I'm Dying Here

I want to comment on my comments but am unable to string together coherent thoughts. Hubby has kindly given me his Thanksgiving cold and I am unable to breathe right. Or at all through my nose. 

Missed posting everyday in Nov. by one day.

But several of those posts shouldn't really count, like this one. 

I'll see you all as soon as long as I don't suffocate.

How Bad Can It Be?

My mother would be appalled to know that I am about to show you how bad things can get in my "room." When I was a young child, my sister and I were forced to keep things neat and tidy. All the time. 

When we got our own rooms, my mother didn't go upstairs that often. 

And thus, my room's appearance devolved into the total disaster state. 

I knew where everything was. In piles across the floor. I never lost anything. Periodically I was forced to clean. Which I did. And sometimes I even did it without prompting. 

But my natural state must be messy. Even though my brain feels calmer with a clean and tidy environment.

Thus we have the problem of running in and out of my studio. Grab something. Throw something in. 

It's been in quite a state since I returned from Seminar in September. I almost had it licked one day in October and then came another round of classes and things I needed to find and................

Here's a stitcher's unnatural environment:

                                               From the doorway looking in.

                                           The corner near the closet. 

                                       Heading down the wall towards the books. 

                                    Even my chair is occupied!

Now I've confessed my dirty little secret. I see canvases on the floor! Yikes. I have two cats. Even they aren't going in here right now. It's pretty bad. 

Today I'd like to right theses wrongs. But hubby has kindly given me his Thanksgiving head cold. I'd love to post a photo where we can see the rug tomorrow. But I may take an extended nap instead. 

Back on Schedule with the Shop Meme

Just in time to do the shop meme that's floating around some of the blogs.

Alright. I'm certain I'm going to have do some updating on this due to my faulty memory. In other words, today's post is not final.


Needlework stores I have shopped at in person. I have to say that every single one that I ever visited, I at least purchased a few fibers. Some of them are unfortunately long gone. Some more recently gone. I've met some wonderful people in these places and I wish the ones that are still in business continued good health and prosperity. 

I'm thinking my list will be a sort of time order. It will be easier for me to remember that way. And if it's in italics, that means it's no longer in business.

1986 - before this year, I think most of my supplies came from Woolworths or other department stores like Ames and Zayre's. These don't really count on this list, but I just want to point out that I was stitching long before 1986.

The first shop remains unnamed because I can't remember it. Was run by some American woman living on a base somewhere in Germany. LOL That's vague. 

Second shop - and I still have supplies that I know were purchased here. I've never worked my way through that entire yard of Belfast driftwood. 
Cabbage Patch Boutique and Cross Stitch Shop. In Hanau, FRG. Some of us Army wives got tired of not having access to new things so we started a cross stitch shop inside the crafts consignment shop. 

Third - In Stitches in Alexandria, VA. Was located right up the road from Ft. Belvoir and when I first walked in I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. My first experience here though was unpleasant. It was 1989 and I was interested in some of the relatively new 16ct Aida in a multiple of colors. I was told they didn't have it and why wasn't I working on linen in a snooty tone. Fortunately, this didn't totally drive me off. I went back. Many times. Because we kept moving back here to Virginia. Lucky me.

Crossed Canoes - Alexandria, VA
Elsa Williams shop in Massachusetts
Yankee Cross Stitch - North Hampton, NH
Needlepoint shop in the Barnyard Village in Carmel, CA  
a cross stitch shop in Hollister, CA
The Fuzzy Penguin - Sacramento, CA
a cross stitch shop in Sacramento - was either on Sunrise or Fair Oaks Blvd.
Needlework Boutique in Carmichael, CA - the shop owned by LeAnn Bemis - I don't know if she still has a shop
the Elegant Stitch, Modesto, Ca
a cross stitch shop in Stockton, CA

Ruth's Stitchery - Colorado Springs
Needle Nuts - Colorado Springs
The Counting Bee - Littleton, CO

Needlewoman East - Falls Church, Va
The Scarlet Thread - Fairfax, Va

the shop in Center Harbor, NH that is now mostly Keepsake Quilting

Deer Hill Farm - Hyde Park, NY
Where Victoria's Angels Stitch - NJ
Edwardian Needle - NJ
there was one more shop in NJ, but I don't remember name or town

The Golden Needle - Port Charlotte, FL
Needlepoint Ivy - Venice, FL
Needlepoint in Paradise - Naples, FL

The Scarlet Thread - Vienna and Great Falls, VA
The Three Sisters - Woodbridge, VA
Everything Cross Stitch - Fredericksburg, VA
Threads - Charlottesville, VA
The Stitcher's Stash - Fairfax, VA
The Waste Knot - Arlington, VA

The Thistle Needleworks - Glastonbury, CT
 
The Stitching Post - Catonsville, MD
Bedecked and Beadazzled - Lutherville, MD
Needles and Threads of Ruxton - MD

Town Ho - Brewster, MA
The World in Stitches - Littleton, MA

The Strawberry Sampler - Glen Mills, PA


Not a bad list. I'm pretty certain I've forgotten some! Sorry, if you're still in business.

And though The Scarlet Thread is no longer a brick and mortar store, it exists today as a counted canvaswork internet store.


edit - December 2nd

While typing a reply to one of the comments here, I remembered some shops I forgot. 

In La Jolla, CA - Needle Nook of La Jolla. Love this place!

two other cross stitch shops in San Diego that I visited in 2004. Stitch-a-Cross and another one that I think is now out of business.

And in  New Orleans - The Garden District Needlework Shop - I had fantastic fun in here.

And the Quarter Stitch in the French Quarter which was quite charming.  


 

House is Quiet

Darling daughter and her boy are experiencing the joys of Thanksgiving weekend travel as they are on the road right now probably in New Jersey. 

Have fun! Glad it's not me.

We went to see the gold hoard yesterday at the Nat Geo Museum. I had fun playing around photographing the fountain. Nothing like polished granite with a 90 degree angle for interesting opportunities. 

Fridge is still filled with food. I'm done cooking till Tuesday???

And here's my pitiful output stitching. Little House ornie that is one of my Crazy January projects. 

Never did get into my room. Sadness. I might find some time this week. At least I hope so.

Grinding Out These Last Posts

I wish I had tons of time. But I don't. 

Spent today in D.C. Saw the Ango-Saxon gold hoard! 

Supported small business Saturday by purchasing a bottle of German bitters and Luxardo maraschino liqueur in a small liquor store on 17th St NW. 

Supported small business yesterday with my darling daughter, too, as we hit up two needlework stores. LOL 


I promise I'll be good and detailed next week. When I'll have all the time in the world.

Just in case anyone is interested, I needed the maraschino stuff because last year and I read and loved Jason Wilson's book,

Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits

I do have a bar in my house. And mixing cocktails is a kind of like cooking, only most ingredients are a bit expensive. 

Now to go experiment while making turkey tetrazini and turkey chili out of the leftovers. 

 

Thanksgiving Photos

The scene early afternoon on Thanksgiving. Mashing potatoes, making gravy. All the usual good stuffs.

Hubby and son dismantling the bird.

Final results!

Barely Keeping Up With November

The usual feast. Nothing extraordinary. But very satisfying. 

I did find a few moments to try and stitch on one of my Crazy January projects. I finished a thread, ended it, and only then realized I had made a mistake before I even picked it up. So on with the ripping. 

As the house is symmetrical, I don't know how I missed that before. I guess I was distracted while watching Don Draper and gang. I made very little progress on something I should be able to just bang out. C'est la vie. 

Here's a couple of photos I took a few weeks ago. This plant is called Beautyberry. I don't know if this particular one is a native as there are types both from the southeastern US and Japan. 

I do know I want to find one of these next year because it's so striking in the autumn. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Not A Stitch

Today was about catching up with DD and cooking. 

Not a stitch was taken. 

Tomorrow more cooking. And eating. But I should be able to sit and stitch. 

I did do one thing needlework related today. 

I signed up for the Kimono class on the Shining Needle Society. 

If you've never looked at these online classes, you should. This will be my third one. I'm very happy with how these work out. 

For more info.

Just In Case

Just in case I don't get a chance to get back here later.

I'm off this morning to take the kitties to visit the vet. Always an adventure - catching them once they figure out what's going on, that is. 

DD and her boy are coming late tonight. Yeah!

I still have not had the time to get into my studio. Gah. It's now a total wreck. *shaking head* at my bad self. 

So I'll leave you this morning with some interesting upcycling:

vintage needlepoint reuse

"Each work is a celebration of color and the whimsical craft of embroidery, offering a sense of nostalgia from a skill that has since  gone to the cultural wayside."

Hey. I resent that.

What I Saw

Gutters are now clean of leaves, thanks to Felix. Wish I could this job for myself, but two and three stories up gives me the willies. LOL

Yard is cleared of leaves and nearly everything outside is finished for the year. I've got two more pots to empty and I need to pick up the leaves under the far side of boxwoods which finally got trimmed. Had a busy day outside yesterday. I love that this year the weather cooperated. 

After supper, I did manage to put some time in on my red rose canvas. But right now a photo is pointless. I've almost got myself all the way across the top, but I was too lazy to get up and set a up a stand because those reverse scotch stitches need to be laid. Instead I plugged along with some rice stitches and smyrnas which I don't want to be bothered laying. 

Last night we watched Part I of the American Masters special on Woody Allen. 
I get that he's not everyone's cup of tea. But at our house, we love his work. 

One of the first scenes they show is filmed in his bedroom where you can see that he is a collector of schoolgirl samplers. There's another one that hangs to right of the desk where he types everything on his old manual typewriter. 

Who knew?

Woody's bedroom.

I Knew It Was Going to Happen

Okay. I made it 18 straight days. Why did I forget to post yesterday? 

I spent all morning working on a special project. Had to go to an afternoon meeting. Came home exhausted. Too much fun, I guess. (Actually, I do not adjust well to the autumnal time change. Can't we just leave the darn clocks alone???)

Sat down and finally beat that level in Plants and Zombies on my DS that had eluded me for various reasons. DH wanted me to drive him to the computer store - yes, we still have one of those here. And then we stopped for Mexican food on the way home. I only had one margarita, but was totally stuffed and when we got home I sat on the couch, the cat climbed into my lap, started to purr and I fell asleep before 8 p.m. 

Elvis kind of has a magic touch that way. 

When I woke after my 15 minute snooze, I totally forgot that I hadn't posted. It didn't even occur to me. 

I guess that makes the new goal, 29 out of 30 days of November. 

Very little stitchy I can show here from yesterday. That's what happens this time of year. Things that must not be revealed publicly.

How Pretty Is This?

Today we're going to talk about an interesting possibility. 

The idea of joining two or more linens together to create a new piece of fabric.

Last Saturday I was in a class with Pam Darney of Guildhouse Samplers as she was teaching for the Loudoun Sampler Guild. Our class was about joining two colors of linen together and then even being able to stitch over the join. 

Now I already have a project that uses a joining technique for mating linen.

This is a needlebook project by Cindy Valentine that was in the July/August 2011 issue of Needlepoint Now. 

At seminar in Florida, I bought the kit from Cindy. How pretty is this? Three colors of linen, pearl cotton, one very lovely Glorianna overdyed silk, three overdyed cottons, and mother of pearl thread winders and beads. 

Look for this to join my rotation soon.

Now Cindy and Pam have slightly different ideas for joining the linens. Cindy employs pulling a thread from the linen. Pam joins without this guide line because she wants the fabric to have integrity when framing. 

While mulling about these differences I've had some thoughts. One- while trying hard to keep my linens on the horizontal line for Pam's piece I realized that a basting line on both pieces of linen would help keep things on the correct lines. And the other I need to talk to Pam about before commenting publicly. It's only fair. 

Bargello

Almost forgot again! This gets harder as the month goes on...


Today I'm showing an original bargello design. I was working on this last fall as a possible class. I never finished it and went with another design. 


This is on congress cloth and the fibers are Carrie's Creation Caribbean Laney and DMC 3814. Mostly I was experimenting with using an overdye in bargello. I pulled this out tonight so I'd have something to take to an ANG chapter meeting. We had a wonderful potluck tonight and everything was delicious.

I had a purpose for this though I think that purpose is now unnecesarry. We'll see what I can do with it when it's done.

Favorite Places

Lee, of the Lake Stitcher, may have helped more than one of us today with inspiration for posting. 

On Monday a nice man came with Two Guys and a Truck and took away our entertainment center which was large and heavy and made of oak in the Mission style. I'll miss it. 

But. 

Our living/dining room suddenly seems so large. And I have to love that. 

Here's a photo of a corner where it was. 

First, I agree. The faux painted walls have to go. It's been 6 years and it's time to move on. Though I do like the glow on certain mornings, when the light is wrong, it looks kinda orange. 

Second. Now the couch is over where the entertainment unit was. Look, I've already got a project sitting at my favorite spot ready for stitching. And there's my Amethyst Dreams hanging on the wall where it used to be in a dark corner that's now well-lit.

I do a lot of stitching sitting on the couch. Some sitting at the dining room table. And some upstairs in my nest. And quite a bit in other places - which are my stitching groups. And we won't even talk about my stitching in public habits. 

Right now there are only 3 projects not in my room which is due for organizing today. 

1. The Rose which you can see on my library table
2. my school Quaker
3. Molehill to Mountain

Time for me to go run errands. Then it's home to swap my winter and summer wardrobes. And play organizer.
 

Stolen from Anna @ The Stitch Bitch

Like Anna, I am a world-class procrastinator. In school I perfected the glory of the one draft wonder - typo free in the age before computer made things so easy - finished at 5:00 a.m. on the due date. 

But I've not been trying to let the passing time apply pressure to me here on posting. Honestly. I just don't know where the time has been disappearing to. So here I sit again. It's getting late. I've got dinner to put on the table. I want to go to Tuesday night stitching group. If I put this off any longer it'll be midnight before I get around to posting. 


Due to lack of stitching progress today and yesterday, here's a meme I stole from Anna.




1. Have you ever discovered a betrayal? If so, did you ask, “How long has THIS been going on”? 
Yes. And I really had no interest in knowing how long. It would not have made things better. 

2. What is the longest line you've ever stood in? Would you do it again? I've always tried to avoid crowds. And I still try to. 

3. Someone has hung a sign around your neck, and you have to wear it all day long. What does it say?  Immoral Majority Member

4. As the Christmas season approaches, what song is it that you just can't wait to hear?  Wait. We're supposed to wait till the season to listen to this stuff? Oh.

5. What Christmas song do you dread to hear? Grandma got Run Over by a Reindeer.

6. How often do you read the last chapter of a book first? Maybe once every 500 books?

7. Do you have a favorite movie that you just love to see each year during the holidays? Nope.

8. Do you enjoy winter in the area that you live? I enjoy the winter. I don't enjoy the idiots who don't know how to drive in snow.

9. At holiday I think we all show more kindness. In your opinion, is this a “concept” that has value (like money or other tangible things) or does it exist as simply emotion? Why?  I think I'm kind all year long. And I don't understand people who aren't. The world's a crowded place and we can all use some kindness.


Tomorrow is reserved for putting things away in my room! Who knows what I will find.

Another Quaker Motif

Okay. So I finished this motif yesterday. It's fun finding out what a few stitches in Gloriana Baby Corn add. They're in the urn and the top flower and the bud on the lower left. It really adds life. 

I thought I was going to continue stitching on this last night, but I was too lazy to go upstairs and find graph paper. I need to figure out some word placement. And then I went on the laptop to see if I could do this in Easy Grapher, but I'm having problems with the program. Tried downloading the last patch and had problems with that, too. Another day I'll figure all this out. 

No stitching today. Raking instead. And we got rid of our large oak Mission style entertainment unit. Which meant I had to start rearranging furniture. But really what I need to do is find a temporary home for all the stuff that was hidden inside it. 


But here it is and it's perfect for autumn!

November in Photos

Finally. I'm home and have time to catch up here. 

Though I should be outside doing leaf removal and putting the garden to bed while it's nice outside, I'd rather sit and write a nice, long post. 

Let's start with some recent pics. Last Sunday afternoon, I went for a walk in a wetlands remediation area not far from my house. It's tucked in between some major roads and large office buildings. If I worked near here I'd be walking through here every lunch hour. I had a feeling that if I had walked off the path into the woods, I would have disturbed a few deer. Saw lots of turtles enjoying the late autumn sun. But not a lot of birds.

Now to share some needlework.

This is the photo of the strawberry class I took on Friday with Barbara Jackson. Also here's my start:

We began by stitching our linen onto a piece of muslin. And then came the appreciation of the Heathway wools. These are on the Tristan Brooks website. I can't say enough about how lovely they are. Currently there are 20 color families available with 9 color values in each family (plus whites and black.) A total pleasure to work with. You really should go look for yourself at Tristan Brooks. 

I Am Barely Meeting Requirements

So. National Blog Posting Month. 

I guess I need to be home to post. 'Cause I haven't entered the smart phone world. Yet. 

I am barely able to keep up. Because I haven't been home. 

Today was a Pam Darney class at the Loudoun Sampler Guild. This one was about joining two different colors of linen together and then stitching right on over that seam. 

LOL!!!

Go ahead and try it. I'll just sit here and wait. 

Drive-By Friday Night

Been away from home all day. Today was my crewel class with Barbara Jackson of Tristan Brooks Designs.

If you follow the link, right there on the home page is the Succulent Strawberry on the left hand side. That was my class. 

I'll catch up with photos in a day or two. 

'Cause tomorrow is Loudoun Sampler Guild and I've got another class!

Stitchie Day Thursday

Well. Let's see if I can write more or less today. 

I get to slow down, but not till Sunday. LOL

Thursday is a regular stitchie group day. We've gotten a few people to join us and they are mostly knitters. We already had several people in the group who knit. And somedays, we stitchers are outnumbered by the knitters. 

Now way back when I was a wee one, my grandmother taught me to knit. She taught me to crochet. She taught me how to use the old wooden Singer sewing machine. In fact, anything remotely connected to textiles, I first learned about it from my grandmother. It's not that she sat around crafting. She was a working woman her entire adult life. But she was a never-ending bundle of energy and she certainly wasn't going to just sit still after supper and watch television like my grandfather. (Did I mention that I grew up next door to my grandparents? My parents bought the house next door when I was three months old.)

You'll notice that I didn't say that I learned any of these things from my mother. Because the woman could barely thread a needle. She thought the buttoneer invention thingy was a tremendous boon to mankind. Use a piece of plastic to attach buttons. I sewed on my Girl Scout badges. Though my mom did go through a phase where she was knitting slipper sox and that's the only crafty textile thing I remember her doing. 

Decades pass and when I used yarn in that time, it was always with a crochet hook. Never with needles. I gave away every set of knitting needles that I had. I ended up with more, usually acquired with crochet hooks from a yard sale or thrift store. And there those needles sat in a work basket. Unused. And unloved. 

Until recently when someone gave me a mission of knitting a few stitches on a communal piece. 

To practice I pulled out a set of those needles. And a hank of yarn. And even remembered how to do a long tail cast on. But then fumbled about how I used to hold the yarn. It's those 30 years of crochet instead of knitting. (I can date this pretty accurately. The last time I remember using knitting needles was in a scene in The Music Man in 1979.) 

Anyway. I've been working my way back to muscle memory on the whole knitting thing. Even went a bought a pair of nice wooden needles. And maybe even some more yarn. 

I'm not saying this is leading anywhere. But there's so much pretty wool and other stuff out there. All those colors and textures. And it's way faster than stitching, too. 

See. Here's what a couple of days of casual stitching gets me. A little bit of a progress on my rose.

Drive-by Posting

Heck of a day. And we haven't even had dinner.

Went to a chapter meeting today and heard a lecture on birds in needlework by Barbara Jackson of Tristan Brooks Designs. I've got a class with her on Friday. It's a crewel strawberry! 

Tried to shop. Came home with a migraine. Roused myself enough to get potatoes and meatloaf in the over. 

And next I'm off to a board meeting. I'm sure I've forgotten something I was supposed to do. 

Tuesday Bluesday

Wait. I was going to title this post Red Tuesday and then I remembered it's Election Day. 

So even thought my post is red, I've turned on Bluesville for some red, hot music. 

Remember I got a new light? Well, I had to try it out. And the first thing I saw in my room on stretcher bars was my rose. 

This is the American Beauty designed by Debbee's Designs. I started this last January right around my grandmother's birthday. She truly loved her roses. Was disappointed that when she moved to Florida she couldn't grow them.  Her secret? She used to empty her coffee grounds and tea bags on them.


Eventually this will be one permanent rose in memory of her.

 I have put in about two more hours of work since last we saw it. This is the upper right. I've been working on this part upside down so I don't have to reach too far. Don't know what I'll do when I reach the middle. Eight different overdyed threads, each thread has its own stitch so eight different stitches. If I remember correctly it's 54 squares by 54 for a total of 2,916 four by four squares.

There's the new light. Perfection! And because Jane notices these things, my rose is dressed up with a bee needle minder. Yes. I bought that just for this piece. Seemed fitting. I promise better pictures next time. I only had my telephoto lense and was too lazy to go get the regular one!

What a Nice Boy!

In a world where all children are above average, you occasionally get a treat!

DS was helping friends and they need to visit IKEA. 

So he asked me if there was anything there I needed. 

My first thought was that I needed to go visit IKEA myself. It's been so long since I've been. Months and months. Maybe nearly a year?

Then I remembered glimpsing something someone had a meeting. 

And I went online and asked him to get me one of these:

Jansjo clamp light.

He even called me from the store to ask if I preferred black or white. 

I told him to surprise me.

Woke up this morning to find a black one on my counter. Fits perfectly on stretcher bars!

The bulb is not meant to be replaceable. But aren't these LED lights supposed to have a 20-30 year life? 

(Snuck away for a quick check - "When a manufacturer says that an LED lamp will last 25,000 or 50,000 hours, what the company actually means is that at that point, the light emanating from that product will be at 70 percent the level it was when new." ) Says one NYTimes article.

Okay. I think that works for me!

Gingerbread Ornament Finish

And to think that I almost didn't take this class. 

 This was taught at our Guild meeting in October and finished stitching it two days later. 

Last night, I finished finished it. It's a freebie on The Victoria Sampler website. Go and stitch one of your very own!

Ornament to Finish

It's been a week since I finished this hardanger ornament by The Victoria Sampler. 

And here it sits. 

There's the backing all laced. There's the front all laced. There's the pearl cotton to make the cording and the cording maker. 

You'd think I could get my act together and assemble this. LOL

Epic!

For all us nerdy types - a Star Wars Quiet Book. She's also done a Star Trek one, too!

First Friday

I can feel the deadlines looming. Birthdays, and Christmas presents to wrap and mail. I need to go order a turkey if I want to be guaranteed the right size all-natural one. Cleaning before guests arrive. Etc.

I blew it all off yesterday afternoon. Spent the morning with my special group of Thursday friends. Thirteen of us yesterday. More knitters than stitchers, but I love admiring the yarns and lovely items knitted from the yarns.

DH was working just down the road a few miles and he finished his meetings just after 3 p.m. I am currently in the full-time position of chauffeur as he broke his ankle back in October. (Let's just say he hobbled around on it for 10 days before seeing a doctor. He's in a walking cast and he cannot drive.) 

After I picked him up, I was going to go to the grocery store. But instead I walked into the house and up to my room that's such a mess it can't properly be called a studio. I cleaned up one half of the room. Got everything off the chair and sat down with a Crazy January project and turned on the 1st season of Soap on Netflix. My favorite line - The Godfather saying to Danny - "There's two things my mother can't stand. A guest host on the Tonight Show and food left on a plate." Made it through the 1st four episodes. Dosed off for a few minutes. Then went an ordered pizza for dinner. 

Now that's a good Thursday. I'm still trying to figure out a few things in this room. Like do I want to put up a pegboard grid thing. Or shelves? Do I want to attempt the horrid project that would bring my bookcase up two flights of stairs and removing my daughter's smaller one? Yes. My books have overflowed and maybe I just need to weed them carefully. But I thought I did that last fall when I moved into this room. Okay. I know. I've bought more since then. ARGH! (I just realized I missed talk like a pirate day this year. Was I in Florida?)

I'd like to remove my oak student desk. It isn't useful to me and is just taking up space, but I've got no where else to put it. And as it was my mother's, my sister's, mine, and then my daughter's desk, I refuse to deaccession it. 

I need to continue to shed papercrafting items. Because I'm not scrapping or rubberstamping any more. Just trying to be realistic. 

If DD could take possession somehow of her china cabinet, her cedar chest, her bookshelf and books, I'd have everything figured out. 

But I don't see that happening too soon. 

Ha! Almost Forgot!

I almost forgot to post! Good way to start off a month of daily blog posting.

As I was sitting here watching Big Bang Theory in syndication on TBS it struck me that I had meant to do this earlier today and got sidetracked.

I have two half finished pieces staring at me. One is put together but unembellished. The other need assembly. I'll get there eventually.

I spent the first 30 minutes at stitchy group this morning working on one of my Crazy January projects only to finally figure out that I miscounted from that very first stitch and everything I did needed to come out. Oh well. 

I moved on. 

Here's what I stitched instead. 

Another motif finished on my Exeter Sampler. 

Now I've posted and I can go sleep in peace.

NaBloPoMo

I'm not even going to begin to attempt NaNoWriMo this year. November just doesn't cut it for me to write a novel. 

But I do think I can do National Blog Posting Month. As C in DC pointed out to me, I'm already trying to get back to a routine and this is perfect timing. 

I sit here with two projects done and still I'm facing the finishing. Didn't get a chance to have at them yesterday. Maybe today???

I did a tiny bit of stitching last evening on my current Quaker which needs a name. As Pam designed this piece for Carolina Sampler Guild, she named it after the only motif on it that isn't Quaker. It's called the Garden Gate Sampler. But as I'm changing all the words on this piece, I might as call it what I intend it to be - My Exeter Sampler. 

 My idea is to honor my school. Dorky, I know. But my 3 years at Exeter did have profound effects on me. (And regardless of how the blond chick on Two Broke Girls said it the other night, it's pronounced like it's spelled - Eksiter - not Eggsiter.)


I've graphed out the words and toyed with a stitching a bee skep. And I've got a class with Pam on the 11th so I'll be able to show her what I'm doing. All I know is I just love stitching on Quaker samplers.

Guilds

Long time readers know that I'm a guild member. Not of just one guild, but several. Two EGA chapters, two ANG chapters, and the Loudoun Sampler Guild to be exact. 

When I first joined any guild, it was back in 2000. And it was one of the chapters I am a member of now. I never made it to a single meeting because of their daytime meeting schedule. I was a member for exactly one year. When I moved in 2002, I had posted a question about my upcoming move and was rewarded not only with a thoughtful answer, but also an invitation to join the local EGA chapter. And thus, two months after moving I headed off into a September to a guild meeting. There I met the wonderful lady who had invited me and one other newbie who she had met waiting in the parking lot for the Sudberry House Garage Sale to start. 

I don't remember what we did that first meeting. But I do remember being impressed with the upcoming classes and events. And in the 3 years I lived there, I rarely missed a meeting. In fact, these meetings became a priority for me. I made some friends. I took some wonderful classes. I did my first beading. And completed my first Group Correspondence Class. And I started this blog. 


When I moved in 2002, it was back to northern VA where I found a different EGA chapter than the one I had originally joined. This one met both morning and evening. And the best part - that first meeting I went to I was greeted by someone who remembered my name when I went to my second meeting. 


Can we be a bit cliquey at these meetings? Possibly. And in some cases, certainly.

I am a young EGA & ANG member however I do not attend meetings because the women are sooo hateful!

This is an anonymous comment from the other day. I truly feel badly about this. I don't know what's wrong with people who aren't welcoming. It's so hard to walk into a room full of strangers. Guild members need to acknowledge this fact. What does it take to go up to a new face and say hello and introduce yourself. I don't like to think about what experiences anonymous has had to characterize the women as hateful. And I truly hope anonymous isn't talking about any of my guilds!

To my guild friends:  if you want your guild to continue to exist, you really must do your best to be thoughtful about the visitors and newbies. Put yourself in their shoes. Treat them the way you'd like to be treated. A little friendliness can go a long way.