August WIPacolypse

I had to look to see the last time I'd done a WIPacolypse post and it turns out to be May.  Where did this summer go?  In May, we were still busy with baseball and just getting started with the idea that school was out for 12 weeks.  My mom had just moved from 100 miles away to 30 minutes away and she watched my boys several weeks for me.  Our garden was pretty newly planted and hadn't started giving us much except for greens.

So lets start from the end of May.

At that point, I was working on Warrior Alice by Eclectic Bloke Designs.  I had just started page 2.  By the end of the month, I finished page 2.  There's not too much to see but I think page 3 starts the top of Alice's head.

Then Lust by HAED came out and I made a little bit of progress

before I got distracted with a shiny new start.  This is the model of Northern Expressions Needlework's Star Spangled Banner.

While it was out this time, I started on 28 ct Monaco dyed by Mo's Sale and decided I wasn't happy with it.  I did a little stash diving and came up with 40ct  Cauldron from Picture This Plus.

Much better.  Until all the blue got to me.  Or was it the jessica stitches?  Don't know.  This got put down for a little while.

And I pulled out Chatelaine's Heritage Sampler and made my goal on it for this year.  There was a lot of frogging over one stitching and I left some that I really didn't want to frog and redo, but I won't tell if you won't.

Also around this time, our boysenberry bush decided it was very happy and berries started getting ripe.  I made boysenberry jam, I froze lots and lots of berries and I tried some compound butter.  Not bad.

I also worked on a good sized home improvement project.  I have a narrow office that didn't have a very big desk.  We just had a little one that I bought after the tornado 12 years ago.  It was time to upgrade.  This is my first attempt at putting this beast together so it would come apart to come into the house.

After I put Heritage Sampler away, I pulled Star Spangled Banner back out.  I finished the blue and added the stars.  This is so pretty IRL.  There are so many beads and the specialty stitches give a great texture.

I also worked on the first couple of bands before I put it away again.

At this point in my summer, I started looking for my stitchy mojo and spending a lot more time reading.  I tried pulling Warrior Alice back out

Nope.  Wasn't feeling her.

Then I tried The Loneliness of Autumn by Love Thy Thread.  

Yep.  There is was.  At least for a bit.  I finished page 3 and got a good start on page 4.  I love how this one stitches up even if it is all confetti.

To try to tempt my mojo back, I pulled out my kit for Chatelaine's Hawaiian Mandala.

In this timeframe, the garden kicked into gear.  I made 3 quarts of pickled beets, 10 quarts of pickled green beans, 14 pints of salsa, 17 pints of salsa verde and 8 gallon bags full of okra, ready to fry.

I also finished by desk.  Here are some before and afters.

Here's the corner that gave me such fits.  I ended up building this as a one piece top and removing the legs to bring it in the house.  Even then, it was a close thing.

Currently, I'm working on HAED's Lust again.  I'm making slow progress but it is progress.

I've gotten a little further than this as this is Sunday's picture, but not a huge amount.

Happy WIPacolypse!