Livin' La Needle Loca

 ...busy week. I've been unearthing a lot of old project photos. Unfortunately, the quality of some are not great, but at least I have photos of some of them. For example, I stitched this crewel piece for my mother in 1970 (best guess).   I was switching my focus to needlepoint at that point, so I didn't do as many crewel pieces after that. In 1984, I pretty much abandoned crewel for cross stitch. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Red Alder Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Started 4/28/2025 Sea Merchant's Wife (cross stitch) Got the majority of the stains out. Started beading. Teal No-Noro Hat (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Added a few more rounds to the crown. Website (other) Scanned more photos and updated blog posts. No Work This Week: Brighter Day quilt (quilting) Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting) Mom's cookbook (cooking)  Ready for Finishing: Finishing work for some old crewel pictures (sewing) Happy Pumpkin needleroll (cross stitch) Herding Cats qu...

 ...and I'm deep into a purge operation in my filing cabinet. My studio is in more of a disarray as a result. However, I have managed to fill a banker's box with documents to shred and I'm gathering a bunch of stuff for Goodwill. The garden continues to flourish. The flowers uner the cherry tree are going nuts: and we now have poppies appearing in both the front and back yards:

 ...and a finished object. I finished spinning Critical Hit [ Ravelry ]: and the close-up: Specs: Started 4/7/2025 Finished 4/22/2025 4.0 oz. Merino-Stellina from Greenwood Fiberworks 267 yds. chain-ply, 14 WPI  WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Brighter Day quilt (quilting) Still rearranging blocks. Sea Merchant's Wife (cross stitch) Finished the back stitching. Washed the mermaid and some of the colors ran. Working on removing the stains. Website (other) Continuing replacing embedded photos with links; combined weaving pages into fewer pages; deleted unused photos from Media Library. No Work This Week: Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting) Mom's cookbook (cooking)  Teal No-Noro Hat (knitting) [ Ravelry ]   Ready for Finishing: Finishing work for some old crewel pictures (sewing) Happy Pumpkin needleroll (cross stitch) Herding Cats quilt (quilting) Mom's cookbook (cooking) Peaceful Night (cross stitch) Sea Dandelion (cro...

 ...and the garden is going strong! It's hard to say whether I love spring more than summer. They are both my favorite seasons in the garden. In the spring, The Husband visits plant nurseries frequently and brings home interesting flowers to photograph.  This week, the evening primroses are beginning to take over open areas that the nasturtiums haven't already claimed. The trumpet vine is starting to bloom: In the front yard, bearded irises are opening: The apricot, nectarine, and fig trees are beginning to set fruit. The fig tree is guarded by our old catfish wind chime. <

 ...another no photo post. I almost forgot to post today! I was completely absorbed into updating my website and finishing the cross stitch portion of the latest mermaid (Sea Merchant's Wife). It was 5 PM before I realized it. I'm making good progress on the website. I've now switched over to a new free template. The most time-consuming part is locating photos of old projects, scanning them, and editing and uploading the edited versions into Flickr. Once they are in Flickr, I am replacing the embedded photos with links to Flickr. The mermaid has the rest of my attention. Now that I've finished the cross stitch portion of the mermaid, I'll work on the back stitching.   I'm also spending a little time spinning the Critical Hit Handspun [ Ravelry ]. I've finished the singles and it's now ready to ply. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Critical Hit Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Finished singles; ready to ply Brighter Day quilt (quilting) Still rearrangin...

 ...the week went by very quickly! I got a lot of adulting done in addition to project work. This morning I saw the sunrise and enjoyed these nasturtiums, and Spanish lavender in the front yard.

 ...no photos today. I've been working on the web site, hence the absence of photos. I'm trying to reduce the amount of disk space that it uses and upload more old project photos so i can link to them rather than embed them in the pages. I'm also doing a little spinning, a little sewing, and a little cross stitch. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Critical Hit Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Working on singles. Brighter Day quilt (quilting) Arranging blocks. Sea Merchant's Wife (cross stitch) Working on the hair. Website (other) Rescanned photos and began editing; researching new themes No Work This Week: Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting) Mom's cookbook (cooking)  Teal No-Noro Hat (knitting) [ Ravelry ]   Ready for Finishing: Finishing work for some old crewel pictures (sewing) Happy Pumpkin needleroll (cross stitch) Herding Cats quilt (quilting) Mom's cookbook (cooking) Peaceful Night (cross stitch) Sea Dandelion (cross stit...

 ...spring is in full force in the backyard. Here's what our garden path looks like: Our cherry tree is setting blossoms again. Hopefully, we'll get a couple of cherries this year. :)  and we have all sorts of daffodils and tulips blooming.

 ...I needed to do a project that I could finish quickly. This is Spellbound [ Ravelry ]: and the close-up: Specs: Started 3/31/2025 Finished 4/2/2025 Falkland (3.8 oz.) from the Yarn Wench 75 yds. chain-ply, 11 WPI