Lake Stitcher

Gotta Get My Groove Back

2012-01-28T13:53:00.000-05:00

Really. It's been 18 days since I visited my own blog. I thought I had lost my blogging groove earlier in the month. Now I know that I did.

I'm blaming it on the pain medicine. I take as little medicine as possible, because it makes me really, really stupid. I wish I was funny-stupid when I take that medicine, But I'm boring stupid. I've been doing things like standing in the grocery store in front of the Mac And Cheese display and staring at it for 15 minutes because there are too many choices.

OK, so...it seems that to get back a writing groove, one must simply write. Just start. And I've decided that I'm going to start with a self-created meme for February - you know, the month of love and Valentines. So my plan is to write about things I love for the 28 days of February.

I'm calling it a month of People, Places and Things that I Love. I tried to make an acronym of that, but it comes out PPTTIL, and if you try to say that it sounds like you're blowing raspberries at someone. So we'll stick with the long version.

And don't think I'm going all sentimental on you, because I think my plan for March will be inspired by March Madness and will be 31 days of things that drive me crazy. As in mad. Get it?

While we're waiting for February to begin, you can look at three little Valentine smalls that I've been playing with in January. I'm also working on a fourth and will have pictures eventually.

Thanks for visiting!

Where has it gone?

2012-01-10T13:30:00.002-05:00

I can't find my blogging motivation. I sure hope that one of you found it on your doorstep and now you're posting and stitching and taking pictures like a maniac. I'd be very happy to know that it has found a good home, so if you have it, please let me know.

Sigh...

Anyways, I think it's interesting that almost all of the people who wrote or commented about their oldest charts or kits dated their answer to the early 80's, with one or two in the late 70's. No one had anything older than that.

I wonder where everyone was buying their needlework in those years. Back then every Five and Dime had a little craft section. You know - back when Five and Dimes existed, like Woolworths, Kresge's, Ben Franklin, Murphy's, and McCrory's, to name a few that I remember. I even remember going to JCPenney's and buying a couple kits. We could buy needlepoint, crewel embroidery, and stamped pillowcases, dishtowels and tablecloths in any one of those stores. I don't remember many counted thread kits though. Not until a Piece Goods store came to town in the mid-80's and my-oh-my, I thought I was in heaven. I still have some of those Leisure Arts charts, which, by the way, is my answer to the SBQ. My oldest chart is a bread cloth chart, bought in the early 80's. I still love it. I still love my bread cloths! I've given away older ones, but I've always held on to the bread cloth charts.

Hey, does anyone remember the painted fabric kits for pillowcases and sheets, etc? I remember that my mom and a set. She had paint in tubes with roller balls - a lot like a ball point pen. And she'd put her pillowcase in a hoop that had a solid center and she'd color over the X's. That would have been in the 60's. Does that ring a bell with anyone?

OK, enough of my trip down memory lane. I have one lonely finish to show you - a gift for my walking buddy, who has a tuxedo cat. She loved it.

From A Prairie Christmas, PS Book 10

Stitched with DMC on a scrap of unknown linen and backed with the fabric you see here.

Changed color of the kitty to black and gave him tuxedo markings.

Now it's time to decide if I should keep working on the Christmas stuff that I didn't finish in 2011, or put it away and give it a good effort next year. I don't know...Christmas seems so DONE. But I also need to feel like I've finished something.

Decisions, decisions.

January SBQ

2012-01-02T05:10:00.003-05:00

Here's a great way to start your New Year - with a Stitching Bloggers' Question!

Many of us are taking stock, counting and organizing our stash at this time of year, so CinDC's question for this month is super relevant.

What's the oldest pattern in your stash? (Either the one with the earliest publication date or the one you bought the longest ago.) What's it's story? Have you stitched it?

I may have turned the corner

2011-12-28T08:54:00.000-05:00

This neck/arm/hand thing has been feeling better for the past day or so. The pain is down to a dull ache most of the time - much better than the roaring pain I had been feeling for the past three weeks.

I actually sat and stitched for a bit last night. It was really weird holding a needle with a numb thumb, but I managed a couple of rows of stitches and it felt like a huge accomplishment. Heck, just sitting here and typing this seems huge, too!

Maybe I'll be back to my normal and idiotic post-writing self soon.

Ouch

2011-12-13T09:25:00.000-05:00

I'm not stitching much lately. I have this very annoying pinched nerve in my neck. Usually it goes away in a day or two, but this SOB is not cooperating with me. The doc says to "keep moving", but I seem to alternate between moving and being completely immobile. Like a statue. I'm not good at dealing with pain and I'm cranky as all get-out.

But anyway.

I had a wonderful, wonderful visit with my friends Carol and Linda on Friday. We met for some shopping and lunch, and then we were headed to a local library to stitch, but when we asked our waitress for directions she told us to use their empty side room. Perfect! So we sat by a big picture window and stitched the afternoon away.

And there were a couple of surprises! Our Linda had been antique shopping and found us these wonderful scissor frogs! Now my scissors can live in beauty. They were getting tired of the suppository mold. Isn't it pretty?

And Carol, our Over One Queen, stitched these ornaments for Linda and me. Linda and I both agree that Carol is the touchstone when it comes to over one stitching. In my stitching history, I've seen lots of models and finishes, but Carol's over one stitching is absolutely perfect. As you can see....

And here is where it lives on my kitchen Christmas tree!

Well my bloggy friends, this is the limit of my computer time. My neck, shoulder and arm are screaming at me already. I have so many comments that I want to leave on your blogs - everyone's stitching at this time of year is so gorgeous. But I promise to catch up with all of you after this bugger resolves itself. And I'll catch up with you so much that you'll be sick of me!

Till next time!

HSE Freebie

2011-12-05T05:56:00.000-05:00

This is the 2011 Homespun Elegance freebie, generously shared by Sandra on the Plain and Fancy Merchant blog. I changed the colors a little bit, using light grey for the windows and dark grey for the roof shingles where she used dark browns. I also used my HDF silks in place of the GAST and some of the DMC. And I sure wish you could see the gold sparkly flecks in the fabric!

Thank you everybody, for the nice things you said about my new kitchen. If only I could have you all over for a huge dinner party now!

December SBQ!

2011-12-05T05:40:00.002-05:00

From the fabulous CinDC over at Pencil Crossings, here is our December Question of the Month. You can use this as a writing prompt for your own blog post or you can leave a comment. It's totally up to you.

Name your favorite designer(s). Have your tastes changed over time?

Before and After Kitchen

2011-12-04T09:53:00.000-05:00

Hear ye, Hear ye! As of today, you will not be subjected to reading my whining about my kitchen remodel anymore! Because we are done. It's over. (Do you hear the trumpets sounding?)

As promised, here are my before and after pictures. I didn't take any pictures of the process because I want to forget that mess. Why keep pictures that make me nervous?

OK, the first photo is taken from my dining area, which is two steps below the kitchen. I took this photo after I I had removed most of the stuff from the cabinets and countertops, so you won't really see how cluttered my counters were. At this point, the microwave, the breadbox and most everything else had been moved. And that's why there are fire extinguishers and a step stool on the floor.

Notice the 1960's style cabinets. (I think these are also in Betty Draper's Mad Men kitchen). The lack of decent light. The really bad drywall ceiling. The handmade scalloped border on the bulkhead. The vinyl tile floor - surplus from a Burger King kitchen somewhere. The portable dishwasher. Part of the laminate of the countertop missing. So that was it. The extent of my cabinet and counter space.

And here is after.The dishwasher is built in and replaced by a rolling center island. We replaced the drywall ceiling with tongue and groove pine, added recessed lighting in the ceiling and under cabinet lighting. We replaced the Burger King vinyl with ceramic, bought when we added the family room nine years ago. And lucky us...there was just enough.

My refrigerator area. I needed the space on top to fit cereal boxes and miscellaneous crap I used that wouldn't fit in my limited cabinets. Like the salad spinner and plastic pitchers. You can glimpse some of my counter top clutter in this picture.

After - with the fridge inside its own cabinet and a cabinet above. For those pesky cereal boxes.

This is a photo of the doorway that leads to our family room. I had a bakers rack by the door and it housed my cookbooks, some decorative stuff and the bottom shelf usually held my step stool and a bunch of other clutter. Like potatoes. Onions. Pepsi. And you can see how very lovely that ancient portable dishwasher was, with its fossilized Strawberry Shortcake stickers that were impossible to remove.

So here is the after photo. Replaced the bakers rack with a glass front cabinet and a really useful base cabinet. We moved the sink into the corner to add a built in dishwasher. YES!

Ah, the clutter. The lack of cabinetry!

It's amazing how much more space we had when we put the microwave over the stove instead of on the counter. And the appliance garage really clears those counters even more. Garbage was moved inside a sliding cabinet near the sink.

Here's the other side of the cabinet that replaced the bakers rack. It faces the kitchen dining area and houses my cookbooks and my WINE. So I can sit in that chair and just reach over and grab a bottle anytime I want. Hey...there are empty spaces there. Gotta remedy that.

And finally, here's a photo with the rolling island moved out of the center. When I'm cooking, I like having that little island handy near the stove. It houses my cutting boards, plastic wrap, foil, tupperware and eventually it'll hold my knives. But knew I'd want to roll it out of the way when we have company. People always stood around my dishwasher when I'd have parties and it created a big traffic jam in the kitchen.

So that's it. I still have a couple tiny cosmetic things to fix in the kitchen dining area. Like re-covering the cold air returns, painting its ceiling and changing the wallpaper. But otherwise my kitchen is finished.

Thanks for putting up with my whining over these past two months! I honestly could have made a career of it. But it's all over now. Thank heavens! Maybe I'll even have some stitching to share one of these days...

Hey...that's not funny

2011-12-01T12:00:00.001-05:00

You may know how I love blogs that make light of things. Well, that make fun of things. Ok, I'll 'fess up and say I love blogs that are a bit snarky. So you know I love the blog Catalog Living. But yesterday I felt like the target of a snark.

Tell me the first thing you see when you go here.
I'll wait.
*
*
*
*
*
*
Did you not say to yourself: Wow, cool scissors.
Ouch.

As if we scissor collectors are a strange bunch. Well, I never....

A little less than successful

2011-11-30T06:03:00.002-05:00

Well, out of the 30 days of NaBloPoMo in November, I wrote 23 blog posts. Sometimes I wrote a couple in one day, so I actually wrote on only 21 days. Eh. Not quite perfect. Worse than in 2010 (24 posts) and worse than in 2009 (26 posts). But better than 2008 (NINE posts).

And it's still better than my meager six posts in October and only ONE post in September. (Gasp! Really?)

And how lame is this to write a post about posts? I can hardly count it. But I will!

December can only improve from here...

Needed a writing prompt today

2011-11-29T13:41:00.000-05:00

I have zero stitching to show you and I've had a few days with absolutely nothing to write about. Unless the thought of reading about bookkeeping and housework gives you thrills, then maybe I could be your favorite writer.

So I'm using a NaBloPoMo writing prompt today. And now I'll stop whining and get to it:

Describe an heirloom that has been passed down through generations of your family. What is its significance to you personally?

I have a couple favorite things that used to belong to my grandparents. I don't know that they are exactly heirlooms - they have no special monetary value, but lots of sentimental value.

This first piece is from my paternal grandmother's kitchen. I used to spend some weekends with her, and we'd get up each morning and put bread in one of those 1920 style toasters - where the bread fits into doors that fold up - and then she'd have me grind her coffee beans. It was my favorite job. And it was probably the source of my love for good coffee, too.

The next pieces are old carnival glasses that were my maternal grandfather's. They were souvenirs from trips to the Trenton Fair in 1914 and from Atlantic City in 1909. His Aunt Ivy took him on those trips - one of the glasses has her name on it, and his name is on the other two. I'm guessing that she brought the 1909 glass back as a gift - he would have been a baby. But he would have been five years old in 1914, so he may have actually gone to the Trenton Fair.

I can only imagine my grandfather's glee at going to the fair. Here's a description of the Trenton Fair at around that time:

Local prominent businessmen, wanting to establish the fair as an annual event with a permanent location and a racetrack, organized the Inter-State Fair Association in 1888. More than one hundred acres were purchased, which includes the present-day acreage of the sculpture park.

The Inter-State Fairs were a huge success, drawing crowds to view the displays of various breeds of horses, cattle and other livestock, agricultural products and farming equipment, culinary arts and needlework. Midway attractions, entertainment featuring daredevil stunts, and horse races were always popular with the spectators. Special events held that first year included a shooting match between Annie Oakley and Miles Johnson, and demonstrations of horsemanship and lassoing by cowboys and Indians from Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show. Parachutists jumping from hot-air balloons thrilled audiences in the 1890s. Starting at the turn of the century, death defying shows starring pioneers of aerial navigation, including Harriet Quimby, one of the first women to hold a pilot's license, and automotive racing, were booked to entertain the crowds filling the grandstand. As horses were replaced by automobiles for transportation, cars became the main attraction on the fairground's racetrack.

Photo from Trentonhistory.org

So those two things - the glasses and the coffee grinder - make me remember my connection to my grandparents again . They'll never appear on Antiques Roadshow, but that connection makes them precious to me.

The places I've shopped

2011-11-26T21:03:00.001-05:00

What a meme! Stolen from Anna, who lifted it from JHM, over at Needleworker's Samplings:

Here's a list of the places I've shopped, and I've narrowed it down to places I've physically visited and handed over $$. I didn't include places I've only dealt with via mail order. Nor did I include chain stores like Hobby Lobby, JoAnns, Michaels, etc. Also - Those with (*) are gone. And if anyone has any feedback or can help me remember correct names or towns, please leave a comment. Oh, and by the way, the list may seem long, but remember... I'm old as dirt.

(edited 11-30-11)

In Pennsylvania:
Covered Bridge Needlearts, Bridgewater
Stitch and Stuff, Erie
Strawberry Sampler, Chadds Ford
*The Stitchery, West Mifflin
*Noble Craftsman, Pittsburgh
*Thread Connection, Pittsburgh
*The French Knot, Canonsburg
Little Country Cross Stitch, Murraysville
*Teatime Stitchery, Monroeville
Ye Old Cross Stitcher, Bristol
*The Count of Cross Stitch, Carlisle
Lil Boden; Intercourse
Kranberry Kupboard, Horsham
Peace of Thread, Southampton
*Hatboro Cross Stitch Shop, Hatboro
*Knots and Whatknots, Uniontown (yes, we actually had a little shop in my hometown)
Hand Dyed Fibers, Williamstown
*Needle Nook, Ligonier
*Farrells Hook, Line and Stitch, Meadville
(categorizing this as gone because they discontinued their stitching supplies and decided to focus on fly-tying. Really.)

In Ohio:
Crafty Ewe, Cleveland
Clares Stitching Post, Vermilion
Cross My Heart, Columbus
Just Stitching, Strongsville
*Stitching House, Berlin

In Kansas and Missouri:
Picture This Plus, Abilene KS
Sunflower Seed,Topeka KS
Two the Point, Overland Park KS
CC and Company, Blue Springs MO
Old Mill Stitchery, Liberty MO
Stitch On Needlework, Lawrence, KS

In Maryland:
Four Seasons Stitchery, Grantsville
The Stitching Post, Baltimore
Salty Yarns, Ocean City

On Vacations or Retreats in other places:
Victorian Sampler, Cape May NJ
Needlepoint, Inc. San Francisco CA
Haus Tirol, Williamsburg
The Counting House, Pawleys Island SC
Silver Needle, Tulsa OK
The Woolen Mills, Dublin Ireland
Hearts Desire - Shop is in Wichita KS and I've never been there, but I've been to their retreat and made a couple purchases there.

Other Places I know I've shopped but can't remember their names:
A tiny shop tucked away in Downtown Charleston SC
Little shop on Third Ave on Stone Harbor NJ
One in Atlanta GA about 25 years ago
Two shops in Cincinnati, also 25 years ago

Shops I really, really, REALLY need to visit at some time in my life:
Shepherd's Bush, Utah
Stitch and Frame Shop, Rock Hill SC
Nordic Needle
Attic Needlework
And I'm sure I'll think of more!

I know, I know

2011-11-23T12:37:00.000-05:00

I said I wouldn't be back for a couple days and I even posted a little heartfelt blessing, so you would think that I would exit blogging gracefully at least till Saturday.

But this was way too good to keep to myself.

And now your Thanksgiving is complete.

For Thanksgiving

2011-11-22T17:05:00.000-05:00

I know that I start to fret the day before every holiday. Did I buy enough (fill in your own blank)? Will the weather turn bad? Will the food be ready in time? Is my house clean enough?

And the biggest one - Will my turkey be dry?

So I may need to skip out on blogging tomorrow, so today I want to wish all my friends a Happy Thanksgiving. Whether you are celebrating with a boisterous crowd or by taking the day for some much needed quiet time with your own thoughts or if you're celebrating somewhere in between, this little Irish blessing sums up my wishes for you.

"May you be blessed with
warmth in your home,
love in your heart,
peace in your soul
and joy in your life."

See you after the holiday!

A list for Santa

2011-11-21T10:04:00.000-05:00

Here is a list from the comments of your most UN-favorite Christmas gifts. If my children are reading this, I hope they appreciate those windshield wipers now.

1. A vacuum cleaner
2. A scientific calculator
3. Mens leather work gloves
4. Bad pajamas
5. Shoes with 2 inch heels
6. Generic legos
7. Orange jelly candies, wrapped with a shoe. Yes, one shoe. To make it heavy.
8. A bar of soap

And two that fall into the category of positively painful -

9. A bundle of sticks wrapped with twine and (with a live spider), to make her home more "stylish"

10. A slide rule, when she had asked for a skate board.

*******************************************************************

I had a busy (but still relaxing) weekend of putting the last things away in the kitchen, followed up by a bit of shopping for odds and ends at Bed Bath and Beyond. I'm super pleased - the added storage feels positively luxurious and the added counters make it seem like I have acres of space. And the lighting? I have enough lights now to land an airplane. Quite different than the one ceiling fixture I had before.

Oh - and outlets! I had three outlets before, and one didn't work. And once I plugged in my microwave, toaster and refrigerator, that left me with a place to plug in exactly one thing. Unless I was running the portable dishwasher - in which case I had zero. Just think, now I can make coffee and use a mixer. At the same time!

I'm still missing almost all of the window, door and ceiling trim in both rooms- so I don't have pictures for you yet. So while my kitchen is functional, it's still not totally pretty. Hopefully next week things will be completely back to normal...except I know that deer hunting season starts Monday, meaning that all work in Fayette County gets put on hold until it's over.

Now I'm off to the airport to pick up my son - happy, happy me!

Tis the Season

2011-11-18T17:19:00.000-05:00

Awww. You all are way too nice with you stitchy compliments. You make a girl blush. Thank you.

So. My daughter and I have been trading emails lately because she has an idea of what she wants for Christmas and wants to make sure I know what it is, because it appears that my gift giving skills have been sub-par lately. She doesn't want to run the risk of me running out and buying something similar to last year's gift.

December 2010:
Daughter: Hey Mom, I think I know what I want for Christmas (or birthday - whatever).
Me: Oh really, well I've already bought your gift.
Daughter: Ohhhhh. Okay.
Me: You're gonna love it. It's great.

Christmas morning 2010:
Daughter: You got me... windshield wipers?
Me: Yeah! Aren't they the best?
Daughter:.......................(silence).

Personally, I think new windshield wipers are the perfect Christmas gift. You never think to buy them until it's pouring rain and you can't see. Or till they get caked with ice and then you're driving down the road and they fly off your car. It's one of those little things that only your mother would remember. Like warm socks. But for your car's windshield.

Well anyway, so here comes Christmas 2011 and she sends me this email of the thing she wants and makes no bones about telling me that her 2010 windshield wipers are in fine shape and she doesn't need anymore, thank-you-very-much.

Ahem. These kids don't know from dumb gifts. My parents gave me a vanity suitcase full of deodorant one year. And it had an electric razor inside, too. I was twelve. Evidently I was one smelly and hairy prepubescent girl. That was a sucky gift. It was sub-sub-par.

What was your most memorable sub-par gift as a kid? Or as a young adult. Write about it. Because I want to go read your blogs and then buy every one of those gifts for my children.

They're going to wish they had windshield wipers when I'm through with my shopping this year.

Another Ornament stitched!

2011-11-18T06:06:00.000-05:00

I finished stitching another of my ornament kits from our Erie get-together. This one was from our Carol, who stitches many beautiful ornaments all through the year and is our local Queen of Over One Stitching! Carol chose the Sampler Girl design from the 2011 JCS Ornament issue, and even packed some finishing fabric and trim for us.

The colors are brighter in real life - it's so hard to get nice pictures during this time of year!

I have a kitchen report for you - My counter top was installed yesterday and I think it looks really nice. My sink will be workable again and the appliances should be back in place by this afternoon, and then probably another day or so will be needed for the rest of the trim in the room and I should be ready to cook Thanksgiving dinner. How's that for just squeaking by?

Once it's all over with, I'll show you some before and after pictures. I didn't take any "during" pictures - I don't want to remember that part....

Decisions

2011-11-17T11:11:00.000-05:00

Am I going to blog?
Am I going to straighten up my stash so that I can actually find stuff?
Or am I going to stitch?

The fellows are installing my counter top today, and the smell of glue is making me very indecisive. Maybe I should say - even more indecisive than usual.

Maybe I'll be back later...or not. Rats. Another bit of indecision.

Describe a favorite place

2011-11-15T13:48:00.000-05:00

I'll be using one of the NaBloPoMo writing prompts today because I'm having a hard time coming up with anything that doesn't sound like so much blah, blah, blah. So today I'm going to share some favorite stitching places.

I have several favorite places for stitching...mostly it's wherever I can stitch with friends!

Panera Bread meeting rooms are great. Sometimes they're not the cleanest places in the world, but the staff is usually accommodating and will come and clean if you ask. I frequent two Paneras and I think that they finally get that stitchers are a little persnickety about having clean work spaces.

Every fall I stitch at a small B&B for an extended weekend and it's sheer luxury. On a cold fall day, its warm and cozy and we are truly waited on, hand and foot. There's nothing like stitching in the afternoon and smelling the cookies that the host is taking from the oven. That's just one of the many things I love about it.

I like stitch "camps", too. These are usually with big groups - like 30 or more. I've been to bunkhouses, hunting cabins, and retreat centers. It's not luxury but it feels so much like being a kid at camp again. Except the arts and crafts are better, and the sing-alongs only happen after a bottle of wine or two has been opened.

In the winter we go to a resort and rent a huge modern "cabin" that sleeps 16. It also has fantastic lighting, room for lots of stitchers and a kitchen to die for. One thing I really like about it is that it's so spacious that our dining and stitching areas can be completely separate, so there's no risk of spillage and we don't have to put away all the stitching while we eat. Eating is family style, meaning that all of us sit at the dining room table at once. It has a great gas fireplace, but being that we're women of "a certain age", someone is always too hot or too cold, so we leave that be.

And there you have it! Some of my favorite places! Where are yours?

Sometimes the heavens tell you what to do

2011-11-14T13:51:00.000-05:00

As I told you yesterday, a good part of my weekend was spent driving around Ohio. Is it my imagination, or is it just that I'm noticing these things more because we bought a camper, or is there actually a camper in every yard and driveway in the state of Ohio?

So Saturday morning, Dave and I pulled out of the driveway at 6AM and hit the road for Oberlin and the Great Lakes Regional Cross Country Meet. It was a pretty uneventful drive, except for when Dave panicked after looking at the car's clock and couldn't figure out why we were so running so late. Well...I hadn't set that clock back. So all was well.

And we were driving, driving, driving all along flat, flat Ohio, when I looked up in the sky and saw this! Stitches in the sky!

They followed us for quite a way...an omen, maybe? Directing me to a shop maybe? Hmmm.

OK, so we arrived at the meet, set up the picnic, then watched my daughter run in her last meet of the season. She's had a great year and capped it off with another great run. Not bad for such a little shortcake.

So we hung out for the picnic, cleaned up, then started for home. Except that I reminded him that the heavens had told us we had to make one more stop before we could go home.

So we stopped to visit Just Stitching in Strongsville. It was ok, but I think the shop's stitching "personality" didn't sync with mine. Not that it wasn't a nice place or that it didn't have nice things. We must just have different tastes. I came away with one chart - another Silver Creek sampler. There was a really nice stitched model in the shop. Don't you love to see models!

2011-11-13T13:46:00.000-05:00

I'm having a crazy busy weekend, including a trip to Oberlin, Ohio to watch my daughter run in her last cross country race of the year. She had a great day, finishing 31st in her NCAA Regional Meet and qualifying for an All-Region medal. It was a nice bit of bling to take home after a wonderful season of running. Of course I'm biased, but I think she's an amazing young woman.

Tonight I have a board meeting...yes, on a Sunday night! That's the trouble with these volunteer boards. They tend to meet at odd times.

Monday will seem relaxing by comparison!

The color of a good husband

2011-11-11T15:52:00.000-05:00

I thought you might be interested to know the majority of comments about the preferred thread colors of a good husband were in the blue to green category. Some ventured off the blue and green path to include khaki, and one rather unique person said periwinkle (but if you read her comment, it totally makes sense).

My very good husband looks fantastic in green, so I'm going to stick with my green thread opinion.

I have a tiny bit of stitching to show you today. I finished one of the exchange kits we received during our retreat - Barb's version of the LHN ornament. So much fun!

Barb also included some yummy wool felt for finishing it as an ornament. I'm not that far yet, but soon...

Switching gears to a more serious note - The news about the Penn State scandal fills me with disgust. As a parent, I can tell you that if my child was a victim of this type of crime, I'd want the balls on a plate of every single person who didn't report this crime. To the police.

Since when does your employer dictate your actions as a citizen? Here's an exercise. Every time you read an article or hear a news story about this scandal, change the term "molesting a child" (a crime) to "murdering a child" (hmm - also a crime). When I think of it that way, I can't justify any reason for not reporting these incidents to the police. No matter what my Employee Handbook says.

My favorite thread color

2011-11-10T11:38:00.000-05:00

I approached this question as if I had only one color that I could stitch with for the rest of my life. There are so many amazing thread colors out there...so in order to choose just one, I had to look at it as if it was a life decision. (Too dramatic? Yeah, maybe...)

Anyway, if I had to choose one color of thread to make me happy for a lifetime, it would be RED. I love red samplers. I love redwork quilts. So I think I could be happy with a lifetime of red.

Of course, red can also break my heart. Red is kind of like having a bad boyfriend. It seems like a color of strength and passion. It's all awesome looking and happy and while you're working with it you'd like to think that nothing bad can happen. This time, it'll all be perfect. But you kind of know in your heart that it's not going to take much for red to bolt. One day a tiny bit of water will make things just slightly imperfect and red will get all annoyed with you and start to run. Still, here's the thing - Red will make you cry, but for some reason you just keep going back for more.

So if red is a bad boyfriend color, what is a good husband color? I'm thinking green. Any thoughts?

Library referendum

2011-11-09T10:21:00.000-05:00

It looks like I'm one of many who loves the libraries.

The Library Funding Referendum passed.

Stitching Bloggers Question for November

2011-11-09T10:09:00.000-05:00

No, your eyes don't deceive you. The SBQ is making a comeback!

Some of you may remember that I hosted the SBQ for one year, then offered to pass the hosting along in April.

There were no takers back in April and I was feeling burnt out so the SBQ fizzled, but recently CinDC, who writes over on the blog Pencil Crossings, has offered to feed me questions if I'll continue to host the project. Cheryl says she misses the SBQ and she's decided to do something about it. She's a busy working mom with twin preschool daughters, and yet she's preparing creative questions for our blog entertainment. You go, girl! How could I turn that down?

So look for a new question on the first Monday of each month. Or thereabouts. (Since it's actually Wednesday already...Where did those days go?)

OK - here is the November SBQ:

What's your favorite color of thread? Pick just one. Why do you like it?

Yes. Just one. This simple question may be harder to answer than we think...

Who loves her libraries? This girl does!

2011-11-08T10:09:00.000-05:00

Today is a big day for The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. City voters are being asked to support their library. From the group Our Library, Our Future:

Supporters of the Our Library, Our Future initiative are asking Pittsburgh residents to vote YES on a referendum on the ballot in November for a 0.25 mill special tax on all taxable real estate in the City of Pittsburgh to be allocated and used only for the maintenance and operation of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. (This is the equivalent of $25 per year or $2.09 per month on $100,000 of assessed value.) If passed, this referendum will help provide Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh with the diverse and sustainable funding it needs to continue to provide the critical services the community wants and needs.

It's unthinkable to me that anyone would not support this referendum. $2.09 per month? I have that much change floating around in the bottom of my purse at the end of each month. I would even pay much more than that to have a viable library in my community. In fact, I do. I'm not one of the lucky people who lives in a community that gives everyone library cards, so I have to pay for my card. Well...cards. I pay $30 per year to use the Carnegie Library system, and $35 per year to use my small community library. And it's worth every penny.

Without our community libraries, I fear that we'll become Amazon.com world. Don't get me wrong, Amazon.com has its use. We bought our last TV from Amazon. But Amazon isn't really interested in helping you or expanding your reading horizons. Amazon just wants to sell you stuff. Barnes and Noble is only slightly better, although not quite as blatant about it.

When is the last time Amazon.com read a story to your child? When did Barnes and Noble let you use its computers to access the internet? When did Amazon.com help you write a resume, or provide a job search workshop? When did Barnes and Noble let you use a meeting room, research your genealogy in their store or teach you how to use Excel? For free.

When was the last time Amazon.com said, "Here, take these 6 books. Any six books at all. Take them to your house, give them a read and then just bring them back. No extra charge. Oh, and if we don't have what you want, no worries. We'll get it for you. For-freakin'-free."

Really. So please support your libraries.

A Few "New to Me" Bloggers

2011-11-06T22:56:00.000-05:00

Recently I've discovered some bloggers who I didn't know about before, and thought you might like to know about them, too.

There's Beth over at Garden Grumbles and Cross Stitch Fumbles

Also Penny who resides at Larkspur Lane.

Check out Astrid's blog, called Cross Stitched by Astrid.

And finally, I was happy to find Syd's blog, called Syd's Stitching Room.

Pop over to their blogs. See some great stitching!

One more cool Erie thing

2011-11-05T18:42:00.000-04:00

Look at this amazing glass mug! Linda's husband Bob works for a glass etching company and has made some wonderful pieces, but these are particularly special! It's a beautiful shade of purple. Grape-y!

We all wondered why Linda had asked us to sign our names in Sharpie on a 3X5 card...Now we know! Thanks Linda!

Pictures from Deep Creek

2011-11-04T11:09:00.000-04:00

As I was telling you yesterday, a couple weeks ago I spent a wonderful morning and afternoon with some stitchers on a retreat in a gorgeous house in Deep Creek, Maryland. Deep Creek is only about a 30 minute drive for me, and since I usually drive over an hour for stitching meet-ups, this felt as if it was in my own backyard. So I met some old friends there and even made some new ones - a day well spent!

Nancy was working on this lovely sampler by Heartstring Samplery. The color variation in her thread isn't very visible in this photo, but in person the end result is really charming.

When she wanted to switch projects, Nancy brought out this stocking she has in the works, made of felt and embellished with embroidery. It's going to be a knockout when it's done!

Colleen was working on Primitive Needle's Kindred Spirits. Really wonderful design, made even better by her fabric choice.

Linda frequently chooses designs with thoughtful sayings. I think it reflects her kind heart!

Janice, lover of most things Quaker and/or French was working on this design. Janice always seems to pick designs that I love and want, but unlike me, she actually stitches them. This designers name is on the tip of my tongue and I just can't remember it.

Andrea was stitching a BRD piece. It's a cute, small design! Nice for a day stitching with friends.

I met a new-to-me stitcher, Becky, whose over-one Halloween piece was awesome. It's on some kind of silver/grey evenweave - a great background for those colors.

Another new friend, Lynn had a wonderful farm scene in her Qsnaps. I don't remember the designer, but with the trains, it makes me think of a Patricia Gaskin design?

And finally, here's my work for the day, as I continued with La D Da's Pumpkins Three. It's pretty simple, on white linen with DMC 4130. It may be tea or coffee dyed when it's done. Not sure I'm crazy about the bright white...

And that was my day at Deep Creek!

Erie Weekend Stitching

2011-11-03T10:05:00.000-04:00

I'm back with more about our Erie weekend!

First of all, I wanted to show you these little pincushions I made for everyone. I love a simple 4-patch design and sometime over the year I found this awesome grape fabric, so I knew I had to make these. Finding the grape charms was a bit of a challenge, but Linda directed me to Artbeads.com and they had just what I needed. The little pincushions are a snap to make, and they're even easier if you follow this tutorial. Her method for attaching the buttons is especially helpful.

For our first night, I was working on a La D Da pumpkin design, but soon after we had all arrived and settled in, we did our ornament kit exchange. So the next morning I got started on Barb's kit, the design from LHN. I love, love, love it! I also loved all the other kits, and I'll show them to you as I get them started between now and Christmas, but in the meantime, here's my progress on Barb's.

A lovely mottled linen, and GAST and DMC threads!

And as for the other girls, here's what they had going on!

Carol's Thanksgiving PS. Carol is a PS expert!

One of Pam's 2011 Challenge pieces, a whimsical Halloween house from a magazine, but I don't remember which magazine. Pam - a little help here?

Barb's start on my ornament kit. As of today, she says she's almost done. Way to go Barb!

Linda's awesome project, stitched as a gift for a friend she grew up with in Cleveland and who has since moved to the other side of the world. Literally!

We had a wonderful time together, with lots of stitching, talking, sharing and laughing. It always ends too soon though. We get these weekends once a year and it's kind of funny when I start getting the "countdown" emails - we look forward to them like kids at Christmas.

In other news around the lake house, my kitchen sink has returned! I will never take a sink for granted again. I've been painting ceiling boards, and hope that the contractor will have the ceiling completely in by tomorrow. Now a floor would be nice...

Oh, and later I'll have more pics to share, too, because earlier in October I visited with some other stitchers. They let me drop in for a day during their retreat in Deep Creek MD, since I live practically around the corner (and I kind of invited myself...). Does anyone remember the old SNL skits with John Belushi - the ones where he played The Thing That Wouldn't Leave? Um. Yeah.

See you tomorrow!

Zombies and other things

2011-11-02T09:46:00.000-04:00

So last night while I was stitching and watching my zombie show, I got so excited that my arms flew out and my needle went flying. I'm still hunting for it, because I'll bet you dollars to donuts that it finds its way into my husband's foot and then he'll have to walk like this:

Anyway, forgetting about the zombies for a moment, you may be just slightly more interested to read that I've been stitching! I'll tell you, if not for my stitching buds, I doubt I'd have anything to show you. I thank heaven for my stitching friends. They keep me motivated and visits with them make me sit down, take a breath and remember how much I love my stitching.

And now I can share a finish with you. A bit of backstory - There's this wonderful group of women I met through blogging. Beyond stitching and blogging, we all had bits and pieces of our lives that were in common with each other and well...these great friendships formed! We started getting together here and there, and then we decided to spend a stitching weekend together. It was a wonderful trip, and now it's a yearly tradition!

So here are my Erie Girls and me:

Clockwise from the top, that's me, Carol, Pam, Linda and Barb, just before our gourmet breakfast!

We like to do small exchange gifts for each other, and this year's exchange was really fun. Since we all buy the JCS Ornament issue, we each chose one of this year's ornaments and then put together 5 identical kits for each other. (Five, because our innkeeper is a stitcher, too and we wanted to give her a little something. She treats us so well!)

For my kits, I chose Little By Little's ornament, Joy of the Snowflake. So I started stitching my model in the charted colors (blue and brown) and while I liked it, it wasn't thrilling me. The blue was lovely, but the brown snowflakes? Not so much.

So I raided my fabric box and my Vikki Clayton silks and came up with this:

PTP 32ct linen (Phoenix) and HDF Kali and White Chocolate

Tomorrow I'll show you the kits I received and other stitching we had going on over the weekend. I can promise you some great stuff!

Waiting for the plumber

2011-11-01T11:22:00.000-04:00

And waiting. And waiting. I could be here all day. The hard part about the waiting is wanting to fill my time with something productive, but feeling so distracted that I can't wrap my head around anything. The good thing is that he has promised to arrive today and that means I may get my kitchen sink back again! One of the hardest parts about this kitchen remodel has been washing dishes in the basement. And not being able to strain pasta or noodles near the stove. Ah, little sink. How I miss you!

This catch-as-you-can food situation has been killing my healthy diet, too. My WW weigh-in was not exactly a cause for celebration last week.

I'm blaming it on the plumber. Works for me.

Anywho...Today starts National Blog Posting Month, when we join a group and promise to write a blog post every day. You can read more about it here. BlogHer offers us a daily writing prompt - a nice jump start when your writing battery is dead - and I liked today's prompt, so I'm going to run with it.

What is your favourite part about writing?

Well, I'll tell you. My favorite part about writing is expressing what I really mean. When I write, I don't just type away and hit "publish" or "send". I write, I backspace, I cut, I paste. And when it's all done, I like to think that what I've just produced for someone to read is pretty darn close to what I intended.

I wish I could tell you that my conversational skills were as well thought out. I say the wrong things all the time. Oh no...I don't just screw up words. That would probably be kind of funny in a self-deprecating humor kind of way. I just say stupid, inappropriate stuff. I say things that make me wish there was a three second delay as a part of my conversation, just so I could suck back whatever dumb thing I've just said. There's nothing like saying something that you think is a joke and watching someone's blank face just stare back at you. Or telling a story that you know you never should have been let up for air. Or rambling. You know, when you realize you've just rambled on way past your original point and you see your conversational partner's eyes are totally glazed over.

Then there are all the things that go unsaid. The responses that form in my head that never make it to my mouth, and I know I'm thinking them and I should say them, but then I weenie out. Or the times I go totally blank. I'm saying nothing because I have nothing and I really wish I had something!

It seems like I can't strike a balance between saying too much or saying not enough. Seriously, sometimes I think I'm a walking social disaster. But I don't feel that way when I write and that's my favorite part about writing.

Some running about

2011-10-23T12:06:00.000-04:00

I feel as if this fall has passed by me like a speeding train and that would be ok except I'm not moving as fast as the rest of my world seems to be.

My kitchen is still torn apart and that means the dishes are in the living room, miscellaneous everyday food (like cereal and coffee) and the microwave are in the dining room and all of the pots, pans and pantry foods are in a bedroom. Dishes are washed in the basement laundry sink.

I can't stand it. The clutter is driving me bananas! It's also probably why I'm not stitching much. I can't settle down. I need outer order so that I can have inner calm. I'll bet many of us are like that.

I do have some stitching photos to share with you, though. A couple weeks ago I went to the Ohio County Country Fair in Wheeling, WV. Some of my Friday stitching friends had entered pieces in the fair, both for judging and for display, and I was excited to see them all. Here are a few photos that I took with my iPhone. The pictures I took are rather blurry and dark, but you get the idea. And you can see many more photos (and they are much more clear) on this Facebook page

Mirabella's bride, stitched on aida by our friend, Beth

An AMAZING blanket or throw, stitched by a woman from the Wheeling EGA. That's all surface embroidery. The detail is fabulous.

You might recognize a bunch of my samplers. Or maybe not, because they are from long, long ago. One of the oldest samplers I entered, from 1987, won a blue ribbon. And do you see the little gingerbread house and the smalls by it? Those were stitched by our friend, Tammy. The framed Lego piece was stitched by a young boy, and he won a blue ribbon and best of show in the children's category.

I wish I had a better picture of this. Our friend Colleen entered this in the stamped embroidery category and it was beautifully done. We had to step in extra close and we still couldn't tell it was stamped, except that the fabric was obviously not an evenweave. Her stitches were gorgeous. Some might even say "exquisite".

Best in Show

This pillow won a blue ribbon (although I don't know its category?) And it won Best in Show in the entire needlework category. The fabric is hand-dyed somehow - it had a pile like velvet, but I don't know for sure without having touched it. All of the stitches are running stitches - exactly like you would see in a quilt. I'm not quite sure why this wasn't entered with the quilts.

I mean, it was cool and all, but not what I'd call needlework? So I'd be very interested to know the thought process of the judge. Was it because it was an original design? All of the other entries were from kits or stitched from charts - with our own spins, of course. Honestly, I'm not dissing the entry. I'm only curious.

Anyway, we had a fun afternoon at the fair. Stitched a bit, talked a lot and enjoyed seeing some wonderful stitching and quilting.

My other travels have been to watch my daughter's cross country meets. She's having a wonderful season, including a great finish at the All Ohio Meet a couple weeks ago. Despite strong, knock-you-over wind and driving rain, she still finished her 5K in 19:06. Now the women are running 6K's, in preparation for the conference and regional meets.

And thanks to the generosity and mad camera skills of other Wooster Cross Country parents, I'm able to share a couple pictures of my daughter with you. If I had to rely on my own abilities, you'd see pictures that look like this:

Miscellaneous girls running. Who are these people? Not my daughter. Not even any Wooster girls. I am one terrible photographer.

Instead, because someone else arrived (who could actually operate a camera), I can share these pictures from their recent home meet in Wooster:

Almost smiling? Really?

Phew. She makes me tired just to look at her.

I'm getting ready for a fun stitching girls' trip to Erie next weekend. Last year we all prepared an exchange gift bag with things in in that reflected our hometowns. This year we decided to do an exchange from the JCS ornament issue. Since we all were going to buy the issue anyway, we each chose one ornament from the magazine and we're creating 5 kits to exchange with each other. Doesn't that sound exciting? We had the option of kitting it as charted or giving it our own spin. I'm super interested to see our kits! I've stitched up my ornament, but I can't show it to you until after we've done our exchange. It's killing me to have a finish that I can't show you! Especially since it's my only one in almost forever...

Mystery solved

2011-10-11T08:31:00.000-04:00

Or as Inspector Clouseau used to say, "Mystery Solve Ed."

Well my dears, your wait is over. There were many guesses, and some of you were quite close, but eight of you hit the answer right on the nose. Or some other body part...

Eight of you correctly guessed that this:

Is actually an old suppository mold. Way back when, pharmacists did a lot more compounding. Pills, ointments, salves and syrups. And obviously, suppositories. I remember that Dave's uncle made his own diaper rash cream and that stuff was miraculous. He called it Binns Ointment. A few pharmacies are still compounding, but very few. Ahhh. The good old days. When the pharmacist didn't have to spend 7 of his or her 8 hours a day on the phone with insurance companies.

Anyway, this morning I popped eight names into this pretty little bowl. It was also one of the few bowls I could find this morning. Have I mentioned the words "kitchen remodel" lately? Anyway -

And the winner was:

When did my hands get so wrinkly?

So Astrid, I'll drop you a line soon and you'll be getting a small gifty from me in the near future!

I'm also going to send a little something to Barb, because she was the very first correct guess.

Thanks everybody, and I hope you had some fun!

Big happenings

2011-10-09T13:24:00.000-04:00

YAY! My kitchen remodeling will begin this Tuesday!

UGH. I have to empty my kitchen and prepare for this. I've already started by moving my decorative things and some of the kitchen furniture. Today I'll be emptying the cabinets, starting with the one under the sink. Ho Boy....it's scary under there.

So if you don't hear from me tomorrow, please send an ambulance.

And a HazMat crew.

A most unusual scissor frog

2011-10-07T08:46:00.000-04:00

Here's a bit of fun!

My husband brought this thingy home from work about a month ago, so it's been sitting around my office for a while. The other day I was looking at the many flower frogs that are holding my blogging friends' scissor collections and I thought of this and then a light bulb went on. Hey - scissors! I think it's interesting in a funky, antique-y sort of way.

So here's the bit of fun...Dave said, "Do you know what that is?" Nope. I didn't. Then he told me and I was quite surprised. Well, I thought it might be fun to have you all guess about this, too. Send me your guess by Monday, Oct 10 and someone will win a little prize from me! If more than one person guesses correctly, I'll draw a name from the correct guesses. If no one guesses correctly, I'll draw a name from the whole shebang.

Don't guess in the comments. Instead, send your guess to me by email at lakestitcher@gmail.com. And remember to do it by Monday.

Here are two hints: 1) It came from one of our old pharmacies, and 2) It's solid brass.

Good luck!

The boyfriend and his bike

2011-10-04T14:00:00.000-04:00

Thank you, everybody for the prayers and kindnesses you've offered up for my friends. I hesitated before I wrote about that...I guess I'm glad that I did.

You know, all through my high school and college years, I don't remember losing any friends to accidents. And I went to a big high school (1000 in my graduating class) and then a big university. But my children have lost three young friends to car or motorcycle accidents, and one young woman has extensive brain damage as a result of a quad accident. It really puzzles me. These were normal, average, everyday nice kids. I know bad things happen...but its frequency among these young people has been frightening.

Switching direction here...

Do you all remember the contest that I asked you all to vote in back in the spring, so that my daughter's boyfriend, Montana, could win a contest to pay his entry fee for a mountain bike race in Asheville, NC? And then the news that he eventually won the contest? Yes, the swing votes in that contest between crazy mountain bikers seemed to have come from the most unusual source - Stitching bloggers! Isn't that kind of neat?

So a week or so ago he went to the Pisgah Stage Race in Asheville and you may be happy to know that he won his part in the bike race. (I know I'm not saying that correctly, but I'm a stitcher, not a mountain biker after all.) So we're happy for him and proud of him.

If you take a look at his blog - he's been writing about the race - you'll see a couple videos in which he's being interviewed. The blog and interview language can get a little salty - just to give you fair warning.

But here's what I was hearing in my head when I watched the video:

Talk, talk, talk, Sweet this, Sweet that. Talk, talk more. Single speed, rocks, gravel. Talk, talk, talk, turning head slightly. Then...............

WAIT! Hold on a minute. Haircut? Really?? Talk, talk, talk - I'm not hearing any of this anymore. Just staring at the screen and willing him to turn his head again. Talk, talk, blah, blah, talk. Then: Yes. Yes. Absolutely a hair cut. Well I'll be darned.

Talk, talk, talk. Good job. Congratulations. Hair cut. The end.

And they say I'm not a good listener.

Good habits and bad habits

2011-10-03T14:02:00.000-04:00

Like most people, I have some of both. But what I'd love to know is: Why are the good habits so hard to keep and the bad habits so hard to give up?

One of my good habits over the past several years has been keeping my blog somewhat current and up to date. But lately? Not so much. And the longer I stay away, that harder it is to write. So I keep waiting for that epiphany-like moment. You know, like a spark of brilliance during your real life that practically yells, "Blog about this!" Well, calling it brilliance may be taking it a bit too far, but you get my point.

So it looks like you're going to be forced to read about my nonbrilliant moments.

I've had some highs and some lows this month. One of the highs has been shopping for campers with my husband. Yes. Campers. Perhaps you've been reading here for a while, and so you're thinking, "Hmmm, she's never mentioned camping before...". Well, except maybe for Stitch Camp, which isn't camping at all except that sometimes there are lots of S'mores involved. And I know it sounds crazy, that two people who have never, ever gone camping have been shopping for a camper, but that's been part of the fun. It's like we're on a special assignment together and we're having a ball.

I don't know what it is that we're finding appealing about living in 200 square feet of space for a few weeks at a time, but the appeal is certainly there, so we're just going with it. There's probably some deeper psychological meaning to it all...But I'm certainly not going to over think it. That'd be one of my bad habits.

One of the lows has been that our friends lost their young son in a car accident two weeks ago. It hit us and our neighborhood pretty hard - so, so sad. It really shook us up.

Stitching has been kind of hit or miss, but I did manage a small finish. This was a nice little fall project.


From Crows and Pumpkins, by Annie Beez. DMC floss and some kind of blue linen

And I'm still working on my Antiqued Sampler. My goal for my last French Knot Friends stitch night was to finish one area of over-one lettering, and yes, yes I did!

This part was easy to finish. In fact, it was delightful!

If you're reading this from West Virginia, Western PA or Ohio, you may be interested in seeing the Ohio County Country Fair this coming weekend. One of my stitching friends is a member of the Wheeling WV EGA, and they've been instrumental in gathering needlework for judging and/or display for this fair. So Deb convinced some of us to enter our stitching in the fair and I've entered a piece or two. If you go, my pieces should be easy to spot, what with ~~my tendency to plaster my name all over everything~~ the way samplers usually have space to add your name or initials. Even better, there will be an ice cream tent! And I'm going to bet there will be Kettle Corn (sigh...yet another bad habit of mine)

Fields, forests and flowers

2011-09-19T09:20:00.000-04:00

Where have I been lately? Well, it's cross country season...

So I've been cheering in fields.

Cheering in the forest.

And cheering in the flowers.

But mostly I've been driving the little red station wagon around Ohio. And working. I'm in the middle of a very busy time for work. (Pooh...) Sadly, I haven't been stitching. And that really bums me out because I have so many great autumn designs kitted up and ready to go! Maybe once things settle down a bit, I'll find some time to sit in my stitching chair.

This sampler may outlive me

2011-08-31T17:27:00.000-04:00

Since the Life Expectancy quiz has put a period at the end of my life at age 95, I'm starting to question if I'll ever finish this monster. This large round motif ate up a significant part of last weekend.

That was the last round motif. All of the rest are more straightforward. Oh...do you think I'm implying that I'll finish it quickly? Well get that thought right out of your heads. Unless I suddenly become a deposed queen who gets to sit in a dreary tower with her attending ladies all day and nothing else to do but say "woe is me" and work on my needlework, I think we're looking at several more months before I can put this in the FINISHED pile.

Stitch night was a good night for working on Antiqued Sampler. All of the silliness didn't make for accurate counting, though, so I only finished the plant on the left.

The plant on the right was counted and ripped, counted and ripped. And so on. But its little base is finally in the right place and it's ready to rock.

See that cute pinkeep? It's from Colleen, one of my Friday stitchers. She brought them back for us when she went to the Celebrations show in Nashua this past spring and it's so darn cute. It's mostly paper crafted, in case you paper-crafting readers were wondering. That makes it very lightweight and I take it everywhere. Also, you'll see that Colleen's name up there has a link associated with it. So if you click on her name, you'll see that it leads to her blog! Yes! Another stitcher enters the blog world! And a Pittsburgh stitcher at that! So please pop over there and say hello and admire her stitching. Especially the two SB stockings that she's just recently finished. They're beautifully done and bless her for finishing eight of them. Yes. Eight. With minimal cussing.

I'm so looking forward to our Labor Day weekend. Dave and I plan to go where the wind blows us all weekend. Even if it just blows us to our own front porch, that'll be just fine by me.

I hope the wind blows all of you to pleasant places this weekend, too.

What are you, Amish?

2011-08-27T12:49:00.000-04:00

Odd title, I know. Read on.

Friday night's stitch group was loaded with over-the-top silliness and I haven't laughed that hard or that much in a long time. When I'm laughing really hard, I'm not a big "Har-Har-Har" laugher. I'm a body-shaking, tear-producing, silent laugher. It's like the giggles start and then I can't stop and it just comes on me in waves.

And there wasn't even any wine...

Anyway, because I had a long drive home, I thought about our conversations and our stitching for at least a solid hour and I went over again in my head everything that was said and all of the beautiful pieces being stitched.

Is this a trait unique to women? It seems to me that after men leave each other, it's as if a door shuts in their head and whatever conversations they had are completely over. Women, on the other hand, (or at least the women I know), will still be thinking about and replaying those conversations, sometimes for days.

But that's a discussion for a whole 'nother day.

Getting back to last night... what I was going over in my head as I drove home, was the way that all of my stitching friends seem to get along. Large groups or small groups, or even just two people sitting in a cafe with their stitching...we are so darn congenial. Of course, every now and then - actually, very rarely - I run into a stitching person who makes me want to stab myself with a dull needle. But honestly, in the past five years or so, since I've discovered the fun of stitching in groups, I've only met one person at a retreat who drove me crazy, and that's because I was spending the whole weekend with her and she never shut up. Not even once. It was five years ago and I can still remember every detail of her life. Because she told us all, loudly and repeatedly. Over the course of the entire weekend.

Sorry...I've veered way off my intended course. Again.

SO - This has been on my mind for a long time, I've been thinking about WHY our stitching groups, large or small, work so well. Why do I treasure all of these interactions with stitchers? They are all so diverse. Some I see one at a time. Some I see thirty at a time. Some I see regularly. Others I get to see once every couple of years. Others I've never seen at all, except photos on their blogs.

What is it about having a needle in our hands and knowing that others around us have needles in their hands that helps us get along so easily? At first I was thinking that any group that gets together on a regular basis will develop this sort of congeniality, but I'm in other sorts of groups and if I really think about those relationships - well, it's just not as easy with them.

This is what I've come up with so far:

1. One of the first things that stitchers do when they get together is admire one another's work. Once the basics are out of the way - your name, where you live, etc - the next revelation is always that we want to know what you're working on. So we all pull out our work and everyone comments graciously and generously. It's easy to feel comfortable in a group when you've just been complimented. It makes you feel important and worthwhile and makes your spirit feel generous, too. I think that this activity - this mutual sharing and admiration - sets the stage for the entire interaction.

2. In a casual stitching group, no one is made to feel responsible for the happiness of anyone else. We just bring our own stitching and then your work is your work. How else can I say this? We have nothing to prove. The pressure is off. Among other groups, sometimes there's an unspoken undercurrent that makes us feel like we have to "do our part" or live up to a certain expectation. Not so in a casual stitching group. If you're not moving along quickly on a project, or even if you're blazing through your stash...well, we've all been there. We may sympathize. Or we may tease the heck out of you (good natured teasing, of course!) But still, your work is your work and you don't need to worry about making any of us happy.

3. Having those needles in our hands seems to take the pressure off of us to generate conversation if we're not prone to talking a lot or if we just don't have anything to say at the moment. Silences are a normal, healthy part of the get together. How many groups can we say that about?

4. And when we're not silent, I've found that the sharing level of stitching conversation can be quite deep. I used to think it was that we weren't looking each other in the eye and so people were more likely to say things that they wouldn't ordinarily say. But now I think it's that Numbers 1,2 and 3 set the stage for stitchers to really speak from their heart. I think it's all about developing that level of comfort so quickly.

So I think that's it, in a very large nutshell. I'd also be curious to know what the rest of you think. What dynamics make your group work? And I use the term "group" loosely. Define it however you'd like..an online group, a big organization or a buddy or two that you see occasionally.

And as for my title? Ahhh. It's just what happens in such a diverse group. Sometimes someone will tell a story from their background and it's a little foreign to all of us, like the story one of the stitchers was telling us about a situation on her family farm. So the group listened and nodded politely and we tried to understand it, because we genuinely like this woman and she's very sweet and interesting. But just like the saying goes, "there's one in every crowd" who will speak up and say something that we were probably all thinking, but she put it out there in a funny way.

"What are you? Amish?"

And I dissolved into pee-my-pants laughter.

I'm sorry...I simply can't do that story justice. But it was hilarious.

One of those online tests

2011-08-25T09:23:00.000-04:00

I get a Kim Komando newsletter every day, and a few days ago she had a link for calculating your lifespan.

It says I'll live to be 95. Well, then. I should have 40 years left. So I had better get stitching.

More stitches in Antiqued Sampler

2011-08-24T12:06:00.000-04:00

Finished the cute little row of crowns.

Added a bird

And renewed my love of bargello stitch!

Well, I sent my daughter off to her college this past Saturday. Now the Great Fall Room Cleaning begins.

You know, I never wanted to be one of those moms who said "no" all the time. But I always felt like I was. I'd be out with friends and maybe we'd be shopping and their kids would want this, that or the other thing. Clothes, souvenirs, toys. You know the stuff kids want. And I was all, "No. No. Maybe later. That's too expensive. Not now. No." I spent years feeling like the bad mom. And now that they are moving out, taking what they want and leaving me to deal with the rest, it's quite clear to me that my children have had way more than they ever needed. How else can I explain the mountains of stuff I pull from their rooms and donate to St. Vincent DePaul every year? Stuff that was oh-so important back then, but is only so much clutter now?

Honestly, where does a parent draw the line? And I'm not blaming the kids. There are many things in there that I bought for them and have contributed to the clutter. I guess it's just to say that if you read my blog and you're a parent to young or young-ish children, you don't have to feel guilty when you say "No" sometimes. Don't worry. When they go to college, you'll still have lots and lots of boxes to take to charity.

Tis the Gift and Dandy Dreams

2011-08-23T07:51:00.000-04:00

Both are back from the framers! Now I have some major rearranging to do on some walls. But that's ok...there's nothing as delightful as hanging new needlework.

Tis the Gift - La D Da

Dandy Dreams - Silver Creek Samplers

I can scarcely believe that August is almost over. And yesterday was so cool, not even making it to 70 degrees, it was as if fall had already arrived.

To tell the truth, I'm glad to see the backside of August. I'm glad that I had some bright moments filled with needlework and my stitching friends, because otherwise, it was not a good month. Waaaay too much drama for my tastes, and most of it was caused by my crazy neighbors. They just have too much time on their hands and like to foment trouble. Whereas most people avoid drama, they seem to thrive on it. Lucky me, huh? But school starts soon, and youth soccer will begin and they'll get busy again and then all of their bulls**t will probably end. Phew.

Martini Love

2011-08-17T15:50:00.000-04:00

I love Adrienne Martini. Almost any mom or wife can identify with her blog post today. I love it.

Of course, the woman in the drawing should also have eyes all around her head so that she could answer the perpetual question that starts, "Have you seen my....?"

Sometimes my Fridays are way too much fun

2011-08-16T12:16:00.000-04:00

As a rule, I try really, really hard not to work on Fridays. Sometimes it can't be helped. It's just the nature of holding three part-time jobs and having kids (even though they're not little anymore). I kind of have to juggle things this way and that. But if I get it especially right, I can have a whole Friday without working.

This Friday was one of those days and I got to spend the afternoon with two dear friends that I made as a result of blogging, Linda and Carol. So, so much fun. Lunch, wonderful conversation and stitching made for a perfect afternoon.

Here's a quick aside and then I'll get back to telling you about my Friday. If you read here, or any blog for that matter, and you don't have a blog but you're on the fence about starting one...just do it! I've met so many nice people through blogging and made so many wonderful friends - I know you'll have the same experience. Don't be shy. And you don't have to be a genius or a world class writer. (Clearly. Have you gone thru my archives? There's some very non-genius stuff in there. Even anti-genius) Writing may feel odd to you at first, but after a while it'll start to flow and you'll find it's very easy. Like I said, just do it.

OK, back to Friday. Linda had some great projects to show us, including a Hardanger snowman she received as a Fair and Square exchange. (it's on her blog, if you click on her name up there). She had started a neat project for an upcoming retreat, too (lucky girl... wish I was going!). And Carol? Well, she's a master-finisher when it comes to smalls. If you've clicked on her name and browsed through her blog, you'll see her fine, fine work. She let me take a picture...and there are more that she's recently posted over at Stitching Dreams.

Photo is a bit blurry, but her finishing is exquisite.

Then, oh my....look what tried to sneak its way into her stitching bag! My poor deformed egg!

Please, please take me with you and adopt me and fix me! I can't take this woman's ineptitude any more!

Ahhh, we had a good laugh. One of us (ahem...Linda....ahem) started to sing the Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong..." Really now.

Sadly, the afternoon had to end and I said goodbye to these dear ladies. But I was reasonably close to Michael's, where I had left off some framing a couple weeks ago, so I thought I'd call and see if by chance it was complete. Not quite yet, but they told me it would probably be ready before 9PM. Now, I knew that my Friday night group was meeting nearby, so I decided to hang out with them till 9.

AND I picked up my framing at 9:00 - but I'm saving that for my next post! Catch you then!

Life is changing...Again!

2011-08-10T14:57:00.001-04:00

The swinging door in my house is swinging the other way this month, as both kids have started their treks back to college. Well, one to college, the other to graduate school at UGA. And we parents adjust, readjust and adjust again, don't we?

So we helped our son move to Athens, Georgia last weekend. And when I say I helped, I really mean that I sat in the car and cried a lot of the time. Oh yeah, I was a big help. "Here...let me help you make up your bed, and soak your pillow with my tears. But by all means, don't feel guilty about moving away."

OK, I'M KIDDING. Mostly. I actually was very weepy. It felt like such a big move - so far away, and let's face it, when someone spent his entire summer sitting on my couch, doing little else but providing fodder for my blog, he kind of became an household fixture, you know? Except that John was an endeared and fun fixture. He's talkative, smart, funny and he's grown into a very pleasant young man. And did I mention that he can fix things? Dave and I are hopelessly un-mechanical, so we're not quite sure which gene pool that came from.

Anyway, I'd be foolish to expect him not to go where he has the best opportunities to complete his education and to make his way in the world of work. (Right? Tell me I'm right.) I've always thought that this area and its rural setting made it a nice place to raise children. And I don't doubt that our schools and teachers and neighbors gave them a great start in life. It's just a shame that the thing that led us to raise a family here - the rural nature of our county - is the very thing that makes it so difficult for them to remain here.

My daughter moves back to school barely a week from now, too. This is a move that we're accustomed to though. And that's not to say that we won't miss her...just that it seems much more normal. But soon she'll be gone and each time my bare foot lands on some spilled cereal and crushes it into the floor, I'll think of her fondly.

But what you're really here for is the stitching, right? And very soon I'll have my stitching chair back in my sole possession again, and I hope to make great progress on every single WIP and UFO in my basket. (Overly optimistic much?) Because the only one I'll have to move out of my chair will be Dave and I'm bigger than him, so.....

My framing isn't back yet, but maybe after the weekend? Meantime, I've stitched a bit on my Eileen Bennett sampler. So far I've had long-arm crosses, montenegrin stitches and I don't remember what stitches I used in the crown.

And look what else tried to sneak its way into the photo. This PS mini card design. I tried an egg-shaped finish for this PS mini, but did it as a stuffed ornament, rather than using a rigid mat board that was egg shaped. Yeah....it's not so great. All I can say is, pity the poor chicken that tried to push out an egg with this odd of a shape.

Chicken: "Ouch! What the....? Why is it so sharp and pointy in places? That's just not natural. And what are those strings hanging off of it? Nurse! Drugs! I need drugs!"

Close and Dear

2011-08-03T11:24:00.000-04:00

Obviously I don't have one single new stitch of needlework to show you.

Don't get me wrong - I have a list of projects as long as your arm and they're all staring at me every day as I sit by this computer and do my work. I just can't get to them. They're so near, yet so far.

Anyway - we went to the Pirate baseball game last night. Ordinarily I love going to PNC Park. It's an awesome ballpark and win or lose, it's usually a fun night. But last night all I wanted to do was get out of there. It was nice at first. Then as the night wore on, it got so doggone hot and the breeze we had felt earlier in the night disappeared. It felt like all of us in the crowd were just breathing the same air over and over again and I was reminded of my grandmother, who used to say, "Oh my, it's so close in here."

Like people were too close to you. Like the air in the room was too close to your body. People just don't use "close" in that way any more.

She also used to call things "dear". As in expensive. "Oh no, I can't buy that brand of coffee. It's too dear." She would have passed out to see the price of a large Pepsi - $5.75. Beer? $8.00. That's some dear beer.

So between the dearness and the closeness, we were out of there at the top of the seventh inning. It also didn't help that the Buccos were losing 10-2...

Who is the mature one here?

2011-08-02T11:51:00.000-04:00

Me: Hey, I bought some of that Dannon greek yogurt you like.

Daughter: Cool, thanks.

And the next day:

Me: Did you eat that half container of yogurt I put in the freezer?

Daughter: Yes...were you saving it?

Me - just barely beginning to whine: Well, yeah. I wanted it for my breakfast this morning.

Daughter - feeling contrite: I'm sorry, I didn't know you wanted it. I'll freeze another one for you.

Me - in a full whine: But I wanted it now. For my breakfast. And it's gone.

Daughter: I'm sorry.

Me - launching into full martyrdom mode: And by the way, quit eating all the half containers of yogurt anyhow. I'm obviously saving them for later. And stop dropping cereal on the floor. And if you drop a berry, pick it up or it gets squished into the floor and stains it.

Daughter - who has had enough: I'm SORRY Mom. Sheesh, what will you do if I ever do anything seriously wrong?

Me: Silently hanging head in shame.

It's a good thing the college summer break is almost over. Even I can't stand myself anymore.

Little finish

2011-07-30T10:42:00.000-04:00

Sunflowers? Gotta love 'em. So when my friend Sue sent me this little card, I knew I had to drop everything and stitch it. Doesn't it remind you of my pysanky eggs? Obviously I switched the fabric color...I've never been fond of working on black. That's PTP Twilight and DMC floss.

And I just dropped off two finishes to be framed last night. Between the Micheal's framing sale and the Joann's coupon that I had in my hot little hands, I was pretty happy. The total price was so reasonable, it was like I was back in the 1980's,!

Don't you wish we had a time machine that could transport us back to the 80's just for needlework framing purposes? And then I'd come directly back, because everything else about the 80's I could leave behind there. The clothes, the hair, the music. And especially crappy Chevy Citation I was driving back then.

Not my car. Mine was Moronic Maroon and in much worse shape. I totally hated that car.

Moronic Maroon. Should that be a thread color? Did I tell you that I get a thread monthly from Hand Dyed Fibers? Vicki uses such unusual names for her threads. The last batch I received were all dragon themed. Dragon tears, dragon breath, dragon claw, dragon blood. I love to open those packages and read all of the names. Of course, the deep, dark sarcastic side of me loves the dark names....like BeWhined, Bitterness, Primordial Ooze, Rue the Night, and my fave - Acts of Violets.

Oh, and speaking of unusual names, we had a new stitcher at our Friday night group last night. Here name was Rhodabell May Hogbin and she was just a delight. She brought us her amazing collection of Shepherds Bush stockings and told us how she loved each and every stitch on each stocking. They really were quite marvelous.

Evidently, she was quite the comedian, too, because the ladies at her end of the table were laughing like crazy at the end of the night. Which is also very interesting because they're all so hard of hearing. So if they were only hearing half of what she said and still laughing that hard? Well, she must be a regular Sinbad of Stitching.

This could be interesting.

Time to run the sweeper and wake my son, (aka Sleeping Beauty).

Finishing Sunday

2011-07-26T10:45:00.000-04:00

Well gang, I didn't have a porch day this weekend. I tried to have a porch night on Friday, but the heat was unbearable, even in the shade. It's been so hot that I've been putzing around and sitting on my butt doing nothing but staring an awful lot and when Sunday rolled around, I still wasn't in the mood to sit and stitch. So I spent Sunday doing a little finishing and then a LOT of cleaning. My sewing area is usually a mess to begin with, but then when I start to pull out fabrics and trims and whatnot, I can make it look like a tornado blew through. Let's just say it was a tornado of creativity...

So this La D Da piece had been sitting in my to-do pile for a little while. It's going to be a gift for someone in my family, but I don't know who that will be yet. There are two relatives who would like this...

It's difficult to see the trim in this photo, but it's cute and glittery.

The fabric also has a touch of glitter

A BBD design, stitched with HDF's Mountain Meadow and finished as a very simple little pillow.

Some cool trim sent to me a long time ago from a friend in Germany. Finally found the perfect use for it! Backing is just light blue silk. Man, that was a bugger to work with. So wispy! And I'm still experimenting with ways to eliminate some of the puckers. Silk wasn't a good choice for Sunday's experiment.

I've been playing with one of the new PS freebies and should be finishing that tonight, then I think I'll devote time to my Eileen Bennett sampler and to The Sampler that Never Ends for the rest of the week. The month of August looks ridiculously busy for us, so I'm going to take this time to stitch and believe me, I'm going to enjoy every minute of it!

A heads up for you all

2011-07-25T10:20:00.000-04:00

Picture This Plus is having their Internet Christmas in July sale today (July 25) and it will be on until 7AM Central Time tomorrow (July 26). 25% off!

These ladies dye some awesome fabrics. I've been lucky enough to visit their shop in Abilene Kansas twice and kit up some amazing projects using their hand dyeds. And what's even more amazing is that I've finished a few! Like these:

PTP's Chime - I've shown you the finished stitching, but this unfinished photo shows the fabric better.

PTP's Heritage

PTP's Fog

And the newest PS designs that are stitched on black? I'm working on one now and using PTP's Twilight and it's awesome. Much nicer than black. Just FYI, if you like Prairie Schoolers but aren't crazy about all that black.

Just FYI about that last La D Da finish

2011-07-22T09:54:00.000-04:00

*This* is the true color of my fabric. (image from the PTP website) It just didn't photograph well.

It was so hot this morning,

2011-07-21T12:10:00.000-04:00

That when I came back inside from my daily walk/run, even my eyeballs were sweating.

But who cares about all that, when I have TWO finishes to show you? First up - BBD's Rose Garden. I really thought this would be pincushion sized, until I actually started stitching it. All alone, it was kind of an awkward size. Too big to be a pincushion, too small to be a pillow. So it needed a bit of help. Luckily, I'm addicted to quilt fabric, also. This checked fabric was in my stash, probably for another project, but who knows what that could have been.

BBD's Rose Garden. Stitched with HDF's BeWhined. Don't know what this fabric was though. Just a leftover scrap.

I used to belong to our local garden club and occasionally they'd have a jewelry fundraiser. The club members would clean out their jewelry boxes and hold a little flea market. I found this pin and loved it. It looks perfect on my grey blazer. But until it's blazer wearing weather, it can rest on my pillow.

And by the way, if anyone has any tips on how to stuff a pillow nicely, I'd love to know them. The cotton sections always look nicely stuffed, but the linen section never seems to be as smooth, no matter how much I stuff in there.

And here is finish #2 - La D Da's Tis the Gift. I absolutely adored stitching this.


La D Da's Tis the Gift. Stitched on 28ct PTP Chime linen with recommended threads

The linen is actually much more of a buttery yellow than you can see here. Love, love, loved it. I can't wait to have this framed. And now I had better to get to work so I can afford all of this framing.

Comments on Comments

2011-07-20T11:55:00.000-04:00

Obviously I'm not alone when it comes to buying bathing suits. And since you all can't be lucky enough to find a bathing suit laying around in a rental condominium, I thought I'd share my info about this 2011 purchase. You know...the one that came in its original wrapper.

Actually, Deb and Dianne were right, this is a Lands End suit. I knew that if I waited to go shopping for a suit in a real store, I'd never do it. And I used to buy Lands End clothes from Sears and liked their style and fit, so I went to their online site for my swimsuit.

I liked that I could buy tops and bottoms as separates. I know I can do that in department stores. Theoretically. It's never actually worked for me. I can never find the proper sizes in both pieces. So...I pulled the measuring tape out of my stitching box and used the Lands End sizing chart and wow, were my top and bottom ever different! I measured as a 4 top and a 12 bottom. (What the heck - I've already told you my most embarrassing swimsuit story, so I might as well tell you everything. Yes, I am pear shaped. No shoulders or boobs, with an oversized butt.) I was worried about that size 4 top, though, so opened their swimsuit chat and talked with my swimwear "expert", Jason. Mr. Jason told me to order a 6. So that's what I did.

Also, their website has customer feedback about each suit. Each suit is rated and discussed and customers can tell you if they think it runs big, small or true to size. I thought that was really helpful, especially since I was still skeptical about the top size. It steered me away from some bottoms that I was kind of liking but unsure about.

Oh - and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg. Both pieces with shipping and tax? About $50. Which was the bottom range of what I had expected to spend so that was pleasing, too! So now I'm going to make my friend Ginny go shopping with me so that I can buy a pair of these. Glittery Cowgirl flip flops.

Oh, it's a great day!

2011-07-19T07:15:00.005-04:00

Well, in my last post I told you that I had gone to Ocean City, Maryland with the fam. And when I go to the beach with them, I don't count on being able to sit in one spot and read until my eyeballs fall out - which would be quite nice, but doing things with my family can be ok, too. (I am still campaigning for that Mother of the Year award).

So anyway, when I'm at the beach with them, I can usually count on going for walks and occasionally wading into the waves and even sometimes swimming in the waves. And all of those things require wearing the dreaded bathing suit.

I hate, hate, hate buying bathing suits. Consequently, I just don't. I avoid it at all costs. I wear suits until they are so worn out and ugly that I could actually be used as shark repellent when I wear them. (Insert Gordon Ramsey's voice here, as he pretends to be a shark: "What is that? That's disgusting!") My last "new" suit? Well, we were on vacation at Bass Lake in North Carolina several years ago, and I found it in a dresser drawer. So I washed it and put it on. And said, Hm. This fits. And wore it for 5 years. Gross, I know, but clearly I have no pride or self-respect when it comes to bathing suits.

And that was the little number I wore to the beach last weekend. As we were walking down the beach, I came to the realization that spending the winter in my closet had not magically rejuvenated the elastic in the legs. So my lovely walk with my husband was more like Step-Step-Tug, Step-Step-Tug. It completely ruined the romantic hand-holding. And swimming was even more fun. The waves were rough, and I took a few good tumbles, but when the day was over and I went back to the shower I realized that I had taken at least half of the beach away with me. All stored in my crotchal region.

If only I had been this cute.

So I decided it was time to break down and buy a new suit. I wasn't in the proper frame of mind to hit the mall. I'm going to bet it was slim pickins there anyway, especially since the bathing suits had been hanging on the racks since...oh, about....February. So I decided to order a suit through mail order.

(No, I didn't order it from Victoria's Secret. I've probably been blackballed by that company for my extreme snarkiness. Plus, I think a prerequisite of buying one of their suits is the willingness to stand around with your thumbs in your pants, looking like you can't wait to disrobe.)

Well, my suit arrived Thursday and Miracle of Miracles, it fits! I even got approval from my daughter (in the form of "Oh, that's cute"), so I'm pretty doggone happy about that. Do you want to see it?

You didn't think I'd be IN it, did you? Silly you.

So now shore towns up and down the East Coast don't have to worry about sand replenishment each time I exit the beach. But swimmers need to beware. Those sharks are mighty hungry after 5 years.

Porch Days

2011-07-18T10:06:00.002-04:00

It was so nice to have a porch day yesterday. It was one of those picture perfect days outside and it was made even better when my crazy neighbors actually went away for the whole day. It was a day of sun and shade and breezes and hearing nothing but birds singing and sweet wind chimes. The gods of summer were smiling on me.

Oh, but wait! Look what joined me on the porch!

Could it be my old friend, the Sampler That Never Ends?

Yup, it decided it needed some air this weekend, too. It also was trying to remind me that I've been seriously slacking in my goal to finish it within the year. So I devoted myself to finishing one border. The last red border was an easy one - it got into a rhythm right away and poof - done.

And actually, I don't stitch in the sun these days. I'm a shade girl now. So here's where I spent my quality time with the STNE.

But let me back up a little. We had a wonderful stitch night this past Friday. I hadn't been with the Friday night girls in a month and boy oh boy, had I missed them. We had a nice sized group, including a new face or two. And a Panera customer who was also a stitcher walked by the meeting room door and saw what was going on and was sucked into the room right away! The reaction of her husband and daughter was priceless.

Daughter: "Look, Mom found a group of cross stitchers!"
Husband: "Sigh"

Ok, I guess you had to be there.

So our little group is growing and it's very heartening. And it can't be just the free frozen lemonades...We're having a lot of laughs. Even stitching a little. I took along BBD's Rose Garden and I'm OH SO CLOSE to finishing. Maybe if I'd stop talking and eating so much...

And I even got bold and added a date - which is surely going to doom the project. What do you want to bet that I misplace it, only to find it after December 31?

Oh, I should back up even further and tell you that we went to Ocean City last week! Of course, I stuffed my face with crab cakes every day. But I also made my pilgrimage to Salty Yarns and as usual, Sally's place did not disappoint me. So much stuff and in such an unlikely place! On a boardwalk? Near a big french fry store? I know...go figure. But her shop is a delight. I was with my pesky family, so I didn't have time to scour each and every rack - kind of had to rely on whatever jumped out and caught my eye. But I bought a couple things, including a Pine Mountain kit and a patriotic styled Quaker.

What is it about being in a great shop that alters my perception of time? I swear, I was only in there maybe 30 minutes, but Dave insisted it had been over an hour. I think we stitchers need to develop our own time format. So when we tell our families that we'll be in a shop for a few minutes, they should automatically know to multiply that by at least 7. Like when we talk about dog years. It'd be only natural.

Busy week ahead - hopefully the days will go fast so that the nights can be for stitching. But right now I'm going to go find Rose Garden and pin it to my shirt so I don't lose it.

Till next time!

Some lovely, lovely blog friends

2011-07-06T14:21:00.000-04:00

This week has started much better than last week. Everyone who was on my nerves last week is officially off my nerves this week.

As much as I don't like to admit it, sometimes when I'm faced with big entertaining - like 50 or more people, which is big for me - I start to get a little persnickety. And a little compulsive. And difficult to live with. All right. Downright impossible to live with. It's a good thing I have an understanding family and nice friends. Especially my husband, who agreed to help me host the neighborhood party last Friday, knowing that he'd be working an 11 hour day and returning to a house full of people. And getting up to go back to work Saturday morning. He's a great guy.

All in all, it was a good kick-off to a holiday weekend. Then Saturday morning I met with my friend Linda at the Oakmont Bakery, where we had some lunch and talk and stitching. I had never been there on a Saturday before and we were amazed by the crowds of people ordering rolls and baked goods and by the amazing cakes walking out the door. It was really something to see. I wish I could have taken some pictures to show you, but there were so many people in front of the bakery counters that I would only have been able to show you the backs of people's legs. So after a week of kind of stressing out (and completely denying that I was stressed), a morning of friendly stitching was just the ticket and Linda is a terrific stitching companion.

Enjoyed a relaxing day on the deck on Sunday, then all of the fun July 4 happenings here at our lake. And I would have been sad to get back to normal yesterday, except that these beauties were waiting at my post office. Look at this sweet monogrammed pincushion!

From the wonderful and kind Denise, who did a quick BBD chart switcharoo with me. I sent her Basket of Memories and she sent me Rose Garden. Miss Blazing Needles over there in Ohio stitched and finished her pincushion in record time, but I'm still stitching away on Rose Garden. Almost finished though...But anyway, when Denise returned Basket of Memories, she also tucked this sweet pincushion into the package. I just love it. Love my monogram. Love the silver button and the trim, love the thought that went behind it. I've already thanked her privately, but now I'll do it publicly. Thank you Denise! It's awesome.

And generous Joanie read my post about our visit to HDF, where I talked about my love affair with those particular silk threads. Well, this was the result. She sent me a big squishy envelope of these wonderful silks. It was like opening a rainbow. At Christmas. But in July. Thank you, Joanie! I enjoyed fondling them and sorting them and photographing them, and now I'll enjoy stitching with them!

I am one very blessed blogger.

Everyone is on my nerves. And some stitching.

2011-06-29T13:30:00.000-04:00

There. I've said it. My day started out badly and here it is, scarcely noon, and now everyone is on my very last nerve.

Husband, please open your eyes when you look for things. Don't get all fussy and frantic. What you're looking for is there, you've just overlooked it.

Son, please get your butt out of bed.

Friend, please don't tell me what someone else has said about a project I'm working on. I don't need to hear it.

Person who said this, if you don't know what's happening, try opening your effin' email. The info has been sitting in your Inbox for eight days. Or are you waiting for an invitation on a silver platter?

Coworker, when I tell you I need information from you, don't argue with me. Don't shoot the messenger. Please, just give me the information.

Sigh.

But let's talk about some of my recent stitching. Please. Otherwise I may kill people. Hey, that reminds me, have any of you seen the bumper sticker that says, "I knit so I don't kill people." Has anyone seen a similar cross stitch saying charted up? Somebody has to have charted that...

First up, a new project! Thanks to the kind Denise for the temporary design swap.

BBD's Rose Garden, HDF "BeWined"

Next up, an almost-finished project. This has been an absolute joy to stitch. I'm loving the fabric, loving the threads and loving the design.

La D Da Tis the Gift, PTP fabric and GAST threads

And lastly, The Project that Never Ends.

5 years and counting....Maybe this year?

I have a really, really full weekend coming up, but some of it involves stitching and that's a good thing. Otherwise, you know...that killing people situation.

To my friends in the US, have a fun and safe Fourth.

I wish you all could have seen these in person

2011-06-22T21:04:00.000-04:00

I wish I had had time to document each and every piece in the HDF exhibit. I wish I possessed mad camera skilz so that my pictures were more clear. Heck, I wish all of you had been there with me because part of the fun of seeing exhibits like this is sharing your excitement with other people.

I was really pleased to have the opportunity to get up close and personal with each piece of needlework. No barriers, no ropes. Some of the needlework was framed, and some of it was not. Truthfully, I was just as happy to see the unframed work. You could get your eyeballs right up there and examine each piece. Well, except the smalls. They were mostly in display cases. And even though we were very, very tempted, we didn't actually touch anything.

First, I hope you can click on all of the photos to enlarge them. It'll make a world of difference.

Well, I tried to photograph the pieces that jumped out at me for one reason or another. First up is this Halloween piece and is that fabric amazing or what? I typically don't like Halloween design, but this one was stunning.

Same here. Not crazy about Halloween, but I had to love the fabric color, threads and beading on this piece.

I've been wanting to stitch this BBD piece for several years now. I may have to kit this up.!

Some needlepoint designs and kits for sale.

A wonderful Quaker and - lucky me! This chart was part of the tag sale! Do you need to even ask if I bought it?

A 9-11 quilt

Another one of the 9-11 Quilts

An amazing original piece by a fellow from Boston who has since passed away. I met one of his friends at the show, and she told me that he would just start with a blank piece of fabric and design as he went. I stood and looked a this piece for a long time. There is a lot to see.

Look at the bottom alphabet and the way it appears to reflect off water. Love it.

I NEED one of these for my family.

So many stunning Quakers.

Quaker Christmas in Red

Quaker Christmas in green

Of course, this drew my eye since I had recently stitched it. I love the floss colors and their variations.

A scissor and fob collection belonging to ONE person. Yes, one person.

Love the black fob with the red flowers

So tiny. Carol I....you would have liked this one.

More teeny tiny. I wish I had something next to it to illustrate its scale.

About the size of a large postage stamp

There were several really nice displays of smalls, but they were in glass cases under windows and were very difficult to photograph.

I thought you might enjoy a little thread comparison:

Quaker Diamonds stitched with Valdani Threads.

Quaker Diamonds stitched with HDF

HDF

Valdani threads

My choice for Peoples Choice award. It was difficult to photograph also,because it was hanging in a window. But take my word for it, it was fantastic. And who can argue with 1,710 Queen stitches?

And finally! Best in Show - a Reversible Spanish Stitch piece

Tried to show you some of the detail up close.

Sometime soon I'll post some pictures of my latest needlework. There's not much, but I'm getting in a few lengths of thread here and there. I have lots of family things keeping me busy lately, so I'm glad to get even that much done. These pesky kids...

Hand Dyed Fibers Exhibit But I'll Start With the Shopping

2011-06-21T10:20:00.000-04:00

Well gang, I hardly know where to start about this trip. Maybe it's just something that I should dive right in to.

First of all, I'm a big fan of Vikki Clayton's Hand Dyed Fibers. Her silk threads are seriously heavenly. It's like this - when you're stitching, do you ever get the feeling like, Oh my goodness this is probably the nicest stitching I've ever done. The colors just dance on the fabric and your stitches lay so beautifully that you can't believe it's coming from your hands. Yeah. That's how I feel when I stitch with these silks.

Well, this year I was able to go to the HDF Needlework exhibit. Bright and early Saturday morning, I met my friend Deb just off the PA turnpike and off we went to see over 300 pieces of needlework, all of those yummy silks on display and ready to buy, a "tag sale" - like a consignment shop for stitchers used or unwanted supplies - and a fabric dying station. Ho boy! I'll tell you, we were pretty darn excited.

We had just one minor glitch. We stopped for a coffee break when we were about halfway there and guess who lost her car keys? And do I ever carry a spare? No. Poor Deb. Gracious Deb. I was panicking, but Deb remained cool, calm and collected. If the shoe had been on the other foot, I would have been flipping out at the idiot who lost the keys and was wasting valuable time that could have been spent in Silk Heaven. But lucky for me, I have patient friends and eventually I found them wedged between the cup holder and my seat. So all's well that ends well and my blood pressure eventually returned to normal.

OK, so...I wish I taken some pictures of the outside of this very interesting factory, but I was drawn inside by some strange silken magnetic field. As it turns out, LadyDoc from Tilting at Windmills has some nice outdoor photos. Go here. And here. In fact, peruse her whole album. We have some of the same photos, but not all.

Oh, the silks!

The floss

And the silk ribbon

And I know this doesn't look like much, but you could ~~stuff~~ fill a bag with these leftover bits and pieces and seconds for practically pennies.

There were also a handful of Make It - Take It booths, but the highlight was the fabric dying station - completely awesome. You could bring your own linens, threads and trim and Vikki had a big table set up where you could go to town. I have a tub full of white and ivory linen and evenweave at home, so I brought a bunch and let me tell you - it was a blast. You could buy white lace and fabric trims there at a whopping 25-40 cents a yard and dye it yourself. If I had been smart, I would have come with particular projects in mind and dyed fabrics and trims to match. But I wasn't that forward thinking. So we just had a good time dying whatever color moved us. Here's Deb gettin' crazy.

I created a kind of boring tan and a very lemony yellow and dyed some trim, too.

In my next post, I'll show you some of the stunning needlework that had been entered in the exhibit. Gorgeous stuff.

Oh, but I should also tell you that the show is still going on. I think it's open until July 4. It's absolutely worth the trip - we didn't regret any of our 4 hours there and 4 hours back. So GO.

Stitch Night

2011-06-13T14:16:00.001-04:00

Our last group get together was fun in many ways but a little bit sad at the same time, too. You see, the shop that introduced us to each other closed its doors last week.

The little shop's story isn't unique. I know that many of you have lost your shops over the years. Heck, our region used to support at least six cross stitch shops. You could find a shop if you lived north, south, east or west of Pittsburgh. Even my little nearby town of about 14,000 citizens boasted a craft shop with a modest selection of stitching merchandise. Now only one shop remains in the entire region.

There are any number of reasons why a shop may close, and this little shop had its own share of challenges. But I think we have a tendency to get pessimistic about our craft when we see a shop close. We worry that our art is dying. Well, I'm not so sure about that.

I think it's less about the art and more about the changes and shifts in the retail world. Many of our little shop's struggles weren't unique to the needlework industry. Small businesses everywhere, particularly independent retail businesses, are struggling. (In this space I've deleted a long rant about everything plaguing independent retail businesses in today's economy. You really don't want me to go there.) So I'm not surprised that our shop closed. But that doesn't mean that the owner wasn't successful, because I think there are many definitions of success.

You see, in a perfect world, someone would open a shop, run it until he or she was ready to retire and then sell it at a profit. In the current retail environment, it's just not happening. So in today's business climate, if you can work at something that you love for several years and manage your business despite not having control over many things, then you are certainly a success. And if you can introduce other people to your passion and bring people from many walks of life together to celebrate this passion, then you are not only successful, but you are endeared to them forever.

We wish our little shop owner the best of luck in whatever she does in the future.

What a finish!

2011-06-07T06:03:00.000-04:00

First of all, thank you everyone for your very nice comments yesterday. You really know how to make a slacker feel good!

Even basking in the warmth of your comments, I still know that there are talented people out there who are actually completing projects. I don't happen to be one of them (at least for right now), so I'll reintroduce you to Nancy. Remember last month when I showed you Nancy's finished stitching? Well, last week she brought it to us in its final form - beautifully framed. Here's the proud stitcher!

I thought I had the whole thing in my camera window, but somehow I cut off one side of it. You get the idea, though. Mat colors are purple and what I'd call eggplant.

This was a free design, but you'll need to sign up for the designer's newsletter to get it. The newsletter sign up link is in the left sidebar of the webpage. The design offers both red and blue alternatives, but Nancy went with her own beautiful color choices.

************************

This is completely unrelated, but do any of you get the Victoria's Secret bathing suit catalogs? Why-oh-why do I receive these things? I can be feeling all Fit and Fifty (three) and content, then it's like the universe has decided that I'm too happy so it has to drop one of these little gems in my mailbox.

And WHAT is with the "I'm taking my pants off now" pose in most of these photos? Each model has her thumbs tucked into her bottoms like she can hardly keep her lady parts hidden any more. Enough with the "Let's Pretend I'm Taking These Off For You, Big Boy" Pose.


Oh wait...let me take off these bothersome bottoms. We models don't like to wear pants. Or bottoms. They're so yesterday.

But wait, here's my favorite pose.


Really now. A sign in the models' dressing room should read: "All Bikini Models must wash their hands before leaving work." We can only hope that none of them have night jobs as food service workers. Otherwise, it would go like this: "Would you like your fries with or without pubic hair?"

My apologies to Nancy for lumping her beautiful and reverent cross-stitch into a post with these ummmm...questionable ads for swimwear. But I'll bet Jesus would be shaking his head, too.

Why does she keep showing us that same picture?

2011-06-06T10:00:00.000-04:00

Over and over again? I know you're wondering that. Is it because I'm averaging a whopping total of about 10 stitches every week? I'll tell you, if not for stitching get-togethers, I wonder if I'd have even gotten this far.

It's not really a loss of enthusiasm. It's more about being pulled in some different directions and then being too tired when I finally sit down to stitch.

It might also be because I became so dern literary recently.

I've finished three books in the past two weeks. One was for book club, called The Raising. A bit too "twilightish" for my tastes. Also read Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, and it was a wonderful book. Sometimes I get near the end of a book and then I start to skim. I want to know how it ends, but it's more about just finishing it than reading to the end. With Bel Canto, when I came near the end, I only wanted to read on if I knew I could be totally alert and uninterrupted for it. So yes - it was that good.

And the third book was Tina Fey's Bossypants - a quick and easy book, but completely enjoyable. You probably have to be a Tina Fey fan to like the book as much as I did, though.

Otherwise, it's been kind of a normal week here at our lake house. My neighbors are enjoyable, as always. I have Mr. Rock Thief to my left. He has an amazing labyrinth of rocks stacked in his yard and he has stolen each and every one of them from the lake dam. (One of these days I'll take pictures for you. It could be the next wonder of the world). And to my right, let me introduce Mr. and Mrs. Crazy Pants With Their Chorus of Barking Dogs and Screaming Children. So here I sit, right in the middle. And now that the weather is nice, just hanging out on my porch can be a real adventure.

Maybe the porch adventures will be really funny this year and I can write about those and then you won't notice that I'm hardly stitching. Otherwise, I'm going to need to pick up my needle more than once or twice a week if I want to keep you coming back here!

Thanks and We Have a Winner!

2011-06-01T12:02:00.000-04:00

Thanks to each and every one of you who voted for The Boyfriend so he could win the prize of having his race entry fee paid to the Pisgah Mountain Bike Stage Race. Well, you did it. You vaulted this happy fellow's blog into the top two. He'll be forever grateful to all of my stitching, blogging friends. And the competing blogs can't make the wimpy excuse that a Facebook voting competition unfairly skews votes towards younger people, because although my blogging friends may not be ancient, clearly - or at least I think - I don't have many twenty-something readers here. This guy and my daughter may be the only two.

Happy Dance

Oh, and by the way, in his last blog post? That's my kitchen. And over his left shoulder? That's my stitching on the wall. So there you have it...another stitching connection to a mountain biking blog.

So...today I promised to finally show you some stitching. Friends, I've been extra super lazy about stitching lately. The past few weeks have had so much upheaval, both at work and at home. I seem only to be able to stitch when things are more calm. I wish I could be like some of you who use their needlecraft skills to create calm. I need the outer calm first, before I can sit down with my needle. I'm getting there though. First I had to deal with this: The Lovesac that my wonderful son brought home from college last week.

It was "deflated" and packed in a case when we left Meadville. But evidently we didn't do a very good job of it, because it escaped its special case while it was riding home in my van. Believe it or not, it fit into a bag about the size of a largish gym bag. But I knew when I heard that hissing sound that there was going to be trouble...And I watched this insane thing expanding in my rear view mirror during the entire drive home. Oh no, it didn't expand all at once. Very, very slowly. Like in a bad horror movie.

I was done in when I got home that night, so we left it in the van. Dumb, because then we had to move the silly thing into the house after it had fully expanded. Four adults hauled this thing out of the van, in the dining room door, and onto the dining room table, where it sat for almost a week before we tackled its deflation again. And between the four of us, (and a Shop Vac) we stored it correctly this time and now it's happily living in its suitcase in my son's bedroom.

But I keep getting side tracked! Stitching! I'm working on another La D Da. I wish I could capture the loveliness of this PTP linen, named Chime. It's such a gorgeous yellow and it cheers me up just to look at it.

And I took out my Older and Better piece, by Eileen Bennett. I'm ready to start the larger alphabet letters, (they'll be on either side of the basket) but I need to pick up some DMC 939. How is it that I'm out of such a basic color? Navy blue!

I have so many wonderful projects in my head. A local group is having a UFO challenge, and I've unearthed this:

Hello, it's me. I've lived in a box for three years. Please free me from my prison.

And then there is the Stitch Bitch challenge, where we start from Workbasket's Pink Flower, create our own souvenir sampler of a place we love or have visited recently. I'm totally in, because the last challenge was so much fun. Go check it out. You still have lots of time.

Vote for the Boyfriend

2011-05-31T12:36:00.000-04:00

OK. So I don't post for a week and then I come to you all asking for a favor. Just please forgive the one-way nature of our blogging relationship this month and then once you've forgiven me, please consider my favor!

My daughter's boyfriend is in a blog contest and the prize for the top two vote-getters is the entry fee to a bike race this fall. (a nice chunk of change). There are ten bike racing blogs involved and Montana's blog is in third place by just a small margin.

So could you pop on over here and read his blog? The kid writes a fun and entertaining blog and I think you'll enjoy it, even if you don't know the first thing about mountain biking. Then click over here and vote for his blog in the Pisgah Mountain Bike Stage Race Contest. If you don't have a Facebook account (which means you can't vote), maybe leave the young man a comment to encourage him.

And besides, Montana posts pictures like this one below, while the fellow in second place whines that he faces an unfair fight in a Facebook voting contest because of the demographic of his potential voters (Really? Facebook seems be all the new "thing" for middle aged people. And older. Cripes, my mother and all of her 70 and 80 something friends are on Facebook all the time!) and then he posts pictures like this. (Are there small children looking over your shoulder? Don't click on that. I'm so not kidding.)

Cute. And no penis references were involved.

Thanks gang. Stitchy progress post tomorrow!

My Paucity of Posting

2011-05-21T11:54:00.000-04:00

(aka - My adventures in alliteration. Take that, English major daughter!)

Have you ever noticed how sometimes you have a million pictures and you can rattle on about everything and it all seems so bright and interesting and then...it just stops? You've got nothing. Or it all seems really, really negative? I've hit one of those stoppages recently.

I think it's because I've been moving kids for the past couple weeks. For over a year now, when I have nightmares, they're almost always moving and packing nightmares, so I know how profoundly these moves effect me. In my dreams, nothing is ever packed. I'm always in a hurry and people are always mad at me. Everything is everywhere and I keep opening doors to find entire rooms filled with things that need to be moved. That was almost the real-life scenario as I made the second trip to move my son yesterday.

Luckily, the day ended with a couple hours of stitching among friends. It stopped my hyperventilating and relaxed me as I listened to their stitchy chatter. I even enjoyed the quiet moments.

Thank goodness for friends, especially stitching friends!

Time sure flies

2011-05-16T14:31:00.000-04:00

When you're having fun. Well, it was fun for me, anyway! I thought that the high school years went by quickly, but college went by in the blink of an eye.

Graduation day at Allegheny started off drizzly, then became stormy, so we were moved inside. And just before the recessional music started, the sun came out and many parents breathed a sigh of relief. Imagine trying to fit all of these people in the campus center! And this photo is just a small representation of the crowd on hand. People were streaming everywhere, but one special graduate was finding his way to his family...

The two students I love most in the whole wide world.

One graduate with five very proud family members

My son and an angel

The Gator!

We're so proud!

That's my boy!

And now all that's left is the moving. When I was driving away yesterday, I thought I'd be waving goodbye to Meadville for the last time....but no such luck. How can one young man have so much stuff? I've raised a pack rat. I thought he'd get better about it when he was in college, but my son seems to have earned a degree in Hoard-ology. So it looks like I'll be back on the road again later this week.

It's finally time

2011-05-12T09:22:00.000-04:00

Wow! It's really here! I wonder if they make blue and yellow hankies for the teary-eyed mothers in the crowd? Because if they do, I'm gonna need a case.

(Not my graduate....we'll have photos after the weekend)

Yes! Finished the retreat project!

2011-05-09T08:09:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a great Mothers Day! I had a wonderful weekend, starting with shopping at Trax Farms Friday night. Trax is probably one of the happiest places on earth right now, with all of those flowers and all of that hope of Spring and nicer weather! Not to mention a wine shop that carries the favorite wines I tried during our Erie weekend back in November. And Trax was on my way to a stitch night...who wouldn't love that?

I didn't accomplish much at stitch night. I was working on a new La D Da, but spent most of the evening trying to find a counting mistake. Plus, show and tell was excellent Friday night, with our friend Nancy celebrating a new granddaughter AND finishing a beautiful religious design in her own color choices.

Nancy's project - I don't know the name, but I'm pretty sure it's a free design

Two of the girls had just returned from Celebrations in Nashua, where they took lots of classes and shopped and traded and had a fabulous time. No wonder I couldn't count, let alone find a mistake, with fascinating talk like that bouncing around the room!

I spent Saturday cleaning. Yuck. But until I win the lottery and move into that self-cleaning house that I plan to invent, it's a necessary evil. And evil it was, since I had been away so much in April that somehow a year's worth of dust and clutter accumulated in only 30 days. I was also still unpacking. Why is it that when I go away, it takes me forever to unpack my stuff and get it all back to its proper place? In my mad cleaning, I found a suitcase with odds and ends still in it...from our trip to Sanibel, Florida. Last January. So that's where that stuff was...

But it was also our 28th wedding anniversary and that meant a nice meal out. Good ol' Dave. He's a keeper.

And then came Sunday, Mothers Day here in the US. Both kids are still working their way through college final exams, so they couldn't come home and properly adore me, but they made me happy with phone calls and a beautiful blog post that made me cry. I'm a very happy and proud mom, and sometimes I marvel at the luck that brought me such wonderful children.

But you're here for the stitching, right? And my Mothers Day goal was to finish my project from the Hearts Desire Stitch Camp. And yes I did!

Front of fob

Pincushion - That's the Nun stitch around the edges and it's affixed to WDW felt

Both pieces together, showing back of fob

The pincushion project had a cord attached to it to secure a pair of scissors, but I decided to omit it. My original idea had been to add a magnet to the cushion for that purpose, but the felt was bit too thick for that. It reduced the pull of the magnet too much. So it's just a pincushion now.

I have an exciting week ahead, with John graduating from Allegheny College and all of the fun surrounding that. I was cleaning his room Saturday (really just making it non-health-threatening because my mother and sister will be sleeping in there), and I was dusting his Matchbox car collection and the whole college graduation thing really hit me. It's like Gretchen Rubin says..."The days are long, but the years are short." I'm sure I'll have lots of those thoughts as this week goes by...

Touristy things and a wrap up

2011-05-07T16:54:00.000-04:00

Being tourists, we did some touristy things in Ireland. We really only had five days to play with, since Tuesday was spent getting out of the airport and picking up the rental car and figuring out how to get to the hotel. It would've been easier and less time consuming if we hadn't been roaming around lost and disconcerted about driving on the wrong side of the road and freaking out every time we came to a roundabout.

We had many colorful conversations in the car that day, but I'll leave those up to your imagination. And it was all worth it, which you'll understand when I show you the hotel photos.

Anyways, we were totally self-guided on this trip, which had its positives and negatives. The "wandering around lost" part? Kinda negative. The doing what we wanted, when we wanted? That was pretty good. And we saw some things that may not have been on a typical tour.

Like the Irish Museum of Modern Art, which had a former life as a military hospital.

IMMA

Inside the IMMA in some kind of chapel room. Not exactly modern art, but you know how I'm drawn to anything with stained glass. Like a moth to a flame...

And there were tours that we thought we had to take, but in retrospect, we could have passed on them. For instance, the Guinness factory tour. Total rip-off. The come-on is this: At the end of your very self-guided experience through what was a media show rather than a factory tour, you go up to The Gravity Bar and get a "free" pint of Guinness. So basically you've just paid 12 Euros to walk through a slide show, see some memorabilia, visit the gift shop, and have a Guinness. Pubs are far more entertaining and now I know we should have just gone to a pub and bought our own beers.

But I did get a cute picture of this fellow.

Guinness is good for you. I didn't need any lunch after this pint...

We really enjoyed our tour of Dublin Castle. It was one of the few guided tours and our guide was very, very good.

Dublin Castle

Excavation under Dublin Castle. While renovating part of the building for office use, they found evidence of an early Viking fortress. Really fascinating.

We visited some monastic ruins in Glendalough. It was quite an adventure getting there. We traveled up over the mountains, encountering narrow roads, rain, tour buses and very brave bikers. But it was so beautiful.

And soon we arrived at the monastery, and learned about Celtic monastic life and how important it was to the health and welfare and growth of the region. Monks fascinate me.

Cathedral at Glendalough

Bell tower and graves with Celtic High Crosses

There's that cute man again.

And the next day, although the town of Kilkenny was our real destination, we visited some churches and Kilkenny Castle. Although I don't have a good photo of the Kilkenny Castle grounds (dark and rainy day), they were also very beautiful.

Inside St. Mary's Church

The Black Abbey. Sadly, it was closed by the time we arrived.

Kilkenny Castle

We stayed at the Ritz Carlton Powerscourt hotel, which was right next to the Powerscourt Gardens and...oh, is this just a coincidence?...right across from one of the nicest golf courses in Ireland. So one day, Dave went off to play golf. And he didn't even have to beg all that much. Just a little. And it all worked out, because this is where he left me:

In the garden behind the hotel, in the sun, with my book. If you could enlarge the photo, you'd see a huge smile on my face.

When reading became too strenuous for me, I went inside to take a nap here, in the world's best bed. Seriously. It was the best bed I've ever, ever slept in. A king-sized feather bed with snowy white sheets and blankets that were so soft and silky, I thought I was floating. I loved getting into this bed at night and I didn't want to get out if it in the morning.

And look here! If nature called, I could go into the bathroom and watch TV. On a TV that was somehow, some way built into the mirror. Don't laugh. One night I took a bath and watched TV at the same time. Pretty amazing stuff.

And one last thing about the hotel, and I know that many of you will appreciate this. The valet kit in the dressing room had the usual stuff. Laundry bag, shoe sponge, etc. And a sewing kit. But - pre-threaded needles! You know I took that home with me!

So that was it - our trip in a nutshell. Or more like three nutshells. Except to tell you that for those 5 days, everyone I encountered called me "madame". "Yes, madame?" "Thank you madame." "What will madame be having tonight?" So we arrived in Pittsburgh and we were walking through the exits where a security guard was sitting. I walked right by him, and looked at him and smiled, to which he responded, "Hey babe. Have a nice night."

"Madame" on Monday morning. "Babe" on Monday night. My life is good.

Towns

2011-05-06T10:15:00.000-04:00

I loved the small town nature of Ireland, evident even in a bigger city like Dublin. Really, it was the thing I enjoyed most about our travels there.

I loved streets full of busy shops and eateries - each one was different and each one seemed to be thriving. Living in a small town here is entirely different. Over the years, small towns have lost their small businesses. Most downtown areas are struggling at best, shuttered at worst. Small town life in the US usually feels depressing, but there it feels...I don't know...rooted? And I loved that everyone walked or biked and that public transportation was so accessible.

Oh, and since this is a stitching blog after all, I know you're all probably wondering if any of the lovely towns I visited had a stitching or needlework shop. I would have thought that a city the size of Dublin might have a needlework shop... Sadly, no. Fabric shops that crossed my path were exactly that - fabrics. And not much of it. I know that there are quilt shops, but they were in cities that we weren't visiting.

I found one shop in Dublin that advertised lots of trims and fabrics (The Woollen Mills) and I hoped to find some needlework supplies, but there was only one display of Anchor Threads, Aida on bolts, and a spinner rack of Dimensions kits. I thought I had a glimmer of hope when I saw one of the workers stitching. So I asked her if there were any shops that catered to needleworkers specifically. She was a little miffed that I didn't think that the Anchor display and spinner rack were adequate. Well, whatever.

So - here are some city and town pictures!

ONeill's Pub in Dublin

HA!

For Carol, my librarian friend

Busy Half Penny Bridge. I'm up there, somewhere.


Awesome little cafe outside Dublin Castle, where we ate this:

Not exactly Weight Watchers fare, but it was VACATION!

Busy street in Kilkenny


Pub entertainment in Bray

Pub fare

More pub fare

And more

Yum!

Kilkenny side street


Also in Kilkenny. I mean, really. I pink shop that sells chocolate? What's not to love?

Tomorrow - typically touristy things.

Gardens of Ireland

2011-05-05T12:22:00.002-04:00

We had lots of opportunities to visit gardens while we were in Ireland. There were gardens in or around most of the historic and tourist sites we visited, but there were also gardens just for the sake of gardens. We arrived towards the end of the tulip blooms, but they were still quite beautiful. And I'll bet that in a week or two the rose bushes will be blooming. We saw lots of buds, and when they open they'll make most of these gardens not only gorgeous to see, but glorious to smell!

St. Stephens Green

Merrion Square

Irish Museum of Modern Art

Glendalough - no gardens but lovely walking and hiking trails
(If you read my comments, you'll see that this photo was a replacement for the one I posted earlier. After I set the camera timer then RAN over to sit next to Dave, we inadvertently struck a pose that was...ummm...inappropriate. He thought he was grabbing my waist, but with the help of age and gravity, certain parts of my body have sunk to my waist and it looked like he was grabbing somewhere else. Evidently, this set two of my very dear stitching friends to giggling in front of their computer monitors and then commenting about it. Once I realized this, and once I stopped screaming, I laughed, too. Because if you can't laugh with your friends, who can you laugh with? But I replaced the photo anyway, just to keep my blog clean and all.)

Sheep right out of a Warner Bros. cartoon

Shamrocks!

Powerscourt Japanese garden

Powerscourt fountains

More Powerscourt

And more Powerscourt

Tomorrow, the towns!

Home again!

2011-05-04T08:47:00.000-04:00

The month of April was full of fun and exciting travels for me, including a fabulous stitching retreat in the middle of the month and ending with a week in Ireland. And oh my...what a week it was! I had the time of my life!

We stayed in a stunning hotel just outside of Dublin, in a little town called Enniskerry. Enniskerry was a perfect and compact little town, with almost everything you could want. There were restaurants that ranged from simple take-out to very nice dining. There was a pharmacy, a grocer, a laundry, and easy access to two buses for trips into Dublin. Here are a couple of my pictures, but if you go to the Enniskerry website, you'll see some really nice photos. Much better than mine!

Our hotel was just a short walk up the hill from the center of town - about a mile - and it was right next to the Powerscourt House and Gardens, one of the most beautiful gardens in Ireland. Stunning!

Now that I'm home, I have a pile of work to catch up on. I'll have some more pictures, including the gardens, later this week, but I'm excited to show these to you today.

Dave with Sugar Loaf Mountain behind him

Walking up the hill from town to our hotel

Our favorite breakfast spot

Pharmacy!

Hearts Desire Retreat

2011-04-23T11:16:00.000-04:00

I had really, really wanted to show you my totally finished class projects in this post, but the week completely got away from me and both projects are still sitting in my basket. So on the one hand, I could have waited and written this up later, but on the other hand, it would have been much later.

OK, as I mentioned before, Belinda Karls-Nace of Blue Ribbon Designs was the guest designer and instructor for this wonderful retreat. She brought loads of models of her designs to share with us, which in turn enticed us to share our cash (and credit cards) with Hearts Desire! But I was happy to turn over my hard-earned money (my auto body shop pay), because the designs I chose suited me exactly. It was absolutely money well spent. Here are some pictures of the trunk show Belinda set up for us.

Belinda had designed a sampler to commemorate our retreat. How special is that? And the class projects used a couple of these motifs to create stitching smalls. Once I get back from my trip, I hope to be able to show you a sweet scissor fob and pincushion. Really neat stuff. (I should have taken pictures of the other stitchers' finishes. Where was my brain?) And I'll show you a photo of the three-ring binder full of instructions that detailed every single step of the stitching and finishing. Really awesome.

Class sampler, inspired by springtime in Kansas, except that the Kansas ladies were quick to point out that the trees should have been leaning at a 45 degree angle. It IS Kansas, after all!

Oh, is he too cute or what?

This sunflower was used as scissor fob motif. And the bees! Look at those cute bees!

Belinda was delightful. And now I'm going to tell you something. I freely admit that I am an East Coast cynic. I grew up that way. It's just how I roll and it influences how I view people and interactions. So when Belinda first arrived and behaved with such energy and good humor, in my East Coast head I was thinking, "Wow, this girl really knows how to work a room." (yeah...cynical much?) Not that there's anything bad about that...I admire people who can work rooms.

Ah, but here's the thing. Belinda wasn't working it. Energy and enthusiasm are her personality. Yup, her attitude is genuine and even better, it's infectious. As well as her attention to detail and her dedication to each and every student. She was a marvelous instructor. If you're near a shop that is bringing her to town for a class - GO. You won't be sorry.

Oh, so what did I buy? Well, I went all Springtime this shopping trip.

Turn the Page. Love the grapes!

Sweet Songs of Spring

Blooming with Inspiration

Fun, fun, fun!

Happy Easter and blessed Passover Wishes to all of my friends who are celebrating this weekend!

Go here!

2011-04-22T12:13:00.000-04:00

Swing by Beth Twist's blog and see her freebie chart designed for Earth Day.
I think her designs are wonderful!

Kansas retreat and friends

2011-04-22T09:24:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I packed my bags and went to a long-awaited retreat in Kansas. Last year, not too long after the Heartland Shop Hop, my friend Judy told me that her favorite LNS, Hearts Desire in Wichita KS, does a yearly retreat and the 2011 guest instructor would be Belinda Karls-Nace of Blue Ribbon Designs. Wow! I replied before I even took my next breath and said, "I wanna go!"

So finally, finally, finally, the time passed and the retreat weekend was here. I made some lovely new friends. I spent time with some old friends. And I kept my drooling under control when I saw their amazing projects.

Like this one by Nita. It's from a series published by Gift of Stitching Magazine and it spanned a number of issues. Probably before 2009? I have the 2009 issues and it's not in any of those. But anyway, this sampler was incredible.

There were so many things to see in this sampler. Amazing colors, fantastic use of specialty stitches and charming motifs. Here are just a few of the things that caught my eye:

Nita's initials. Oh - there, look! The sampler series must have run in 2008.

Love the little ship! And look a the darning stitches just above it. And the sampler was full of initials and dates that had meaning to Nita and her family.

Grapes! Love the grapes!

Now here is Paula and her color version of Quaker Christmas. I love the bold color choice!

This was stitched by one of the shop ladies. Over one. You had to look closely to see that it actually was stitched and not a photo.

Starting with Nita (in the pink) and moving clockwise, I'd like to introduce you to my table buddies, Nita, Debbie, Michelle, Marcia, Paula and Judy

After camp on Sunday, I had some time before my evening flight, so I visited with my Topeka friends, Sue and Julie. Sue is a prolific and talented stitcher. She's also the kind friend who sent me the birthday pincushion. Here she is with her PS Santa afghan. It's to die for. And here are a few of my favorite Santas.

A lovely Eileen Bennett design. You all know how much I love her things and Sue executed this beautifully.

This is incredible. Sue is almost finished with the PS Alphabet block series. Stitched over one. Look at that proud smile! There's a lot to be proud of here. And here are some of my favorite blocks.

That cat...oh my, that cat!

"F" is for Friend. How perfect!

Sue is also a talented finisher. I should have taken photos of this from more angles so you could see it better. She finished this as a box, even adding little blue legs to the bottom. It set the whole thing off perfectly.

Can you see the glitter in the fabric? It's hard to capture in a photo, but believe me, it's there and it's the perfect touch for these adorable snowmen.

And last but not least, here is my very camera-shy friend Julie. This was the best I could do....

Next post I'll show you the BRD project and some pictures of the trunk show that Belinda brought with her. I still - ahem - have to - ahem - finish my project though.

A One Day Stitching Retreat

2011-04-21T21:07:00.000-04:00

Earlier this April, I went to an all day stitching retreat held in the conference room of a Holiday Inn in Pittsburgh. Some of the Oglebay retreat ladies had mentioned it to me. Well, one thing led to another, then somebody forwarded an email to me and I decided to send in my reservation.

By all accounts, this was a rather hot ticket. There is a specific mailing date and then it's first-come, first-served and then there's a waiting list after all the spots are filled. And since the same people come year after year, I was thinking that my only chance was to watch the obituaries and see if I could squeeze in after some poor stitcher put in her last stitch. Well, her last "earthly" stitch, anyway. But lo and behold, poof! I was in!

It was a very nice affair. Started at 8:30AM and included a light breakfast, a delicious lunch and then a light supper. It was supposed to end at 11PM, but I was tuckered out by 9:00 and knew I had a long drive home, so I left early. But many ladies stayed until the very end, and I know that several of the stitchers were spending the night at the hotel. For the first time in a long time, I wasn't the one who traveled the farthest.

Well, I had a lovely day. There was stitching and eating and door prizes and contests and Show and Tell and shopping....have I left anything out?

Oh, I discovered that one of the ladies reads my blog (Hi there, Janice!), And after reading all of my nonsense over the years, she still sat next to me for 12 hours. Imagine that? She's a brave woman.

So anyway, here's the project I worked on that day. It's one of the smaller BBD charts and it's on 32 ct. Antique Ivory linen, stitched with HDF "Meadow" silk. It used exactly five yards of silk. And I loved every stitch.

Next post - KANSAS IN SPRINGTIME! (or: where is the nearest tornado shelter?)

Where to begin?

2011-04-20T09:56:00.000-04:00

I honestly don't know where to start today. I have about a million things to tell you all and if I try to fit it all into one post - well, it'll drive us both crazy!

I think that since Easter is coming in just a few short days, I'll show you pictures of my visit to the local "Eggstravaganza" (No snickering allowed. My husband snickered and it almost earned him a punch.)

There were about a dozen or so egg artists there, selling their beautiful eggs. Some of my classmates displayed their eggs, too and if you ask me, they are just as lovely as the vendors' eggs.

There is another type of egg design, called drop and pull. The best way I can describe it is kind of like the reverse of pysanky technique. Instead of doing the process by waxing then dyeing, the egg is dyed first and the wax is applied as the decorative part. The last two eggs show that technique. Very pretty.

You should be able to click on the photos to enlarge them and see the details of the eggs.

My classmates' eggs

More classmates eggs!

And more from my class friends

Sometimes simple color schemes are perfect.

Blurry, but this egg was stunning

Brown egg at the bottom used plant material and onion skin dying

Drop and pull eggs by my friend, Joe Borytsky

More drop and pull eggs

There were also ethnic foods for sale and I won't even tell you how good that nutroll was...

Next post - loads of stitching news, including two wonderful stitching events!

They may be slow, but...

2011-04-13T05:54:00.001-04:00

You all are too funny! Loved, loved, loved your comments!

But even though zombies may have that awkward shuffling gait and not move very quickly, let's be reasonable about how much needlework one person can carry, yet still move fast enough to outrun the walking dead.

For instance, if she has any hope of getting away, Theresa (Girl With Needles) is going to need one of these.

Theresa's Needlework Sherpa in case of zombie attack

My April Answer and its Tie-in to Zombies

2011-04-12T14:27:00.000-04:00

(Preface: This post is a whole lot of silly. I won't be offended if you skip it. Really)

OK, well, the short answer to the April Question about record keeping is that over the past five years I've come to rely exclusively on my blog to record everything I've stitched. Before blogging, I didn't even own a camera.

My parents were real shutterbugs who loved taking pictures of the kids when they would visit, and since they live so far away, they often took pictures of things around my house, including my stitching. Mom and Dad always got double prints and then sometimes I'd get lucky and they'd send me copies.

But my most recent needlework history (2006 till now) resides locally in My Pictures and online through my blog.

But here's the thing - I've been watching the AMC series, Walking Dead. In this show, zombies are everywhere. The entire world has collapsed. No electricity. No mass communication. It's all GONE.

Of course, small groups of humans that have miraculously survived. Our main character wakes up alone in the midst of this crisis and goes in search of his family. He decides his family is alive because although their house is empty, the photo albums are gone. And he knows that his wife would never leave without those albums, so she must have escaped.

Now in my photo world, almost everything is digital, so if a future zombie outbreak happened, I'd just grab a little thumb drive and head for the hills. And I'd be content knowing that my needlework history is online, too. But what good would that do if you couldn't fire up a computer?

Well readers, we can be prepared for a zombie-filled world. There's a company called Blurb that'll help you publish your blog as a Blurb book (for a fee, of course) and then you can just take your book with you as you run from the house. It shouldn't be too hard to escape. (Zombies move very slowly and they have no frontal cortex.)

But now I have a new question - Assuming that the zombies haven't entered your house yet, what needlework would you grab? So that if someone - your husband, children, mother, friends...whoever - came into your house they would know you got out alive because they know that you'd never leave without....(fill in the blank)

I'd grab my family sampler and I'd wrap it up in the white on white baby quilt that I made for my daughter. So those zombies had better beware. I can be one mean cookie.

My Favorites of March

2011-04-10T21:01:00.000-04:00

Either March is too long or else you all are too talented. I could have gone on forever and used up the bandwidth of the entire internets, but I managed to put together a page that won't break your browser with its enormity.

Really, you all must slow down. You're making me crazy.

Go here to see my favorites. Divided by like a thousand because there were way too many great posts this month.

Sometimes I shake my head

2011-04-07T10:30:00.000-04:00

Life in a fairly poor and rural county can be challenging. It's all to easy to poke fun and be overly critical, so I try to follow the motto, "Live and Let Live." I know I'm far from perfect.

But still - sometimes I read the local rag and sigh. Our county's drug and alcohol commission recently sponsored a social function, a Buffettman beach party, featuring a Jimmy Buffett impersonator.

Really? You are counseling drug and alchohol abstinence and yet you are highlighting a singer whose most famous song lyric is "Wasted Away in Margaritaville"? Who is trying to trademark the name "Tiger Blood" for his own line of Vodka/Energy drinks? Who also markets his own brand of beer and readymix margaritas?

Oh, the irony...

Sampler finish and more eggs!

2011-04-06T11:01:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend I put the last stitches into Dandy Dreams. I can't wait to frame this one and get it on the wall next to Spring Violets.


Dandy Dreams by Silver Creek

Stitched on "Fog" Picture this Plus 28ct linen

Charted for DMC, but I substituted with Sullivans' Threads

It was so much fun to stitch and I thought of my Kansas friends the whole time I stitched it. Maybe you all do that, too. When you've been stitching and shopping with friends and you think of them all the while as you stitch the things you purchased that day? This sampler will always remind me of my trip to Kansas for the Heartland Shop Hop last year. I spent the weekend hanging out with an old friend and meeting new ones...what could be better?

I've also been working on my Birthday project - one of the oldest samplers in my stash. It's coming along nicely. I decided not to change a thing about it...I'm letting it remain true to its 1988 roots. And because I'm using undyed linen and regular DMC, it's washable. So I'm stitching this in hand - no scroll frame or lap frame, and I have to say I'm enjoying its "no fuss" nature.

Antiqued Sampler, by Eileen Bennett

Oh boy, last night was another Pysanky egg class. It's more fun than I would ever have thought. I may have to make eggs for all seasons, not just Easter.

This coming Sunday the church that hosts our class will hold its annual Eggstravaganza. (Don't snicker...my husband snickered when I said that. Ha. He won't snicker when he sees me taking the checkbook) It's a festival of egg makers and designers and I really hope they let me take photos because the displays are going to be gorgeous! They'll be selling eggs and egg-decorating supplies, as well as some other ethnic crafts.

I've always been interested in their Easter Cloths - that's the cloth used to cover the food taken to church in Easter baskets to be blessed on the Saturday before Easter. They're embroidered with symbols, can be quite elaborate and many are passed down from mothers to daughters through the generations. Are any of you familiar with this? I used to take a basket to church on Easter Saturday, filled with representations of my Easter Sunday meal, but I never had a beautiful cloth, and as time went by I somehow I got away from doing it. Just got busy with other things, I guess.

But anyway...the eggs! I finished fewer eggs this week, because I didn't do my homework. (Shades of my high school career are coming through). So this week I finished a maroon and turquoise egg, a pink egg with flowers and a red egg with scroll work on the top. The instructor was awfully busy this week, too, so I didn't have time to empty my other finished eggs. Now I can worry about them for another week.

I wasn't too happy with this egg. It looks like a crazy person drew on it and the colors aren't as vivid as I like. But I do like my work on its top and you can see that in the photo with the bowl of eggs below. It's the red one at the bottom right.

Next week will be our last class of the year. And I'll be sad, sad, sad.

*********************************************************

Edited to add a photo of a Ukrainian Easter Basket cloth:

Not my design, but from Ukrainian Gift Shop, Inc.

April Stitching Bloggers Question

2011-04-04T16:37:00.000-04:00

OK, maybe some of you are really on the ball this year and your tax returns are done and neatly filed away. Or maybe, like me, you're just starting to sort through your documents and trying to get organized. I think I'm realizing that my household record keeping could use a bit of an overhaul.

On the other hand, my record keeping for stitching finishes is pretty well organized. How about you? And that is the crux of the May SBQ.

Do you keep records of your finishes? We are so lucky to have so many record-keeping tools at our disposal to record our accomplishments. So if you do, what recording methods do you use? What do you think is important to record when you've finished a design?

***********************************************************************

Well readers, this month means that a year has passed since I started republishing the Stitching Bloggers Question. I think that it's time to pass this torch along though, so I wonder if any of you might like to try your hand at this for a year? Many of you ask questions all the time in your blog posts, so you know that coming up with questions isn't difficult at all. I've had friends contribute ideas, too and no doubt you'll have friends who can give you great input, also. And I think that the whole idea of the SBQ will stay more "fresh" if we take turns hosting it.

So what do you think? Drop me an email (available in my profile) if you'd like to host the SBQ for a bit. If more than one person is interested, I'll just pull a name from a hat.

Eggs!

2011-03-31T05:57:00.004-04:00

Here are some of the eggs I've made in my pysanky class. They aren't finish-finished. I still have the yucky task of blowing out the egg contents. That's probably going to be one of the more harrowing tasks, too, because that's when your egg can crack. Or even explode. Pleasant, huh? (No matter how hard I try, I don't think I could make any needlework explode when I finish-finished it.) Then they'll get sprayed with clear coat. I still need to improve my techniques, like drawing straight lines. And segmenting the egg properly. And I'd like to get a lot better at understanding the dying process. Hmm. I should have said that I still have improve at everything. So don't laugh at my eggs, ok? I've admitted my weaknesses!

This class focuses on using symbols and the designs we're using are quite traditional. It reminds me of the symbols we see in samplers. So these traditional designs are a starting point but really, anything goes. For instance, the green egg was for St. Patrick's Day. Just some little shamrocks, but it was a good exercise in dividing the spaces on the egg.

OK, so here they are a little closer. See the black egg? That was very cool. It's just a medium sized brown egg. We drew the designs on with our hot wax and then dipped the whole thing in black. I love the negative effect. Next to it is an egg that I had wanted to be dark red, but I left it in the dark red too long and it became dark maroon - even brown. But it was fun to do.

I love my red fish egg. I had missed a class, so the instructor had started it for me (notice her lovely and thin line work? She works very smooth and fast) I did the parts in yellow. It's such a happy little egg.

The purple egg was probably the most difficult egg to do. Lots of detail and lots of trips to the dye containers. But I wanted to show you the top of it. Just like stitchers, most of the egg decorators sign and date their eggs.

I have two more classes to attend and I must say that I'll be really sorry when they are over. I may have to buy my own dyes....it's that addicting!

Time to catch up a little

2011-03-29T14:36:00.000-04:00

It may not seem like it, but I've been doing things other than ranting and raving about inaccurate reporting and stereotyping of stitchers. (Although I was glad to get so many supportive comments about those raves)

Is it a sign that I'm getting older when I get so sensitive to and aggravated by put-downs about the past? I'd prefer to think that my "maturity" has made me realize the value of our history as stitchers. Each phase or fashion has been built on a previous phase or fashion. And each phase or fashion has its own beauty and worth. I could give you a dozen examples of this, but gang...I'm preaching to the choir here. You all get it, I know.

Anyway! I must move on.

Dandy Dreams is almost finished. One more puff ball to go.

And I received a lovely birthday gift in the mail from Sue. (She contributes to a blog, but it's a private one.) Sue and I met through a mutual friend at a Silver Needle retreat back in 2007. Then we reconnected again last year when I went to the Heartland Shop Hop. Such a sweetheart!

Sue is a prolific and talented stitcher. One of her more recently completed BAPs is a Prairie Schooler Santa afghan with every single PS Santa card design. (Can't find a photo of that right now, but if I find it later, I'll show you.) And one of Sue's current WIP's is the PS Alphabet series. Will you look at all the detail?

So boy-oh-boy was I ever thrilled when this little masterpiece appeared in my mailbox! Sue took motifs from one of my favorite sampler designers, Eileen Bennett of Sampler House, and created this one of a kind pincushion for me. It's just too pretty for words, so here are a couple photos.

And what's peeking out from behind the pincushion? I finally went to the framer's and picked up Live, Love Laugh. I'm happy with it. Not over the top, though. I think there is a bit too much space between the stitching and the frame. If I had it to do over, I'd bring it all a little closer in. I really should pay more attention when I'm discussing these details and go with my gut and not assume that the framer is always correct. I think she was in love with my fabric and so was trying to showcase the fabric and my stitching got a little lost in the process. Nobody to blame but myself though. And I'm certainly not complaining. I'm thrilled that I had some Christmas gift money left over to splurge on framing!

Tonight is Pysanky Egg class. It's time to get crazy! I hope I'll have something photo worthy to show you after this class.
So till then...

Grandmothers, needlepoint and thoughts on a whole lot of uninformed writing

2011-03-26T10:10:00.001-04:00

Recently, Donna posted an article published by The Washington Post that caught my attention. Maybe I'm fired up because it's on the heels of another article that Ms. Anna (who is keeping track of the white haired lady labels) posted. (Really? Languishing in a design wasteland?) Regardless, I've decided it's time I did something about it.

I have SO had it with all of the grandmother references (not to mention dusty - that really burns my butt) whenever a reporter decides that the entire needleworking world has been remade anew just because he or she has recently found some really cool needlework designs. Like the designs they've discovered are so much more relevant and attractive. Seriously. And like the designs they've discovered are totally new to the needlework world. Feh. This stuff has been around forever. How self serving and uninformed is it to say that because it's new to you, it's new to the world?

Ok, let me take a step back here and calm down.

(Taking a breath.)

I mean, on the one hand, I appreciate that our art is getting some press and attention, but on the other hand, does it always have to come with a slap to our history as needleworkers? Because that slap is certainly undeserved.

Long time stitchers, are we really that easy of a target that we will sit back and let writers describe us as "grandmothers stitching dusty cushions of fusty florals"? Does any other crafting group let themselves get stepped on the way we seem to be stepped on? Would quilters put up with this stereotyping? How about hobbyists, crafters and artists who are non-needleworkers? Like photographers, chefs, modelers, or potters? Certainly not.

Do you all remember when Mo Rocca, a contributor to the radio show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me mentioned that he didn't like homemade sweaters because they were all itchy? The knitting world rose up and responded like nobody's business and he actually offered an apology. It's offered tongue-in-cheek, but it the knitters' message seems to have been received loud and clear.

I think that we need to be heard loud and clear, too. So I responded to the Washington Post article. Maybe some of you feel the same way, and if you blog, you probably are pretty good at putting words together effectively and writing your own response when articles of this nature appear.

Now, knowing that I like to be Boss of the World, you may want to sit back and let me respond on all of your behalves. But I'd encourage you to respond on your own and at best, the articles about us may change. At worst? Well, venting about it can feel kind of good.

Through the magic of Paint

2011-03-19T07:59:00.000-04:00

Thanks to all of you for your advice to make my sampler just the way I want it. In the end, I decided that both of those empty spots needed something, but just to be sure (and because I'm running low on thread), I scanned the sampler and then edited it in Paint.

So the results are below. Even though all of the letters are A's right now, I'm going to stitch "PA" (for Pennsylvania) under the CE in Peace. And I'm going to stitch my initials over the heart. Over one. Argh. It's on 28 ct. linen, but it'll still make me crazy.

So now are you completely impressed with my command of photo editing software? I should have remembered that I could do this, because I've done it before. Several years ago we were trying to take a family photo and a certain son wouldn't cooperate. We took one picture that he looked nice in, but the rest of us looked stupid. So then he refused to smile nicely in the pictures we took later.

So later that day, I cut and pasted a smiling face head onto his body. Except I didn't get the proportions right.

So then I laughed myself silly, and knew that I couldn't stop there.

Yes. Clearly I'm an idiot. I'd say that I need a hobby, but....well, you know. I already have one.

Almost done but need some advice

2011-03-18T10:40:00.000-04:00

I came really close to finishing this sampler last night, but my eyes just gave out after stitching the over-one K. I ask you: Where are my over-one stitching pals when I need them? Please come over and stitch DEFG for me!

So here are my questions. I'm deciding if I want to put my initials (Oh no - more over-one stitching!), and if I do, where to put them. There are two emptyish places that feel like they need something. First, under the "CE", and second above the heart in the bottom right corner. What do you all think? Either place or neither place and just a simple ELO in backstitch outside the border?

Mary Garry's Peace Sampler as of March 18

Once this is finished, I'll have this red Quaker (Well, Weathered Barn, anyway), and a green Quaker. I just bought the threads for a blue Quaker.

Now I just need more $$ for framing and more walls in my house.