Re-starting Stitching Bloggers Question

Just last week I finished Adrienne Martini’s latest book, Sweater Quest, and although it was about knitting, it spoke to me because its questions and its philosophy could apply to most creative work, and in particular to handcrafts.  Adrienne explores why knitters knit, and we stitchers could ask ourselves the same question.  Why do we stitch?  And we can address this in many different ways.

Then that got me to thinking back to when we had the Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week, and I realized that I hadn’t seen it for quite some time.  It turns out that it’s been sleeping for a while (a couple of years, anyway).  Like so many of these projects, it’s not easy for one person to keep it going.  Life gets in the way, or things change, or we go off in another direction.  Anyway, I contacted the SBQ’s previous host, Renee, who was very gracious and told me to go ahead and run with it again. 

I’ll be making one big change though – I’ll be asking a Stitching Bloggers Question of the Month. 

So, starting with the first Monday of May (May 3) , I’ll be asking Questions again, and I’ll post one each month for you to think about and answer in your own blog.   I may recycle some of the previous questions, too, because some of you may be new to blogging  and you haven’t seen them before.  And some of you long time bloggers may find that now your answers have changed, too.  I know that for me,  many things have changed in the past two years.  You too?

And now I’m leavin’ on a jet plane…

Look out Heartland Shop Hop - Here We Come!

The Crack of the Bat!

If you live in or near Pittsburgh, you might be interested in coming to a Pirates Baseball game on Sunday, July 25 at 1:35PM, because it’s a Stitch N' Pitch Day!  Look, I know that the Pirates have a dreary record right now.  That 20-0 loss the other night was amazingly awful.  But we can sit in the stands and eat a Primanti Sandwich!  Watching the game may only be secondary to the stitching fun we could have, but it will be fun. I plan to go.

If you’re interested, you can buy tickets here.

Lo

This weekend I actually stitched the word “Lo”.  So it’s official.  And now that I’ve stitched the first two lines of the song, I can hear it in my head.  Furthermore, (I’m going to get all dreamy on you here) I feel as if the energy of this project has shifted now.  There’s a different energy when I start a project, when I’m in the middle of a project and when I’m close to finishing something.  I like all of those feelings, but it’s invigorating when I know I’m coming into the home stretch, and I’ve hit my stride and it just feels so good.  I’m grateful that Jennifer has been stitching this with me, otherwise I may have tossed it in my To Do box and it could have been there for a very long time.

I’m actually feeling pretty good about another project, too – Spring Violets.  I’m working my way around the border, and as soon as I get that darn snow figured out, I’ll be golden.  No pictures of that today, though.

I had a wonderful day this past Friday, when I met with Carol and Linda (no blog – yet)  in Pittsburgh.  We took over a corner table in a Panera Bread (by a window for good lighting) that morning and stitched and talked till well past lunch.  These get-togethers are always nice for me because I don’t have any stitching friends out here in the middle of nowhere.   Sometimes it feels like it’s just me and my computer screen.  Not that I don’t appreciate you all out there in blog land – Just that in-person contact is so much fun!

My list for the Heartland Shop Hop is getting longer each day.  I wasn’t going to check a bag for the flight – figured I could get by with only my carry on.  But now that I’m looking at this list?  I may need to rethink that.

Cross stitch + Cake = My two favorite things

I think there's a bit more to talk about on the OOP chart topic, but not today.  Instead, let's stop our deep thinking for a while and go visit this website for some fabulously wonderful cake pictures.

Cake Wrecks is one of my favorite sites to visit every day anyway, but today they outdid themselves.

Some thoughts on OOP charts

Wow, mention OOP charts and we all run straight to our keyboards and start typing! 

First of all, I think that we all understand that whether we would (or wouldn’t) pay big bucks for an OOP chart is completely personal.  People pay what they choose to pay for something.   We all have things that we love and sometimes the price tag doesn’t matter. 

For instance, my husband loves cars.  He especially loves 60’s and 70’s Muscle Cars that sit in the garage 350 days of the year and are lovingly washed, waxed, dusted and put away every time they’ve been driven.  A car with a 1960 sticker price of $5,000 can sell for $50,000 today, and believe me….Dave would be willing to pay that.   I stare in wonderment, but I understand it.  So paying $76 for a chart?  It doesn’t fly for me, but if it makes someone else happy, that’s fine.  (Although in Lee’s Perfect World, you wouldn’t be bidding against me….)

But anyway, you all have brought up some good examples and good points in your comments.  One issue that KarenV, Siobhan and others raised is that although charts can go out of print, you might think that the designer or design company or copyright holder would consider re-releasing the chart in .pdf format and reap some of the financial rewards when their older work has a surge in popularity.    After all, these designs are documents.   And in today’s world of digital documents and laser printers, a designer doesn’t necessarily have to go to a printing company and incur the expense of printing older charts (which may or may not sell).  But a pdf?  I’ll bet we’d still pay the going price for it.  If the charts you sell today are $12 instead $4 (1980’s prices), I’d gladly pay today’s price for just the 1980’s .pdf. 

To a non-designing stitcher like me, it seems so simple.  It’s not like anything needs to be manufactured.  There are no assembly lines to re-tool.  There are no broken molds.  Like I just said – these are documents.  It seems like everybody would win.  Designers could sell more designs and get to keep more of their money.  Stitchers would be able to buy what they like. 

So it must be more complicated than that.  Here’s something I wonder about:  Do designers actually want their designs to go out of print and then become scarce and very expensive (even when they’re used and secondhand)?  Because then we, as consumers, have a different mindset about our current purchases.  We are more likely to buy something new from that designer right now, whether or not we have the time or materials to stitch it because we fear that later on it may not be available.  We succumb to impulse purchases.  Hey gang, I’ve done it myself.  “Better buy it now,”  I’ve told myself.  So maybe going out of print actually works for designers.  We look at their designs as precious.  Maybe not as an investment (although given the state of my investment portfolio, it might not be such a bad idea), but as something to get while the getting’s good.  Maybe designers have discovered that sales of their old designs will step on sales of their new designs.  I really do wonder. 

Ah well.  The topic of OOP charts will come up again, that’s for sure.  For many of us, blogs are probably our greatest sources of our stitching inspiration these days, and sure as GAST makes Green Apple thread, some stitcher on some blog will post a picture of something stitched from an older chart book and we’ll all go nuts over it, only to discover that it’s out of print.  We’ll wonder why the heck we never bought that back in “199whatever” and then we’ll be trolling ebay and getting sweaty palms as the auctions come close to ending.

It also makes me wonder about our power to move the market as stitching bloggers.  I really don’t think that these OOP charts would be so expensive on ebay without our blogs and our photos, because otherwise, who would even know about them?

Long ago when I stitched models for a shop in Pittsburgh, the owner told me that it was the shop models that sold the charts.  And aren’t our stitching blogs like the world’s biggest collection of shop models?  Our WIP photos and interpretations of designs and then the creative finishes we come up with are the best PR that a design company could ask for, in my opinion.  The only thing we can’t control is whether the designs are made available to us or not.  Well, unless you happen to have a spare wad of cash laying around the house. Or until the design passes into Public Domain.  (Don’t click on that link, unless you want to feel depressed.)

And now I’m going to go check on that auction.  Where I’m certain to have been outbid.  So I’m going to be happy with what I have and stop whining about what I don’t have!

Can I ask you guys a question?

Over the weekend I was shocked to see an OOP (out of print) Prairie Schooler chart sell for $76.00.  I put in a bid that I thought was high and then regretted it immediately.  But later when I saw that someone had paid $76, (way more than double my highest bid) I almost fell over.  Am I just being naive?  Or cheap?  I can never imagine that I'd  want a chart that much.

What's the highest price you've ever seen a chart sell for on ebay?  I mean just the chart....not a chart with the fabric and threads.

Come on.  Amaze my cheap little mind.

My MIL

Before I get into the MIL story – Here’s a bit of Pittsburgh culture that you may need to know if you happen to be traveling through or visiting SW Pennsylvania. 

Some of you noticed the Kennywood sign in my entryway.  Kennywood is a great amusement park in Pittsburgh.  I think it’s just the right size and just the right price for a day full of fun with your family.  In fact, it’s a favorite place for family reunions, company picnics, school trips and church outings.  And we’ve been going at least once a year for-evuh.  I love it there.

BUT, if you come to SW Pa and someone randomly walks up to you and says, “Ummm.  Kennywood’s open,” you should look down and check your pants.  Because your fly is open.  It’s just our way of telling you to zip up.  OK?

Now, moving on to the MIL story:

I like my Mother in law.  I really do.  She’s kind of odd.  Kind of quirky.  But she’ll be turning 84 this year and so she’s earned the right to be as unusual as she wants.  Besides, she’s got a good heart.  She loves my husband and she loves my kids and she likes me well enough. 

Sometimes though, she completely cracks me up.  When she was staying with us during the end of December, she needed something to occupy her time and I have lots of books around, so she got back into reading again.  She used to read a lot several years ago and for one reason or another she had stopped, but now that she’s rediscovered books, she can’t get enough of them.

But MIL is also very frugal and doesn’t want to spend money on books (Yes – she has a library card, but doesn’t use it, despite our encouragement).  So she shops for books at Goodwill and St. Vincent DePaul stores, and is thrilled by all of the 99 cent books.  What’s so funny is that she really doesn’t care about the book or its plot or its quality of writing.  As long as the book is clean (as in not smudged, dirty or torn.  Smut isn’t a problem) and it’s only 99 cents, she’ll read it and then happily tell me all about it, ending her “review” with, “And it was only 99 cents!”

So this has gone on since January, and I always enjoy listening to her go on and on about these books.  Except a few weeks ago there was a twist to her story.  She was zipping through one of her 99 cent books and lo and behold if she didn’t come across $10 folded up inside the book!  MIL was tickled pink.  And she can’t bring herself to spend it.   I said, “MIL, you could go and buy TEN more books!”  But it’s still folded all nice and neat and in the same book. 

You can’t help but love her.

Info for KarenV!

The bellpull is a 1987 design from The Needle and I, called Seasonal Accents Houses.  (HSE-L10).  I don’t think the design company exists anymore and it hasn’t existed for quite a while.  I still have the chart though, and a companion to it called Seasonal Accents Samplers.  They’ve always been favorites of mine.

The houses in the gold frame are from a designer named Ann Taylor Nelson, and it’s also quite old.  Sometime around 1986 I think.  The chart is called Town Square, and believe it or not I think you can still get it here.

More of Mom’s stitching, Finished by me

More or less speaks for itself.

And will she get this one back?  I don’t know….see how nice it looks in my entryway?

Jeez, Lee.  Way to hang everything crookedly.  Oh and by the way, that IS the way to Kennywood.

I’m not surprised

Often I’ll joke about my backward county in Pennsylvania, but I try to keep it light because hey…nobody’s perfect.  I’ve participated in and done stupid things over the years myself.  Also, it’s not nice to rip on your fellow citizens all the time.  But lately, my newspaper has reported on some of the most stupid, most annoying and most downright ridiculous things that people have done, and it all gets to be too much. 

In the category of Crazy-Mean, it looks like the T-ball coach who offered to pay his player to hit an autistic teammate with a ball so he wouldn't play anymore is back in the news.  I believe this story made national news in 2006, and you’d think the guy would lay low.  But no….This is Fayette County.

In the category of just Crazy-Lazy, another story that was big in our regional news was about a pot stash found in a student's Elmo bag.  See folks, if you’re going to put your pot stash in your kindergarteners book bag, then maybe you should get your lazy butt up out of bed in the morning and see that your kid gets off to school properly.  Then you can go through his little red Elmo book bag and retrieve your stash before he gets onto the school bus.

And finally, under just plain Crazy, yet another “youth sports official” who was charged with indecent exposure, disorderly conduct and harassment was ordered to perform community service.  So where was he assigned?  To the local YMCA, of course!  Leading the Uniontown YMCA leaders to protest his ARD assignment.  Wouldn’t want any genitals “sliding” around in there, wouldn’t you say? 

I’ve shaken my head so much that it feels like it could fall off.

“HOW” a Rose Blooming

I didn’t get very far on LoHaR this weekend.  My son brought the car home for repairs and a good going-over before the trip to San Francisco, and that meant that I spent a lot of time with him and then drove him back to Meadville on Sunday.  I think I’ll work on this some more this week – at least to finish the “Lo” motif.  That will make me feel like I’ve accomplished something.

Speaking of the SF trip, it looks like I’ll be driving out there with him and then flying back.  Have any of you taken this trip by car?  I’d appreciate any input or advice about routes to take or the best way to do this.  I think we’re looking at a little more than 10 hours of driving per day, since we’ll have 4 days to get from here to there.  There may be a one extra day available, but I’m not sure yet.  

Simple and Sweet

Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, my mom used to stitch along with me.  Well, actually I got her started and then she discovered that a coworker stitched, too.  So they’d spend their lunch times stitching together.  Mom stitched some lovely things, and she had some of them framed, but like the rest of us, she has a bunch of complete but unframed stitching. 

Time went by and Mom’s stitching friend retired.  Dad got sick.  Mom’s vision was hampered by catarcts.  (corrected now, thank goodness) And so on.  Even though I’ve tried to get her going again, she’s just not into it anymore.  So when I visited with her recently, we pulled out a few things that were hiding in bags and drawers and I brought them home to finish them in some way.

I thought this was adorable.  Sure, it’s dated.  Reckons back to when so many charts and kits were “country”.  But I loved its vibrant colors and simplicity.  So I kept the finish simple, too.  Mounted on a piece of mat board and glued to red felt.  Simple dimple.  It’ll look nice in her kitchen.  Or maybe mine?

If you want to know my thoughts on backstitching

You are all so nice about Spring Violets.  Once I wrap my head around it, I’m going to rip out all of the snow stitches so that when I’m in Kansas I can start fresh with some new threads.  I also might consider backstitching the top of the snow, although I’d rather not because a) Backstitching sucks, and b) It doesn’t really fit with the character of the design. 

Oh – my life is so complicated, isn’t it?

This weekend I’ll re-start my “LO” stitchalong with Jennifer and I’m looking forward to that.  Also, DS will be home for the weekend again.  This time it’s to drop off his car for a thorough repair and going-over because in mid May he’s headed to California for the summer again.  Do you remember a few posts ago I mentioned that he had interviewed for an internship in the Chesapeake Bay?  Well, that didn’t work out, but he was offered another internship working in San Francisco Bay.  So on May 12 he’s packing the car and going to Tiburon, California for 12 weeks.  Once again, he won’t be coming home with much money – spending well over half of it on housing ($$) and probably spending what’s left on food and gas.  But it’s a good opportunity and will beef up his resume once he graduates……next year. 

Yeah.  Knock me over with a feather.

Progress. Kind of.

I haven’t been the most dedicated stitcher in the world this month, but I’ve managed a length of floss here and there.  So I’ll show you Spring Violets, even though it doesn’t look all that much different than the last time you saw it.  I’m having some color issues with this.  I know that right now it looks a little too monochromatic, but once I get the border stitched, (gold and green) I think it’ll be fine.  What I’m having a problem with is the snow.  What snow, you ask?  It’s the muddy-ish looking color that’s below the top flowers and above the green.  I’ve tried some GAST Oatmeal, and it looked ok until I got to the white part of the thread.  The white color just disappeared when it was stitched onto the Lavender Bliss Lugana.  I used it in the right side of the snow and you can see that it disappeared at the far right.

On the left I used DMC 3033.  It looks ok, but not great.

Oh – and the colors in the original design are completely different than my colors because the fabric I chose is so completely different.  (You can see the original version here.)  And the conversions from Needlepoint Silks to DMC?  Way off anyway, no matter which fabric you use.  So I’m completely on my own out here. 

That’s the thing about changing color schemes in a design.  You pull out your fabric, lay on all of the threads that you’ve chosen and it all looks good but then when the actual stitching is happening your reaction can range from thrilled to satisfied to ewwwww….wrong, wrong, wrong.

But don’t feel too sorry for me, because (lucky me) in two weeks I’m going to Topeka, Kansas to visit Julie, who, besides being a wonderful  friend, has offered to be my host, tour guide and chauffer for the Heartland Cross Stitch Shop Hop! (She’s so kind – it’s a wonder she didn’t offer to pilot the plane, too.) So I’m almost certain that I’ll find a thread that will work perfectly at one of those wonderful shops and I know that Julie will completely understand if I must stop whatever I’m doing and stitch me up some snow.  Just to be sure.  Because she’s a fellow stitcher and she gets it. 

What on earth would we do without our stitchy friends?

Books, cake, and fun

After Easter I drove to Philadelphia for a lovely evening reception at Anna's, where the guest of honor was Adrienne Martini, who read from and discussed her newest book, Sweater Quest.  I read Adrienne's blog faithfully, so even though I don’t knit, this was a huge treat for me.  Besides, I’ll bet many of us (particularly bloggers) really think about our projects.  We think about why we do what we do.  We think about why a project thrills us or why we want to throw it across the room.  We sometimes push ourselves out of our creative comfort zones, and sometimes that works and it’s all joyful and fulfilling and sometimes we decide to run happily back to what we know.

Anyway, here’s the book and you can find it almost anywhere.  Barnes and Noble had it on their New Fiction table at the store.  Not really fiction, right?  But that’s where it was.

So, where’s the cake?  To see it, you’ll need to go here, and believe you me, it tasted even better than it looked.  I don’t know what it is, but there is something about Philadelphia bakers and how they make only the best tasting cakes in the world.  I’ve lived in the Pittsburgh area for over 30 years now, and I’ve never had a cake here that’s tasted as good as a cake made in Philly.  (If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I have a fondness for cake.  All cake, but especially party cake.  My favorite part of a party? The cake.)

On Friday I had a nice visit with my mother, brother, niece and nephew.  I have some family members who talk non-stop, so there was plenty of opportunity to take out some stitching Friday night.   Heck.  They’re my family.  They don’t mind if I listen with only one ear.  Then I drove back home on Saturday.
 
Sunday evening Dave and I went to another Mountain Stage taping in Morgantown, WV, where we heard some wonderful music.  The show ended with a song tribute to the miners who were killed in the recent Massey mine explosion.  I couldn’t help crying and I know I wasn’t the only one.

I have three good friends who work in the mines.  We know of one miner who goes five miles underground.  Another friend doesn’t go as deep, but when he’s not underground working, he tries to spend all of his time outside.  He just doesn’t want to come in – he needs the freedom of the open air.  I can only imagine what they think when this kind of accident happens. 

OK – more tomorrow and maybe even a stitching photo!

Awesome April

Good morning, gang! 

My husband was really amused that you all liked my wonderful new glasses so much.  It’s so funny – the things that make us happy can be so simple.  But here’s the real puzzle – why didn’t I come up with that idea first? 

OK, back to what’s happening in my life recently.  Or at least what’s bloggable.  (New word:  bloggable)

I got to see Barb again late in March, when I went to watch Colleen run in C.O.W.’s invitational track meet.  We had about an hour to meet for coffee and a quick lunch, which was way too short but better than nothing.  Barb is a lovely person and she’s so gracious when I pop into her town and bug her about getting together.  She always makes time for me and boy-oh-boy can we talk!  I sure hope there’s another stitching retreat in our future.

Let’s see, later there was Easter, which would have been a complete bust if my son hadn’t come home and made us laugh and smile.  And while everything was great in my little immediate family, there were some extended family issues that I don’t want to go into here, but they make the holidays rather painful.  Not “ouch” painful like twisting an ankle, but more “dammit” painful, like a paper cut that smarts at first but then bugs you for days afterward.  But I’ll bet that many of you have been in the same boat at one time or another, so you feel and understand my pain.  Ahhh.  Family.

More tomorrow and I’ll tell you about my recent trip to Philly.

Where Oh Where

Has my blogging motivation gone?  Two posts ago, I was thrilled to pieces (not out loud...just in my head) that I had crossed the 700 post line but then WHAM!  It's as if I can't put words together to form sentences.  And the longer I go without posting, the more difficult it becomes. 

I remember that a while back I read something on a blog (probably Anna's?) that if you want to write, write everyday.  Just write.  Don't worry about it.  So that's my goal for now.  Just write.  Sadly for you, that means that you'll be reading lots of meaningless stuff.   And now I'll stop explaining and just get on with it.

April has been a positively lovely month so far and there are still plenty of things to look forward to before it’s over.  Oh!  But let’s go back to the end of March and my birthday!  I had a wonderful birthday that involved dinner with friends at one of our favorite restaurants, and two great gifts from Dave. 

First was a Roku box for our bedroom TV.  We have one downstairs, but when the kids are home or during golf tournaments I’ll often sneak upstairs to watch a DVD.  (my bedroom TV isn’t hooked up to our Direct TV).  So it’s nice to have some other options, too.  Not to mention that it plays my Pandora stations and several other radio shows that I love!

And the second wonderful gift?  Magnifying eyeglasses with LIGHTS!  Kind of like these Illumineyes, but more stylish looking:

They are faaaabulouuuuuuus!  You can keep your sexy lingerie and sparkly jewelry….give me light up eyeglasses any day!  I can turn off all of the bedroom lights and read in bed without bothering anyone else.  Of course, our goofy friends had to make bawdy jokes about why I would need light up magnifiers in bed, anyway.  But really…he set himself up for it.

Then there were the gifts from my children, which were less - - - tangible.  Because they forgot.  I know they’re busy, so at around 10PM I sent them each a text message:

“It’s still my birthday.”

And then my phone started ringing.  I love making them feel guilty.  I know.  I’m a bad, bad mother.

OK – time to work.  More April Antics tomorrow.