But I Am Stitching

My life is loca right now. When I'm not burning cds, tying Jordan almonds into tulle bags, or putting together a slideshow for the anniversary party, I am cleaning the craft room for my MIL. I'm really starting to realize how nuts it is to have your MIL come stay the day after you return from throwing a party for 40 people. And I'm not even doing that much work on it! (I am, however, burning CDs as I write.)

Work is even crazier. My boss is departing, and I see the chance to move up if I can prove myself. So I am working, working, working every minute. I do get an hour and a half of stitching or so every day still...on the commute. I have made great strides in three projects I am currently working on: a Mill Hill Cozzolino Santa ornament, a perforated Santa ornament from a BH&G Christmas book--a gift for a nephew--and the Ewe and Eye sheep on a chair. If I had it more together I could have scanned them when my sister had that rig all set up in the dining room. I also have the handwriting meme ready but no virtual visual at this time. Time, why can't I have more of it??

I've Been Working in the Craft Room

On Sunday, I turned to the craft room to make it habitable for my mother-in-law. She arrives next Tuesday. Yes, it's true--I'll be in NH next weekend so will be unable to tend to the house before her arrival. (I cringe.) Because my sister will still be in the real guest room until May 6th or 7th, my MIL gets the craft room. I put together the Ikea shelving unit (you can see it there in the box next to the Alex drawers, yes, underneath the blind for the bathroom) and started putting stuff away. Of course one needs to spend time organizing one's treasures. So, the room's been looking a lot worse. Yes, even worse than these "before" pictures. It was sort of horrifying to open up boxes and bags and find patterns and other materials that I haven't even looked at since I purchased them.

I finally broke everything down into a few categories: sewing, cross-stitch, general crafts, and papercrafting. Obviously there's some overlap with the "general crafts" category, but I just somehow "knew" what went with papercrafts and what was more general. There were also a "move it out of here" pile and a giant bag for trash. It's spectacular how many times you can move trash. A few boxes remain to be sorted. I'm getting a lot of pressure from my cohabitants to hurry, but I just can't make myself rush this. (My sister has other tasks for me to do, like stick Jordan almonds in tulle for my parents' anniversary party, among other things.) The process is a good one because I am learning about what kind of storage stuff I need.

And at some point, I need to get into the closet (my clothes are stored in this room too) and switch out to my spring wardrobe. Where is my personal assistant? I have things for her to take care of...

These pictures were taken from the elliptical trainer in the other corner of the room.

It's in the Mail

Yesterday I busted my hump getting Souvenir Sampler to Fed Ex so that it would arrive today at the framer; today was, of course, the deadline she gave me. You would have thought sewing on a few buttons and charms and a scrap of baby blanket wouldn't have taken a week, but it did. Remember when you learned in science class that gas expands to fill the space it is alloted? Yeah, substitute work for gas and this totally applies to me. I'm such a procrastinator.

Last Saturday, I finally went to Joanns to look for white, pink, and blue 1/4" buttons. I got the white, but the only blue and pink had shanks. I bought them, but they didn't work. So on Wednesday (yes, I procrastinated!) I went to the garment district to see if I could find some buttons. Boy, do I miss the days of strolling into any fabric store and being confronted by miles and miles of buttons. I got some smallish pink and blue buttons, but not small enough. Then when I got them home, I decided I only liked the bone button I had bought. So then I went digging through my disaster area of a craft room and I found some buttons I had bought for scrapbooking. I decided to bag the idea of using pink and blue and went with all off-white buttons. So I was sewing them on Wednesday night while I watched Ace get booted (Kelly so should have lost last week). I couldn't get to the baby blanket. During my lunch hour--that extended egregiously to two--I sewed the baby blanket. Since Sissy's blanket was knit, it was impossible to attach it with the nun's stitch. I finally threw it in and just used blanket stitch. It looks like crap. Really crappy. But it was important to me that it be on there. My sister was sooooo attached to that blankie. Anyway, then I wrapped the stitchery around some batting and stuck it in the plastic bag the batting came in. Then I went to find a Fed Ex. The one closest to my office did not have a mailing tube. So began the trek to the further away Fed Ex with the mailing tubes. (And thus the two hour lunch...)

I haven't heard whether it's been received. I'm sure it will arrive, but still I worry.

Needlework Show

The Needlework Show is up again. There are more designers than ever exhibiting in this forum. And this year many more "big name" designers like Heart's Content, JBW Designs, M Designs, Liz Turner Diehl, and Homespun Elegance have joined the show.

Today's picture features Cherished Stitches' "Purple Passion." Isn't it gorgeous? Of the people I hadn't heard of before, I liked her stuff and Always Time to Stitch. Always Time to Stitch has "contemporary" punch needle. I probably wouldn't do it myself, but it's very fresh.

As usual, many of the designers have derivative designs. Very derivative. Some also have what I think of as bad art: the pieces are not quite in proportion or something. And there's a whole slew of stuff that you think "Why would I buy that? I could 'design' it myself!" To each her own, of course.

Go! Visit! You may end up with a door prize!

The Weird in Me

I was over at Moxie and she had a psuedotag for this meme: reveal six interesting or weird things about yourself.

1. I can gut a fish. My dad used to take my sister and I fishing all the time when his friends brought their sons along. No opportunity to be girly. We had to strut our stuff to make our daddy look good. Baited our own hooks too.

2. I can raise one eyebrow at a time (but my left goes up higher than my right) and cross just one eye. I can flip and curl my tongue, and make it clover shaped. I can hyperextend my thumbs and can bend my fingers at the first joint, making them go at 90 degree angles.

3. In 1998, I fell down a flight of stairs in rural Poland and had to be brought to the emergency room. First, the doctor came in the ambulance to examine me. When it was determined that I needed an x-ray, the doctor and the driver carried me to the waiting ambulance. Then they carried me down the stairs to the emergency room. The doctor at the hospital jabbed my ankle while holding a cigarette and pronounced it broken. They x-rayed it--despite speaking no Polish, I made it understood that I wanted a lead vest to wear during the procedure and the tech clearly thought I was being a pussy. It wasn't broken, but enough ligaments were torn to warrant casting. They gave me a plaster cast and one crutch, and told me not to walk on it. Apparently I was supposed to levitate. I made people carry me around until we found a doctor who would put a fiberglass cast on. It cost me the equivalent of $64, cash.

4. I always answer telephone surveys. I used to call people to try to get them to do market research surveys, and I know how nerve wracking it can be to be hung up on like a telemarketer. I took the job because I hated talking on the phone and wanted to be a better phone talker. I did become a better phone talker, so long as there's a script. When I was at this job, I worked with a guy who later died in the Pan Am 103 terrorist attack (I'm not sure we called it that back then), the Lockerby, Scotland one.

5. I lost 9 toenails after I completed the Avon 3-Day in 2002. My tootsies encountered a lot of friction because, as the physical therapist explained, I raise my foot to walk by lifting with my toes rather than pushing off the ball of my foot.

6. I honeymooned in Alaska because my husband and I would have been divorced before the end of a Hawaiian vacation (we had to stay in the U.S. because of his visa situation). When he went rolling down a hill past me on one of our hikes, I thought that I would be a widow after only 8 days (and my parents would kill me--they spent so much on the wedding!). In the end, he got wedged in a tree which prevented him from encountering the rocks and raging river below. We were rewarded, however, by communing with nature up there.

Miss a JCS Ornament Issue?

Just Cross Stitch is reprinting the favorite designs of a select group of designers who have appeared in their ornaments issues over the last ten years. So if you have a gaping hole in your collection, here's your big chance. For those who don't have a gaping hole, the designers have "updated" colors and fabrics.

Me, I've learned too many lessons from Better Homes and Gardens. I have what I need...

Oh, and I didn't link to JCS because they're still "getting ready to have a makeover." When will the new site go live?

Or Something Like That...

"Outstanding" by John Ryan
From Redding.com, the Redding, (northern) CA paper

Not bad for a guy who also has a mean counter-cross stitch, skills he showed en route to a December tournament.
Spoon says he didn't actually see Schaub break out the needles -- he resigned to a different van after losing to Schaub in a battle of wills for "shotgun" -- but he heard all about it.
"People were calling me from the other van saying that Alex was crocheting from 'my' front seat," Spoon chuckled. "I actually saw his finished work, it was pretty good."
His coaches were just as ... impressed.
"Yeah, I didn't find out about that until we went down to Vacaville," Elliott said. "We stopped and ate, and one of my assistant coaches, my JV coach gets in the van and says, 'You know what Alex is doing right now?'"
Elliott said it was an ongoing razz for the rest of the year.
"Yeah, he was my first (knitter) and maybe my last," Elliott said. "Unless there are some more Alex Schaubs out there ... doubt it, though, with that kind of talent.

Apparently the young man also drives the puck hard when he shoots the baskets. I understand that boys get confused about "women's work." My dad refers to my stitching as "knitting." Isn't it amazing, thought, that some of us girls manage to remember the rules of football, basketball, hockey, soccer, and baseball. (Although the infield fly rule does boggle the mind...) And we remember these rules all while we are playing at counter (sic) cross-stitch.

Extra points to she who can answer this headscratcher: which form of needlework does the young man do?

Stamp Storage

I finally remembered to take a picture of the "Alex" set of drawers from IKEA. The top three drawers are about 3? inches high? (I'm bad at spatial relations.) The three bottom drawers are deeper. We figured we could put two Stampin' Up! sets on top of each other in those drawers, although I don't have so many stamps sets that I had to do that.


Here's a picture of one of the filled drawers. You can get a lot of stamps in them. I'm pretty sure that you could put 12x12 paper in there too, but I haven't done it.

In this picture, you can also see the hideous green rug that was in both bedrooms on the second floor. You can see why removing that from the master bedroom was our first project! Now that we have the heavy duty elliptical trainer in the craft room, I despair of ever removing the carpeting. It shall be done! Even if it takes a super-human effort on my part.

Maybe tomorrow I'll show you the "before" pictures of the craft room. Of course, I haven't done much work on it, so they are the before shots of some hypothetical future when my craft room is as it should be.

SBQ: Bumps in the Road

For those of you [who] stitch while riding in the car or on the train, how do you cope with the bumps and the motion? Do you have any tips for others?

I find that when the train gets really rocky, it's best to pull my elbows in to my sides. I learned this tactic in photography classes. You use your body to steady your arms to make yourself a sort of human tripod. Same principle to make your stitching go a little easier. I also use the sewing method as opposed to the stabbing method for stitching. When you sew, you put the needle into two holes at one time, then pull through. That cuts down on the number of times you have to aim well. Of course, I still do some projects that I cannot use the sewing method, like the perforated paper Santas. Sometimes you just have to wait the bumps out. Every once in a while you have to laugh because your needle has come up in a shocking place, giving you a completely distorted "x." That's when it's good to know how to thread a needle without looking it in the eye.

I haven't found this to be much of a problem in the car.

A Trip to IKEA

Sissy and I went to IKEA in Conshie to get some storage for the craft room. I ended up with an Expedit bookcase, an Alex set of drawers, and a bunch of irrelevant baskets. We weren't sure if the bookcase was going to fit in the car so we were going to get Billy bookcases, for which I would need storage baskets. Got the baskets. Saw Expedit. Loaded it onto the cart. Forgot why I had the baskets. Bought everything. I am getting dumber, like my sister thinks. The woman who sold me the Alex told me she thought it was the first one they'd sold at that store. It does appear to be so new that it's not on the website. I'll have to take a picture. It's sort of like a set of map drawers. I put it together on Saturday night (no hot date) and filled it. Sissy helped. She then looked around the room and said, "that didn't even make a dent." True, we ended up with one empty storage container. Things will get better when we put together the bookcase and I get my filing cabinet. Step by step.

I've run into a problem with the Candy Striper laptop bag. I cannot figure out how many rows are supposed to be in each side panel. I did change the pattern (instead of being striped I made them solid so that it would go faster). They are supposed to be significantly different but mine aren't. I'm so close to finishing this, I can taste it. (And it tastes like wet wool.)

Travelling Companion

Last night on the subway, I sat with an older Asian woman; she must have been about 80. I took out my stitching, and stuck my pattern, as I usually do, between my ring finger and my pinkie of my left (nonworking) hand. She watched me stitch for a few minutes, then insisted on holding my pattern for me. She kept asking questions, like which stitch I was making (I was doing confetti stitches on Ewe and Eye's Room for Ewe*) and how difficult it was. She was a riot. I asked her what she thought about the day's crazy weather, and she replied, "I was in New York and it was snowing like Hell!" Later, she told me that I was very talented, "gifted," and that she "liked watching me make my Art." She wanted to know where she could get the stuff to do it, so I listed the big box stores and told her that she could get fabric with bigger holes. The whole thing was so sweet. So unbitch.

* I couldn't find a photo online, and the dude has the laptop with him in Maine. It's a sheep standing on a chair.

SBQ: Travelling Stitcher

Do you stitch “on the go?” (On the commute to and from work, during your lunch break, waiting for the kids, etc.) If so, do you have a specific “travel” project or do you just grab whatever you happen to be working on and take it with you?
Yes, I do. Some days I only stitch on the commute to and from work, like yesterday, when my evening was taken up trying to figure out the taxes. (The only time I figured my California taxes correctly was when I used Turbo Tax; they're impossible. And I'm not buying TT to figure out how much I owe for my one month of residence!)

I sometimes have a travel project and sometimes I take whatever I'm working on. I am a little reluctant to do the latter, however. Even though I'm pretty conscientious about keeping my things neat and clean, the bus and the subway are dirty. Eventually though, I did bring Souvenir on my commute because I just had to get it done! But I wouldn't bring large projects. You need to keep yourself kind of small when you stitch on public transportation.

Book Review: Organizing Your Craft Space

Organizing Your Craft Space gives some straightforward advice to organizing your craft space. Imagine! The book is divided by type of craft: rubberstamping and stenciling, scrapbooking, paper crafting, quilting, stained glass and mosaics, beading, and yarn crafts and needlework. I would have to say the weakest section of the book is the one on yarn crafts and needlework. Perhaps it is my bias as a needleworker, but they didn't seem particularly inspired in their suggestions. Plus, they didn't have a “guest artist” whose craft of choice was knitting, crochet, or needlework. (Guest artists included Dee Gruening (stamping), Anna Corba (paper crafting), Sandi Genovese (scrapbooking), Freddy Moran (quilting), Susan Pickering Rothamel (stamping), Suze Weinberg (stamping), and Linda Woodward (stained glass).)

Ultimately, most of us are probably cross-over crafters and we'll all find something useful in this book about organizing our particular mix, taking a bit of inspiration here and more from there.

The book begins with a sort of schedule for organizing your room. It's a little remedial which the most disorganized of us really need. Two quizzes follow. Purportedly, these assessments will tell you what kind of style you have and what colors you should use to decorate. I thought these were a crock o’ baloney. First of all I scored 8 As, 8 Bs, 2 Cs, and 7 Ds. Am I an A, B or D? A leader? An idealist? Indeed. The "personality assessment"--to choose your colors--came up 9 As, 7 Bs, 10 Cs, and 7 Ds. Color C is Fire/red and I should choose this because I'm a hard worker always striving to be my best. Yes, right. And the tooth fairy's dropping by later this week to stamp with me. I got your personality right here. I want a green room, and green was not one of the choices.

An interesting thing about the book is the various styles that people use. There is something sort of appealing about every flat surface being empty—more room to work—but ultimately, that style seems sterile. In fact when I showed my sister how the paper storage unit I wanted would look in a craft room she said, "That place looks like a store!" (It had more than one of those units.) She's right. It didn't seem like a place people lived. When I think about what I want the room to be like, I think I want empty flat surfaces for doing what I do, but I don’t like the way those rooms feel. Empty flat surfaces are utilitarian but not inspiring. When I was perusing the pictures in this book, I liked the ones that had wooden sets of drawers, the ones where the furniture had meaning and personality, not necessarily just utilitarian furniture. I know wooden drawers aren't entirely practical since I don't have x-ray vision to see through wood. Plus they can be expensive. I know I can afford plastic, but would I want to work in that room?

There were no suggestion for locating the storage or other items used in the rooms. Like I have time to scour stores for this crap. I want to get to work!

So, back to what was so bad about their suggestions for needlework: they put floss in old cigar boxes and Krienik spools in glass jars. Oh, sure they look pretty, but doing those things is about as practical as these suggestions: "Empty floor space can be a great place to stack books [which can] serve as a makeshift table for displaying cute knickknacks or fresh flowers," and "Personally, I like to organize my books by color." I don’t know about you, but how am I going to use a book that's on the bottom of the "makeshift table" that's holding the knick knack collection? I’m not. And if I'm not going to use the books, what are they doing taking up space in my room? As for visual organization, I don't get it. Oh yeah, that pattern is in my orange book. This is why they write descriptive titles on the spines, people.

I really enjoyed seeing the pictures of other people's spaces—and there are a few that aren't dedicated rooms, one space is just part of a bedroom, for instance. I have a better sense of what I like and I know where I can compromise and where I cannot. The styles range from sterile galvanized tin storage to pretty shabby chic florals to wild burst of color so there really is something for everyone in this book.
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Last Saturday I popped into Mar-Stans the local unfinished furniture place. I looked at kitchen islands, but they were pretty expensive, and none of them seemed big enough. If I rely on this sense of seeming big enough I'm going to end up with a huge table. The room's going to be all table. It's like when I was a single girl in New York City, and I had the tiniest bedroom that I filled up with my queen size bed. When you walked into my bedroom you were on the bed. Oh, those were the days...but I digress. So we kept looking around the unfinished furniture because Sissy and I both need things for our new houses. (Sissy closes on her townhouse on the 24th!) And then we came to the gathering table. The price is right, it's unfinished so I can choose the color, and it's 54x36 and with the leaf it's 54x54. Perfect! The dude's out of town this week. Boy will he be surprised when he returns!

April Folly

I am so over deadlines. I think I'm going to do something crazy and frivolous. After I finish Sissy's laptop bag, I am going to work on something different every day of the month. I have about a dozen projects on the go, and I need to do a number of ornaments for Christmas presents. So how's that for extravagance? It's the opposite of the focused stitching I did in February. Go, me!

April 1, or not, this is no joke!