The places I've shopped

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

The Library Funding Referendum passed.

Stitching Bloggers Question for November

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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!