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!

Mouline Rouge redux

You'll never guess what I've picked up again. That's right, Mouline Rouge!




After I finished Rachel Hyde, I sat there wondering what I wanted to pick up next to work on. And I had this overwhelming feeling of having no clue what should come next. It was quite terrible! Then I thought -- hey, what about that Mouline Rouge thing? I could do that..... So I did. I'm doing the 40ct Antique White and NPI 636 that I'd gotten for my 4th try. What do you think of it?

All I know is I'm really sick of this motif:




And for that matter, I'm sick of this one too:



And I have to say that I still don't know if this is the ultimate red. Isn't that awful? But hopefully it's good enough.

Now that I've gotten this far, I'm sitting here wondering if I have the will power to keep going. I have to admit, working with just one color is a bit boring. And since I've stopped around this point so many times already, it's easy to feel that pull to drop Mouline Rouge once again and find something else to interest me.

I wonder what's going to happen......

Mouline Rouge -- or 4 times a charm??

Ok, so I thought I'd tell you about my Mouline Rouge problem. You know Mouline Rouge, that lovely design by Julia Line of Long Dog Designs?



Well, back when I started my second stitching life in around 2005 or 2006, -- I'll explain that one another time -- I fell in love with this and ran out to kit it up with my good friend (and next door neighbor) Kathy. Started working on it, loved it. Then I started doubting my color choice.



See, back then I didn't like red samplers. Didn't like red, couldn't stand red, hated to wear red, didn't want anything to do with red. What was my favorite color? Can you guess? Yup, green! (But only certain kinds of green.) So I went with a 36ct mystery R&R fabric (can't remember what it was) since this was before I fell in love with 40ct, and GAST Shutter Green. But I just wasn't sure about all those eerie sort of light places in the green that were coming out. Soooo, it got put aside and I picked something else up to stitch.

But I still wanted to do Mouline Rouge! So eventually I decided to try again. By this time, I'd discovered 40ct fabric. And I'd also started to think that despite not liking red, since the piece is called Mouline Rouge, it was silly not to stitch it in red. It's called Mouline ROUGE after all! So I came up with this.




This is what I think is 40ct Antique White and a Vikki Clayton silk, I think it's Garnet. But no, I wasn't satisfied. The Garnet was just too dark for me. I just wasn't into it. I could only deal with certain reds and this most definitely wasn't it. So once again, it fell by the wayside.

Now we're getting to more recent times. Another online friend finished her Mouline Rouge and kindly sold me her leftover skein of NPI 148 -- we're talking the 45 meter skein here. Now you have to realize that by now, I'm loving red -- can't get enough of it, have to do lots of red samplers, red just keeps me going! (If you want evidence of this, note the background wallpaper I chose and the sampler pic in the title.) With the proviso that it's that perfect red -- I still don't like certain reds, you know. So anyway, I pick out a 40ct Palomino to go with that NPI 148. And this is what I came up with.




Unfortunately, it's hard to tell from the picture that the fabric is quite dark. I loved the way the color of the red skein looked on the fabric, but once it was stitched, I just wasn't sure. So how many times was this? Three? And I wasn't satisfied with any of them!

So even more recently I tried one more time. I was stitching another project that uses NPI 636 on 40ct Meadow Rue -- and oh, that combination just hit the "this is the perfect red" button for me! So I ordered a big skein of the NPI 636 during a sale and a piece of 40ct Antique White. I decided I really want the conservative look -- red on a nice, crisp white -- despite having fallen in love with this particular red on a piece of Meadow Rue. So here is what it looks like.





Nope, I haven't started it yet. But I'm hoping against hope that this is the one, the magic red, the red I've always wanted -- and that I won't go back to the drawing board for a 5th time! Of course, I also don't know when I'm going to restart Mouline Rouge. I have way too much going on right now to pick it up. Oh well.

Here's the sick thing. Now that I've dug all of my Mouline Rouge starts out? I think I like the first one best..........