The end of NaBloPoMo

So, here we are at the end of National Blog Posting Month.  I managed to post 26 times this month, which isn't perfect but is still over twice the number of posts I write in a month.  On the days that I missed writing,  I was tempted to post a one-liner, but then I felt like I wasn't following the spirit of the project.  It felt more true to just skip it and then fess up at the end.

So, last night after the kids left to return to their schools (Thank-you-very-much), Dave and I went out for pizza and then settled in at home to watch the Steelers play on Sunday Night Football.  I also finished my PS Santa, which is one of the few positive things that happened during that game.  

I'm thinking of swearing off football all together.  Two weeks of Steeler losses and Pitt losing to WVU has made me overly depressed.  I needed to relive some past glory, so I visited with Mean Joe Green.  He likes my Santa, too.

So as of today, I have three UFO's hanging around.  There's my BAP, Tree of Life. I also have a small red sampler, and Brightneedle's Lo How a Rose.  Or I could start a few new Christmas ornaments.  And there are 9 camp project kits by my desk. Or another big Santa?  Or I could piece a Christmas tree skirt for the pencil tree.

What to do....What to do?

Dear Anonymous

You are a genius!  Thanks for your comment and your tip.

To the rest of you, if you're like me and you muddle about with skeins of perle cotton that knot and tangle, go to this website:
http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/02/thread-organization-tips-for-embroidery.html

I'm a happy stitcher again. 

First off, here's my latest update on the biggy-sized PS Santa.  There are just a few more finishing touches left, then he'll be a pillow.  I have in my head a basket full of big Santa pillows.  Wouldn't that be neat?  Wouldn't it be even more neat if I actually did it?  Plans, plans.  I always have plans.

But anyway, I've mentioned before that I'm using DMC No. 5 Perle cotton, and I changed the colors to make him more red and less pink.  And the perle cotton selections are more limited than regular DMC floss, so I had to make some changes anyway.  I like how easy it is to use the perle cotton.  No seperating and reassembling strands of floss....And it has a nice sheen to it.  But here's what I don't like about using this stuff:

I cannot get away from these knots and tangles!  Part of it is my impatience.  I think if I took time at the beginning of the project and carefully undid the wrapper and unwound the floss (although it still knots up no matter what) then wound it onto thread cards, I'd  be less frustrated.  Why-oh-why can't it just come out of the skein nice and neat like regular DMC floss?  My perle cotton is one huge tangled mess all the time.  Anybody have a tip for me? 

Our Thanksgiving day was extra nice.  Both kids and I went to the Turkey Trot in our small town and they had a tremendous turnout, which meant a great fundraising event for the Salvation Army.  I walked the 5K in just over 43 minutes, which was really good for me.  You know what....I used to beat myself up for being such a slow runner, but now that I'm walking I feel pretty good.  I've discovered that I'm actually a pretty fast walker!  After it was over I took off quickly for home to get our turkey stuffed and in the oven so I don't know where I placed or how I fared in my age group. 

I have to say that I've enjoyed reading about all of YOUR Thanksgivings.  The food photos and the family pictures have been great!

Speaking of family, it's amazing to me how busy I seem to be with two young adults at home.  It's not like the kind of busy activity where I actually accomplish anything, though.  How can I explain?  It's like I'm prattling around all the time.  I wait a lot.  I plan a lot.  I sit with them at the TV a lot.  The day goes by and I can't name one thing that I've accomplished.  I just don't get it....

See you tomorrow gang!

"All is safely gathered in"

Everyone is home, safe and sound and my house feels lived-in again.  The dishwasher is sloshing, the washer is chugging and the dryer is spinning. 

A real harvest home!

I missed blogging again yesterday.  It's all your-all's fault.  I've been reading the ways that you all have been expressing gratitude and friendship and optimism.  You've written such beautiful things and I swear it just takes my words away.

Happy Thanksgiving Friends.  No matter how you celebrate or what you eat or what you spend your time doing tomorrow, I'll be thinking of you and thanking heaven for all of the ways that you've touched my life.  I am one lucky girl.

Still knotted up AND GO GATORS!

That knot between my shoulder blades is still there, although it's getting better each day.  Friday and Saturday were more or less lost days, but yesterday I started feeling better and I spent some time stitching.  I should have been cleaning...freshening up the china and crystal, doing some minor dusting etc.  But why endanger the recovery process??

So, here's where I left off on my PS Santa last night:

I'm coming into the home stretch on this one!  Crossing that stitchy finish line!

And speaking of finish lines, my son's cross country team, the Allegheny College Gators, finished third at the NCAA Men's Division III National Championships.  That's third out of 437 teams.  We're all so proud of them - it's a huge achievement.  You can read about it here.

Some of you may know this already, but Division III athletes receive no financial aid related to their athletic skills and athletic departments are staffed and funded like any other department in the university.  In other words, coaches are not paid millions of dollars like in Division I schools, and there are no athletic scholarships.  These men and women run because they like and want to run.  Pretty amazing.

Not feeling so great

I woke up with this knot in between my shoulder blades this morning.  I thought it would go away as the day went on, but it's getting worse and it's starting to make me feel a little sick.  So I'm avoiding my computer today. 

Now I'm off to find some more ibuprofen and the heating pad.

Oh!  If you're up for it, tomorrow is the first day of the November IComLeavWe.  Let the comments begin!

Oh My Gosh!

I competely, totally forgot to post yesterday!  There goes my perfect NaBloPoMo record.  Sniff.  In my defense, I had a couple of work issues yesterday that kept running around and around in my head.  Even yoga couldn't clear my ruminating mind.  So I just plain forgot.

Well!  On Saturday I'll summarize your responses to my last post about themed Christmas stitching.  But I'll tell you right now that the Fellow in the Red Suit is pretty darn popular.

As for me, I love Santa, too and I have several Santa charts, but I've only stitched him once.  I have several collections like that....I decide that I love this, that, or the other theme and I must have charts in that theme and then I don't actually stitch them.

Let's see....I've collected butterfly charts.  (Stitched none) Bird charts.  (Stitched none) Cat charts. (Stitched 1) Hearts. (Stitched 1)  Florals.  (Stitched none) L&L angels (stitched none)  I'll stop here.  I'm getting sad.

On the other hand, I've collected and successfully stitched houses and samplers for over 25 years and that's saying something, isn't it?  Maybe it just says that I'm a one (or two) trick pony....but I choose to say that I'm really, really good at stitching houses and samplers, and I like the feeling of being good at something and I'm not going to mess with that.

But back to favorite Christmas themes and I want to tell you my favorites and show you how they've changed over the years.  Picture time!



Christmas samplers.  Gotta love them.  I mean....alphabets.  Neat motifs lined up in a row.  Right up my alley.

I used to love stitching the Told in a Garden free yearly angels, too.  I stitched five years worth, and I think that I just didn't like the angels that came out after that and I stopped and never got back to them.

 And now I'm not sure that I could say that I have a favorite theme.  Snowmen are sweet.  Santa may be in the running.  And who doesn't love a holiday house?  It's so hard to choose....

Thinking about Christmas stitching

Is there something Christmas-y or Wintery that you like to stitch each year?  Like it wouldn't feel like the holidays unless you stitched a particular thing?

Some of us get silly for Santa.  Crazy for candy canes.  Excited for elves.  Rowdy for reindeer.  Apoplectic for angels.  (Whoa.  Sorry. That was a stretch.)

Tell me about it.  Leave a comment and I'll post a recap of your responses later this week.

Santa has a head and face

I've really enjoyed stitching this Santa so far.  I'm so glad that I saw another stitcher working on one of these on large count fabric at the 2008 camp.  Camp = Inspiration!

And here are some more Cross Country photos.  The season is over now for my kids, so I promise to stop torturing you with these pictures.  But not many people go to Cross Country meets, so relatively few people know what a meet is like, and maybe you're curious?  (I know that some of you have kids that run or used to run.  Barb, Pam and Von....and are there any others?)  There are a few reasons why not many people get to see meets.

First of all, when kids run XC in high school, most meets happen on weekdays and usually between 3 and 4PM, so it's hard for working parents to get to meets.  (It's a daylight issue.  You can't run through field and forest in the dark!)  There is the occasional Saturday meet, but not too often.  Parents work really hard and juggle their schedules to attend just a few meets each year.   And if they run late and arrive 20 minutes after the start....well, they've missed the whole thing.

College meets are usually run on Saturdays, and if your runner goes on to run at the college level, you still may not make it to all the meets because they can be hours and hours away. We usually get to see our kids run at about half of their meets.

Meets are not very family-friendly, either.  It's not like a football game or soccer game or track meet, where spectators sit in stands and watch events, and you can bring younger siblings and grandparents and they can sit comfortably and watch the kids.  At our high school's home course, which was on the grounds of a PSU campus, we learned where we could set up folding chairs for grandparents so that they could see the kids run by a couple of times and see the finish line.  But our home course was very viewer-friendly and that's quite unusual.

So anyway, most people don't know what a meet is like.  They think it's like a track meet and that's understandable, but not even close.

OK, so your kids line up on the starting line.  We've seen meets with as few as 20 kids on the line, and meets with over 400.  The runners in the middle of the line are lucky...they just need to run in a straight line.  But the runners on the ends are working hard at the beginning of the race to kind of funnel into the middle.  And that first big pack can be a mess of arms, legs, elbows and spikes.  (There's Colleen - #305 on second from the left)

Once the gun goes off and the runners pass you, it's like this photo below:  These aren't kids racing.  Those are spectators trying to get to the next place in the course where they can see the runners.  We all have course maps that we try to follow so that we can get to the next place out in the field or near a path to see our runners.  And you usually need to be pretty quick about it.  The kids in these pictures are probably the runners'  teammates and brothers and sisters hoofing it to the next place on the course.

And then come the parents. We're not quite as quick...and we're usually clutching our maps and trying to follow people who look like they know where to go.

And you do that several times until you decide that it's time to skeedaddle to the finish so you can see your runner come in.  This is what you look for at the end. You hope that your runner has enough left to kick strong into the finish, and you look at his or her face and you know that they're pushing themselves to the limit. Look at these girls' faces. Concentration and push.

Then we wait awhile and try to give the kids some space as they recover.  Sometimes it's not too bad, and sometimes it's not very pretty.  (But these girls look ok.)  And once they've recovered a bit, there are usually hugs all around.  And food.  Always food!

****Thanks very much to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology who hosted the meet and shared these photographs with the many parents who couldn't attend.

I'm still working on Santa's head, so no progress photo today.

It's been a sporty weekend.

Go Pitt!  Moved up to #8 in the AP rankings!

Go Allegheny Gators!  The Gator men's XC team won its Mideast Regional meet, with Gator runners placing first and second, and bringing in positions 15, 16, 25, 31 and 43, too.  Now they're headed to the Division III National meet near Cleveland next week.  My son isn't part of the varsity squad, but all of the guys - varsity or not - worked hard to achieve this. 

Steelers?  Well....Do they want to make me cry?  'Cause I'll do it.

Little Miss Fast

Today my darlin' daughter ran in the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional meet.  It was really far away and Dave had to work, so I didn't go.  That was probably a good thing, because it's rained and been miserable weather for almost every meet we've attended this year.

It's the O'Neil Weather Curse.  Whenever Dave and I go on a trip, weather records are bound to be broken.  Hottest....Coldest....Wettest....Driest.  You name it and we've been there for the record breaker.  And I don't mean to make light of the storm damage situation along the Atlantic coast, but I will tell you that you should count your lucky stars that Dave and I were not vacationing near you this week.  It could have been worse.

But back to the meet.  Since my husband and I couldn't attend, the runners were blessed with good weather, and Colleen ran well and her team placed well.  So they're very happy.  Here's Little Miss Fast at an unscored meet that was a couple of weeks ago.

Dave and I went to see Sinbad (the comedian, not the fable) last night in Greensburg.  We laughed till we were hoarse.

Football tonight and football tomorrow.  And that's a good thing, because I'll get to stitch and my PS Santa needs a head.  I'll take pictures when he has a head.  It's too depressing to take pictures of a headless Santa.

Who doesn't love a Comment?

Here's an interesting compliment to NaBloPoMo.  It's IComLeavWe, which is shorthand for International Comment Leaving Week.

Maybe posting daily to your blog isn't the thing for you, but a quick comment is more your style.  For one week each month, you promise to comment on 5 blogs each day and to return one comment on your blog.  That's six little things a day for just one week. 

For us stitchers, that's usually 6 "atta-girls" (or atta-boys), or 6 Ohhhhhs or Ahhhhhs.  Really.  What's not to love?  And in the process, you reach your goal, and you've encouraged 6 other stitchers to keep stitching and keep posting about their projects or their lives.

IComLeavWe starts on the 21st of each month.  And since my keyboard is already warmed up, I'm going to give it a go.  Want to join me?

If only I liked to knit...

I'd certainly be challenged to knit this!

Click on this link and try to control the drooling:
Quaker mittens and sweater

More Camp Stuff

I did a little shopping at camp.  The shopping aspect was the one part of camp that was just a little bit disappointing.  The shop staff didn't bring very much of a "store" to camp with them so there just wasn't much to buy.  I had ordered a couple of things ahead of time though, and I was happy to pick them up at camp and save the postage fees. 

Here's my biggest purchase(ordered ahead of time):  A K's Creations Lap frame with the universal clamps.  I had been an in-hand stitcher forever, until last year when I bought a set of scroll frames for a BAP.  I've loved using them ever since, but they do get a bit heavy and cumbersome. So I decided that I needed something to help me hold the scroll frames or Qsnaps.

This lap frame is completely fantastic.  I can make loads of adjustments, I can use one or both arms to hold my frames, and it flips around very easily.  Here's another thing...I LOVE that I can sit upright comfortably and stitch.  My stitching posture is so much better. 
(That's a PS 2005 Santa, on 18ct linen -over 2 threads- with No.5 perle cotton)

And here are my other camp purchases.  From the camp shop, I bought needles and some Thread Heaven.  Then I decided that I couldn't live without the new LHN Poinsetta House, and luckily one of the shop ladies was coming to camp Saturday night and she kitted it up for me and brought it.  It'll make a great Christmas break project.  Oh - and my new Kelmscott scissors that I had ordered quite a while ago.

This is cute - I had ordered those scissors when they first started appearing on websites, and the shop was so vigilant about making sure that I received them at camp that three different people brought me those scissors.  Sweet!

And finally,  Barb and I had met early on Friday for lunch and a bit of shopping.  We had lunch at The Farmstead Restaurant - a wonderful soup and salad buffet.  Then we went to a small shop in Berlin, where the stitching selection wasn't so great, but they did have a good selection of frames and I found this fantastic bellpull.  I don't have anything to go in it....yet!

I'm thinking that next year it might be nice to get there a day early - like Thursday - and do more shopping.  Berlin has two really nice quilt shops and there are wonderful wine and cheese stores and pottery and kitchen stores, and, and and.....Well, you get it.  I had better start saving my pennies today!

Veterans Day

Cripes.  There I was blogging away about being nice to people and forgetting that today is Veterans Day in the US.  Thank goodness some of you out there are on top of this!

When my kids were in high school, they were in the marching band and always marched in the Veterans Day parade.  The parade always stopped stock-still at 11:11, and a trumpeter played Taps from the front of the parade.  Then another trumpeter answered with Taps from the back of the parade.  It made the hair on my arms stand up and brought tears to my eyes.  The symbolism was powerful.

Thank you to all of the veterans who have served our country with commitment, bravery, and quiet competence.  Even though I won't be at a parade today, I'll be pausing at 11:11 to remember you all.

A day of sheer excitement

Now that National City bank has completed its changeover to PNC, I need to spend the day changing all of our business banking information with about eleventy-hundred vendors, suppliers, credit card companies and government agencies.

So I anticipate a day spent on the phone, plowing through automated operators and waiting on hold while listening to orchestral versions of old Fleetwood Mac songs.

By the way, even though National City sent me a boatload of mail to reassure me about how seamless this transition was going to be and about how I didn't need to do anything (just sit back and wait)  - this hasn't been easy.  I would not want to be a bank teller there this week.  Those poor people are taking it on the chin for every glitch and issue that has come up since Monday, and if anyone is NOT to blame, it's them.  So if you bank with "National-City-Now-PNC-Bank", take it easy on the folks in the teller window.

Hey - here's another thing.  This week Anna mentioned a commitment that many people were taking to shop and spend their hard earned money with local and independent vendors, and I think it's an admirable thing.  I'll admit, my family owns a local independent business, so my point of view comes from that place.

But I'm going to take another step in this direction and pledge that in addition to spending my money locally as much as possible, I pledge to try to make all of my business interactions throughout this holiday season as pleasant as possible.  It's my opinion that customers have become more and more impatient and rude towards clerks and service people over the years and the holiday season seems to bring out the worst in us.  Maybe if we start the holiday season off with the intention of being patient and kind to those who serve us, all that good karma will come back to us and our holidays will be a thing of joy and not just a vexing and stressful time.

Now - Before everyone starts typing their responses with accounts of shopping or transacting business and found this or that person who was rude/unresponsive/just-plain-clueless with you, I understand that we've all been in that situation and know how frustrating that can be.  But I don't care.  As our mothers always told us...Two wrongs don't make a right.

So....I'm off to my phone, where I'll be spending plenty of time on hold (AKA Phone Purgatory).  And I promise to be damned cheerful about it!

I'm moving in with these people.

I stayed up way too late watching our Steelers last night.  And today is a payroll day, so in about three minutes I have to hit the road. 

But very early this morning, I dropped by at the Stitching Post and saw a link to this article, which took me to a photo album  of the family's house.  Go look.  See the Gorgeousness. Sometimes clean and simple is just the ticket.  It makes their needlework really jump out at you.

Now.....where did I put my change of address cards?

Camp by the numbers

15:  The number of funny, talented and warm stitchers that attended Camp Gotta Stitch in Charm, Ohio. 

14:  Average numbers of laugh-out-loud moments each hour during our stay at camp.  (The other moments were spent quietly chuckling or counting. I mean, we were stitching, after all) I love people who can give and get good-natured digs and everyone spent a lot of time teasing each other and laughing at ourselves.  It was that kind of crowd.  And when we weren't ribbing each other, some people were making dirty jokes about Santa.  And now they'll all be getting coal this Christmas.

13:  Campers in the Christmas Bling Fashion Show.  Prize winner Numero Uno is the darling Mary, whose Christmas nighty and Bat Hat stole the show.

Next we have Prize Winners Two and Three, the Dynamic Blingy Duo of Pam and Emily.  Emily went over the top with tinsel and Pam?  I think the light up antlers speak for themselves.

12: Months till the next camp.  Say it ain't so!

11:  I swear this is true.  You won't believe it, but it's the number of  baked pies and cakes that were assembled for our camp snacks and desserts.  And that's not even mentioning the homemade candies, cookies, brownies, and oh - I'm not even including the chocolate fondue stuff.  So if you think about it, that's like the equivalent of one entire pie or cake per camper.  And in case you're wondering, YES - I ate my quota.

10:  Number of hours I slept all weekend.  Sleep?  It's overrated when you're at camp.

9:  The number of adorable camp projects that we received.  I'm not kidding.  Nine.  Complete kits that included charts, fabric, threads and several had everything we needed to finish-finish them.  Extraordinary.

8: A little over 8 months ago, I met Barb through our stitching blogs.  Well, one thing led to another and we quickly became friends.  (Lots of uncanny coincidences and circumstances!) And then we became co-campers, too.  Now I hope that our stitching adventures continue with more camps and more chances to get together.  Because we really have fun!  And no - I'm not a "little person".  I just wanted you to see the cute little tree set up in the corner. 

7:    Seven wonderful meals prepared by our camp chef.  Seriously.  Homemade meals prepared for us (with love, I'm sure) in the house kitchen and served hot and fresh each time.   Oh, and by the way, I'm counting the Chocolate Festival as a meal because there was a crockpot involved. 

6:  Staff people from Cross My Heart.  That's some kind of staff/camper ratio, and although none of us were terribly needy campers, it was nice to know that they were there. They kept everyone engaged and worked hard at facilitating a relaxed and inclusive atmosphere.  Sometimes camps can seem exclusive.  You know from the get-go that you're not a part of their crowd.  I didn't feel that way at all with these folks.

5: Dinner Time at Grandma's Restaurant.  Because we all really needed to EAT MORE.

4:  Curses muttered as I assembled my new K's Creation lap frame.  Do you remember the spatial ability part of the IQ tests?  Where there were little pictures and you had to decide what they'd look like when they were put together?  I was classified as more than mildly....um....slow.  But once I had it together, it was heaven on earth.  And the profanity stopped.

3:  One of our campers was a professional story teller and she told us three great stories Saturday evening as we settled in for our night of stitching.  Story telling....what an art.  There's nothing like stitching and listening to a great story.  You could've heard a pin drop.  It was marvelous.

2:  We enjoyed the company of two camp mascot dogs, Tango and Cleo.  They were almost as entertaining as the campers.  Boy oh boy....if those dogs could talk, we'd be in big trouble.

1:  That'd be me.  One very happy, very energized and very well taken care of stitcher! Oh!  And ONE project completed at camp!  In between eating, laughing, and general carrying on, I finished Prairie Schooler's Autumn Wind.  Can you tell that I'm having a good time?  And a round of applause can always make me smile.

I'm Baaaack!

Camp was great.  No.  It was G-R-E-A-T.
More news tomorrow....

Bye Now!

Here I am, in the car and on my way to stitching camp. 

Do you think anyone will miss me?

Camp Checklists

Things to Pack:

1. Very favorite projects
2. Very favorite stitchy accessories
   
3. Very favorite snacky foods
4. Mood enhancers from  Christian Klay Winery to share with my buddies...old AND new
   
5. Relatively new, non-ratty pajamas and slippers.  Don't want to scare any of my new friends.
6. Pillows and footstool to provide optimal marathon stitching posture

Things to do:

1. Clean off my desk to make it look like I've finished all of my work. (As if...)
2. "Cover the Gray"
   
3. Wash the car
4. Rob  Go to the bank and cash my referee checks
5. Shine up the credit cards...just in case
   
6. Que up the Ipod with my current audio book for the car trip
7. Look at that shopping list that I've been keeping under the computer monitor.
8. Take shopping list to stash hiding places and make sure that I don't already have any of those things already.  (Don't laugh...it's happened to the best of us)
9.  Get in the car, wave goodbye, and lay rubber pulling out of the driveway!
   

Full disclosure

About those "first" projects?  Gang, those were the projects that I could find.  Don't go 'round thinking that those were my VERY first stitcheries.  I kind of remember stitching some things and putting them in hoops, trimming them with eyelet lace and hanging them in my house somewhere.  We were very into "country" back then.  But as time went by, they got dirty or faded or I just didn't like them anymore.  So I either threw them away or gave them away - usually to Goodwill or the Salvation Army.

I'd like to think that they found nice homes, surrounded by women sporting big hair and shoulder-padded jackets and leggings that fit down into their shoes.

Hmmm. That kind of brings me to fashion.

Do any of you watch Mad Men?  I absolutely love the fashions on that show.  People dressed so elegantly in the 60's.

There was a time that my mother had a wardrobe that was fabulous.  (That changed after my younger sister was born and then our family grew from two kids to five kids in what seemed like overnight.)  Still, Mom tried.  And there were certain codes.  For instance, she wouldn't be caught dead in John Wanamaker's unless she was wearing a dress and gloves.  It was the 60's and there were standards.  There was a "look" for places like Wanamaker's and a "look" for Woolworth's.  Totally different.

But back to today?  I love those 60's clothes, and they certainly aren't hard to find in stores.  But I find that I'm still pulled towards fashion that has that 80's influence!  I know....it's nuts!  So I think I'm going to be in tab collars, cardigans, golf shirts, trousers and blazers until I'm ancient.  What's one step beyond a fashion rut?  A fashion grave, I guess.

Ewww.  Sometimes I scare myself.

Brilliant!

Thanks to the Brilliant Karen for the Nun stitch idea!  I'd email you personally, but don't have your address...

First projects

One of the things on our "To Bring" list for camp was our first cross stitch projects.

Have they forgotten that I'm almost as old as dirt??  But I managed to dig up a couple of pieces that were from back in the 80's.  I think I started stitching in 1984...so this piece dated 1985 is pretty darn close to my beginning stitching.  This sampler has been kicked around a bit, and when we moved to this house in 2001 it was put into my daughter's closet and hadn't seen the light of day since then.  It's terribly dusty.  Although I don't have the book anymore, I know it was from Leisure Arts.

I also came across this, and I know I stitched it around 1985, because that's when we bought our first house.   It was framed at one time....Don't know why I de-framed it. It's an Astor Place design from 1980 or thereabouts.  I don't have the chart anymore but I still have "Bless This House" which is very similar and also from 1980.  The price sticker is a whopping $3.

And finally, here is a design that I purchased from Cross My Heart the last time that I visited their shop.  Back in 1987!!  It was designed for thier shop and for a specific fabric (Rimini?). 

My goodness, it's SO evident that I didn't take that 3-inches-all-around fabric allowance seriously!  Look at the "Welcome"...There's barely 1/2" to work with over on the right side there.  I've thought of making this into a pillow because I still like it, but even with a 1/4" seam, I'll still be practically on top of the stitching.  I'd be glad of any suggestions about what to do with this.

XC Meet Pictures

I hadn't taken my camera to the meet, so I didn't have any pictures to share so you could see how very wet and muddy the course was for the NCAC championship meet. Luckily, one of the parents from the Allegheny College team (John's team) shared some photos with us.  These pictures will give you some idea, although they don't show the places where the water was the deepest.  We spectators didn't want to get completely covered in water and mud  couldn't get that close. 

In this next picture, the young man on the left had just fallen into one of those deep puddles.  I'll tell you, I don't know how these kids keep going.....

And finally, here's Colleen!  She stayed just behind the two Allegheny girls through the whole race and finished very close to them.  She's the runner on the far right in the black Wooster singlet.  Her teammate, Sarah, is in the white hat.  She wears it in every meet, and it makes her easy to pick out.
.
Four days till CAMP!

A Blog Post Each Day

For the past couple of years I've participated in the Holidailies.  We strive to post daily, but the Holidailies spans December and requires fewer days of posts , what with the holidays and all. I managed it pretty easily each year.  It's an interesting thing.  You think you have nothing to say, but once you start writing, you find out that something actually was on your mind. 

So this year I've decided to give  NaBloPoMo a try, also.  It happens each November.  So I'll do my best to put together a post every day this month.

 If anyone else wants to give this a try, there's a link at the top of my sidebar that'll take you to a place where you can sign up and join.  (Of course, you don't have to formally "join" anything.  You can just do it on your own).  There's a stitching group over there, too, called Stitchy Fingers.  You might recognize a name or two in that group.

 OK, enough bloggy housekeeping.

Nope...I didn't finish Autumn Leaves.  For a couple of nights my eyes were just too tired and then I spent a couple of nights working on another little project (and it's a gift so I'm not ready to show it yet).  But I'll take it to camp with me (in only FIVE days!!) and hopefully have it finished and ready to show you by the end of the weekend.

We spent all day Saturday in Columbus, where Colleen ran in the North Coast Atlantic Conference XC Championship.  Johnny met us there - he's a doll.  If it's at all possible for him to be there, he always comes out to support his sister. 

She ran well, finishing 14th and covering that crazy 6K course in 24:29.  Like I said, it was crazy.  It had rained like the devil during the night before and the morning of the race, and so the ground was saturated and squishy at best.  At worst, the runners had to go through water up to their knees.  In a couple of places it was just deep and wide puddles, spanning 10 or more feet of the course.  In one place, it was running water...like crossing a deep stream of water.  I wish I had pictures....We saw more than one runner fall in that stream. So all of the runners' times were much slower than you might regularly see.  Cross Country is like that!

After the meet, I coerced Dave into taking me to Cross My Heart, which was only 20 minutes away in another part of Columbus.  (CMH is the shop that's running next week's camp!) It's a nice little shop, with a good selection and lovely salesclerks.  They manage to pack a lot of good stuff into a small space.  Absolutely worth the trip if you're in the Columbus area.  I didn't spend a lot of time there, because I was still cold and wet from the meet, and because I wanted to save some money for Camp Shopping next week. But I did buy fabric and threads for BBD's Quaker Garden.  Gotta buy something...