Next!

Yesterday I had to run errands for work. On my way back to the office I heard strange noises coming from the back of the car. It sounded like the muffler was dragging, but I had it replace just a few years ago so I knew it wasn't that. I stopped a couple of times to try and figure out what was going on. I thought I would just head back to work and ask one of the fellow I work with what he thought. As I was heading back, the noise changed and then stopped. I looked in my rear view mirror and I had left something on the street. I stopped the car, walked back to the item, and picked it up.

The fellow at work said it was a heat shield and was no big deal. Whew!!!

Here is the next shirt I am working on.

Here is what it looks like now after 3 1/2 hours of stitching last night and about 15 minutes this morning.

I bet you will be glad when I can post about a new project! This one seems never ending!

I did go and buy gas for the mower, but the mower didn't make it out of the garage last evening. Maybe tonight.

I think I will be off work tomorrow for an extra day to stitch. I hope to make great progress. Have a great weekend!

Another one done!

I gave myself a bit of a cheer getting another shirt done last evening! Here is the finished shirt

I was planning on doing something more with the border, but once I was 3/4 done with it, I liked the simplicity of it and the variegated thread added the right amount of interest. The border on the adjoining shirt to the top of this shirt is busy so the simple border doesn't compete with it.

I now have 8 1/2 shirts left to do in 23 days which comes to still 2 3/4 days per shirt. At least I am staying steady at 2 3/4 days.

Movie night

Did you think I just watched movies and not stitch? LOL! No, I did both at the same time. I had two DVD's I needed to watch and get back to the library before they were overdue, so I set up the laptop and off I went - a double feature! I thought the acting was very good in both movies and both were interesting stories. I had no idea that The Danish Girl was about a man becoming a woman, but the journey he took was interesting.

Now to the stitching. I got the rest of the lettering done on the Powerage shirt and most of the stitching around the head of Angus.

Tonight I will be finishing Angus's head, putting on the date, and working on the border. I don't know if I can get this shirt finished tonight, but I am sure going to try.

It will be ok

That is what I keep telling myself. I managed to get the Rock or Bust shirt done
Before

After

I had worked on it while I sat at the merch booth at Michael's show on Saturday. The heat index was 107 which made it hard to stitch while the sweat was dripping off my brow. There was a great crowd

Michael did his best to entertain them. Here he is standing on top of a picnic table.

I finished the Rock or Bust shirt on Sunday morning and then while watching the TDF I started on this shirt.

It now looks like this

Now the schedule - I have the area of 10 shirts done and have 9 to go. I have 25 days to the deadline which gives me 2.77 days for each of the remaining shirts. Humm ... I think I need to stitch faster!

Now it is time for me to bash DISH network again. The TDF was in it's last 45 minutes and the riders were on the Champs-Elysees and guess what happened?

This is the second year in a row that I have been watching the end of this three week race and the stupid satellite goes out!!! In a panic I called my brother and he was going to record it for me. He went to lunch with his family. When he got home he called me and said their power went out so no race. What do I have to do to see the end of this race! I went back to see the rebroadcast that started at 8PM, but it was NASCAR. Why won't the universe let me see the end of the race? I know who the winners are since the stupid satellite came back on and they were handing out awards, but there it nothing like watching 168 men riding bicycles as fast as they can over the cobbled streets of Paris. I taped the rebroadcast at 11:30 to 3 am so lets hope there is something on that tape. In the meantime Peter Sagan won the green jersey for the 5th year in a row

They didn't show Chris Froome get his yellow jersey live or any of the trophies he gets, they didn't show the polka dot jersey getting his awards, or the winners of the team competition. Didn't get to see Froome's speech. Why not? NASCAR.

Bike racing gets no respect.

Another one done!

Between laundry and many phone calls again I managed to get that 2012 shirt done. But I did go and add more stitching to the AC/DC. No, I could not leave well enough alone. I just though the letter were a bit underwhelming so I added another row of backstitching in a dark orange and I think it looks so much better!

Here is what the shirt looked like with no stitching

And here is what it looks like now

I now have 8 1/2 shirts done with 10.5 to go. I have 29 days left to get it done. I am not panicked yet, but then I still have the Harley t-shirt quilt to machine quilt and bind. Oh my.

All most done

I had a busy evening with many phone calls so only one load of laundry done, no mowing, and a bit of stitching.

What I did get done was putting on the date and over half of the outlining in orange done. I am just using a running stitch or hand quilting around and some of the details in Angus Young's picture. I still need to quilt around his hands and the rest of his hat. So the stitching on this shirt is almost done.

Oh yeah!

I hit the stitching hard last evening while watching the TDF stage that I taped. I finished stitching around the AC/DC and I got the border done!

If I focus really hard tonight maybe I can get this shirt done. I need to add the date and add some stitching around the figure and background. When I left work yesterday the car thermostat read 102 degrees!

It is not suppose to be as hot today so maybe I will break down and mow at least the front yard. The tour has a rest day today so I won't have to worry about watching that. I did some dishes this morning and only have a couple things left so that won't take too much of my evening up. I can do laundry between stitching and mowing.

Peter Sagan won yesterdays stage by 3/4 of an inch - yes it was that close! He also still is wearing the green jersey. I know the pictures are terrible. I took them with my iPhone from the VCR tape, but it is what it is. Have a great day!

What I got done

Friday my nephew's band played from 5 to 7. It was hot! That is the weather and the music! The sun was right in the band's face, but they powered thru and gave a great show. I, of course, manned the merchandise booth. I sold quite a bit of stuff.

I got home about 9 and I was fried. I was so tired that on Saturday I didn't even get dressed until about 7 just so I could get the mail. I spent the day watching the Tour de France (TDF) and the Cleveland Indians while I stitched.

Sunday was more TDF and a bit more Indians. I had an appointment at 4 so I left the house about 2:50 and got back about 6:10, but the amount of stitching I got done over the weekend was good! I got the Stiff upper lip front and back done! The border stitching took about 6 or 7 hours and I had to use the pliers to pull the needle thru most of the time. I like the way it turned out though.

I got started on another shirt. Here is the shirt before any stitching

The stitching - yes, I used a pale green color so there is not a lot of contrast. I plan on jazzing up the block with a brighter color for the border

I figured I am about 39% done with the embroidery now which is 7 1/2 shirts out of 19. I have 32 days to get this done so that comes to allotting 2.75 days per shirt. I need to stitch faster! Yikes!

I was asked by Glen of quiltswissy about how the back looks and whether my stitches go thru the back. Well here are some shots of the back. Yes, my stitching goes thru the back much of the time. I like the way it looks.

Here are some shots of the mountain the riders climbed yesterday. It makes me tired just watching those guys!.

In the third picture to the lower right is where the riders were and they are headed over to the area on the upper left where the mountain has been carved out for the road. I can't believe they have been riding for two weeks and there is only one more week to go. It has gone by quickly!

More great progress

Despite a few interruptions last evening - cooking and phone calls - I made progress on the current shirt I am stitching.

Here is the front of the t-shirt and the back which I am working on just so you get an idea of what section I am working on.

The tour ended in chaos yesterday. Today should be a bit more controlled since it is the Individual time trial. Peter is still in green!

Have a great weekend. I am going to try and stay home as much as possible to work on the AC/DC piece. Maybe by Monday I will have a better idea of my overall progress.