Sorry for the neglect....

 Oh gosh!  It's been a while since I've posted, hasn't it?  I seem to have slowed down on social media in general this summer and am way behind on blog reading and commenting and posting and etc.  Sorry!  

I do have something to tease in knitting, and a couple of pieces to show off in stitching.  First the knitting.  I did some preview knitting for Brooklyn Tweed!!!  For stitchers, this is like doing model stitching for Hands Across the Sea Samplers or Scarlett House, except you get to keep your sampler from the beginning.  lol!  Very exciting, in other words.  So for now I can only show sneak peeks of my knitting. (Yes, it's already finished.  No, you can't see it yet.). Here are a couple of peeks.  I used Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in the color Button Jar.  

I can't wait to show off my sweater!  It's being released as part of the Terre Verte Collection, which releases October 7.

OK, now I will show you a stitching finish.  Here it is, EF 1864 by Needlework Press.

I love her so much!  She was from  Sampler and Antique Needlework magazine, summer 2011.  I used the called for NPI silks and I have no clue what fabric I used, except that it was 40ct.  I find Berlin style stitching to be a bit of a chore so it took me a while to get back to this one.  But I'm so glad I did!

Speaking of getting back to something, I picked up my neglected Prairie Schooler Alphabet as well.  In this spurt of activity, I finished the L and B blocks.

I'm stitching it over one, which is probably one reason why I keep picking it up and putting it down again.  Maybe someday I'll finish it!  I'm using DMC floss for it.

This past weekend we managed to drive down to see DD in her new apartment.  It's very odd to drive down instead of using mass transit.  So many changes to everyday life -- it's also the first time I've really been out and about since the pandemic started except for essential things.  We had a beautiful day out, along with lots of walking, social distancing, masking up, and outdoor eating.

It was a nice change to get out and to see our sweet girl.  She stayed with us for about a month, but was going crazy in the 'burbs.  lol!

And of course, Mia is, as always, the diva of the household.  She is happy to have her boy around all the time now.  And she didn't mind having DD around for a month either.

This has gotten long enough, so I'll save what I'm working on right now for later.  I hope everyone is safe and well.  Happy Autumn!

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!

Yet more Alphabets and concerts galore

I'm making more progress on the Prairie Schooler Alphabets.  Here are K and U.

(I used 221 for the red in the K block.  I also had to lighten up most of the colors in the cat.)

And here is the whole thing so far.

I'm using 30ct Legacy Custard Creme over one with DMC.  I'm thinking of taking a break from the Alphabets for a while.  We'll see what happens.  I always have a mental block with starting new projects so we'll see if the hurdle wins or the new start wins. 

In other news, it's been a concert time of year around here.  The boy child is in his high school orchestra, the advanced orchestra at the high school, and the county's regional orchestra -- which isn't affiliated with any schools but is its own entity.  So the non school orchestra's concert was first.  And we forgot the camera.  But here's a pic from the father type's cell phone.

Once again they were wonderful.  I guess I'd better get used to the fact that symphony orchestras made up of the best student musicians in the county are going to sound pretty darned good.  I just basked in the music.  Wonderful stuff!  They played two pieces I love, the Danse Macabre and the waltz from Swan Lake.  Bliss!

Then it was time for the high school's orchestra concert.  Not bliss, but you know, they're not bad.  :D  The regular orchestra played first, and then the advanced orchestra.  This is a picture of the advanced orchestra.  (The regular orchestra is bigger.)

Here's the bass section.

And here's what the boy child thought of the music they were playing (the advanced orchestra played Pachelbel's Canon, the most boring piece of music to play ever, according to the boy child).

I think that picture says it all!  lol!

The girl child made it home for Christmas.  We did have snow here, but only 2 or 3 inches.  Down where the girl child's college is they had more like a foot, but she made it home anyway -- late at night of course.  But she's here and now we're all present for Christmas.  Now just to get these final two days of school and one bass guitar lesson over with.  :D   The father type has been on vacation since the 11th so it has been interesting having him underfoot, so to speak.  He has to use up his vacation time, so he won't be back at work till the New Year.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!   Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or whatever you may celebrate.  And thanks for stopping by and saying hi.

More letters and getting the tree

I was going to post sooner, but then of course I got into the "let me finish one more block" mode and waited till I finished one more block.  So here are S and T on my Prairie Schooler ABC piece.

 

And here is the whole piece so far.

I'm using 30ct Legacy Custard Creme over one with DMCs.  I changed DMC 502 to 503 in the Time block.  Still having problems with colors being too close.

In other news, we went for a Christmas tree this past weekend.  The girl child is still at school so it was just the boy child, the father type and me.  This year, the father type was determined to go to the farm of Kate Millett, a feminist who was apparently famous in the 70's.  (I'd never heard of her.)   So we went in search and found her house.  The father type got to meet her and get her to autograph a book for him, and he bought a couple more too (all authored by her of course).  Then we went in search of the elusive tree farm that was supposed to exist opposite her house.  Turns out there really wasn't much there in the way of trees.  Most were too tall, even for us.  And I would say there weren't more than maybe a half dozen to a dozen trees at that.  That were a reasonable size that is.  There were quite a few that were waaaay to big.  For example, this one that the boy child said we should take home.

But we were lucky.  After shaking snow off of various specimens, which were all tall (but not as tall as that one in the picture), the father type found one sitting off by itself, fairly non snow-covered, and a pretty good size.  (We'd learned our lesson after one year where the tree took up practically half the livingroom.  Now we look at trees that look like a good size but are actually way too big and say "oh, that's way too big," instead of taking it home and finding that it takes up half the livingroom.)   So the father type swung into action and sawed the tree down.

Then the boys lugged the tree back over the snow (it had snowed miraculously the day before to give us the perfect snowy day for tree cutting) to the car and we headed home.

Here's the boy child decorating the tree at home.

It was quite a successful day -- I always crack the whip and make us decorate the tree as soon as we get home.  So now we have a tree and it feels like Christmas.  (I got voted down emphatically on the "let's get an artificial tree this year" suggestion so it's vacuuming needles for another year.)

I hope it's starting to feel like Christmas for you as well!  And happy Hannukah for those of you who celebrate Hannukah.  It starts at sundown December 11.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hello.  It's almost TGIF time!  (I keep thinking it's Friday but it's not.)

Alphabet progress, pictures, and an award

I finished the letter J in my Prairie Schooler Alphabet last night.  Here it is.

I'm using Legacy (so I've been told) 30ct Custard Creme over one with DMC.  Here are A and J together.

I'm really surprised at how much I'm enjoying doing the over one.  Maybe the secret is not to use 40ct or 32ct.  lol!  I've had to change some of the colors on both charts, and wish I'd changed the red on the A chart.  For details go to the Prairie Schooler ABC SAL blog. 

In other news, it was Thanksgiving weekend this past weekend.  The boy child had a sweet 16 party to go to.  My friend Ralph managed to get a picture of the boy child all spiffed up -- and smiling!

Now how fair is that that he can get the boy child to smile -- or even to pose for a picture for that matter?  You should have seen me the other day trying to get a picture of the boy child before his Area All County concert.  Forget it!

And of course, we had Thanksgiving dinner.  I won't bore you with lots of pictures.  But I just had to brag about my dear father type.  He always does the holiday cooking around here.  (I do the cooking the rest of the year.)  He's been doing the turkey since before we were married.  I still remember how disastrous his first attempt was way back in the dark ages before marriage.  lol!  But now he's an expert -- makes his own stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, homemade gravy, the works!  Here's the lovely turkey -- not a large one since the kids don't go for turkey that much.

Such a good cook, my father type!

And before I forget, a very old friend from way back when (or at least it feels that way!) gave me this award.

Her blog is Pomegranates and Paper.   I still remember going to her house back when she lived in our neighborhood and just drooling over her Stickley furniture, her real wood venetian blinds, and everything else that was just perfectly decorated to a T.  And of course going to the quilt shop together.  Or how about the time when we made a trip to the emergency room for some kidney stones?   I stayed in the waiting room with the two little ones, one of hers and the only one I had back then, the girl child.  The teen (my friend's blog name for her) outshone the poor girl child in the waiting room for cuteness.  I think it was the girl child's first time being outstaged by a younger woman.  (The girl child was a bit more than a toddler and the teen was a bit less than a toddler I think.)   :D  Anyway, check out her blog -- it's wonderful!   Loretta, I never thought you'd go back to the law stuff.  And what happened to the quilting in our lives?

Anyway, the rules for this award are to list 10 random facts about me followed by nominations of 7 bloggers that I hold dear.  Hmmmm, this is going to be tough!   Ok, here goes!

1.  I love the Beatles.  Many of you probably already know that, but it doesn't say it has to be little known facts, does it?  :D   I actually discovered the Beatles in college (we're talking '79 to '83 here), but I do remember jumping up and down on the couch to "She Loves You" as a wee one.  We sang along too:  "Bunxum yeah yeah yeah!" we screamed.  (That's what we thought they were saying.)   Later as a small child I heard various Beatles songs as the 101 strings version played on my mom's favorite radio station, KMAN in Manhattan, Kansas.  I had no clue that songs like Fool on a Hill were by the Beatles till I was in college.

2.  My hands are way too small.  I mean waaaaaayyyyy toooooo smalllllll!!   Just to give you an idea, I have to wear my kids' winter gloves from when they were little.  I think the ones I'm using are a child size medium from LL Bean.  See what I mean by small?  It's a real disadvantage when you are trying to learn to play the piano (I can only barely reach an octave) or the guitar.  I trashed the piano when I was in 4th grade I think.  The guitar was my idea so that lasted longer, but with small hands I just can't do much.

3.  I wanted to learn to play drums as a kid and so did the boy child.  Pretty funny, huh?  The reason why I didn't learn was that my mother said she wouldn't be able to take all the noise.  The reason the boy child didn't learn?  Well that's a long story.  He was already taking guitar lessons at the time that all the elementary school kids got to choose an instrument to learn at school.  He wanted to do drums.  I said -- do you really want to learn two instruments?  Why don't you put down guitar and see if they'll let you do that with the band?  Well, he went off to school and saw the instrument demos -- and discovered that you could play the Jaws music on the double bass.  You know, that DU DUM  DU DUM DU DUM thing.  How cool is that?!  So the boy child signs up for guitar with double bass as his second choice.  And they assign him double bass.  I say to him, well that means you'll be learning two instruments after all.  Do you want me to contact them and ask to switch you to drums since that was what you really wanted?   And I think you know what the boy child said.  No thanks.  And the rest is history.  :D   (This is getting to be long, isn't it?)   Oh, and he picked up the bass guitar later.  After the double bass.  They're the same thing after all.  Sort of.

4.  I've had two stitching lives.  Well, I've mentioned that before.  Basically, I had a stitching life mixed in with my quilting where I'd basically just do the AC Moore or JoAnne type stuff.  I loved Paula Vaughn, and my first real designer was Prairie Schooler.  But I used aida and DMC and life was limited. I did try one Scarlet Letter kit, which was my first time with linen and silks, but never finished it.   Stopped stitching pretty much, just quilted.  Then my neighbor Kathy (no blog) got me back into stitching and I discovered how changed the world was.  Silk fibers, linen galore -- I went ga gah crazy and that was it.  I haven't touched a quilt since.  Sort of.

5.  Which leads to -- I want to get back into quilting.  I guess it will be my second quilting life if I do get back into it.  The same sort of thing has happened.  In the 3 or 4 years since I stopped quilting, things have changed.  Now there are all these new fangled precuts which are marvelous, neat patterns all over the place, and the best part is -- all these hand applique designs!!!!!  Argh!!!  Like this

Or this

These amazing quilt patterns can be found at Threadbear Quilts in Australia.   The first one is the Civil War Bride Quilt.  There's a blog that I think I have the link for in my side bar.  The second quilt is Phebe's Quilt by Di Ford.  I so totally want to do both!  (Thanks to Lizzie for the second picture.  Hope you don't mind, Lizzie!

6.  I have a fear of crowds.  I think it's because once upon a time in junior high, there was this event in the gym.  Afterwards, everyone was crowding out and something happened and everyone was panicking and pushing and shoving and -- well, I was in the midst of it.   And I went down with people falling on top of me and was sure I was about to be trampled.  Luckily, someone pulled me out and I was ok.  But ever since then I haven't been able to tolerate crowds.  I just get panicky.  Ugh!

7.  I hate housework.  Well, I don't mind the laundry that much, but I hate everything else.  My mother was a clean freak and I'm the exact opposite.  Which isn't a good thing.  Oh well.

8.  The father type and I are pack rats.  I guess that sort of goes along with the housework thing.  But it's true.  Luckily we're not extreme pack rats (ie hoarders) like Homer and Langley.

9.  I'm an anglophile.  Yes, I'm one of those who loves to read about the royals -- actually more the historical royals than the modern day ones.  And I love to read British literature and all that.  I'm an anglophile.  What more can I say?

10.  I love to watch tennis.  Which you probably already know if you read this blog.  The internet has changed my tennis watching.  I used to just watch the slam events.  Now with the advent of online streaming, I've been watching all sorts of tournaments.  The latest and last of the year was last week's ATP World Tour Finals (or WTF, which totally cracked me up the first time I saw that).  Boy, was that a great tournament!  Only the top 8 seeded players in the world going at it.  Totally enjoyable.  And it was at the O2 arena in London.  Cool!

Whew!  I did it!  Now the other part will be harder.  In fact, I'm such a chicken that I'm not going to pass the award on.  Sorry Loretta!   :D   But hey, I think this post is long enough as it is!

Have a great week, everyone!  Thanks for stopping by and saying hello.

I love A&E -- and alphabets!

So I seem to be going for change of pace after my Paradise Lost finish.  First I went for a much smaller A&E design, Sarah Esh by Barrick Samplers (aka Carriage House Samplers). 

I used 40ct Vintage Meadow Rue with the called for DMC.  I love A&E's! 

Then Vonna over at the Twisted Stitcher started a Prairie Schooler ABC SAL blog.  She showed us this picture to inspire us.  Now you have to realize I'd seen this picture a long time before and wanted to stitch it up right away.  But it didn't happen.  You also have to realize that Prairie Schooler was practically the first real designer I fell in love with -- back in my first stitching life.  (I still haven't told you that story yet, have I?)   So when Vonna started this whole thing up, well, it was inevitable that I would succumb.  My only problem is I don't like stitching over one.  And the picture (see above) is done over one. I love the look of over one, but I don't like doing over one.  Hmmmm.  

So I went digging in my stash.  Found a piece of 48ct Light Examplar.  Don't ask me what I was thinking when I bought that fabric -- must have had rocks in my head.  Tried it out -- and realized that it was taking me just as long if not longer than doing over one on a reasonable count fabric would take.  Sooooo, I went digging through my stash once more and found a piece of what I think is 30ct Custard Creme line -- can't remember who makes it, but that's what the label says the color is.  (Label doesn't mention the count, but I counted it out.)  Dug through my DMC stash and found all but 9 colors.  It was fated!  So I started with the letter A.  Here's my progress so far.

I'm doing pretty ok so far with the over one!  Amazing!  Now that I've gotten this far, I finally remembered to go join the SAL blog.  lol!  So I'm hoping to hear from Vonna soon. 

In other news, Thanksgiving is fast approaching.  The boy child is excited since that means all his college friends will be home for break.  The girl child won't come home till Wednesday evening during all the rush of other people coming home.  But she's coming home! 

One thing the boy child is bringing home from school for break is something we've never had in the house before -- a cello.  You see, the boy child is doing the pit orchestra for the second year for the middle school play -- high school kids do the pit for the middle school play for some reason.  He always gets stuck with the cello part to play on the bass.  Well, he decided that this year he wants to see if he can actually play the cello instead.  Keep in mind that the play is just over a week away, that they just had their first rehearsal yesterday, that they'll have rehearsals every day/evening after school (except over Thanksgiving break) until the shows, and that he's still learning the music -- basically sight reading it.  But still, he wants to try his hand at the cello.  Oh boy!  So hopefully in the midst of all the getting together with friends over break, he'll actually try the cello out as well!  Of course, I'd love it if he decides he likes the cello.  The cello has always been my favorite string instrument.  :D 

That's all from here.  I hope everyone in the US has a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.