Too Long, Again!

Rose Bowl pg 1 & 2

Hello Everyone! Once again I took a long time between posts, but I can honestly say it was not completely my fault! As it turned out, I put the cart before the horse, so to speak. As it turned out, Chance has not started with the new job, as we thought he would. He was told it would be seven to ten business days and then he would receive either a rejection letter, stating why he did not receive the job, or a phone call telling him when to come in to get his schedule. Neither has occurred. He has called a few times but naturally the person he needs to speak with is unavailable. Because of this, he spends the majority of his day on my laptop. I am okay with this though, because I've been staying very busy, between my stitching and my house cleaning.

I completed the top half of "Rose Bowl" a couple of weeks ago and started on page three. My best

guesstimate is that I've stitched 1,000 squares thus far. The progress with page three included is my second picture of "Rose Bowl". I seriously doubt that pages three and four (the final page) will take me anywhere as long as the first two pages  were to complete. Pages three and four are mostly the "bowl". Other than up by the flowers, the "bowl" is only about 300 wide, until the bottom. Then it is wider again, maybe a total of 500 wide.

I was an election judge for the spring election last week. I have been doing this for at least 10 years. We had a poor turnout - 89 out of 603 for the precinct I worked. I brought my cross stitch with me in case things were slow. I am glad I did!

In the month I have been away, I also laid out my material, cut out the pattern and started to sew it together  and I hit a snag. The pattern was suppose to come with English and Spanish instructions. That would be fine, if both were there. NOT. It had all the Spanish directions, but only the first four steps in English. The illustration pictures were with the English directions, naturally, so there was no way I could go beyond step four!! I called the maker of the pattern and told the woman my problem. A few days later I had my pattern instructions in English! :D However, now my snag is time.

About three weeks ago I received a call from a woman who was needing someone to help her with cleaning a rental. She used me three days that week. I netted a nice amount that week. She was very happy with my work and told me she would use me again when another rental became available. She actually resides in Texas. The weekend before she called, I was hired by a couple, cleaning there home twice a week. The weekend after I did the rental home, I was hired to clean a couple of homes. An elderly woman lives in one. Her son and his wife live in a home about 300 yards away from the mother. It will be a once a month job, but, it is an eight hour job at my higher rate, since I am using my supplies.

I am very proud of my better half! The bench seat you see to the right here is one that Jack

Jack's Boat Seat

constructed all by himself! he bought a used Singer sewing machine in excellent shape for only $35. He had me test the machine before he bought it. He told me the only sewing instruction he ever had was when he was a teenager for about an hour. We bought the marine vinyl from Joann's in Champaign, as well as the thread. The padding we bought at our local LNS, where I purchased my sewing machine. Jack put the whole thing together by himself. The only thing I did was give him instructions on how to sew a curve so it wouldn't pucker. This will be the new back bench seat of our boat. The wood was in horrible shape on the ones that were in the boat. He plans on making two swivel bucket seats. one for the driver of the boat and the passenger next to the driver. He ordered the hardware for those seats today. Tomorrow afternoon, after our final membership class with our pastor, we will be going to Champaign to get the material.

Well that is all for now! Happy stitching, Everyone!

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