Maybe I Shall

spend the day stitching on Agnes Scott. Oh. Wait the sun is shining - I should go take a picture! And here it is!

There is still satin stitch to be done on the second band.

Re: A's Comment

LOL - hysterically!

REALLY!

I was talking to my MIL last weekend about how we missed the boat on him being a page - we were living in NY at the time and it just didn't occur to us to have him apply to the congressional page program. (They do this their junior year.) Then I said maybe it was a good thing. He might have gotten a certain congressman...

I'm in Love

with Agnes Scott. I'll have to take her picture and post it here. I had forgotton how much I like this piece. Didn't get much stitched on her today because I've been cleaning the kitchen ceiling before painting. The last people in this house may not have done much cooking, but at least one of them was a smoker. And I know they didn't clean or paint or kitchen. Most likely the last time the ceiling was cleaned was 2001-02. Ugh. I think my arm is ready to fall off.

But the real fun of today will be later. When I pick up my son. Who has joined the ranks of commuters. He has the unique opportunity of interning for a US Senator on Capitol Hill while still in high school. I can hardly wait to hear the stories. Today was his first day.

Next

Where in the world is this impulse to stitch UFOs coming from? After already finishing 2 projects in January, yesterday I picked up my Agnes Scott sampler by With My Needle. I last stitched on this at an EGA meeting and put it down because I knew I had a line of stitching to frog - thread had knotted on the back and I didn't notice it till I was at the end of a long piece of silk thread. Yesterday I frogged that. Restitched it. And continued on with the border. Spent sometime looking over my previous stitching and what is still to come. I am about 40% finished with this. There is some satin stitching that I have chosen to do later. I like doing the satin at the end of the project so it all lays beautifully flat.

Hand-painted canvas

This is my canvas that I painted, myself. No kidding. Thanks to Anna at the Scarlet Thread. Her design colors are in the purples, but I wanted pinks. I'm amazed at how easy the painting part was.

Round Robin Finish

This is a Judith Kirby design from 1988. I purchased it in 1996 which was the year this round robin was done. Of course, once it came back to me with one square not finished and the border incomplete, I never, ever once picked it back up. Until 2 weeks ago. To the ladies from the Xtrafun floss exchange group that was on AOL's cross stitch boards who participated in this round robin, thank you.

Now this sampler is a little too country for me. But I think if I had it framed, I could hang it in a bathroom.

That's another UFO monkey off my back!

Round Robin UFO

I completed the border last night and started stitching the last motif - the train station. The sun is shining today so I can finally take a decent picture.

Am contemplating volunteering to work the Woodlawn show in March. Maybe I should get a job first so I know my schedule before committing?

Everything is White This A.M.

so we got a little snow. A couple of inches at most. Two hour delay for school.

but

they never went out to salt or sand the roads. Which are now totally ice covered.

We crawled at 5 m.p.h. to school. I wanted to go to the hardware store, but I'm not trying that with all these people who don't know how to drive in the winter. (Being a New Hampshire type, my winter driving skills are impeccable.)

Will eventually head to the grocery store 'cause someone forgot to tell me he used the last garbage bag.

And yes. Though the Patriots lost, it was a fun game to watch. Now, go Bears!

Food instead of stitching

Okay. Today I did finish kitting up Lynne Nicollet's Posieden = everything except the fabric. I'm waiting till tomorrow morning when I can do that in the sunlight.

I was appalled at what I found at my local Micheal's. I had decided instead of going through all my floss for the 27 skeins of DMC, that I would take advantage of a sale and go buy some new stuff. At my Michael's the floss is in trays, in rows, but totally out of order. With many colors missing. Mixed in the regular DMC, was DMC rayon and Perle cottons. I bounced all over trying to find the 27 skeins I needed. I felt lucky to have located 23 of them. I had the other 4 at home. Had also bought the beads and Kreinik previously.

Of course my Michaels is right near a Whole Foods. And I was looking for fish for supper. We ended up with quite an elegant little meal. Organic baby romaine with asiago and cracked peppercorn dressing. Lemon sole with tarrogon butter. And parsleyed rice with an aged organic Gouda cheese. A nice unprentenious CA chardonnay from Modesto = Corq Dorq. Nice name. And brownies for desert. 'Cause a meal like that calls for chocolate.

Now to decide what to eat tomorrow night for the all important Patriots/Colts game.

Fibers, Wonderful Fibers

I forgot to post about a trip to Needlewoman East in Falls Church. This was a trip to select fibers for the needlepoint canvas I painted in December. Though we painted shades of purple, my original intent was to make my flowers pink. I had the shop owner helping me and we couldn't find a run of five shades of purple in silk. I started looking at pink and the selection was even slimmer. Until she remembered that she had some Vineyard Silk from Wiltex in Boston. Sure enough, five shades of pink in the same family. Picking the browns for the stems was simpler. The leaf colors were a bit more difficult, but we managed. For the background I have off-whites in silk/wool blend and my accent stitching will be Rainbow Gallery's Mandarin which is made from bamboo.

I got excited. Came home. Put the canvas on the stretcher bars and started to stitch with the Vineyard Silk. Wow. That stuff is the slickest silk I've used.