It's a Wrap

February's over. It's a short month, so we shouldn't be surprised when it's done, but...
The plan was simple:
Continue working on Souvenir Sampler. I got very far on this. I'm not quite done, but I'm impressed with myself.
Finish Sissy's laptop bag. Not a stitch. Sissy complained about this on Sunday, so I do have to move it to the top of the list.
Stitch two more ornaments for family Christmas presents.
I finished the last of January's on 2/3, and I have the feeling I'll finish the HIHN Sheep and PS Fishing Santa by March 3. Nothing like starting out behind.

And, as for the house, we organized the craft room so that we could put a ginormous elliptical trainer in there. We painted the kitchen and the dining room. And for two Sundays, I went out with Sissy looking for her new house. So you can see I have good reasons not to have reached my goals.

Bitches of the World, Unite!

Julie of Subversive Stitch has a new book coming out. Thirty-three patterns, roughly half of them new. Recycling patterns usually bothers me (coughBetterHomesandGardenssuckscough). But I'm not so upset in this case because Julie doesn't sell charts-only (okay, she has been known to, but that's not her primary m.o.). She sells kits, and they use aida. I can't buy that. The book, I can buy. In fact, I bought an advance copy. It ships March 13. I'll come home from Tulsa to a really cool present. And I'll tell you all about it!

The best part is the Editorial Manager of Stitch World has inadvertantly endorsed the book: "I did not like it and I would never list it." Oh, it's true. Cross-stitchers are so damn demure. You know what I always say...fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

Further Tales of the Spinster

A loyal reader who prefers you do not know that she reads "smut" has anonymously submitted the following for our consideration in the Aged Stitcher Count.

At the local store and post office, Mademoiselle Doritee, with her grey hair spiraling wildly and her pebble glasses glinting in the sun, hung her cross-stitched sampler of a village scene, inscribed with the slogan BIENVENUE AUX MARTENS on the glass door ....

Invitation to Provence by Elizabeth Adler, 2004.

Old Lady References: 2

Our intrepid reader gives us this further context, "The idea that she would pull together a sampler welcoming someone else to town (even if it is the town's founding family) on short-ish notice (ok, she had two months) is just absurd." Indeed it is, Intrepid Reader, indeed it is. But I like the idea of having wildly spiraling grey hair. I may cultivate the look.

Where Have All the Sidebars Gone?

So, yesterday, I changed four letters of code in my sidebar. And now it's gone! All of it. All gone. Deep breath. I won't be writing here today. That's good because I was going to do a grammar rant.

Oh, all right, here it is in brief:
1. D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y not "definately"
2. it's=it is and its=belongs to it
3. There, their, they're--all sound the same, mean different things. Please try to use the right one.
4. I'm really banging my head against the wall on this one, but here we go. There's no such thing as the following phrases: "could of," "would of," or "should of." You never need to use these words together with of. It's could've or could have, etc.
5. It's "y'all" not "ya'll." You all contracts to y'all. Ya'll means Ya will. Which you don't mean.

Souvenir Explained

Lee wants to know the stories behind my choices on Drawn Thread's Souvenir Sampler, and I'm happy to share what I have so far. I am stitching this for my parents' 40th anniversary, so the souvernirs will reflect that. The owl next to the B is also going to be next to my initials. (I'm waiting because CZ said you should attempt an even distribution of color.) The owl is the symbol of my college. Because the owl doesn't really fit in the alloted space I stitched the box--in our school colors, yellow and white. The dog next to the M is all brown because my parents have a chocolate lab. I stitched the castle to look like (I hope) a sand castle. Next to it I will write "Wells, ME" when I can find an alphabet I like that also fits. This represents my parents' house at the beach. Further down you can see my parents' initials over the house, which sort of looks like theirs. Definitely the right color. I chose the yellow trees with falling leaves because they live in NH.


My plan is to put in loads of symbolic charms where there are buttons because buttons just aren't that evocative for me. I've paid most attention to the parts that are standard because they're easiest to stitch on the bus!

I want to thank everyone for responding to my question about stitchbooking. I do have to say, especially to Rosemary, that mostly we're stitchers, so that's what we want to see in our magazines. We're happy that scrappers stitch in their books! We stitchers who scrap--as opposed to scrappers who stitch--don't want to be consumed by scrapbooking. I subscribe to Simple Scrapbooks but they've never offered a stitching chart, tellingly. (Although Paper Crafts has shown a couple of cards that have stitching on them.) We're not against you, we're just for us!

Progress

Here's the update on the Souvenir Sampler. I only have one more letter to do, but lots of optional areas to make decisions about.

Stitchbooking--Yay or Nay?

This month's Just Cross-stitch features something they are calling "stitchbooking"--cross stitched elements for scrapbooks. I'd show you a stitched example, but JCS is revamping their online presence. They took the cards (pictured) stitched flowers and dots on them, and made them into birthday hats.

What do you think of this trend?

It's clearly a way to cash in on the percieved dominance of scrapbooking. I'm primarily a stitcher who does scrapbook occasionally. I don't think I like the cross-over. I do simple scrapbooks for a reason. Although it would take care of the trouble of finishing stitched pieces, it just feels too much like prostitution. But JCS promises more stitchbooking in the next issue.

If you are interested, you can get the stitch cards here; I am a full-service bitch.

(Meta) SBQ: What Do You Have to Say for Yourself?

Do you love comments or hate them? Do you check them every day, never check them, or find them helpful? And finally, are you convinced no one is reading your blog if you don’t get any? I'll never forget my first comment. When I started blogging back in nineteen-dickety two, we didn't have commenting features. I had to go out into the virtual world to find someone who'd let me use their software free. And then it turned out that they deleted those lovely, lovely comments ("You read me! You really read me!") after six months. So, you can see, I added blogger's comments. I've been trying to rescue the haloscan comments but it takes time, and I only have a reliable internet connection at work. I do all these things because your comments are so meaningful to me. Although I like to be the person bitching in the corner at the party, you get so much more feedback IRL. A laugh. An even bitchier comment. People who turn on their heels and walk away. Yeah, I like comments. I jones for comments.

$30.6 billion--how much did you spend?

Crafting consumers spent a record $30.6 billion on their projects last year. I'm pretty sure I kept my spending to under $3 million.

I won't point and laugh, because they're gaining on us. (Ha! "Them" like I don't scrap occasionally too.) But a report of the craft industry indicates scrapbooking is not as big as some believe (see January 19)

Many credit scrapbooking with driving the booming numbers. And there's no doubt that it has seen tremendous growth in the past few years. But, surprisingly, it is not the No. 1 craft, said Anderson. In terms of participation, cross-stitch/embroidery and crocheting both still outrank it, with participation by 30 percent and 25 percent of crafting households respectively. Scrapbooking comes in third, with a 24 percent participation rate.

So there, Lee, I can tell you when cross-stitch was popular: right now. Okay, so they threw in embroidery it's all of a piece.

Souvenirs and Memories

Not the greatest picture of my sampler, but you can see the work I have done on it. While stitching this the US won gold and silver medals in men's and women's halfpipe, gold in men's 500 meter speed skating, and the US pairs figure skaters failed to land a throw triple axel in their long program. Bode Miller also finished 5th in downhill, not his race. (Not only is he from NH, but he's related by marriage to my cousin, so I take a particular interest in his success.)

To Market, To Market

Or should that be from Market? Elegant Stitch has the Market Report up. It wasn't the weather that delayed the report. It was my excitement that made it seem delayed! But I could have looked at what was new on the Hoffman Distributing site. There are so many lovelies to add to the wish list! Inserting pictures would take up too much room, so you'll have to click away.

1. Carriage House, Honeycomb and Flower Garden
2. Ewe and Eye and Friends, Joyful Heart--they're back!
3. Mosey n' Me, Horace--I adore all the animals but my nieces are going to love this one.
4. Theresa Layman, Sweet Dreams
5. Lilybet Designs, Spots II--perfect for my bedroom, and Lady Champagne, just something about it!
6. Needle and Fred, Welcome Baby!
7. Brightneedle, Something Blue
8. FancyWork, Lavendar Rose Sewing Case--bellisima!
9. Workbasket, Mermaids Singing--Momma's gonna love this for the beach house. Bright colors only, please.

When can we see the new stuff?

Nashville Market is over so we should be getting a report from our friend Lois at Elegant Stitch. I fear the snow on the east coast buggered flights everywhere. So I googled to see who's got new stuff up. And I found these. One awesome and one that makes me go 'hmm.'

Spring Garden, Birds of A Feather / Charlie Chaplin, Twisted Threads

The BOAF is so different. I love the fabric color. (Colored fabric is so not me!) It's so funky! The CC on the other hand...Weird. Is that a rhyme we're supposed to know? Is it a Mary Mack riff? The figure does look like Chaplin, and there's something to be said for managing that with just black floss and negative space, but why would you stitch it?

Souvenir

I meant to put up a picture of where I was before I started the Olympic Stitching, but you'll just have to imagine this without the L, M, P, part of the R, and the dog and the green stripe of Bosnia stitch.

I'll try to be better at taking pictures, but it's hard to do it when there is enough light--in the morning--when I also have to get ready for work and cook dinner (crockpot).

How Much Have You Stitched in 10 Years?

A woman in Texas spent 10 years stitching a scale replica of the Sistine Chapel, of her own design. It took her 700 hours to design it. It took 2,872 hours to stitch the piece, which includes 628,296 stitches in 1,809 different color combinations. It measures 80" x 40", that's well over 6 feet x 3 feet to us mere mortals.

You can order the pattern here, but, really, you'd have to be high. It took Michaelangelo only 4 years to paint it. It took me about 12 minutes to photograph it.

(She's charging pennies for her labor; the 276-page work goes for $69.99. Or you can download the b&w version for $23.85. Patterns for individual panels are also available.)

Olympic Heroes

If I were cleverer, I'd make a little button for our little stitching group that begins its Herculean efforts tomorrow. Yes, some totally undisciplined stitchers, okay, this totally undisciplined stitcher and two other perfectly behaved stitchers, are going to work on one dreaded project for 16 days. I know, you're thinking, how do I sign up? No need. Just pick up that UFO and get to work. You know you want to. You'll win a finished, or near-finished, project. All I can offer is a palm branch and some red ribbons. But you can leave a comment to tell us you're playing. And go to Melissa's blog to give her some support. She has got to get this Fairy Grandmother done!

For the record, I'm putting my efforts into Souvenir Sampler because it's a gift that needs to be framed in March.

The Grandma Count

I threatened to do it. Now here it is. I'm counting the number of references I (you, we all) come across that age us unnecessarily, giving us blue hair, bifocals, and orthopedic shoes.

From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, "Away Games Pave Road to Big Ten Title":

Home very well may be where the heart is according to grandma’s cross stitch that is framed over her flowered sofa, but in the world of Big Ten basketball, championships can be found on the road. (1/25/2006)

This is an article about Indiana University's Men's Basketball Team's road trip.

Score: Old Lady References: 1

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To play: Send the information, including a link to the article, the date of the article, and the quote containing the grandmother reference, here. I'll compile them, depending on the number received, and we'll keep score. Until, you know, this cranky bitch really is old enough to be considered old.

End, Middle, Beginning and a Miscue

I finished Fancy Work's ornament from the JCS 2004 Ornament Issue on Friday night. So I have completed January's Christmas ornaments. Sorry, no photos today. Saturday was so dark and rainy that I couldn't take a photo. On Sunday, I was busting my hump to get our bedroom in order before the Stuporbowl. The curtains are up (and the neighbors can stop worrying about the effects of my bare ass on their baby). The floor is clear of boxes and piles of paper, these having been moved into the craft room for temporary storage. With the addition of toe-molding (next weekend's home improvement project), our bedroom will be a real retreat.

I worked on Souvenir Sampler while we watched 40 Year Old Virgin. Only 4 more days until I work exclusively on Souvenir as part of the Olympic Stitching. I may have completed this project before the end of the Olympics; this is stitching up so fast.


I kitted up Prairie Schooler's 1992 Santa, the one carrying a lobster in his basket. I don't want it to be larger than 3 1/8x 4 1/8 which is what it measures on 18 count fabric. But I couldn't find any 36 count linen, so I am doing it over one on 28 count. I don't like it, I may have to look harder for 36 count.


Don't ask me how I managed it, but I missed the Super Bowl sales at both Silver Needle and Strawberry Sampler. I meant to get online as soon as I got to my cousin's house for the Super Bowl, so I could buy the tin pin for 25% off and start wearing Mary Mack. But I was waylayed by my own queso dip. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, queso dip.

Must Resist Temptation

I received a few books from amazon this week.
Maureen Corrigan's Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. Maureen was my writing instructor when I was in college. I always wondered about her private life. Now I can read about it! Plus anyone who describes herself as having "her nose in a book" most of her life is simpatico, you know? Plus, it's also about books (see below). JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.Yes, I'm the last person on earth to read this, you know of the people who usually read her books. Nancy Pearl's More Book Lust. When I got the first one, I read it cover to cover. Really! I love to read lists. And books of lists about books, fuhgedaboudit. I'm really looking forward to finding what treasures await.

These books have been added to the pile already on the nightstand. Leila Hadley's Give Me the World. In the 1950s, this single mother took her six year old son on her adventure around the world. Adventure! Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's The Age of Homespun. I mentioned I'd give a complete review when I finished it, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to start this one over if I don't get back to it soon.


What I need is a huge snowstorm to shut everything down for about a week. That would give me plenty of time to curl up and read my books--and some of the ones the dude got for Christmas too! (I'm looking at you Italian Boy.)

SBQ: Friends, How Many of Us Have Them?

With the exception of your online stitching friends, do you have any other stitching buddies? Well, my best pal got me into stitching. She used to stitch in college. When I graduated, I decided to make her a wedding sampler. So even though she didn't teach me, she lured me in. We used to attend SOXS in various areas together, now we go to camp in Tulsa. And I have camp stitching buddies who I see once a year.

When I was in grad school I had two stitching buddies; we would go to CATS up in Sacramento together, and gtg pretty regularly. One of them didn't stitch until we converted her. Her second project was TW's Castle, so she got into it pretty quickly. During the summer, more people would join us, knitters and crocheters mostly. But it's all needles and string.

I am trying to gtg irl with some of the local bloggers: Mia, Dianne, Jenna, and maybe Mindy and Lee. Will they count as online friends or other once we make a plan?