October 3, 2026 - Two More Projects for the Roulette Box

 Two more bags are packed and in the roulette box. It may be months (or days) before I pull something out of the box to start working on. I have to be up to date with the Blackbird Academy projects (I am not finished with September's project) and I have to have at least one empty scroll frames (I do not!)

Here are the projects I added to bags today:

The first one is Little Deeds Sampler by Plum Street. It was already kitted with floss and linen but the linen is the old Weeks (not Zwiegart) and I don't really like it so I changed it to a 40 count natural tea bag by Graham Cracker Linens. 

Here's the point where I can do a little planning. The stitched area should be 6-1/2" x 7-7/8". I'm just going to call it 6-1/2" x 8". If I were to leave 3/4" on each side, the frame would need to be 8 x 9-1/2" . . which would likely mean buying a custom Frame. If I add 9 more stitches to the side borders, that would make it come out the perfect size for an 8 x 10 frame and I have LOTS of those so I've made a note to add a few extra rows between some of the places that look a little crowded and that will save $$ on the frame!

The second piece that was added to the roulette box is 

The second one that was added is The Light of Winter by Brenda Gervais. This is one I got as a kit and this is probably the final kit I will ever buy. First, I have all the linen I will ever need . . probably floss too. Second, I understand the shops get LOTS of orders and cutting linen takes time but . . some of what I got in the last few kits I got was totally not usable. On 40 count, which was included in the kit, this would be 8-3/4 x 8-3/4". If I leave .75" on all sides, it would be 10-1/4 x 10-1/4". I would like to have at least an inch to wrap around to do the lacing so that means I would need at least 12-1/4" square linen. The piece that came with the kit was not cut straight and by the time I pulled a thread to make sure it was straight and to be sure I have enough linen, my piece is 12" x 12-/14". I can do it but if I had been using linen I purchased, I would not have gone with less than 13" x 13". Most anyone will suggest starting with at least three extra inches on each side. I'm happy with two extra inches but I'm not happy with shops that cut it too close. So . . no more kits for me.

So, I pulled two extra piece of linen. The piece that came with the kit is the one to the right of the chart. The linen on the bottom left is Colour & Cotton's Golden Oak. The piece on the bottom right is Cedar River Linen's Coffee Stain. I think either of those pieces will be fine so all three linens are in the bag for this project.

Both of these have now been setup in Markup R-XP so I'm ready to go . . when the right time comes!

Four projects in the roulette box!!

October 1, 2026 - Two Projects in the Roulette Box

One of my goals for today was to get a couple of projects kitted and in my "roulette" box. It isn't really roulette for me because I'm not doing to draw numbers. I'm going to mix the bags all up, grab the first one and work on it . . when the time is right. That's not right now!  :)

Today I kitted Spooky Mansion.

That's the photo from the Etsy listing. You will see why I didn't use the one I printed. The colors are so off but I kinda like the purple house!

It looks way more purple in person! I ordered the White Rose floss from Primrose Yarns and asked for their help with converting the colors. When I looked at the chart I had printed and the colors of floss they suggested, I was thinking something wasn't right so I went back to the Etsy listing and realized my printer was way off. Since I like the purple house my printer chose for me, I went ahead and pulled those two purple flosses on the left side. I'm not sure what I'll actually use. The sample was stitched on Grandpa's Sleeve by X-Ju Designs and I had that in 40 count, which is what the model was stitched on, so I'm going to use it.

Each bag will get a working copy of the chart, the linen, the floss and a pack of needles.

The second one I kitted up was Pink Coat Santa by Teresa Kogut. 

The colors are more peachy than pink. I may change them but I may not. I've looked at some that were changed to more pink but they kinda look too pink. I'll figure it out when the time comes.

This one is kitted with the called for colors of floss. For linen, I'm using Fiber on a Whim's Espresso, 40 count.

I think these are the bags Tara used. She's the one whose flosstube inspired me to do this. The bottom has a gusset so they will easily hold everything I'm putting in them and they should stand up in a bin. 

There are fairly decent sized Velcro "dots" to keep the flap closed and they are very grippy.

I ordered some 2026 and 2027 stickers. I'm sticking one of those on the top left of each bag and that way I will know when this project was kitted. Wish I had started this much earlier!

Only projects that I REALLY want to stitch are going into these little bags so, no matter which one I grab, I'll be happy to be stitching on it.

I'll keep you posted on how this plan works!

September 29, 2026 - Catch Up Day

 Today felt like a "catch up" day around here. We have a burn pile and it had stacked up so high. We don't burn trash but we burn limbs, spent plants, leaves, etc. We've had a burn ban forever it seems. With the rain we had a week or so ago, it was good but not quite enough to cancel the burn ban but we've had a bit more rain this week. Today Vince called, he was told there are no burn bans in our area so he was able to get the pile burned. 

I make our brown sugar from regular sugar and molasses. I had been needing to make it for a few weeks and was being very stingy with the amount of brown sugar I use but today, as soon as breakfast was done, I made four gallon jars of brown sugar. That should get me through the holidays - hopefully way longer!

There were bags of grains - spelt, hard white, soft white and rye . . it all needed to be put in buckets and sealed. Vince got the lids on the buckets, I dumped the grain into the buckets, labeled them and got the lids on. 

I did make a good recipe today - Pork Chops with Apples.

I meant to take a picture before I filled our plates but I forgot so . . it isn't such a pretty picture but it was delicious.

The recipe calls for it to all be cooked on top of the stove but I didn't want to stay upstairs and watch it so I browned the pork, cooked the onions . . did everything, then put the chops into a 9 x 13 dis, added everything on top and baked it all at 350 for about 45 minutes.

The recipe called for 2 pounds of pork chops. I used almost 5 pounds because I wanted to have leftovers so I pretty much tripled everything else. 

I baked a sweet potato for Vince and a white potato for me so I hadn't planned to make rice but then when I tasted how good that gravy was, I opened a jar or purple rice that I had canned.

It's a recipe I will make again.

No stitching yet today. September is about to end and I haven't finished my project for Blackbird Academy. I think I'll finish it by about October 3 but that's ok . . my October project is smaller and I'd rather borrow some time from October than end up with an unfinished project. I'm surprised that I got as much done as I did in September . . just shows what I can do when I make it a priority!

Tomorrow is my day to stitch with Debbie so when I get off here, I'm going to get everything packed and in the car . . because last week, I was so unorganized. I didn't even have the right project to work on - I had the bag with the floss and the chart was on my tablet but I didn't actually have the piece I had been working on. Thankfully I had brought something to show Debbie and there was a good bit of linen at the bottom and I was able to start something new in that empty space on the linen.

It's almost 5 p.m. now and I'm going to stitch for at least four, maybe five hours tonight. Maybe I'll share a picture of the September Blackbird project before I put all that away tonight . . later . . 

September 28, 2026 - Another Friend Gone Too Soon

 It's been less than two months since I posted about my friend, Denise, passing away. In this post, I mentioned my friend, Sheryl, who had been instrumental in Denise and I meeting and becoming friends. This morning I got the news that Sheryl had passed away last night. In the post about Denise's passing, I talked about Sheryl, who hosted an online quilting group, The Quilting Post. Sheryl and I met at the Houston Quilt Show one year - probably in the late 70's and became instant friends. She lived in south Louisiana and any time she would be passing through Lake Charles, we would try to meet for a meal together; several times I was in Baton Rouge and she would come there and spend time with me. 

There were four of us in that online quilting group who ended up becoming close friends - Denise, Sheryl, Susan and myself. Now I'm the only one left!  Today I was feeling really sad and then I thought . . Sheryl, Denise and Susan are probably having a grand reunion in heaven and feeling bad for me because I'm left behind!  :) 

One of the best things about my friendship with Sheryl is that I would never have met Vince except for her. She's the one who decided we could all join Delphi, which was an ancient internet . . I don't even know what you call it . . like AOL but smaller and you had to know at least some DOS to be able to use it. Sheryl somehow knew DOS and gave us a quick "class" and we all joined Delphi. I needed a screen name and Sheryl had preached to us about not using real names. I couldn't think of a name and my perfume bottle was sitting there by the computer - Cabotine - so I used that for my screen name. Vince was online one night and saw my name and thought maybe I was Italian and started talking to me. You see where that chance meeting got us!

So . . another day where the tears fall without warning  but I'm a much better person for having had Sheryl as one of my friends. I will miss her.

I went back to our last emails back and forth about a month ago and this is the last thing Sheryl wrote me:  "I think about Denise all the time.  It’s still such a shock that she’s gone."

Now, I have both of them to think about and miss!

September 28, 2026 - A New Stitching Plan

 This new stitching plan may be my best, easiest to follow, most likely to succeed plan yet (and you know there have been many plans!)

Tara Sullivan (again) was talking a month or so ago about her new stitching plan. If you're interested, Tara talks about it in this video.

I watched the video and thought it was kinda dorky and didn't even watch her Stitching Roulette videos #1 and #2 but then #3 came on and I was in the middle of something else and it was kinda just playing in the background and I thought . . that sounds interesting.

Then Saturday I was watching Brenda and the Serial Starter and they were talking about it and wanting to do something similar to what Tara is doing.

Then . . Vince was watching a very late night football game Saturday night (Georgia Tech playing on the west coast) and I start thinking about Tara's Stitching Roulette plan and that's when it hit me -- As I was cleaning to make room for the furniture guys to get through the sewing room, I came across a box of some of the first charts I had purchased back in 2020 and 2021. Then there was a drawer in a chest that had a bunch more. There are so many charts that I have that I want to stitch so my plan is going to be a bit less strenuous (not sure that's the right word) than Tara's plan but here's how I plan to do this.

1. I will pull 15 or 20 charts that I've had for a while (at least a year) and that I really want to stitch, kit them all up with floss and linen, place them in a bag or envelope.

2. The envelope will be closed and there will be no indication on the outside as to what's inside. 

3. Once they're all packed up, I will shuffle them up so I have no idea which one is which, then I'll stick number stickers on the envelopes and stack them in numerical order in a bin.

4. When I'm ready to start a new project, I will grab #1 and work on it until it's finished. Then I can work on a WIP - something else that needs to be finished. When I'm ready to start another new project, I will grab the #2 envelope and get it stitched. And that's how it will go.

5. Before I can buy a new chart, I have to have finished at least five projects. They can be older WIPs that are already in my bins, or they can be some of the numbered projects but . . five finishes before I buy a new chart. Honestly, when I have so many that I want to stitch and not as many years left to stitch as I would like . . why am I buying new charts anyway? 

Sound like a good plan?

Once I get all my charts pulled, I'll share photos of them. I'm only pulling charts that I really (REALLY!) want to stitch so that should help me get them done!

I'm pretty excited with this new plan. I think there are going to be quite a few stitches doing something similar to Tara's plan!

September 27, 2026 - A Grateful Heart Stitch Along

 I'm a sucker for a good Stitch Along, even though my record at sticking with it and finishing on time (or ever!) isn't very good, I jumped in on the stitch along hosted by Tara Sullivan and Nichol Spohr. The project is A Grateful Heart by The Scarlett House. I love everything produced by The Scarlett House! This project was one of the exclusives for the Homespun Needlework group on Facebook a year or so ago and I wanted to get it then but it was only available as a kit with linen, floss and the chart. I have enough floss and linen - didn't need that so I just waited until the chart was released to the public. 

The Stitch Along officially started Saturday, September 26. I got it all set up on Markup R-XP and was ready to start that day. Tara Sullivan created a "plan" and this is the assignment for the first week (and we can really stitch whatever we want): 

I would love to keep up with this project! 

Because I have no stitching frames that are empty but I have several that I loaded with linen for other projects that I never started, I grabbed one of those. I know it's a Picture This Plus linen and I'm pretty sure the color is Sand and I thought it was 36 count. When I started stitching, I got concerned that it might be 32 count and, if it is, it isn't going to be wide enough so I went ahead and stitched across the top row of the border to be sure I wasn't going to run out of linen and I'm not so it must be 36 count.

Here's my progress. I did a little more than the required amount for Week 1, which is ok.  The plan said to stitch two flowers on the left but I stitch right to left so I stitched the two flowers on the right. That's ok too - they don't have any serious rules.

When I was getting this one set up in Markup, I set my daily stitching goal to 450 stitches per day. I usually set it at 350 or 400 but with the Blackbird Academy going on, I need to get in a bit more stitching time each day.

You can see that I stitched 743 stitches on the 26th and 568 on the 27th. 

This project gets put away for a few days while I try my best to finish Come into my Garden before the end of September.

September 22, 2026 - Progress on Come Into My Garden

 Come into My Garden by Blackbird Designs is my September project for Blackbird Academy. For anyone not familiar with Blackbird Academy, it's a Facebook group by Leah Bloom (The Blooming Stitcher on Youtube) and Holly Jones (Mrs. Jones Stitches on Youtube). We have a different prompt every month. September's prompt was birds. I'm not done with it . . I may not finish it in September and if I don't, I will use this as my project again in January when the prompt is "House" or in March when the prompt is "Flowers". Or, I can finish it if I have time next month (or any other month). My plan was to stitch something different each month but my bigger plan is to finish the 10 months of Blackbird Academy with 10 finishes so . . we'll see. 

You can see why I was so happy to find this linen that I knew would be perfect for this piece. It's Sassenach by Fabrics by Steph. I only ordered enough for this piece and I feel like I may need a piece of this in my stash so I may order another piece of it. I really do love it so much. This is my memorial piece fo my grandmother, who was responsible for my love of sewing, quilting, canning and probably cross stitch even though she never did cross stitching but she taught me to do embroidery when I was about 5 years old. She probably desperately needed something to keep me out of trouble and, for the most part, my love of needlework has kept me busy and probably out of trouble (unless you count Vince's frustration with all the packages that arrive).

There's still 8 days left in September but two of those days are Wednesdays and I don't work on this piece on Wednesdays (that's my day to stitch with Debbie and I stitch on something with 32 count linen on those days), so, I basically have 6 days left to stitch on this. I could get it finished but it isn't likely.