You gotta know when to fold 'em...

Ok, love that song. Kenny Rogers is a genius.

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,

Know when to walk away and know when to run.

You never count your money when you're sittin at the table.

There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

And now that the song is stuck in your head, I'll tell you why it's stuck in mine. A couple of months ago, I started a Band Sampler by Long Dog that was in The Gift Of Stitching magazine. The only picture available was a computer generated image of the finished piece. I thought it was lovely, so I got together the colors and some lovely Ivory linen (love the ivory--such a pretty color), and started it. It went great until I got to the last two colors of the first band. Then the colors got all weird. Firstly, it started off with these pretty, soft colors, and then all of a sudden, there was this bright weird pink and then BLACK. It was so odd.

I finished the first band anyway, and started the second, but those colors still bothered me. So I put it aside. I went back and looked at it from time to time, but no matter what, those colors are just odd to me. I posted a query on the Wagon BB about it, and the extremely helpful ladies there sent me this link:

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2929622660046422900gbDDJw

This is a picture of the finished piece that someone did. She did a lovely job, that's a definite, but those colors just don't "sit well" with me, so I give up on this piece. That's why I know when to fold 'em. I am folding on this piece. It's not a total loss, though, I don't like the bands I did, but I do happen to like the 5th, 6th, and 9th bands, so I may at some time stitch them and make them into something. And I may find use for that 1st band somewhere, too. But the rest I won't do. I will take my lovely Ivory linen and use it elsewhere.

In other news, I've been sewing up a storm. It's gotten cool here (finally), and it makes me just want to sit down in front of my sewing machine and sew and sew. I have gotten two things done: one is SB Wish, which I stitched a while ago, but I finally made into something. I chose a pillow, and here it is:

I think it came out really nicely. It's just a simple pillow, but the fabrics work really nicely together. I am very pleased with it.

And other things I am very pleased with, I used some of those homespuns I bought to make some pumpkins.

Ok, that's just one pumpkin, photographed twice. But I made three, they are all a little different, and I am very pleased with them. They made up very quickly. I think I may make some more today. I am going to try to figure out how to make a tall one, for some variety. If I do figure it out, I will post a picture. I was also going to make a cat from that pattern I bought the other day. I'll post a picture of that, too! Well, better get crackin'.

In closing, is there anything better than a warm kitten on your lap on a cold, rainy day? I don't think so.

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog. I always appreciate it so much!