Phoenix Finish

A few weeks ago I finished the Phoenix through round 93 or 92? Something like that. I added several hdc rounds to give it a solid border, which I think is what caused the rippling.

After a quick wash and dry, it was rapidly repossessed by the Dictator. He calls it "rainbow blankey."

Since then, I've done a lot on a few of my cross stitch projects. I carry Ocelot Kittens to a meeting I have twice a week.

And the two samplers I have started from 2x2StitchArt both have two full page finishes.

This week, however, I've been delving into the world of applique and planning out an epic quilt that I bought fabric for at least 5 years ago.

It took three nights, three books, about a dozen hours, and several different applique methods, but I think I finally settled on one I like. Last night was spent planning and sketching and tonight I started the embroidery machine working. It ate the second pattern I started embroidering, so I only have one of twelve done so far. This project is going to be a combination of applique, reverse applique, embroidery, and patchwork and I'm just hoping it will look put-together once I'm done.

Day WHATEVER DAY IS IT REALLY? - Coronatine

Michigan is slowly starting to come out of shut down but the rest of the world has literally GONE CRAZY. Which I will not be commenting on here other than REALLY?????

We actually were able to eat at a restaurant today. The Bug was really super excited because he loves eating at Big Boy's and we had been telling him it was closed for the last three months.

Lots and lots of stitching in the last month and a half.

"Footprints" made it a little further than this and then I discovered that all the lettering was shifted by one space, so it'll all have to be frogged and restitched. I was rather disgusted with myself and put it away in a fit of exasperation.

"World Travel Bookshelf" was resurrected with the acquisition of a few colors of floss I was missing.

 And you remember that pale tropical colored Sampler project? Well it was way too pale for the fabric so I frogged it completely and restarted it.  

  I also started "Fantastic World" to give tent stitching a try on a HAED. I don't think I'll do any other's like this though. Although I love how fast it's stitching up, I feel like it's slightly unfinished.

"Guardian Angel" received some love.

Sampler 26 is almost 1/6 done.

Last but not least, mini Ocelot Kittens!

A little creepy for sure without eyes yet but we'll get to those soon.

Day 31 - Coronatine

As expected, I finished my coffee/toddler project well before Coronatine ended.

I wish I could get an accurate picture of the color of the fabric. Its definitely more of a reddish/orange/salmon color but it always comes across as bright pink in the photos.

The autumn sampler I started is turning out well. I'm always a little iffy when it comes to choosing my own colors but in this case it seems to be working well.

I also started the other sampler project that I picked up at the same time.

I haven't decided whether to continue or frog, so I'm letting it sit for a while. I think maybe some of the colors in the variegated may be too light for the white fabric. However, that floss will work fantastically on the blue fabric I have for my Ink Circles project. Now I just need to frog Circque du Couers and restart it.

Well that makes four finishes in four months (and at least that many new starts) but I'm thinking I may get back to my Phoenix blanket now and see if  I can make some progress on it. It's only a few rounds from being finished, I just need to remember where I left off.

As far as Coronatine goes, my state has about reached it's limit. We have lots of protests going on, millions of people unable to work or feed their families, and thousands of small businesses going under. Meanwhile, our state government has failed to enact steps over the last six weeks that will accommodate increased capacity for the inevitable second wave. I'm extremely peeved and feeling pretty helpless and angry right now.

Day 22 - Coronatine

I had a finish today!

I'm not going to add the lettering at the bottom, although I will leave a note when I frame it what the title of the pattern is.

A lovely lady RAK'd me a pattern that I was admiring her work on and since I had the fabric on hand, of course I had to start it.

This is the first of 36 different motifs in this sampler. I choose a set of autumnal themed colors for it.

I'm going to figure out how to randomize color placement so that it does not have a rainbow look when done.

I'm also making great headway on my coronatine project.

Finally, my afghan has green completed and I've moved on to building the next blue row.

That is all for now. Moving along.

Day 12 - Coronatine

Well, we're trucking along and by trucking along I mean going nowhere at no speed at all. It's starting to affect the Smidget's mental health. Some days he wants to go outside and play all day and some days he's' in a weird funk and doesn't want to do anything so we watch Paw Patrol and How to Train Your Dragon all day.

I'm usually not one for a lot of food pics but since I've figured out how to make a decent Thai peanut sauce (extra peanut butter!) I've been eating a home-cooked version of Noodles and Company's Indonesian Peanut Saute on like a daily basis. Because it's tasty and I have everything on hand.

Also peanut butter might be addictive. Here's the Recipe: CopyCatPeanutSaute.
I made it exactly as directed and then fiddled with the ingredients and amounts until I found a version I liked. The first thing to go was cooking the chicken in a bunch of stuff. It's really not needed because you drown everything in the peanut sauce. Second, rice noodles instead of linguine. So I cook the chicken while the rice noodles are cooking, fry up the veggies and make the sauce and then combine it all and top with green onions. Last thing is to adjust the quantities for a single serving (I'm the only one in the house that appreciates a sinus-clearing spicy-sweet peanut sauce) and fiddle with ingredient amounts until it was the right level of spicy and peanutty. A jar of minced garlic and a tube of ginger paste from the produce section makes this recipe much faster.  Forget fresh squeezed lime and just roll with a bottle of lime juice. We're all about making things easy around here.

I tacked another row onto my Reflections afghan and started the blue squares for the next row. These are 4 inches across so three repeats should do it for the width and then a fourth repeat for the height. 28 blocks down, 164 to go.

My Coronatine project is about a third done, although I have not been working on it every day. Still, with Hurricane Gretchen threatening another five weeks of lockdown, I'm quite confident I'll be able to finish it before things open up again. 

Stay healthy, stay sane.