Back to blogging?

Well, maybe:) I didn't quite mean to take such a long break, actually I hadn't planned on taking a break at all. But as the end of the school year neared and all the activities that entails, I just couldn't see finding my way back to blog-land.

Now school is over, and even though dd's activities are not, they will, for awhile anyway, allow me some extra free time. Take this morning for instance, dd is off with her friend and a local farmer rouging. (Note to city people - Rouging is when a crew goes out into a field of whatever crop- this time it is wheat - and cuts out excess weeds or volunteer plants - this time it would be rye. I didn't know people did this either until I met my dh:). So she isn't here right now, and I didn't even have to take her anywhere or pick her up!! Next week she will be helping with the VBS program at a local church, and while I will have to take her and pick her up, it will allow for a couple hours at home by myself. And finally in a few weeks she will start a program at a zoo about an hour away where she will work for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week for 3 weeks. It would be way too much driving for me to take her everyday, so she will be staying with her grandparents every couple of nights. So that will give me a day here and there then as well:)

As much as I love having her here with me, I've always been a person who values my alone time. However, even with only one child, when you homeschool, you get very little time just to yourself, so this is a special treat for me. No doubt, by the time all of her away activities are done this summer (these will only take her into the middle of summer), I will be ready for her to be home lots and lots again:)

The last month or so hasn't been all running around for dd's activities though - okay most of it has, but that has also given me some time, while waiting in the car for her to be done, to get some stitching done as well:)

 

The first one here is almost completed, hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll be able to show finished pictures of it. It is the first of the Ladies Prim designs (this one is from Threadworks Primitives) for 2014. It is called 'Growing Love' and will be turned into a stitcher's wallet. The other one is the very beginnings of Summer Snapperland from Bent Creek. (BTW - I'm not sure why the pictures show the fabric looking all stripe-y, that isn't how the fabric really looks?!?!?) 

These are both from Blackbird Designs. The first is one of three patterns that will all go together, called 'Summer Loose Feathers'. I've made a bit of progress on it since I last showed it off. The other is the second 'Ladies Prim Society' design called 'Salute to Abigail', and I have to be honest, there is going to be a lot of tweaking with this pattern. I'm not sure I would call it Prim at all, because to me it is too bright and too busy. I like to idea of it though, and I will keep the colors that came with it (mostly because it came with silks and this is the first time I've stitched with silks:), but I'm cutting out the boarder and toning down the color changes and maybe re-arranging the pattern a bit. Not sure yet, but I did go ahead and give it a little start and will need to play around with it a little.

I'm hoping with the bit of extra free time that I'm going to have here soon, I will be able to join in on blog-land a bit more as I do miss sharing what I'm up to and seeing what other are up to as well.