Frustrated to the Max

Been having occasional problems with connectivity and the desktop. Today I can't fix it. Tried calling DH to get help. Still can't fix it.

I'm on the laptop. But none of my links and bookmarks are here. That's why I'm frustrated.

AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

More Room - Less Stuff

We live in a townhouse. A townhouse built in 1974. It was pretty progressive for its time. Three floors, open stairwell (stair with treads, no risers, which the cats adore!), 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths. But not a lot of useful storage space. My last house had two huge storage closets, a pantry, a garage, and a storage shed. Can you tell I miss them?

Now you would think that this should be enough space for a family of four. And in reality it is. But I do have some horrid pack rat tendencies that I come by genetically. In the 20 years we moved around courtesy of the US Army, I managed to tame my tendencies. I'd have a massive "we're moving, time to get rid of the unnecessary stuff" garage sale, donate, and throw out adventure.

I've continued to donate and sell since moving here. Freecycle, craigslist, and the Salvation Army are my friends.

But somehow it seems like there's always just a little bit too much stuff. Right now I'm fighting the battle of soon to move out college kids who might need X, Y, or Z when setting up their first apartments. My children have the same pack rat tendencies. My husband - not so much - but his complications are paperwork that he never looks at again, magazines, and electronics.

I did make my way through the laundry/storage room yesterday. I can see the floor! And there's room to dance. But there's more to do in there as we're going to purchase a larger tool chest and ditch the two smaller things we have. And then I can move the washer and dryer and finish painting the walls. Not too much to accomplish.

Someone is coming to take away the kegerator, with luck, this week. That will help when it comes to reorganizing the bar. (It came with the house. Both the bar and the kegerator.) Not that I don't like beer. I do. But the two of us don't need a keg at a time.

I may call the Salvation Army today for a pick up. I've got two IKEA chairs that no one on craigslist seems to want to purchase, along with a student desk and a nightstand.

Then I can continue organizing my stitching and crafts supplies.

Triskaidekaphobia

This is post number 1,313. I've got no fear of the number 13. In fact, I've developed a fondness for it. One of the best houses we lived at was a number 13. My cell phone number ends in 13. Numbers are just numbers - an artificial way humans have developed to order the universe.

In honor of the number 13, I will do a random drawing for a surprise package.

Just write me a comment. You have until May 13th - my mother's birthday - to enter!





Updated photo of Tsunami Quaker sampler. I finished the motif with the flower yesterday. This was a color change from my original picks as the red I had was certainly too dark. This is now Crescent Colours Cherry Tomato. More pink than red.



Did I mention I found 7 needlework books last week at my library's used book sale?
One bargello, two books dealing with florals, a book of colonial American needlework, a temari book, and two crewel books. I'm definitely outgrowing my bookcase. Soon it will only have room for needlework, beading, and a few sewing books. The overflow cookbooks are going to have to go. And the papercrafting? what to do with those? I think most of them I'm going to freecycle.

I continued organizing the downstairs yesterday. Our finished basement contains our office, our bar which is currently home to my needlework stuff and all the "extra" furniture in our house, laundry/storage room, and a bathroom. Got most everything off the floor of the office. Still need to get into the closet and rearrange. There's tons of filing to do. Which means there's tons of shredding to do. I'm hoping they do another community recycling event soon with the giant shredders. Today I'm hoping to get back into the storage room. I took a huge bag full of garbage out of there yesterday. I say we need a storage unit. DH says no. Sigh.

Inner Nana, Indeed!

Look. People reinventing the wheel - needlework as art.

Though I have to admit the life size knitted version of her father dressed as a policeman is wonderful.

It's the snarkiness of the tone. The insinuations that anyone over 30 wouldn't dream of embroidering a nude or the word "f*ck."

My inner Nana says their inner Nanas ought to instead celebrate that there is a place in this world for beautiful stitched flowers as well as nudes. That just because it's shocking doesn't elevate it to art over things that aren't shocking.

And in my own personal stitching news

I forgot to say that I bought my first sets of Evertite stretcher bars. So what's the big deal? You can read more here on Mary Corbet's blog. Will report on my experiences when I get a project on the frame.

Stitched on the Tsunami Quaker yesterday for quite a bit. When I finish this motif hopefully today, I'll post a progress picture.

Took a Canvas Break

Yesterday instead of continuing on Arabella, I picked up my Tsunami Quaker sampler. And when I picked it up, I had it upside down and decided I'd been silly not to see this before. I continued my stitching on left hand side of the piece with the piece upside down. Much easier on my arms as these are 28 inch scroll rods and I mostly stitch this piece sitting on the sofa.

The other thing about turning it upside down is that I noticed a place where I didn't cross a stitch! What? I turned it right side up and couldn't see it. Turned it upside down and saw it right away. Wow. I have now reached the conclusion that I need to turn my pieces and examine them closely before taking them to the framer. I guess the light just hits it differently enough.

Designed a biscornu yesterday to teach at another EGA chapter - not my own chapter. I'm unhappy with the bottom of the piece this morning and will redo it. But had a great time playing with my Easygrapher software. Should work up quickly, as the point of this class is the finishing.

Already in the 70s. I'm off to enjoy the weather!!!!!!!!

Glad I Didn't Leave Early

I had not intended to stay at my LNS yesterday after morning stitch-in and lunch. But just as we were finishing up the lovely ladies from j. child and Needlecrossings showed up with their large collections of hand-painted canvas available for ordering. I got to tell Jennifer how much I would love to have a cardinal the same size as the dogwood canvas I stitched and finished back in January. A request that Liz at Needlewoman East had already passed on to her. I confessed that that was my request and she wasn't being inundated by a ton of cardinal requests. But after all this is Virginia and people here love the cardinals and they would sell.

I did order an ornament size stocking from Pat of sand dollars. And an Art Deco like piece and a pine cone bookmark from Jennifer. Dangerous place to hang out, the local LNS is.

And then before I could leave, I got to meet Jane from Chilly Hollow. She's as articulate and lovely in person as she is online.

Of course, I didn't nearly as much stitching done as I wanted to yesterday. Continued working on Arabella. Should be a lovely weekend for stitching outside. We're headed into the 80s. And the dreaded Asian Tiger mosiquitos haven't hatched yet, but I'm sure this weekend will bring them out.

I've been "trying" to kill this hibiscus ever since I acquired it 3 years ago. I can't believe it survived another winter indoors and still occasionally throws out a blossom. My real problem is that the only place to put it inside is in the kitchen where it is in the way.






Neighbor's cherry tree two weeks ago. Pretty, pretty.




Not the best photo - but I'm trying. This is my Autumn Leaves colorway of Michael Boren's Arabella Reborn. The reason Arabella and Daphne needed to be reborn was that the company making the fibers, stopped making them. Good reason. I'm not overly fond of the pastel pink/blue thing, but I'm pushing on with the colors I have. I think I will like it when it's done.

What's Happening?

(Can you hear the rest of that line - Hot Stuff?)*

I'm having a little shoulder issue. Went from one side to the other and seems to have lodged in my left shoulder. Just some tightness and a tiny bit of pain. But heat and Ibuprofen seem to be helping. Helping enough that last night, I stitched on my Arabella. Just a bit. But I see what is essentially 36 squares in the inner portion of this and I've stitched 21 of them. It's not that large a piece and I should continue moving right along. Sun is shining today and I should be able to get a photo!

Stopped at my local used bookstore yesterday. No new used needlework books. I wonder if someone else has started to shop there??? For a while I think I was the only one and usually managed to score 2 or more books. I did buy two cookbooks - More Secrets of the CIA and the Joy of Cooking's Grilling book. And a Dover publication of two Stickley catalogs. This book includes black and white photos of the textiles. So that was a good find. Of course it pains me to see this gorgeous stuff selling 20 and 30 dollars knowing that it now costs in the thousands. I may never own a bungalow, but that doesn't mean I can't fill my house with Arts and Crafts and Mission-style stuff and let's toss in some Art Deco and a bit of Victorianna.





*from Sixteen Candles

Pattern Purge

Yesterday a group of volunteers descended on my local needlework store. Not to stitch. But to sort through all the patterns in what the owner is calling a pattern purge. Due to how the prices were done, we were able to sort into three categories - old, older, and oldest. The oldest ones are now part of the grab bags. The older ones are discounted at one rate, and the old ones at a slightly lesser rate. We sorted, marked and alphabetized for hours. And then in my own love of punishment, I started in on rearranging the Kreinik.

Of course, most of us, in the course of sorting, found some things we couldn't live without. I left my bag at the store and will look through it this week when I have a clearer head.

And the Kreinik is going to be a long project...thanks to the numbering system, it's even more complicated. Anyone who has a Kreink color card can see the difficulties.

Saturday Class

Our class with Michael Boren for "Arabella Reborn" was excellent. He's a wonderful teacher - patient with a gentle sense of humor. Gets excited, but not overly excited. When the sun returns to Virginia I'll get a photo of my piece. I chose a brown based colorway - definitely not the most compelling of choices, but I wanted it for a specific place in my house. Stitched my first Double Fan Doubled. Kind of got stuck there for a bit in my head, then had the light bulb moment.

Just Thinking Out Loud

If any of you were following the post and comments over at the Stitch Bitch:

re: drinking alcohol and stitching.

I present the following...

I know that I can't stitch and drink. The alcohol slows me down. It is after all a depressant. And it increases the chance of creating opportunities for frogging. Apparently not everyone has this problem. I say, great for you. I don't drink and drive. I don't drink and stitch.

But maybe next time I'm thinking that I really should just pull out a piece of fabric, a hoop, and some fibers and play around with my needle to see what happens and my rigid, follow the rules side prevents me from playing, I will have a glass of wine. And see what happens.

Now I'm not advocating everyone go out and get drunk and use needles and scissors. I'm just saying, if you've ever thought about playing outside the box, but your inhibitions kept you from seeing what would happen, maybe this might give you a nudge.

(for the non-imbibers who are non-imbibers for whatever reason: no judgements please. I know of a group that nearly imploded over virtual offers of cabana boys and margaritas.)

From the Lake Stitcher

Girl Scout needlework projects

I've parked this link here for my personal edification. I was a Girl Scout in the 60s and 70s. Came back as a leader while in college. And then went through the whole routine again when daughter was a child.

As a child I had great leaders. We did everything. Drama, camping, crafts, cooking. My big childhood regret was that my parents wouldn't send me to Camp Farnsworth in Vermont to the program with the horses. That and that they wouldn't let me go to Disneyland with Rex Trailer...

I wore my tie-dyed t-shirt for years as a swimming cover-up. I can still recite lines from the Purple-Necked Black-Bearded Blatch. This was supposed to be a puppet sketch and was printed in Women's Day in 1969. We acted it out without puppets.

I quilted my first pillow by entirely by hand when I was 11 or so. I cooked an entire 3 course meal outside in the snow and only used a single match. I had a great time in Girl Scouts. What can I say?

Color Tiles My Way

I came yesterday absolutely stunned at the warm sunny weather. Yahoo!

Cleaned off the outside table and sat down with my version of color tiles and two threads that had gone missing (on sofa under blanket - how did that happen?) Kitty not pleased. He wanted cuddle time. Sat there at the sliding door glaring at me.

Had made the decision yesterday while at the stitch in that the Impressions needed to be 2 threads not 1 as already stitched. So I unpicked carefully and restitched them. Also used 2 with the Wildflowers. (Note to Coni: for threads on this piece I didn't want to chase down the ones called for so I used Splendor, Grandeur, 3 Impressions and 1 Wildflowers. Gives nice textural changes.) I've got four blocks to go and then the border. I now think of this piece as Wonky Color Tiles because the alternating sprats heads give the squares an uneven look which I'm loving.

That said. I did not keep my choice of border threads with the other threads. I know the corners are black Silk Lame. But hopefully if I look back here I can find what I used documented. It's official. I've stopped keeping careful records in my real life stitching notebook. Must remedy that.

Reminder to self: Ruth's class june 7 and 28.

Blogging from the store. Missing two threads - can't keep stitching.

Photo Time

Current progress on my Tsunami Quaker sampler. I finally worked my way all the way across the top of the design.







Michael Boren's Color Tiles III which I stitched last year.









My version of Color Tiles with a sprat's head. Same threads. And I've got another version set to go. All three will use the same threads with the color placement in different order. Interesting exercise.

Libraries

First we'll visit the questions that started somewhere else, but I found them on Pencil Crossings.

How often do you use your public library and how do you use it? Has the coffeehouse/bookstore replaced the library? Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any particular memories of the library? Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or the older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries?

I visit my public library all the time. Even so, I frequently pay overdue fines, but I'm okay with that. Kind of like a donation to the library. I was at my library yesterday. Put one book on hold. Checked out four mysteries - my favorite light reading. Picked up the pamphlet to join the Friends of the Library.

As a child, I lived one short block away from my public library. I was ecstatic when my mother finally gave me permission to walk there by myself. Must have been 6 or 7 years old. We did not have many books that belonged to us in my house growing up. But after being allowed to travel there on my own, there was a constant parade of books. I always had one book that I read downstairs or outside and another that was upstairs bedroom reading and a stack of a dozen waiting to be the next in line. Our librarian was the stereotypical little old lady in a cardigan with her gray hair in a bun. She once tried to stop me from reading certain books (like Myra Breckenridge or Portnoy's Complaint.) She asked me if my mother knew what I was reading. I told her she didn't care what I was reading as long as I was reading. I literally read my way through that entire collection of books.

In my teenage years I was a day student at a prep school. Our home was in the library. A world-famous piece of architecture. No way was I reading my way through that libraries collections. But I gave it a serious effort. I even had a work study job in periodicals. I was a commuter student in college and lived in that library, too. Yes. I love libraries. Even ugly looking ones. Because they contain books!

Hand-Painted Canvas

I have a friend with so many hand-painted canvases she now hangs them on her walls. Unstitched. Of course, it's her sewing room walls. But they are still beautiful. And now she feels less guilty about having so many because they are wall art.

I only have 4 hand-painted canvases so I don't have a tremendous storage problem. They are about to go into my newly purchased basket with my collection of blank canvas. I just need to store it high enough so as not to attract rubbing cats.

Blogging from mobile phone test.

You've Got to be Kidding Me

Okay. How is this for a black hole of a catch-22.

I've been trying to view an account online for a student loan. But every time I'm told I can't because I need to update my address and phone number. So I update it. It says may take 24 hours to update in the system.

Okay. Try to log on again. Same thing.

I finally call. And they tell me that the mail to my address is being returned by the Post Office. WTF!

This is going to be a stupid conversation with USPS. Who are going to tell me everything's fine on their end. Argh.

After a Long Day

I got out the canvas stuff to play. I located my finished Michael Boren piece - Color Tiles III - and found the bag with the extra threads. And started doodling other stitches I could use in the same manner with those threads. Came up with a scotch stitch and a sprat's head. And have figured out alignments and color order. Question now is do I have any more canvas the color of the original? and do I have more stretcher bars? I've been trying to decide on a good way to store extra canvas so that it doesn't get squished without taking up a lot of floor space. I could use my extra large Longaberger measuring basket, but I think that has my collection of corks which I'm saving for some future project yet to be decided. So I have to go round up all the canvas from its various hiding places and see.

Best idea I've seen for corks, was a friend's sun porch ceiling in California. She mounted them on boards and inserted the boards between the beams. The champagne cork one looked amazing. I have no way near that number of corks, but I've been saving them ever since then. I've thought about using them as a back splash behind my kitchen sink, but I'm not entirely sold on that idea.

Been Thinking Organization

I've have been thinking for a while now that two crafty areas of my life need to have a real life swap. I've got all my scrapbooking stuff upstairs in my bedroom and all my stitching stuff downstairs in the bar. But as I haven't really been using my paper crafting skills all that much, it seems logical to me to do a swap. The books would not be able to fit into my bedroom and will have to remain where they are. But if I did a purge of my paper stuffs. And if I go to the Container Store where Elfa is still on sale until May 15th. I might be able to accomplish some productive organizing. The kind that makes it easier to get at and use things. Of course I might do myself some physical bodily harm traversing the flights of stairs involved. And I might be better off waiting for DS to be home from college so I can harness young, fit laborer...

That said. I did finish the Deep Fennel motif yesterday afternoon. Actually took a little bit of the second skein of floss. Yikes. And started the next motif. But that's it for this week. Time to move back to canvas.

Aunt Martha's Bread

Is rising in its braided form on the stove. This a family recipe that a great aunt was happy to share with me back when I was like 13 years old. Not a difficult bread recipe. And always garners praise. It is a Finnish recipe and contains cardamom and I find it completely irresistible. With four eggs and half a cup of butter, you can see why I reserve this recipe for the holidays. Been invited to a neighbor's house for brunch.

Meanwhile, I'd like to finish this current motif on the Quaker piece. I'm tired of this color as this one took the entire skein of Crescent.

Then it's time for planning. I've got to get back into the canvas groove this week as Saturday is our Michael Boren class. My first class ever with a male teacher. I'm looking forward to it.

I Know

I need more photos here. I'm working on this issue. Trying to figure out what will make it easier for me to keep up.

The combination of spring break and holy days kept many people from Thursday morning stitch in yesterday. Oh and one injury. A friend burned herself with water heated in a microwave. And then because of the burns, managed to cut herself days later on a can opener requiring stitches. OUCH! So there were only four of us. Plenty of room to stretch out and spread out our things. But somehow I had trouble locating my stitching mojo. I was working on my Quaker sampler and probably should have just changed projects as I was having difficulty finding the joy. Came home and continued stitching on this project and ripped out the dark red that I have replaced with a bright, medium toned pink. And continued stitching with the Deep Fennel. I do love this particular motif. It seems more complicated than some of the others as there are different ways of finding symmetry on this one.

I've got a little trip into the country coming up this afternoon with a friend to visit with some friends. As it is Easter weekend, where's the Messiah CD? Proper time to listen to Handel is now, not Christmas.

When Not Stitching

When I'm not stitching, I am thinking about stitching. Is this a sign that this has taken over my life? I know I dream about stitching. But now it has entered my waking moments, too.

Like I posted yesterday that I didn't get in any stitching time. But because I thought about it while cleaning, etc. I feel like I did. Weird. Changed a couple of colors on my Quaker sampler, but haven't started stitching the new colors yet. I lightened the two darkest colors. This came about when I started stitching with the darkest shade of red Crescent colors that I have. The fibers were decidedly different than the rest of the Crescents I have used on this piece. Strands were skinnier, rougher, and tended to knot up. This is an extremely tactile medium for me and if I don't like how it feels, I won't use it. Some people love the stiffer linens with more sizing in them. I hate them. I still have nearly a yard of some flax colored linen that has been in my stash for over 20 years now. I'll get rid of it this summer at the stash sale my EGA chapter will hold in July.

I wasn't home for dinner last night as I had a Board Meeting to attend. And we had a guest for dinner - one of DH's co-workers whose wife and kids are out of town for spring break. Came home to find the two of them had eaten an entire loaf of French bread - with plenty of European butter. Not a lot of bread left for today as we've already had some for breakfast. Had an interesting meeting to say the least. And now the phrase "old lady wars" is stuck in my head.

Five Minute Update

Where did the day go?

I've got French bread in the oven. Brownies cooling. Beef stew bubbling away. Finally picked up enough to vacuum.

No stitchy time. Bummer.

I just paused for a brief debate with myself about using verbs at all. You'll be happy to know I decided to continue my use of verbs.

And I feel blah. That headache is still lurking there. Time to drink more water.

Still got more stuff to put away. But things are improving. And that's all for today.

No Fun

I only had to go in one day for jury duty. I was looking forward to exercising my impartiality. Oh well.




This is my Laura J Perin freebie, Summer Flower Boxes. I've got two more colorways kitted up to stitch. This one came about when I saw a small piece of dark green canvas for sale at a local shop. Very quick. Very cute.

Looking around at other blogs, I can see that my camera is truly inadequate for taking close-up photos that reflect the colors accurately. I'm thinking of borrowing a friend's ebay photo set-up to see if I can get better photos that way and if it works will purchase my own equipment.

I've Got Nothing

Like not a thought. Occasionally there are days like these when blogging. Even catching up on other blogs isn't doing it for me. So this is my stream of consciousness attempt to see what happens. Maybe it's the other things in the back of my mind. Need to go wash my hair, but I'm waiting for it to warm up outside because maybe I can go sit in the sun? Though today may be warm enough, they've projected a high of 40 something on Wednesday/Thursday. I can see we're are going to go from those 40 degree days straight on to 80 degrees days and totally miss spring. Oh well. It happens frequently here. Need to do some picking up around the house. Already started by dusting and watering plants. Would like to get outside and pull and cut some old foliage. Was thinking yesterday as we were driving through parts of Maryland I hadn't been in before that I need to plant some bulbs next fall out back in the woods. There are a few daffodils and some lily of the valley. But I'd like more. And I have apparently planted that lilac bush where it doesn't get enough sun to bloom. I'm not going to move it.

Would like to finish the current medallion on the Tsunami sampler today. I have realized two things. One: I don't have enough skeins of a few colors. I figured this out when stitching a second medallion with Tartan Plaid. And there are two more medallions in this color. Hmmm. And I cut my fabric incorrectly. But not in a bad way. There's way too much extra fabric on the left and the bottom. I think I took the measurements that already had the framing allowance built in and added another 6 inches. That's better than doing the oppposite. And this means the sampler won't be quite as big as I feared which is good when it comes to framing.

So this the end of my rambling for this morning. Time to go finish the laundry.

I Saw This Coming

A year ago when I was signing up for the Master Craftsman program with the EGA I asked some friends for advice about which one I should take. I was aware of my own desires to stretch myself and thought about doing canvas work. At which point one friend asked me why didn't I just join the ANG? I saw her point. And eventually signed up for the Counted Thread program.

But now I realize that that was the beginning of a big push into canvas work for me.
I have now signed up for a class with Ruth Dilts' Mystic and a cyberclass with Carole Lake through the Shining Needle Society.

In addition, I've been working on several other designers pieces and have begun designing my own canvas work pieces (thus far mostly in my head...but I'll get there.)

I'm not abandoning cross stitch or samplers. Just increasing my repetoire.

Books

From the library book sale last week:

"The Needle Arts of Greece" by Joan Petrakis - published in 1977. Tons of black and white photos, some gorgeous color photos. Lots of history. Some graphs. Interesting. I love these books on ethnic needlework.

"Beaded Tassels, Braids & Fringes" by Valerie Campbell-Harding - published in 1999.
I think I need to just keep this book at my fingertips for the next month. And play with my beads. Wow.

"Needlework Patterns for the Metropolitan Museum of Art" by Susan Siegler - published in 1977. I wish all the black and white photos were in color. This book is a good companion to the more recent book - "English Embroidery in the Metropolitan Museum 1575-1700: 'Twixt Art and Nature" which is currently on sale at amazon for $40.95.

I purchased another 8 books, but these are the highlights.

Now off to shop before retrieving son for the weekend.

A Little Slow

Today I found out that I missed some things yesterday. If you didn't have your April Fool's jokes posted early in the morning, I missed them.

Let's see. The Red Sox fired their mascot, Wally, in a cost cutting venture.

George RR Martin was going to bring in a ringer to finish his latest book.

The Car and Driver one wasn't even funny.

Etc.

Though I can admire a good practical joke from a distance, I prefer not to participate.

This morning I brought something to Thursday stitch in that I decided didn't work. The perle 5 was too light on the gray canvas. I guess I should do it on white. Which I already have at home. And rather than stitch on something else, I picked up some fibers and started doodling around on my gray canvas. Didn't accomplish too much 'cause I unpicked a Jessica about 5 times. But I had fun playing.

Um. Wow.

I found a canvas worker's paradise this morning.

Stitchamaze

Browse through the guest gallery

look at her works in progress

All enticing and entrancing.

Off the Hook

I'm free from jury duty for the remainder of this week. I feel for the teachers in this pool who are one spring break next week. What horrible timing. And why didn't you all request a deferment? Oh - the two people who they know called in for reporting instructions, but didn't show. You are in trouble.

And for your viewing pleasure today I bring you this:

American History Museum samplers online

I have not yet begun to look at these. Only a quick glimpse at the first 25 samplers. There are currently 50, but someone is working hard at adding to the collections.