterns, settling on a freebie from the Smithsonian.

I did find some other motifs/bands in the "Erstmann, Friedrich &; Helbig, Paul, A-B-C der Stickerin, Das." pattern that she chose and set to work with Patternmaker.

And voila! 

Cocks!  

And a pretty band!  

And Demon Goats with Jewelry!

I do think it's going to be a really pretty RR when it's done.

The only thing I was concerned about was the balance.    I was told I had 154 stitched to work with, so that's what I designed (well, I accidentally designed 164, but was able to fix that pretty easily).  It looks like the bands above mine were narrower, but hey, I volunteered to make it pretty if I have to and decided not to stress it :)

And here, the view from my garage -   

It was not a fun drive, at all.   And the most alarming part is that the thick ice/sleet is frozen so solid that my rather heavy car (it's a Subaru) did not even dent the ice.   I know we don't have it as bad as the NorthEast, but we don't have the infrastructure to deal with this stuff.  And it's not even supposed to break freezing this week, which (according to the historical data I peek at), is rather unusual.   I'm an essential employee, so I go into work regardless of conditions.   Should be fun.  I cannot wait for the weekend, so I can hibernate!

Round Robin-thulhu

So, after finishing Christmas ornaments, I took a couple of days off and just played on the PS3 and had some other good times.

On Saturday I went to the local indie theater and watched Blade Runner (the "final cut") and then we went to dinner and just hung out at a favorite local place for a while.

And yesterday?  I spent the day playing with my stitching while watching a playthrough of Ni no Kuni.   I wanted to spend the day playing more Assassin's Creed, but the PS-Store was down on Saturday during their epic DDOS attack, and I ordered what I wanted from Amazon instead, so now I'll have to wait (dammit).

I'm in this weird holding pattern - there are two SALs I've signed up for, and the people running it are super strict about starting dates.  I mean, I get the second one - it's a race to finish a UFO, so that's fine, but there's a New Year, New Start SAL that's only supposed to strictly start on Jan 1... and I'm also waiting for the first installment of the Cloudsfactory SAL... it's just weird.  I have these things, all set and ready to go, but I can't work on them.

Instead I worked on an RR (which I should have been working on, anyway).  It's the next in my round robin with friends, and this one is Amanda's.    She wants us to stitch whatever it is that is "us", a nice motif or whatever.     I was spending a lot of time thinking about what to do.  I mean, everyone knows I do the cthulhu/octopodes thing, but is that what I wanted to stitch?   And then I was terribly concerned that I wouldn't leave enough space for anyone else if I did the wrong thing.  I originally thought of doing the Octopus from Blackbird Design's Octopus's Garden, but that might be too big, so I surfed around looking at different patterns, and I was always worried that they seemed kind of large.  And then I just caved and did an adorable Cthulhu I'd seen online.    I do like him.

He's done in Crescent Colours Spinach (the wings) and Desert Mesquite (main body).   I went ahead and stitched up and down, instead of side to side, for the wings, and I think it worked.

But then I thought I hadn't done enough, and while stitching this, I thought "wouldn't a little red meeple be awesome?"    For those not into gaming, meeples came about from the player pieces ("my" + "people") in Carcassonne, a tabletop game, but people generally refer to player pieces in most gaming as meeples now.    Red is both my favorite color and the color I try to always play when I'm gaming (hilarity ensues when I play a non-red color and end up moving the red player and/or generally being confused because I'm so used to red being mine).

I went ahead and charted one out... I think he came out pretty nicely.
He's stitched in DinkyDyes silks I had on hand.  This skein wasn't labelled, which leads me to believe it is Waratah.

And here is the placement on Amanda's RR.   I hope other people are brave enough to branch out - they're plenty of space, we just have to keep the correct count (off of the first part, which is Kathy's nutcracker, not necessarily from the basting lines).

Oh, and I did end up starting something new-new, but I forgot to take a picture of it.  It looks like I might run out of treasure braids (HAHAHAHA), and sadly it seems that 123stitch doesn't carry those.   I'll be calling a couple of LNSs in other areas to see if they have stock on hand they can ship to me.   Not having an LNS is just so utterly annoying.  I'd just buy my own place out if I could.

Wild West Sheriff - Chubby Nutcracker by Sweetheart Tree

I just started a round robin not long ago with a few friends.

For the first round, I stitched on my friend Kathy's.   She has a thing for nut crackers, and she chose the Chubby Nutcracker series for us to stitch.

I chose the Wild West Sheriff since everyone knows me for being a Texan.   I did the hat band in satin stitch and chose to do the entire face over one.

Added in the name and voila!

Now I just have to figure out what motif/s to do for Amanda's!

Chinese Dragon by Pinn - Home at Last

Apparently this is the week of the stitching awesomeness for me!

Several years ago (2007) I was in a UFORR (my third UFO-RR, I believe), and sent off my Chinese Dragon.    Susan, the mod in charge of the RR was just in front of me (I think?)  and she took it upon herself to ask me if she could keep it a bit longer to stitch extra on it.   Of course!  was my reply - after all it was a UFO for a reason.   My aunt had bought this pattern and kitted it up for me, but it's not really my style, so I have a hard time stitching on it.   But, it was a gift, so I really want to get it done.   I suspect that not much stitching got done on it by the other stitchers in the RR when Susan received it ;) .  

Cue a few moves on my part and life and everything, and Susan had it a little longer than either of us planned, though we were never out of touch.  Susan is amazingly responsible, so I never worried about it, I was more worried I'd forget to tell her where I was living.   Well, she finally decided it was time for the dragon to go home, but WOW!  the progress!!!

Here's how I sent it off in 2007

And here's how it was returned to me!
An entire page (of a four page chart) is done, and it's mostly solid stitching, though Susan did warn me about the multiple color changes.

So excited!
I feel like there's an actual chance this guy will get done some day!   I think the hardest part will be stitching on aida, it's my least fabric fabric but I chose it since the design is solid stitching, I thought it would be better.

10 years of dancin'! Wee Beasties RR Happy Dance!

Huzzah!  My Wee Beastie Round Robin is done!
This round robin started in 2004, and took place through the TWRR.   I knew most of the stitchers involved in my rotation group pretty well, so I remember being really excited about this one.

It's stitched on a 32 count PTP fabric, but I'm not sure which one.   I had done half of the Thyridia at the top and had basted out the pattern.   I was hoping for four large bugs and four small bugs, but hey, RR.

I had also basted the center lines in the boxes to make it easier to center.    I managed to not center my own box correctly, which left a big space at the top.   Then I decided to go ahead and make a cute title for the round-robin to compensate.

Error?  What error? ;)

Here's the completed piece:

I grabbed some close up shots of all of the boxes.

Thyridia by me.   It was a freebie that Terry had given away  (later there was an over-one Thyridia print and the butterfly is in blues instead of greens!)  Thyridias are really pretty and include the glass-wings you can see in the tropics.  Love them!

Next is probably my next favorite bug on the piece - the Ailanthus Silkmoth stitched by Dani from Wee Beasties, Part 2:

There's a NineSpotted Ladybug by Jen
It's from the Wee Beasties, Part 3

Jeweled Scarabs from Wee Beasties Part 10, by Charlie and Nicole (father daughter, stitching duo!)

Queen of the Bumblebees by Ann:

Twenty-two spot Ladybug by Annette, from Wee Beasties Part 8!

Blue orchid bee by Charlie!

And last, but not least, one of my other favorites - the Green Orchid Bee by Sherrin!

This was one of my favorite RRs to take part in, because I love Wee Beasties so much.   This was a super easy and fun RR.    I have to admit that I am super happy to have the WIP all wrapped up and done after 10 years!

IHSW for November (and food... mostly food)

This weekend I participated in the International Hermit and Stitch weekend, which is hosted by Joysze.

I didn't get as much stitching done this weekend as I would like (alternately, I also got more stitching done than I would have liked) because I spent most of the weekend cooking (well, there were a few hours of assassinating on the PS3 Saturday night).

On Saturday, friends of mine were throwing their annual bacon party, so, of course, I spent all day cooking for that.

Two trays of bacon in the oven already, most of the other ingredients were in the fridge

I did bacon cinnamon rolls (for fun)

And then I did these candied bacon wrapped pineapples with sriracha honey sauce, which were so terribly good I ate a ton of them before the party.   The sauce really makes it.

And then I won prizes for those bacon wrapped pineapples.

This is the second time I've taken home this trophy! woot!
Also, check out the pretty tile!  I need to post about the kitchen update

On Sunday, I opted to make golabkis, which take a good bit of time, but are so freakin' delicious.  I also made them with a mushroom sauce because I just don't like tomato sauces.

My little pigeons

The most delicious mushroom sauce, like, ever.

I also made cottage cheese pumpkin bars (no pictures) that I like to eat for breakfast, so I could get back into my yoga routine (go to yoga at 5:45AM, ugh, since the classes are usually so crowded in the evenings), and this morning I woke up, got everything packed together, went to yoga, had a great class, had enough time after the morning shower to swing by the store to get a new umbrella (I've been super distressed that my awesome umbrella seems to have gone on walkabout, and it's going to rain all day) and get to the bus on time only to discover that I left all of my food (lunch and breakfast) at home.  Oops.

Anyway, back to the stitching.

Once upon a time (years and years ago), I was regular participant in a number of round robins - all from the TWRR Yuku board.  I participated in at least 5 that I can think of (3 UFO-RRs, a WeeBeastie RR, a TW Band RR).   Since coming back to stitching, I've been kind of saddened by the lack of activity in various BBs and especially on the RoundRobin board, but! several of my friends and I recently decided to create our own little private RR.  

So Saturday I finally got around to basting/gridding my material to send out.   I thought (seriously, and obviously, not just on Saturday) about starting it off with my band, but I didn't want to influence what other people would put on there too much.  I want it to be a free-form, not-too-many-rules RR for my end product.

So I finally gridded.   The fabric is probably entirely too long, but I wanted to make sure that people had as much space as possible, whether it's a few stitches tall or 2 inches tall.  There are 11 people in this RR, which makes the group a bit bigger than normal, and we have a shorter stitching window than I've worked with before (which shouldn't be a problem).

That's a fat half of fabric right there - Platinum Lugana - my favorite

After that, because the kreiniks I ordered still have not arrived (seriously, I ordered from two sources ages ago, and still, nothing), I couldn't work on my Beastie-RR UFO, so I went ahead and decided to stitch on Ferret Knot, only to have had to frog everything I stitched.  Twice.   I spent probably 5 hours on it, and have not a stitch to show, which was really frustrating, so I decided to do some impromptu gridding on it to help keep me straight next time.

So I tried to stitch, I almost finished Assassin's Creed (the first one, I just started the series), I watched several movies, and I made a tonne of food, so it was a good, busy weekend, just not the most stitching-productive one ;)