We've Had a Touch of Winter, and That's Enough, Thank You

We've had a couple of days of brutal winds and dropping temperatures, then yesterday morning we got up to a glaze of ice on everything.  That's enough winter for me.  Thanks very much and all that, but it can be warm now.

 

It actually turned out to be not so bad yesterday.  Because of the ice, my husband took the pick-up truck to work, so that left me high and dry at home with no vehicle that I could drive.  The trusty old Saturn is at the shop, and DH's Mini-Cooper has standard transmission.  I, alas, have never learned to drive a stick, so I stayed home yesterday and did some laundry, did a bit of tidying, and baked cookies.  All in all, okay for a chilly day.

 

Today started out warm, but turned blustery and cold -- a perfect day to stitch the afternoon away.  I worked on the wookie quite a bit.  Here's how he looked last Sunday when I put him away:

 

I worked on him a little bit during the week, then made some good progress today.  Here's where we are now:

I'm putting a narrow border around him to give him a bit of a frame.  I'm about half finished with him.

 

I also worked on Salina Dunwoody last weekend.  The little dark blue line in the middle of the design is the start of the roof of a house.  I do like this piece and need to buckle down and get her off the WIP pile. 

 

I also did a spot of baking last weekend.

These are called Mini Chocolate-Cherry Bundt Cakes, and the recipe is from Food Network.  I saw it on the Pioneer Woman show; I love Ree's recipes because as a rule they don't require unusual ingredients that I have to order from Amazon because no grocery in three states carries them.  Her recipes use ingredients that I usually have or can get easily.  These turned out really well and they're not difficult to make.  The recipe should be here, if you've a mind to give them a go.  The recipe does call for a special mini bundt cake baking pan; I found mine on Amazon (where else!).

Wishing everyone the happiest of whatever holiday or holidays you celebrate -- and, as always, happy stitching!

Holy Clothespins, Batman!

After my dad passed away last spring, Mom made the decision to move to an independent living facility.  She's on a waiting list for a place, and in the meantime my sister and I are helping her clean out the house and get it ready to go on the market when the time comes.  It's difficult for all of us, of course; she and Dad built the house in 1961, and it's where my sister and I grew up.  So, not so easy.  But that's not what this post is about.

 

When I was home a few weeks ago, my sister and I were working in the basement when my sister came across a clothespin bag.  We have no idea how old it is or who it belonged to, my mom or my grandmother.  I don't remember seeing it as a child, so I wonder if it might have been my grandmother's.  If it was Mom's, I figure it's maybe mid-fifties vintage.  Mom and Dad were married in 1954, so if it's hers, she probably got it sometime after that.  Anyway, my sister loves vintage linens -- as do I -- and she decided that she would take this little bag home and try to clean it up.  Yesterday, she sent me some before and after pics.

 

This is one of the before pictures.  As you can see, it needed a LOT of cleaning!  It was, in a word, nasty, but still cute as it can be.  This is the front.

 

And the back.  It looks worse than the front.

 

And under the skirt on the front.  Ick.

Just a close-up of the pattern.  I think it looks very 50-ish or early 60-ish.

If you take another look at the picture of the back, you can see this spot near the lower left corner.

 

So my sis got to work.  The first mixture that she treated it with was just water with -- ready for this? -- Efferdent.  I kid you not.  Apparently Efferdent is good for lifting stains out of old linens.  I had never heard of such a thing.  She told me that she treated the bag several times with different mixtures; I think the Efferdent was only step one.  Finally she decided that it was as good as it was going to get.  And if you ask me, as good as it's going to get is pretty remarkable.  At some point along the way the red faded so the top of the "dress" is now kind of pinkish, but I think it's still adorable.  Take a look: 

 The stain on the bottom left wouldn't come out completely, but it still looks pretty darned good.  The bag's new home will be her sewing room.

I've been working on my quilt square, and the Wookie is looking more like a Wookie.  It's a pretty quick stitch -- large blocks of the same color, and no confetti.  He'll meet the design size requirement for the quilt block as he is, but I'm planning to stitch a border around him, just to make the picture a little larger and break up some of the white space on the block.

That's pretty much it from my little corner of the world.  Here's hoping that everyone has a good week -- happy stitching!

Wookie Progress

I've made some decent progress on my Wookie project this week.

 

I actually re-started him on 16-count Aida.  I had been using 14-count, but I didn't like the way it was looking, so I switched it.  It's a pretty fast stitch, but I expect I'm going to have had enough of brown for a while once I get him done.

I have a question for you.  What kind of stitching light do you have?  I had an Ott floor lamp for a number of years until the switch crapped out on me.  Now I use the regular lamp at the end of the sofa and supplement it with an Ott tabletop.  I need to get another light for my stitching room/library; I've had my eye on an Ott on the Joann Fabrics website, but I'm a little leery of it because of some of the reviews.  It's a floor lamp, and some of the reviews make me think that it's not very stable.  Any thoughts, recommendations, or stay-away-froms?

Thanks much!  Have a good week and happy stitching!

WIP Progress



It's been over a year since I've showed you how things are going with Salina Dunwoody.  At that time, I had just finished the alphabet, and the top and right side of the border were done.  Here's where she is now:

I've made a little start on the left side of the border; it's hard to see because I didn't move the threads before I took the picture.  She's probably the WIP that's closest to being finished, so I'm really going to try to work on her as much as I can.

I don't remember whether I showed you this one.  It's "Their Song", from Blackbird Designs.

Sorry the picture is sideways.  It was correctly oriented in the file, but blogger rotated it for some reason and I can't for the life of me figure out how to fix it.  I'm using the called-for GAST and Weeks fibers, and stitching it on 40-count Lakeside Linens "Pearled Barley".  Love that fabric!

 

Finally, here are a couple of quilt squares.  The first one is the nose and part of the eyes of a Wookie.  (What, you mean you can't tell?)  It's for a Love Quilts UK quilt, and when finished will be the stylized head of a Wookie.  I'm thinking it should be a fairly quick stitch; it's not due until the end of March, so that should give me plenty of time to get it finished!  The design is from Hermit Crab Stitchery on Etsy.  It's actually designed for needlepoint with Appleton wools, but I found an on-line converter and figured the DMC colors.

This last square is finished.  The design is from Connie Gee; her website is here.  This will be mailed this week.

 

It has been super windy here all day -- a good day to stay in and stitch!  Wishing everyone in the US a happy Thanksgiving, and happy stitching to all!

Mickey Finished

Mickey is finished, washed and pressed (after this picture was taken), and on his way across the pond.  I'm happy with how he turned out.

 

Happy stitching, all!

Mickey Has Hands!

 

I finished the cross stitching on Mickey Friday night, and I've got a good runny-go on the backstitching.  The fiddliest part of the back stitching is around his head and face, and that's about done.

I figure if I can get  in 45 minutes to an hour of stitching every night this week, I can get him done and on his way to England.

We've had a lovely weekend here, with mild temps and sunshine.  Yesterday was a little windy, but that has died down.  DH and I went to a going-away party last night for one of his co-workers who is transferring to Kona, Hawaii.  The co-worker, Bryan by name, has a Great Dane who was also at the party.  I think he is the biggest dog I have ever seen, but he was very well behaved and just wandered around all evening, looking for people to pet him :-)  Just a big ol' love sponge.

Other than that, there's not much going on.  Wishing everyone a good week and happy stitching!

Pawprints On Our Hearts

 

We lost our sweet Mimi cat yesterday.  She was 19 years old and her kidneys had shut down.  She was so very sick, and, despite the vet’s best efforts, the kindest choice was to let her go.

Mimi was full grown when she came to us at age 12.  She had lived in one home from her kittenhood, but her owner was going into an assisted living facility and was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to care for Mimi there, so Mimi came to us.  She was frightened and confused at first; I put her carrier in the powder room with a litter box and a food dish, and it was probably 3 days before she ventured out.  She was also coming into a home where another cat – Timothy – had already established himself, so she had that to deal with as well.  But she got used to her new place, she and Timothy became best friends, and she decided that my husband had the best lap to snooze in.

She was diagnosed with kidney failure a little over a year ago.  I’ve been feeding her the prescription kidney diet cat food, and she had been doing quite well.  We’d noticed some weight loss recently, and she’s been thin almost to the point of emaciation, although she was still eating and drinking.  Then, just in the last couple of weeks, her health took a downward turn.  With no muscle mass, she was getting more and more frail, then she lost interest in food.  She was lethargic on Monday, and could barely stand, so we took her to the vet that evening when my husband got home from work.

They kept her overnight to give her IV fluids and to do blood work.  I talked to the vet on Tuesday morning; Mimi’s kidney values were off the chart and not in a good way, and they had her in an incubator to try to regulate her temperature.  We went to see her Tuesday afternoon, and she didn’t respond when I slid open the incubator door and rubbed her head.  We agreed to try one more night of fluids and blood work.  Yesterday afternoon we went to see her, and after talking with the vet, we realized that we had to let her go.  They brought her in to us and she didn’t seem to even be aware that we were there.  We petted her and talked to her and she finally did twitch her tail a little.  I held her while the vet gave her the injections that would take away her suffering; she was so sick and so frail that it took only a very few seconds for her to pass.

It’s hard to let a beloved pet go.  I’ll miss seeing her waiting at the top of the stairs when I come in from work.  I’ll miss seeing her play with Timothy, and climb into Greg’s lap, and snooze under the dining room table.  I’ve read a little saying that pets leave pawprints on our hearts.  You’ll get no argument from me.



She loved shoes.  She didn't chew them or play with them; she just hung out with the shoes.

Best buds, keeping an eye on things from the top of the stairs.

Favorite thing to do:  drink out of the faucet in the hall bathroom.

Mickey Progress and Needle Woes

This is the piece that I'm stitching for Love Quilts UK and I'm getting pretty close to the end.  Once I finish the magic dust, all I'll need to do is stitch his other hand and then do the backstitching.  There's a fair bit of backstitching, but it's pretty straightforward, so it shouldn't be too fiddly.  The chart calls for metallic fibers for the magic dust, but I'm using DMC; metallics are discouraged on the quilts because they can be scratchy on a little one's skin.  And yes, those are hoop marks, if you're looking closely at it.  Mickey is stitched on 16-count Aida, and I feel more comfortable with a hoop than stitching it in-hand.  I tried my Q-snaps but they were awkward to hold, so I dug out a hoop :-)  The square is due on November 30th, and my goal is to get it stitched, washed, and pressed by the end of October so it'll have plenty of time to make the transatlantic trip.

I've been a little aggravated whilst stitching this piece, not by the design or the stitching, but by my needles.  I've been using Mary Arden needles for a few years, and I like them.  But I guess I've got hold of some lemons -- I started this project with a 6-pack of Mary Arden 26 needles, and I've had to throw out 2 of them because they broke.  That's bad enough, but they broke at the top of the eye where a) it was difficult to see the break, and b) it was an optimum spot for them to catch on the thread and split it.  Grrr.  If this keeps up, I'll be going back to John James.

We're in for a mild week; that'll be nice, but I just hope we don't pay for it in March.  I hope your week is a good one -- happy stitching!

The Hardest Part is Just Sitting Down and Getting Started

I can't tell you how many times over the past months I've thought "I should go downstairs and blog", a thought immediately followed by "I will, I'll do that after a while".  And of course I never did.  Until today. 

 

I have actually been stitching, and I've had a couple of finishes, although I expect I've had the finishes because I've been under a deadline for both of them.  The stuff I've been working on for ages -- still unfinished.

 

The pieces I've finished have been quilt squares, and there's a little bit of a story behind them.  Back last winter, I had seen articles in a couple of the cross stitching magazines about organizations that make quilts for nursing home residents and for children with life-threatening or life-altering diseases.  The articles were interesting, and tucked them in the back of my mind.  Then, on the Saturday before Easter, we lost my dad.  He had been hospitalized in ICU for a couple of weeks after complications during a heart valve replacement procedure, and we had just taken him to hospice when he passed away.  Even though he was only at hospice very briefly, the nurses there gave us a lap quilt; every patient who comes to the hospice there gets one.  They're made by a group that stitches them specifically for hospice.

 

I don't quilt, but I remembered the magazine articles I had read, and I realized that this might be a way for me to pay it forward.  One group is called World of Charity Stitching, and they make quilts for residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.  They also do tote bags and stitched bookmarks.  The first piece I stitched for them was for a travel-themed quilt; I found this map of Ireland on etsy:

 

I also found a group called Love Quilts USA.  They make quilts for children who have life-threatening or life-altering illnesses.  I've done one block for them so far; it was for a Christian-themed quilt, and I found this design on-line (don't remember where). 

Love Quilts also has a branch in the UK, and I'm working on a square for them right now.  I'm a slow stitcher, so I do have to set myself some rules.  I can only do one at a time.  I also only stitch themes that I enjoy stitching.  For example, if the requested theme is superheroes or Disney princesses, I'll probably skip that one in favor of something that I like to stitch, like butterflies or cats or flowers.  That may sound a little selfish, but there are generally a variety of themes available and lots of stitchers who want to stitch pieces for the quilts.  I don't want to give someone a piece that I hate.

 

I've added links to the web sites, if anyone is interested in checking them out.

 

Once again, I'm going to try to get back into the blogging groove.  I've made progress on some of my WIPs since I last blogged, so I'll try to get some pics of those posted next week.

 

Happy stitching, everyone!

September 11th

Endings, Beginnings, and Stitching Progress

Last Friday was my last day at the job where I've been for the past 3+ years.  I enjoyed the work I did, but I never thought that it was a job I wanted to stay with for a long time.  It was the first time I'd worked for a small company -- and a family-owned one -- rather than a large corporation and it was interesting.  But I left on my terms, and tomorrow I start a new job working for a healthcare system affiliated with a major university.  I'll still be doing coding, but I think the new job is going to open some additional opportunities for me.  It's also much closer to my house, and my commute will be cut in half.  I'm very excited about it.

 

I've been making some progress on a couple of my WIPs.  Here's the Christmas Rose pin cushion as of this evening:

There's not much left to do, as you can see.  I'm working on the last flower, then there's a large leaf and the border and it'll be done.

I've also got the lettering done on Salina Dunwoody:

I took a week off between jobs and spent a couple of days of it visiting Mom and Dad.  Salina's stitched on 28-count, so she's a good travel project and can be worked on in less than optimum light.  I finished the lettering on Thursday evening at Mom and Dad's, so I can move on to the fun motifs at the bottom.

Finally, if you enjoy Daffycat's reindeer ornaments, you'll be tickled to know that she's released the one for 2015.  You can see it here, along with the e-mail address to get a copy.  I have a piece of Maritime White linen from Lakeside on order so I can keep doing these on the same fabric.

That's all from the stitching chair this evening.  Happy stitching, everyone!

Orion Rising

It's still dark when I leave the house at about 6:15 to go to work, and the past few clear mornings I've looked up and seen the constellation Orion high in the early morning sky.  Orion was the first constellation I learned to identify -- the three stars in his "belt" make him easy to spot -- and he's a winter constellation.  So even though looking up and seeing him in the sky is almost like seeing an old friend, it's also a little depressing because Orion's arrival means that winter isn't far behind.

 

I've actually been doing a little stitching.  I've haven't worked on Salina Dunwoody in several weeks, but I thought I'd share the latest progress with you.  I'm close to finishing the hated alphabet bands, so I'm planning to work on her for a little while this evening.  I'm also working the border as I go; that's my preferred stitching plan when it comes to borders because otherwise I find them soooo boooorrrring!

I've been making some pretty good progress on the little Christmas rose pin cushion.  You can kind of judge the size from the picture, using the needles for scale.  Love the colors in this one!

Finally, I was digging through the stash, looking for other smalls to work on, when I came across this piece:

It's a bookmark kit that I bought on some long ago trip to London, and I'd begun stitching the pavilion before I laid it aside and got distracted by other things.  I think it's about time I finished it, so I've been putting in a few stitches here and there.

DH has been off this weekend and he and I are both off tomorrow, so we'll get the rare luxury of spending three days in a row together -- nice!

Wishing everyone a good week and happy stitching!

Working on the WIP Pile

After I finished Beneath a Sunlit Sky a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make a determined effort to whittle down the size of the WIP pile.  Unfortunately, most of my WIPs seem to also be BAPs ::sigh:: but there are a few smaller ones that I can tackle for some quick gratification.

 

The first one I pulled out was the Grumpy Kitty ornament.  I believe the design is from Brooke's Books.  The snow flakes were supposed to be stitched; I wanted to add some beads to give it a little more bling, but I found the snowflake charms in my stash and used those instead.  I also found a little sparkly doo-dad to use as the bobble on his hat.

I finished Grumpy Kitty and went stash diving again, coming up with this little piece:

 It's simply called "Acorns" and the design is by Pamela Kellogg.  I bought it from a now out-of-business LNS -- the design was a freebie that they had kitted with fabric, fibers and the button.  It's stitched on 16-count Heatherfield and the fabric is a much more yellow color than it looks in the picture.  The fibers are brown perle coton and Watercolors "Fiesta" (I think).  I'm not sure why I laid this aside ages ago unless it was because the stitching seemed rather cramped.  When I pulled it out the other day and took a close look at the instructions, I discovered that it was meant to be stitched over 2 on the Heatherfield rather than over 1 as I was doing.  Wasn't going to frog, so I just kept on with the over 1.  I actually kind of like the way it turned out.  I don't know what I'll do with it, but it might make a nice scissors fob.

With the little acorn done, I went back to something I started not too long ago.  It's a Christmas rose pin cushion design that was in Needlecraft magazine (a British magazine) in 1995.  I tore that chart out of the magazine, thinking that I would like to stitch it someday...and someday finally came!  Needlecraft was one of the first British stitching magazines that I bought regularly -- it helped that I was working part-time at Barnes & Noble and could use my employee discount!  I think that it's not published any longer, but I still have a few of the older copies in my stash.



So that's my WIP report.  I'm going to go upstairs and put a few more stitches in the Christmas rose.  Hope everyone has a good week -- happy stitching!

Why Do the Good Ones Go Away?

I got an e-mail on Wednesday from "Annie's Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly"  -- a SPECIAL NOTICE about my subscription (the caps were theirs).  I'm sure there were many of you who received similar e-mails; it seems that SANQ has ceased publication.  So, this

is the last issue we'll get.  The rest of my subscription will be filled with Just Cross Stitch.  Darn, drat, and phooey.

SANQ and Piecework are the only needlework magazines I still subscribe to.  I used to -- many moons ago -- take every cross stitch magazine coming down the pike, including a couple of British ones.  Over the years, various factors caused my subscriptions to get fewer and fewer.  Some magazines ceased publication or merged with others.  In some cases, my tastes and/or the content changed and I stopped wasting my money on magazines that didn't interest me any longer.  Or I still kind of enjoyed a magazine but not enough all the time to continue spending money and trying to find space for it in my stash.  I enjoy SANQ and Piecework for different reasons.  Piecework has really interesting articles about a variety of needlework (sometimes too much knitting, in my opinion, but that's a topic for another time), but it doesn't often have projects that I would want to do.  SANQ, on the other hand, has interesting articles but it also frequently offers samplers and other projects, many of which have ended up on my "want to stitch" list.  So it's a bit of a bummer to lose it.  I confess that I was concerned that the quality of the magazine would suffer when Annie's took it over -- it really didn't -- but I didn't think they'd actually get rid of it.  Another good one goes away.

On a more positive note, we're very fortunate to live in an area where local agriculture is a big deal and there are lots of farmers' markets and stands selling local food.  There's a really nice farmers' market in Charles Town on Saturday mornings, and I made a quick trip there today.  I came home with a dozen eggs and these gorgeous tomatoes:

Then I decided I really needed some flowers for the dining table:

Aren't these beautiful?  I love the zinnias, but it was the big yellow cockscomb that grabbed my attention.  So pretty!

Football season is once again upon us and WVU plays tonight, so it's time to head upstairs and check out the game.  Happy stitching, all!

Treasures

We've been married and in this house for a little over three years, but DH and I are still clearing out boxes and sorting through "stuff" -- his, mine, and ours.  We were going through some of his stuff a few weeks ago and came across this:

His aunt gave him this several years ago.  I'm not sure how long ago it was, but she's been gone since the late 1990s, so that's a bit of a clue.  It's hand quilted, and I think it's at least partially hand pieced.  Here's a closer look at some of the blocks:

Aren't they pretty?  The fabrics have a look of the 1960s and 1970s about them.  Isn't it wonderful what kind of treasures you can find when you're looking through stuff?

::Gasp!:: She's Blogging Again!

 

Yes, she is.  Blogging again, that is.  I took an unintended and unplanned leave of absence from the blog world, not for any particular reason and not really on purpose.  It just seemed that blogging was becoming more of a chore than something fun to do.  Many's the evening when I thought I might go downstairs to the computer and do a spot of blogging, but it just never seemed to come to pass.  Until today.

 

I haven't been blogging, but I have been stitching.  I finished Blackbird's "Beneath the Sunlit Sky":

 

 It's stitched on 40 count Pearled Barley from Lakeside Linens, with the called-for GAST and Weeks fibers.  I love the way it turned out; the colors in this one are so pretty.

I've also been playing with needles -- knitting needles, that is.  My goal is to make a pair of socks, but I've been working on my knitting skills this summer with dishcloths and haven't gotten up the nerve yet to tackle knitting in the round.  Here's one of my dishcloths, partially complete:

I have a ball of yarn and some double-pointed needles to use for a cloche before I have a go at socks.  The hat pattern calls for circular needles, but the lady at the yarn shop in Shepherdstown told me it would probably be easier for me to use the DPNs because of the decreasing.  So, you knitters out there, what do you suggest?  The cloche is actually knitted in the round, not knitted flat then sewn together.  DPNs or circular?

Here's wishing everyone a good week and happy stitching!

WIPpy Weekend

The weather is warming -- hooray! -- and I've been working on a couple of WIPs this weekend.  Here's Salina Dunwoody:

 I stitched on her this afternoon.  The border is a little tedious, but I 'll stitch the rest of it in bits as I work my way down the sampler.

I worked on Beneath the Sunlit Sky yesterday:

Love the colors in this one.  I'm doing it on 40-count, but it's still a pretty quick stitch.

Did you remember to set your clocks forward?  I didn't, but DH did.  When he came in last night, he said "Did you move up the clocks?"  Oops.  The first few days of Daylight Savings Time are very disorienting.  It takes a little while to get used to it being bright broad daylight at 6pm.

Wishing everyone a good week and happy stitching!

Pretties

When DH and I were in Ireland last fall, we spent a night at a bed & breakfast outside Trim, northwest of Dublin.  For you movie buffs and/or Mel Gibson fans, portions of the movie Braveheart were filmed at Trim Castle.  Our room was lovely, with lace curtains and pink wallpaper -- a little girly for DH's taste, but I thought it was charming.  My attention was caught by two pieces of embroidery, framed and hanging on the wall. 

 

They were so pretty.  If you look closely, you can see a name and date penciled in the bottom left of each one.  I questioned our hostess about these and she told me they had been stitched by her mother-in-law.  I thought it was neat that she displayed them for others to enjoy.

 

I've been making a little progress on Beneath the Sunlit Sky.  I'm really liking this piece. 

I think I have time for a few more stitches before Downton Abbey comes on.  Tonight's the last night for DA; we'll have to wait until next January for more!

Stay warm...hoping everyone has a great week!  Happy stitching!