What's in a Title?

Meh. I hate when words fail me. Just spent two whole minutes contemplating a title for this post. When what I'm going to do is mostly ramble...too much pressure. Of the self-inflicted kind.

Which got me thinking about the actual word - title. Origins - c.1303, "inscription, heading," from O.Fr. title (12c.), and in part from O.E. titul, both from L. titulus "inscription, heading," of unknown origin. Meaning "name of a book, play, etc." first recorded c.1340. The sense of "name showing a person's rank" is first attested 1590. The verb meaning "to furnish with a title" is attested from 1387.

Interesting. A word with origins from both Latin and Old English. How can that be? Not often that the English language has two sources merging into one word. Where's a copy of the OED when I need one?

Though I was thinking of the word title as the referent used to identify a literary, artistic, or other work, I am reminded of all the other meanings of title. Like professional titles, academic titles, military titles, ecclesiastic titles, titles for heads of state, etc. Hereditary titles. Title as denoting ownership of property like a car title. Job titles. Championship titles.

I love titles. Good ones, that is. Like with movies. If it's forgettable, it's a bad title, . Like "Taken" or "Push." One word titles have to be unique to be good. Like "Fanboys."

Eh? What's in a title? Everything.

Rambling over. Stitching news now. Finished all the cross stitching on Spooky Hill. Just backstitching to go. Now I have to decide what to take with me to NH. And I have a large pile of choices.

What I Did Instead of Stitching

On Saturday I worked at the store, my local needlework store that is closing.

And one of the store's most wonderful friends and teachers, came in to do what she does so well. Kit up.

She pulled pattern after pattern out of her bag and we found fabric for them. Mostly just fabric, but also some threads. I think this lasted for nearly two hours.

This got me thinking.

Instead of stitching yesterday, I went through that stack of patterns that has slowly been growing over the past year to see what I really wanted to add to the pile of projects ready to stitch.

That was step one.

Step two. Go through the project box of completely and partially kitted projects and make sure I have fabric and fibers for all that is in there.

Step three. Sit on the bed with this pile of patterns, mostly unkitted, some partially kitted, and make a master list of said patterns and what is needed for them.

Step four. Flip to back of notebook where there's a page filled with numbers as I decided to write down fabric cut size, not design size for each pattern. I love doing math in my head, but sometimes it helps to write things down. Continue to flip back and forth between this page and the master list pages.

Step five. Pull out box of assorted silks. Sort said silks into these categories:

1. Silk N Colors
2. Waterlilies
3. Needlepoint Inc.
4. Au Ver Au Soie
5. Belle Soie
6. assorted miscellaneous silks

Step six. Go through master list and match silk threads to projects. Put silk away.

Step seven. Sort boxes of metallics, Watercolours and perle cottons, Wildflowers and Flower Thread.

Step eight. Match these threads to list. Put these boxes away.

Step nine. Sort box of overdyed cottons into the following:

1. Crescent Colours
2. GAST
3. Weeks Dye Works
4. Carrie's Creations
5. assorted other cotton overdyed fiber

Step ten. Make sure you can still get up off the floor and move. Stiff, but okay.

Step eleven. Match these threads to master list. Put cottons away.

Step twelve. My goal all along when I started finally reached - time to go through linen stash.

Step thirteen. Sort fabric into following categories:

1. Ornament cuts - too small to be useful in this endeavor.
   
2. linen banding which I don't need right now
3. fabric to sell at EGA estate sale this summer - in this pile things I don't like to stitch on which includes evenweaves like Lugana and Monaco
4. cheap ass linen from Charles Craft - I think most of this was given to me, but I'll keep it for emergencies
   
5. the good stuff

Step fourteen. Admire the good stuff. Cashel and Belfast. Lakeside Linens and Crossed Wing. Picture This Plus. Oooh, the colors. And don't forget that small collection of 40ct plus linen from Italy, including a piece of 50 ct - oh my what was I thinking?

Step fifteen. Start matching fabric to master list. Put fabric with patterns and fibers. Place completely kitted projects in projects ready to stitch box. Uh oh. Gonna run out of room in that box.

Step sixteen. Place partially kitted and have to get everything patterns in bag to take to store on Tuesday. Along with master list.

Step seventeen. Admire completely decimated fabric stash. Wow. I was more successful at this than I thought I would be. Some of this fabric that has found patterns has been in my stash for 10, 15, even 20 years. It has been purchased in Germany, Virginia, Maryland, New Hampshire, California, Colorado, New Jersey, and New York. Some of it was acquired by mail.

Step eighteen. Completely exhausted as this took several hours, I decide not to count the number of projects I have that are now kitted. Why bother scaring myself?

Happy Mothers Day

Things are terrific for me, even if I did have to my daughter on a plane yesterday so she is not here.

Bought the large Gel Pro mat last weekend for the kitchen. Standing at the sink and counter now a pleasure instead of a pain. That was my request for a present. And now that they are carrying these at Bed, Bath, and Beyond you can use a discount coupon.

My sous-chef son (he's my sous-chef, not a professional) made waffles, eggs, bacon and fresh fruit.

The sun is shining. Must be a good day.

Hope everyone else finds some measure of joy and peace in this day.

Off to stitch now.

No Winners, but I'm the Loser

Why I am the loser:

Because people waste my time by not making full disclosures. FIOS installer arrived nearly two hours after he called and said he'd be there in 45 minutes...so he was outside the installation window by nearly one full hour. Okay. I can live with that. But what went horribly wrong after was that he went outside and said we didn't have a ground and he couldn't install. So being the smart person I am I asked why my neighbors have had this installed. He went back and looked and oh. Everyone else is grounded to the cold water pipe which is not up to code and he won't do that. Now I have to call an electrician and have a ground installed. So no FIOS for us.Fortunately I hadn't called and canceled anything yet. My ESP at work. All this could have been prevented by a person asking if we had a ground when we called and asked to sign up.

Then the silly people came from the SA and rejected my furniture. Seems the stuff they pick up here does not go to the store, but gets resold to someone else with very high standards. Rejected desk, chair and nightstand for chipped paint. Told me my white craft cabinets were chipped (I think not!), and though they initially took my two IKEA chairs, they returned them because of cat hair! At which point they asked if anyone had explained the standards to me when I arranged for pick up over the phone. Of course not. Wasted trip for them. Frustration for me.

Whatever people. Had a lovely dinner out with my family. DD returns to school today. I'm going to the shop to help with the hoards who are willing to spend their money now that the business is going out of business. If a few more of these people had been willing to part with their cash a few months ago, this would not be happening.






My progress on Spooky Hill. I have stitched a bit more on this. Just need to finish going across the bottom and then it's on to the backstitching.

Who Will Arrive First?

I've got the FIOS installation happening today and because I knew I'd be home all day, I invited the Salvation Army over to pick up some extra furniture. :-)

Who's gonna get here first? FIOS takes 4-6 hours. How much fun can this be?

Meanwhile, house is clean 'cause we invited a couple of friends over for dinner last night. This translates to me getting to sit and stitch today. Maybe finish Spooky Hill. And the sun looks like it might cooperate for a while and I may get to take some photos. I'm off to watch Monday night's episode of House that I DVRd before I'm disconnected.

Glitzy Accessories

I'm taking this online class through the Shining Needle Society. If you are unaware of the Shining Needle Society, you could google them. Or you could join them on Yahoo!Groups. Their mission statement runs like this:

"To provide nurturing and inspiring opportunities for growth in the study of needlework, with the hope of continuing the legacy of embroidery art for future generations."

The class I'm taking is Glitzy Accessories by Carole Lake.

This is my first foray into the world of online classes. Everything is running smoothly thus far.

I have my instruction book with all the pretty pictures. And though I started out with one color combination, yesterday I took my DD to the Waste Knot in Arlington and picked out another set of colors. The first set was based on Watercolours "Havana" which is a green to purple. I see why I picked it originally, but when I looked at them again, I wasn't sold. Yesterday we picked a palette that matches Watercolours "Royal Jewels." I'm going to stitch the nametag first and if I don't like it, I can change again.

DD admired all the lovely canvases. And we bought her her own BLT - Best Laying Tool. Yes, the gold-plated one is lighter - I can now verify that. But we just got the regular one. Like mine. DD was talking about taking her needlepoint project back to school with her and if she wants to do that she needs a laying tool. Proper tools are important. :-)

It's Official

In my family, the next generation is growing up. DD at the age of 22 finally got her driver's license yesterday. And next week when my twin nieces turn 18, everyone of that generation will be an adult. Officially. Where has the time gone?

If the sun ever shines here again in northern Virginia (I hear rumors we'll see it by the weekend) I will take a photo or two. But meanwhile, it is gray and dreary and rainy. And I know I could never live in the Pacific northwest.

Been stitching on By the Bay's Spooky Hill. By the Bay is another Donna from New Hampshire though she lives there still. Here's a link to her blog. I made an error that I didn't catch until yesterday. Oops. So I matched the error on the other side and the piece will be two stitches wider on the bottom half. Good. Now I'll definitely have room to change the words from Spooky Hill to Sleepy Hollow.

I also did my bit - stitching in public yesterday. While at the DMV. I started The Victoria Sampler's international heart for Norway. It's my new carry along project. There was one guy that was sitting behind me to one side and he kind of creeped me out the way he was staring. Was glad when DD came back from her driving test and we moved.

Organizing: part eleventy-three

It seems I've blathered on about organizing here many times in the past few years. I'm always attempting to get organized. It's a process. Not a goal. LOL

I bought two Elfa units last week. Evicted all the paper crafting stuff from my closet and brought in the stitching stuff. Well, haven't quite evicted it all. I've still got two shelves worth of photo boxes that can go. Took the old student desk out of my bedroom - extremely worthless as I never use it - and will donate that to the Salvation Army. Suddenly the bedroom seems bigger. But am going to bring DD's hope chest in to that spot in front of the windows. Realized exactly how large that chair is I have in the corner. It's huge. And I am bummed that I can't place it somewhere so that I can sit there and view the TV. Maybe it is finally time to rearrange the entire room?

Love the Elfa units. I got one with wire baskets and one with mesh. Put all my needlework fabric in them. All my stretcher bars, scroll frames, Q-snaps, embroidery hoops. Put all DMC floss in one drawer (it's in floss-away bags.) Assorted other little stitchy things. Got all my boxes of projects and all my boxes of threads on top. What remains downstairs are the books. I don't have room. But I think I can make room for certain reference books like the Proper Stitch and Mary Thomas' Dictionary of Embroidery.

Still busy making all things happen for DD. Found her new hiking boots yesterday. Now I think she's fully equipped for her return trip to Alaska. She's staying for 10 weeks. Collecting little fishes called sticklebacks.

Huge Bummer

My local needlework shop is closing.

In preparation for closing,
Scarlet Thread is holding one final sale.

Effective immediately, all merchandise will be discounted by 25%-40%.
Items with a red or green dot are 30% off.
Items with a red X are 40% off.
All other items are 25% off, unless otherwise marked.

EVERYTHING MUST GO!

If you have special-order items awaiting pickup, please claim them by May 15.
After that, they will be put back in inventory for liquidation.

Thanks to all for a wonderful three years in Vienna.
Wish it could have continued in Great Falls.

Will Be Quiet Here

It will be quiet here for the next week. And then look for updates.

Don't forget to check out the post in April Triskaidekaphobia to enter my drawing for a surprise package.

You have until May 13th. Feel free to spread the word.