Working on the Heart

I am working on the heart in the center of this now, and then it's done.  Not much stitching going on at the moment, but I've made significant progress on a few things during home leave.

Stash Part 1

Joann's had a 20% off coupon, so we used it.  Here's the first half of what I bought stash-wise.

Getting There

It's almost time to finish this up, although I have not put a stitch in anything since Saturday.  Maybe I'll have time to finish this up tomorrow.  Next weekend isn't looking good for stitching, either, as I'll be at the Baltimore Grand Prix with my son and Andreas.  I do like how this is turning out, and it's going quickly when I work on it.

Temari for Elsie

Here's the temari I made for Elsie in exchange for the one she made me.  I finished mine a lot later due to all the transitional stuff going on in my life these days.  It was hard to pick colors because she said she'd been getting a lot of green temari lately and wanted something non-green.  Needless to say, everything I picked first had green in it.  I eventually decided on some variegated Bravo and a yellow Wildflowers.  The two kikus are done slightly differently from each other.

Startitis

I found this kit at The French Knot in Fort Worth and well, just had to start it!  I don't know what I'll make it into, but it's great.  On the other hand, I really didn't need to start another project...

Temari from Elsie

 I received this beautiful ball last month, from Elsie.  We participated in a kiku exchange through the Talk Temari Yahoo group.  I love the design and her execution.  It's beautiful!

Shuttering Down

I got more work done on Church Street last week.  It was all about the roof and shutters this time.

Yarrrn

Also before I left Montevideo, I bought yarn from the Manos del Uruguay outlet.  Got some nice things at a good bargain.

Fabric from Uruguay

I finally got pictures of the fabric I bought from a dressmaker during my last week in Uruguay.  It'll be very, very nice for crazy quilting.  Bought some trims too.

Upside Down Sampler

The picture was taken upside down, but you can see some progress on this sampler.  The parts sent are so big it takes quite a while to get each bit done.  I have a bit to go on this, but am still about half done.

LOVE Suare

This is my current project; it's L-O-V-E Square from The Sweetheart Tree.  As you can see, I've made a little bit of progress on it.

Hancock's Disappointment

There's a local Hancock Fabric store here about two miles from the house - in the vicinity of Northeast Mall.  We went there a couple of weeks ago and I was very disappointed in the selection of well, everything.  It all looked shopworn and old.  Not much really interesting to me, so I concentrated on basics like needles.

Heart Complete

I finished my friendship heart last week, too, and already gave it to my mother.  She's going to get it framed and hang it either in her office or in her house.  I think it came out pretty well, and I still have most of the hank of the purple silk for another project.

The French Knot

I visited Fort Worth's own needlepoint store last week - The French Knot.   It's got a fairly wide selection of fibers and a bunch of neat canvases.  These are the fibers and findings I picked up there.

Cheese, Wonderful Cheese!

I had Andreas take this picture at Central Market because I've not seen so much variety in cheese for years.  Uruguay has about five kinds of cheese, plus a few very expensive imports, and the cheese aisle is very small.  It was wonderful to see kinds I've not seen in years!

Stars Added

No DPS visit to get a lot of stitching done last week, but I still got a couple of stars stitched.  It's getting close to completion.

Cupcakes

Instead of a cake for his birthday, I got Andreas cupcakes.  They were delicious!  And the bakers are really nice, too.  They're A Taste of Heaven.  If you need cupcakes in flavors like root beer float or red velvet, this is the place to go.

Quilting Stgash

I went to a class just after I got to Fort Worth.  It was hand applique at The Cabbage Rose.  You can see what I did in the next picture down.  Anyway, there was a ten percent discount on anything bought that day for class attendees, so I bought.  These pictures, though, are the shopping results of two trips.  I went back about a week after the class, too.

Two Day Project

This little square was a kit from Nordic Needle.  I did it in two days, as a break from other things.  I'll be making it into an ornament when I get to Moldova.

Fried Pickles

 We at lunch before seeing Harry Potter on Andreas' birthday, too.  The sports bar by the theater had fried pickles on the menu, so naturally, we had to have them.  I missed this Texan treat and think I won't get it in Moldova, for some reason.  The rest of the food was decent, too.

More White

Mainly it was white last week that was the color of work.  Still looking pretty empty, but at least worked on.

Olive Garden

Andreas decided to have Italian for his birthday, so we went to Olive Garden with his parents.  He had ravioli, I had chicken marsala, his mom had a pizza, and I'm not sure what his dad had, but it was good.  All the salad and breadsticks and soup plus this made us very, very full before we left. 

 It also satisfied an Italian out craving of Andreas'.  Uruguay's Italian restaurants are very adventurous with the cuisine and tend to twist it in odd directions.  It's hard to get good, plain Italian unless you cook it at home.

The Most and Best Trims

 Whenever I go to Houston, I stop by Universal Fabrics in West University.  It's a huge fabric shop, but about half the space is taken up by trims of all sorts, and their button collection is awesome.  These two pictures are of the stash I bought last month when we were in Houston for two days.