October Review

Here's what I planned to do in October:
* make bracelets (braglets) for sils
Finished, wrapped, and shipped. Would have loved to show them to you, but they didn't photograph well.
* finish Sissy's poncho
I was going gangbusters until the family got sick. All I have left to do is seam it and knit the neck. I promise to finish by Thanksgiving, when Sissy makes her next trip.
* begin the Dude's Christmas sweater
I have procured the yarn. Now I have to find the right needles.
* knit cousin fluffy hat and scarf
I finished the scarf this weekend. I have about four inches done on the hat.
* ten hours on Toy Gatherer
Check, by 10/10
* two ornaments from the new JCS
I did three! Completed 10/12, 10/14, and 10/21.

Now I am off to contemplate what must be done next month. Update tomorrow.

This is what we've been waiting for...

Marcia Brown-Smith, the maven of finishing and owner of The Binding Stitch, is teaching two classes in finishing at Celebration of Needlework. Why did we rush into signing up for Tulsa? Wait a second, Celebration runs May 4th-May 7th, and I'm going to be in NH April 30 for my parents' anniversary party. Should I take a week off from work to do finishing classes?

On further examination, the classes don't offer all I need, but The Binding Stitch is planning to release a finishing book this year. Judging from the price of her finishing videos and dvds, this ain't gonna be cheap. But it will be professional.

Should I just break down and learn how to use my sewing machine? It's the ultimate finishing dilemma.

Grand Opening

A new cross-stitch and needlepoint store is opening up the road from my parents. Woohoo!

Here's what the Nashua Telegraph reported:

“I’ve been cross stitching for about 30 years,” she said while preparing her new shop, Colonial Needleworks on Route 101. “I started needlepoint about three years ago. We’ve been thinking about doing this for about three years.”

Although she and her husband live in Bow, she said she knew she wanted her shop to be in Bedford. “I like this location,” she said. The shop is just north of Shorty’s Restaurant.

The shop will be open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The phone number is (603) 472-8828.

Today and tomorrow are the grand opening. I won't be able to check it out until December. If you're in NH, let me know how this place is! (Of course, nothing will be as good as Yankee Cross-stitch, but it's just too far away.)
All that and TexMex too.

Book Review: The Ultimate Big Book of Finishing

As you know, I have a bajillion projects that need to be finished. Not all of the projects are worth framing, even if I could afford that. To remedy this, I have taken classes in making a no sew stand up box (with Lois of Elegant Stitch) and flat fold and a sewn cube (with Mona of The Silver Needle). I've also successfully followed the pattern Samplers and Such included with their Altoid tin projects. Still, I was intrigued when I read about the Ultimate Big Book of Finishing on the blogs, and was very excited to get it in my hot little hands.

The UBB covers finishing stitched projects into a bag, bell-pull, stand up box, box top, Christmas stocking, flat fold, hooded towel, name tag, needlebook, needle roll, flat ornie, odd-shaped ornie, pillow ornie, edge-tucked pillow, flanged pillow, gathered front pillow, ruffled edge pillow, and stand up pillow (sort of a box pillow), pin cushion, scissor fob, tin cover, and wall hanging. It also demonstrates mounting needlework. Phew. You'd think I'd be in love with the book.

But I'm not.

For starters, I'm horrible at math. With Lois's class, for example, she gave us equations to figure out the dimensions if we wanted to use the technique on other projects. And with those directions, I have been able to create different sized pieces. Over and over again, the UBB tells us to "change the dimensions to accommodate your piece" and "adjust the measurements." That's nice. How? Isn't that what I paid good money to be told?

I also think that some of these directions are ass-backwards, like for the tin top where she has you glue three sides then stuff it before gluing the fourth. That seems so awkward. Why not put the stitched piece on cardboard with batting, and then glue it to the tin? The directions from Samplers and Such were much better, give professional-looking results, and come free with your pattern.

The flat folds in UBB are two rectangles held together at the top by ribbons. In Mona's class, which someone claims was ripped off from Judy Odell of the incredibly expensive "Just a Thought" series, the easel and stitched piece are one unit. And I know how to make it with glue instead of having to sew all the damned time. I'm just against sewing, you see. Unless I have amazing directions.

I have a hard time picturing written instructions, so I had my cousin, whose current sewing project is a Snow White costume for her daughter (with lined sleeves!) and who has made "hundreds" of ruffled pillows, look over the ruffled pillow instructions. Her verdict is that the directions are very poorly written. "If you have sewing experience, you can figure it out, but it's not very detailed." Trust me, I'm pretty sure I can't figure it out.

The information in this book was originally published on the internet. And it shows. While the book is loaded with photos to guide you, they are web-quality pictures. Web-quality is not the same as print-quality. The pictures are pixelated and fuzzy.

And, by now you know how intolerant I am of poor writing mechanics. The book is rife--now I know rife for me is passable to others--with grammatical errors, typos, and poor punctuation choices.

The book does contain many Truswell patterns that are now out of print. And I got a free pattern--one of the dancing ribbon princesses--for ordering. Still the book costs $25 for comb-bound xeroxes. It is cheaper than Judy Odell's "Just a Thought" series, but I think we may be able to do better.

Celebrating the Successes

Today's Stitching Blogger Question asks us to consider this question: Have you ever stitched something as a gift and later realized that receiver doesn’t respect your stitched gift a bit (for example it’s never on show, or you have other reason to suspect that it may even be nonexistent or at least placed in some dark storage room corner)? If so, what have you done? If you’ve been lucky enough to avoid such people what would you do if it’d happen to you?

But I think I've answered that before.

So I'm going to turn the question around a bit and ask what's the best reaction you've ever gotten from a stitched gift you made?

And now I am going to have to go off and think of an answer. I will answer...it's my question!
Edited:
I think that many of my gifts have been deeply appreciated. But only two bear tales worth repeating, at this time (ever the optimist!). The first comes from my father's sister. Every year, we'd do secret santas for that large side of the family (and cheap too, they'd rather buy just one present!). Every year, I would make a cross-stitch picture to give. Since it was the only gift for this side of the family, it could be a bit larger. I did some really nice ones. Every year, my father's youngest sister would announce, "I want Nikki to get me!" Every year, I didn't get her. Then I finally did. She was so thrilled with the Sweetheart Tree sampler I did for her, she cried. (It wasn't that great.)

Another year, on the same side of the family, I made a stitched piece, a kit from the Stitchery, for my cousin Anik who had just returned from study abroad in Africa. The design was a tall African woman carrying fabric on her head, her little son trailed behind her. The whole background was stitched in half stitches. It was bright and beautiful. (Sorry, I didn't take a picture...) Anik adored it. She used to bring it to her classroom, she taught kindergarten, to show her students and talk about life in different countries.

I know other people appreciate what I've stitched for them because they all display it. Except the afghan I made my mother, but she asked if it would be okay to store it until company came, so the dogs wouldn't destroy it. Asked. In fact, she's taken all the pieces I've ever made for her and hung them in the stairway. It's like my own little gallery!

Palestrina Knots

I've been floating from project to project lately. Last night, I picked up Forget-Me-Knots-In-Stitches' Pins and Needles Smalls. I'm working on the "scissor rest" I described earlier. I'm doing two rounds of Palestrina knots. Let me tell you, I have lost it. I was making the crappiest knots in creation. It took me about 40 to get back into the groove. I almost couldn't go to bed, couldn't come to work, for fear of putting it down and losing my Palestrina knot mojo.

How Can I Lie to You?

I grew up Catholic. They have this concept called a "sin of omission." That means that if you don't do something you were morally obligated to do, you've fucked up. My mother has morphed this into her own special brand of guilt-trip called the "lie of omission." That means that if you don't tell something that you should have, well, you get the idea.

I've been keeping a secret.

I've been taking a project on the train. I've never told you about it. It's not a secret project--everyone's allowed to have those. I just didn't want to tell you because I am supposed to be finishing projects, not starting them.

It's a Krienik "Remember the Ladies" kit. I bought it when Pete was out of work. I was going to give it to him for a gift of some sort. "Enough is as a feast." It made me all teary to think of it when he wasn't working. I wanted to make sure he knew that what we had was enough for me. I'll try to get a picture of my progress soon--I haven't photographed it because I was keeping it secret from you, so I wouldn't be embarrassed by not focusing on finishing what I've already got on the go.

The Birthday Party Continues

So I got all this dosh for my birthday. I had to spend it

this book to help improve my finishing technique. This better be worth it!

the "Trim the Tree" set from Stampin' Up. For the Christmas card. Watch this space for details.

some cards from California Paper Goods.

some workout videos from Collage Video so that I won't have such a big bum.


I was also given several sets of stamps from Stampin' Up: Do the Hula, Tidy Alphabet, Sparkling Summer, and another one that I've forgotten the name of. The shame of it is, between this volunteer training I have tomorrow, and house hunting on Sunday, I won't even get to fondle this stuff, let alone use it. Why was I in such a rush to get a job?

SBQ: Big and Little

Here's a new answer to an old SBQ.

What's the largest project you've ever done? What's the smallest?
The largest prject I've ever done was the afghan. I hope to find my zip disk in the coming weeks, and I'll put a picture up for those of you who haven't seen it. It's Maureen Appleton (Heart's Content) Floral Afghan; I did this for my mother's 60th birthday. Despite the fact I started it four years before the big celebration, it took me 4 more months to finish, so 4 years and 4 months total (with many interruptions in the early phases of stitching).

The smallest is harder to think of...it may be Rae Iverson's (Moss Creek) button hole stitch flower (pictured above). Yes, those blue things next to the quarter are buttonhole stitch. You can't tell, but they are separate from the ground fabric. When we unpack the magnifying lamp from storage, I may try to finish it. First, I have to buy a house!

SBQ: Mark It

Do you mark or hi-lite your patterns or can you follow them without any markings? Do you make copies to mark up, or do you mark originals?
Despite the fact that I do counted cross stitch, I don't like to count much. So, for complicated patterns--and what makes a pattern complicated can vary--I do highlight the areas I have done. I usually make a copy to do that, though. If I wanted to do the pattern again, I would need a clean copy!

So what makes a pattern complicated? Confetti stitches usually require highlighting. This helps avoid confusion, "am I stitching that little heart symbol by the dots or that one?" Right now, I'm working on Angel Stitchin's tree from the (2005) JCS Ornament issue, because so many of those lines of stitching look just like the last one, I'm highlighting. Since I'm stitching on the train, I'm highlighting a little less frequently. Let's face it, the pattern's not that complicated--you know, if I actually bothered to count.

What I find fascinating are the pictures people show on their blogs that have stitching done in little 10x10 squares. I'm intrigued by it, since it's just about the opposite of the way I stitch. They have all these right angles and square edges in their incomplete pictures. My stitching is more freespirited, with blobs of color running in all different directions (I prefer to stitch one color at a time, within certain parameters). But I guess that's why I need to highlight.

Exchange

I am acting as a broker on behalf of my Best Pal. She has a series of needlecase patterns for exchange for other needlecase or sewing case patterns. She loves the needlecases! Like many of us, she has duplicates because of lackadaisical database management skills. (Hell, I don't even have a list of my patterns!) Here's the list.
- Colonial Huswif by Needle's Prayse
- English Sampler Chatelaine by The Nutmeg Needle
- Animal Garden Box by Beardie Designs
- Autumn Pocket by Beardie Designs
- Sampler and Antique Needlework, Spring 2002
- Quaker Needlework Treasures by With My Needle
- Acorn Sampler Sewing Case by With My Needle
- Bird in Tree by Historic Needlework Guild (kitted)
- Celtic Acorn Needlebook by The Samplar Workes

E-mail me or leave a comment, and I will put you in touch with Marisa. I will try to keep this list up-to-date, but please, I am only the broker so there may be some small delays in updating what is still available. Patience please.

Happy Birthday to Me

I don't tend to tell other people about my birthday, but I'm going up in a balloon, and I should get all the happiest wishes from as many people as possible in case I don't make it back.

How old am I?

You Are 23 Years Old

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

What Age Do You Act?

There you have it. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Molly Dog

Another finish! These JCS Ornaments go quickly. This is Molly to the Rescue by Mosey 'n Me, in honor of the dog that rescued them, and vice versa. It needs a star button for the top of the tree and about 6 stitches in light tangerine, which I do not own. (Wow, this picture is pretty lousy, but the rain has left our basement digs rather gloomy.)

Round Robins

These adorable santas returned to me a few weeks ago from my Just Cross Stitch Ornament RR. Debbie, Kate, and Michelle did a fantabulous job on these Heartstrings designs from old JCS ornament issues. They're going to look great on my santa tree. Now I need to stitch the other Heartstring Santas (I think there are 4 more). Maybe next year.

The other round robins are coming home unfinished. The group had lots of problems, and although they were trying to get their acts together, I wasn't holding my breath. I thought better my projects should be home with me. Of course, now I have more projects to add to my WIP list. I was really hoping to cut it down finally... yeah, right.

One will come home nearly complete, another about half done, and the third will have had one (!) person stitch on it. These all got stuck in the same black hole. That's what was so frustrating about this group. A handful of people who thought they were honoring their commitments so long as they didn't "steal" the piece. To hell with schedules: "Life gets in the way." Well, yeah life gets in the way if you sign up for more pieces than you can physically stitch in six weeks. Hell, we all want to stitch many more things than we do or can--look at the crazy things we do to organize and maintain our piles of stash.

Now that I think about it, perhaps I should have waited until everything was safe at home before posting this.

Caveat emptor.

A Little Present

I finished one of the ornaments from the new Just Cross Stitch: Little by Little's Little Present. That's a lot of "little." The ornament called for GAST pomegranate, but I didn't have it. I pulled the reddish color from some "Loose Threads" I got at last year's Camp Wannasew. It could be pomegranate. It looked like pomegranates look to me. Anyway, the dude really likes it. I hope we have a big tree this year...in a new house.

SBQ: What's Next?

When you have almost finished a pattern and start thinking about the next one to stitch, how do you select it? Who says I wait until I have almost finished a pattern before I start thinking about the next one to stitch--or hell, even just picking up and stitching it? I don't do things in order. I do what I feel like doing.

Because the main part of my stitching stash lives in storage, I have only recent purchases and projects that I have a lot of desire to stitch at my fingertips. Just recently, I went through what I have accumulated since February and made two piles: stuff that can stay and stuff that's being relegated to the storage unit. I'm going to try to hold off starting anything new before Christmas--unless I actually have all my Christmas presents ready in time. Famous last words.

Not Too Sick to Stitch

So after the stomach virus settled down and I was merely having aches and pains, I settled into stitching. I concentrated on Toy Gatherer. I am about 95% done with the stitching--just a bit at the top and the bottom left to do. I can't believe I've filled in that whole vest. What a pita.

On Friday, while I was home sick, I realized that there were so many JCS ornaments in the new issue that called for 40 count fabric. So I went to ebay and did the buy it now thing. I had it on Saturday! Of course, I had already kitted up three--Little by Little, Mosey n' Me, and Angel Stitchin'--to take on the train with me. But now I will be able to stitch the ones I really want to do! Don't get me wrong, I want to do the ones I kitted up, they just weren't top of the list. I'm almost finished the Little by Little present. The dude thinks it looks a lot nicer in person than in the magazine.

Alas, Sissy has come and gone and her poncho is still living with me. I meant to have my cousin show me how to do a crochet seam, but she got sick before I could. Then, it was just too much to ask her. And too much to ask of myself. I will try to do that tonight.

Out Sick

I was knocked down for the count by something the kids brought home from school. It made me contemplate why the body responds to flu by expelling rather than simply going into a coma. Wouldn't that be preferable? My cousin thinks we're now innoculated until Christmas. I think she's thinking wishfully.

I was rejected today from a bb. No biggie, but why would you put an exclamation point at the end of the subject line: "Your application has been denied!" Are you jumping up and down and screaming "in your face!" too?

Knit Lit

Since I'm at the point where I need to sew Sissy's poncho, and I haven't yet kitted my JCS 2005 projects, I've been reading on the train: Knit Lit: Sweaters and their Stories...and Other Writing About Knitting. I'm about halfway through. I'm a little disappointed: I thought there'd be more lit. The little fragments read like bad magazine columns. I suppose I should stop holding people to high writing standards. It's a lot like reading student writing. There's a lot of ta-da endings. (Here's my little story and then, the ending has CAPITAL letters--in one case, literally.)

One essay was a little evocative for me. In the section on project disasters, Lauren M. Baldwin writes in "Road Kill," about a project that gets caught in the undercarriage of her car:

In grappling with this loss, I found myself reflecting on creativity: how the things we make come to have emotional value. Partly we're attached to what we've made simply because we made it; but also, in the creative process we enter in to a relationship with the thing we're working on. It comes to express something of ourselves. If the object is lost or destroyed, that bit of self is lost rather than captured and contained in the piece of creative work. And that is sad.

This reminded me of a project, not that I had lost, but rather that had been rejected even before it was made.

As I've written elsewhere, making wedding samplers is "my" gift to family and friends. Everyone's come to expect a little--or big--sampler from me for the special occasions. In the early 90s, when I was in graduate school--my time even more precious--one of my friends got engaged. I scoured the big box stores (there weren't that many needlework stores in my area) for something appropriate, something to their tastes. Whenever I would find something even remotely plausible, I would show it to another friend and ask if she thought our affianced friend would like it. She always equivocated and hedged. After months of searching, I just finally asked straight out, "does she not want this for a present?" Yes, I was told, she does not want this.

Oof. It was like a punch in the gut, my heart constricted. Not a rejection of a present--which "wouldn't match her decor" (as if 24 year olds have decor)--but of me. It made me feel so unsophisticated, giving handmade presents, so poor (even though framing costs a fortune), so stupid for assuming a gift of myself would be received with open arms. And I think it was the emotional value that I equated with the present that lead me down this road. To tell the truth, it was a bit of a relief to pick up the phone, call for a present, and have it delivered. The biggest effort I made was in lifting the credit card out of my wallet. I was sad, then a little mad, about this incident, but in the end, I value my friend's (circuitous) honesty. Far worse to have made something that would be put in a closet, ridiculed, hated...

As for my friend, she's taken up needlepoint. Talk about tacky. ;)

Eureka!

I delivered the baby samplers to the framer at the LNS as planned on Saturday. I also did a little shopping while I was there. I bought this little witch, this adorable squirrel, and Drawn Thread's Souvenir Sampler.

I have decided to do the Souvenir Sampler for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. I really thought long and hard about Marriage of Two Minds, but the poem isn't complete. I just couldn't do that to Bill. I had also thought about making my own sampler using La D Da's Love Birds as a starting point, but I have succumbed willingly to the Souvenir Sampler. I even bought the fabric for it. I'm going to discuss the "souvenirs" I'll use with Sissy this weekend. Her baby blanket will have to be in there for sure. She dragged it around until she went to school, and even then she slept with it. That has to be included--it was part of my parents' lives together for at least 1/4 of the time they were married. Now, silk or DMC?

Tagged: The 7 Things Meme

I've been tagged by Melissa. So here it is.

7 Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
Travel, especially to Ljubljana and Iceland.
Lose weight.
Ride in a hot air balloon.
Publish a cross-stitch design.
Buy a house.
Retire to an R.V. with the Dude.
Finish 40% of the cross-stitch patterns I currently own.

7 Things I Can Do:
Counted thread work, including hardanger, pulled and drawn thread.
Knit.
Edit English.
Raise one eyebrow at a time.
Make people laugh.
Tell what penalties have taken place in a football game.
Identify logical fallacies in an argument.

7 Things I Cannot Do: (but might someday)
Ice skate backwards.
Sew a straight line on a sewing machine.
A back walkover.
Sing.
Be patient with stupid people.
Stand by quietly while our country is buggered by an ass. (Now there’s an image for you!)
Keep a straight face when a guy comes up to a group of us in a bar and says, "hello, ladies."

7 Things that Attract Me to Another Person
Intelligence
Sense of humor
Healthy sense of the ironic with a little cynicism for good measure
Eyes
Smile
Nice butt *
Nice head of hair *
(* men only)

7 Celebrity Crushes:
Jon Stewart
Hugh Laurie
Owen Wilson
John Hannah--this one.
Matt Damon
Cary Grant
Sam Elliot (that voice!)

7 Things I Say the Most:
“No sir.”
“Trust me.”
“Yeah, right.”
“There you go.”
“Absolutely.”
“Huh.” (more like a derisive snort than a question)
“Okaaaaay.” (a semiverbal “get on with it.”)

I'm not tagging other people. Just consider yourself tagged.