Treat for myself

LOL - I find that announcing here makes me actually work more effectively on the WIP or UFO.

Good for you. My big K's stand is collapsed, in the box, and somewhere in a storage room. Hence, an excuse for another year that the NP stocking may not get done. OTOH, you might inspire me to find it and set it up. My Baby Z frame has been getting a workout - carting it around the house as I sit cross-legged in bed, the sofa, etc with it in my lap and stitch.

Hope your upper-back pain, etc is bettter. The stand should help with your posture. A couple of different stitching sites have information on "healthy stitching" exercises to take a break and help you avoid strain and fatigue. I've seen a bunch of quilters that get this little harness kind of thing that's essentially a small weight bag (sand?) that hangs between the shoulder blades on the back. Has straps that your arms go thru, and I expect helps to keep the shoulders back, prevent you from getting hunched over. Seems like a good idea.

I can't stitch in the car - unless it's NP - and then it depends. But, I can knit and do a lot of larger needle scarves then.

Have fun with your treat.

ellice

We got a new sleeper-sofa from L.L.Bean a few weeks ago (shoot, it was probably over a month ago) & so my old-stitching-chair is now a reading chair in my office (I run my own business from home) AND therefore I inherited the "most often sitting in" status for DH's heavy oak Morris Chair. It's large enough for me to cross my legs & sit just about anyway I want. If I put the back on the center setting, there's ample room and on the most-upright setting, it's still long enough for my long-ish thighs.

My body's beginning to tell me that things I could do in my 20s and 30s aren't going to be as easy or likely in my 40s (that's okay, I'm happy with my 40s so far -- my only b*tch -- night sweats, they've been going on for nearly 7 years but seem to have gotten worse in the last few months). Consistent yoga & stretching really make a difference, my biggest impediment -- laziness -- after about 1 week DH and I feel so great, we slack off or go on a trip and slack off. This weekend we had a big talk with each other -- we know that it makes us feel better (sigly better) and we know that if we slack off for even 2 days we lose flexibility -- time to just accept it -- gotta take certain supplements & vitamins every day AND gotta do that exercise every day.

I used to be able to cross-stitch on 36-ct LINEN in the car. NOW, I don't even consider stitching on linen in the car. 16-ct is about as tiny as I'm comfortable with. I even decided to do a cross-stitch design (Marty Bell's Rocky Mountain Christmas) on needlepoint canvas so that the holes would be easier to hit! Now I just have to better engineer a way to keep up with lots of floss colors while in the car -- although in the next year or so I may be getting a rather unorthodox solution -- a SUV or minivan (not for kids, but for Dear Aunt age 74 getting to the point where we're considering her traveling with us and the likelihood that she's going to need a scooter at some point -- therefore, a large vehicle).

With the stand, I can get some stitching accomplished more quickly w/

EG

First - where are you? LLB has some great stuff don't they

And I get my Dad's Morris chair in the fullness of time!

Cheryl

We live in N Indiana right now. The Morris chair was purchased from one of the "local" Amish furniture stores/makers -- the color of the oak was a tiny bit off & the color of the leather wasn't in much demand -- so DH got the chair at a discount.

The sleeper sofa ain't bad for what we paid for it. For over 2 yrs we haven't had any way to sit next to each other while watching TV (unless we were sitting on the bed in a hotel room)... We decided to go for simple and quick. The cushions were REALLY firm the first week or so, they now have softer spots from our rear-ends -- but it's still adequate. Totally a web-site & catalog order (although one that was discussed a great deal over quite a time period).

I'm still plugging away at that lit summ -- I know I can get it done TODAY! EG