SAL Report, & Kudos to Diane Williams

Last Thursday Sally & I started a new SAL ... LHN's Warm Winter Woolens.

Honestly, what's not to like about this design?  A sheep (a sheep wearing a sweater yet!), snowflakes, & a reference to warm winter woolens.  It's like it was designed solely for me!  Kudos to designer Diane Williams for such a great design   : )

I had a bit of a problem when starting to stitch the design though.  See those white snowflakes at the top?  Diane suggests using CC's Toasted Marshmallow to stitch them. Well, my skein of Toasted Marshmallow had a bit too much toasted color in the mix.  I like my snowflakes to be snow white.  I then started thinking ... Warm Winter Woolens. Wouldn't it be cool to stitch the design using wool floss?  I just happened to have some skeins of Simply Wool in my stash, & I had perfect matches for the CC colors that Diane suggested! Here's my progress from last Thursday & yesterday.  

You may notice that I somehow miscounted & started the design too low on the fabric.  I was afraid I was going to have to frog last week's work & start again, but thankfully there will still be plenty of room left over at the bottom for framing purposes.  I'm using the same fabric as used in the model ... 32 count Vintage Examplar ... which looks rather washed out here, but it's a gray, rainy day so I'll blame the light source.

And speaking of Diane Williams, remember that huge box of cross stitch magazines my husband brought me home from Half-Price Books a few weeks ago?  This magazine issue was included.   

For the Love of Cross Stitch, July 1999.  Inside is an article titled Portrait of a Designer, & guess who the designer is?  Yep, Diane Williams!  Love that sheep sweater Diane   : )

She contributed this delightful design to the magazine   : )

This month I decided to take a wee bit of a break from stitching Christmas ornaments & I started stitching a small Christmas sampler instead.  No photo of that yet, but I'm enjoying the stitch   : )

I'm sure that some of you are wondering if John & I have made a decision yet regarding selling the house.  The answer to that is no. We do have a plan though.  We are collecting estimates for various repairs & remodels that in our opinion must be done if we are going to find any comfort in staying here.  Things like repairing our front entry door, realigning the door going out to the garage, replacing the door leading from the garage to the outside, installing a window, & having some wall storage units built.  There are many other things we'd like to have done which would have to be done little by little as time goes on.  A new kitchen counter top for example, a bathroom remodel, new bathroom floors, a new staircase, maybe knocking down a wall, new trim work, & repainting all the walls.  Although the way these things are now make us want to barf sometimes, they serve their purpose.  We will collect the aforementioned estimates, then make a decision before the end of the month to sell or not to sell.  In all this move/not move confusion, some other stressors have developed as well.  Isn't that just the way things happen sometimes?  But in all of this stress & confusion, I am clinging tightly to this verse from God's Word ...

Your prayers will continue to be appreciated   : )