School started for my son on August 1 and for my daughter on August 26 and the days in between just seemed to fly - not surprising, considering there was a stitching day, a retreat, the start of tennis season, and a quick trip to New York.
I told you at the end of July that my plan for August was to work down the stitching WIPs a bit and I made good progress on that front. I didn't make as much progress on the quilting front as I ran out of white batting. I have a quilt back loaded, and have finally purchased the batting, so hope to get that going soon.
Pretty much all of the month was dedicated to stitching, with a little crochet thrown in. Let's start with the finishes.
Most of my finishes this month came at my retreat (I planned to do this as I had several that were close)! The first two were both finished in the same day. The project on the left is from Open Road Abode and will become an ornament gift. This designer has charts for a lot of the National Parks and I enjoyed stitching one that we'd been to. On the right is Love Blooms by Counting Puddles, which I stitched as a shop model for Persnickety Stitchers. These were both fun and pretty quick stitches.
My next finish is a project I stitched along with my friend Beth - the Durene Jones Christmas SAL from 2024. We started this project together at our spring retreat and put the finishing stitches in during our August retreat. This was such a fun stitch, I think Durene has some super cute designs. We stitched it on different fabric in different counts and you can see the little bit of difference.
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| Durene Jones Christmas SAL 2024 Stitched on 32 count mint splash Lugana with DMC threads |
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| Sweet Spring by Satsuma Street Stitched on 16 count Mountain Mist by Laura's Fabrics with called for DMC threads |
I had one weekend where I could squeeze in a little finishing and I had one FFO for each day. This berry has been partially complete for quite a while; I just needed to make the topper and sew it on. I had fun finding pieces to complement the design. I am including two pictures so that you can see the overall look and the topper.
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| S'more Summer Berry from the pattern Summertime by Linda Michaels |
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| Berry topper |
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| My Forest by TA Smith Designs Stitched on 36 count antique white linen with Emerald Waterlilies silk floss |
Here are a few other pictures to round up the month.
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| First day of Senior Year |
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| Sporting our matching t-shirts at retreat |
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| A quick trip to Broadway after move-in to see Back to the Future |
My stats this month were okay, stitching time was definitely interrupted by all of the other activities. I usually have an embroidery piece that I work on at tennis matches once my son finishes playing but I haven't pulled that together yet. That's worked out okay as he's often been the last one playing this year. I won't pretend that September will be quieter, but at least we have a few weekends without too much on the schedule and no plans to be out of town before a camping trip at the end of the month. My goal in September is to make some progress in the sewing room - some quilting, some FFOs and maybe starting a new quilt top. On the stitching front I plan to put some time into my bigger projects so that I can make sure they are moving along. I was down to 9 WIPs at the end of August that that's still a little high for me. I am hoping for a few more finishes, which would then allow me to feel okay about another start or two.
Quilting Projects - no change = 8 quilts waiting to be finished
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