If only I liked to knit...

I'd certainly be challenged to knit this!

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

More Camp Stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Veterans Day

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

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

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

A day of sheer excitement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm moving in with these people.

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

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

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

Camp by the numbers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm Baaaack!

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

Bye Now!

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

Do you think anyone will miss me?

Camp Checklists

Things to Pack:

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

Things to do:

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

Full disclosure

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

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

Hmmm. That kind of brings me to fashion.

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

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

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

Ewww.  Sometimes I scare myself.

Brilliant!

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

First projects

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

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

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

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

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

XC Meet Pictures

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

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

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

A Blog Post Each Day

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

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

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

 OK, enough bloggy housekeeping.

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

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

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

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

The bag dump

It's always fun to play along with a Stitchy Meme from our own Stitch Bitch.  So simple....dump out your stitching bag and show everyone what's in it!

But I need to preface my photo a bit.  I gave up on bags long ago.  It seemed like the moment I put something into a bag, it disappeared (sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally) forever.  Then, a couple of years ago while I was packing the son away for Freshman year at college, I discovered the joys of plastic totes. 

I wish I could take every untidy aspect of my life and put it into a nice, clean, clear plastic box with a lid on it.  I could use an extra large tote and label it: My Food and Weight Issues.  And I'd have them in every size, all the way down to the smallest little box for my Inability to Commit to Daily Flossing.

Good God.  Did I really just type that?  I know, I know, Too Much Information.

But back to the meme!  Here's my photo, and feel free to click and enlarge:

So, let's start at the top left. 

There's my empty box, turned on its side.  Lovely, lovely box that keeps everything inside of it dry and reasonably clean.  It's been put to the test this year with all of my trips around and through Ohio, most of which have been in the rain. 

To the right you can see my simple around-the-neck magnifier.  Very low tech. 

Behind the magnifier is a small wooden trinket box that houses all of the things in front of it including

• Hand Cream
• Variety of needles
• Wrist Pincushion (made specially for me by the Meme Creator herself
  
• Tape measure in an adorable Vera Bradley case
• Magnetic Neede minder
• Needle Threader
• Star Detailor
• My glasses
  

So all of that goes into the wooden box which goes inside of the plastic box and those things are always, always there. 

Then there's the stuff that floats around inside the box.  Except for the note pad and pencils, it's all related to specific projects.  And those projects are (again, starting on the left):

1. PS Santa chart with threads (in zipped project bag) and 18ct linen and mounted on Q Snaps.  I know - the Q snaps don't fit in the box, but they deserved a place in the photo
2. Carol's Sew Red chart, with some red Needle Necessites thread and white linen
3. CCN's Be Joyful in Hope with threads....waiting for me to rip and replace the words!
4. Autumn Leaves in its scroll frame and with its threads.  Again, I know the frame doesn't fit in the box, but you get it.

You can see that each project gets its own needleminder and scissor set.  What good are trinkets and doodads if you don't use them?

And that's my meme!

Oh and you are all so wonderfully kind for asking about my son!  I spoke to him yesterday and he says he still feels terrible, but feels better than the day before.  I sure hope that trend continues...Thank you all for your caring (and commiseration!).

Why I have grey hair

Son sends me a text message yesterday at noon, saying "I have the swine flu or something". That's it. Nothing more.

Then doesn't answer his phone or my subsequent text messages until 7:00 in the evening.

Says he was too tired to talk at noon and just wanted to go to bed.

But not before making his mother certifiably crazy.

Almost there!

Pictures as promised! Here is my work from the weekend. Hey, this'll be the first year that I'll have a nice collection of Fall designs on my walls!

If I can finish this before the upcoming weekend, I'll be ecstatic.

Do you see the needle minder in the second picture? I've been collecting needle minders for the past couple of years, and this summer I bought that one at The Stitching Post in Baltimore. It's by Puffin and Co., and I have to tell you, it uses the strongest magnet I've ever had. It's certainly not going anywhere. But moving it around can be dangerous to your tender fingers. These little magnets are so determined to be attached to each other that if your fingers get in their way they'll give them a hearty pinch. And my scissors have become stuck to it several times. They're little demons!

Seriously, if you use these, make sure that you don't store anything near them that could be damaged by a strong magnet, like maybe your digital camera or credit cards. And it wouldn't be a bad idea to stitch far away from your fridge....

And you thought only athletes needed to train!

So, as of my last post, I was complaining about preparing to dive head first into my cruddy house. On Friday and even on part of Saturday morning I was working my fingers and various other body parts to the bone, so by lunchtime on Saturday my house looked and felt pretty good. Not perfect, but why tempt the Gods?

And it was a good thing, too, because in less than two weeks it'll be time for Camp Gotta Stitch in nearby Charm, Ohio and I was seriously lacking in my Stitch Butt Training. I suppose I was feeling too guilty to train, what with the house being so gross and all, but by Friday, I was ready to train guilt-free.

I think I'm in pretty good shape now. Here are the things I've been practicing:

1. Not jumping up to answer the phone every time it rings. I've been working on my "What....aren't YOU going to get that?" look. I call it my Game Face.

2. Of course, there IS the need for some kind of aerobic workout, and dashing up the stairs to hide after the neighbor kids ring your doorbell to sell you pizzas/candy/stationary/gift wrap is a very effective way to make you run and raise your heart rate. Phew. Once they're gone, you can settle back into that stitching chair, blissfully still uninterrupted.

3. And just like any professional athlete, you must arrange all of your equipment so that you are prepared for any situation, and you must make sure that all of your new equipment is properly broken in. Side tables, lamps, new scissors, new magnet boards, new needle minder...they've all had a good workout this weekend and will be organized and ready for camp.

4. And now ala Jeff Reed, I think I'll go out and get plastered with friends who like to pee on things in public and then get myself arrested. (What a moron) Or maybe I'll just have a cup of tea.

And while we're on the subject of football, does anyone else feel the urge to throw things at this Fox graphic and knock it down and then step on it with heavy shoes?



Stiching pictures tomorrow!

Thank goodness it's Thursday!

Because my house is gross.

Friday has been my cleaning day lately, and we were away last weekend, so my house is more disgusting than usual.

How does this happen? I mean, I got it when the kids were here and there were dirty gym clothes and muddy spikes and constant showers and messes everywhere. But now it's just Dave and me. Were we the ones to blame all along??

Well! You're not here for housework complaints, so I'm going to move along.
Here is last night's progress on this fun, fun Prairie Schooler. Now that insane looking squirrel has a place to sit. He looked rather maniacal just hanging onto the branch there. I still think he looks a little intimidating. If I still feel that way at the end of this, he may become a bird....


Also, here is the fall version of those little UFO samplers. I had a frame handy - it housed some little TIAG Amish girls, but since I had taken them down off the wall several years ago, I figured that the frame was fair game. I've decided to leave the back of the frame open and switch the samplers according to the season.

Oh! And I want to send a quick get well wish to all of my fellow bloggers who have been hit with the flu lately.

It's a beautiful Indian summer day here in the Laurel Highlands, and I could start my cleaning early today, but......nah.

On the road again

Another cross country meet meant another weekend on the road, so off we went to Oberlin College to see our kids run in the Oberlin Inter-regional Rumble. And I'll tell you, we just can't catch a break with the weather this year. The kids ran and we watched through cold and wind. The rain held off, but it had rained plenty the night before, and the course was slippery at best for Colleen (who ran the first race) and a complete mud bog for John (who ran the last race).

Both kids ran well. Colleen was more pleased than John. Johnny's been struggling a bit this year. But the best part is that they finish their races with smiles. Here they are after Colleen's race. John had just told her that she ran a "solid" race, and she was pretty happy.And here they are again after John's race. Oberlin has a nice indoor field house and they were very relieved to be inside and out of that cold, stiff wind.
I didn't get much stitching accomplished over the weekend. I finished the top part of the wording on this PS's Autumn Leaves, and stitched in the squirrel.

And I took an older PS Santa along with me on the car trip, stitching it over two on 18ct cork linen with #5 perle cotton. I didn't get too far along, because during daylight I was taking my turn at driving. Not making huge progress doesn't bother me, though. I've had this project on my mind for a year now, and I'm happy even if at this point it's only kitted up and in the QSnaps!

Yowza! 3 1/2 weeks till stitch camp (in Ohio this year)! I really, really need this weekend escape!