Whoops! Where did May go?

Well, I finally looked at the calendar today and did a double take. What the heck happened to May? I'm sure I had at least another week left!

It's been a terrifically busy couple of weeks for me - mostly with kid stuff. DS#1 had a class trip (which was fun, but hot!) and we also had a meeting regarding his middle school placement. After much tooth-gnashing, brow-beating and frustration, I've managed to get him into a contained gifted program for the next 3 years. It hasn't been simple and I've had to wade through an enormous amount of political school crap to get here. At least it's over!

This week it's the school's Jump Rope for Heart event and somehow I managed to get myself put in charge of the volunteers and freezies for the kids. I'm lucky that there are so many willing helpers around the school so things will go well. Now we just need to get the weather to co-operate. It's gotten downright cold here today and we've had a couple of downpours already this morning and it's barely 10AM! I'll likely have to bring in my hanging baskets and plants tonight as they're calling for frost. In June. I can't believe it. I'm not sure if I can remember ever having frost in June here where I am.

Stitch-wise, I haven't had a heck of a lot of time to stitch this last week. I proofread a fantastic Canadian needlework magazine called "A Needle Pulling Thread" (there's a link to ANPT's website in my sidebar over there). I had to proof the summer issue last week and it took up a good chunk of time. I so enjoy this magazine and it's a joy to be the proofreader for it. Every issue gets better and better. The summer issue is fascinating! Go buy it once it hits newsstands! :-)

I have worked on the models some more in the last couple of weeks and I have started a little piece that I'll finish into a flat fold for DS#2's teacher. I'm stitching a piece called "School Treats" by the Trilogy. I found it as a kit at my LNS. It's all stitched with WDW and GAST fibres and it very sweet. It's going very quickly too as it's a lot of blocks of one colour. (sorry it's not the best photo - it's so wet and dreary here today that there's no good light to be had!)

School Treats Copyright © The Trilogy

I'm behind on SBQ's as well. Here's last week's:

How many needles do you use during a project? Have you ever loaded up a needle for every color? Do you use a new needle for every project or recycle your favorite needle?

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For the most part, it depends. Most often I will only use one needle. I love Piecemaker needles (preferably their 26s) and have a good number of those in my stash. My couch gets hungry and must periodically be fed needles, so I keep lots about. If I have a project that has a lot of confetti stitching, then I will thread up some needles with a variety of colours. It helps things go faster so that I'm not constantly re-threading a needle. One of the current models I'm working on was giving me fits and I found I was having trouble working on it. Then I got out my magnetic needle card (the one that LoRan makes), threaded up a bunch of the colours that were driving me mad and off I went. I am lusting after the Pako needle organizer thing, but I'm not sure if I'll buy it or not. I don't know that I'd ever have that many needles threaded up all at once! I finished 3 entire pages of the model in record time after that. I do throw out needles if they've lost their finish or are just icky to stitch with. If one has an eye that keeps shredding fibres it's instantly tossed.

Well, off to stitch - have to head into school soon to work with my little Grade 1's with their reading!