Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Home Again

Here it is January. After having a lovely time in New Hampshire complete with cooperative weather, we are back in old Virginia. Things were very calm and relaxing in NH. And for the first time since I can remember there was not a lot of noise and signage for next week's primary. 

Growing up in the state with the first in the nation primary is most likely the beginning of my following politics with any degree of enthusiasm. (Which living this close to D.C. nearly kills. The enthusiasm, that is.) In 1976 and 1980, I managed to see every politic candidate. Except Mo Udall - he sent his daughter, Bambi, and Cliff Robertson to stump for him. Gerald Ford did not stop to speak, but did a sort of drive-by from his limo. No one knew who Jimmy Carter was. 

Anyway, it always an interesting process to observe. 

And it seems quite absurd. There has got to be a better way of picking a president. Isn't time to enter the modern age? Can we not get electronic communication involved? It is silly that mostly white people in two states have such power over the process. 

But I digress from my stitching blog. 

And you noticed, too. 

Enough of that. 

I'm still playing catch up on things here at home. No stitching yesterday. Maybe not today either. I'd like to get to the finishing on my viola scissor case, but might not. 

It is time to get serious about picking threads for my Kimono project. I've got two choices going and the one I like the best, I can see having some problems with it. It's a teal, brown, white and silver combo. Not sure if the answer is to add more colors, but that might work. Maybe some greens and purples? I'm going to spend a few moments here google imaging kimonos to see what I can see. 

Well. That was not helpful. All I really know at this point is that I want to avoid pastels. Because I'm not a fan. 

In fact, cross stitching a pastel piece once drove me away from stitching for nearly three years in the 1990s. Yup. I hated it that much. Someone I love picked it out. And I stitched it. But it was large and I was very, very unhappy. 
I see this piece a few times a year. This year I got to see another version of it framed and hanging in an antique and collectibles shop. LOL

After that experience, I no longer take requests. If you get a stitched gift from me, that truly is something special. All my stitching is for me. 

I might get an opportunity to stop by Needlewoman East this afternoon and look at threads in person. We'll see.

3 comments:

Nicola said...

I can't wait to get started on Kimono Revisited. I am still waiting on supplies from John :(:(

Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a good craft store within driving distance. It's hard to pick threads from the Internet.

lewmew said...

My budget is extremely tight so I didn't sign up for Kimono Revisited - but I have the pattern. I'd like to do it but am unsure how to go about picking the colors - like you I want a multitude, not monchromatic. Any hints?

Anna van Schurman said...

If we didn't let the tiny states go first, no one would ever bother to campaign in the states with small populations. I think it is a way to give something to the minority.