Mmmm - Coffee and - Brrrr - the Fear of Math....

Oups -  I forgot to show you my new coffee mug that I whipped up the weekend before last.  It is one of those photo tumblers that allows the owner to insert a scrap booking type collage.  Well, many years ago, I saw some real pretty versions that had been made with cross-stitch designs in stead of photos (I believe that this was on a Japanese site, but I can't track it down).  I decided to simply take some coffee themed cotton fabric and personalize with some free-hand embroidery.  Here is the final result:

The "deer hoof print" in the last pic is supposed to be a coffee bean, by the way...
I thought that I was going to go nuts trying to insert the fabric into the very narrow tumbler slit though...  I did prep by using fusible interfacing to stiffen the fabric.  Then I basically had to pound my tumbler onto the ground until the piece had slid into position.  Then I cursed a bit and used tweezers to get the fabric back out, once I realized that a piece of scrap had wedged itself between the tumbler wall and the fabric.  The second insertion was no party either.
The result is not quite as cute as I had envisioned it to be, but hey - it's "unique", right!?  ;-)

I am not sure whether I have mentioned that I am lucky enough to get to take Sherri Jones (Patricks Woods) Lucet class in October through a lady that I know from the Queen City Sampler Guild.  We got our class-kits in the mail last week and I could simply not wait to started.

 This is a pre-stitch class, but we will likely not get a whole lot of assembly done in class, seeing that we have yards and yards of lucet cording to get done during class.
There are several really neat videos on-line at YouTube to check out, if you would like to see how to lucet.

I will likely take Sherris' Hare Pyns class too.  This will also be a assembly class, which will be very challenging.  The design is pretty large and it is almost solely over-one stitching.  I took the class back in 2007 and never even opened the kit after I got back home.  I figured that the finishing class may get me to pay some long overdue time with my dusty old kit...  Plus, I only have to pay the teaching fee this time around, so it should be friendly on the pocket book too.
Here is a photo of Hare Pyns - note the adorable hare ruler and floss holder:

 

I have also been working on the Birdcage from Just Nan and I am pretty much done.  Nan suggests adding a pink cord along the entire length of the edge, but I am not so sure that I will do that.  I have a couple of areas that still need worked on, but other than that, this cage is finished!
I changed a few things; the back had a saying, but I added my monogram (do you recognize Prairie Schooler's standard alphabet?) and an egg instead.  I switched the pink ribbon that the pockets were supposed to be made with to a lilac fabric, added tie-backs for the tools, and made some needle-book felt leaves to go with a flower pin that we got at the Shepherd's Bush retreat last year.  To make the whole piece more sturdy, I inserted cardboard pieces in both the the front and back.  Right now The Cage is displayed as a stand-up on the living-room mantle.  The colorful and silly design makes me very happy!  Plus, I hope that it will serve as a warning to our flocks o'parrots - be silly and you get the cage!  ;-)

 

 
Other than that, I have tried to be good and concentrate on the Richmond sampler. Half of the queen-stitch urns are now completed and it feels like I am on a roll, so I hope that I will be motivated enough to stick to this project until completed....  Here is a terrible close-up shot of one of the baskets and the wonderful queen-stitch border.  I'll do better next with the focus button time - promise!

This week is already shaping up to be insanely busy.  I have stuff going on each and every evening and I am starting to think that maybe I have not planned for things ahead in a very good way (as in "not at all")...  I have promised to participate in our town's "Founder's Day" on Saturday.  There will be a tent with a bunch of different crafters showing off our work.  It'll probably be a lot of fun, but I told myself that I would like to print up some poster slides talking about the history of stitching and I am not quite sure when my grand plans will be transformed into reality...  somewhere in a dimension where time does not move forwards, I guess.

Some of my prep-work was taken care of yesterday.  I paid a visit to Michaels to pick up some shadow boxes to display some of my finished projects in.  I happily show off my stitched pieces but - pardon for sounding snobby here for a moment - I'd rather not have 900 strangers fondling my pieces after squeezing hot-dogs and burgers... 
Well, as fate had it I was in luck; the shadow and display boxes were "buy one, get the second for a penny".  It ended up being a huge math struggle between the (very, very sweet, but tired and ready-to-go-home) cashier and myself.  Initially, I bought 3 boxes; 2 for $29.99 and a larger box for $59.99.  Just as I was on my way out of the store, it struck me that it was pretty idiotic on my behalf to not get a second large box for $59.98 off the original price, right?  I get back into the store, explain to the cashier that I would like to return the larger box for $59.99, and then buy 2 of them for $60.00 instead.  Yep - no problem at all - she totally sees my point.  So I kinda' bounce when the transaction is to be finished and she tells me that I owe $29.98.  Huh!?  We discuss back and forth and I even get all the way back to my car before I think "what the heck, I'd better straighten this out today, or there is not a chance that anyone will ever get this, if I even bother to get back to deal with this issue another day...".   So, I roll up my sleeves, march back in (nicely) and show the cashier all my receipts and even ask her if she has a pen and paper so that I can show her the math (yep, I am an engineer...).  At this point she gets so exhausted that she just randomly takes 2 items off completely.  I explain that now she is being waaaay too generous -  from over-charging me $30, I am now undercharged $70! - and her response is that "That is fine, I don't care"...  Sigh!  I guess that I should be happy that I got a "great deal", but I feel more frustrated that I didn't get to show her the math...  or am I being weird here???   Sometimes I get the feeling that a lot of people are so scared of math that they just turn off their brain in panic and don't even try.  I do the very same myself if I have to perform calculations under time pressure, but hey - you can always grab a pen, paper and a chair, sit down, take some time, and just figure it out!

Anyway, time to skip into bed!  Dream Sweet Dreams!

Oh, and Happy Stitching!

PS Check out the crazy Cuckoo clock we picked up in Sweden - I love it!

And how seriously cool & cute are these other modern takes on Cuckoo clocks?

We've Got Some Finishes! (nothing big though...)

A quick post before bed - it is barely past 10 PM and I can almost not keep my eyes open...  I think that the sharp twists in the weather leaves my body behind somehow (and may brain apparently even further away), so I am walking around in a daze most of the time right now.

Anyway, I did manage to finish up the small cross-stitch designs this weekend.  This is one of Homespun Elegance's annual Christmas ornaments kit from 1997 - picked up at E-bay for cheap!  It is always so much fun to translate the vision of how the finished ornament will look into reality (with varying results....).

Over that past couple of years, I have found myself drawn to kits more and more.  I am just too lazy to kit things up by myself nowadays!  ;-)

Here is the little scissors fob (by Prairie Moon).  Look in the progress picture how the blue bled like crazy during the ironing (with full steam) step.  Luckily, this is one of those "scrappy chic" designs, so I was actually pleased wit the result.  I was even a bit suspicious at my own reaction, since normally I tend to be bit of a perfectionist.  I guess that you just have to pick your battles, right? 
I did have a lot of fun figuring out how to finish the fob up.  I just made it up as I went along and I am pretty happy with the outcome of this experiment!  I even carried out the final assembly using my sewing machine.   The backing fabrics were taken from a charm pack of La Petite Ecole by French General - I just love their fabric collections!  The "bling" came with the chart pack.

 

Note the window film in the door.  I am absolutely addicted to bright and light environments.  No candle light dinners for me - I can't see what I eat which tends to make me in more of a crabby mood than a romantic such.  These films are great - no visibility from the outside, but all the light gets in.  Plus the films are static cling, so no adhesive goop to clean off the windows after removing the film, not to mention that you do get almost an unlimited number of "extra chances" to get it just right when setting it up (I did use a fair number of extra chances to get it straight and even).  Can't get any better in my book! 
I got two patterns, geraniums and orchids, when I was in Sweden a couple of years ago.  I wish that I had more wondows, because this baby would be installed next!  
Anyway, here is a somewhat better view:

If you are interested in picking up a roll to try it out for yourself, here is the link to the Geranium film at Scandinavian Design Center.  The design company is Strössel (which is Swedish and means sprinkles, the type that is used as toppings on ice cream and cakes) - here is their web-site.  Let me know what you think if you decide to try it out!

Speaking about geraniums, they are an absolute favorite flower of mine.  I just potted a tray on Sunday.  Love to pot plants; it takes no time compared to digging holes in the KY clay... 
Before:

 After:

 

The sweet ceramic bird-bath is a 2-piece deal.  The top part was broken no less than twice and is now beyond repair, so I picked up a big plant saucer from Homedepot and voila!  We are open for bathing season this year again!

Also, since we are talking geraniums, I just have to show this adorable embroidery design stitched up by my Godmother.  This is a table cloth in stamped embroidery from the Swedish company Fingerfärda, 

It is based on a Swedish story by Elsa Beskow; Sagan om den Lilla Lilla Gumman (The Tale of the Little, Little Old Woman).  Elsa Beskow was an Art Nouveau artist, which is a style I am very attracted to.  Here are a few examples of the illustrations to the story.  (Elsa was only 23 when she wrote and illustrated this childrens' book - can you believe it!?)

Well, what about The Birdcage?  It is coming along, slowly...   I was thrown off schedule once I realized that there were some details in the finishing that I just could not fall head over heels for.  Changes had to be done!   Anyway, I think that those birds in their cage will be wrapped up in one more evening or maybe two.  Until then, here is a teaser!

Oh, and finally; DH expressed some concern about not having any space in the kitchen to cut up his dinner pizza.  I don't understand what he is getting at....

 

Guess that it is time to pile things back up into neat stacks, huh!?  That should fool him for a few more days...  ;-)

Thanks so much for stopping by, take care and Happy Stitching!

Belly-flop!

Brrrr - it turned freezing as soon as I came back from Sweden.  From being in the 80s, I hear, we went down to below 32 in just a few days.
Spring did a belly-flop this weekend.  The ground was covered with a thin layer of snow on Sunday morning and the outdoor birds were complaining loudly and repeatedly about the lack of seed in the bird-feeders.  My hyacinths looked accusingly up at me - almost double-bent in the chilly air.  Even the daffodils looked less than amused.  The snow melted away pretty quickly though and the spring bubs stretched back out again.

Note the seriously impatient clematis and peony plants in the last garden pic below...  Boy, I thought that I had issues with patience..  ;-)

This last pic show "the big birds" haning out in my kitchen.  See the blue stuff on the right in the door-way?  That is a drape, hung there specifically to keep the little monsters out... they like to hang in the kitchen, isnce the sliding glass door makes this room so bright and since there is a hot air vent right below them.  They are so cute that it is hard to get really mad.  And they know it!  Oh, and yes, my ironing and sewing machine stations are placed smack on the kitchen table....  I guess that I ought to feel bad about that...  :-(

Well, what better excuse to stay in and stitch than freezing weather?  I got time to stitch up a storm this weekend!  I started off on Friday evening with finishing up as much as I can on the PS Birth Sampler.  Now the baby boy needs his full name to be decided and we are ready to get this sampler on the road!

Saturday got interrupted with taking care of the fuzz-balls.  I was left as the single parrot parent on Saturday, since DH had to work (I keep forgetting - I think that I am married, but I am not sure if we actually live together anymore...)  and to be nice to him and the birds I had fun leaning over the bath-tub for a couple of hours.  I have probably mentioned it in the past - 6 large bird cages take time to clean...
Anyway, it's definitely worth it - as you can see below, Rocky and Hugin are quite pleased.  Rocky is munching away on a large chunk of apple.  I remember that I thought that it was absolutely fascinating the first time I saw a bird eat like this! 

Rocky and Hugin have had 19 babies together and they are out only mating couple (thank goodness!!!).  Rocky (Rock) is the female and is quite a little overachiever, laying up to 10 eggs per clutch.  There is not a chance in the world that she can sit on all 10, so generally about 4 of the eggs hatch.  That keeps mom and dad quite busy as it is...  The first time Rocky sat on her eggs, she was so devoted that she refused to come out of her nest-box to eat.  Hugin  did actually have to go in to the box, chase her out and guard the entrance until she had eaten some food and drunk a bit of water.  She was really skinny when the eggs finally hatched and I am sure that she would not have survived without him taking care of her.
After the babies hatch, she is generally not too interested in family time anymore.  See, she loves DH and probably wishes that she could have married him instead of Hugin.  She does not even bother trying to keep it a secret.  :-)  She will sit and kiss DH on the forehead and tell him "Hi baby!" for hours.  Luckily neither Hugin nor I are the jealous type! 
Hugin is a great dad!  It is pretty cool to see how birds are taught how to fly in your own living-room.  He will line up all the babies beside him on the top of a cage, look them all over to make sure that he has the undivided attention of all babies and then he will fly over to another cage or object close to where he started from.  Then he turns around and all the babies fly after, one by one.  Then he makes sure that they are all lined up, paying attention, and it is off back to the point of origin.  It is quite a sight and he has the patience of a saint.  And I must say that the concentration and discipline of the babies are simply awesome!

Well, after bathing birdcages for a while, I thought that it would only be logical to finish up the final stitches on Just Nan's "Birdcage"/  I had some beading, back-stitch and charting to do, so I opted to do that at home instead of at work.  I switched out the text on the outside back for my initials and a large egg.  I like the egg, but I am not certain about the letters just yet.  (They are taken from the PS Birth Sampler book btw.)  After that, I read that finishing instructions about three times and fell asleep...  Snore!

I did also finish up a small stitch for Littelest Sister.  I always used to call her my little piglet, since she is very blond, has a beautiful rosy complexion and has the cutest little button nose (oh, how I wish that I had gotten that nose...)!  I think that it is only fitting that I could be called a chicken, so this design is  dedicated to her as a symbol of the two of us.  If you surf the on-line stitch stores as often as I am, you probably know that this little square is only the part of this design.  I am sorry that I can't show all of it to you, but LS, "Herr Slusk", follows my blog regularly.  I promise to show you as soon as I have handed it over to her.

I was a tad tired on Sunday, but managed to start on a brand new kit; the LH 1818 Quaker Pocket, which is an old kit from The Goode Huswife.  This was the very first kit that I bough by contacting the desiner directly.  I got two kits - one to sticth for my Mom and one for me.  I have been thinking that I'd better stitch on these ni parallel, or I have a feeling that only one will be done...  Supposedly, the pre-finished pockets that came with these kits werer accidentally made with the wrong count linen, so I feel a bit like I am living on the edge...  It will be very pretty when it is done and I think that it will stitch up a lot quicker than I originally thought.

So, since I can't stick to just one new beginning, I started on yet another kit tonight.  I have the opportunity to take the Hare Pyns finishing class with Sherri Jones of Patrick's Woods through the QCSG in October.  I took this class at CON back in 2007 and never even opened the kit.  I even missed the class!  I do have a good excuse; I took Forget-Me-Nots-in-Stitches "A Victorian Melon Bag" that year too and the classes were scheduled during the same time slot.  Well, Sherri's class was jam packed and there were only three students in Lauren Sauer's  class, so it was an easy pick of which class-room to sit in!  I think that Lauren is the sweetest person, by the way!  Oh, and Sherri is also a lovely lady.

Anyway, I have told myself that I am not registring for the finishing class unless the stitching is done.  Basta!  It is a lovely design, but the vast majority of the stitching is over-one I think, so nothing that I will whip up over a weekend...  ;-)  Here is the beginning of the needle book.  Herringbone stitch and over-one..... 

Before I say Good Night, I guess I'd better post a picture of the Melon Bag!  It was a fun prooject and the first one that I ran amok and redesigned a big part to be more personal.  I will have to go back and change out all the rings that the drawstring goes through.  The keep snagging the string and it drives me batty!!!!
The secon pic shows my monogram - that was the panel that I redesigned.

So, Good Night all friends - talk with you soon!

A Quick Tweet Before Bed

Hello everybody!
Before I share any stitching, I wanted to thank all of you for leaving comments for me.  Thanks especially for the kind words in regards to the loss of Hogsie.  I do miss him a bit.

I also got a really neat comment back from Joysze in regards to the expression "it's raining cats and dogs" and being a Swede.  She writes: "Raining cats and dogs, yup... I say that too. It's to do with the olden days where cats and dogs would rest on the thatched roofs and when the rain was really heavy, the roofs would give way and down would come the cats and dogs. "  How cool is that!  I had no idea that this is the historical background to this saying, but it totally makes sense!  (Joysze is from Malaysia btw, not Sweden, but still....) 
Beth commented that she also uses this phrase and she is half-Swedish!  Hey Beth - who did you pick up the phrase from, your Swedish parent or your American parent?  Curious minds are dying to find out!  :-) 


Since I have been pretty boring on the stitch-front lately - lots of invisible stitching and slower than sloooow over-one sections - I thought that I'd show you my lunch project.  We, that is P.Snickety, Hip-Hip and myself, have actually been really good at keeping up our lunch-time stitching this week!  I think that we probably had 4 stitching sessions.  We even scouted out the locations of the conference rooms that can be locked from the inside, so that we can stitch in peace.  All of us are coming along nicely and I am surprised to discover how refreshing it is to work in a quick stitch in the middle of a long day at the office.
Anywhere, here is a scan of The Birdcage:

The colors are much nicer than the scan indicates - it is a very happy piece indeed!  Look at all those birdies running around on wobbly legs!!!  Let me also inform you that I spent a good 20 minutes getting this baby scanned!  Yep, I left the office late just to be able to share the progress on my blog over the weekend.  Have I mentioned that I have a PhD in Engineering?  Does not matter - I still can not figure out how the blasted scanner/copier/fax machine works!  Seems to be a lot of hit-&-miss and accidental successes + I have a feeling that the printers are pretty temperamental....  they probably figured that it was an early Friday evening and about time to shut down.
I guess that I could have brought my Birdcage home to taken a photo of it, but I felt that I did have to scan it at work, since I did not want to bring it home with me - way too tempting.  I have to spend more time stitching on the Richmond sampler and a lot less time on funny looking birds flapping about.  As you can see, 11.5 birds are done and there are 8.5 left to go, so before too long it will ride home with me to get finished anyway!

Other than that, I have been spending time with the Richmond sampler.  I managed to dodge a cold (knock on wood) by eating Zycam, drinking a lot of fluids and taking it real easy in the evenings.  I have spent most of my stitching on the "automatic" parts, like the big field in the front of the house that just need filled in with the grass.  I am still very much into this sampler, so that is fun!  As a matter of fact, I have it spread out on the floor in my cross-stitch room.  Every morning when I get ready to go to work, I open the door to that room, turn on the light and stare at it for a few seconds.  Then I sneak a peak every time I pass by...  Yes, I know that I have a problem!  But it is a good one, right!?

Well, off to bed with me!  Will be a bit hard to go to sleep - I just watched a really disturbing Sherlock Holmes movie on Netflix, The Eligible Bachelor.  Shrug!
Good night and have a wonderful weekend!