A Little Stitching, A Little Painting

We have been painting.  Our associate pastor and her family are moving into the parsonage.  We need to paint.  So I have been painting.  My son, our senior pastor and I painted her future sewing room.  My son and I also did some clean up work.  All in all, it has been rewarding but tiring.  It has motivated me to think a little more seriously about the painting we must do.  This week I picked up a gallon of ceiling paint and a gallon of wall paint.  Because they blend one into another, I selected colors from a single paint card for the front entry, bedroom hallway, passage way from the front entry to the living room, and the living rooom.  The front entry is extremely small; the bedroom hall and passage way to the living room are confined and have no natural light.  So those three areas will be the lighter shade while the living room which is quite large and has south and east windows will be the darker shade.  I picked up the lighter paint because where it will be going are three small areas and the living room is so large it is scary.  I need to begin by vacuuming the corners and prepping the walls.  I think the radiators will be what I paint first.  They are such a pain to paint that if I have them done before I paint the walls, the painting should seem like a breeze. 

Our church youth program has been giving the confirmation students a fleece blanket when they are confirmed.  It is a reminder that as they wrap themselves in the blanket, the members of the congregation figuratively wrap their arms around them and stand behind them.  We stitch a patch of the United Methodist symbol on the blankets.  I stitched eight but the eighth blanket was flawed.  Fortunately I did not wait until the last minute to do it and we have ample time to arrange for an exchange. 

I have just barely begun Little Bo Peep. 

My XOUFO is coming along very nicely.  The row with the nine pansies took a long time and was very fussy to stitch.  The final parts should progress very quickly in comparison. 

Back to Normal

I have had a couple designs to stitch for Annie's Publishing.  The last one is in the post and is due to be delivered tomorrow.  I have had some time to decompress over the weekend. 
First off, I want to show you another finish. 

This is Blue Carnations by Thea Dueck, Victoria Sampler.  I have modified it to be a birth sampler and changed the colors.  They are the same colors I used to stitch samplers for each of her older sisters. 

I am very pleased to say that it and the wedding sampler shown in the previous post are now in the possession of their intended owners. 

It does not get much better than that. 

Not much progress on my XOUFO.  The UFO always is left out when I have a stitching assignment. 

My new project is Little Bo Peep, one of the Country Cottage Kids by Country Cottage Needleworks. 

I will make it into a pillow with a tooth fairy pocket for the daughter of one of our nephews

  Today is Cosmo's first birthday.  Unfortunately he is the definition of a bad boy.  His defenders say that he is not a bad boy just that he has no conscience and acts before he thinks, if indeed he can think.  I can tell you that he has put his claws in the curtains and made huge rips in them and that he jumps on my back and sinks he claws into it. 

Mister Mooch has permanently unfriended him.  It seems that Mooch does not like being swatted; does not like being jumped upon; does not like being bitten and chewed upon; and does not like seeing Cosmo in his food. 

Cosmo is now keeping his distance from Mooch.