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.