Blizzard!

Our sixth grandchild (third grandson) arrived today in Kansas. His blog name is Blizzard in keeping with my use of weather terms for all of my grandkids. He weighed in at 6'15" and was 20.5 inches long. Not bad for a little guy who arrived 10 days early.

We held a little family pool (no money involved) to guess the gender, weight, and date of birth. No one guessed the weight or date of birth, but ten family members guessed boy! haha

Dan and I can't wait to travel to Kansas to see him! And he has five cousins here in Arizona just waiting for him to come visit one day. Congratulations JD and Janel! We love you both and Blizzard. Welcome to the family baby boy!

SSMT #2

A Stitching Post

Wow, two weeks in a row for the stitching post! I kept to my plan and started a new project this week, but I failed to take a photo of it. I'll share it next week.

I love seasonal patterns. Meaning I love winter, spring, summer, autumn patterns. I have stitched many sets of these and finally found a wall I want to display them on in my home. I usually frame each season individually, but putting that many frames up on the wall takes up a lot of space.

This week I found a collage frame at Michael's for 4 4x6 patterns and one at Target for 4 5x7 patterns. I reframed two of my sets and I love the outcome. Now I'm hoping to find a 4 8x10 collage frame.

I stitched this set in 2011/2012

Jessica stitched this set for me

This Week's Verse: Colossians 4:2

A Stitching Post

Week one: OK, I'm really going to try to be more deliberate about posting my stitching progress this year. "Try" being the operative word!

When I first started stitching decades ago I stitched one project at a time. When I returned to stitching after a ten year hiatus to raise four kids I was so enthusiastic that I stitched two projects at a time.

Then I discovered other stitchers on blogs. Oh my. I became intrigued with the multiple project methods I read about.

I tried the Crazy January Challenge a couple of times. But it didn't really work for me.

I'm interested in the idea of a stitching rotation. I've read several blogs of stitchers that employ this method. I think I'm finally ready to try this out for myself.

So, on January 1st I picked up a WIP from my pile and started stitching. This is Easter Egg Patchwork designed by Ursula Michael. It's from an issue of Cross-Stitch & Needlework magazine, but I have no idea which issue. I'm stitching it on Crystal Moonglow from Picture This Plus with the recommended threads.

I stitched this pattern before for myself. But then my daughter Katie liked it so much I gave it to her. Jessica also liked it, so this one will go to her. Maybe I'll stitch it a third time for myself someday!

Tomorrow on January 8th I'm going to set this aside and work on another piece. I have so many large projects to stitch this year that I'm hoping this method will keep me from getting bored with them.

That happens to everyone, right? No matter how much I enjoy a pattern, at some point I just can't wait to finish it and move on to something else!

This Week's Verse: John 7:38

SSMT #1

If you've read my blog for any time now you know that every other year Beth Moore hosts a scripture memory opportunity on her blog. This will be the 4th time I've participated and I'm looking forward to it. Basically the idea is to choose a verse to memorize on the 1st and 15th of each month for the year 2017. Once your verse is picked, head over to Beth Moore's blog and leave it as a comment. There is much more to the experience, but you can read about that on her blog.

I'm going to take it easy on myself for the first verse and chose a short but powerful one:

For we live by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:37 NIV