Letters and Leaves: A Weekend With Isabella

No traveling this weekend; the weather forecasts for here, there and along the route were just too iffy for travel during the morning.  It's a 3-1/2 to 4 hour drive, and if I wait until late morning or early afternoon to leave, it's really not worth the trip.  So I stayed here and did laundry and stitched.  Here's my progress on Isabella Johnstone: 

The leaves take longer than I thought they would.  Each one is stitched differently and they're kind of random on the vine, so that means paying close attention to the chart.  I'm enjoying her, though.  For those who were wondering, the chart is in the Summer 2010 issue of SANQ.  It's keyed for silk, but I'm using the provided DMC conversions.

Well, the Verizon repairman did show up at last on Tuesday evening, just as we were sitting down to supper (of course!).  It took him about 2 minutes to fix the problem and my land line is once again back in service.  Hooray!

Book report:  I just finished reading Gabby, by Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly, and found it very interesting and enjoyable.  I checked it out of the library on a whim, thinking I might or might not read it, but I started it and liked it.

That's all from the stitching chair tonight.  Have a great week and happy stitching!

Weekend Stitching

No traveling for me this weekend.  I didn't fancy a drive across the mountains in the crummy weather on Saturday, so I stayed here and stitched and waited for the Verizon repairman who.never.came.  Not real pleased with Verizon at the moment, oh no I am not.  My land line has been out since Thursday.  When I called, I was told someone has to be here when the repairman comes in case he needs access to the house.  Fine.  So he was supposed to be here yesterday; the service window was between -- ready for this? -- 8am and 8pm.  12 hours.  Really?  Anyway, he didn't show and when I called Verizon, they re-scheduled for today between 1 and 5.  No show again.  So now he's supposed to come on Tuesday; my guy will be here.  It's probably best that I won't be.

Any-hoo, it was too darn cold to go anywhere this weekend, so I stayed home and did some chores and stitched.  I've been working on Sharon's Stocking Reindeer ornament and I finished it on Friday evening:

I've been stitching these on scraps of 40-count from my stash.  This one is on something from Lakeside Linens, Maritime White, maybe.

I couldn't resist a new start.  Sometimes I just can't help myself; I'm sure you guys know how that goes.  I was feeling the call of Startitis but couldn't decide what to start, then I was reading a blog and the author mentioned Isabella Johnstone.  "Aha!" said I.  "I have that one kitted up and ready to go."  So I started Isabella yesterday evening whilst watching football.

Last night's progress:



And this afternoon, with more football in the background:

The leaves are a little fiddly and they go all the way around.  But I like the shade of green (DMC 3012), so it's not as annoying as it could be.  In fact, the color scheme is one of the things I really like about this sampled, along with the cow in the middle of it.  I'm stitching her on a piece of 40-count LL Pearled Barley, with DMC fibers.  It'll be fun.

Have a great week and stay warm -- happy stitching!

A Different Kind of Stitching Chair

I drove to West Virginia this weekend; it's not a bad drive, about 3-1/2 hours, even if almost half of it is over the Pennsylvania "I'm paying to drive on this road?" Turnpike.  My alternative to driving on the Turnpike is to go across I-68 and and a desolate portion of western Maryland.  At least on the Turnpike there are service plazas and populated areas, so I'll suck it up and pay my $10.20 in each direction.

The big task this weekend was cleaning the oven.  I think the person who developed the self-cleaning oven deserves a Nobel Prize, right alongside whoever it was who came up with the Magic Eraser.  Truly.  It makes life so easy; lock the oven, turn the knob and settle in for some stitching time.  There is no furniture in the house yet -- my guy has none and the furniture I have is still at my place in Pittsburgh because I am still living there -- so I took down some collapsible canvas chairs this weekend.  I set one up in the kitchen because a) the light was good and b) it was nice and toasty in there with the oven doing its thing.  This was my stitching chair on Saturday night:
 

Not ideal but quite acceptable and way better than sitting in the floor.  I wasn't sure how much light I'd have, even with my table-top Ott, so I took Sophie's Stocking with me.  It's on low-count linen and is do-able with less light.  I made a little progress, finishing her sleeve and a little more of her dress:

I was holding it on my lap when I took the picture, so those dark semi-circles at the bottom are my knees.  I only just noticed them.

It was a too short but not a bad weekend, even with the finding of another, umm, relic in the washing machine (note to previous owners: I know your divorce was probably nasty and I'm sorry about that, and I suppose you were having a nasty fight over the washer and dryer and I'm sorry about that also, but was it necessary to leave equally nasty gifts in the appliances for the next owners to discover?  I guess I should be glad I didn't find one in the fridge.)

Well, the Steelers are out of the play-offs, so I shall have to find another team to root for .  Here's hoping everyone has a great week -- happy stitching!

January SBQ and New Year's Stitching

Lee gave us a new SBQ for the new year:
What's the oldest pattern in your stash? (Either the one with the earliest publication date or the one you bought the longest ago.) What's it's story? Have you stitched it?

I'd have to do some serious stash-diving to come up with an accurate answer to that one but I can think of a couple of things off the top of my head that might qualify.  I began doing counted cross stitch in the early 1980s and I may have something from "back in the day" in my stash but I'm not sure.  I lived in Kenner, LA, for a couple of years in the mid-80s and became a frequent customer of a wonderful shop called Accents In Stitches.  I still have some of the charts that I bought there, including some local charts specific to New Orleans.  Never stitched them; not sure why.  I also have a couple of charts that I bought during that period that I have never stitched but still would like to, so I'm hanging on to them.  One is called The Amazing Monarch (I think); it shows monarch butterflies and a caterpillar on a butterfly bush.  The other chart is called Saguaro Sunset.  The design is 100% stitched and depicts a desert sunset with the most amazing colors.  I couldn't tell you the designer of either one, but I really like both of them.

I was off work today, so I had a chance to do some serious New Year's stitching.  I didn't start anything new this New Year; instead I decided to work on a WIP and I pulled out the long-neglected Lost Gardens of Heligan.  I started in on New Year's Day 2010 and I have no idea when I last worked on it.  I started with this:

I watched the Rose Parade this morning and worked on it while that was on, then I managed to get in probably another hour or two this afternoon and evening, so I made pretty good progress:

Of course, this design is ginormous so this isn't much in the overall picture, but it's more than I usually manage in a stitching session.  I'm using 40 count fabric and 1 strand of floss and this is one of those designs with 4 or 5 different shades of a color in a small area, so it's a little fiddly.  I'm going to try to pay a little more attention to this project, as I love the design and the colors.  This post has a picture.

Winter has arrived in western PA and it's sooo cold this evening!  Hope everyone stays warm!

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year to one and all!  I hope the year has started out well for you.

I don't have any stitching retrospective to offer, nor any lofty goals or plans for the new year.  I just hope to have time to stitch and maybe finish a WIP or two.  I have been working on Margaret Havelock and here is a progress pic as of this evening:

This was our first "official" weekend in the new house!  My guy is moved in; he has no furniture but a cot and a chair but at least he's there.  We had a few challenges this weekend; there was an issue with the hot water, or lack thereof.  The water finally started warming up yesterday evening and I actually had a warm shower this morning.  Not hot, but warm.  We're getting there.  We also discovered a leak in the toilet in the master bath, but it's minor and I think it can be fixed with a washer.  Then there was the, ummm, "gift" that we found in the clothes dryer.  The washer and dryer are unhooked and sitting in the garage -- just waiting for us to move them back where they belong -- and Friday I opened the door of the dryer and peered inside.  Someone had left us a present -- a used condom.  It's a Trojan.  I know that because they also tossed in the packet.  I suppose they didn't want to litter.  I can only guess why such a thing was in the clothes dryer -- we have a couple of theories -- and I don't even want to speculate about how long it's been there.  Ick.

So a couple of years ago, my guy went to an estate sale and bought a W. C. Fields lamp.  It's been wrapped up, so Friday after I swept out the garage I decided to unbundle W. C.  He was wrapped in enough newspaper and duct tape and foam packaging that he might have been done up by the ancient Egyptians.

I tried to clean him off but didn't have much luck.  I think maybe part of him is supposed to look that way and part of him is dirty but requires more elbow grease than I was willing to expend at the time.  I stuck a bulb in him and plugged him in but nothing happened, so I think he has a bad switch.  I'm not sure where he's going to end up or if he's going to stay...

Wishing everyone the best for 2012; have a great week and happy stitching!

Happy Day After Christmas!

Or Happy Boxing Day to those in the U.K.!

Not much blogging has been done around here lately and not a lot more stitching.  Life has been hectic; we recently bought a house and that's taken up a lot of my time.  The house is in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, near Harpers Ferry and about 2 hours from D.C.  My guy is moving in this week; I can't move until I get a job there, so the hunt is on!  I've been giving some thought to trying to convince my current employer to let me work from home, but I'm not sure I want to work from home.  Home is where I go to get away from work.  Oh well, all will work out, I'm sure (sorry, no pun intended).

The house-hunt was quite the adventure and we found the one we finally bought almost by accident.  Along the way, I did learn 3 of the fundamental truths of buying a new home:

1.  If the listing says it needs work, it needs work.  If the listing says it needs TLC, it needs a LOT of work.

2.  When people tell you that buying a short sale takes time, believe them.  Ours took 4 months to the day from offer to close.

3.  People have some, umm, interesting decorating tastes and they don't necessary jive with mine.  Maroon and orange walls?  In the same room?  Really?

I have got some stitching done.  I took Margaret Havelock with me when I went home for Thanksgiving (yikes!  That long ago?!) and I've made some progress with the alphabet, although I have no photos to share yet.  I've been in ornament mode this weekend; I finished the Bluebird of Christmas Happiness:

 He is done in HDF silks except for the red in his cap; that's a mystery silk that I got in a detritus package from somewhere.  I think it might be Silk 'N' Colors.  I finished him on Thursday and on Friday I started Winter Squirrel by Cathy Jean from The Victoria Sampler:

He is in the 2011 JCS ornament issue and I used the called-for fabric, fibers and embellishments, thanks to a packet from Needlecraft Corner.  He was a quick stitch and I finished him yesterday afternoon, then I started on another of Sharon's reindeer from her blog.  All I have done on that is the border and a couple of rows of reindeer, so not much to show.

I hope everyone had / is having a lovely holiday.  I drove to Kentucky on Saturday to spend Christmas with my family and a good time was had by all.  I had good weather going down and coming back today, so I'm thankful for that.  The worst part of the drive on Saturday was trying to find a radio station with good Christmas music; I can only stand "Winter Wonderland" so many times.  It was a pretty futile effort.  I paused on one station that was playing a rock version of "Away in a Manger" -- no thanks -- and I got a kick out of a redneck version of the "12 Days of Christmas" from Jeff Foxworthy; but for the most part, it was slim pickings.  (Note to self: next car must have CD player!)

Wishing everyone a good week and a happy new year!  Happy stitching!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my blog readers!  Life has been hectic lately with little time for blogging but I hope things will settle down in the new year.

Take care and Merry Christmas to all!

Karen