Built the house!

I spent last weekend building the house on my anniversary sampler.

I thought this would go quickly, but houses are SO full of stitches!  For real, right?  I didn't have terribly far to go, because here's where I left off the before the weekend:

And yet I was pushing to finish it after almost two days of solid stitch time!  Luckily, I was in a room full of stitching buddies over the weekend and they kept me on task, so I was able to finish it Saturday afternoon.  (And when I say keep me on task, I mean that I was too embarrassed to give up and work on another project.  There would have been witnesses to my defeat, and I can't have that.)

So why did that house feel like it took so long to stitch?  Well, I decided to calculate time and stitches, starting with a total of 2, 276 stitches in that house.  Now, if I'm JUST creating cross stitches, I average about 5 complete cross stitches per minute.  (Yes, I timed myself) So if I had unending lengths of thread and stitched solidly with no breaks, that number of stitches would take me 7 hours and 40 minutes.

But of course, we must include pauses for tucking threads, starting threads, cutting threads, threading needles, unwinding floss, untangling floss, counting and recounting.  So to be on the safe side, let's add another 2 hours for all the stitching related activity that isn't actual putting thread onto fabric.  And even that 's probably a low estimate, because we all know that a tangled skein of DMC can take up a serious chunk of time...

And there you have it.  Conservatively, almost 10 hours of stitching went into a medium sized house.  Now, if you are like me, you must add in the time spent of getting up for snacks, walking around the room and admiring your buddies' work, catching up on everyone's families and jobs, grazing at the snack table AGAIN, texting, looking up useless trivia online,  gossiping about shops and bloggers, bathroom breaks, having more snacks on your way back from the bathroom, stretching your legs for a nice long, cold walk...and then you need another snack.  So - time sure flies!

And now that I think about it, it's downright amazing that I finished that house!  There.  Now I feel much better.

Oh...the cuteness!

Finished!  She was a really cute baby, right?  I loved those pink OshKosh overalls.

Valentine Mash Up

Ryan told me to tell you that he's glad you had a great Valentine's Day, even if it meant cracking a few jokes at his expense.  Our Ryan is nothing if not a good sport.

Each year I stitch a small Valentine for my daughter, (who is probably too old for this sort of thing now, but I don't care because I like doing it!) This year, the emphasis was on small.  And when I say Valentine, I actually mean post-Valentine, because even after stitching for 30 years, you would think that I would realize that small doesn't always mean fast.  So it's still not finished, but I may have to give it to her before I'm able to take another photo, and well...you'll get the idea from this picture.

I put this together by mashing up a few designs, starting with L'Atelier Perdu, where I found the phrase and the lettering for this little piece.  Natalie has some really adorable designs over there, and this one had been on my mind for a while.  But I didn't want to stitch the little girl on the left from the original design.  I wanted something more heart-y, so I switched her out and added a bit of a freebie heart tree from a Hungarian blog, called Sub Rosa.  And finally, I took out the original flower on the right of the design and added a thistle from a Blackbird Designs chart, the Thistle House Sewing Box.

You can see that I still have some stitching to do, like finishing the top border and I need some kind of something towards the bottom to balance the lettering...(Clear as mud, huh?)

Anyways, Colleen will probably like it, but she'll probably like the cash I tuck into the back of it more.  Oh..thanks everyone for your good thoughts for her as she interviews for jobs.  She hasn't heard anything one way or the other yet.

My friends in Ohio and West Virginia might be interested in reading the outdoor magazine she just published for her Senior Independent Study.  It's the kind of writing she really wants to pursue, and now that the magazine is hot off the press, she's hoping it'll be a nice addition to her resume.

It's a tough job market out there, but I'm sure something good will happen for her.  Still...I wouldn't be normal if I wasn't worrying.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I don't have any progress on my projects to show you, but that's no reason not to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day.  And even without any actual stitching, I still have a few gifts for you.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Moira and Me

I love this sampler.  Love, love, love it.

Moira Blackburn's Scottish Love Sampler

The colors are so much fun!  I love the bright hues.  They're way different than the palette I usually stitch with.  I didn't realize it when I took this picture, but look at my table runner in the background.  It's something I bought recently and it's bright, so obviously my tastes are changing. For like, the millionth time.

Border close up

So, just to remind you, this is a sampler for our anniversary and just under the alphabet it will say: "And I will love thee still".  I'll stitch that in its proper place if I still like Dave by the end of this sampler.  Or I could rechart it to say: "I haven't killed you yet", which would also mean that I still like him.  But if he's really on my nerves, I may stitch: "Sleep with one eye open".

(Dave knows I'm just kidding.  He's the best.  Really.  The guy's a prince )

This is a busy time of year for me, as it is for anyone in the bookkeeping or accounting field.  But I'm pretty fortunate because 9 months out of the year my schedule is super flexible.  I'd be a total wimp if I couldn't deal with three months of inflexible work.

But still, my mind wanders as I work. Like, I think about wanting Moira Blackburn to give me her cell phone number so I could text her every day when things pop into my head.  I would ask her to design samplers for all of my whims and needs.

(But then I'd probably end up on Judge Judy as the defendant in a stalking case.)

My mind wanders to samplers I want to stitch and bloggers I want to read and friends I want to stitch with.  I think of road trips I want to take and shops I want to visit.  I think of storage options for my beautiful stash and ways to organize and reorganize it.

And then I have to scream at myself, "GET BACK TO WORK!"

Hey...that would make a good sampler saying.  I could stitch it and put it by the computer monitor......Oh Good God.  It's hopeless.

I hope you all are having a more self-disciplined day than I am.

TWO finishes!

I was so pleased to add these two seasonal projects to my DONE list! I wish you could see the sparkly blending filament I used for the wrapped presents in this Brittercup design.  This little cutie was in an older JCS ornament issue.  As usual though, it's far from ornament sized. It's about 5 x 5, and that may be a good size if you're decorating a gigantic tree, but not my little pencil tree.  So he's going into a frame.

Can you kind of see the sparkliness here?

And....tah-dah! I finally finished PS Winter Wind!  All that snow stitching at the bottom almost did me in.  I kept whispering to myself, "How many more rows are left to stitch?"  But that's the nature of Prairie Schooler designs, isn't it?  Great designs that look simple and quick but take much longer than you originally thought!

 

 

I mentioned earlier that I had converted many of the threads from DMC to overdyeds. I think it was worthwhile in some ways and kind of a waste in others.  But if you're interested and thinking of using overdyeds for your own Winter Wind, here's my list:

White:  WDW Whitewash*
422 Cream:  WDW Straw*
640 Gray:  Same
898 Dark Brown:  WDW Chestnut
927 Light Blue:  CC Petite Maison*
3023 Light Gray:  Same
3362 Green:  WDW Blue Spruce
3371 Brown Black:  GAST Dark Chocolate
3768 Blue:  Same
3777 Red:  WDW Lancaster Red
3830 Pink:  WDW Bluecoat Red*
3862 Brown:  GAST Walnut

*If I ever stitch this again, I'd skip the overdyeds for these colors.  Either the thread was used in such tiny amounts that using an overdyed just wasn't worth it, or because the color just didn't work.  Like where I used WDW Whitewash.  It appears yellowish in places.  And yellow snow was really bumming me out... for obvious reasons.  So after I put in a couple lengths of thread, I switched to good old reliable and uncomplicated DMC White.

And now I've put away winter and Christmas and I'm back to stitching my Moira Blackburn sampler.  Here's where I left off in November, and I'm not much further along as of last night.

 

In other news, one thing has led to another and my daughter has an interview this week with a magazine she really wants to write for.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her, and if some of you could keep your fingers crossed too, I'd sure appreciate it. 

Last Friday's stitching with friends was cancelled because the weather wouldn't cooperate.  If this keeps up, I'm buying a dog sled.  I'll wrangle my neighbors' stupid collies into harnesses and yell MUSH.  Because I love those ladies just that much!

Normal, I like you.

Hey friends! It seems like we were just ringing in the New Year, and that makes if feel like time has flown by.  Except I keep thinking that this January has been one hell of a long month.   Between the holidays and some family illness in Philly, life was topsy-turvy.  But now things are settling into normal routines again and you know...I really like normal.

Normal means that I get time to stitch. A couple weeks ago I almost put all of my Christmas/Winter themed UFO's away.  After the decorations were down, boxed and closeted, I looked at the couple of Christmas-y projects in my basket and I felt....MEH.  But I kept out the two that were closest to completion and I persevered and I may have a couple finishes to show you by the end of this week! 

I'm very close to finishing this PS Winter sampler.  (I made even more progress last night.  Yay Football!) Once this is finished, I'll have stitched Winter Wind and Autumn Leaves.  Won't it be nice to start Spring?  It may be exactly what the doctor ordered!

That's on 32ct. Lambswool linen with a combination of DMC, GAST and WDW threads.  I'll share my thread conversion with you when it's totally done. 

So, this week brings a couple chances to stitch with friends and I'm looking forward to that more than I can tell you!   I've learned that I like to stitch while people are talking, so when I'm stitching alone I usually listen to a podcast or an audiobook.  Except I've been stitching alone so much lately that I'm starting to talk back to the iPad.  Really.  This has to stop.

Back up the truck

One of these days soon, the Needlework Hoarders truck is going to pull into my driveway and gloved workers and a camera crew will spill out and walk up my path.  Then I'm going to be that person who peers out her front door, clearly perplexed at why anyone would want to remove any lovely stitching items from her house.

Things are getting bad, people.  Really bad.  And it's got me thinking.

On TV Hoarders, they're always postulating that the hoarder in question has had some issue with loss or some other deep seated emotional problem that won't let them stop buying or bringing home stuff.  But I know that's not my case.  So there must be something else.  What makes me buy designs, threads and fabric when I know that my current stash will last WAAAAAAAY beyond my lifetime?  And my current stash is all stuff that I genuinely like, because I weed out my supplies and donate the unloved stuff every single month, like clockwork. 

OK, so what makes buying more stash so darn irresistible? 

I've given this a lot of thought and when I was having dinner with a couple stitching buddies of mine, I aired an idea out. 

My friends tried to tell me that stash is just a "collection" and that sifting through our stashes and fondling the wonderful threads and fabrics is enough to make us keep adding to our collections.  And I kind of get that, but I don't think I can get the collecting mentality to work for me if the rationality of it feels faulty.  In my opinion, needlework designs and supplies are meant to be used, not collected.  So my brain has to make some kind of psychic leap to explain why I keep adding to my stash.  

Here we go...

I buy cross stitch stash because in my head, I believe that I've already stitched it. It's so sensible.  I don't have to fret about when I'll actually ever stitch something because in my head, it's already completed.  It's a wonderful type of self-deceiving rationalization. 

Should I round out my collection of BBD monthly mini stockings?  Why, certainly!  Because - voila!  My mind thinks that just by purchasing them, I've actually finished them.  No need to feel guilty about this, because they're already mentally done. (I've actually stitched two of them.  Two of....38?  Yeah, that sounds right)

I can't think of any other explanation.  Because in other parts of my life, I am so NOT a hoarder.  There's nothing I love better than clearing crap out of my house.

Well.  Except nice china dishware.  It seems to multiply magically.  And cookware.  But let's stop right there, ok? 

And now it's almost the end of the year.  I may not be back to my blog for a couple days, so I'll wish you all A Happy New Year.  May 2013 be filled with happiness and health and lots of time for stitching and if you want to buy some new stash this year, you have my blessing.  Because guess what?  In my head, you've already stitched it!

Excuses, Excuses

For not writing or stitching.  And all of them are lame. 

Too busy.
Too tired.
Days that are too boring to write about.
Not enough stitching to warrant a post.
Bothersome poor vision during these long nights.
Dishpan hands.
People plopping their hineys in my stitching chair and not getting out of it.
And so on and so on and so on.

Anyway.  I've given some thought to leaving this blog behind altogether, but jeez...after writing here for all of these years, it seemed so wrong to just walk away.

So I guess I won't.  I'm moving on towards 2013 and letting go of my guilt about hardly posting in 2012. 

 Thanks Ryan.  You're the man.

Favorite New Santa design in 2012

Well, it looks like I missed a few days of my 30 Days of Santa.  Running here, there and everywhere will do that to a stitcher. 

There were so many sweet Santa designs published in 2012, but this is my favorite.

Letters for Santa, by With Thy Needle and Thread

I love everything about it.  If you know me, you know all of my reasons!  As soon as it became available, my credit card started glowing.  Kinda like Sting.  No, not that Sting.  Bilbo Baggins sword, Sting, that glows  blue in the presence of Orcs.  (I'm a little excited about Peter Jackson's new movie.  Can you tell?)

Santa from a friend

Here's a sweet little Santa ornament that a Yahoo group friend named Sandy stitched for me years ago. He's simple but perfect!

 I went to a stitching Christmas party recently and many of us make party favors for the group members.  My friend Linda and I created little freebie kits as our favor.  We thought the New Year needed some attention...The design is by Carol over at istitch.  We think her designs are awesome and she's very generous for providing us with a bunch of freebies.

Stitched on opalescent PTP Dawn Aida, with white DMC. 

Oops! I should have been more clear.

In my post from earlier today, I should have told you that my Santa candle is a candle holder made of porcelain.  I drop a tealight candle into the fireplace.  I bought him at one of those candle home parties almost 30 years ago.  I used to LOVE those candle parties.

I think that same year I bought a white porcelain Madonna and baby candleholder, too.  But the candle placement was odd and when it was burning it left a sooty residue on the porcelain.  Jesus had a bit of a dirty face, but Mary looked like she was sporting a day old beard.  It found a new home via Goodwill.

Santa Candle

Do you remember the Santa figures that you had in your house when you were a child? My mom had one - it sat on the fireplace hearth every Christmas. He was just a rubber squeak toy, but we loved him. And when you have five children and two crazy Irish setters running around a small house...a  Rubber Christmas is probably your safest bet. I sure wish I had a picture of him, though.

 I bought this little Santa candle the first year we were married. I love the way that the candle lights up this sweet Santa's face.

My time is short today, but I have more to say, so I'll be back tomorrow.  Right now, I'm off to shop in the rain.  Better than snow, though!

I knew you'd like him!

We stitchers sure do appreciate some beefcake in the world of Santa, don't we? Thanks for the comments - They all gave me big smiles yesterday!

So...today's Santas are from Siobhan's blog, Notes from Blue Hen Hollow.

Siobhan has one of the best collections of stitched PS Santas I've ever seen!  And they're not sitting in a box somewhere...she actually finishes them. She has so many wonderful Santas photographed and posted on her blog, and I'm only sharing one photo of many.

Now head on over to her blog to see more.  Just plop "Santa" into the Blogger search bar and be prepared to scroll to your heart's content! 

I can finally show you a couple of finishes from a little bit ago.  The two ornaments were exchange gifts and last night they found their way to their new homes. 

LK Flora McSample from 2011.  For my Scottdale friend, Pam.  It's on Opalescent Hazelnut  from Silkweaver.

HSE Sampler Snowman. For my friend Linda, who loves alphabets!  On 40ct. Cocoa linen

And for me. A quick Pine Mountain kit.  Just because I felt like it.

Pretty Santa

I've had a very busy couple of days and fell behind a bit on my month of Santas. I should be back with some interesting stuff tomorrow, (well...I hope you find it interesting!), but I thought I'd give you something pretty to stare at mindlessly while you wait.

Forget the chimney, honey.  Just knock on the door.

Sue's Santas

I'm only mildly successful at setting stitching goals and actually achieving them.  In 2009, I thought I'd stitch a new yearly PS Santa card every Christmas from now until....well, I guess until forever.  Actually, if we have a zombie apocalypse and these designs stop flowing, I have enough yearly Santa charts, thread and fabric to get me through several years of stitching these fellows.  Hey....a girl needs to relax after running from zombies all day.

Must. Learn. to Count. and Run. at the Same. Time.

 But I'm getting off topic here.  And probably watching too much Walking Dead.  Anyway, I stitched this one in  2009.

Then this one in 2011

So I guess it's more like every-other-year.

And here's my Kansas friend Sue, who has actually stitched every single yearly Santa, and even had the sense to leave some spots blank for future years. 

Don't worry Sue.  If the zombies come to Kansas, I'll rescue your Santas, too. 

Football Santa

Poor Santa.  When he's not busy making toys and visiting department stores, he gets shoved into various uniforms and made to play sports.

Here's Football Santa, playing quarterback on any collegiate field and a credit to the sport:

 And then there's Drunk Football Fan Santa.  A credit to the sport?  Not so much.

For our European friends, let's see their FOOTBALL Santa, too.

But this is just wrong.  

And dudes....that's a basketball.  If you can't get the mythology straight, at least use the proper equipment.

It has nothing to do with Santa

Still, it has a mythical creature! 

My daughter Colleen is a senior at the College of Wooster (no...really?  You didn't know that? I haven't wallpapered my blog with her pictures enough?).  All seniors must complete an Independent Study project.  You can only imagine the variety of projects this small liberal arts college turns out each year. 

Colleen - an English major - decided to create a magazine for Ohio outdoor activity enthusiasts.  She's written and organized a number of articles about running, hiking, camping and biking.  But recently she wrote an article about the Southeastern Ohio Bigfoot Investigation Society.  Her adviser encouraged her to submit it to Outdoor Magazine and what-do-you-know, they published it online. 

So you can click over here if you'd like to read about Sasquatch in Ohio.  Yes.  Ohio.  Evidently, Squatch doesn't mind flat, flat land.

Memories of Santa

I was a child of the 1960's.  In my Philadelphia neighborhood, very few mothers worked, most households only owned one car, and families were bigger.  I grew up with four younger brothers and sisters, always sharing a bedroom and often sharing a bed.  (But that was nothing compared to the family down the street.  The Carusos had twelve children, ranging in ages from 28 to 8 years old. In a three bedroom house.  You do the math)

A very 1960's sensibility was that when women went to a big department store - even one in the suburbs - they dressed.  Hosiery, hats and gloves...the whole deal.  I remember wanting to stop at Wanamaker's in Jenkintown on the way home from school one afternoon.  "Oh no..." said my mother. "I can't go in there dressed like this!"  She was wearing slacks. So going to the Center City John Wanamaker's was pretty big on the dress-up scale.  And my parents took us to Wanamakers' in town every year to see Santa.  First there were the store window displays to see.  Then we'd head inside to visit Santa.

I'm sure the lines to see Santa were long, but I don't remember being bothered by that. Wanamaker's had so many wonderful things to see as we waited.  We'd watch animated figures of children and elves and reindeer doing all kinds of fun things.  Seriously, it was like magic.  After we had been to the Worlds Fair in New York and visited Disney's It's a Small World, we came away thinking it couldn't hold a candle to a Wanamaker Christmas.

And then finally...finally, we were on Santa's lap!

It's funny, though.  I don't remember seeing Santa like this:

Don't we all have pictures like this in our photo albums?

I remember him more like this:

What a difference a year makes! And look!  Wanamaker's magically moved over 14,000 miles closer to the North Pole!

My grandmother worked in the lamp department at Wanamaker's. Hmm.  So maybe my love of lamps is genetic?  Anyways,  after we had visited with Santa and saw the light show (at the Eagle), my grandmother would meet us for dinner at the Crystal Tea Room.  I can't tell you how special that was to us.  We used to eat in a restaurant exactly once a year and this was it.  As a child, I remember thinking that the smells were so exotic and the sound of so much silverware hitting so many china plates was music to my ears.  (With five children, my family used Melamine for every meal.  You can imagine why.)

The Crystal Tea Room still exists, but I couldn't find any 1960's photos of the dining room.  Now it's used for banquets, meetings and weddings. 

 Imagine though...a ceiling high Christmas tree, surrounded by colorful boxes.  It was spectacular.  And larger than life when you're a little girl.

Those were some wonderful memories.  I love thinking about them. Thanks for letting me share them with you!

You had to know this

If I'm writing about my favorite Santas, you can bet that there'll be several pictures of Prairie Schooler Santas in the mix.  I think they're so appealing!  Is it their simplicity?  Their variety?  The way you can adapt them to several sorts of finishes?  Whatever it is, I love to collect PS Santa designs.  I stitch them as often as I can, and I LOVE it when fellow bloggers show off their accomplishments, too.  So look for some of those soon.  Meanwhile, here's one of my favorites - given to me a few Christmases ago by Carol, over at Stitching Dreams. 

He is so charming!  And many of you know Carol and her blog.  It's an extraordinary blog and she's an extraordinary friend!