Thursday Thoughts

Ahhh, it's another Thursday.  That means it's the day before Friday and just a day away from the weekend.  Woohoo!

 

First, some stitching.  I'm coming down the home stretch on England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales.  I'm working on the Scottish flag; when that's done, all that will be left is the fourth corner containing three thistle designs. 

I'm not sure how I'll finish this.  It's designed to be a mini-pillow, but I'm thinking I may put it in a simple frame and put it on an easel on our foyer table.
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Did you catch the eclipse the other night?  I must admit that I forgot all about it.  I remembered it when I went out the front door at about 6:15am and saw the moon in the western sky.  The eclipse was just shy of totality at that point.  My morning commute takes me across a bridge over the Potomac River, just below Harpers Ferry; the view is spectacular any day of the week, but as I was going across, I took a quick glance to the west and got a glimpse of the eclipsed moon hanging over Harpers Ferry.  It was, in a word, breathtaking.
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I didn't post my summer reading plans this year, but that doesn't mean I haven't been reading!  I just finished Killing Patton, by Bill O'Reilly; very interesting.  I also read an excellent biography of Sally Ride, by Lynn Sherr, as well as a book called The Lost Art of Dress, by Lindy Przybyszewski.  That one is basically a history of women's dress over the course of the 20th century, with a focus on women who the author refers to as "the dress doctors", designers and home economists who urged women to dress practically and appropriately for the task at hand.  It was much more interesting than I expected it to be and I recommend it if you're interested in the topic.

I'm a big fan of the Brother Cadfael books by the late Ellis Peters and have been gradually re-reading them over the past year or so.  Right now I'm reading An Excellent Mystery, which is one of my least favorites in the series but is still a very good book.  The books are well-written historical mysteries set in 12th century England -- highly recommended.
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DH has been out of town this week so the cats and I have been going it alone.  I will be so glad when he gets home; darn, I miss that man!

That's all for this Thursday...wishing everyone a good rest-of-the-week and happy stitching!

Tales From a Lazy Sunday



It's been a peaceful, lazy Sunday here in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, so I don't have too many tales to tell.  I have been stitching this afternoon and have made significant progress on England, Ireland, etc.  I stitched most of the thistle on the left this afternoon and am going to try to finish it before I put my stitching away.  Once the thistle bit is done, all I'll have left is the Scottish flag and the Scotland corner.  It's getting there!

 

 

I picked up my copy of the 2014 JCS ornament issue yesterday.  I think they've done a nice job with it this year and I found a number of ornaments that I really like; I might actually get around to stitching one or two of them!  My favorite is "Woodland Christmas", from Fern Ridge Collections, on page 26.  This designer is new to me; the ornament is on the cover and it caught my eye as soon as I picked up the magazine.  It's small, just a little tree with a couple of deer and the word Noel, but the tree is stitched in diamond eyelet stitches and it looks very pretty in the picture.  Rounding out my top 5, in no particular order:

• "Christmas Delight", from Milady's Needle (p.79)
• "Kissing Cardinals", from Designs by Lisa (p. 87) ... so cute!
• "Star of Wonder", from Julia Lucas Designs (p. 57)
• "Come & Behold Him", from Fancy Work (p. 52)

Santas and snowmen don't usually blow my skirt up, but I'm also quite partial to the designs from Mosey 'N Me and SamSarah.  They're both very cute.  Ink Circles' ornament is called "Stained Glass Mistletoe" and I think it looks quite elegant.  It would be pretty stitched in silk.  It looks like there are some new designers in this year's issue, several old favorites, and -- for the first time ever or at least in recent memory -- no design from Blackbird that I can find.  Also no Brittercup.  Something else that I can't find and that I miss is a listing of the designs by designer.  The table of contents lists the designers alphabetically in each section, but there's no master list of designers.  However, overall the magazine is well done.

 

Well, I'm off to watch a little more football and put in a few more stitches on the thistle before time to turn in.  Wishing everyone a good week and happy stitching!



Ornament Mode

For a while there, I always had an ornament in progress, regardless of what else was going on or how many WIPs I was trying to juggle.  But I ended up to not care much for the last couple of ornaments I started and laid both of them aside, partly finished, and haven't had any ornies in my stitching pile.  Until today :-)

I was prowling through some back issues of the JCS ornament issue as well as through some charts that I had printed from on-line sites and I decided it was time to start another ornament (maybe some day I'll actually get around to finishing some of the ones I've already stitched!)  I pulled "Grumpy Kitty" out of the pile -- he's a freebie from Brookes Books -- and went stash-diving for a piece of fabric.  The chart calls for 28-count light blue linen; the piece I'm using is 28-count, though not what the chart called for.  I bought it ages ago for some long-forgotten never-started project (you got any of those?).

 I got his eyes mostly stitched this evening:

Whilst I was kitting up the grumpy kitty, I decided to also kit up one of the ornaments from a recent issue of Just Cross Stitch -- June / July, maybe?  The one with the Christmas ornament preview, whichever one that was.  Anyway, it's a stylized Christmas tree, designed by Lynda Keske.  It's stitched over 1 on 28-count (I'm using 27-count Linda) using 3 shades of DMC green, red silk, and a Rainbow Gallery gold metallic.  I haven't hunted out the metallic yet, but I went diving again and found a nice piece of nameless red silk.  It looks a little variegated.  I expect I got it in a kit or, more likely, a detritus bag.  No stitching yet on this piece.

It feels good to be back in ornament mode.  I like having something small in progress.

It's back to work tomorrow.  Here's hoping everyone has a good week -- happy stitching!

It's Friday Night and I Miss My Stitching Group and When the Heck Did It Get To Be August?

I don't actually feel as maudlin as that sounds, but it is Friday night and I do miss the Friday night stitching group that I used to attend.  The group had been together for some time when I joined it, but I was warmly welcomed.  Lake Stitcher Lee invited me to attend the group.  At that time, they met weekly, alternating between a Panera in Washington, PA, and one in south Pittsburgh.  I attended the Pittsburgh gatherings; we would get together in the little meeting room at the Panera, stitch for a while, eat, then stitch a while longer.  I enjoyed the conversation and the stitching, and I actually usually managed to make progress on whatever project I had with me.  It was fun.  I haven't found a similar group near here yet.  I know that there is a regular group at In Stitches, but I haven't made it there yet.  The shop is over an hour from my house and I get up at o-dark-stupid during the week, so I just haven't found the gumption to get myself there.

 

And by the way, how did it get to be August so fast?  Wasn't it just Valentine's Day?  Wow!  We've been having a very nice summer, though, and the past few days have been simply fantastic.  I've had the windows open the past couple of evenings and have had such a nice breeze blowing through the house. 

 

I haven't been blogging much, but I have been stitching a bit.  Here's my progress on Salina Dunwoody:

 I don't know what's up with the quality of the picture.  It looks fine on the camera and fine on the computer, but it gets all wonky when I upload it to Blogger.  I wonder if the fabric has something to do with it, because the next picture looks fine.  I think if you click on the picture and look at the larger image, you'll be able to see it without the distortion.

I'm getting close on England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well:

The daffodil and the leek are Welsh symbols and I've got just a few stitches in the Welsh flag.  I'm really enjoying this piece.

I'll end with a pic of the furry friends.  We have a split foyer, and Mimi loves to lay at the top of the stairs so she can keep an eye on the comings and goings.  Timothy decided he'd try it out the other day.  I'm so glad these two get along.

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

Miracles

Those of us who were raised in the Judeo-Christian faiths are - or should be - well aware of the many miracles that are documented in the Scriptures.  However, I think that too often we forget that miracles still happen.  I knew this lady when I lived in Western PA; she suffered from a debilitating lung disease and, even with oxygen, it was difficult for her to speak a complete sentence.  This link is to her blog, where she describes the healing miracle that she recently received.
http://susanreithswan.com/

Salina Dunwoody and Other Stitchy Stuff

It's been an absolutely superb 3-day weekend here in the eastern panhandle!  I've had the windows open for at least part of the day for the last three days; we've had more moderate heat, low humidity, and a nice breeze.  Lovely!

 

I haven't done much constructive this weekend.  Well, that's not completely true; I did clean the bathroom on Friday and ran some errands yesterday.  I've also done a bit of stitching, so that counts as constructive :-)

 

I had an attack of startitis yesterday and decided to get going on Salina Dunwoody.  I've had her kitted up for a couple of months and am working her on 32-count Belfast linen from my stash and DMC floss.  I've got a little bit of the right-side border done and am going to go upstairs and work on her a little more before bedtime.

 It's been a good stitching afternoon, actually.  Food Network ran a Pioneer Woman marathon from about 1 to 5pm, so I had an enjoyable background noise.  Cooking shows are good to have on while stitching because I don't have to give the program my undivided attention.  I just look up from time to time when something is going on that catches my interest.

I've also been making a little progress on my first block of Days of Advent.

 This is from last weekend.  The top part was a little fiddly with little bits of color here and there; Sarai has been going a little faster.

I worked a little on England, Ireland, etc., the other day and finished the England corner.  I've moved down to the lower right to the Wales corner.  The motifs in this corner are leeks, the leek being one of the symbols of Wales.

All long weekends, alas, must come to an end.  It's back to work tomorrow, and an eye doctor's appointment on Thursday.  This will be my first visit to this doctor, so I'm hoping it goes well.

Wishing everyone a good week -- happy stitching!

A Finish and Other Stuff

I didn't feel equal to working on anything big this weekend and it occurred to me that I could probably finish the bird, so I did.  Hooray!  It's stitched on 32-count Lakeside Linen, using Needle Necessities 154 that I had in my stash.  I don't know what I'll do with the finished piece -- maybe nothing -- but I'm glad to have finished it.

After I finished the bird, I pulled out England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and worked on it for a bit.  The roses in the England corner are almost done, then I'll move down to the lower right corner and work on Wales.  I do like the colors in the piece.

So, I went to the farmers' market last weekend and they had fresh local sweet cherries.  They made a very nice cobbler:

Life has been pretty quiet here lately, so I'll sign off for now and wish everyone happy stitching!