A very newsy post

Lots of stuff for today!  Let's start with the stitchy news, shall we?  First off, my new project, Catherine Maudsley by the Drawn Thread.  Here is how far I am with her.

 Catherine Maudsley by the Drawn Thread

40ct Meadow Rue

NPI threads

I'm really loving her, especially that border and the reds.  Yummy!

Next up, Nicole asked in my last post how big my Margaret Harris Sampler from Blackbird Designs ended up being since it was stitched over one on 30ct.   I took this picture to show the answer visually.

The lovely ruler is from Tanya at The Scarlett House. 

In the "in other news" department, about a week and a half ago, my poor father type was in his car on the way to work, tried to step on the brakes, and it being a snowy, wet day, the car promptly kept going until it slid into the car in front of him.  The air bags deployed and my poor father type was quite shaken up.  They ended up taking him to the hospital, but thankfully the tests showed he was fine -- just a few scrapes and a very shaken father type.  I got him home just fine and he was back to normal in no time.

We waited for a whole week, surviving on one car between the two of us.  Then finally exactly a week later, we got the verdict: the car, a 1996 Honda Accord wagon with over 160,000 miles on it, was totalled.  If it hadn't been so old or the air bags hadn't deployed, it might have been a different matter -- they might have fixed it.  But as it was, totalled.  So we had to limp along without a second car for the rest of the week.

Thanks to modern technology and the web, yesterday, after having done our research and knowing ahead of time that we wanted a Honda, the father type went online and expressed interest in a new Honda Civic (don't ask me where he did this, but it was some website online).  The result was that all the local dealers in the area started emailing him with their offers on a new model.  The father type was able to do some dealing right online before we even stepped into a car dealership!  It was great!  And again, thanks to modern technology and everyone wanting everything yesterday, we ended up with a new Honda Civic sedan by the end of the day.  The father type is very happy with his new car.

The whole process still has me reeling.  We usually spend a long time deciding on a car much less buying one.  Plus which, this is our first new car in over ten  -- count 'em ten -- years!  So this is going to take some getting used to!  lol!

For those of you who are clever enough to wonder about the double bass carrying capacity of this car, the answer is, we don't know.  I really doubt that the double bass will fit in the car as well as two people.  I actually doubt the double bass would fit period.  But we still have my minivan and hopefully having just one double bass carrying car will be enough.  Who would have thought that one day this would even be a consideration in our car buying?

Finally, I've won an award!  Thanks to Belinda of Blue Ribbon Designs, Melissa of Words and Blooms, and Cari-in-VA of Serene Stitches, I won the Beautiful Blogger Award!  Thank you ladies! 

Here are the rules that come with the award:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

2. Paste the award on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you.

4. Tell 7 interesting things about yourself.

5. Nominate 7 blogs and post links.

So the first three are done.  Here's the hard part.  7 interesting things about myself.  Well, in another post, I'd already done this sort of thing.   So you can read those interesting things (and so can I so I don't repeat myself!  lol!)  Here's the new list.

1. I've lived in 5 different areas of the country: Oklahoma, Kansas, Southern California, New Jersey, and New York.  I've lived in New York all my married life, so the rest was when I was a child and for college.  :D

2. I have a sister who's two years older than I am, and 3 step brothers, the youngest of whom is 2 years older than the girl child.  My father remarried a few years after my mother died and had a second family, thus the young step brothers.

3. I'm not a gardener.  I wish I were, but I'm not.  You can tell by our yard.  :D  (Unfortunately, the father type isn't a gardener either.)  I have eternal guilt about this since we bought our house from old friends of ours and they WERE gardeners.  We've sort of ruined the yard for them.  Sigh. 

4. My kids missed out on two chances to be rich.  The father type's great great grandfather  was the founder of Cadillac.  Unfortunately he was a poor businessman.  I won't go into the gory details.  My grandfather was the co-owner of the Fette - Lee rug company in China that made beautiful Oriental rugs.  The business went under due to WWII and the Communist takeover of China.  Thus, we aren't rich.  (I have googled the rug company online and fume  -- due to the usual sort of prejudice of the time, it seems sometimes the rug company is referred to only by the non-Asian owner's name, Fette.  Figures.  The co-owner of the rug company, who was always known in my family as Mrs. Fette, had a daughter who was my godmother.  The Fette family helped my family escape the Communists and come to this country.  I guess this should have been a separate little known fact.)

5. I've only had one guy in my life, the father type.  Nothing before him that I would call a real relationship.  We met in college and that was it.  We've been together for  29 years, and this year will be our 27th wedding anniversary.  We're old.  :D

6. I love Mission furniture.  We have a few pieces of Stickley furniture and I'd love to have more.  None of it is antique, which would be even cooler.

7. In another life I would have loved to be an interior designer.  But I don't have the color sense for it so it's good I'm not.

Now to nominate 7 other bloggers.  Lots of bloggers who I would have nominated have already been nominated, so that makes it tough.  But here are my nominations in no particular order. 

1.  Cathy
2.  Cari
3.  Sylvia
4.  Robert
5.  Corinna
6.  Glenna
7.  Melody

And now I'm thinking there are a lot more of you I could have nominated.

We are waiting for the girl child to come home from college.  She was supposedly coming home Friday night.  But Friday night she texted saying she had research to do so she was coming home Saturday after dinner.   Saturday rolled around, and she said never mind, she would come home Sunday morning (this morning).  This morning, she said nope, she'd come home this afternoon.   Now she's waiting for the train, but everything is delayed because of the lovely Nor'easter that went through yesterday (yes, we were car shopping in torrential rain and horrific winds).  Hopefully she won't get too delayed and will be home before evening.  I think the father type is looking forward to picking her up in his new, snazzy, red car.  :D

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi, everyone.  It's a joy to be part of this blogging world!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I love Blackbird Designs!

I've always loved the Blackbird Designs ladies.  I discovered them first when I was a quilter, back when.  Then when I moved into cross stitching, I happily discovered that they do cross stitch designs as well.  And now Alma has started a Blackbird Designs blog -- heaven!

Well needless to say, when Blackbird Designs came out with their Honeysuckle Manor book at Nashville this year, I went gaga.  In fact, I drove my LNS owner a bit crazy when my friend and I went for our Nashville stash.  "Where's the new Blackbird Designs book?"  I kept saying over and over.  I think she was ready to stuff something down my throat.  lol!  (Not really.  Tawny is very sweet and would never do such a thing.)   Anyway, I came home with the book in my eager hands, checked my floss and fabric stash and happily started stitching Margaret Harris asap.  And here's the finished result. 

Margaret Harris

from the HoneySuckle Manor book by Blackbird Designs

30ct WDW Straw linen using cross over one

called for Belle Soie silks

In case you're wondering, no, I wouldn't have chosen to use the Belle Soie silks on my own.  But I do tend to use whatever fibers are called for, thus my choice to use them.  No bleeding problems this time around, thankfully!  And the linen is actually a pretty beige brown color -- it looks washed out in the picture.

Since I did the piece over one, I had to change the name/date/place parts of the design.  Which was fine -- I loved Alma's idea of using a grandmother's name and date.  My maternal grandmother was the ideal grandmother to us grandkids so of course I thought of her.  Thus I put her name where the "Walnut, Iowa" was.  And in place of Margaret Harris' name, I put my grandmother's birth year.  I love being able to have her name on this piece.

In other news, the tree service finally came on Saturday bright and early.  Hallelujah!  They took the widowmaker branch down, and also trimmed the tree some more.  And they took away all the branches that were strewn all over the yard as well, and cut any log sized wood into usable sized pieces for the wood stove.  Yay!  So now the yard looks normal again.  Whew!  It's been nice and warm so huge amounts of snow are now gone.  Of course, there are still huge plots of snowiness everywhere too, but hopefully not for long!  I'm hoping there will be no more snow!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.  I love reading your comments!  Have a great week! 

Now for a change of pace......

So when I last left you, I was wondering what to tackle next, feeling my usual overwhelmed, panicky feeling of too much stash, too little time. 

Well, here's the first thing I turned to -- the Margaret Harris Sampler from the new Blackbird Designs Honeysuckle Manor book.

Now my version will have to be a bit different.  I had a piece of 30ct WDW Straw, not the 35ct Straw called for.  So I decided to do it over one on the 30ct.  Which means I won't be able to do the name or date over one since I'm already stitching the whole thing over one.  :D   But that's ok.  I'm planning on putting my maternal grandmother's name in where "Walnut Iowa" is, and perhaps my initials and date where Margaret's name is.  Or my grandmother's birthdate.  If I can remember what that is.  Here's as far as I've gotten (I'm using the Belle Soie called for):

Pretty boring, I know.  Well, so anyway, I was stitching away on this, and thinking about the fact that I have this other project that I need to get to.  So I ended up putting Margaret Harris down long enough to do this.  Tah dah!

My first quilt project in years!!  It's the first block of a BOM from Material Obsession called Tessellation by Brigitte Giblin.  Isn't it cool?!  I've never done fussy cutting before!

I have to say that Material Obsession had me obsessing about amazing fabric combinations in wild fabrics that I normally wouldn't think of using.  (I'm usually a repro fabric kind of girl.)  And when this BOM came up, I had to go for it -- it's English paper pieced, my favorite thing in the whole world!  The finished piece does have to be appliqued down on that background fabric, but that's ok -- hand applique is my other favorite thing!  :D   I have to say it felt good to be quilting again.  I also have to say that if I actually finish this quilt (I hope I do!), I may have it machine quilted -- a shocking statement coming from me, the hand quilting snob.

Laurie, thanks for urging me to start a quilt -- I'm glad I did!  And Loretta, if you're reading this, this BOM is your fault -- I discovered Material Obsession because of you! 

So now you know why I've posted again so soon -- 2 posts in one week just doesn't usually happen.  But I'm just so psyched about my new quilt project!  Now to get around to using the millions of fabrics and kits I've managed to collect from Kim!  lol!

In other news, the tree service still hasn't come to take that widowmaker branch down.  Sigh.  Which means we've had to adjust to not using the garage, not using the back door (which is the door we ALWAYS use), and not using most of the driveway.  Such a pain!  But I do understand -- after all we had so many branches down, I can just imagine all the jobs that must have come in to them after the storm.  The nice thing is that it's so warm that the snow is melting nicely.  The ground is still totally covered, but at least there's a lot less snow!

In the unfinished business category, lots of you were wondering why I need to use a toothbrush on Sarah Woodham.  Well, I actually ended up using a lint roller -- the fancy equivalent of wrapping a piece of tape around one's fingers and using it to get the lint.  I think it helped.  I'm assuming the fiber just left tiny bits of lint on the fabric, although I guess it may also have very slightly bled onto the fabric as well.

Someone else asked about the new Quaker designs in the new Goode Huswife Book of Designs IV.  I think the best I can do is to post a link to Ann's webpage with a picture of all the designs in the book.  Go here.

Quick Edit:  Forgot to say I won this perfect bottle cap pin cushion from Lynn.  I was so thrilled!  I've been using it constantly -- it's the perfect size!  Thank you so much, Lynn!  I love it!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!  I really appreciate all your comments!

Happy Dance Time! And snow......

I just put the final stitches in Sarah Woodham.  Yay!  I think I'm extra happy because this means I'm finally -- FINALLY! -- through with that over one verse in the middle!  lol!  Here she is!

Sarah Woodham by Shakespeare's Peddler

40ct Vintage Maple Sugar linen

Fibers called for (Gloriana, Belle Soie and Thread Gatherer)

 

If you look closely at the verse in the middle, you may notice a pinkish cast to the linen background.  Isn't that lovely?  That's from the Belle Soie Rose of Sharon used for the verse.  I'm planning to try taking a soft toothbrush to it, thanks to the advice of my friend Joy.  

 

Whew!  That's a relief!  I just had to share!  Now I'm feeling that overwhelmed feeling again.  What to start next?  New start or WIP?  Or should I try to tackle one of the quilt projects I keep dreaming about?  The market stuff doesn't help.  I've added even more projects to the "I have to stitch this now" category.  Not good!  

In other news, yes, indeedie, we got walloped (finally) with a real winter storm Thursday into late Friday night.  Two, count 'em two, snow days from school.  Although the district did mess up sending the kids in at first.  Whoopsie!  We lost the TV/internet service for Friday, which was a hardship.  :D   But we were extremely lucky.  All around us, including just next door and up the street, people were without power for days.  Next door, they're still hoping to get restored today.  I think that's the worst, losing power.  We had that happen back with that April Fool's storm.  Remember that one?  Ugh!!!  No power for days!  So we were lucky this time!

The reason for all the power outages?  The snow was very very heavy, and stuck on all the trees and wires.  There were sounds of falling branches all night Thursday into Friday.  We got over a foot of snow too.  Here are some picture of the debris from the storm -- these are just the branches that fell on our driveway.  There are plenty more throughout the yard.  Oh, and keep in mind that a lot of the snow has already melted.

 

 

(Thank goodness for the neighbor with the chainsaw.)   

And here's a good one.  A branch still stuck up in the tree.  

 

Can you guess where this lovely "widowmaker" -- as my next door neighbor calls it -- is?   Well, look at the next picture.  See the branch?  And now you understand. 

Hmmmmm.  Of course, the father type, being the father type, insists it won't fall.  Me?  I called the tree service.  They're coming, hopefully tomorrow, to pull the lovely thing down.  I haven't told the father type yet.  :D 

So that's it from here.  Hopefully I'll be making a decision sometime soon on what to tackle next.  Decisions, decisions!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!  I love our blogging community!

What would you do for market stash?

I think the title says it all.  Kathy (no blog) and I had an adventure today, to say the least.  A huge snow storm has hit around the tri-state area here.  We thought for sure our planned trip to our not-so-local LNS would have to be cancelled (it's a little over an hour away in New Jersey).  But we woke up this morning to a rainy looking day and schools in session with an early dismissal (which means letting out by mid morning to noontime).  So we consulted each other.  And we decided that we really really needed a market stash expedition.  So we went!

About halfway there, I got a message from the schools saying school was cancelled and the kids would be gotten home asap -- the younger kids hadn't even gone to school.  Pshaw, we said.  The roads weren't so bad!  :D   So we kept going.  About 15 minutes before the LNS was supposed to open, I started calling to see if they were there.  And they weren't!  Even after their opening time they didn't answer!  That's ok, we said.  They often open a bit late.

We pulled up to the LNS and were horrified to see the store was dark!  No lights!  What?!  They have to come!  They have to open!!!  We were in panic mode.  We drove around back to see if their car was there.  Nope.  We drove back around front and were just about to do a Google search to see if we could figure out what the LNS owners' home phone was when -- voila!  The lights in the shop turned on!!!!   Oh we were sooooo happy!   lol!

Our poor LNS owner.  (Our LNS is Where Victoria's Angels Stitch.)   She'd gone to Nashville and brought home tons of things.  And she still wasn't finished unpacking  yet.  We really got first dibs on the market stuff!  Here's a picture of my stash.

Now keep in mind that I do have some more stash coming from a couple of my favorite ONS's.  I thought I was going to be so good this market.  Sigh.

By the time we drove back home, the roads were getting pretty iffy in New York.  New Jersey still wasn't bad for some reason.  But we got home!   So what would YOU do for market stash?   lol!

While I was at the LNS, I picked up one of my framed pieces, Rebecca Robinson by Scarlet Letter.  I'm so pleased with it!

Here's a detail of the frame.

And finally, I'm still plugging away on Sarah Woodham.  Of course, I didn't follow my promise to myself to stitch the verse along with the rest of the piece so I wouldn't be stuck doing the verse at the end.  I'm finished with Sarah -- except for the verse.  Sigh....   Here she is.

Here are some detail pics.

 

I really love how Sarah is coming out.  I'm just tired of that over one verse.  lol!

So it's snowing away outside.  The boy child is counting on a snow day tomorrow.  I guess we'll see!  They certainly messed up today sending the kids in.  

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.  I love reading your comments!  Hope it's less snowy where you are!

Sarah Woodham progress

Well I've made up my mind -- Sarah Woodham is looking just fine on this 40ct vintage Maple Sugar.  Here's my progress as of the weekend.

I'm using the called for fibers.

The chart says that the model's verse was done in tent stitch over one.  But I was stubborn and I'm doing mine in a full cross over one.

Sarah is such a pretty piece!

In other news, we finally had a snow day last week with maybe half a foot of snow.  Still nothing compared to what you folks down south have gotten so far this year.  This past weekend, instead of celebrating Valentine's Day like we usually do, we cleaned the house from top to bottom in preparation for a visit from my sister, BIL, their two kids and their dog.  They couldn't stay long, just a couple of nights, but it was nice to see them and hang out.  And of course, it decided to snow more for their drive to their next destination today.  Silly weather!   And silly me -- I didn't take a single picture while they were here!  Didn't take a single stitch either.  Ah well!  

Now it's Winter Break this week, so the boy child is lying around being bored and not wanting to practice his bass.  He had a lot of fun with his fellow boy cousin while they were here, but now he's waiting for one of his good friends to get home from Florida so they can hang out.  It's snowing, but for some reason it's melting away on the driveway.  Which is a good thing -- less shoveling to do later!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!  Hope the rest of your week is a good one!  Can't wait for market!!!!   :D

Finish, new WIP, and some answers

So I did manage to finish Beneath the Waters.  Yay!

Beneath the Waters

Carriage House Samplings

30ct Legacy Custard Creme Linen over one

NPI threads called for

I really love how it came out!  

 

Now all I have to do is attach it to the box I made it for.  lol!

But instead of doing that, I happily gave myself permission to start a new project.  Bad girl!  Oh well!  I started Shakespeare's Peddlers' reproduction of Sarah Woodham.  I needed me some good flowery border to stitch!  I know some of you hate to do borders, but I sorta like stitching them!  And with my projects recently, there's been nary a sign of one.  

Here it is so far.

 

The fabric color doesn't show up well in the picture.  It's 40ct vintage Maple Sugar, and I'm using the Gloriana, Belle Soie and Threadgatherer silks called for.

I have to say, these are not my favorite fibers to use.  I have to use much shorter lengths and even so they tend to fuzz and shred.

I'm also doubting my fabric choice.  I keep worrying that the white isn't showing up as well as it should.  But I'm far enough along that I'll probably keep going.  I think it's looking ok.  I hope!

There have been a number of questions that I really should answer.  For starters, someone asked what the samplers in my new header are.  Here's the list of samplers from left to right.

Historic Countries Mystery Sampler (from the Gift of Stitching Magazine, a series)
Time and Season Sampler (Moira Blackburn)
Plantation Sampler (Canterbury Designs)
This is the Day (Hands to Work from JCS Magazine)
Dutch Beauty (Permin)
Lois Minshall (Threads of Gold)
Rachel Hyde (Threads through Time)
Ann Rogers (The Essamplaire) (also the first piece on the 2009 finishes post)
Hannah Lancaster (Porcupine Collection)
Charlotte Clayton (Northwest Sampler Guild)

Part of Charlotte Clayton, of course, was my old header picture. 

I've also been asked how I stitch since I don't use scroll rods or q snaps or hoops anymore (as I did in my old stitching life).  I stitch in hand with the sewing motion.  I think those who can stitch with a stand and who keep one hand on top and one on the bottom are the ones who are the fastest stitchers.  But I hate being tied down to a stand, scroll rods or whatever.  In hand stitching gives me the freedom I love.  Which is a good thing -- if I used things like scroll rods or stands, I'd be wanting all the cool ones with the pretty woods!  lol!

A while back I gave Sherry a chart she'd been searching for.  Imagine my surprise when an envelope came in the mail with a lovely card containing this.

(Sorry -- the streak of sunlight was supposed to be artsy but now you can't see the top pins very well.)   Such beautiful pins for my collection, on a nice red piece of fabric!  Thank you so much Sherry, for such a wonderful surprise!

In other news, the girl child is more than halfway through her first week of the second semester now.  She went back to college on Sunday -- and immediately emailed saying she needed money.  lol!  Our fault for not realizing that of course with the new semester starting, she would need money for her textbooks.  The boy child is through with his midterm exams and is now finishing up the first week of his second semester at high school.  Tomorrow is that mysterious entity known as Superintendent's Conference Day, so no school and a three day weekend.  The poor teachers have to go in though.  There's another SCD the weekend of his birthday -- that one seems to be a permanent fixture since it's occurred on his birthday weekend for the past few years.  But this one was a surprise from the blue.  Good thing it's on the calendar -- I had to check online several times and ask the boy child if he really had the day off tomorrow or if I'd written it in on the calendar by accident!  

So who's excited about market?  :D  Meeeeeee!   Kathy  of Carriage House Samplings has started showing peeks of her Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow on her blog.   I'm impatiently waiting to see any sneak peeks from Barb and Alma on their Blackbird Designs blog.   (Pretty please, Alma?)   Lisa of Primitive Needle has shown a few sneak peeks on her blog as well.   As has Paulette of Plum Street Samplers.  And Ellen of With My Needle.   Etc etc etc.  Oh I'm going crazy already!   I'd better stop talking before I plotz!

Enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend!  Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!