This picture of my new "ort" jar for the Totally Useless SAL, which began a new cycle this Saturday. I could lie and tell you that I'm stitching with invisible thread, then make you a pretty dress with it and make you wear it in a parade. But that would be mean.
Thanks to everyone for all of your help with my red silk problem. This was my first big project with silk, and I've learned a couple valuable lessons.
I'm going to start making U-turns on the back from here on in when I finish the threads. I had started going through a couple of threads, then kind of looping twice around one thread and going through a couple more, but doing the u-turn thing makes more sense.
Also, just to be clear, these aren't hand-dyed silks. It's just Au Ver a Soie (soie d'alger) 7-ply silk, #4624, that I purchased back in August 2006. SO - the comment from Yoyo could be dead on - that maybe humidity got to the bag. After all, I bought it in 2006 and we didn't have air conditioning till 2008, so it's entirely possible that some moisture crept into that little bag.
Sadly, the shop that ordered the thread for me has gone out of business in the past year. I used to shop locally at The Needle Nook in Ligonier PA, and I know they would have helped me with this. They were such wonderful resources and nice people.
Well, I don't mean to kvetch too much over this. It would probably be a big help if I would just stitch a little faster! Or maybe a lot faster.
First of all, thanks to all of you fabulous blog friends who left me such sweet comments about my daughter's pictures! I know that I've gone on and on about my kids in this blog, and perhaps that wasn't why you visited originally, but you've all been so very wonderful with your advice and compliments and Jeez...Surely you all know that the quickest way to a mother's heart is to say nice things about her children. So I'll tell you now that I'll love you all forevah and evah.
Well, I finally finished the top row of large alphabet letters in Tree of Life. Now I can work my way down the left side of the sampler. I can feel it....It's going to be finished this year! I'd like to take a break, but I'm worried about leaving it on the scroll rods for very long.
Here's why - I opened my last large skein of dark red silk, and it had stained the plastic thread drop in the package. So I'm a little worried that this silk may bleed onto anything it comes into contact with if it's touching it for too long - including its own self in this sampler. What do you think? Am I right to worry about that? Or am I being paranoid?
Oh, and here's another question. The very first stitches that I put into this design were in the top, light red, border. I used my usual anchoring technique when I finished each thread. Nothing special. Just ran it under a few stitches and cut it fairly short. WELL. Now those stitches are fuzzy and starting to come out. I don't know what to do except to pick them out and re-stitch the areas. Grrr. It's frustrating. Do any of you use any special techniques for ending your silk threads?
OK, now I'll stop griping and show you a picture of its hugeness. Those are my stork scissors in the middle, to give you an idea of its gigantorness:
So - in other things around the O'Neil house, Dave and I went to another Mountain Stage taping this Wednesday. It was a special program because Neko Case was going to play, and although she's not my favorite singer, Dave really likes her music, so we went. It was in Charleston WV, at their Civic Center. Neko Case was...well, she was okay. She was acting kind of weird, though. Started one song three times and still couldn't get it right, so she just gave up. And she re-sang another song that she had done earlier, because she said it was too slow the first time. Truthfully, it sounded exactly the same as when she sang it the first time.
But here's what bothered me more than anything else. We've been to lots of Mountain Stage tapings, and I have to say that every single performer has been pretty great. Famous or not-so-famous, they come to Mountain Stage and they seem happy to be there and appreciative of the live audience. Neko Case was neither of those things. In fact, they (she and her accompanying singer) kept doing this little curtsy move and saying that they felt like they were in a 5th grade talent show. It was insulting to both the audience and the radio show.
Maybe she was on drugs or something. People act strangely when they're on drugs. Even very gifted and talented people.
Ahhh, but as usual, Mountain Stage always gives us a surprise musical act that makes you sit back in your seat and say, "Wow, that was incredible!" Wednesday night's WOW moment was a group from Southern California called Sonos, an all-vocal group that was fabulous. High energy, amazing talent. They only have an Itunes EP available right now, but I sure hope they produce more. So watch these!
Now I'm going to end this too long post, but remind me to ask you next time about Leashes for Little Kids.
I should have known that once we were into track season, April would go by in a flash. And I imagine that May will go by even faster, with so many things to do as both kids finish their school year. Besides finishing all of her high school academic things, like taking AP exams and attending awards banquets, Colleen will still have three track meets to run, including one invitational and two WPIAL meets. John's college hosts a big invitational early in May, and we'll be there to move him out of his dorm and catch the meet at the same time. He should be running the 3000M steeplechase again.
Once John's home, I think it's going to be kind of hectic as we try to prepare him for his summer in California. But I can't talk about that right now. Even just thinking about it makes me too nervous.
We finally got Colleen's senior pictures. I was probably the last mother in Western PA to order them. It's so hard to choose, but I think we put together a nice package that kind of tells Colleen's story. Yes girls, it's another post from me with zero stitching content. I've put a few stitches into Tree of Life, but not enough to be photo-worthy. Oh my - it occurs to me that I have two exchanges coming up soon, and they have to be fully finished by June 1. Yikes! Looks like I'll be taking some stitching to a couple of track meets....
Meanwhile though, I've seen some neat posts on fabric dying. This one was kind of neat. Her focus is more on dying cottons for quilts, but there were some nice examples of dyed linen.
No - not the folk/pop duo. Just me, sitting around getting teary-eyed all day.
Today is Senior day for high school track, and it's going to be a struggle to walk down that 50 yard line without sniffling like a baby.
Won't the photos be lovely if I'm all red-nosed and squinty-eyed?
Once again, I don't have anything to show you. But I came across this through another blog, and if some of you were Girl Scouts, you may remember some of these. I think it's kind of funny. I hated needlework (and particularly sewing) when I was a kid, so these were my least favorite badges to earn. I liked outdoor cooking and hiking much more...
There isn't much to write about this week. Easter was wonderful. I cooked breakfast (that's a shocker...I'm NOT a breakfast cook). Went to mass. Then we had a nice little family dinner early in the day. Visited with the older rels later in the day.
I'm pretty busy this week. Three high school track meets, including Senior night on Thursday. And there's a junior high meet today, so I'll go work in the concession stand. We sell a lot of stuff at these junior high meets...even more than during the high school meets. Those kids are bottomless pits.
I don't have any stitching to show today. I got some fabulous fabric in the mail from Julie, who went to the grand opening of Picture This Plus a couple of weeks ago. Ooooooh, it's wonderful. And you know how I get distracted by shiny objects. Okay, so, I had this idea for it right away, and I've been stitching away, but it's for a contest on Anna's blog and I can't show it to you. I'm telling you - it's torture.
Several days ago we had some crazy weather, and as we were looking out the front windows early one morning, here's what we saw:
And I thought of that yesterday morning while I was listening to an interesting essay on my MP3 player. You can find it here, on Radio Lab. I thought it was a fascinating essay on hope, but you may see it differently. Give it a listen if you have 20 minutes or so to spare.
I've been walking much more than running these days. For running, I prefer to listen to music, but when I walk, I like listening to stories and radio shows. I get so deep in thought that the walk goes by super-fast. And sometimes I'm out on the road, laughing like a maniac.
I think Donna brought up that she had been dreaming about stitching recently. This is so odd, because I've never had a stitching dream, and now I had one last night. I was dreaming that I was stitching Tree of Life and looked down and it was almost done. I was so surprised and happy.
Well, I woke up this morning and had no recollection of the dream...until I walked by the chair where Tree of Life is sitting (yes, it's so big it has its own chair) and I wondered why it wasn't done yet. Then came the slow realization that it was just a dream.
I may not be back online this weekend, so I want to wish a Happy Easter and a blessed Passover to all of you!
My scroll rod sets arrived yesterday! And I promptly put Tree of Life between these 28-inch bad boys. So if you'll forgive me while I gush a little bit...
First of all, I ordered it from Stitches N Things and talk about fast?? I ordered this on Saturday and had it by Tuesday. That's a mail order record, for real. Shipping costs were very reasonable for a package as unwieldy as this. So I'm very happy with this shop.
As for the scroll frame, I found this HandiClamp product to be very user friendly. I easily snapped the plastic clamps onto the wooden scroll bars, added a little strip of quilt batting to guard against deep wrinkles, and I was good to go very quickly. I think they're quite affordable. They cost less than many other scroll frames. Although they're more expensive than the bare-bones sets that you can find at JoAnns or Michaels, it's a much better product and well worth the extra money.
I have to expand on that: I'm glad that I tried the bare bones set from JoAnns, because it gave me an idea of what using a scroll frame was like, and then it helped me to know what I was looking for in a good scroll frame. I don't regret that purchase at all, because I think that the little bit of money I spent on that frame actually saved me a lot of money in the long run.
And now to follow up on the Soon to Be College Girl. This morning I mailed off the enrollment deposit for......the College of Wooster! The long process is finally over, and I think that she's found a gem of a school. After our visit this past Monday, we discovered that it has everything that she needs and then some. Great academic atmosphere in a solid liberal arts school. Nice town. Friendly students. A running program that she'll fit right into and a coach that I found to be very impressive. She warmed up to him right away. Generous scholarship offer that will made it affordable. And last but not least, really good food, including great vegetarian choices. I think she's going to have a very happy four years.
But it feels so far away. Barb, can I move in with you? I promise to make my bed everyday and not mess up the bathroom too much.
Oh - and go to my left sidebar and click on the new Gaelic Storm song that I've just added as a widget. Love it!
Hi gang! I'm excitedly waiting for my HandiClamp scroll frames to arrive in the mail. I had Tree of Life in a cheap scroll frame that didn't nearly accommodate its crazy width, so I had folded the right and left sides of the sampler inward to make it fit. Kinda. And now it's time to move it, and I can't move it without folding the right side a lot and squishing the stitching. So I'll wait for my new HandiClamp. In the meantime, ToL is out of the frame and resting in its box.
Hey, you have to look at this:Meari's blog has a very cool mailart envelope that she created using Lizzie Kate's Tea Crazy. Here are tiny pictures of it, and go to her blog to see better ones. That is too cool. I absolutely love it when someone choses a design that I like to begin with, and then personalizes it and creates a finished project that becomes something that is even better. How exciting!
Don't you hate it when you realize that you're totally insane?
I've discovered that when I'm worried about either of my children, I don't panic, but instead I become totally obsessed with whatever is going on. And the internet feeds my obsession, because I spend enormous amounts of time online, going from website to website, trying to discern what's crap and what's factual.
I get myself in such a tizzy. I didn't get dressed till almost 3PM on Monday. That's a LONG time to sit around in your pajamas. I hardly eat, let alone cook. My poor family has had to deal with meals of leftover pizza and cold sandwiches this week. We've been out of milk constantly, and yesterday I even ran out of coffee. That never happens in my house.
Seriously. It's like I-Just-Can't-Let-Go. I worry about stuff long after my kids have stopped worrying about it.
So today, I feel like I'm finally coming out of the woods. I have some very smart and very generous bloggy friends, who listened to me kvetch and whine for well over a week and have given me wonderful advice and shoulders to cry on. You girls know who you are, and I won't say who you are here because then a million other parents of college-bound kids may start emailing you, and let's face it, I'm selfish. I'm keeping you to myself.
And I promise you all - I won't be blabbering on about colleges any more until it's all said and done and the deposit check has been mailed.
WELL, as for stitching, I took out Tree of Life last week. Here it is after I pressed it again: After I pressed it, I decided to put it on scroll bars, and I accomplished that, but I don't think I've put more than 100 stitches into it over the past week. Really, there was no point to taking another picture.
John had a track meet very close to here at California University, so Colleen and I went to watch him run. This time he ran the 10K event. Yes. 10K on a track. That's 25 laps. This was taken in the early part of the 10K. He didn't look like this at the end....
Now I'm off to work. Maybe even some stitching later? That would be nice.
I could lie and tell you that I'm stitching with invisible thread, then make you a pretty dress with it and make you wear it in a parade. But that would be mean.
