An Ornament, Some Progress, and Ireland -- Again

Greetings, all!  I'm back in the blogosphere...at least for a little while!

 

I got the JCS ornament issue a few weeks ago and there are a few designs that appeal to me.  I sat down yesterday afternoon and stitched one of them while watching football:

 

It's called Peace Bird and its from Rosewood Manor.  I stitched it on a piece of 28-count white Jobelan I had in my stash, using the called-for DMC flosses and Mill Hill beads.

I've also been making progress on some WIPs.  I finally finished that big ol' orange pumpkin, so the end is in sight for Plumpkin.  I just need to stitch her shoes and finish the word.  The chart calls for star buttons, but I'm not sure I'll use those.

I've also got some more of the border done on Isabella Johnstone:

DH and I had the opportunity to go back to Ireland last month, so we went back to the north to see some of the things we missed the first time around.  Once again we flew into Dublin and drove to Belfast; on the way up, we stopped in Hilden - just south of Belfast - for lunch.  We got there around 11:45 and the restaurant didn't open until 12:30, so the owner suggested we take a walk down a canal towpath behind an abandoned linen mill.  It was quite a lovely walk.

I didn't get the best picture of these little orange flowers.  I'm not sure what they are but I think maybe they are scarlet pimpernels.

We don't usually do bus tours, but this trip we did .  It was a two-day ticket; day one was the tour of Belfast with the option of getting off and back on at any of the stops, and day two was the Titanic Experience.  I saw this mosaic at Belfast Castle, so of course I had to have a picture!

A section of the "peace wall", dividing the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods in Belfast.

 

This is what we had for breakfast at the B&Bs.  It's called an Ulster fry -- sausage, ham, eggs, soda bread and potato bread.  Healthy?  I doubt it.  Delicious?  Oh yes!

The Titanic Experience tells the story of the Titanic from planning, design, and building in Belfast through the aftermath of the sinking and the discovery of the wreckage in the late 20th century.  The building sits at the top of the slipway where the Titanic was built.  The four sides of the building are designed to look like a ship's prow.  It's extremely interesting and well worth the time and money.

White Point Bay, along the north coast.  The tiny town at the bottom of the cliff is called Portbradden.

We stopped at Bushmill's distillery and took the tour.  Photography isn't allowed on the tour -- they don't want to risk a flash or any kind of electronic whatchamacallit igniting the, umm, fumes.  But this little guy was in the waiting area where we bought our tickets and queued up for the tour.  I asked if he was the distillery cat and the ladies there told me that he belongs to a local minister and comes down to the distillery every day for his nap.

One of the rock formations at the Giant's Causeway.  The legend is that the giant Finn McCool brought a camel back with him and disguised him as a rock formation so he wouldn't be stolen.

At the Giant's Causeway.  DH is in the middle of the group in the brown jacket and blue jeans.  He has several commemorative patches from the Apollo moon missions on the jacket and, after the tour, Catherine, the guide (red jacket), asked him if he had "been up." (He hasn't!)

Giant's Causeway:

Sunday, January 31, 1972, is known as Bloody Sunday, when a civil rights march in Derry turned deadly when British troops opened fire on the marchers.  The original investigation determined that the troops were responding to violence begun by the marchers; however, another investigation was opened in 1998 and, after 12 years, found that the fire was unprovoked.  The Free Derry Museum in Derry tells the story of Bloody Sunday, as well as of the events leading up to it and the aftermath.  The white-haired gentleman in this picture is one of the docents; his younger brother was killed on Bloody Sunday.

One of the banners carried by the marchers on Bloody Sunday.  The stain in the middle of the banner is actually blood.

The Peace Bridge is a footbridge across the River Foyle at Derry.  Derry is a lovely town. 

This picture is the outside of the Free Derry Museum.  These are the only two unfilled bullet holes remaining from Bloody Sunday.

We saw this restaurant when we were in Derry back in the spring, and this trip we stopped in and had dinner here.  We had to.  How could people from West Virginia not eat at Hillbilly's Fried Chicken in Northern Ireland?  It was actually not too bad; tasted kind of like KFC.

That's all for this post; I'll try to post a little more regularly in the future (hmm, haven't I said that before?)  Wishing everyone a great week and happy stitching!

Stitchy Stuff

I've actually been stitching the past couple of weeks, so I have some progress pics to share.  First is Isabella Johnstone; I worked on her this afternoon.  I have one more row of numbers and a dividing band to finish before I can move on to the cow and the flowers.  The dividing band is eyelet stitch; not my favorite, but it's moving along pretty quickly.  I did move up to work a little on the left-side border today.  I don't want to find myself nearing the end of this piece and having nothing left to do but bunches of repetitive green stuff :-)

 



 I've also been working on Sarah Hartley.  This one has been going a little more slowly because of the color changes in the leaves.  I started in the middle of this one and am slowly working my way out to the border.  There will be a lot of over-one stitching coming up -- lots of lettering and some flowers.  I'm doing this on 36-count; I don't fancy doing over-one on anything any smaller!

 

Finally, I've made good progress on Plumpkin.  I'm glad it's small; all that orange is a little tedious.  It's fun, though.  I have no idea what I'll do with it when it's finished.  I generally don't decorate for Halloween, so it'll probably go in the "finished" box until a moment of inspiration strikes me.  Yeah, right :-)

 



Wishing everyone a great week and happy stitching!

The Story of Connie, Sharon, and Reggie, and How They Helped Two Weary Travelers Who'd Lost Their Way

No stitchy pics this week, but a short tale of how, once again, our bacon was saved by the kindness of strangers.

My parents live in eastern Kentucky, and DH and I usually fly into Charleston, WV, when we go to visit them.  From there it’s about an hour’s drive.  It’s drivable from our house, but for short visits it’s much easier to fly.

DH works for the airlines and we fly on his pass.  It’s a great perk, but the caveat is that we fly stand-by – no seat, no go – so we try to plan our travel carefully.  We were planning on the first flight from Dulles to Charleston this past Saturday, but when I checked the bookings before we left the house, I discovered that the flight had gone from having available seats to being overbooked by 5.  Not a good thing, but our motto is “We’ve gotta try it.”  So off we headed to the airport.

When we got to the airport, things didn’t look good for getting on the flight (believe it or not, I’ve gotten on overbooked flights in the past – it’s all about the no-shows).  While we were waiting, we heard an announcement for a flight to Beckley, WV – about an hour south of Charleston.  Moments later, our gate agent made an announcement that our flight had a weight restriction and that they were looking for 6 people to give up their seats.  Well, when they make an announcement like that, there’s no chance for stand-by.  So we looked at each other and just said, “Beckley.”

No problem getting on the Beckley flight but we soon discovered that getting a rental car in Beckley isn’t quite as easy as getting one in Charleston.  I was on the phone with Avis and quickly learned that a) they had no cars in Beckley that we could return to Charleston, and b) their office in Beckley didn’t open until 1pm.  Since we were arriving at 10am, this was a problem.

While I had been on hold with Avis, the lady sitting across the aisle and one row up had turned around and said, “If you’re going to Charleston, you could probably ride with us.  My sister is picking me up and that’s where we’re going.”  After I learned that about all Avis could do for me was move our car pick-up time from 10am to 11am, I tapped her on the shoulder and said, “I think we’ll take you up on your offer.”  When we landed in Beckley, she called her sister and cleared it with her, and told me that we’d be welcome to ride along as long as we didn’t mind a dirty car and a big dog.  My reply was that we love dogs (we do) and that her sister’s car couldn’t be much dirtier than mine (it wasn’t). 

That’s how we found ourselves tootling along the West Virginia Turnpike on Saturday morning with Connie and Sharon and Reggie, a largish white poodle-looking poochie who was happy to share the back seat with Connie and me.  He was a little unsure of me at first, preferring to huddle close to Connie, but as we got closer to Charleston he moved a little closer and eventually laid his head on my knee, then sat up and leaned against my shoulder.  DH and I chatted amiable with the two sisters and Sharon very kindly took us to Charleston airport so we could pick up the rental car, only an hour later than originally planned.

Blessings, serendipity, angels – whatever you want to call it, we were so grateful that these two ladies crossed our path on Saturday morning.  Our impulsive choice to fly to Beckley turned into the right move, thanks to their kindness and generosity.  We were able to get to my parents’ home just a little late without having to pay a fortune to a taxi or a car rental company.  My list of pay-it-forwards just got a little longer.

A Little This, A Little That

 It was a good stitching afternoon today, kind of gray and rainy.  I put a movie on and sat down and finished the freebie from Feathers in the Nest:

 I added our initials (G and K) and I really like how it turned out.  It's such a sweet design -- thanks, Jennifer!  (The movie was "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" - excellent movie with a great cast.  I think it's become one of my favorites.)

I also pulled out Isabella and made minimal progress:

 Even minimal progress is progress, though, so I'll take it :-)

I've been going through my stitching stuff and pulling out some small things to do - little things that I've had kitted (or not) for a while and that won't take long to finish.  One of them is a Lizzie Kate design called "Plumpkin"; I bought the chart in, I think, 2000.  It's one of those small designs that I've been meaning to do for ages, so I finally pulled it out and started it this afternoon.  I'm using a piece of blue linen from my stash and the called for GAST fibers.

I don't know why Blogger insisted on turning it 90 degrees when it uploaded it but I can't for the life of me rotate it to the way it's supposed to be.  Does anyone know how to rotate pictures in Blogger...or if it's even possible?

 

I made a quick day trip to Pittsburgh yesterday to attend a funeral.  While I was there, I was able to meet up with some former co-workers for lunch.  It was nice to visit with old friends but it seems like it's always a sad occasion that brings us back together.

 

I've got to go pack my lunch for tomorrow, so that's it for this evening.  Wishing everyone a great week and happy stitching!

 



Weekend Stitching

I had every intention of working on WIPs -- Isabella Johnstone and Sarah Hartley -- this weekend, but my good intentions went south yesterday.  I was tidying the room that will eventually be my stitching room and was sorting through some papers when I came a cross a freebie that I'd recently printed.  The designer is Jennifer Fox of Feathers in the Nest and she links to the free chart from her blog.  Anyway, I couldn't resist the temptation to stitch this lovely piece.  It's quite small and I've almost finished it:

The fabric is a piece of 36-count "Misty Rain" from Lakeside and I'm using some Needle Necessities fibers, all from my stash.  I took a couple of liberties, adding the little heart above the word "Ours" and moving "Favorite" several stitches to the left so I can add our initials in the lower right corner.  My plan is to finish this as a little pillow to hang on a doorknob or a dresser drawer.

I made it to In Stitches in Alexandria last weekend!  It's a stitcher's treasure trove, with an awesome collection of charts, fabrics, and fibers.  I picked up a few small pieces of fabric as well as some Christmas ornament charts.  The shop is about 2 hours from my house, so I don't see myself making frequent trips but I definitely plan to go back! 

Well, that's the view from this stitching chair this evening.  Wishing everyone a great week and happy stitching!

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon; would have been a good day for a stroll around the neighborhood, but I decided it was also a good day to pull out my much-neglected stitching and see what I could make progress on.  I started with Isabella Johnstone and here's where I am:

 The alphabets and numbers are actually going fairly quickly and once I get past those I can get to the fun stuff -- flowers and cow!

I gave in to an attach of startitis and pulled out Sarah Hartley, from Historic Stitches.  I've had her kitted up for ages.  Here's a picture of the front of the chart; sorry for the glare but couldn't quite get rid of it.

The chart calls for 28-count linen and DMC threads; I'm using DMC but decided to use 36-count linen -- "Sand Dune" from Lakeside.  There's a lot of over-one stitching in this sampler, and 36-count is about the smallest count I can handle over-one on.  I started in the middle to work my way out to the border, and here's the progress from a couple of hours of stitching:

 

The stitchy world has otherwise been pretty quiet around here.  Wishing everyone a good week and happy stitching!

Isabella Johnstone Progress

My stitching time this weekend was spent with Isabella, working my way through the upper case alphabet.  There are still 3 rows of lower case alphabet and numbers, and that border goes all the way around.  But I love the colors, so that makes it an enjoyable stitch.  I'm looking forward to getting to the cow.

The weather here this week has been miserably hot, but a dandy little thunderstorm blew through this evening and cooled things down a wee bit.  We have company coming next weekend - the friends who stood up with us at our wedding; this will be the first time we've seen them since then - so I don't anticipate much stitching getting done this week.

Wishing everyone a great week and happy stitching!