Vancouver -> Hawaii – Day 4
Haven’t I been on the ship forever?
No?
Well, obviously I have already settled into a routine. Easy Peasy – get up, find coffee, find enough light to stitch by. Set alarms so when there is some program or another than I want to listen to I don’t miss it.
In between there is visiting with friends, meeting the occasional interesting person. Ignoring “special luncheons” and heading back to the cabin by noon…
Today’s examples of conferences included the update on Long COVID out of UCSF (which you can now find on You Tube) and Lecture #2 in Maryland’s Cary Law Center on Health Care Law & Policy. There is something fun and wonderful about learning as a choice.
Otherwise – I put a few stitches here and there and now have Haunted Library completed through part 5.
which includes the Poe/Raven shelf as Part 4 and Dracula hanging upside down with his book as part 5.
on Deck 5, aka the Royal Promenade you can sit on a throne…
Zoom Services
In past years, when I was traveling over the High Holidays I had to make the decision as to whether or not I was going to seek out local services (and deal with questions, the occasional bit of hostility, and unfamiliar melodies) or just hang up the formal and do whatever on my own.
Then there was the Pandemic and the explosion of web-supported broadcasting. Not only did it premaritally change the face of continuing education for a lot of field, but smart religious organizations started broadcasting whatever day/time services. For travelers it was a great boon. For those who had been house bound before the pandemic, there were now options, windows open into the wider world. You could find something that matched both your beliefs and language, if not always in a convenient time zone.
Now, education on line is not a new thing – in terms of MOOCs (massive open on-line courses) as both EdEx and Coursera were on line when I started looking in 2011. Admittedly, the lectures were recorded, documents could be downloaded, and discussions were only kind of live. And distance learning from some universities and community colleges has been possible for years. And we all know that TV Evangelism has been a thing for decades.
But what has changed is interactive streaming technology. It isn’t just Zoom, but WebEx, GoToMeeting, (not Google Meet or Microsoft Teams – both can suck), RingCentral, Discord…. and the list goes on depending on your home language, location, and preference. Most people say “Zoom” no matter the actual software. Kind of like Xerox, Kleenex, Hoover, where names have escaped into general usage.
Anyway, this is all a preface to saying that the JSP (JewishStudioProject) in conjunction with the East Bay JCC (Jewish Community Center) held a fabulous set of services. No, it is not the same as davening in shul, but a wonderful alternative.
Otherwise, my sea day was spent quietly.
and the silly picture of the day?
Located forward on Deck 14 in the Portside corridor leading to the pool deck/Solarium.
Victoria, BC
As we pulled out of Vancouver almost three hours after our original planned departure – I started to wonder about our time in BC. There is an issue about tides, bridge heights and large ships which I was interested in seeing. But it was dark, except for green lights on that bridge and the ship sailed so quietly that I hardly noticed we were moving.
Our hours in Victoria, BC were to be ~ 0830 to 1700 give or take clearance, arrivals/gangways, and all-on-board times.
Jill, Graeme, and I left the ship shortly after 0900 and wandering slowly towards downtown. No big hurry since our destination didn’t open till 1000. Button and Needlework Boutique is right downtown.
There was a huge selection of knitting needles & yarn. A fair amount of crewelwork & embroidery. Some cross stitch patterns (mostly regional), the complete line of DMC floss and a scattering of the common overdid floss. I skipped the fabric section completely and bought one pattern for a present and two skeins of DMC 4090 which I had been completely unable to find in the US.
At this point, I was tired and started the ~ 3km back toward the ship, with stopping at a few tourist shops and some interesting sights.
in the harbor…
The B.C. Parliament Building
Various assorted plant sculptures which included this particular horse (called The Judge) in one of the hotel courtyards.
I passed the Fisherman’s Wharf both going and coming but knew better than to go exploring.
and finally, pretty wiped out for hiking under 5km, managed to get back to the ship.
And now the “final” comments for the day….
the next days will be at sea. What you are mostly going to get is ship exploration and the occasional silly picture
I may/may not bother with any of the formal activities: Example – tomorrow is the Top Tier Party at something silly like 1000. It also happens to land time-wise on top of Yom Kippur Services. Obvious my choice..
there will always be the stitching update. And maybe the book/audio book update.
Bonkers Mystery Stitch-a-Long. Part 2/2 by Barbara Ana.
For. those of you observing Yom Kippur – may your prayers be heard and your fast be light.
Vancouver to Hawaii
I would give you a picture of the route – but forgot to pull it prior to today – and of course it is not on any website anymore…
The ship is RCCL’s Quantum of the Seas. This is the ship that I received the free cruise on last July (2021) and sailed again to Alaska this past (?spring?). You can tell the mind is going – or at least that is my excuse. I like the ship, except for the size; too big. OTOH, it means that there is a lot of space in which to spread out and many choices for meals.
Ah – ship capacity is 4900. We are sailing with ~ 2900 so it could be worse. Apparently there aren’t all many senior status cruisers so they are letting us into the concierge lounge along with the suites passengers.
I survived the trip from the hotel (took Lyft rather than hiking 1.5 km hauling suitcase and back pack). Canada Place (the cruise terminal portion) was a total zoo. Three ships in port – none of the small – Quantum of the Seas, NCL Jewel, NCL Spirit. One NCL ship is headed to Alaska, the other on a similar route to ours.
So here we go…
Vancouver, BC, Canada7:00pm
Tuesday, October 4 Victoria, BC, Canada 8:00am 5:00pm
Wednesday, October 5 At Sea
Thursday, October 6 At Sea
Friday, October 7 At Sea
Saturday, October 8 At Sea
Sunday, October 9 At Sea
Monday, October 10 Lahaina, Maui, HI 7:00am
Tuesday, October 11 Lahaina, Maui, HI 10:00pm
Wednesday, October 12 Honolulu, Oahu, HI7:00am
Thursday, October 13 Honolulu, Oahu, HI
Disembark
Except that I am really not – since the next leg is bound for Australia.
Victoria is tomorrow, then I will do the usual trip commentary and some ship pictures to fill up at least some of my mental space on all of those sea days.
Off to the lounge and then to supper….
SFO-YVR
Ok, can anyone explain to me why Canada has all of its international airport codes starting with “Y”? In some cases the second letter relates to the airport city (V=Vancouver, O=Ottawa) but it is not consistent across the country in either French or English? Did they just come to the party late and take a code set at the end so as to be polite?
(and then I went and looked it up. It has to do with weather stations (Y=yes there is one) at airports, the IATA requiring 3 letter airport designations starting in the 1930s and the old two letter Morris Code designators. Didn’t have an airport? Then use your two letter code for your train station… as Edmonton did… (and a nice whole article is here).
None of that explains why this note is coming to you from Vancouver (my destination) rather than home or SFO (my originating airport). I am taking another one of what I am calling my rescheduled trips. In fall of 2020… you remember 2020? One of the years that wasn’t? I had been planning on taking several long haul cruises and just celebrating having survived 70 years.
Fast forward to 2022. I am a couple of years old, doubt any wiser, and was still interested in sailing back to Australia. There were a couple of choices. I wound up making it on price as much as time. While I would have loved to sail from the US/Canadian West coast across the Pacific to Japan, along the China Sea and to a serious number of island countries before landing in Australia it would have been 49 days and substantially into five digits as a solo traveler. Or RCCL for 29 days, a lot less money and traveling with friends. The second choice won.
So this will be around the world in 76 days (no, I didn’t count ’em – there is this lovely item called a Julian calendar). I am also going to keep track of transportation modes – in this case it was automobile from Berkeley to SFO, Air Canada from SFO to Vancouver and a Lyft to the hotel. I really thought about using public transportation. Seriously thought about it. Then I smartly decided that COVID recovery + luggage = fatigue and I should be smart.
Did I mention the luggage? Backpack with electronics – not light. Duffle bag with stitching, knitting, and some things for others. And a small rolling suitcase – one can not forget the clothing now can I? Staying at the Hampton Inn across the street from the Vancouver Whitecaps FC (Soccer for the US Types) stadium
and the skyline is shiny at night…
It has been a long, long
crawl up to feeling anything close to normal.
To summarize. I started to feel lousy on the flight. Dani kept looking at me and asking if I was doing ok. We had managed a two seat exit row so at least no one was stuck sitting directly next to me. Shall we discuss fever and shaking chills? I stayed masked the whole way home and headed upstairs to the spare room so that I wouldn’t expose George to the plague.
Home tests on Sunday were neg for COVID. I didn’t believe it, so called in and asked to be tested. After the usual discussions, George took me over to the Oakland VA who then asked me why I was there. “Because this is where the advice nurse from upstairs said to come. She said you would call them and they would send someone down….” 45 minutes later they finally had it figured out and I got swabbed.
No surprise, when I looked up my test on Tues morning it was positive. Then I had the fun discussion with the advice line nurse about the fact that I was fairly high risk and wanted Paxlovid. After going around about the fact that 24 hours after the + test did NOT mean 24 hours ill, I was more like 72 hours ill and needed to get things under control. At least we could pick it up from our local CVS and didn’t have to drive back to Oakland.
I actually don’t remember much of next three days except for a lot of coughing and feeling like crap. For anyone whose experience with COVID was mild disease, I find you extremely lucky. I don’t consider making it 2 ½ years without getting infected a matter of luck. I have been fully immunized and boosted (except for the most recent booster which wasn’t available prior to our trip). I wore a mask every where, all the time. So the only way I could have picked up COVID was from someone who was ill, shedding virus and not wearing a mask. And it would have had to have been in the Cafe area where we sat as far away from everyone as possible.
I am still pretty wiped out – and this is day 8. I am taking it easy. I am still disgusted about the whole thing. It has messed up my trip planning, my routine follow-up appointments that had been scheduled for this coming week and life in general.
Plus, I really want to sleep in my own bed…….
homeward Bound
Deciding that not much was going to be gained by hanging out on the ship till the very last minute, we had breakfast, double checked the room, and disembarked before 0900.
If you ever need to find it – there is a good designated share location at Pier 2 which was well signed with multiple passenger waiting areas, and less than 100 meters from the terminal. We caught a Lyft to the airport and hung out. Found iced coffee and hung out some more. As soon as we could, we cleared agricultural controls and dropped off our bags. The main portion of the terminal is/isn’t located inside.
Unlike on the way out, this flight was direct but was still going to get us in close to midnight. Five hours of flying time + three hours of time zone change ….. you get the idea. The good thing about a late Saturday arrival is that any activities scheduled for Sunday are personal choice and not driven by employment….
Na Pali Coastline
Apparently what grows in many of the location is ferns (not the bushes and scrub that I expect from home)
and watching the low lying clouds kept me entertained this morning. I chose not to go anywhere with the ship heading out at 1330.
Reminiscent of Alaska cruises, where cruising the coast line for the scenery is an important part of the cruise, we sailed north along the Kauai coast upon leaving the port.
Being as how we were on the “wrong” side of the ship, I just ignored the whole thing till Dani, who was hanging out on the balcony mentioned that the ship was turning and she could now “see ” things. With the coastline changing from lower areas
To sharply justting rock formations where the layers of rock were often clearly visible.
We packed this evening and will be leaving the ship in the morning with a quiet day prior to our afternoon flight home. The three hour time change will not be working in our favor this time..
Dreaming Deer is as complete as I can stitch her, missing two colors of floss –
and started the new Barbara Ana Mystery SAL called Bonkers….
Kaua’i
We sailed into harbor early enough this morning that there wasn’t much activity from either passengers on ship or those on land.
I love the colors reflected in the water and the play of cloud shadows on this small bit of island we passed on the way in.
I didn’t do much today, went off the ship, hiked part way to town – that is until I hit the first section that was without sidewalks. Yes, there were a lot of offers of taxis….but I was just looking to walk.
Dani was out on a hike –
and captured this shot of what was referred to as the only bear on the island. Personally, I thought the tree ate a dog which is still trying to escape.
I am about 3/4ths complete on the Deer Dreams. (Barbara Ana) which I started on Tues…
It is another overnight, then sail toward Honolulu tomorrow afternoon.
(A side note – where we are docked is about 3 miles from Lihue – and the airport where we changed planes on the way in….go figure
tenders
(not chicken or fish, but the use of a ship’s lifeboats to ferry passengers to/from shore at a port where there is either no good dock or a shallow bay).
I really don’t like tendering. It isn’t that I dislike the lifeboats per se. It is more than now, even more than over the last decade, that I don’t appreciate being crammed in with a bunch of strangers. Even when there is a nice, stiff breeze blowing through. The trip in this morning to Kailua-Kona was actually fairly smooth, all things considered. Much better, in fact, than the last time I was here.
Dani and I walked through a portion of the town, then up the hill to Kona Coffee & Tea where we met Aubrey
≈
she belongs to the owner of the coffee shop. Just over a year old, she was more than pleased to have someone adore her.
Post coffee and mint tea, both iced thank you very much, we walked back down the hill and through a number of shops which featured just about what you would expect of tourist goods. In the main ones, nothing was locally made. Dani noted signs to the local quilt shop which we found in a local center not off a main road.
There were patterns, fabrics, kits…. and for the non quilters – this apparently is also the local knitting shop
with a great selection of yarns, patterns, and notions. We actually spent a fair amount of time looking around. There was a quilt pattern that I really liked, but they were out of stock of both pattern and kits. I picked up two skeins of floss from the DMC carousel, a skirt pattern and was sorely tempted by a different quilt pattern as well.
After more wandering around – I headed back to the ship =
and enjoyed a quiet afternoon in the air conditioning. To quote the usual – it isn’t the heat, it is the humidity….
The last tender is due back right about now, then I think we are sailing out around 1800… We are using one of my two specialty restaurant vouchers tonight….
Showers and Sunblock
Before I forget, it can rain during the day. Not cold and blustery mind you, but at least here on Hilo, showers in the morning aren’t uncommon. So (fill in your name in addition to Marise, Mike, Graeme, Jill, etc) you might want to bring along an umbrella, poncho, or lightweight rain jacket if you plan on being out and about. The original plan for today – me hanging out and Dani on a hike and volcano sightseeing ran into a challenge yesterday. The tour guide had a vehicle breakdown and couldn’t locate an alternative. Result was that her trip was cancelled and we really didn’t see a good alternative.
So hiking into town it was. And off we went with the intermittent showers spotting my glasses, adding weight to our clothing, and squeaks to my sandals. If I had had any sense – I would have talked to the operator of the Hoppa-On, Hoppa-Off van that was hanging out in front of the terminal. In fact, it is the first thing I have seen that even remotely resembles the Hop-On, Hop-Off double deckers that seem to populate all major European Cities as well as tourist locations in the US (NYC, SF, etc).
As routes go, we exited the port and hung a left at the first street which ran all the way into Hilo. It was almost 3 miles into town (counting all the zigs and zags to stay with the sidewalks). Again, pedestrian crosswalks and signals at all the major intersections.
We found a fun little coffee shop – The Palace Grounds which opened less than a month ago at the former Axe Lounge after having to move from its previous location. Excellent coffee, chai, and a public restroom. From there it was out and about town, The “Farmer’s Market” looked to be more like a flea market and we skipped it. Of note in town – there is an excellent used book store called Bookbuyers, candy, toys, souvenirs.
Also of note is the Hilo Discovery Center located in an amazing historical building.
It just reopened in June. Upstairs an amazing art exhibit of what can be done with recycled trash.
There were also sections on the marine life from the area –
and the unmanned ocean monitoring systems –
Dani stayed in Hilo longer than I did, following signs about sugar cane juice and met Ziggy.
I walked back
noting ducks
canoes that hold 5-6
thinking about living somewhere with a high risk of tsunamis, volcanos, and the damage that can accompany both natural and man made disasters.
Chickens
It is probably well known by anyone who has come through most of the Hawaiian Islands that there seems to be an abundance of feral chickens. Yes, you read that correctly – there are chickens just about everywhere….
(taken by Dani yesterday)
This is our second day on Maui with nothing major planned. Dani and I just decided to head out and walk a bit. Stopped at the local drug store (Langs? Longs? Owned by CVS in anywise) for ibuprofen and extra sunblock before exploring further. We found a Mall – so coffee/tea – and iced in both cases, before continuing down the main road past the University of Hawaii – Maui branch. My goal was mostly exercise with a side order of quilt shop. This particular shop is a bit over 2 miles from the ship along a main road that actually had a sidewalk and walk signals at all the main intersections.
As one of those noticing things in the environment
these remind me of home where the warning is “drains into the Bay).
On the way back we stopped again at that particular shopping center. Dani located a “Friends of the Library” book store while I wandered into the local sewing shop to find that it was really quilting/fabrics/notions etc. The same shopping center was also home to a Ben Franklin Craft store. Yes, you read that correctly. I hadn’t been aware that anything survived from that particular chain.
With a total of almost 7 miles passing beneath our feet, we headed back to the ship –
I finished all but 45 stitches on Chapter 3 of the Haunted Library (two additional colors not with me) which turned out from last night and this afternoon to be about 1600 stitches to complete the arches…
September 11th
Nine o’clock in the morning was 1500 and getting toward the end of the duty day in Europe, that day 21 years ago.
Children who hadn’t yet been born that fall are now adults. We have built memorials, fractured our country, changed laws, abridged human rights, and mourned the loss of family, friends, and colleagues.
It seems both so long ago and yet just yesterday to me although I have moved multiple times since then, changed jobs, retired from the military, gone back to grad school, traveled over much of the world. As I look out over the harbor of Kahului on the island of Maui everything seems quiet and distant.
The ship held a memorial service at 0900. I didn’t attend, but rewatched Exhibit 13 ….
Pride of America
which is the only ship NCL has flagged in the US.
This is our route & times
Saturday September 10. Honolulu, Oahu, HI departing 7:00pm
Sunday, September 11. Kahului, Maui, HI. 8:00am arrival
Monday, September 12. Kahului, Maui, HI 6:00pm departure
Tuesday, September 13 Hilo, Hawaii, HI. 8:00am-6:00pm
Wednesday, September 14 Kona, Hawaii HI. 7:00am-5:30pm
Thursday, September 15 Nawiliwili, Kauai, HI. 8:00am arrival
Friday, September 16. Nawiliwili Kauai, HI. 2:00pm departure
Saturday, September 17 Honolulu, Oahu, HI. 7:00am
We have a simple, clean and relatively comfortable balcony cabin on Deck 8.
Right now the view is only that of Pier2 Cruise Terminal which is completely boring. Of course, there are clouds, a mountain or so, and shiny high rise buildings downtown.
I am contemplating a nap since I woke up fairly early. On PDT, not local Hawaiian time…
New Cruise new start (hey, there had to be some fiber somewhere in the post)
September Quaker by From the Heart NeedleArt – 16 ct PTP Legacy Aida and the three called for specialty flosses….
That is a lot of water
Home to BART (via Peet’s for an early morning caffeine fix) to Coliseum station to monorail to OAKLAND Airport.
(break – rewriting what was obviously lost on a failure to save before an unexpected re-boot)
And we were through security and hanging out near the gate by 0730. Thanks to both George who got us to BART and the lovely woman at the check-in counter who suggested that since we were flying out of Gate 6, it would be smarter and faster just to go through security in Terminal 1. And she was certainly right. There are moreates to Terminal 2 and almost all of the Southwest Airline flights go out of Terminal 2. Also, since they are the largest airline at this particular airport, security for that terminal can be a real pain.
And why Oakland? 1) faster to get there on BART 2) cheaper flight + free checked luggage. Leaving aside the whole mess with Booking.com – their failure to properly rebook flights, transfer funds, etc – I would just rather not have to travel across the bay if it can be avoided. Europe or Asia? Ok that makes sense. But Hawaii? Southwest Airlines offered a good choice of price, times, and flights.
But back to the water – from Oakland you fly west and a bit south. The Pacific Ocean counts as large. There is a lot of water. And clouds, so most of the time you can’t see much of anything. In fact the only time it was clear that something else was out there –
was on the hazy approach to Lihue Airport where we had a plane change.
Some times I am completely in awe of all the Pacific Islanders who spread across the Ocean, found and settled on all those scattered islands….
Coming into Oahu
it was more of the clouds, water and steeply rising land.
We caught a Lyft to our hotel. Entertainment while we were waiting was this little character –
who was a lot smaller than most of the flying rats that hang out in my area. His body wasn’t even 10 cm long. But more than willing to peck up a smashed pretzel with that sharp little beak.
Too many projects
and likely nowhere near enough time in which to complete them all. , After all, I am only packing for a week, not a month, year, or the rest of my natural life. Two projects make sense – they have weekly releases on Fridays so bringing them along means that I may not fall too badly behind. Another is one of those “new cruise, new start” type ideas.
Oh, that is right – I forgot to mention it. Dani and I leave tomorrow for Hawaii for a week on NCL’s Pride of America. This is a reschedule of a reschedule: our original planned cruise was on the NCL Jewel as she repositioned from Hawaii to Seattle in April 2020. Obviously that didn’t happen. Our next attempt was this past January to just go around the islands. Cancelled a month out in Dec. So three times is the charm? We are flying Southwest Airlines both ways. A plan change on an additional island seemed like a small inconvenience when balanced against free suitcase and flying out of Oakland.
Anyway, I am planning on relaxing on the balcony and otherwise finishing up the last hours of CME that I need for renewing my license. Oh, and stitching. Also in my plans. I have signed Dani up for hikes on three islands so hopefully she will see waterfalls, volcano basins and other sites while avoiding injury or sunburn.
The next week might proved to be a bit more interesting than the last five weeks (which I haven’t bothered to send out most days). And pictures, hopefully those will upload decently. I am also desperately hoping that most under 16s are back in school….
otherwise – laundry, a bit of organizing and ~780 stitches more into StitchyWitch (Tiny Modernist)
Virtual Cons
ChiCon 8 starts today ( or mostly tomorrow).
Obviously, it is in Chicago. What is just as obvious is that I am not there. Attending in person this year felt like it was insurmountable. I attend Cons for the people and actually spend more time volunteering than actually going to panels, presentations, readings, or programing. I just couldn’t see spending the money at this point considering that I elected to attend cross-stitch retreats this summer and am headed on ship this fall (more about that later next month).
The platform ChiCon is using is called Airmeet and from my early interaction with it today – it actually works. Some of the programing is live, some panels are runniZng virtually. All the panels, as well as the readings by authors apparently are going to be recorded and available for replay.
The filk room, unfortunately, is not on the list. I can understand – it takes a lot of tech support and that issn’t something that most Cons have at the needed level. Not when it is a non-commercial Con.
In other hobbies:
I finished the following cross-stitches this month – Haunted Library prequel & Chapter 1 (Lola Crow’s SAL), Virgo, Libra & Scorpio (Zodiac Girls), Zombie, Jinn & Angel (WitchyStitchers Supernatural SAL), Sailing Dreams (Barbara Ana), and LongDog – Entré Chien et Loup.
Oh – yes – and Cottage Garden Samplings Barn Owl – found that last color hiding from me and finished those last 87 stitches.
rather productive month.
Did some cleaning – still have project bags and scroll rod covers to complete.
World Cross Stitch Day
Its a thing. Who knew? I certainly didn’t know until I heard it mentioned on a couple of YouTalube channels.
So – just like all the other days this week – I decided to do some cross stitching in honor of…. no really, I was stitching because it is so much more enjoyable than cleaning, organizing, or going to the post office.
So – here is the next entry in Witchy Stitcher’s Supernatural SAL – the Jinn. Of which I have started the frame
and the Barn Owl – with another 1000 or so stitches. Almost ½ way…
and the photos (which didn’t want to load – finally got added on the 13th.
phones, zoom, stitching
It looks like Thursday is going to turn into my socialization day. Or conference day. But with stitching.
I have had one standing Thursday night call for ? maybe a year? with a friend who lives in the middle of nowhere northern Idaho. One of those lovely, nature filled places with peace, quiet, and limited internet which arrives via Satellite. Now, if you travel in a lot of countries other than the US/Canada/UK/OZ, the idea of limited internet is par for the course. Out in the middle of nowhere means that you pay a much higher fee than those of us living in developed world major metro areas. Life continually on your phone isn’t an option when there is no cell phone coverage…
Anyway – I am adding in a call with a colleague from UC Hastings. She is working on legislation monitoring for health care and public health. I am not sure I want to volunteer for any heavy lifting for any alumni association/affiliation groups – but I am more than willing to be a sounding board.
Then there is the standing UCSF Thursday Grand Rounds for which I can get free CME. This is a good deal. Apparently there has been enough interest that it will stay in hybrid mode for the foreseeable future.
And now I will add a Zoom in with a fellow stitcher who lives in Florida giving me a couple of chances to chat, stitch, and generally socialize.
Not counting all the evenings I spend overlapping with Jill in Australia over FaceTime.
I am really not sure how I managed to get anything craft wise done in all those years I was working full type. Deployed time? Yes, but home? Maybe that is why I have so much “stuff.” All things I got to use “later.”
I finished From the Hearts January Mini Sampler. – I have finally tracked down all 12 months and will be stitching them on the same piece of 18 ct. Aida from someone.
Then, I added 600+ stitches to the Spangler Dragonling
before shifting back to the BarnOwl. This will be the last of this series I am stitching till the next three are out so I know in what order I want to stitch them.
Haunted Library – Prologue
And all 5000+ stitches of the Prologue to Lola Crow’s Haunted Library SAL have been completed…
This is where I started
and it was 1046 stitches to finish this section.
you can’t seem them easily, but there are one stitch orange flames on the top of each and every candle… plus books, skulls & a skeleton cat…