The Cup of Fortunes: Week 39 (September 21-27)

Sixty-one fortunes have been embroidered! Time is going by so quickly. It's hard to believe that there are only 13 weeks left this year and 23 fortunes left in this project. I'm probably going to have to start moving the fabric around more frequently to make sure I cover as much of the open space as possible. 

A lot of the remaining fortunes have to do with finances, travel, and events happening in on/around a specific day or month. I'm not sure how that happened, but it's where I am in this project. This week's fortunes are perfect examples. I'm not sure my upcoming trip to Tampa in November counts as traveling, but that's probably the only travel I'm going to do this year (I don't really want to go to Florida, but it's a work a trip so I don't have a choice). I'm not aware of any fortunes coming my way unless it's more embroidery thread someone wants to give me. 

Today's excitement was supposed to be my flu shot (get your vaccinations this year, whatever they may be for you), but had to push that to next week, so I'm not sure what exciting times await me today. Will I have a surprise visitor? Will Bea finally capture the red dot (I introduced her to a laser pointer this week)? Will I finish the front panel of the house purse? Will I figure out why Bea enjoys sleeping in the weird corner of the dining room? This is the type of excitement I expect is coming my way.

I mean, come on.

Here are this week's fortunes and lucky numbers. 

September 21

September 22

September 23

September 24

September 25

September 26

September 27

Weeks 1-39

WIP: The House Purse

The house purse project is off to a decent start. The first week of the stitch-along focused on the front house panel and doing things like creating a stitch card. I created both a stitch card and a yarn guide for myself. I'll add to the yarn guide as I start to use the embroidery thread I'm using for some of the finer details like the window designs and the flowers.

I'm not used to doing counted projects. The kind of embroidery I do doesn't require me to count stitches like needlepoint or counted cross stitch. I can do counted work, I just don't enjoy it as much. This project is counted work, and I did okay on this first panel. I had to redo part of the left side because I counted incorrectly and realized I did it again after I redid it. I decided not to take it out again and just repeat my mistake on the other side. This resulted in a smaller wood beam in three spots. It's fine. It doesn't ruin the piece and I didn't think it was worth it to take it all out and start over. 

The cat in the pattern is a black cat but I changed it to gray for Keely and Bea. There's a second cat on the back panel that's orange for Pumpkin.

I hate the door overhang so I'm going to be redoing it this weekend. I have a different color yarn that's a different texture and color and I think it will look better. The final steps to finishing this panel is to add the window detail, grass, and flowers. I hope to have it done by midweek (Week 2 of the SAL). Week 3 focuses on the back panel of the house. 

I'm pleased with how the first panel is turning out. It's not perfect, but I think it looks great and I'm enjoying learning a new technique. I did have to use some knots to secure a few spots, but that's fine. No one is going to see the back of this piece since it'll be covered by a fabric lining. I hope my counting on the back panel is better. If I make the same mistake with the wood beams, it's fine. 

Bea was an excellent helper while I was working on the initial part of the panel on Sunday. She's going to be an excellent embroiderer/needlepointer one day. She also got to meet my friends during last week's monthly craft meetup. She's definitely part of the group now.

What I'm Reading and Other Small Joys

As we get closer to October, it's almost time to start my vampire themed book list in honor of Halloween. This year I'm reading three books: Carmilla, Bless Your Heart, and Vampires of El Norte. I'm also planning to watch vampire movies all month long. Would love to hear vampire movie recommendations. I'll share more about the books as I get into them. The other books in this picture are my end of the year books.

I also started reading In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. We have a book club at work and this is next month's book. I suggested the book and am co-hosting the book club meeting with one of the other employee groups. It's a really beautiful book and I can't help but see some parallels to what's going on in the US right now. 

Bea also "made" some thank you notes for our friends who sent her gifts. I love that people love her, and appreciate that people sent her things. She really enjoys throwing the toys around and hiding in her space cube. 

Enjoy your weekend as much as Bea enjoys being in her space cube!