A lovely weekend

Happy Tuesday everyone!  I hope you all had a weekend that was a nice as mine.  It certainly started off well, with a visit to the framers' to pick up Antique Sampler.  I had finished this back in March or some time around then.  I went with a very plain frame this time and no mat.  I like the results.

Then I zipped on over to visit with our Friday night Panera stitching group, because there's nothing better than unwrapping your newly framed sampler in front of your stitchy friends!  But wait!  There were other finishes in the group!

If you watch Pimp My Ride (or stitch while your significant other watches it....), you'll recognize Xzibit, the PMR host.  I love what our friend Mary did with this. 

And Nancy finished this beautiful Native American piece.  This photo doesn't do it justice, but I'll tell you that the fabric was a perfect choice for the design.

I had to work on Saturday.  Bleh.  We went garden supply shopping on Sunday.  And I spent some excellent stitching time on Monday.  All in all, a pretty nice weekend.

Oh, but here's something!  Thursday night I was downstairs and Dave was upstairs, when I heard him screech and then I heard pounding feet.  What the....?  I went flying upstairs in time to find him slamming the office door shut as if the devil himself was behind the door.  Well - almost.  There was a bat flying around in the room. 


(I started to write a long story about this bat, but even long after today's storms ended, our electric is still flickering, so I'm going to end here.)

Long story short, the bat is gone, but I'm still feeling a little hinky...

Are you all heartily sick of me yet?

First of all, thanks to all of you for your comments giving advice about my upcoming trip to a Nascar race. 

Earplugs:  Check
Sunscreen and big hat:  Check
Something soft and cushy to sit on:  Check
Things to ponder during the race to keep me interested:  Check.

You all are too good to me.  Now I'm feeling equipped, mentally and physically.

Stitching?  I'm still stitching this lovely, lovely Quaker.  It has three things going for it.  It's a great design.  I love the color of this PTP fabric (Doubloon).  And I love the silk threads. (HDF's Premium Beredded)  I truly can't wait to pick it up each evening.

The colors are actually deeper than this photo shows.  More maroon looking than bright red.

 The upcoming Memorial Day weekend could be a busy one for us, so I may not be online much.  So I'll take time now to wish you all a wonderful weekend as we "officially" start summer here in this part of the world.

And don't  think I'd let Memorial Day pass without a little bit of Hey Girl!

Lucky Me

Why am I lucky? Because Dave "won" two tickets to a Nascar race next weekend. And when I say "won", I mean that he got an email from a car dealer, telling him that if he took a test drive, they'd give him two tickets. And off he went, without a word to me.

So last weekend, as we were heading out for a lovely meal and movie, the conversation in the car went like this.

Dave: Hey, guess what? I won two tickets to a Nascar race!

Me: That's awesome! Who are you going to take?

Dave: Why, you of course.

Me: Not on your life.  Not in a million years.

Dave:  Come on, it'll be fun. 

Me:   Can't you take someone else? Won't it be loud?  Won't the seats be uncomfortable?  Won't it be long?  Will I have to sit in the sun all day? 

Dave:  I promise, if you really hate it, we'll leave.  But we'll slather you up with sunscreen and sit in the stands and it'll be great.

Sigh. I can't wiggle my way out of this one.

Then last night I was talking with some stitching buds and hoping for a bit of commiseration. But no!  The girls said that they actually enjoy the races.  When I asked for things I could do to make me feel, if not happy to be there, at least interested in the goings-on, one of the ladies suggested that I look for cars with sponsors I liked and cheer for them.  (Do Nascar spectators cheer?  That could get really annoying) Anyways, that would make it more engaging than just watching cars "go fast and turn left" over and over.

Great idea, right?  So I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for this car.

Hmmmm.  Who could be our driver?

I don't just sit around and think silly things

I stitch a little, too. At this point, after having a handful of "finishes" last month, I only have "starts" to show you.

Most of these starts are a result of a big....really, really big....craft room clean up day.  I wavered on the side of being mad at myself for accumulating such a mess of stuff, and on the other side of being really pleased with myself for collecting such beautiful stitching projects.

I'm going to stick with being pleased with myself.

First up, I had kitted up LHN's Simple Joys about a year ago.  Such a fun and sweet design.  Working on this is so relaxing.

Next, a Chessie and Me start.  Yeah....it doesn't look like much yet, but it'll be cute soon.

And next is the very definition of the word "start".  Let's just hope it becomes the word "finished" by this time next year.  I love Moira Blackburn.

And if you're going to start a bunch of things, there will always be a friend or two who contributes to your Startitis.  This is the beginning of a Good Huswife Quaker design, loaned to me by Miss Linda.  She's being a troublemaker, now that tax season is more or less over.

And just in case you thought I was done thinking about this:

Time to represent

Hello friends! What a wonderful week I've had. It started with a fabulous Mothers Day in Georgia with my son and husband, and that just set the stage for a terrific seven days. And do you know what happens when I have such good vibes? Yes. My mind starts to wander to silly things.

One of the silly things that caught my eye recently was the whole Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl" thing. One day I ran across some pictures (damn you, Pinterest!) and I giggled myself silly. But it seemed that every interest except stitching was represented in a Hey Girl photo. Jeez, there were Hey Girls for crafters, quilters, knitters, bloggers, librarians, Hunger Games fans...but NO stitchers.  That's just wrong. So I got to thinking, what would a stitcher want Ryan Gosling to say to her? I was coming up kind of blank.

But then this weekend I got together with a couple of groups of stitching friends and decided to listen to their conversations and see if I could figure out what was really important to us. What could RG say that would endear him to us because we'd realize that he totally understood us? And what's more sexy than knowing that someone gets you?  Of course, it always helps if he's hot....

So here are my Stitcher's Hey Girl photos.  Oh - - and Hey Girls, I totally pilfered your conversations for these captions.  I'll just say Thanks.

May SBQ

Our Stitching Bloggers Question is all about May Flowers. 

What's your favorite floral piece that you've stitched? Do you prefer your flowers as the centerpiece of the design or as an accent?

Now head on over to your blog and write, write, write!

Thanks again to CinDC of Pencil Crossings for thinking up excellent questions each month!

7 X 27

Last week I picked up this awesome Rosewood Manor chart. Don't you just love the borders and the flowers? I was a little lukewarm on the verse, but I bought it anyway. 

It was the last line, in particular.  A Ruler.  Hmmm.  Nope.  I thought I could substitute some other word there and but now I'm stumped.

Because - my first thought was Lover, but then it made me think of Will Farrell and Rachel Dratch doing the SNL "Lov-ahs" skits.  And now that's all I can think of. 

So maybe one of you can help me.  The word Ruler fills a space 7 stitches high and 27 stitches wide.  Any suggestions?

I don't know, maybe in a few days I'll come up with something, but for right now my brain is trapped in a Will Farrell state!

Back to start

Well, the phase of finishing things is over.  As I look in my stack of WIP's, there's nothing even close to being completely stitched.  Now I have a bunch of projects with a handful of stitches here and a handful there and none of them are turning me on at the moment.

So - - - of course - - - I had to start something new.  I've had this kitted up for a while and I was loving that vase of flowers. 

The fabric isn't really mottled.  I think those are shadows from the tree outside.

And I want to start another BAP soon.  Dave and I will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in a little more than one year, and I have the perfect Moira Blackburn sampler to stitch for him.  Yes.  For him.  And he will love it and he will lovingly hand over his credit card to have it framed.  That's what's kept me married to him for the past 29 years.  Well, it's one of many things.  But it's an important thing.

Otherwise, I might have to call Ryan Gosling for a date:

Source: handmaderyangosling.tumblr.com via Lee on Pinterest

Jeez, yes, I've become addicted to Pinterest. At least for now...

Another!

I've stumbled and stitched my way into that short period of time each year when all of my WIP's are suddenly finished. So don't think I've been stitching like a mad woman, but more like picking something up and realizing, "Hey...this is almost done!"

Last night I finished ABCD, by La D Da. The original version is black. My version is blue (Belle Soie Mer Blue, to be exact). And I've seen some awesome reds. It's also been my first attempt with 40 ct linen and I have just one word. LOVE. I used 40ct. Examplar linen and it was fabulous.

Stitching this was WAY too much fun.

My personalization:

So, some of you are fans of The Killing, too?  Dave is out of town for a few days, so I DVR'd last night's episode.  I'll wait to watch it with him, so you may not even whisper about it in front of me. 

In the meantime, I've downloaded this photo.  There's no doubt about it.  Move over Justin Timberlake, Joel Kinnaman is my new boyfriend.  My heart just goes pitty pat....

I really should have known better

Because adding a date to any sampler before I've finished it dooms it to a dark place in my closet until that calendar year ends.  Or maybe even the next year.

So last year I was working on this Quaker sampler and I knew I still had some over-one stitching to do, but back in March 2011 I thought it was perfectly reasonable to stitch in the year.  After all....how long could it take?

Ahem.  Evidently until March 2012.

Still, done is done.  Even if I cheated a bit on the date.

Mary Garry's Peace Sampler, stitched on linen with GAST Weathered Barn

My personalization

And another talented stitching friend!

This beautiful stitching box with accessories was a gift from one of the sweetest women I know. Sue is one of my Kansas girls and she has a wonderful talent for looking at a design and conceptualizing its finish in a unique way.  Lucky, lucky me that I've been the recipient of some of her ideas!

Love the flowers!  A perfect choice for flowers blooming in early spring.

The goodies inside.

A close-up to show you her perfect stitches, cording and the added touch of counting pins.

I've already thanked her personally, but now I'll do it publicly. Thank you so much, Sue!

As for my own stitching, I'm working on La D Da's ABCD, and it's almost finished.  I should have a picture soon.

In other things, I've been watching way too much TV lately.  Dave and I became hooked on AMC's show, The Killing.  I think we've almost caught up to where the series is now.  Do any of you like that show, too?  It's dark, but it really draws me in.  And it's made me think that I'd never want to live in Seattle.  Does it really rain like that every single day?  Yikes.  I thought western Pennsylvania was dreary, but the show makes Seattle seem like a vacation spot for vampires because there is no fear of ever seeing the sun. 

Now I'm off to start my day....

I barely precede the invention of the microchip

Last month I saw another birthday go by. Dave and I celebrated quietly, by going to one of my favorite Italian restaurants and ordering my newly favorite dish, linguine with white clam sauce. So good!

Sometimes I'm bowled over to think that I'm in my 50's.  Really.  When did this happen?   How is it that we go through life thinking that nothing much has changed, when in fact the changes we've seen are crazy-huge.  I say this because I went to one of those websites - the ones that tell you about life in the year you were born. If I just look at the financial aspects?  Well, hold on to your hats...

Average Cost of new house $12,750.00
Average Monthly Rent $92.00
Average Yearly Wages $4.600.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 25 cents

And because this is a blog and requires computers and microchips, I'll tell you that in the year I was born, the Microchip co-invented by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductors.

It's also the year that Wham-O introduced its hula-hoop, which was equally important to your average kid growing up in the 60's.  I loved my ShoopShoop Hula Hoop.

OK, back to today.  Besides counting my years this year, I'm also counting my lucky stars that I have such kind and talented stitching friends.  This lovely pincushion arrived from my friend Linda, who is both an online and in-person friend.  Online, because we met online through blogs, and in person because she lives near enough that we can get together for a stitching day several times each year. 

I love this color combo!

And I love the backing fabric Linda chose.  It's totally me.

You know, I almost hate to put this out where my husband can see it, because he always accuses me of losing needles.  Every now and then when he's on the floor, he'll feel a pinch and that'll be followed by at least 30 minutes of him feeling around on the carpet and insisting that I've dropped a needle near his hand, foot or butt.  I keep telling him that would be impossible.  So I'm going to keep this little gem of a pincushion a secret from him so that it doesn't confirm his suspicions....It'll go in my stitching bag to be used only around other stitchers.  Because they realize that runaway needles are just a fact of life, not a cause for such commotion!

Thank you everyone, for your nice thoughts about my mother-in-law.  As always, I appreciated every comment and consolation. 

Hello there, stitchy buds! I know I've been AWOL for more than a month and hopefully some of you are still checking in here from time to time.  Because - drum roll, please - I'm ready to share a big finish with you!  Last weekend I finally finished my Life Tree Sampler.  (All along I've been calling it Tree of Life, but evidently that's wrong...) Yes folks, after 5 years, it's finally finished.  And that five years doesn't even take into account the time it took me to get the chart (a bit unusual at the time) and silks. 

Jan Houtman's Life Tree Sampler

And if you think the sampler is large, take a gander at the size of the chart.  Eight sheets of large pieces of paper. 

8 pages of charts...And a very tricksy 8 pages at that.

So, what a month.  Sadly, we lost my mother-in-law on Good Friday.  It was quite a shock.  She was 85 years old and in good health and very independent and sound in mind for all of her 85 years.  But then in mid-March she was feeling very breathless and was admitted to the hospital, thinking it was a touch of pneumonia.  Except it wasn't.  It was lung cancer and it took her from us shockingly quickly.  Is it naive to think that even the doctors didn't realize it would be so fast?  They sent her home, giving her 2-3 months to live, so Dave and I moved ourselves to her house to take care of her, but she was gone in ten days.  I'm still reeling. 

Ah well.  Over the years I've poked fun at her in my blog.  And now that she's in heaven, surely she knows I've written about her, but she can't be too upset with me for the things I've written about her here, here, here, and here. She was a good soul.  And look at those smiles.  That's a woman with a sense of humor.  Oh...her favorite comedic actor?  Peter Sellers.  She'd laugh like a nut at the Pink Panther movies.  Gotta love her.  And we all miss her like crazy.

Maddeningly close!

Despite having to rip out a whole border last week, I feel crazy close to finishing this monster! After re-stitching the ripped out border,  I completed the bottom alphabet and most of a corner motif.

And I'm getting there!  If only my life would get the heck out of my way...

Happily, I have some little kits from my Kansas girls and they provide a nice break when I'm jonesing for a finish.  This design is a freebie from the Sunflower Seed.  I love the fabric, and if I know my friend Judy, it's a PTP fabric!

I wish I had more time to visit with you all today, but I'm having one of those weeks where I catch my moments for myself as they come.  And even if they're small moments, I'm grateful for them. 

And there goes my phone!  Catch you later....

Round Robins and Exchanges - The March SBQ

Our March SBQ was provided by CinDC over at Pencil Crossings again, and it's all about Round Robins and Exchanges.

I like to consider myself a veteran of Round Robins, because I go back to the PRE-internet days. My first RR was back in 1993, making me practically a dinosaur in the world of needlework exchanges.   It's so funny when I look at some of the organizers' letters....I swear some of them were typed with carbon paper! Then we seemed to graduate to pin-fed paper, and finally a bit of word processing.

I'd catch word of someone organizing a RR - in my case, through pen pals - and then I'd drop that person a note in the mail saying I was interested in joining one.  I would give my theme, my preferences, etc.  Then the organizer would get back to you with the particulars.  Just that phase alone could take weeks or months...We'd be grouped together and one person would be chosen as our group leader.  Our mailing dates were set and it was usually expected that you stitched your own block on your own RR for  the first mailing.  This helped set the tone for your piece.

As each RR was passed along, we'd enclose a note card that gave design and thread info and usually a brief "hello" to the owner.  As you can see, I've kept my notes for the past 20 years!

My Round Robin records

So here's my first RR - and I know I've shown you this before.  It's still my favorite.  I was quite the adventurer, using Summer Khaki 18 ct. Aida!  My square is the middle square.

Then this was my second RR, also in 1993.  My theme was Hearts.  Kinda pretty, but a couple of the hearts just aren't.....right.  They're off by color or size or complexity. Or really off center.  (I'm talking to you, square in the lower left corner) Yes, I can be a fussbudget.  I'm the middle square here, too.

In 1994 I joined a 6 person RR, and my theme was Birds.  I think everyone did a super job on this one.  In fact, MY square is the one I like the least here.  That cardinal is way too simple.  Standing alone, it's ok, but not compared to the lovely detailed birds provided by the other stitchers.  This was my only linen RR.

Moving on, in 1995 I joined another 9-person RR, and this time I provided the charts.  Do you recognize this older Told in A Garden?  Something about berries....So I wanted to finish these as two bell pulls to hang side by side.  I stitched the top berries on each bell pull, then the other ladies stitched the rest.  Do you see that the second bell-pull, where bottom isn't finished?  I had one person bow out of the RR, and I thought I'd just finish it myself, but I never did.  I didn't get too upset though, because the slacker was my very own mother.  I ended up stitching most of her RR portions for others, too.  I think I got her in over her head, so it was completely my fault.  But all was well that ended well and I was the only one with an incomplete project.

Anyway, sending the chart worked out well - none of the earlier size or color issues were a problem with this RR. I think it's hard to strike a balance between allowing others to be creative and getting what you really want, you know?  And I know that I made a bad choice or two on the RR's of others.  It was  tough when they had a theme that was totally NOT mystyle and the owner didn't provide charts.  I remember one stitcher had the theme of jungle animals or circus animals or something like that.  And they weren't whimsical - they were realistic.  Remember, this was pre-internet...it wasn't as easy as going online and searching for charts.  The best I could find was a toucan and when it was finished....well, I felt like hell about it.  She had stitched grey elephants in her square.  I had this freakin' giant toucan in my square and it was monstrous compared to hers. Like it could swallow those elephants whole in a single bite.  (If you happen to be the owner of that RR and you read my blog, let me publicly apologize to you right here and now!) I think I did well with some of the other challenging themes, like fish and lighthouses.  I guess you can't win 'em all.

And finally, in 1995 I participated in my last RR and I decided to do a band sampler.  I stitched the top saying and the little houses and then I let the girls fly from there.  I think their choices were wonderful.

Does anyone else remember this fabric?  I can't remember its name.  It was a bellpull fabric that Stoney Creek used for several of its designs.  Definitely synthetic.  It was almost pre-finished, but not quite.  Anyway, it was very burlap-y and stitched over one.  This particular piece of fabric is really long - I'm showing it folded in half here.

Back when I was quilting, I used to do some quilt block exchanges and some friendship square exchanges.  Those could be really iffy, though.  You could send along really nice fabrics or well-constructed blocks and then get crap in return.  I didn't do that very often.  It seemed like I was on the crap end of those exchanges way too often.

Anyway, I more or less stopped participating in Round Robins after 1995.  Part of it was that I was spending more time volunteering for kids' programs and I also took my first part-time job after not working for four years.  I kind of lost interest in stitching altogether over those years.  I didn't really pick it up much again until....well, until I discovered stitching bloggers and I started my own blog!

Now I keep my exchange obligations small and limited to people that I know.  It's a luxury I didn't really have in the 90's, so I stitched for people that I didn't know at all and received things from people I didn't know at all.  I think that's why I've never framed or finished these pieces (except the one berry bell pull).  There isn't any emotional connection to them.  They're interesting and all, but not really attached to my heart.

Oh, and one more quick thing before I end this long-winded post.  I was VERY fortunate because I never had a RR go missing.  I'd read about it though....and I'd see very angry posts about MIA stitchers in message boards (the rctn newsgroup always had some RR drama going on).   But losing a RR would have been the end of my exchange stitching days, no doubt.  

So there you have it, all you ever wanted to know about Lee's Pre-Historic Round Robins!

What do you do?

When you're up at 4AM because your husband is leaving on his yearly golf trip and you needed to get up and make sure he took all of his stuff, including the glasses that he always leaves behind, realizes it after driving about 10 miles, then has to turn around and come home for them?  Well, after you get him out the door successfully, you make coffee and then hit up your blog.

So here I am. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Oh my gosh, thank you all very much for all of the nice things you said about my samplers last week.  I'd say that all of your comments have spurred me on with Tree of Life and now I'm renewing my goal to finish it before Memorial Day, but that would be a Blog Promise we all know that I've sworn off that sort of thing.  But a little encouragement always helps and I'll say if that Gigantor thing is finished before the official start of summer, I'll be a happy girl.  (Do you KNOW how many other samplers I have waiting in the wings??)

Meanwhile, I've been stitching on a few Springy smalls.  These are some kits that the Kansas girls recently sent me, and they are just the antidote for the cold, gray days of March in Pennsylvania. 

A freebie design from Plum Street Samplers, called Got Luck?

Trail Creek Farms Easter Love

Easter Blessings by Sunflower Seed

The Easter designs have such sweet colors.  They make me think of jelly beans and pretty little girl dresses.  And if you're my age, that also reminds you of white straw Easter hats and white gloves and white patent leather shoes with white lace anklets.  Oh my, and the sugar eggs my mother would put out every year! We'd stare into the little world inside those eggs, thinking that if we stared hard enough, we might shrink and actually get inside there.  You know....because we just had to see what it was like!  Until, after many years of five bad kids picking away at the icing, they were trash.  Ours looked like these, but I'm remembering pansies.  And fingernail marks.

Now excuse me while I head out to the 24 hour Walmart in search of jelly beans and Reese's Peanut Butter eggs.