Book Report

Back along about the end of April, I posted this picture along with the declaration – more or less – that this was my summer reading.



Well, the end of July is comin’ ‘round the mountain, and I have read exactly this many books from that pile:

To be fair, I am almost finished with the Agatha Christie book. It’s very good but it’s not exactly un-put-downable – I read a chapter here and a chapter there – and it’s probably of interest only to Dame Agatha’s fans (such as myself). Of course, being almost finished with Agatha is probably balanced a bit by the fact that I was part-way through Blackout when I posted the pic. The two library books didn’t hold my interest, and I just haven’t gotten to Madeleine Albright yet.

These are part of the problem:

I stopped into B&N one evening to buy The Double Comfort Safari Club (which I’ve read and enjoyed) and walked out with all of these ::sigh:: which were added to the summer reading list. And I’ve read other things, as well. It was kind of silly to try to plan to read anything in a specific time period, because I’m a mood reader. Doesn’t matter if it’s on my list, if I’m not in the mood for it, it won’t get read until I am. I’m betting that I’m not the only person like that.

.

Here’s my current read, The Loved One, by Evelyn Waugh (drat it! I forgot to rotate the picture! My bad.)

My guy and I watched the movie based on this book a couple of weeks ago; it was definitely off-center and a bit bizarre, so I decided I needed to read the book for comparison. Both the book and the movie are a send-up of Hollywood and the funeral business and are actually not too bad. The book is about 170 pages long and is a pretty quick read. So far the movie is pretty faithful to the book, just a few alterations to some of the details.

What are you reading this summer? And I’m curious, where do you get your books? I try not to buy too many – both for financial reasons and lack of space – so I like to get as many as I can from the library. I re-read books, as well. I have about 4 books that I re-read regularly, every couple of years or so, and several others that I also like to re-read, though not as often.

So happy stitching and happy reading – TTFN!

Intentions Vs. Actuality

It's not as bad as it sounds; maybe I should have said "stocking vs. sampler." When I sat down to stitch this afternoon, I pulled two projects out of the WIP basket, the stocking and Anna Thies. My plan was to flip on the telly and stitch on the stocking for a couple of hours, then switch over to the sampler and maybe try to finish the first motif. So I started stitching on the stocking and by the time the end of two hours rolled around I was making really good progress with the flower vine on his shirt and I thought "well, I'll just finish this", so I did, and then I looked at the chart and realized that there were only about 4 more rows of green to do to be done with the shirt, so I thought "well, I'll just put in those last four rows." So I did that, too. When I finish a section, I like to at least get a bit of a runny-go at the next section before I lay aside the piece, so I thought "okay, I'll put in a little bit of the checkerboard on his pants." So I did that, and as I was really and truly getting ready to find a good stopping point I realized that I'd forgotten to do the backstitching on the vine, so I did that and then it was 8 o'clock and Anna was still in her bag, unstitched on today. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I did watch four episodes of "Mission:Impossible" while I stitched, though. Multi-tasking.

Have a great week, stay cool and happy stitching!

AT Update and Something I Stitched a Long Time Ago

I don't usually manage to stitch on Friday nights, but this evening I felt motivated and the top half of Anna is done -- hooray! I finished the alphabet last night and the border tonight, then put in the rest of the eyelets on the right side. I got a little bit of a start on one of the motifs.

I thought I'd share with you some things that I stitched several years ago. If memory serves, this is a Lavender & Lace design and it was one of my first projects done on linen. I stitched it in 1988 because it reminded me of Inky, one of our family cats. Inky is long gone, of course, but this still hangs in my hallway. It's also self-framed; not the mats -- I don't remember where those came from -- but I put it together myself.

That's it for this evening...have a great weekend and happy stitching!

A Stocking, A Sampler and A Chick Flick

All of a Sunday afternoon....

I sat down this afternoon and put the stocking on the Q-Snaps -- a bit of a task, actually, with the stiff fabric and the thick stitches that the perle coton makes. I put a piece of tissue paper over the stitching to try to protect it a little bit. Anyway, I put Sense & Sensibility (the afore-mentioned chick flick) in the DVD player and stitched away with Jane Austen. The top half of the stocking dude's shirt is done, as are the candy canes. I was glad to get those out of the way. They weren't hard, just kind of fiddly.


After I finished the candy canes, I decided to lay aside the stocking and work for just a little bit on Anna. Most of the progress you see is from last night, but I put in a couple of letters and a few repetitions of the wavy border before I put her away.

On the decorating front, I stopped by Lowe's yesterday and picked up some paint chips. One color that caught my eye was called "Fragrant Coriander" and I really liked it at first. Then I looked at it a little longer and decided against it for a couple of reasons. It's kind of a dark gold and I really want to go with something a little more neutral for this room. I think something with more brown undertones will give me more flexiblity with the colors for the chair covering and whatever I hang on the window with the lace curtains. Also, the more I looked at the gold, the more I thought that it's kind of the color of ... of ... well, of cat barf. Sorry, but it is. I clean enough of that off the floor; I don't fancy having it on the walls as well.

-

Hoping everyone has a great week -- happy stitching!

Busted!

"Oh, is this your chair?"

"Yes, we do think it's very comfortable, thank you."

Another Row of Alphabet Bites the Dust!

I have the last row of alphabet and two dividing bands to finish on Anna Theis, then I can move on to the motifs in the lower part of the sampler. Woohoo! I'm really enjoying stitching this and she's moving along pretty quickly.


Thanks to everyone for your suggested solutions to my decorating dilemma. I've begun to formulate a plan. First of all, I'm going to leave the hated wooden things (HWTs) on the wall. But instead of painting the wall green or pink, I'm going to paint it something more neutral, like a tan or a dark beige, so they'll kind of blend in instead of being so in-your-face. I can bring color into the room with the throw over the chair and maybe a colorful lamp shade (on the lamp that I don't have yet but that will go in front of the window) and other accessories. (Have I been watching too much HGTV or what?) The hated wrought iron thing over the window will get spray painted antique gold or maybe bronze and used for a swag of some sort (more color) over the lace curtains that will eventually replace the shade. I don't have any particular objection to the shade other than it came with the house so who knows how old it is and it's looking a bit ratty and could stand to be replaced. And finally, I'll hang small pieces of needlework between the HWTs so they'll look like they serve some purpose. Not exactly sure when all this will get done; I hope by Christmas. Maybe. Possibly.

"Does she really think she's going to actually do all that? She'd be better off just taking a nap."

Happy stitching, everybody!

Need Some Decorating Opinions

But first I'll show off today's progress on Anna; I finished the third line of alphabet and the green border beneath it. There are a U and a V stitched between the T and the W but the color is a yellowish-tan that doesn't show up well in the picture. There are two more rows of alphabet and horizontal borders to do, then I can get into the motifs and the fun stuff. I finished up the thread I was using on the Algerian eyelets (not in pic) but there are 10 or 12 more to go down the right side.

I spent today doing some tidying and sweeping and dusting, and I finally tackled this stitching room/office. I've only lived here 2 years; can you spell "procrastinate"? Anyhoo, here is an "after" picture of one corner of the room.

It still needs some work and I'm going to buy or make a throw to go over the chair, which is something that my parents had when they were first married in 1954 and has been re-covered at least 3 times and needs it again but that's not a project I'm interested in tackling. My problem in this room is those brown things on the wall. They are wooden molding and they run just to the window and then the length of the wall on the right and I.hate.them. Hate them. Just hate them. I suppose they were supposed to be, like, I don't know, plate rails or something, but they just don't work for me. So here's my dilemma. I'm afraid to try to take them off because I can't tell whether they're nailed on or glued and if they're glued, I cringe at the mess I could make of the walls. So for now I'm stuck with them. My plan is to paint the room either a rose pink or a sage green and I think I have three options for the things:

1. leave them as they are and paint around them

2. paint them white and pain the color around them (if I do this, I'm thinking the closet door and baseboards will have to be painted white as well)

3. paint them the same color that I paint the room

You guys are a bunch of creative folks, so I'm gathering opinions. What would you do with it if it were your room? One of these three choices or something else?

Believe it or not, there's something in this room that I like less than I like the rail around the wall and this is it: It's wrought iron and much heavier-looking than in the picture. It and the blinds are going when the room gets painted. It might be okay in a den or a man room, but somehow I don't think it'll work with lace curtains!

Have a great week and happy stitching!

My Stocking Dude Has An Arm!

And a shoulder! It occurred to me the other day that if I wanted to get this stocking stitching-finished (very possible) and finished-finished (yeah, like I think that's going to happen) before Christmas, then I should probably get back to stitching on him, so he's going to be my Sunday afternoon project for however long it takes.

When I picked him up this afternoon, I had about 5 rows of the sleeve stitched, so today I finished the sleeve and got started on the dark green part of his coat. He really is a fast stitch; I think someone commented about that when I first posted that I was stitching him, and it's very true. The fabric is 25 count and I'm using a 22 needle -- what a change that is; I can't remember the last time I used a 22 needle. It was probably a needlepoint project stitched long ago.

Here's hoping everyone had a lovely 4th. I'm hearing fireworks from somewhere tonight; several communities are having them this evening and I thought about venturing out, but, being comfortably ensconced on the sofa with my stitching, I decided against it. I have tomorrow off and have some housework planned, including some tidying and organizing in this stitching room/office. We'll see how much I actually accomplish!

Happy stitching!

Saturday Night Stitching

I took a break to go out and watch some of the neighborhood fireworks this evening, but I did manage to put in a little bit of time on Anna Thies. The five little green stitches going down the right side are Algerian eyelets; there are quite of few of those to put in on the right and left side both, so I decided to get a runny-go at them.


The new SANQ came today :-)) They've really outdone themselves with beautiful reproductions the past few issues. Last issue was Isabella Johnstone, and this month is Ellen O'Brien:

Isn't it beautiful? The reds in the picture in the magazine don't look as bright as they do in my picture-of-a-picture. The lead article in the Summer issue was about cows in needlework and the first page included a picture of a gorgeous sampler that was identified as "1864 EF Sampler". It, of course, had not been reproduced, but there is a little blurb at the bottom of Phyllis Hoffman DePiano's note in the front of the magazine that says due to the enthusiastic response from readers they are going to reproduce "1864 EF" in a future issue. Hooray!

-

Happy 4th of July and happy stitching!