Then There's This Forsythia

Gram, this one's for you. The sweet lady just couldn't say forsythia without lisping. Which was hysterical to the rest of the family. Maybe that's why she didn't have growing in her yard which was filled with all kinds of flowers.

This is just down the street a couple of blocks. It's a hedge on a corner at an intersection and as you come around and turn down that street, the yellow just smacks you in the face. I love it.

No real progress on stitching for me yesterday. I spent hours and hours outside in the cold being a good parent and attending my son's first crew regatta as a college varsity rower.

Spring is Coming!

I should run back out there right now and take another picture today and see what it looks like two days later.

I Feel the Need

The need for speed.

It's time to speed up my needle.

I thought I had more time to stitch my model. Not my mistake. The designer gave me the incorrect date.

I figure I can maybe finish with the cross stitch part this weekend and then start the backstitching and blackwork.

Meanwhile all those other ideas need to sit quietly in their corner of my brain and wait for me to finish this project.

Looking for Suggestions

'Kay. I just wanted something interesting to look at.

But my question is:

If you were going to start designing and selling your needlework designs, what name would you choose for your company?

It's okay if you want to keep the name that you secretly hope one day to actually use. Give me your second best choice.

I've been having fun playing this game and googling potential names to see what's already in use.

Yoo-Hoo! Over Here...Stop That!

It's been pretty unpleasant being in my house during the day the past few days. Someone nearby is doing some kind of construction that must require a pile driver. It slowly drives me nuts. Glad I don't live near any major bridges in need of construction or I'd have to move. I haven't stayed at home much.

Okay. Who thinks it's funny that when I wanted to learn more about color and color theory, the first thing I did was check out the library and the bookstore? My friend went to google first. I guess I'm showing my age. But wait. She's older than I. LOL Actually, the truth is I was looking for a book or books that I could add to my own personal library.

And speaking of books, I ordered both Lesley Watkins blackwork books at Amazon yesterday. I checked and they were definitely cheaper than Barnes and Noble.

And speaking of blackwork, I saw an advertisement for the new Showtime series, The Tudors. I guess I'll just have to wait for the DVD release.

At least with last weekend's free HBO/Cinemax preview we managed to catch the first 3 John Adams episodes. Which, btw, were terrific. Of course, Abigail is the absolute best. She's the one who should have been running the country.

Blatant Sexism at Work

This is not what you think. From this morning's news:

Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society found some remarkable family connections for the three presidential candidates — Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican John McCain.

Clinton, who is of French-Canadian descent on her mother's side, is also a distant cousin of singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, can call six U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush, his cousins. McCain is a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush.

Genealogist Christopher Child said that while the candidates often focus on pointing out differences between them, their ancestry shows they are more alike than they think.

"It shows that lots of different people can be related, people you wouldn't necessarily expect," Child said.

Obama has a prolific presidential lineage that features Democrats and Republicans. His distant cousins include President George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman and James Madison. Other Obama cousins include Vice President Dick Cheney, British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill and Civil War General Robert E. Lee.

What the hell? Clinton is paired with female singers and entertainers while Obama gets credit for presidents, generals, and prime ministers!?!?!?

Neck/arm Pain

It comes. It goes. Not bad enough to send me off to a doctor's office. But this is getting to be annoying.

And I have effectively taken my current stitching schedule and twisted it and left myself not so much time for pleasure stitching. But that's alright.

And after saying that, I will say that yesterday's stitching was all about pleasure. It's a project called Crazy Pyramid. I finished the background on Monday and started in on the embellishment phase. Which is so much fun. So far I've created cattails and a bit of blueberry bush. I've started on lily pads. My husband came home while I was in the midst of this and looked at it and said "that's just wrong." He went upstairs to change, came back, looked again, and said "It looks like a quilt."
(YES!) And then started singing Anita's part from West Side Story about sticking to your own kind. Very funny.

Regardless of his opinion, I'm having fun and it will look lovely when completed.

Re: Crescent Colours - I'm amazed at the different experiences that people have with different fibers. I love stitching with them. They don't knot at all for me. But meanwhile, Weeks has done something with the dyeing process - I swear. Certain colors are now so thin and rough feeling to me. And GAST - well - I've been working with it for more than 10 years now. I'm pretty happy with the quality and selection of colors. And I do like the Carrie's Creations - she seems to have figured out a way to richer and more vibrant than anyone else. But at times there are some huge discrepancies is dye lots. Given all this, I think I'm moving back to just DMC or Anchor for designing.

Shoot

All I saw of the Red Sox game was the last pitch. I'm loving my satellite feed right now. Sigh.

In Stitching News:

Spent another day in the demo room at Woodlawn with my partner in crime. We held forth as experts in many aspects of stitching - including blackwork, punchneedle, and canvaswork. Which my friend really is an expert in. We totally enjoyed ourselves.

I am finding it funny that I can tell exactly when I've had enough of the blackwork. All the lines on the pattern just kind of blur together and I have to focus extra hard to understand what I'm supposed to do. So I put down the blackwork and picked up on older canvaswork UFO. Which I'm loving right now.

Stopped by the shop and picked up extra skeins of Crescent Colours - trying to match the ones I'm currently using for the Quaker piece. After stitching one motif, I realized this piece was going to take more fiber than I had forseen. Original was stitched over 1 with silks and I'm stitching it over 2 with overdyed cottons.

For anyone using Crescent Colours, especially, but in reality any overdyed fiber - look at your pattern carefully. Will any of it require more than one skein? Crescent, which I love to work with, seems to have a huge problem with dye lots varying by a huge amount.

%&&#&$$^^&&*!

It's opening day and the Red Sox are playing the A's in Japan this morning.

But I can't watch it.

Because apparently somewhere there is a problem.

No baseball on DirecTv.

No video feed online. No audio feed online.

All I know is that the score is tied 4-4 and I am unhappy.

Okay - Thirty and Counting

I'm 30 posts away from hitting 1,000. That means if I play every day, I'll get there before the end of April. - just a little programming note

I'm off to Woodlawn again today. Unfortunately it is not going to be another bright, sunshiney day.

I need to remember to bring my clip on light. I'd bring my daylight, but I'm not sure there's even an outlet in that room. I know. What kind of house has a room with no electrical outlets? One built in the 1700s.

And yesterday - again an accident with water. It's a good thing I drink water 99% of time and not soda or tea. This time it was my fault. I don't know how it happened, but I reached for my glass and knocked it over onto to blackwork that I had just set down. As these are jewel tone threads, I was extremely happy to find that this particular Anchor floss really is colorfast.