Stitchy pictures

Another A&E finish.  I really like this one -- it's Know Ye by La D Da.  I used 40ct vintage Pearled Barley and the called for NPI.

Know Ye by La D Da

40ct vintage Pearled Barley with NPI silks

I think it's so sweet.  And I love the colors!  (Sorry for the wrinkles.  I don't believe in ironing.  lol!)

A bunch of us decided to have Quaker Fridays a while back.  I was sorely tempted to start Ann Grimshaw, but I was good and pulled out a WIP/UFO.  Can you guess what I picked to work on on Quaker Fridays?  Yes!  My nemesis, also known as the three times started Mouline Rouge!  Here's where I am as of the last Quaker Friday.

Mouline Rouge by Long Dog Samplers

40ct Antique White with NPI 636

It really is pretty, and I'm finally convinced that I like this red.  (It took pulling it out after a year to convince me.)   But I'm having a hard time sticking to it!  I have a feeling Quaker Fridays are distracting me a lot from sticking to what I'm stitching.

Speaking of distraction, after finishing Know Ye, I so wanted to start one of two projects that have been calling my name -- very loudly.  But I told myself I really need to finish one of the WIPs that I have going before I can even think about starting something new.  Sooooooo, first I tried pulling out And All Was For an Appil.  And was totally unsuccessful.  After all, I'm a very long way from a finish on that one.   So if I wanted a finish that was reasonably close, I decided I needed to pull out Beneath the Waters.  Agh!  Back to over one!  But I got into it.  And here is where I am.

Beneath the Waters by Carriage House Samplings

30ct Legacy Custard Creme over one

NPI silks

I think now that I'm getting animals with color in, I'm enjoying the stitch again.

Isn't the snail cute?   :D  I have to fill in that area inside the snakes with more sea creatures. 

In other news, the father type just called saying that he's stuck in the biggest traffic jam ever on the highway to work.  It's snowing, albeit lightly, and there's an accident somewhere.  Poor father type was bored so he called to see if school was still on.  And it is!  I'm hoping it stays on, but I'm not looking forward to driving in the snow.  This week is exam week for the boy child at the high school.  Which means he only goes in for the exams he takes.  Which means I have to be driving him back and forth to school for his exams.  Which means that the boy child is still asleep, and probably will be asleep till he absolutely has to get up for his 1:15 exam.  Agh!   He's got an exam today and one tomorrow and then he'll be done with his exams!  I sure hope he does/did well!

The girl child is home this week for the break between semesters.  She'll be going back to college on Sunday to start the second semester.  Poor thing was so tired when she got home.  She had to work on an internship application too, but that's done and now she's relaxing as much as possible before the grind starts again.

And of course, the other news is the Australian Open!  You think I forgot?  Nooooo!   It's been very interesting so far.  And now we know who is in the women's final -- Serena Williams and Justine Henin.  I have to agree with Peter Bodo --  I don't think it would be good for women's tennis at this point for Justine to win the title.  What, so Kim Cljisters and Justine Henin can just waltz in after a few years of retirement and grab slam titles for the taking?  (Cljisters won the US Open after coming back from retirement in just a few months of playing.  Henin has just returned to tennis after retirement, again only just a few weeks into playing.)   It wouldn't look very good for those who've been playing all this time while they were gone.  Sorry, just my opinion, and also that of Peter Bodo.

As for the men, Andy Murray is in the final, and tonight/tomorrow, Roger Federer and Jo Wilfried Tsonga will play for the last spot in the final.  I'm rooting for Federer to go to the final, of course.  The final?  Well, I like both Murray and Federer so it'll be interesting to see what happens!  Federer is in his 23rd straight slam semifinal.  Pretty impressive.  Ok, I'll be quiet now.  :D

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!  Hope it's nice and sunny where you are!

Ok, so I'm easily distracted.......

I put it down to the fact that it's a new year and I feel the need for a finish.  Yes, you guessed it.  I got distracted again.  I just couldn't deal with all that expanse of fabric that needed to be stitched.  I needed something small, something quick.  Or at least quickER.  Sooooo I picked up Margaret Pence by the Goode Huswife.  (Yes, she's OOP.)  And I just put the last stitches in her.  Yay!!  First finish of 2010!    I stitched her on 40ct vintage Pearled Barley with DMC threads.

It's obvious I needed to stitch her.  After all, I'm Margaret too.

And besides, I'm running out of wall space so a smaller piece is just what I needed!

In the midst of stitching Margaret, Tanya over at the Scarlett House distracted me some more.   She mentioned that she was placing an order with the Scarlet Letter, one of my favorite designers.  And one of the pieces she ordered was the first piece I'd ever ordered from SL.  It was also the first piece I'd ever worked on linen, and the first piece I'd ever worked in silk.  It's also a UFO.  My oldest.  From I would guess the late 1980's or early 1990's, but I don't actually know.  Well, Tanya made me go dig it up.  So I did.  After a bit of closet spelunking, I found my Lucy Maria Wiggin Sampler.

She's obviously not done.  And she's on some amazingly low count fabric -- something like 26 or 28ct over two.  Ugh!  I need to sit down with her and finish her. 

I actually did sit down with her for a while, but I couldn't take it for long. 

The good thing is that the reason I originally stopped working on her (back in those dark days of former stitching life history) isn't really a problem, or so I've been told.  See the problem?

I'm going to have like 1 inch of border at the bottom.  But this isn't a problem.  So I've been told.  :D 

Lucy is from my former stitching life.  Which I still haven't told you about.  But I will say this much -- I had to rescue Lucy from the clutches of some scroll rods.  I used to use things like that in my former stitching life.

In other news, the neighborhood college kids are slowly draining from the neighborhood back to college again.  Just in time for the girl child to come home for her week off between semesters.  Yes, her college is the lone one that has exams after Christmas and then a week off at the end of January when everyone else is back to classes.  Although I'm told that the University of Delaware or some such has a break from before Christmas to sometime in the middle of February.  Wow!  Better not mention that to the boy child.  :D   So anyway, the girl child will be home sometime this weekend for a week.  Time to stock up on groceries and the like!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.  Tomorrow is TGIF!

Back in control after bout of startitis -- maybe

 Well, the New Year has brought about a serious case of startitis.  I admit, I'm one of the victims.  And I know I'm not the only one.  There's Karoline, Gio, and -- well I know there were a whole slew of New Year's starts if nothing else!  I think all those New Year's starts just got the ball rolling!  So here's my case of startitis laid out to see.

You all know about the Prairie Schooler ABC SAL.  I'm currently here on it.  Admittedly, this was not part of the startitis.  But I had to show where I was before the startitis started.  :D

I think if there weren't 27 parts to it, it wouldn't be so discouraging.

Then, I wanted to try something else over one (the PS ABC is over one on 30ct), so I started this -- Beneath the Waters by CHS, which I'm also stitching over one on 30ct.

As you can see, I've gotten a bit farther since the last picture.  I do love this one -- need to get back to it!

Then New Year's Day came along and I said -- oh boy!  An excuse for a new start!  Sooooo, I started And All Was For an Appil by the Scarlet Letter with Laurie and some others.  This is what the piece will look like.

And here is where I am.  Rather paltry.

In case you're wondering, it's the cloud in the upper left hand corner.  Oh, and a bit of the sun underneath.  I'm using 40ct R&R Apple Brown Bindy with DMC threads. 

The funny thing about this one is that going back to over two on 40ct was rather jarring.  After all the over one on 30ct, over 2 on 40ct looked absolutely ginormous!!  And I just couldn't settle into it!  Of course part of the problem was that everyone was still home on vacation and break -- hubby and kids both.  And I couldn't just settle into a normal stitch.

So anyway, my mind was wandering around, thinking how much I was missing that over one on 30ct.  And I happened to think of another A&E that I'd started a couple of years ago and put down because the over one on 30ct was driving me crazy.  Hmmm, I thought.  I bet I could handle that one now!   So I went into my WIP (or UFO) drawers and found my Elizabeth Inman by the  Scarlet Letter.   And I seemed to find my cure for startitis.  This is what the piece will look like.

And here is where I am.

Now keep in mind that I already had the first four lines of the top verse done when I put it down back in 2007 or whenever that was.  I only had one more line of verse to do to get to the good part, but at that point in time, I didn't have the patience.  But now I did!

The good parts.  :D

I'm using AVAS and an unidentified piece of 30ct linen.  Ok, if you have to know, I bought the kit.  And that's what I'm using. 

A word of warning.  See the motif in the center there above?  With the blue flowers?  That was supposed to be stitched over two.  I followed the instructions, which didn't mention that that motif was supposed to be over two.  Then I looked closely at the pictures on the website and realized my error.  No way am I frogging that!  Luckily, from that point on, I just looked at the picture for what was to be stitched over two.  Just note that for future reference if you're planning to stitch this one.

So I think that's the end of my startitis for now.  It had better be -- I need to finish something now instead of accumulating WIPs!   There is one exception though.  I'm joining an impromptu SAL for a day of Quaker stitching a week.  But that's it!!  Really!  :D

Of course, we're not counting all the quilting and knitting that's been going on recently.  In my head that is.  I hope to do some actual quilting and knitting at some point too.  lol!

In other news, starting January 4, everyone was back to school and work.  The girl child even had to go back to school for language classes and to study for her finals.  She'll be back for her between semesters break at the end of January.  Anyway, it was really nice to get back to routine -- I don't know if anyone else thought so, but I did!   After all, the father type had been home on vacation since December 14!!  That's a loooooong time!  I dearly love my father type, but having him underfoot for that long -- well let's just say it's nice to be back to the norm!  I enjoy my alone time, even if it's not always stitching time!  Sorry, father type!  Hope you don't mind!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.  Sorry it took me so long to post in the New Year!