On the 16th Day I'm Resting.

Happy Sunday everyone!  Well, the 15 Project Challenge is over and I don't know if I'm sad or happy to get back to some regularly scheduled stitching.  Quite frankly, I breathed a sigh of relief yesterday knowing that now I can just get back to stitching one thing.  Well, at least stitch on one thing for a little while - I am known to be a project jumper!!  LOL  But in going through my stash, I found a bazillion other things that I would love to stitch, so in a rather sick way, I wanted to keep going - adding new projects with reckless abandon.  But I decided to just stop before I drove myself crazy.  I have come to the realization that I don't need to ever buy another thing EVER (yeah, like that's going to happen!!!!!).

Anyway, here are Projects 9 through 15.  And again, before you chuckle over my miserable progress on anything just remember I have had a husband trailing me around and Mr. Bailey went for his little operation this week and is sporting what is known as the Cone of Shame (pic to follow).

Last Sunday, Day 9, was a new start - Sarah Esch - I just had to get something that was a realistic size into this crazy mix.  You know, something that I'd was sure that I could finish before the New Year rolls around again:

Day 10 was back to a WIP and it was Hannah Lancaster day.  I was suppose to be stitching this with Sandra, but in my true slacker fashion, I took a different road and went sight-seeing by myself.  Sandra's been barreling along on hers, and me - well, I've been driving in the slow lane:

Before:

After:

Again, not a lot of progress, but now that I have a little bit more color in this piece, I'm really loving it.  It seemed rather drab on the cover, but is so much prettier in real life.

Say 11 was a new start day and I picked Miriam Chilvers:

Now, I'm really on the fence with this one.  I have seen this sampler done on this fabric - Vintage Meadowrue, I think - on another blog, but I'm not sure that I'm going to like it.  It actually photographed better than what it looks like to the naked eye.  I may have to revisit the fabric on this one.

Day 12 was back to an oldie - Frances Eden:

Before:

After:

Okay, no chuckling here - not too much accomplished!!!

Day 13 was a new piece - Sovine Palphreyman:

I like this one a lot.  The colors are funky!!!  And fun.  On 34 ct. Cafe au Lait linen.  I just realized as I was typing that, that three of my new pieces are single women - not the traditional A&E's.  Hannah, Sovine and Miriam are all women alone.  I think that I'd like a wall devoted to samplers with just women in them.

Day 14 - well, I was suppose to go back to a WIP and finish on Day 15 with a new piece, but I decided to reverse that because I wanted to spend some time on my last WIP in the challenge, so I went to another new piece - Stories to Live By - Eve.  Another smaller project that should work up fast.

I think that if I had this one and Sovine on scroll rods I would have made a lot more progress on both of them.  Working on a hoop or in hand really slows me down.

So now we come to Day 15 and I wanted to end it with a bang - with the piece that I really, really hope that I can get finished this year - Ann Medd.  When I last took a good picture of her, she looked like this - like a darned bedspread:

Then I worked on her some more here and there:

And on the fifteenth day, I got almost the entire verse done on the left:

Doing the verse is actually a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, there are twenty six verses in total (I think) divided between both sides of the sampler - the first verse starts with the letter "A" and each verse works it's way through the alphabet.  This is "I" and the next one will be "K"  The letter "J" is skipped as it wasn't used in older samplers for various reasons.  This is going to be my focus piece for a while.  Poor Ann was my New Year's start back in 2006 so I think that I really should give it the old college try here.

On the quilting front, I didn't do too much so don't have pictures.  Which is unfortunate because another Block in my Civil War Tribute showed up this week.  UGH - I can't sew fast enough!!!  I hope to spend some time today and tomorrow, while I have a dog sitters around, to put the pedal to the metal and get some sewing done.  But I did add another stash project into the pile (thanks Loraine!!!!).  Many years ago, I joined a BOM for the Dear Jane quilt and then right after that life just got too darned busy and I stopped quilting.  These little bundles have been waiting for me for over eight years.  With the encouragement of Loraine, who is working on this with her mother and SIL, I'm biting the bullet.  No time like the present, right?

You would think after working on the Farmer's Wife quilt I'd be tired of little blocks.  Well, not so, and these are even smaller - 4-1/2"!  I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.  But how fun this is going to be?

Well, with the aftermath of the past 15 days, this is what my stitching area looks like.  DH has raised his eyebrows a few time and DD asked numerous times what I'm pulling out now:

24 project envelopes full of Challenge projects, a couple new ones and few others that are WIPs (yes, Michelle, Provence is in there!!!):

And a huge mess around the stitching chair.

But now I'm breathing a sigh of relief!  But it's been a lot of fun and made me go through stash and, of course, I made a huge list of other things I'd like to stitch and quilt this year.  Although, truth be told, I'll be one happy camper if I can get through half the things that I've put into this challenge.  (Oh, and a note to my sister Cindy who I know stalks this blog - the Mermaid isn't part of the challenge even though I probably should have added it as one.  She's on her own and I haven't forgotten about her.   She is seeing some stitchy love too!!) 

On the home front - everyone will be out of my hair next Tuesday!  Ya Hoo.  Well, that is if we don't get a winter storm that they've been predicting for Monday.  Fingers crossed it misses us!  DH is doing well with his shoulder, DS is recuperated although still coughing to beat the band - he's had one vicious bug!!  The only caveat to this whole thing is Mr. Bailey.  He had his "little" surgery this week and is none too happy about it, but would you be happy if you had to wear this?

Yes, the Cone of Shame and it's driving him absolutely nuts.  This dog usually runs on high octane, but that cone has really hampered him.  But he'll be able to get it off on Wednesday.  I can only imagine how he's going to be when it's taken off.  He'll probably be bouncing off of walls!  LOL

I have to say that I've had a great time following everyone's challenges these past couple weeks and again, have only had time for a few hit or miss comments.  Hopefully, my life will return to normal this coming week.  But, it's been a lot of fun watching what things people have pulled out of their stash to do, and unfortunately, reminded me of things that I have in my stash! LOL  But that's a good thing!

I want to thank everyone for your wonderful comments to my post on first half of this challenge.  They truly mean a lot to me and do keep me going!!!  I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and can make great progress on their own Challenge pieces!