September wasn’t the greatest stitchy month, due to a several travel days, but I did work on everything. So let’s dive in.
First, my focus pieces, Autumn Wren was a new start September 17th. This is my fall start-to-finish challenge with Semisane stitchers. It did get 5 days of love and 3,125 stitches.
Santa’s Gifts had 4 days attention and 2,400 stitches. I worked on the toy bag, Santa’s face, beard, mustache, hat, etc, then I started backstitching from the midline, with the red ribbon, dove, owl, lots of the trim on Santa’s dress and robe. I filled in a lot of ninja stitches too.
Regency Love Story had 3 stitchy days and 2,400 stitches. In the later part of the month, Markup RXP was “updated” and it messed up my chart, apparently the new version is not as smart as the old version. I spent an enormous of time trying to fix it, while saving my progress. Oh well, I digress. So I worked on the flower garden bit then went over to the left side, with more greenery and started Darcy’s coat.
Secondary piece Fairy Idyll had 2 days and 1,600 stitches, I am pleased to report that the bottom half is fully filled with silks, metallics, etc. No beading yet though, I will do that at the end.
St. George and Dragon received 2 days attention and 1,800 stitches done, on the left border, and then I started backstitching the border, up from the left side midline, across most of the top.
Deadly Aquarium had 2 stitchy days and 1,800 done, I finished the middle section (man o’war jellyfish, blue sea dragons, St. George’s cross Medusa, net fire coral, barracuda) and started the right section (porcupine puffer, bull kelp, barracuda) . I’m trying to pace this one for a December finish.
Yes Virginia had 1 day attention and 900 stitches added. Santa’s face is starting to come alive. But, I’m not satisfied with the words, they are somewhat hard to read especially where they overlap the chalk art, so I may go back and backstitch them.
I made another new start with help from my hubby and son to choose, found the perfect fabric in my stash (Nocturne Cashel by Picture this Plus). So, this is Sleepy Hollow by Glendon Place, I started at the bottom and did 2,000 stitches over 2 days.
Last but not least, Mary & Jesus got a half day, 600 stitches, I finished another ornament with 733 stitches on a half day (sorry no pics, it’s a gift), and started Victorian Bauble by Elizabeth Spurlock / JCS with a half day and 400 stitches
Question of the month: I don’t know, Measi’s site is down. Maybe I’ll just mention the things that took me away from stitching in September. First we went to visit family and made a day trip to Greyson Highlands State Park in Mouth of Wilson, VA. We endured an absolutely insane lightning storm driving there, but parts of the drive were so beautiful, like the shire in Lord of the Rings. We arrived at the park, it was grey and cool, misty, but dry. We climbed the hill to see the ponies, that was really neat. We did not touch them (they are wild animals) but we got pretty close. Then we did the Cabin Creek trail which is rated hard, and thankfully way less crowded than the pony trial. (we saw 3 people, 2 hikers, and one guy fishing in the middle of the waterfall) . We found a water strider in one of the pools, it was almost invisible, that was so cool! The trail is around 2 miles and the first part is easy, but then you make hairpin turn and start scrambling over the rocks alongside a waterfall. There is a primitive cabin, and then a steep climb out of the gorge that ends on a horse road with no further direction. Thankfully I had downloaded the trail map, and my phone’s compass was helpful too.
Our other trip was to Orlando, Florida. We stayed at the Portofino Resort at Universal, which was so nice. It’s like a little Italian town. There are several restaurants, stores, arcade, water taxi, 3 gorgeous pools; the big one has a sandy beach, a long slide, and a waterfall. Our room was beautiful, spacious, and even featured a perfect stitchy spot (upholstered armchair & ottoman). However the resort is annoyingly large, it requires quite a bit of walking, and it’s not as close to the parks as some of the other hotels. So we had a resort day, and went to Mickey’s not so scary Halloween Party. I will say, the castle projections and fireworks were amazing. We savored a lovely meal at Skipper’s Canteen, tried one of the Halloween treats (Cruella’s cookie, which was alright). However, it was super crowded, even the candy lines were crazy, like 15 minutes or more. We did several rides, failed to get a decent spot even for the second parade, so it was underwhelming though the castle stage show was great. Overall, I think the Oogie Boogie Bash at Disney California Adventure is way better. Then we spent a day at the Universal Studios, unfortunately gave Islands of Adventure a miss because we were tired. The next day we went to Epic Universe and tried some different things this time, like Mead Hall (those Swedish meatballs are fantastic!), the Yaknog was tasty but it wasn’t as thick as expected, more like a chocolate malted milk. At Goblet Noir, the black forest cake was so intensely delicious, best dessert of the trip for sure! At Burning Blade Tavern, the crossbow (mead and cider) was wonderful, perfectly balanced, and the garlic pretzel stake was soft and tasty, very garlicky too. The weather was iffy that day, so we went to early entry with Express Pass, stacked the outdoor rides early, and finished everything we had cared to do by around 2 pm. The queue was crazy for Battle at the Ministry, even the Express line was an hour. However, walking through the magical flue was fun.
In the evening, a lightning storm did strike, so we went to El Patron, a fabulous Mexican restaurant in Orlando, and found Twistee Treat nearby which was the best soft serve I’ve ever had and the cost was so reasonable! The hard pack ice cream was awesome too, and the small was crazy big.
Now for my October goals:
- Focus (3k or finish): Santa’s Gifts, Yes Virginia, Regency Love Story, Autumn Wren
- Seconday (2k): Fairy Idyll, St. George & Dragon
- Tertiary (1.5k): Deadly Aquarium, Sleepy Hollow
- Smalls (600): Mary & Jesus, Victorian Bauble
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