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.

March SBQ - and -I had the most amazing day yesterday

Thanks again to CinDC for proving the March 2012 SBQ!  You can also go visit her blog and thank her yourself.  So, here we go:



Do you participate in exchange or RR stitching? Why or Why Not?

I think most of us have had a go with these kinds of things, so think about your answer and then post about it!

Now for Part 2 of my post today:

Yesterday I had my yearly gyne appointment.  It always involves a long, long drive, followed by absolutely insane parking fees.  (Thank you, Shadyside Hospital).  But I won't switch docs just yet - I've been cared for by this fellow very well for the past 25 years and I think he's the greatest.  Still, you can guess that I was less than anxious to go and Monday morning I woke up thinking I would cancel.  I simply wasn't in the mood, but then I (literally) put on my big girl panties and decided to deal with the hassle.

So...I had my appointment, chatted with my doc, and then visited the receptionist, and pulled out my wallet. And she told me that my insurance rules had changed and I didn't have to pay my co-pay.  Cha-ching!

And since I was in Pittsburgh anyway, I decided to renew my library card.  I stepped up to the desk, filled out the paperwork and took out my wallet, but the librarian said there had been changes at my local library, so this year my card was free.  Seriously?  Now I was feeling fabulous!  And not fretting over parking fees anymore!

OK, so I putzed around at the library, found a few books from the reading list that I keep on my iPhone, and went to the self checkout station.  Major fail.  I couldn't figure it out so I headed to the main desk instead.  (I don't do well at grocery self-checkouts, either)

Checked out my books, la, la, la, la...(That's me singing a self-satisfied song).Looked around a little more, then headed to my car.  Decided to give my son a quick ring while I was in the parking lot.  But....No phone.  Think, think, think!  Did I set it down somewhere?  And I got that feeling of dread, knowing that my phone was gone.  What an awful end to a terrific day.  So I walked back into the library to start what I thought would be a fruitless search, but there it was.  Sitting right in front of the self-checkout station.  I was shocked.  There was a fellow using the self-checkout, too...And I said to him, "Wow, I can't believe this is still here."  But he said to me, "Well, you are in Pittsburgh."  I do love this city.  But it would be better with cheaper parking.

A great end to a great day.  And to think that I almost tried to reschedule it.

Knock, knock?

Hello?  Is there anyone in there?  It's me, your long lost stitchy blogger.  I haven't been to your house (or more likely, your office) in quite a while, but I'm still alive.  I've just been horribly lazy.

I could say that I've been on a journey of self-discovery for the past few weeks.  I could prove it by saying:  Here's what I've learned about myself:  I'm horrible at keeping blog promises. If I promise I'm going to do something here, there are probably bookmakers in Las Vegas calculating the odds of my keeping that promise.  You should definitely bet against it.  For instance, posting every day about things I love in February?  Yeah.  You can see how wonderfully that turned out. I really must stop making these kinds of plans.

So I'll make one final promise.  And that is:  No more blog promises. 

Since my last post, I've had a finish!  And just in time for my birthday month, too.  I started this sampler last March, with the goal of finishing it by this March, so ta-dah!

Antique Sampler, by Eileen Bennett.  Stitched on ivory linen with DMC

And here are some of my favorite parts:

Love the over one saying, but pay no attention to my lame-o satin stitch border. 

Loved stitching the 4-sided stitch clover

And the 4 sided stitch that goes round the border.  I almost didn't stitch it, (lazy much?) but I thought about it harder and decided that the sampler needed it.

And next, we have the sampler that never ends.  I took this on the Villa Maria retreat recently....I was looking forward to three solid days of stitching on my horizon, and I am telling you the God's honest truth when I say that I used almost every minute of the retreat on this sampler alone.  Other than getting up for meals, a couple of brisk walks and some bathroom breaks, I dedicated my entire weekend to this sampler.  (Unlike others in this crew who brought 15 projects....just sayin')

Evidently I was having delusions of grandeur, because this is all I accomplished:

And mind now...The wreath part had already been stitched.  Maybe I shouldn't have slept all weekend.  But I'm getting quite close to the end...

I just have to make sure that I live long enough to finish this thing.  Like till I'm 100.

And finally, another buddy and I felt like we needed a quick alphabet fix, so Linda and I are cheering each other through a Stitchalong with LaDDa's ABCD chart.  I thought this would be a nice design for my first attempt with 40 ct. linen and.....OH, am I ever in big trouble.  I love this fabric way too much.  It's so sweet to work with, it feels downright unhealthy.  Here's my progress from last weekend.

40 ct. Exampler linen with Belle Soie Mer Blue silk.  I've died and gone to heaven....

 LInda is stitching hers in Belle Soie Red Fox.  It's going to be awesome.

Some friends went on a shopping trip today, gallivanting through Ohio to shop-hop after the recent needlework market.  I decided to stay home and devote the day to stitching stuff that I actually already have.  But Friday night I caved and called one of the ladies and begged her to be my personal shopper. Because....you know....I needed more stuff.

Are you all as hopeless as me?

Day 21

My daughter leaves for New Zealand this morning and I can scarcely think of anything else.
I hate how I don't get nervous about things until the very last minute.  I think I'm all calm, cool and collected, then  I lose it at the last minute.  It happens every time, so I don't know why I'm so surprised this morning.

You know what's weird?  When your children start going places without you.  When you have to trust that they'll  be able to manage on their own in places that you know almost nothing about.

It's gonna be a long 4 1 /2 months....

Day 20

Good morning gang!  I've missed posting over the past few days because I was away at a stitching retreat.  Now, normally I would have taken my iPad or a laptop or some reasonable way of keeping in touch.  Thursday morning I was congratulating myself all the way to the retreat, because for once I was on time and not running around like a chicken with my head cut off.  So, la, la, la...happy, happy me, with thoughts of how wonderful I am running through my head as I drove the highways and byways, only to arrive, open my trunk,  and...........Whaaaaaaaaat?  I was missing a big bag.  And that meant no iPad, no book, no medicine, no special coffee, no special tea and NO WINE.  Somehow as I was packing the car, I left that whole bag behind on a chair in the living room. 

My stitching friend Debbie, who is always calm, cool and collected said, "Lee, do you have your stitching?"  Yes.  "And do you have your clothes?" Yes.  "Then everything will be fine."

Don't you love how she prioritized my life in two questions?  #1:  Stitching.  #2:  Clothing.  And even if I had forgotten clothing, I had enough fabric packed and enough friends with needles there that we could have stitched together some kind of crazy outfit for me to wear. 

But anyway, I'm back from a weekend of total stitching immersion, and now continuing with the February theme of people, places and things that I love.  Now, I don't know whether to call this a place or a thing - I love stitching retreats.

I've been to several - near and far - and let me tell you, if you can find one, GO.  Here are links to shop sponsored retreats I've written about in my blog over the years.

Silver Needle 2007 - My maiden voyage. Read here and more here
Silver Needle 2008 - Here
Hearts Desire camp 2011 - here and here
Cross My Heart camp 2009 - here

Then there are the getaways formed by a bunch of stitchers that one day look at each other and say, "Hey!  Let's go somewhere!".  Those are awesome.  And it doesn't even need to be a whole weekend.  I went to one marathon stitch day in a Holiday Inn that went from 8AM till 11PM.  Also very great.  So if you can't find a retreat, you can create one.  It's just a matter of finding a couple of like-minded stitchers, a date and a place.  And speaking of like-minded stitchers, here's the group of lovely and fascinating women I spent a long weekend with.  A few are missing - Ginny, Brenda and Judy, but here are the rest!  We were (starting on the left) Colleen, Patty, Nancy, Denise, Janice, Shirley, Linda, Debbie and Donna. 

Playing

Working

 We spent the weekend at a retreat center called Villa Maria, near New Castle PA, a totally peaceful and perfect place.  There was a chapel attached, and you know my fondness for stained glass.

Stitching that I love today was our sole finish of the weekend, by the ever-cool Deb.  It wasn't because we were fooling around, but that we all had these BAP's.  But back to Debbie - She finished her Ann Sandles sampler.  Such a beauty!  I wish I had taken close-ups, but you get the idea.

Day 15

I love books. I think I've had my nose buried in a book since I first learned to read.  The format of a book doesn't really matter to me.   I love a nice book-in-hand, I love audio books and I love ebooks.  But I'm not fond of newspapers and magazines.  They have too many distractions for me.

Here's a neat little YouTube video - I know it has made the rounds on blogs and Facebook, but maybe it'll be new to some of you:

I'm really close to finishing the sampler I started on my birthday last year.  Really, really close! I just need to stop hip-hopping around and finish a few areas.  (and start the border, but let's not talk about that right now)  Like newspaper reading, this sampler holds too many distractions for me! 

Antique Sampler, by The Sampler House (Eileen Bennett)

Day 14

Happy Valentine's Day to all my fellow bloggers!

Day 14 brings me to Ireland, a place that I love.  I could go back in a heartbeat. I went on and on about this trip last year, so I won't subject you to that again.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Here's some more of my very own stitching, too, adapted from an older Blackbird Designs chart to make a Spring ornament. Well...it may become an ornament if it finds its way out of my pile of Unfinished Finishes. 

Center motif from BBD's 2004 Country Garden although I removed one part of the design and added the word Spring and the little heart.   Stitched on 32ct. PTP Doubloon Jobelan, with Crescent Colors, WDW and DMC threads.  I plan to use the HDF silk chenille in this photo when I finish it. 

Days 11, 12, and 13

I got a little behind with my February posts.  I don't want to whine about my neck anymore, but I'll still use it as an excuse.  Some days I want to rip my neck off my body, but then where would my head sit?

And I'd look like this guy. 

Not a pretty idea

Alrighty...today I want to show you some of the far away stitching friends I love. I don't have pictures of everyone.  The combination of me always forgetting to pack my camera, my lack of photography skills and a couple of camera-shy friends means that not all of you are here in this collage.  But you get the idea. 

Don't worry nearby stitching girls - you're coming up soon!

 

Call me lucky....I've been able to meet fellow stitchers from all over the world.  Sometimes I've come to them and sometimes they've come to me, but whichever - it's been wonderful fun.  There are my Kansas Girls, my Philly Girls, and my Erie Girls.  I also still have friends from my pre-computer, ink and paper pen-pal days, including Hella and Anna from Lubeck Germany with me in the photo on the right side, and Elizabeth from Australia with me in my driveway on the left side.  These lovely women and their families have visited with me a few times and it's always a treat.
 
And now that Dave and I are starting our camper adventures, who knows where else I'll have "girls"? 

Stitching that I love today is my very own!  Yes, I'm not borrowing from someone else's blog today! 

The first year that my daughter was away at college, I stitched her a Valentine.  And I've continued to do it each year.  I hope it becomes part of our mother-daughter story.  This year I stitched "Heart Happy".  Really fun!

Day 10

Lamps.  I adore lamps!  And this one is my favorite, bought from the gift shop when I worked at Kentuck Knob.  It totally belongs in my house.  The stained glass artist started with the style of the Tiffany maple leaf lamp, but then added his own touches to it - particularly the red berries - and made it even more appealing.  Every night that I light this lamp, it makes me happy.

No stitchery pics today because I don't have the author's permission. ( Not that she wouldn't give it, just that I forgot to ask for it and now I'm writing this post and thinking about how forgetful I am)  Do you remember how we were wondering about who would care for and keep our stitching in future generations?  Well, Susan Elliot wrote a very interesting article about the importance of the stories behind our family treasures.  I thought it was very thought-provoking and it makes me want to catalog every sampler I have hanging in the house.One of these days I should attach notes or stories to the back of each one.  It would be a fun exercise.

And could it count as housework, too?  Moving the samplers around will stir up at least a little dust.

Day NIne

I love my city.  Even though I live 50 miles away, Pittsburgh will always feel like it's my city.  It's the place where I grew up.  I mean really grew up.  The kind of growing up you do when you leave your childhood home.

I love its many neighborhoods. I love its downtown (ahem.....dahntahn). I love its sports teams.  I love its libraries, parks, museums, colleges and hospitals.  Sure, its winter is long and it always rains on the Three Rivers Arts Festival, but there are days of glorious sunshine, too.

I just wish it had a few cross stitch shops.  Then it would be perfect.

Today's stitching that I love comes from Meari, who completed Carol's Mystery Sampler and finished it as a lovely box. (Carol kindly posted a tutorial for the box completion, too)  Don't you just love needlework tools?  And don't you just love to have a wonderful place to store them?  I think this box finish by Meari is wonderful.  What showpiece for keeping your favorite things. 

Thanks Meari, for letting me use your photos!