Time goes by sooooooo fast.  We came down to Bushnell to stay for three months while it is cold at home.  I miss my kids and I miss my grandkids so much.  This would be perfect if the kids were in and out like they are at home. 


I did not realize it had been so long since I posted in my blog.  I have got so much done while we have been down here but I have not made a dent in what I brought down here to work on.  I have finished several of my mill hill kits.  Every thing else that I brought down here is missing something that I need to work with. 


I will never come down here again without my sewing machine.  I can not wait to get home and clean up my sewing room and play in there for the next three months. 


I have a wedding to go to in April.
I have a family vacation planned for May.
I have close to 10 quilts that are still in my sewing room that needs working on and finishing.  I will spend April, May and June trying to finish them up and doing the finishing work on what I have stitched while I have been down here.


I will recap my stitching progress a little later after I take some pictures.
Quilts to finish when I get home.
I have two quilts for Aunt Mavis that her mother embroidered.  One is a heart block and the other is a rose quilt where all the roses are a different color.


I have three quilts for Jan Stewart that I have had for 5 or 6 years but she keeps telling me not to worry about them because she does not have the money to pay for them to be quilted.  I am going to do them just to get them out of my sewing room.


I have a row robin Halloween quilt that needs some beads put on one row and I will be finished with it.


I have a paper pieced red white and blue quilt that was done when I was on the HGTV message board swap.


I have two double sliced layer cake quilts done in batiks that I pieced for the camper that I want to quilt.


I have a Judy N Fire Island Hosta quilt that needs the outside border finished that I want o use in the camper.


I have a stamped cross stitched quilt that belongs to Jean Jacobs of Baldwyn that needs to be finished hand quilting.


I want a quilting machine with a stitch regulator on it where I can learn how to free motion quilt.
I want a Phoenix frame from sewing machines plus
I want to upgrade my pcquilter to a side saddle like Marj's.
I need a new heater/AC for my sewing room
My sewing room needs a major cleaning.

This is my pine cone snowman

This is my Santa with his chicken and pine cone.  I will look again for a picture of my other snowman

Lizzie Kate 6 Fat Men have been put on hold.  I have used up all of some of my threads.  I have stitched it all that I have thread for and I have ordered the thread.  It shipped on Tuesday but I don't know how long it will take to get here.  In the mean time I have been working on the 2015 Mill Hill designs.  2014 Mill Hill did 6 Jim Shore Santas.  This past year they did three Jim Shore snowmen and three Jim Shore Santas  I have all the snowmen finished and one santa These are two of the snowmen,  I can not find the pictures of the rest of them  I will go look and come back and post a picture of them.

My next project for completion will be my Lizzie Kate 6 Fat Men design.

I finished Benjamin.  I had a 14 hour marathon of stitching yesterday and ended up with a touch of vertigo this morning.  No more stitching that long with out getting up and moving around some to keep my head cleared

I finished Luke around 3 pm and started on Benjamin

I finished Gloria this morning around 10 am and started on Luke

This piece is finished.  I need to press it really good and sew on some buttons.  This piece

came with a button package.  Like there are some snow and bird buttons that goes on each

block and some in the design in the middle of all the blocks. It feels so good to finish theses

pieces and put them in my finished box. 

this is my next project to finish.  The Mill Hill Trilogy is finished except for beading.  I will work on these until they are finished.  I stitched these back in early 2015 while Mike was visiting his brother and nephew at a BBQ cookoff in New Orleans.  There is so many things that I have started and not finished for some reason or another.  I brought a bunch of things like this to put the finishing stitching on so that when I get home I can do the final finish work on all these projects.

Each year, Mill Hill comes out with six little Christmas ornaments or pins or magnets.  I never use the magnets or pins.  The gingerbread house was one of them and this is the second one.  This past year I only purchased three of them because I did not like them all. 

Well I got a little side tracked, as usual.  That is why I never get anything finished.  I lose my focus and I have way too many little projects laying around calling my name.  I am away from home and did not bring my sewing machine and I sit and think of so many things that I could do if I just had my sewing machine.  The only problem is that we are maxed out on the amount of weight that our truck will pull in the camper.
This is what I have been working on for the past two days.  The first one I did was a Mill Hill Seasonal Window Pane that I found in all the stuff I packed in here to bring with me.

 I also found one of my new Mill Hill ornament kits

Neither one of these had been started previously.  They are new ones.  Now

this morning I have gone back to my Lizzie Kate Snow Belles.  I promise to

try to focus better. 

I

The next one will be the 6 Snow Belles by Lizzie Kate which goes with the 6 Fat men. I have four of the six of these done so it will go quickly finishing the other two.  Does this make you think that I may need some therapy of some kind for having so many projects started and not finished.  I am going to shoot for finishing everything I have started and becoming like My friend Mary Ann Lake.  She starts a project and finishes it before she ever even thinks about her next project. 

This will be my next UFO'
The first three is the Mill Hill Nativity Trilogy  Gloria, Luke, and Benjamin.  I have already done Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, and the three wise men. For the most part all three of these are finished except for the beads being sewn on.

The next project is Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Men.  There are 6 flip it designs for each piece.  I have three of them started but none of them finished on this design.
 

I did not post a picture of my second UFO. 

I finished the third of my four UFO's this afternoon.  The fourth one got started this afternoon but it will probably take two days to finish.  The beading is very slow. There is a wreath button by Shepherds Bush that goes down at the bottom of this piece in the middle.  It is at home in my button box.  I will be back for an update on my fourth UFO and an update on the next UFO's that are in line to be finished.  It is really nice to get all these pieces finished.  I am very good at starting these projects and taking on more projects than I have time to finish.  It sometimes overwhelms me and I just put these things away and start something new.  2015 was when I started concentrating on all these unfinished projects.  I am going to continue it on into 2016.  Wish me luck!!!

I finished one of my four UFO's.  We found a cute little cross stitch shop in Ocala today.  I was missing some beads to finish the "O Tannenbaum".  I had one leaf at the bottom done and liked two more  I bought the same number of beads and finished the other two leaves and the beads don't match.  I also did not bring my siam rondele beads with me.  So when I get home I will put the three rondele beads at the bottom and then I will be done.  But for right now I think I will take out the beads that don't match and swap them for the new beads  that I just bought. 

I almost forgot to post a picture of my santa face.  I finished this while I was waiting on my threads to be delivered.

My first UFO choice is "Believe" by Mill Hill.  I still need to add some pine needles and beads to the area around the I and the E.  Mill Hill is one of my favorite designers when it comes to Christmas designs and they are my all time favorite to work on.  You would never have guessed that would you? LOL


My second one is also by Mill Hill and it is a snowman in a garden of bird houses.


My third one is by Mill Hill and it is "O Tannenbaum" 


And the fourth one is "December" by Shepherds Bush.  This is a design that we did in early 2000 when Lori had the cross stitch store in Tupelo.  It was a monthly project where we did one design a month until we had twelve of these.  I have all of them stitched but only  one of them finished into a box.  That too will be part of my month of April. 


2016 is going to be a year of finishing up all these things I have packed away that I have started on in the past and laid aside to flitter off to something new like a butterfly in the spring going from one bloom to another. 

Yesterday was very productive.  My threads arrived in the mail and I finished my Christmas sampler made from the Lizzie Kate double flip its.  Now when I get home I will have about a months worth of pressing, stretching, and lacing to get several pieces ready to go to the framers. 

I also finished the Mill Hill

Santa face I had started. I did not get a picture downloaded of the Santa I will do it and post it later.

Now I have to decided which UFO to finish next.  I will work on UFO's till the first of February or maybe until the middle of the month before I start any thing new.  I have my UFOs listed in a journal and I have one whole page of UFOs and only a half page of new things that have never been started.

You see I have been a hoarder of cross stitch  projects for the last 15 years and a fabric hoarder for the last 10 years.  I guess I purchased this stuff while I was still working or better yet while my better half was still working because I knew when we both were too old to work anymore I would not be able to afford my hobbies which are quilting and cross stitching.  Believe my I have enough of both hobbies accumulated to last until I can no longer pick up a needle.  This is four of the UFOs I have gotten out to try to finish before the first of Feb.  d