A WIP

Here's my current WIP. It will go in a tuck pillow so I had to change the design up a bit to get it the right size. I also changed a lot of the fibers as I won't stitch with Weeks Dye Works floss as it is not colorfast. And the design also called for blended threads with DMC and GAST! How weird is that?

Anyway, I've got the petals on the left flower to finish and then I have to stitch "Texas" at the top and add a few beads instead of doing french knots.

And here is the finished "First Christmas" ornament for my youngest nephew; I needed an example to show for my ornament finishing demonstration on Saturday at the IH35 Stitchtogether.

More tiling

I know I promised a WIP picture, but it's raining cats and dogs outside and it's too dark inside to get a good picture. Maybe tomorrow.

DH got a lot of tiling done this weekend. He wanted to get more done and wasn't pleased with his "lack of progress," but then he never is. Our chosen accent tiles really slowed him down a couple of times.

Here's what he got done on Monday morning. By the way, those little green dots are temporary tile spacers.

Here's where he was by Monday afternoon.

And here's where he ended up at the end of the day. Basically, he got the back wall done and most of the end wall done. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the tile goes all the way up to the ceiling. He hopes to get the front wall and the rest of the end wall done working during the evenings this week.

I don't know how much he'll get done this coming weekend as hunting season is starting Saturday. Meat for my freezer!

Tiling continues

I had planned on arising and tackling the mowing this morning, but the riding mower is acting up again - something is wrong with the battery...AGAIN. Did I mention that we'd had the darn thing in the shop recently? As the grass just dried out from the last rain, and it is supposed to rain again tomorrow, the grass may be up to my armpits before I have a chance to mow again. Oh well.

DH is moving along quite nicely with the tiling. He had hoped to get the whole tub surround done by tonight, but it ain't gonna happen. He was proceeding at a rapid pace until he hit the row of accent tiles; he came to a screeching halt.

DH followed the manufacturer's instructions for installing the accent tile. As is often the case, they didn't work and caused a huge mess. So DH improvised. That worked, but after having installed the whole row on the back wall of the tub surround, he ended up having to remove and redo them as they spaced improperly. Oh well. The accent row looks so good that all the extra trouble was worth it! (That weird hole in the tile on the upper left below the accent row is for the soap dish; it gets installed last.)

A note from my stitching chair: I stitched a lot yesterday and hope to do the same today in between laundry loads. I'll post a picture tomorrow.

And it begins

After our tile buying expedition in town yesterday, we came home and DH began doing the tile layout in preparation for the actual tiling. You always "dry fit" or layout your tile before you begin installing it to make sure everything goes together and that there are no surprises.

He started with the bare Hardi-backer covered tub surround.

Then he screwed a "first row" board onto the Hardi-backer that was exactly one tile tall and level. Then he dry fit the horizontal rows on all three sides of the tub surround, then continued up the back wall in horizontal rows to make sure the tiles would meet the ceiling properly. (That's our accent row with small glass tiles in shades of blue at the top.) He'll start laying tile on top of the first row board. After all the tiles are laid on that wall up to the ceiling, he'll remove the board and lay that row last.

Of course, DH had to allow the inspector in at some point.

This morning, DH started tiling for real. He laid on some mortar and then combed it with a tiling trowel.

And then the he installed the first tile of many!

Look for more pictures and updates as the long weekend progresses.

At last! My own...

...cordless drill! No longer will I have to suffer through using an overly-large man-sized cordless drill when I am carpentering. No longer will I tax the strength in my biceps in lifting a cordless drill with a 14.4 volt battery! No longer will I strain to reach the reverse button with my index finger! NO MORE!

DH is taking today and Monday off. He had planned to do the outdoor plumbing work for the bathroom. It's been raining off and on for a week and it is too muddy. So he is going to hopefully get the tub surround all tiled in instead.

We spent the morning buying tile and tiling supplies. I had planned to get the tile several weeks ago, but DH wanted to go with me. Sometimes we find a deal or have a creative idea when we search for DIY stuff together. We had planned to go with 4" x 4" tile, but at the tile store we found some "subway" tiles on sale (3" x 6") and went with those. Then we found some really cool 2" hexagonal tiles for the floor, also on sale. Next, at Lowe's we found some glass tiles in shades of blue that DH will use as an accent row.

While at Lowe's I went over and fondled and handled all the cordless drills while DH was looking for a tile mortar mixing blade. I found one with a grip that fit my hand perfectly and that had a smaller (and lighter weight) 12 volt battery. So I chucked it in our basket in amongst all the tile supplies and brought it home!

It's mine! DH can't use it. MINE! MINE!

A note from my stitching chair: I'm not stitching on "Mr. Bones." Even though I put a few stitches in him, I just couldn't get into him. I think I'm tired of the challenges of stitching on perforated paper. So I started "A Texas Garden" by Redbird Designs that I will stick into one of the tuck pillows I purchased at the stitching retreat. It'll look cute on our bed and it's small enough that it won't tax my too-many-decorative-pillows-on-the-bed tolerance.

If you give a dog a Milk-Bone...

...after her bath for being a good dog during her bath, she will go outside in the rain and bury it in the dirt.

"I'm not looking at you; you can't see me."

"What dirt?"

Have you ever done this?

As I was going through our monthly credit card receipts, I noticed a charge from Silkweaver. It was from the middle of August and I hadn't received the fabric which was most unusual as Silkweaver has great service. It was also unusual that I'd forgotten about the order.

So I e-mailed Silkweaver and received a prompt reply; they had record of the credit card transaction, but no record of my order, probably due to some weird computer glitch. But we got everything squared away and I got my fabric on Saturday.

I'd ordered 36 count linen in the Spanish Moss color. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember what project I had in mind when I ordered it!

I had to go through my stash and think really hard before I finally remembered the project. I had wanted to stitch one of the designs from the Prairie Schooler leaflet "Christmas Trees II." These are stitched on 18 count olive green Aida which is no longer made. So I tried to find a substitute color and found one at Silkweaver.

Forgetting about fabric you ordered must be another symptom of being cross stitch obsessed. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.