Elizabeth Timms

I hadn't worked on Elizabeth in a while, so I pulled her out yesterday afternoon.  Here's where I started:

I made a little progress:

The berries on the tree are stitched over 1.  This is 36 count fabric, so it's not as traumatic as it could be.  There's actually a good bit of over 1 stitching on this piece, so I'll just get on my big-girl panties and deal with it! 

Wishing everyone a safe and blessed Thanksgiving and happy stitching!

Spring Sampler

Today was kind of warm and windy, like a spring day, so it seemed like a good day to work on Spring Sampler.

The border isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I've got the right side almost 2/3 done and I'm taking a break from it to work on the main motif.  I really love the colors in these samplers and that makes them so much easier to stitch.

Have a great week and happy stitching!

Books and Movies and Music, Oh My!

So this morning I went to the library to dump some paper in the recycling bins and to pick up one book.  One book.  This is what I came home with: 

I went to pick up the Susan Eisenhower book; last weekend I saw the re-run of an episode of Booknotes in which she was interviewed about this book and I decided I wanted to read it, so my local library got for me from another library.  I also had requested the Rin Tin Tin book and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it had come in as well.  It's really hard to go to the library and not have a little browse through the stacks and today I found the Larry McMurtry book -- a book about books -- and the Grisham.  I'm not sure whether I've read the Grisham, but if I have, I'll just take it back.  I used to feel kind of guilty about checking out books and not reading them, but I don't any more.  When I check out items from the library, it helps their circulation numbers.  Good circulation numbers helps their funding, and more funding means more things the library can provide for its patrons.  Everybody wins.

I love my library.  Lee posted about libraries last week so my thanks go to her for kind of starting my thoughts in this direction.  I love the fact that I can go to my library and get darn near any book I want; if they don't have it, they can usually get it for me and get it for free.  But the library isn't just about books.  When my computer crashed, I could and did go to the library and use one of the PCs they have there -- for free.  I can get music CDs and books on tape, and I can get all kinds of movies.  I haven't rented a movie in years.  Why should I pay $7 to rent a DVD for a week when I can get it from the library for free?  And then there are the programs.  My library has story times for the little ones, as well as book clubs and programs for teens, adults and seniors.  If I have a question about something or need a word looked up in the unabridged dictionary, all I have to do is call the library.

Our local library has been working for years to get a new facility; their current space is simply no longer large enough.  There is a story -- maybe true, maybe apocryphal -- that during a discussion of the library's future at a township meeting, one of the commissioners made the astonishing statement that "not everybody reads"!

Apparently it's been a while since he's been to the library.

A Little Weekend Stitching

It's always a little disconcerting, this first day of "normal" time after a summer of daylight savings time.  The extra hour of sleep was most welcome, but the getting dark early takes some getting used to.  I got up to take a wee break from my stitching this afternoon, thinking that it must be around 5 o'clock, only to discover that it was closer to 3:30.  6pm looked more like 8.

I was in a sampler kind of mood today, so I decided to pull out Little Paradise.  The fibers are Thread Gatherer Silk 'N Colors and I wanted to work on this before the cold weather gets here and starts doing a number on my hands, making it difficult to work with silk.  I haven't worked on this piece in 3 or 4 months and here is where I left off:

I didn't make a lot of progress today but some is better than none.  The green on the tree is done in chain stitch to represent weeping willow leaves.  I was looking at it before I put it away and discovered that I had miscounted a little, but I don't think it will make any difference.  It'll probably stay the way it is.

I was in ornament mode last night.  I've been working on Bluebird of Christmas Happiness by M Designs; it was in the JCS ornament issue in....ummmm, maybe 2010?  I'd look but the magazine is downstairs and I'm not (yeah, I know...lazy).  Anyway, I switched out the DMC for some silk that I had in my stash, mostly HDF but the red is a mystery silk from a detritus bag that I bought who-knows-when and from who-knows-where.  I think this is the first picture I've posted, as it finally looks like something other than a blue blob.

I also finished Daffycat's reindeer ornament:

She has a new design on her blog in the post from Nov. 5th, and if you e-mail her she'll send you a copy.  It's not a reindeer but a cute little bird.

Time to go watch the Steelers and the Ravens go at it, though I'll probably miss the first quarter because there's a special on one of the cable channels about Susan Boyle.  She has the most awesome voice and I truly admire her for having the guts to follow her dream.

Wishing everyone a good week....happy stitching!

Edited to add that the bluebird ornament is in the 2008 JCS ornament issue (2010, 2008...just off a couple of years!)

The Gentle Island (lots of pics)

We spent last week on Prince Edward Island, Canada's smallest province.  It's a beautiful, beautiful place and I wanted to share some of it with you.

We flew into Halifax and drove up through Nova Scotia and across a small piece of New Brunswick to the Confederation Bridge, which is about 8 miles long and is PEI's only physical connection to the mainland.  On the New Brunswick side (I caught the sign in French mode):

And looking back from PEI:

PEI is a small island, so we decided to stay in Charlottetown, the provincial capital, and make daily excursions for sightseeing.  It was off-season, so a good many places were closed, including a lot of the restaurants and shops.  We didn't have to deal with crowds of (other) tourists, but I would like to go back in the summer when more is open and some of the warm-weather events are going on. 

We chose to stay at a bed & breakfast and our home for the week was The Dawson House.  If you ever go to Charlottetown and want a fantastic B&B, The Dawson House is for you.  Stacey and Randy are friendly, gracious hosts and the B&B is wonderful.  The room was immaculate and beautifully furnished, there was a Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom and the attention to detail was perfect, from the fluffy bath mat to the box of real tissues on the dressing table.

And the food.  Oh my goodness, the food!  Good smells floated upstairs every morning -- fresh-baked croissants, banana bread, pancakes, just yummy!  There was fresh fruit and yogurt and cereal if we wanted it, all served in this beautiful Victorian dining room (that's Randy, one of our hosts):

I highly recommend The Dawson House; we'd stay there again without a second thought!

PEI has over 50 lighthouses.  We went to a few of them; although most of them were closed, we were still able to get out and take some pictures.

Point Prim, PEI's only round lighthouse:

Cape Bear:

East Point:

I loved the sign at East Point light:

West Point; it's an operating light with an inn attached behind it:

PEI's big crop is potatoes.  The soil is red and sandy and is great for potatoes.  The only thing I wanted a picture of that I didn't get was a potato truck filled with 'taters.  There are also a number of wind farms on the island.  This picture combines the two, a wind farm in a potato field!

We explored Charlottetown and had some wonderful dinners in some of the local pubs.  It's a very walkable city and we were fortunate that the weather was (mostly) good.  It was beautiful on our last day.  This is the war memorial at Province House:

In 1864, representatives from the provinces met in Charlottetown and there they decided to form Canada.  John A. MacDonald was one of the "Fathers of Confederation" and became Canada's first prime minister.  I tried to chat with him, but he wasn't very talkative.

Leaving PEI, going back across the Confederation Bridge.  Coming to the island is free but leaving there is a toll on the bridge -- an astonishing $43.25 CAD (no, that's not a typo, it's forty-three dollars and 25 cents).

We loved PEI.  It's a beautiful, friendly place where the pace of life is slower than what we're used to.  I definitely want to go back someday.

Report From a Blustery Day

My goodness did we have wind today!  There's a large oak tree in front of the house and when the wind blows it brushes against the siding and makes the most dreadful racket.  I took the cats to the vet this morning and drove through little whirlwinds of leaves.  And yes, you read that correctly, I took the cats, as in both of them.  I've never taken them both at the same time before, but it actually worked out very well.  I had them in separate carriers but took them into the exam room together.  Timothy, Mr. Social Butterfly, wandered around and looked out the window, then settled down with his feet tucked under him and waited for his new best friend the vet.  Mimi wasn't quite as thrilled with the whole situation and stayed under the chair until it was her turn.

I haven't been doing much stitching, but I wanted to show you the stitches in the Tapestry Sampler.  This first picture shows some of the bargello work and petit point, but the diagonally-stitched area with the blue thread coming off it is cross stitch with 2 strands of DMC (on 24 count!)

More bargello and petit point:

There will be another pear to the right of this bit, then another section like the first bargello.  The white stitches around the pear are kind of an open basket-weave stitch; I believe the designer called it "dotted Swiss stitch".  It's a nice contrast to the petit point.

More petit point, some satin stitch and some herringbone:





I'm glad I remembered this piece and pulled it out.  I like the design and I like the earth tones.  It'll be fun.

Happy stitching to everyone!

Musings on a Rainy Weekend, or Fall Has Fell

Fall seems to have fallen with a definite and resounding thud! in western PA.  Mother Nature began teasing us on Thursday and Friday with cooler weather; the sprinkles started Friday afternoon and had developed into a steady rain by the time I got to Panera for stitch night that evening.  It rained pretty much all day yesterday and most of today and the cool temperatures prompted me to put the flannel sheets on the bed yesterday.  I love flannel sheets.  This morning on the way to and from church, I noticed that many of the trees that had green leaves just a few days ago now have a lot of red and yellow mixed in with the green.

It's been the perfect weekend to stay in and stitch.  I did do some chores around the house yesterday and I'm happy to say that the laundry basket is more empty than full for the first time in recent memory.  The ironing board is also clear of ironing (although not so clear of finished stitching smalls that need to be finish-finished).

I think I've made good progress on the stocking this weeknd:



The brownish round thing is her head and I hope it will look more like a head when I get some Alpaca to do the French knots for her hair.  I have the embellishmet package from Shepherd's Bush and there are some little doo-dads to go in her hair as well.  I made the discovery this afternoon when I started on the sleeve that I had used the wrong shade of green for part of the wing.  I thought for about 2 seconds about frogging it and re-doing it, but the error isn't glaring and the green I used works, so it will stay as it is.

I worked a little bit on Spring Sampler #2 at stitch night on Friday, and yesterday evening I started a new ornament.  Sharon (Daffycat) had posted on her blog the other day that she is working on a new reindeer and that reminded me that I had only done two of the three that she has already designed, so I started on her Jinglebell Reindeer.  I'm working it with DMC on 40-count mystery fabric; it's Lakeside I'm sure, and I think maybe Maritime White.

I don't remember if I've shown you a picture of this next piece.  Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I went to a Spirit of Cross Stitch festival in Winston-Salem and one of the classes I took was for a piece called Tapestry Sampler.  I don't remember who the designer is.  Her signature is on the chart and her first name is Jill; I think the last name is Siegle or Siegler.  I started this back in 1990-something, whenever the first SOCS was, and this is all the further that I ever got on it:

The ground fabric is 24-count Congress cloth and it's more yellowish than it looks in the picture.  The fibers are DMC and Ginnie Thompson flower thread.  A lot of the stitching is done in petit point, so that might go more quickly than full crosses on the 24-count.  For some reason I was thinking about this piece this afternoon and decided to pull it out of UFO land and try to finish it.  I'll try to post some close-up pictures of the different stitches; it's really very cool.

Stitching buddy du jour:



He likes being my stitching buddy until I have to shift my position or get up, then he gets all offended and jumps down.  At least he doesn't try to play with the floss.



Wishing everyone a good week...happy stitching!