I'm back...

Wow has it been over a month since I last posted!! I have no clue as to where the time went... lots of things have gone on but nothing all that exicting that was really blog worthy...

Anyways, I'm back, and hopefully now healthy as well - was sick for the most of the time I was gone, nothing serious but I'm hopefully back to 100% again!

There was a Hungarian Folk Dance festival held here last weekend - it was our Thanksgiving long weekend, and we had a great time - the organizers did a wonderful job, and it was so good to see so many old friends again! The dancing was great too - though I did more watching than dancing! We may have to remedy that in the future! There are some pictures that you can see here: Festival pictures and I'm sure there will be more to come. We took some pictures but not many as we still have a fairly new camera and are still trying to figure out how to take good pictures with it!

I managed to help out a bit with the festival as well - they asked me to stitch the "participation banners" for each of the groups and 4 gifts for the instructors and band from Hungary. Here they are:

The pictures are not the best quality, but we're working on that one! You can see the 15 of the participating groups, then the pillows for the instructors and band from Hungary, and then the two host group banners - which I only sadly finished yesterday - a little late... I don't have any pictures of the finished product, as they were sewn into banners in the shape of Alberta (our province) and looked fantastic when completely done. As soon as I can get my hands on one of those photos, I'll post it.

On to other stitching news...On one of the message boards that I visit, they are doing a project finishing challenge, and ever since I read about it, I've been thinking about joining, and I finally decided that yes I am going to do it! I'm going to be doing the 50 project challenge, and I know that sounds like a lot, but since the "official" challenge started on September 1, all finishes after that date count, so I'm including my festival finishes, all 21 of them, so I'm already literally almost half way there! I'm not going to list any actual projects that I want to get done, becuase knowing myself, as soon as I list them down, I won't want to work on them! But they will all be from my already existing stash... here are the "rules" from The Wagon:

Purpose of the challenge: to reduce the amount of patterns you have not stitched. This challenge can also be applied to other areas of you stash if you wish (please post your personal modification).

The Rules:
1. Have fun reducing your stash.
2. There is no time limit- people have different size projects they would like to work on.
3. Thou shall not purchase any new patterns until 10, 25, or 50 projects have been stitched. Pattern size does not matter. WIPs and UFOs finishes count.
4. This challenge can also apply to knitting, beading, sewing and crocheting patterns.
5. You can make some exemptions - I am not placing limitations on this due to commitments that people might already have. Remember, though, the goal of this challenge is to reduce stash so too many exemptions will sabotage these efforts. I have declared three exemptions.
6. Gifts, gift cards, trades, RAKs and patterns bought with gift money are not a violation of this challenge. Patterns bought to make gifts for someone else are also exempt.
7. Freebies count as part of your total and you can aquire them at any point.
8. You do not have to declare the projects you intend to work on. (If listing would make you feel better please do so)
9. The offical start date of this challenge was Sept 1, 2006 since I have been posting about it for awhile and want to make sure the everyone's projects have been included. All projects finished on or after this date count for the challenge. Example: you have been working TW's Peacock Tapestry for the past 36 months and you finally finished it on Sept. 12th... it counts as part of your total for the challenge.

My exemptions are as follows: ordering from Sugar Maple Fabrics - I have to use up my club card discounts by Dec 21, 2006, any floss, beads, treasures needed to finish up the projects, my automatic from the Silver Needle (its almost over), and one shopping spree for my birthday - though my birthday has passed (earlier last week) I haven't been shopping yet!

Anyways, I'm off to stitch, becuase even though I'm at "21 projects done" that total of 50 is still a long way away!