Wohooo - Here She Is!

Here she is - Anne Maria Clarke-Richmond reproduced by Essamplaire:

To stay as close to the charted piece as possible while still adding my information, I used additional "invisible stitches".  I used the cream floss to sign my full name in the lower left corner and the finishing date in the lower right corner (this morning at 00.30...) - all over one.  If you don't know that it is there, you will probably not spot it find it unless you exacarefully, so I am pleased!  Here is a close-up of the date (I had to bend the linen so that the shadow of the stitches indicates where they are):

I really got pretty excited when I recalled that the Ann Rayner sampler (Threads Through Time) uses the same type of alphabet.  Ann stitched the entire alphabet in her sampler, so I could just pick the capitals from her chart.  (This is another beauty in line to get stitched.  Where can I buy more time!?)

As usual, the real drama started once I decided to iron the sampler...  Oh, I am not a fan!  Not at all!!!  First I freaked out because it looked like the iron burned the linen.  It didn't, the linen just has darker streaks in it.  Then I discovered a couple of unidentifiable smudges that I (knowing that it was a stupid idea as I did it) decided to attack with a Tide-to-Go pen (yep, I hear the stitching-community's collective gasp from all over the World...).  Needless to say, now I have two paler spots in the linen.  One of them will disappear in the case I decide to frame her, the other...  well, I am not real sure why, but I don't really care.  I guess that I am a real odd-ball of a stitcher.  As soon as the work is finished, I am just not that intrigued or careful any more. 

And that is good news, or I would have to set up a serious talk with the parrots (in the basement).  This is a Drawn Thread design (Real Roses) that I adapted to be more personalized.   I switched the lady holding the hands of two children to DH, our - at the time - 5 (only!) parrots, and myself), composed a new verse and added all of our initials, bird and man alike.  I also decided to experiment with fancy edgings and I did have a ton of fun stitching it. 

This is what I discover today:  first off, edges are folded - I know that DH has mentioned that he has seen some of the parrot baby hang form it.  Sigh...  Then this; someones beak or claw has pulled out my right eye and pulled a strand out of the pain-in-the-neck long-arm cross-stitch border.  I am sure that I'll find some more "added personalization" to this piece as I start to patch it back up.  I love the parrots, but sometimes I tell DH that we need second house for him and the birds!!!  You don't blame me, I'm sure...

Hmmm, maybe the bird babies are hinting that they are not pleased to see that their monograms are missing, poor neglected creatures!

On to happier things - I bought myself some happiness on Ebay last week.  I go a very cheap Queen of Freedom by Mirabilia (I am thinking about linen color...), a OOP totally fantastic bell-pull designed by Mads Stage for Clara Waever back in the days (1960-70 probably), and a kit published by the Swedish Home-craft Society (hard to translate..).

Since I have problems with discipline when it comes to stitching (and since I apparently don't have a problem lying to DH in regards to stitch related issues), I did start on the Swedish kit right after my ironing adventure.
The text translates "Craft Concerns Everyone".  Pretty cute, huh!?

Yeah, about lying to my DH.  He made me promise (we even shook on it) that I would get my very-close-to-getting'er-done Peacock Tapestry back out.  I know that I really should, but I also really rather not...  PT, inconveniently enough, is the only stitched piece that DH has ever been interested in.  I did guilt him into asking to see the finished Richmond sampler earlier today, but that request was more placed out of politeness and keeping peace than out of any real interest, I suspect.  Oh well, I'll marry a stitcher next time around - but he has to have a bigger stash that I do and preferable all the hard-to-find OOP charts!

Did you note that today's post was thrown out on the net earlier than usual, by the way?  That is thanks to one of mu "guild moms" (yes, Missy R, I am referring to you!!!).  She brought her laptop to the latest stitch-in to show everyone the blogs that some of us enjoy fiddling with.  Missy R specifically asked me "what are you doing posting at 2 in the morning!?".  She is right (I am hanging my head), so I will try to change my blog-in-the-middle-of-the-early-morning habits and be better about my beauty sleep.

Oh, and a final call out: Thanks a million times to Mr L-Bug for driving over to Mrs L-Bug's work to drop of her "really important to have a closer look at scissors fob".  I had asked her if she wouldn't mind bringing it with her to the stitch-in so that I could have a look at it and take some pictures.  Mrs L-Bug reenacted the conversation that the L-Bugs had over the phone while he was trying to figure out what in the world she was trying to get him to find, and it was rather funny.  I think that it ended something like this:  

Mr L "Are you talking about this pile of crap here on the table" 

Mrs L "Yes, that's it!"

Gotta' love the guys - don't they know treasure when they see it!?  And I also love her rather resigned response...

Anyway, Mrs L-Bug  pulls out the fob, informing me about the morning's adventures in regards to arranging the transaction, when I realize that I left my camera at home!  Ooops...  I totally forgot that L-Bug is also a real shutter bug, so she pulls a compact camera out of her purse, we take the pics and she e-mailed them to me later that weekend.  So, I'd like to send a big thank you to Mrs L-Bug too!!!  

Without further due, here it is.  Isn't this just adorable?  We have decided that it shouldn't be that hard to make our very own home-made ones, so that is shaping up for another "fun & quick craft" session to look forward to!

Well, time for bed.  I promised Missy R...    Plus  Blogger or Mozilla or something else equally mystical seems a tad crabby tonight, so I'd better stop before one of us ends up crying...

Take care, have a great mid-week, and don't forget to stitch!



Founders Day with Craft Booths

Hi all!  I am very content tonight.  I decided to take a vacation day tomorrow, so my weekend has already begun.  It won't be a sit-down-on-the-couch-and-stitch-all-day thing though; no, I have to prep the house for guests that may end up here for a BBQ on Saturday.  We are just hosting the cook-out in our back yard and it's not supposed to be a big affair.  However, I have a feeling that it would be terribly rude to deny the privilege of using the in-door facilities to the guests while they are here.  In other words, tomorrow is bird-cage cleaning day, including bathroom wipe-down, living-room vacuuming and maybe even window cleaning....  Exciting, huh!? 
Plus, I really should do some good weeding out in the yard too - the never ending rain is not making my magnolia trees any happier, but those weeds are living the high life right now!
Oh, and I have been yearning to make this wreath that I found a tutorial for a while back while I know that the vast majority of my indoor plans are yearning for a re-potting session....

I may sleep in tomorrow too.  I am a night-person and, even thought I keep telling myself to grow up and start improving my bed-time habits, I can't seem to get to bed in a decent hour.  Since I also have to get into work in the mornings, my beauty tends to get shortened a lot.  Yesterday, I sat up and looked at stitched pieces designed by Mary Beale until early morning.  That lady sure can design!  I love her things and I am not normally particularly into Victorian style decor.  Have you ever run across one of her "Pocketbook Needlework" collections?  They are simply adorable!  What is interesting is that no color photos follow the charts, so many times you will simply have to take a chance.  So far, I don't think that I have seen anything that I have not liked by her, though.  Here are links to her blog and her shop, if you have not already checked them out.

Well, enough of the random babbling.  I wanted to show you photos from the Founder's Day event last Saturday.  It was a lot of fun!  The crafters and vendors were asked to show up at 9 o'clock which was one hour before the event opened to the public.  I thought that "Oh well, I'd just sit there and twiddle my thumbs for a while, since it will never take ma a full hour to set everything up".  Guess what!?  It took me every minute of that hour to get everything in order!
The opening ceremony was grandiose, with a procession of bagpipers marching in to "Scotland the Brave".  They played a few additional songs (among them Amazing Grace, which is one of the most beautiful hymns, don't you think?) and three US soldiers lead the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Note that we finally had a break from the rain....

 

This is one of the springs that this little part is built around.  It is so peaceful.

Musicians were taking turns to entertain the visitors the entire day.  Since I was indoors, I didn't get to hear a lot, but I did manage to sneak out to take this photo of a couple playing the dulcimer.  Note the man in the period dress sitting down to listen.

The majority of the crafters that were demonstrating craft and showing finished pieces were indoors.  We had ladies from the local quilt guild, a couple of ladies spinning and weaving (the lady below actually works in out LNS, so it was really cool to meet her here - I had no idea that she spun and wove, in addition to embroider, knit and crochet!), the Daughters of the American revolution who displayed and showed how to play with pioneer toys, a vendor selling real antique helmets and guns, a couple that were displaying their taxidermy art, and I.

The taxidermy art was really beautiful  - guess that I liked it so much because it was birds.  I know that I am supposed to find it creepy, but I just didn't.  The swan was just fabulous.  One of the strollers-through told me that this guy is quite famous in the Middle-East and gets picked up on private jets to work his magic on all kinds of exotic animals.

My home was in the very back corner, but run up through the crowd and grabbed another crafter to take a photo of me posing with these gentlemen.  Is this not cool!? 

 The solider on the right told me that the only difference between the summer and the winter uniform was that you let down the edge flap on your coat on the winter.  He also informed me that the coat was made from wool and that it was always fitted very snuggly to its owner.  That way, he told me, you did not have an insulating layer between the coat and the body so "you froze in the winters and boiled in the summers".  Those were the days!
As you can see from below, all my Michael's acquired display boxes worked out real well.  Can you believe that I stuffed all the stitched pieces in 1 single duffel bag (not even a real big one)?  Sorry about the mass of photos, but since the majority of these projects are pre-2011 finishes, I have not shared them with you before, so I figured that this is a good of a time as any.  (I'll bring a table-cloth next time, btw, promise!)

Having a great time!

So, this is where I sat and stitched for about 6 hrs straight. Pink came by to say hi, a number of Scandinavian friends popped over as well, and DH was sweet enough to drive over to give me a lunch break.  I got plenty stitched on the Richmond sampler, so I was really pleased!
The people that strolled by did not really stay for long or say a whole lot.  Most of the comments were either compliments from people who are stitchers themselves (very, very few as you can probably imagine and most of them sighed and said that they "used to stitch before my eye sight got too bad..."), or visitors that mentioned things like "my mother used to do needle-point too".  Nowadays, I don't even correct them with the "counted needle-work vs needle-point blurb", since I have learned that most people really don't want to listen or learn anyway.  I guess it's more of a "been there, done that" or "I already know this stuff"-type of statement than anything else, if that makes sense?
A couple of men did actually take the time to look through everything and told me that "you do beautiful work", which was fun and not something that I have ever heard any person of the opposing gender say to me before.  Except maybe my dad.  DH - forget in a dream (sounds better in Swedish, right Littlest Sis?)!  Oh, and I forgot, one lady stopped by only to, quite snootily, point out that I had misspelled my sign (sigh).  Soooo.... the day progressed very calmly.
In the middle of this slow and relaxing day, the event main coordinator swung by all the tables and handed over envelopes.  I almost fell off my chair when I opened it and discovered a $150 check!!!  I thanked him so much and let him know that the check was absolutely not necessary.  He responded by telling me that it was not much and that the the men wearing the period uniforms probably carry around about $2,000-3,000, so he meant that his group was more than happy to support us.  I did not dare to calculate the value of the content in my packed duffel bag....  (but I do have a feeling that it is more than a period costume.  Much more...)
DH laughed and said that I am now officially a professional stitcher, when i told him about the check!  :-)

So, after telling you about my grand Richmond progress, I guess that I owe you a photo, right?  Coming right up!

The baskets are done and the text is about half-way complete.  Now I just have to get to the sun-flowers in and the border queen-stitched and she is done!  Plus, I am trying to figure out where to add my monogram and date. Probably in the lower right-hand corner, in a pale color that won't show unless carefully viewed.  I am thinking that I may actually have her professionally framed.  That would be my very first one!
If you would like to read more about the history and the lady behind this sampler, hurry over and cheek out Valerie's blog, A Shenandoah Sampler!  She wrote a really nice post about her visit with the Anne Maria Clarke Richmond sampler a few days ago!  Very interesting, very nicely written and with lovely photos to look at.  Simply a wonderful experience to get a piece of.

Other than that, not a whole lot to write home about....  Pink came over for out Wednesday Stitch-In.  This is our new, officially "real" thing and it is working great!  Socializing, coffee, leaving the house, and stitching - can't get a whole lot better in my book.  Of course, Henny always gets a bit disappointed when we leave.  She is pretty much 100% certain that Pink comes over solely to visit her, so she is glued to Pink's shoulder over the entire visit.  Located proudly on Pinks shoulder, Henny contentedly bobs, struts and makes very high-pitched and shrill comments about life'n other important things.
Here is a pic of "The Green Chicks" having a grand time together (it does look like they are up to no good, doesn't it?).

Well, guess what - I don't have to go to bed, so I am not even saying good night today!!!  I think that I will pull Anne Maria back out and get some more over one text stitched up.  Life is pretty great!
Good night and have a wonderful holiday!
Happy Stitching,

Stitching and Opera

Good Morning!  Here is finally a stitching update, as promised! 

I am starting to get pretty comfortably convinced that I will actually finish this sampler!  I still have some invisible stitching left to do - all the grout between the bricks needs to be stitched in, of course using the color that looks pretty much exactly the same as the linen color.  I also have to fill in the outlined sunflower and add one more.  I am still lacking the two men riding on the horses and Anne Maria's text is missing from top.  After that, all I have to do is "fill in the colors".  As may be visible in the photo below, I have finally started on the queen stitches. 

I took the step and begun by filling in three of the baskets - the ones resting against the bottom border - this weekend.  I would estimate that one basket takes about 1 hr to complete, so give me 9 more hours and all the baskets will be in!  ;-)  There is not telling how many more hours the border will take....  I am having a lot of fun with this project still, so I am delighted about that and not really in a hurry!

Other stitching updates!  When I told you that I wasn't "really in a hurry" 2 seconds ago, guess what - I lied!  I am in a hurry!  I have a few things that I really would like to finish quickly, because they are to be gifts for very important occasions and people in my life.
The first one is a birth sampler.  My Little Sister is having her second child any day now.  She is doing great - she has been on sick-leave to avoid an early birth.  She is a high-risk case and we are so happy that she lasted over the magical 36 week mark this time.  As a stitcher you start to think about which birth sampler to stitch, right!?   So, this gets so much trickier when the parents-to-be-again refuses to find out if the child is a boy or a girl.  Last time, I stitched a really large sampler that took a lot of energy to stitch thanks to a very bad chart job and the fact that the design is Assisi work (which is a style I love BTW).  Not only were the symbols minute, but the chart designer opted to eliminate the thicker grid-lines that mark every tenth square... bah!  Well, after a lot of sweating, it turned out all right, if I may say so myself:

My thought was that this may be a sampler that the grown-up child may actually hang on her wall, since I don't see it happening while she still is a child....  No offense to the parents; some people are simply not into stitched pieces or hanging stuff on their walls period.  Well, needless to say, I would like for the new baby's sampler to be of equal "stitch-time value", comparable size, etc.  I'd rather not re-stitch the same design, as can probably be understood.  I have finally made up my mind - it will be a Prairie Schooler from Wedding and Birth Samplers II - look here, the one with the birds (of course):

The photo was borrowed from Be Happy's blog!  Ok, so it may be quite a bit smaller, but I like it, it looks like a fun and quick stitch, it is definitely a unisex design, the extra colors is a bonus and makes the finished work look "more complex", and it has birds so there is not going to be any doubts that it is from me!
Here is a picture of the runner up - I stitched this one for a coworker's daughter a few years back:

I am thinking that maybe it is a tad too girlie for a boy?  By the way, the new mother actually cried when she opened the package with this sampler!  That is a reaction that I have never whitnessed before or after since.  What about you guys - any stories to share in that department?  (Reminds me of a comment that P.Snickety gave me after a cross-stitch show-and-tell at work a few months back: "oh, did you do that yesterday?"  She laughs about that now, after she started stitching herself....)
Before I stop on the birth sampler theme, let me just say that suggestions and comments would be much appreciated!  Nothing is set in stone yet - I have not bought any linen, floss, or beads, so if you have an idea, please, please, please feel very warmly welcome to share; the train has not left the station and there may be other trips to take that are even better!

Other great news:  Just Nan's Birdcage is coming along quickly -  half a bird more and the outside of the folder is complete.  We have also recruited a new member; The Boss.  She is really interesting to talk with, very smart, and really generous with sharing her experiences from the perspective of a lady who has been with our engineering company for close to 25 years!  She was very happy to join us for our lunch stitching sessions and it is wonderful that the group keeps growing.  She is stitching on a really long book-mark for her daughter and she is making quick progress.

Another fun thing - I won a charm pack from Fig Tree Designs during the Moda Pillow Talk.  P.Snickety and The Barbarian were not impressed at all, since they didn't really see the use of the 5" by 5" charm squares.  Me, I am thrilled to win something - period!!!   I knew that there was no chance that I'd win based on pure luck - that is just not how I roll (hah -  get the joke!?!?), so already going into it, my strategy was to rely on hard work.  Fig Tree's owner Joanna Figueroa had 4 different ways to win something from her Pillow Talk post, one of which was to get at least 5 fabric line guesses right from either the buttons or the strips that she used to make this pillow (picture taken from Joanna's blog):

She posted the correct answer today - 10 collections were used for the 13 creme strips used (these were the ones that I tried to get right).
Let me tell you, my eyes were pretty much bleeding by the end of the 2 hr session spent on looking at the teensy photo and all the fabric collections that Joanna has released through Moda (19!!!).  I got the congratulation-send-me-your-address e-mail from her yesterday!  She picked out 40 charm-pack winners - out of a total of 1,503 comments...  Can you imagine the time it must have taken to go through them all!?  So, how did I do? - I got all of them right except from one.....  I tell you - this puzzle made the Superbowl fly by...  :-D

Well, before I go to bed, I have to share some great music with you.  I have always loved powerful & charismatic singers.  Theatrical is not a problem for me either.  I loved Whitney Hueston,  Mariah Carey has some pipes on her, I am always impressed with Celine Dion, and my absolute top-dream would be to be a fabulous and celebrated opera singer.  A dream that I have been told that my father's mother had too.  Unfortunately, she was told that "one artist in the family is enough" (my grandmother's older sister was a very talented painter).  Anyway, the opera dream is not a joke!  I would pick opera over being a successful cross-stitch designer (or engineer) any day!  One of the songs I used to "practice", while running between classes, in the awesome acoustics that the stairwells offered in my high school was this aria, "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" ("Hell's revenge boils in my heart"), which is the Queen of the Night's furious demand that her daughter kill the Queen's enemy (there is a long dialogue in German first - try to see if you get what they are speaking about.  I speak some German, but not well enough to grasp the details...):

 

This is the best interpretation I have found on YouTube - she is not hastening the tempo during the hard-to-sing (and very high) stacatto parts.  She is also making sure that each tone can be heard in the very advanced running passages towards the end.  Beautiful!!!

So, I know that many people (at least where I come from) wrinkle their nose at the mix between opera and pop music, even though I get the impression that The Three Tenors made it more acceptable to make opera more accessible to the everyday music lover....   So, tonight after I listened to about 10 interpretations of the Queen of the Night's aria, I continued by listening to the pop song La Voix with Swedish mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman - repeatedly.  She is only 2 years older than I am....  sigh!  I could have skipped the engineering path and done something with my life!  (Yes, I am slightly bitter... ;-))

If you are a Swede and reading this, I bet that you have heard this song so many times that you can't stand it any longer, but I just found this on YouTube today and I love it more and more.  I kinda' wish that DH would go to work already, so that I can sneak down to the basement to "practice"....  ;-)

 

Plus, her make-up team are welcome to move into my guest bedroom any day - they can pay me in prep time before work...  The eyeliner won't be necessary, but the skin - wow!

No stitching or blogging tomorrow!  I have to finish the two designs that were chosen to be printed on shirts for the hash group!  I am excited, but I'd better get them done before I celebrate too much

So with this, I am bidding you adieu - you have to imagine me singing it to you!
Happy Stitching and Singing!!!!

Quick Update - Invisible Stitching...

Well, I am being a bad girl and staying up way past my bedtime.  Again.  I just have to write a quick note before bed!
I have been busy doing stuff other than stitching the last couple of days.  One of my co-hashers and I have been discussing T-shirt designs for our next set of shirts.  I like drawing, even though I am not skilled in any way - it looks so much better in my head than on the paper... :-(
Anyway, I have pumped out 4 designs in 2 evenings, which is not too shabby, right?  You can check'em out in this pic:

We'll see what the verdict is later this week.  I may have gotten these done too late in the game, but we may be able to use one of them in the years to come.  When I showed DH, the comment was "it's for the hash, so they don't have to be perfect..".  Hmmm, translation is probably something like "not too great, honey, but at least you tried...".  It's been fun drawing,  but I really do get stitching withdrawal and end up being a tad cranky.  Anyone else notice this type of reaction to events interfering with stitch time?
He is on my list of people I adore today though - I actually squealed when I got home and walked into the kitchen, since he had left some Valentines Day surprises on the kitchen table for me.  Best of all was a tiny pot of baby crocuses.  I can't wait to see what color they turn out to be.  Wait, I lied - best of all was the waist high pile of freshly washed and dried laundry that was magically folded away before I got home from work.  THAT is my kind of Valentine!

I did get a bunch of stitching on Saturday and Sunday, but unfortunately most of it is invisible!  :-b  If you click on the photo you may be able to see the fruits in the vine resting against the right side of the house.  It is not real motivating to stitch for hours on something that does not show up at the end of the day (over-one at that).  At least I am done with the white on white stitching on this piece.  The left side vine is also completed and I got in all the colorful blue doves flapping around the house.  The motives that are left to get down are the two riders and the tiny black dog galloping across the yard.  I am NOT looking forward to figuring out where all the over-one stitches are to be placed....

 

Oh, and here is the last photo - I never showed off the finished 7th DT SAL part.  I got in the silk I ran out of last week and whipped out the last stitches.  I am really pleased with this project.  I was pretty unimpressed and unmotivated during parts 4-5, but now I am back to being happy both with stitching it and with how it looks. 

Before I get ready for bed, a piece of sad news.  Poor Hogsie passed away Friday night.  He seemed a little bit tired the last few days, but he kept running in his wheel and eating and drinking, so I did just not understand that he was sick.  I have now learned the hard way that it is really tricky to keep track of the health of a nocturnal pet.  He was generally not up when the rest of us were out of bed.  I think that it got too cold and he started to go into hibernation mode, but pet hedgehogs should not do that because it can be mortal.  When I checked on him before going to bed, I found him cold, damp and fatigued.  I fell dozed on and off with him on my chest and folded a rice warmer around him to get him to warm back up.  He seemed to be doing better, but I fell asleep and when I woke back up he had passed away.  Poor, poor little guy.  He is buried in our backyard now, so we can visit him whenever we want to, but I will still miss him. 

I have hugged and kissed all the birds a little bit extra today.  I am very glad to have them!
Well, off to bed with me!  I am awful about responding to your comments and e-mails right now, but I will do better this week!  Last week was a whirl wind, but now I should be able to get back to what's important...  ;-)
Good night and talk with you in a bit,

A Quick Update on a Slow Project...

Wow!  Work is pretty overwhelming right now, so blogging and e-mailing has been suffering lately.  I just about threw my computer out the window this morning at the office, when I lost two Excel workbooks full of data and analysis work due to Excel compatibility issues...  The most annoying part was that the work I lost took 3-4 hrs to generate - on my Sunday evening!  Nope, I was NOT a happy camper.  What did I learn from this?  Never, ever bring your computer home over the weekend - it is better to just stitch!  :-(

Anyway, I realized that if I don't post before bed tonight, chanses are that it won't happen for a few days, so here we go!  I am slowly stitching along on the Richmond sampler and here is the update:

It probably doesn't look like much, but right now I am stitching a lot of whites - see that bird inside the bird-cage hanging on the right side of the house?  Yep, that now contains a white over-one bird, which is hard to spot even in real life, even with the linen about 2 inches from my nose....  The over-one directions are still making me frustrated (main chart, sampler photo & detail graphs have not-so-many-things in common....), so I mix it up with "filling" sections - see that hill that the house stands on?  That will be completely green one day.  I also have to fill in the white grout between all the bricks, so that too is a good amount of no-brain work....   

There are a few sections of over-ones that probably won't be an issue - both vines next to the house need fruit, there is a little branch in the lower right corner right at the border that needs some blue berries, and the verse over the scene is stitched completely over-one.  There are also two absolutely glorious sun-flowers that are missing form the right hand urn - those will be a lot of fun to plant, I think!  Oh, and click on the photo to check out the three violas in that same urn.  How cute are those!?

The windows would have been complete, but I ran out of the dusty green color, so that will hopefully make itself over here in the mail soon.  Next session, I will probably devote to finish the birds.  I think that there are about 6-7 more to go and then the flocks are complete.  

Did I tell you that all the basket will be filled with queen stitches, by the way?  Oh, and the entire border will get filled with two rows of queen stitches too!  I think that I will have a lot of fun with that, since I actually enjoy queen stitches!  I love the texture and if you use the sewing method, queen stitches do actually whip up pretty quickly and neatly.

Before I log off, I also want to thank all of you for your sweet comments in regards to the Silly Spring pin-cushion in my last post.  Thanks, I really appreciate them!  I am still a bit torn about this one, but it is standing on the mantle in the living-room, so maybe I will get happier about it in a few days?

Henny hasn't even looked at it twice since we got it done, so I assume that she wasn't exactly overjoyed either... ;-)  (However, I noticed earlier this evening that a very long, very sharp, and very thin beading needle went missing from my TUSAL pin-cushion top.  I know exactly who flew off with that one.  Wonder where she dropped it?  I  have a feeling that DH will find it with his feet - he usually does.  I am already ashamed...)

Speaking of DH - he almost threw a complete fit this weekend when I did not let him use my needlework scissors to open a plastic pack with.  He thought that it was outrageous that I told him to get the paper scissors from the kitchen (3 steps away) , instead of tossing him the scissors I was using.  (Doesn't make it better that the pack in question contained parts needed to fix the flushing mechanism for the toilet....)  Does anyone else have to guard their needlework tools with their life around here?  Just wondering...  I guess some people just don't get it.  Sigh!

Well, time to hop into bed.  Hopfully I'll dream about filling in a lawn with green grass and not about disappearing  data...

Good Night and Sweet Dreams about Stitching to All!

S is for SAL

I hope that everyone had a really nice weekend.  I slept for hours, snuggled with parrots, dragged a very reluctant DH out for a walk in the winter landscape, and stitched like obsessed on the Richmond sampler.

The Richmond sampler is an interesting stitching experience..  I love the sampler, the motifs, the colors, the feel of the silk on the stitch covered areas.  I also love to see how all the silk lengths disappear from the thread holders while a sampler is born.  (Isn't that one of the wonders with stitching; you look at all the floss hanks and at the "blank" linen and you know that a picture will grow from it all.  Amazing, I think!)
The over-two ares stitch up fairly quickly and are a true joy to work on.  The over-ones - not so much.  I am way too detail fixated to be able to deal with charts, over-one diagrams and photos of the sampler that are not in agreement!  When I stitch a sampler, I want the sampler to look as it did on the photo or model on the cover.  That is what I fell for and that is why I got the sampler in the first place.  I also think that stitches out of order in an over-one section can really create problems.  So, to cut this story short, I have also done a great deal of ripping out over-one stitching that did not follow the detail photos.  It will all be worth it in the end, so it can take the time it needs.  Just need to be more careful with looking at the photo before I read the chart....
Here is a progress photo.  Sorry about the less than flat linen... I am an in-hand stitcher and this is how most my samplers look while in the process.

I also had a thought while stitching this sampler.  It has to do with the well-known video to Sledgehammer, the song by Peter Gabriel.  If you have never seen it before (my jaw dropped when I realized that both DH and P.Snickety at work are too young to remember seeing this classic!) hurry up and watch!  I remember that this was the coolest thing I had ever seen - it was truly the height of technology and art mixed together back in 1986!  I showed this video to both DH and P.Snickety and both of them looked at me and said "I don't get it!".  Sigh!!!  (For the more sensitive readers; excuse the female and male "cells" in the beginning of the video below - I don't remember seeing those on MTV, so that section was likely never shown on TV.)

 I got so obsessed that I even researched the song & video on the internet.  Plus I listened to Sledgehammer about 15 times in one evening - I don't think that I have listened to the same song over and over for ... .. well months!
Anyway, I thought that there were some really interesting things to learn about this video. :
-  This video was widely popular and influential, using claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song
-  Peter Gabriel was filmed under a glass table - it took 16 hrs to complete all the pictures of his face that were stitched together to make the video
-  Won nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987, a record which still stands as of 2010.
-  Ranked at number four on MTV's 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made (1999). MTV later announced that "Sledgehammer" is the most played music video in the history of the station.
-  The portion of the song featuring the synthesized flute solo was realized in the video by first one and then two oven-ready turkeys, headless and featherless, animated using stop-motion. These were animated by Nick Park (of Wallace and Gromit fame) who, at that time was refining his work in plasticine animation.  (I love Wallace and Gromit - have all the movies at home!!!)

So why am I writing about this?  Because, the thought struck me that it would be so cool to make a stop motion video of a sampler in the making!  Yes, I know that I am a nerd, but really - how cool would that be!?!?  :-D

Other than that, I have pulled myself together and decided that I cannot ignore my SALs any longer.  Tonight, I finally started on part 7 for the Drawn Thread Alphabet sampler, and I have the S section complete!  The T section is pretty large while the U part is itty-bitty.  The hardest part is to drag this piece back out of the stitching room and start stitching on it, but once that hurdle has been climbed, I enjoy most of the stitches - even though in today's section, the "square boss" stitch looks pretty much identical to a rice-stitch to me (both the finished stitch itself and the way to get there...).

After the DT SAL is completed for this time, I need to get to the Moss Creek piece.  It will be hard - I am already missing the Richmond sampler.  Sniffle.  We spent so much time together this weekend that I am going through withdrawal right now.  Not good.

I also pointed out a gorgeous sampler, that is new to me, for DH today.  He didn't really get the hint...  Even though he did do a double take when I told him the prices for the silks packs that Attic Needlework offer (the sampler was their "sampler of the month" back on Feb-2010).  The trick is to read the most expensive floss first and everything else sounds almost reasonable after that...  Anyway, here is a link to a beautiful version of the Ann Rayner sampler charted by Threads Through Time.  This link will take you to photos of the original sampler and some background information by Nancy Sturgeon of TTT.
Finally, I have been updating all my WIPs to the right, so that you don't think that I ran out of unfinished projects earlier this month.  Nope, there is an almost never ending well to scoop from...  The list to the right isn't even close to complete!
Happy stitching and talk with you in a bit,

-+=+- Retreat Report -+=+-

Oh, did we have fun at the retreat last weekend!  Let me tell you all about it!
Some of us arrived already on Thursday evening (Purple-Girl even came in on Wednesday).  The retreat was held out at beautiful Hueston Woods State Park, just north from Cincinnati.  Everything was snow-covered and we could see the huge lake from the hotel.  Geese, mallards, and ducks were all hanging out at the small openings in the ice far out there in the white landscape.
Once I had gotten in and stashed all the luggage away, I finally got to hit the stitch room and see all my peeps!  We were all pretty tired after the work week and many of us had traveled for a few hours to get to Hueston Woods.   Needless to say, we stitched our little hearts out anyway!  I stitched on a kit from Tomorrow's Antiques called An Acorn for Andrew.  I have stitched both the Pansy and the Strawberry kits in the past and it is pretty amazing how quickly they stitch up.  The neat thing is that only half crosses are used, so the stitched area gets covered in no time.  One of the ladies at the retread fell in love with the design, so I gave her the chart and the leftover beads to play with.  She is apparently as stubborn as I am, because she offered to give me money.  When I refused to accept, she promptly went to the stitchery store and bought me the sweetest, heart shaped magnetic needle-minder from Puffin Company!  Wow - stitchers are simply the most generous people in the world!

Speaking of the store - it was too much fun!  We could cut our own linen, admire models in the trunk shows, including Heartstring Samplery, Periwinkle Promises, Heart in Hand, and quite a few Jeanette Douglas.  The show that got the most attention was Erica Michael's silk gauze models.  They are absolutely gorgeous!  I have a feeling that most of us left the store with at least one EM chart each.  I chose to get Mending, which was pretty good, since I originally put 7 of them in the basket...  I also found a few charts in the "half price" bin and that was it!  I felt great - I finally have my stash collecting under control!
Until I accidentally stumbled into the store not one time more, but twice.  The first time I got some general accessories; stitcher's creme, a tape measure in form of a hen laying an egg, and a Puffin scissors minder to match my lovely gift.  The last time I just had to get the Remember Me sampler by Heartstring Samplery complete with a beautiful piece of linen.  I am so excited about this one!

We did no enhance our stash through shopping only.  A bunch of stitchers brought in used charts and freebies to give away.  I found a whole set of Homespun Elegance snowman freebies!  But best of all were the four kits that we got as surprises throughout the retreat weekend.  On Friday night we were treated to pizza, drinks and a really neat Valentines kit.  Such a cool idea; a very cute flower-pot that will hold a Valentines sign.  That will be so much fun to work on and I already have some thoughts about how to make this project my own!  On Saturday around dinner time we got a kit based on another neat idea - a medical test tube holder that will be converted into a floss holder.  I have some thoughts here too - I just can't help myself!  :-)  After out show-and-tell, we got yet another kit: a small saying that is to be inserted in an absolutely breath-taking box!  I am very, very excited about this one.  Finally on Sunday morning, right before we left, all of us were invited to stitch a tiny sign to be glued to the top of a glass jar.  I think that this will be a real cutie as well!

Well, did we get anything stitched?  You bet we did!  Thanks to the constant stitching (interrupted by a lot of laughter and socializing), I finished my Sailor's Huswif.  It pretty much took all of Friday - those apples took some real patience!  I also got the acorns done together with the flower basket that will end out being the inside of the huswife.  I am still undecided about stitching the pouch that the rolled up huswif is supposed to be stored in - there are a few elements that I am just not crazy about at all.  Oh, and the best about Friday was that I kept thinking that it was Saturday - it's like getting a bonus day over and over that way!  ;-)
On Saturday, I just had to concentrate on the Anne Maria Clarke sampler.  I am really enjoying stitching on this one right now.  I do find the chart a tad hard to read, but I will power through!  It is all worth it.  I finished the tree, the flower pot, and got started on the vine on the left hand of the (non-existing) house. 

The show-and-tell was good.  A lot of emotions for many stitchers.  I especially loved the lady who shared the sampler she stitched while going through her divorce.  She told us that she deliberately left every single mistake in the piece to show that it is all right to do mistakes.  I was very touched by this lesson.  Another stitcher caused quite a gasp when she showed us her completed Dutch Beauty.  It should probably be renamed to Dutch Big-A$$ Beauty - that piece looks like the better part of a bed sheet!  (I am kicking myself for not getting a pic of that!!!)

So what was greatest about the weekend?  Hanging out with "ma' peeps" - hands down!  Here they are in all their glory:

 Big-Dog and L-bug!

 Bunny^Hop

 Look what B^Hop finished!  The top to the Acorn Box Kit from Miladys Needle!

 Pickle showing that she knows that she has a problem... (or two  ;-))

 Sweetie & Snow-Angel

 Bzz*Bzz*Bee

 Froggie with Shepherd's Bush Retreat 2010 box sampler

 Sweetie with almost finished Fruit Samplings from Hillside Samplings

 L-Bug with new project from Heart's Content

 Santa with white-work sampler

Steeler and Big Dog - talking football!

 Froggie and Miss De-String

 L-Bug, Bzz*Bzz*Bee, Big Dog, Computer Whiz, and Bounty Hunter

Purple Grl

 Juicy Fruit looks pretty skeptical here....

 Arrrgh - I hate when that happens!

We don't give up!!!

Stitching is hard work...

 Tea time (I am at the right)

Ok peeps - I'm outta here!  Back to good ol' KY!!!  (Yet, I am aware that I look smug... can't help it!)

If you want to read more about this wonderful January break, please go and visit Bzz*Bzz*Bee's blog Everybody Loved Clark!

Once I got home, I was actually stitched out...  I got myself in gear and got the acorn stitched together tonight (posing here below with the other Tomorrow's Antiques fobs) and the plan for tomorrow is to get the final nail in the Townhouse coffin...  After that, I will really try to stick with my AMC sampler!

Take Care and Happy Stitching to all peeps out there!