Time to Stitch

This morning I am stitching in a waiting room while my hubby does the dreaded upper and lower GI stuff. I have my Moxie canvas with me and will compete my middle panel. I'm pretty certain at this point that the panel over the I is coming g out. I don't like it. I've got something else I can do there and I'm fairly sure I've got enough thread.

Next week at this time I'll be packing the car to go on retreat with my guild. Three and a half days of uninterrupted stitching time. I hope I can have at least one finish!

Oh The Places You Can Go

 Sharing some photos from the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, VA. I was not feeling my best that day and did not make through all the exhibits.

 File under War Is Hell...

 There are warnings for parents here that small children may be disturbed.

 Nothing beats hanging planes inside of buildings.

 Hubby's maternal grandfather served in the Marines and went to Nicaragua.

 You can find textiles in almost every museum. There also was a lovely needlepoint piece for recruiting in WWII, but I couldn't get a decent shot of it due to glass.

Once when I was in a museum in Massachusetts talking to the gift shop clerks, I was asked about that alien building south of D.C. Took me a moment to realize she was talking about this. Looks very cool lit up at night from I-95.

 

In Other Stitching News

I guess it is official now and I can spill. 

Some of my friends know, but as I received my July/August issue of Needle Pointers magazine in the mail today, soon everyone will know. 

I'm the new book reviewer!  

Needle Pointers is the guild magazine for the American Needlepoint Guild.

First thing I did after looking at my copy was text my daughter to tell her how satisfying it is to see my name in print again. (Well, actually a different name, because before it was my maiden name.)

For those who do not needlepoint, you can see what I'm talking about here. 

Oh, and it's Flag Day today. Here's my latest flag photo from the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, VA taken Memorial Day weekend. 
 

I'm Back!

I learned a few things in the past week. Number 1 is that I have lots and lots of wonderful friends. Number 2 is that percocet and I don't neccessarily get along - can you say hallucinations and out of body experiences??? It took care of the pain just fine. And let me sleep. Which was good. Number 3 is that it takes 48 hours for that stuff to completely clear my system. Number 4 is that I would make a horrible drug addict. Number 5 is that my mind is back and my husband is grateful to hear I won't be bursting into tears for no reason. 

I think that's enough personal stuff for one post, don't you? 

Um, I think I wrote a letter from the President for my EGA Chapter this weekend. Writing under the influence. Maybe I better go check that email??? 

 Here's how I know I'm back. I'm stitching again. Hallelujah!

 Here's my first baby project. I'll finish it as a flat ornament. I'm changing the white stripes to teal. I like it. 

 Went to Tuesday night stitching group and almost got the bottom on the right panel. Unfortunately lack of sleep the night before made me stop and go home. Where I fell asleep in my chair watching Chopped. Don't know who won. I hate that.

 How to do stash enhancement while recovery from surgery - order before you go. All thanks to Jane of Chilly Hollow. She posted a notice of an anniversary sale at Needle in a Haystack in Montrose CA. I checked it out and ordered these birds. Heavy on the penguins. But that's what my daughter-in-law loves. The three birds on a wire just cracked me up. Kind of looks like Angry Birds. So they arrived Friday just when I needed a pick me up.

While in the surgical waiting room, you know, just lying there hooked up to your IV waiting for your drugs and the whole experience to be over, I got left alone for bit. No source of entertainment. Kind of bored. But then I figured out what to do and started designing a needlepoint piece in my head. My terrific anesthesiologist came back and must of asked me what I was doing (staring at the ceiling like that) and I said needlepointing my head. And he said, WHAT? And I said, it's too hard to explain...LOL If nothing else I have a fabulous idea for a project. And I think I figured out how to put it all together as it will be 3-D. Not bad for twenty minutes. 

Nothing

Gallbladder all gone. I left the hospital same day. Came home with my Percocet. Can't stitch on that stuff. So I've got nothing much to say.

Looking forward to better days.

Oh yeah. Aren't cell phones great? You can take pictures of people who have no idea what you're doing. I like this woman's dress. Looks like a bargello pattern. :-)

Counting the Hours

I am literally counting the hours - 144 hours from now I will be minus one gallbladder which apparently isn't soon enough. I feel like I'm in a race to see if I can last till my surgery date or just maybe might end up at the ER begging them to do it RIGHT NOW! Definitely should not have eaten those chips yesterday. Sigh. Good thing they tasted so good...

In other news:  I have started working part-time for a wonderful local needlepoint shop, Waste Knot, in Arlington, VA. The owner, Lori Mazza, focuses exclusively on hand-painted canvas. It's darn dangerous working with all those luscious threads and beautiful canvas designs. I am perfecting and expanding my own thread and stitch choices. Just wish there were more hours in the day to stitch it all!

 I've been moving along on my Fenway canvas. The middle part of the park is stitched. Next up finish those windows. One flag down, three to go. And I am happy with the byzantine stitch for the grass area. I may have started another canvas, too. Just a Baby's First Christmas ornament which I'm going to basketweave. It would be the purse project, but it's a tad too large for my purse. 

Off to see what I can possibly eat for lunch that won't cause me any problems...

P.S. Thanks for the blog reader recommendations. I've settled on Feedly which seems to work well on my phone also. That was the least problematic changeover on any computer related thing I have ever done. 

What's the Verdict?

Bloggers - what's the verdict on replacing Google Reader? Is it bloglovin'? or do you recommend something else? I'm pretty sure it's time for me to make a decision, but I've had no time to devote to this issue...

Speaking of no time, my apologies. I'm not getting here very often which if you've followed me for any amount of time, you know I've been a fairly consistent bloggers except for vacations. I am endeavoring to get back to a regular schedule. (Spellcheck not working this morning. How many errors will I have before I finish here?)


Stitching upates:

Fenway Park canvas. Haven't gone back to the bricks. I really need to concentrate to get the compensation correct around the doors and ornamentation. What I have done is the first of the flags. And then I thought I had an inspired choice for the grass, but ugh. Kennan stitch is lovely and I will certainly be using it somewhere and soon. But my thread does not match my canvas close enough and that tiny bit of canvas peeking through made it all look wonky. Hubby said it looked like weeds, not grass. LOL


 

Byzantine to the rescue. I was looking for stitches on my phone app of Suzy's Portable Stitches which has tips and funny little bits of wisdom at the bottom of each page when one of them struck me. It was something about wasteful of time and energy it can be to search for the perfect stitch when you already have a perfectly good stitch to use. And thus I settled on Byzantine which covers all the canvas and looks good. 

It was also time to add just a tiny bit of sparkle. It's Silk Lame Braid on the flagpole in and in the lettering of the flag. I decided the flag background will remain silk, and not be sparkly. 
 

This canvas is a challenge piece for my guild so it needs to be done by March 2014. But in a fit, I am stating that it will be finished by the time the World Series ends in the fall. I am making small progress on a couple other challenge pieces, but nothing worth highlighting yet. 

And the Loudoun Sampler Guild mystery sampler continues. Here's my completed March band. Love how the designer of this part modified the queen stitch to create dogwood petals. I've got some interesting color choices going on as I don't have a real yellow or a pink or a purple in my color palette and decided not to add any at this point in time. My redbud is red which is so wrong. LOL
 

What I did have to add to my threads, were two solidly colored silks one in green and one in red to use for the blackwork in the parts that come next. My overdyed threads are just a touch too variable for my liking. If you're interested in seeing more of what we are doing, go to the Loudoun Sampler Guild blog and have a peek. Photos from the May meeting aren't there as I am typing this, but I expect that they will be soon. 

 

Video from Woodlawn 2013

Watch "Woodlawn Needlework Exhibition نمایشگاه سوزن دوزی در ویرجینیا" on YouTube

For those who never get here to Virginia for the Needlework Show,  here's a video done for Voice of America.

It's terrific to see so many of my friends' pieces!

Thought of something I saw on facebook that might be of interest to some of you.  It's a cheapo sewing box from Harbor Freight (right now on sale for $14.99 that's how cheap it is!) that has been filled with British theme cross stitch pieces.

 See the photo here:
Link to info on Wasatch Needlecraft

Order sewing case here:
Harbor Freight sewing case

I've got too much going on otherwise I might be tempted by this.

Stitching

The good news is I'm still stitching. The bad news is stitching in places like the ER. 

But don't fret. A lot of very serious stuff has been ruled out!

DH is having some issues and we're hoping to get some answers.

So I'll be back soon with updates and regular postings.