Weekend Stitching and Finishing

I hope everyone celebrating had a fantastic 4th of July. I had a wonderful weekend, albeit a hot one. I was feeling spendy this weekend, so I went to the used book megastore in the closest big town and bought a bunch of new (at least to me) books to read. I think I made out pretty good--twenty books that were in good shape for the price of four new books. I even found the rest of Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman Family saga, which I read part of when I was in school. I wanted to read the rest, now that I know how to actually critically read a book.

I set out a list of some finishing I wanted to get done over the weekend, so I stopped at Joann's to get some fabric to do that. They were having a sale on 4th of July fabric, 50% off, so I couldn't resist making sure I had the "perfect" cut!

I finished this lovely little freebie I've had forever into a pin pillow when I got home Friday night. The backing fabric was perfect for it, at least I think so. It was my first time attempting that style of finish, and I really wasn't trying to be perfect, but I think this turned out pretty nicely. I was a little concerned about how to make sure it was stuffed nice and fat, but a little bit of fiberfill goes a long way. I like this finish a lot, and it's a good message to keep out at Independance Day. You can get the chart here:

http://www.craftdesigns4you.com/patrioticpatterns.htm




i finished One Flag over Gussie into an ornament. It probably would have been better as a pinkeep, but what's done is done. It looks good



Believe it or not, I had the fabric long before I had the freebie. I bought it last January, since patriotic cat fabric is not exactly common, and I'd rather have had it in a box and not used it than need it and have to drive back to Pennsylvania. I am pretty proud of how well I did putting the back fabric on. It's pretty much center, it matches, it completes "the story"



Saturday was a busy day. We decided to go to Gettysburg on the 4th of July, and I made some picnic food to go along, plus some to take to my parents' house for them. It wasn't fancy: deviled eggs and macaroni salad. I thought about baking a cake, but the logistics of hauling the cake around mooted out that idea. Plus I was dogsitting and karaokeing with my friends, so I didn't have the time.

I did however, get this little beauty accomplished! It's a Trail Creek Farm freebie, very cute, even stitching in DMC, not Weeks, the recommended threads.



Sunday, when I got back, we had our day in Gettysburg. It was a lot of fun, although we did get plenty confused because they closed the visitor center from my childhood and moved it up the road, only we didn't realize it and thought we were hallucinating that it was gone. I definitely want to go back and look that over again, it looks A LOT nicer than the old one. We did the battlefield driving tour and picnicked. HTB said he really had no sense of how big the battle was til he was there on the field, looking at the terrain. We went to Devil's Den, so he could climb around on the rocks. He's a very tactile person, and he really enjoyed being on the same rocks that were there for the battle, picturing himself and what he would have done. He told me that he wouldn't have been in that battle; I couldn't imagine fighting either, it just seemed like a lot of chaos and loss. We did have a spirited discussion about "our side" vs. "their side," since Maryland was such a divided state. Even within the same county. We visited the Pennsylvania Monument, and climbed to the observation tower. I'd never known it was there, so it was a new perspective. I got a lot out of the trip. It seemed like a good way to celebrate our freedom.

4th of July evening was fun. I have to laugh. Our town sent out a newsletter stating lighting fireworks within town limits was illegal. I guess no one reads the newsletter because my neighborhood put on one HECK of a display, as they always do. The dogs were excited the first couple minutes, but Shocka wanted to go in. Now I won't say whether or not HTB lit off fireworks, but there was debris on my car: burnt paper, some of the dust, LOL. I know I personally did not light off fireworks. And that is all I'll say on that subject. I'm not responsible for anyone else, but I can still wildly applaud!

Yesterday I worked on my Bear Hug. This is a very tedious project, and I am not enjoying it that much. And not making much progress. It uses three shades to make the white, and 3 or 4 for the black. Hopefully when I move out beyond the small details of the face, it will go quicker.

This is what it is supposed to look like:



What it looks like. I can see progress, but not as much as I'd like. Thank goodness "Band of Brothers" was on yesterday, or I wouldn't have gotten this much done.


I hope everyone had a wonderfully festive holiday and is enjoying this week so far.