November review

How did I do this month on the goals I had set?

1. Sissy's laptop bag --no, the bag is trapped in the craft room and I'm not allowed up the stairs
2. Work on best pal's round robin --done, sent, and received
3. Start the Marquoir --yes! I have made some progress on this! I don't know if I'll ever catch up, but I think I've made reasonable progress
4. Dolly Mama Freebie Poodle --I did work on this, but I am going to have to take out the skirt and change the color
5. Elizabethan Rose--no
6. Bead the Toy Gatherer--untouched

I also managed to blog every day in November. And let me tell you I won't be doing that again. It's too hard to blog on weekends! (Actually, it's not like I'm going anywhere the next few weekends, if the soreness in my back and shoulders is any indication of what walking with crutches is like.) And people just don't read that often, if the comments are any indication. But I did it!

Doctor, Doctor

I went to the doctor this morning. His office is three blocks from mine so it seemed ridiculous to take a cab. By the second block, I had a blister on my hand from the crutches.

The doctor is very pleased with my recovery. He says I must have been doing everything right. I think my foot looks disgusting: it's bruised all up the inner side from my ankle to my big toe; the top if the foot is a little green and a lot swollen. It sort of looks like fresh toes have been planted in the foot of someone who drowned recently. And even the fresh toes are stained from Betadine. The little toes--which were hammer--are caked with dried blood and stitches. I'm a little distressed that the pinky toe, which used to live under my other toes, looks like it was taken off and put on sideways. My "ring" toe still looks like a reversed comma, which I thought was the point of the surgery. Clearly, this isn't a cosmetic procedure; I guess I hoped for pretty feet after all that pain.

Two more weeks on the crutches, bearing weight on the heel, which makes walking go a whole lot faster. Then, he'll take out the stitches in the little toes and unwrap the bandages, and I go to straight into sneakers for some period of time. (I had more pressing questions during this visit: should I bend my toes? Can I drive? Take the stairs? Take a shower?) I could probably take public transportation, but I think I'm going to continue to drive in until I'm back in sneakers. I've seen what they do to cripples on the subway.

Still on the Couch

Update on Christmas Elf Fairy.

My Left Foot

Thanks for all your get well wishes while I am stuck here on the couch. I think I might die from pnuemonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Except when they look in my lungs they won't find silica dust; they'll be red from the microfiber. Either that, or boredom. I am getting off my ass and going to work tomorrow. That ought to be a sight. Fortunately, I have a job I don't do with my feet. Although writing the president's message for the alumni bulletin might go faster if I let my toes do the talking. My left foot has a lot to say about recent events.

Workin' From The Couch

Today, I worked from home, on the couch. My world has shrunk to one of red microfiber. And the sandy carpet that lines the way between the couch and the bathroom. My major project for today was to proof read a donor report, and I'm so bored, I actually thought it was interesting.

After work, I worked on the Christmas elf fairy. I'll try to get a photo tomorrow morning before I "go" to work. For now, I'll leave you with the napkin rings I forgot that I made for my cousin. I think the pattern might be from the Spirit of Christmas books. I can't run up the stairs and check. You'll have to forgive me...

Back on My Own Couch

Marquoir ABC Ancien

Gigi and Carinne

begun November 17, 2006

Freebie Poodle

Dolly Mamas by Joey

I was making this for Lala but she told me that she wants a cat. I think I'm going to change the dog's skirt and shoes to blue so that I can give it to Yay-o.

Day 6: Back to the Chair-and-a-half

Today the girls left me with the boys and went shopping. We watched the children--in my case, I did a lot more watching than anything else--and football. (As I write, USC is moving up the polls. Woohoo!) I managed to get quite a bit done on the marquoir today. Well, I finished the corner motif which certainly feels like a lot. I am stitching this ginormous piece over one on 40-count fabric, so it is a lot of work. It's lovely, but the fabric is huge! It's going to be a mess by the time I am done stitching. I also got a bit done on the Dolly Mama freebie poodle. I was going to give this to my niece whose room is pink but she wants a cat. I could change the poodle's skirt and shoes to blue and give it to my other niece who would be delighted by the poodle...I'll think about it.

Day Five: New Couch

The dude has gone off with the guys (my dad, cousin's husband) to Atlantic City today. He deserves a break because he's going to be helping me for a few more weeks, rushing about the house at my beck and call. I think he'll have fun and it will take his mind off telling off my parents for their late arrival Wednesday.

I am sitting on the chair-and-a-half with ottoman at my cousin's. So far two different dogs (alone and together), a small kid, and my full-grown mother have joined me in the chair. I think they're finagling a way to go shopping without me, but after last night's telling off, they're feeling pretty guilty about it.
-----------------------
So I wrote that at the start of my day. My family begrudgingly sat with me through the day, and I worked mostly on the fairy elf. She's really coming along. Eventually, I should give her the second leg. Soon, I'll try to get some photos for you--including one of the napkin rings I made for my cousin. I was reminded I made these for her when I saw them at Thanksgiving. I took a photo, but it's a bit of work for me to get into the study to get the photos from the camera to the computer. How much longer am I off my feet?

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm a bit disappointed that, on the day before Thanksgiving, I bitched about my family who drove 6 1/2 hours to take care of me. I'm going to blame the pain. The worst thing about the pain is that I have to have my right foot done eventually. And it will all start again.

I am Thankful...
...for a family who drives 6.5 hours to change ice on my foot every 20 minutes
...for my cousin who is cooking the dinner and who on Monday took care of my vomit
...for the dude also taking care of vomit (just as he sat down to breakfast) and you know, for all the rest of it because there is a lot of it
...for my nieces who cheer me up*
...for my new boss who, besides being a great new boss, sent me a little care package
...for my podiatrist who does good work and plays chess
...for nurses who maintain an amazing sense of humor in face of a lot of shit, literal and figurative
...for the resident-on-call who told me that wanting to know when the pain would end wasn't a stupid question (I was just a stupid person asking a question)
...for the very fact of bunion surgery, which has improved in the last twenty years to the degree that I have a 98% chance of not having to have it again, on this foot.

I am also Thankful for things that haven't happened in the last week...
...for stitching that helps me maintain my sanity
...for my friends for much the same reason
...for therapists, again mental health thing, but they do this for so many more people who are dear to me
...for my cold little house, which is only cold if you're an old person not paying the heating bill
...for the food I'm about to eat, mmm, triple corn stuffing
...for my two feet!

* My niece, Lala, chose a mum made into a turkey with a pompom and chenille stems as my get well flower. But when she saw it, she said, "Mom, we could make one of these for auntie." Oh, her craftivity warms the cockles of my heart.

Happy day, be ever thankful!

Day Three: More Views, Same Couch

So my parents drove six and a half hours recently to Pennsylvania from New Hampshire. The point was to look after me while I recuperated. Before I continue, let me tell you the story my mother always tells about her recovery from her first two bunion surgeries.

My mother had her first surgery while I was home from college. It must have been my junior year because my father was in a wheelchair, and I would have to put on his special stockings and help him into his car. I would get up, let the dogs out, help my dad, feed the dogs, make my mom breakfast, and spend the day helping her. If I went out I brought her magazines and little treats. When she had her second operation, I was at school, but my sister and dad were home. My mom was upstairs in bed, yelling for someone to help her. So, she's not supposed to even be up, but she goes down the stairs on her butt only to find the lights are out and no one's home. A short while later my father and sister come home laughing. They'd been out to lunch. "Did you bring me anything?" my neglected mother asks. "Oh, we didn't know you'd want anything," they respond. My mother loves to tell this story, so you'd think she's be a good caregiver, plus she has 40 years of experience as a mother.

The dude leaves for work at 8:00 am. So I'd expect that concerned family would show up at 9:00 or so. Yesterday, my mother, father and the two dogs show up (they're staying with my sister) at 10:30. Bear in mind, I'm not supposed to get up from the couch except to use the toilet, and when I do that I am unsteady on the crutches. Today, my sister stays home from work. At 12:00 I call them, "where are you?" Thank god I asked the dude to get me ice before he left. And food. He was running to the fridge at 8:01 when he supposed to be at the busstop. Today they got here at 1:00. I blame my sister. They did ask me what I wanted from Wegmans, so I guess that's something...and they did wash my hair.

More work on the Christmas fairy elf. She's got a head and a tree but still only one leg.

Day Two: A View from the Couch

So I have now been bunionless for one full day. The pain, which peaked last night, has finally begun to ease. The podiatric resident told me during the consult that, after the anesthesia wore off, the pain would make me regret my decision to have the surgery. That was pretty much an understatement. Strangely, my mother has had this surgery three times and has never experienced any pain. For a while I couldn't really make it the four hours between percosets. (And unlike every normal person, I throw up if I eat and take percoset. I need to take it on an empty stomach.) Today I said to my dad (my parents are looking after me while the dude's at work) that I would let him know how I felt at 2:30, half an hour before the 3:00 percoset dose. It was 3:20. So I skipped that one and only took my 5:00 motrin. I'm probably down to a 6 on the pain scale. I do think I'll take some percoset to sleep tonight though.

I can also tell I'm feeling better because I actually felt like stitching. This afternoon, while my mom cleaned my house(!), I worked on the Christmas Elf Fairy. Now it's sort of ironic that she's still hobbling around on one leg.

Tawk, Talk, Tock

Good thing I wrote something the other day in anticipation. I want to maintain the NaBoPoMo, but my effing foot hurts so effing much I can't believe it and I can hardly think. More later. For now, this is how I talk:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Boston
The West
The Northeast
The Inland North
Philadelphia
North Central
The South
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

As you may have realized, I was born and raised in southern New Hampshire, which some people argue is really northern Massachusetts. So you might expect me to have a "Boston accent." And my parents do. Thick. What you don't know is that I don't sound like my parents, at all. They sound like they should be voice coaches for actors playing characters from Boston. (In fact Jeff Bridges totally should have hired them when he made Blown Away because his accent was The.Worst.Boston.Accent.Evah)

When I was young, about ten or so, I made a conscious decision not to sound like them. I practiced English by listening to Chet Curtis and Natalie Jacobson, with whom my mom went to college. So it is entirely unironic that I "have a good voice for TV and radio."

You can only hear vestiges of the accent now when I say Bawstin. I can't really imitate my parents. Oh no, I can say, "It was a wicked hahd slapshawt."

Tell Me Why I Don't Like Sundays

When M. Kennedy put forth the idea of NaBloPoMo she suggested, perhaps sarcastically, that we write about the top three things we hate about Sundays.

1. Despite the [Cue orchestra: "Dunh.dunh dunh.dunh"] ESPN ad campaign to the contrary, it's almost Monday. All this luscious relaxation is coming to an end.
2. Chores.
3. Not enough time to get everything done before all this free time comes to an end.

I think that may be only two things, but they're really, really BIG.

Of course, there's lots that I love about Sundays, especially Sundays during football season. I love watching football or even just having it on in the background. I love Sundays because we have a family dinner with Sissy and my cousin. I love Sundays because if I laze about in my pajamas all day, it's okay...may I suggest even required. There's a lot to like about Sundays.

But this Sunday is too stressful to enjoy the games much. I'm having bunionectomies on my left foot tomorrow. In spite of my relationship with my sewing machine, I have a tailor's bunion in addition to the hallux valgus. (It's actually the bunionette--and the two hammer toes--that's driving this surgery.) Be thinking of me...

Leah Enables

Leah has found the pattern. Jacob's Sampler from Cedar Hill. But here's what's weird. I think I was in Cedar Hill's booth! Am I just confusing this pattern with another? BestPal, you were there. Have I lost my mind?

Anyway, Leah's link is not lost on me because I am looking for a sampler to do for a cousin's baby, and Cedar Hill had a cutie.

In more news of Leah's enabling, I actually started the marquoir. There's not much to show at this point. I am using black and 921. It's going to be perfect in the dining room, you know, in 17 months when it's done.

Pardonnez, mes amies francais

Last year at Hershey, I saw the cutest sheep pattern. The daughter of the shop owner was working in the booth, and as charming as she was all she knew about the pattern was, "it's French." So I sort of put it out of my mind, because really, do I not have enough patterns? This month, I was flipping through the online stitching magazine, The Gift of Stitching, and there was the pattern! In an article about cartonnage (making cardboard boxes). I wrote a note to the editor, but she doesn't speak French, so she can't help me. That's sort of a lame response, but I won't go there. She suggested I go on their forum. And, I should, but I am so adverse to fora.

The picture features three fat sheep, grey, black, and white (l-r) under the letters "ABC" and above the lowercase alphabet. Je voudrais le modele!

If you have a hint of who the designer is, please let me know!

Merci beaucoup.

Oh, and Lee asked how I found yesterday's link. I was reading someone's blog and decided to click on a blog I didn't normally read, then another, and then I found myself at the website. It's like synchronicity.

Just What I Needed

Hey, lookie!
http://www.stitching.jekdesign.com/FabricChoices.html
Now that'll help with the decision!

What Have I Become?

So, my mom has me stitching a Mirabilia mermaid (Emerald Mermaid). And all of a sudden, I have the urge to use a hand-dyed or handpainted fabric. This is so not like me. Perhaps I should go have a lie-down. I just don't like the grey fabric that it's stitched on.

In the meantime, what are your feelings about some of my ideas for fabric? I warn you--don't suggest anything too crazy. No sparkles. (I have to drawn the line somewhere!)

Silkweaver
Blue dynasty linen
or (keep scrolling) ocean fantasy

Sugar Maple Leaf
Enchantress
Murkey [sic] Depths

Picture This Plus
Glacier

R&R
Neptune Blue

I can hardly believe I'm stitching a Mirabilia let alone contemplating doing it on ostentatious fabric. That's all okay for you! But I'm not you.

Alphabet Soup: R

Annette assigned me the letter "R" for this little game: post a list of 10 words that begin with this letter and what they mean to you.

1. Red brick house--our little place in Pennsyltucky, our first house. I do want to invite you in...so we're redecorating
2. Research and reading--I spent so much of my life doing it; it really defines me. I love having to look things up for my job, which requires another of the three "r's" 'riting.
3. Richter scale--14.5 years in Los Angeles, baby. I was there for the Landers quake and Northridge. R is for riots too. Who knew "R" was for Los Angeles?
4. Reichs, Kathy--I love a good mystery, and my favorites are police procedurals, including the work done by forensic anthropologists in books and on tv (but not Bones, I hate Bones).
5. Royal Tenenbaums: Love the Wilson/Anderson duo, though Bottle Rocket might be my favorite. I love, love, love Owen Wilson. I'm a huge fan of movies, generally, cultivated in, you guessed it, L.A. It's a really different experience there, dude. I could have also gone with Repo Man with which I was obsessed as a teenager. Back in the day, I had a bag that this guy called a "plate of shrimp" because I carried everything in it and practically anything you could need or name, I could pull from the bag. My life was a plate of shrimp.
6. Rubberstamping, we'll let this one stand in for all my favorite crafts: card making, scrapbooking, even knitting and cross-stitch!
7. Red Hawk (do I get to use red more than once?) This Cowgirl Creamery cheese is the best stinky cheese I ever et.
8. Reboant. Describes my laugh.
9. R-o-w-d-i-e. I was a cheerleader. That's the way we spelled rowdie. Rowdie, let's get rowdie!
10. Rye bread. Marble rye. In college, I lived on marble rye. Which brings me to the Seinfeld episode. Brilliant. My favorite show e-v-e-r.

Twisted

Six weeks until Christmas! How do I know? It was the last day to send packages to England by slow boat and guarantee delivery (it takes 4-6 weeks). And I did it! I feel so relaxed, I don't know what to do now.

Thanks for the complemens on the ornaments. Leah wants to know how I attached the trim. I'm a very visual learner, and if you are too, I would recommend Marcia Brown's article in Fine Lines from Fall 1998 (I did find some for sale via google).

I will do my best to describe it.

1. Insert the trim into a small hole you have left in your ornament for this purpose (sounds self-evident, but I have a bag of stuffed and completely sewn-up--and trimless--ornaments)
2. Working from the back, yes, from the back
3. And using a thread that matches the backing fabric
4. Sew the twisted cord on. You will take your stitch about halfway down the "fat part" of the cording. Pick up a little bit of the fabric. Pull through, making sure the thread lands in the ditch. You should be burying your between stitch threads in the ditch, groove, twist, whatever you want to call it, of the twisted cord.
5. What I found was corners tend to roll back, so I tried to stitch those on pretty loosely.

Brown recommends starting near the bottom corner, and I did on the Peace Tree. On the "Three ships" ornament, I started from the top, because I wanted to have a smooth point at the bottom. But I started the tasselled ornament in the bottom middle because I wanted the tassel to cover the place the trim ends form a joint--you want to sort of cross them inside the ornament.

Oh, you don't want to knot the trim (too bulky) so put scotch (cello) tape around the place you will have to cut and cut through the tape. It will prevent it from ravelling and give you a smoother back.

Clear as mud, right?

Ornamental

The inlaw ornaments are done! And to my satisfaction. I finally learned how to blind stitch like I had eyesight and how to attach trim so you couldn't see it! I probably started with the wrong ornament (the tree on the right). The store-bought trim (nearly an exact match to the trim in the magazine) had a preattached tassle. Made it hard to get it lined up properly. Finishing these ornaments took way longer than I thought it would but in the end, I come away with new skillz.

Now I have the ability to finish a huge bag of ornaments that are sewn and stuffed but need trim! If I could find time to attach that trim, my tree would really be something this year...

Crochet Boise Beanies

Today's College Game Day featured a profile of Ian Johnson (pictured left), a tailback from Boise State who's one helluva crocheter. Seriously. He wanted a hat one winter, so his mother taught him to crochet. In high school he made as much as $600 selling his crocheted goods. When he first started college, he couldn't give them away (he was selling them at $15 a pop); now that he's scoring 13 points a game, he's got a backlog of 100 orders (still only $15).

You know I tend to complain when guys get attention for doing crafts that women do all the time--no one's written an article about me learning to shoot and fish before I could ride a bike, have they?--but this guy's got a real charm about him (you wouldn't figure from the photo, but you could see it on the teevee).

Now I want a beanie.

Four accessories I can live without

1. Laying tool. I use my needle. Just stroke the fibers with that.
2. Needle emery. My fingers take the finish off of needles, so there's no sense in this. I can only use each needle for a short amount of time.
3. Needle threader. Haven't you mastered the art of threading the needle without looking it in the eye? I keep telling you how to do it!
4. Project carriers. Oh, I have a beautiful purple one. Everything ends up in Ziploc bags anyway. They're cheaper if you stitch more than one project at a time.

I couldn't even make it to five. I guess most products are just must haves. The shopowners will be excited to hear it!

SBQ: Gettin' Flossie with it

Sorry about the title; I'm a little punchy today. I'm a bit relieved to have this question to write about; it gives me a chance to to think up one more stitching accessory that I can live without (to balance yesterday's top five). I just need one more, if you can think of anything.

How many different brands of “complete” embroidery floss sets do you own? How do you keep track of it? (i.e., spread sheet program, index cards, palm pilot, etc.)
I own only one set of complete floss: DMC. The DMC is in boxes organized numerically. The extra skeins are in the millennium keepsake chest.

I have a lot of Sampler Threads and Weeks Dye Works floss; a handful of Needle's Necessities, Caron flosses of all composition, and silk flosses from Krienik; a few skeins of Crescent Colors; and a couple skiens of Anchor. These are all kept in Ziploc bags.

To keep track I have an old "geek book"--with paper! checklists from the Stitcher's Pocket Inventory for most of the products I own. (I'm totally analog.) I haven't been keeping it up lately. What I usually do is take out the bag of ST or WDW, find what I need, make a list of what I don't have and pop over to Fireside Stitchery or Strawberry Sampler to get what I need.

I could use some kind of system whereby I can "check out" floss to a project. But that would be too much like workin'.

Top Five Accessories

1. Tacky bob. No better way to work with beads. Hands down the best gadget I own.
2. Do-lolly. Really, do I need to explain? Is there anyone who hasn't found the magic of getting those ends secured with this fabulouso (and cute) tool?
3. Booboo stick. I'd resisted spending money on this one. I thought I could manage without this. A friend bought me one. Woo-hoo. No more ripping out stitches for hours. Cut, brush, start again. What a time-saver. And if you never make another mistake, you can always use it to clean bottles.
4. Needle park magnets. If I don't have magnets on my projects, I end up putting my needle in my clothes. Either just above my right breast or in my right pant leg. This has led to having cashiers and other strangers make casual remarks and waking up with scratches because I slept with a needle on my pant leg. D'oh.
5. Q-snaps. I hate hoops. They leave horrible impressions that aren't so easy to get out of fabric. The fabric does not need to be tight as a drum for your stitches to lay properly. Usually I stitch in hand, but if the fabric is too large, I have to use q-snaps. They were invented for quilting, so if you're a quilter and a stitcher, you have twice as many reason to buy them.

What about you? What's your favorite stitching accessory?

And thanks for all your comments lately. I feel so popular!

Top Five Places to Visit

In an effort to keep myself going during this blogathon, I've created a few "top" lists. I think I've been to about 25 stitching stores all over the United States. Some of them are gone now or just not list-worthy. Today I found out that one of the places I visited recently is going out of business. Colonial Needleworks, I hardly knew ye!

Here are five places that I can recommend.

5. Yankee Cross-stitch, North Hampton, New Hampshire I love this little place. They have quite a collection of samplers, especially colonial types, just the kind of thing you would associate with New Hampshire. The mall that it's in has a couple of cute gift shops, and there's another mall just down the road with a scrapbook store. Hampton is a beach community so there are places you can go to have delicious seafood. Or you could stop by Strawbery Banke to see how the girls who stitched those samplers lived.
4. Needlepoints, Ltd., Garden Grove, California This place is huge and has tons of great stuff, and every thread you could possibly imagine, let alone need. (Really, go to the website and click fibers. Go see. I'll wait.) It would rank higher, but the staff is surly at best. There's not much around Garden Grove, though there is an In 'n' Out. You gotta go somewhere else to do or see anything.
3. Stitching Post, Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore has a lot going for it. I'm a huge fan of jumping in the car and driving down to the National Aquarium. It's a great little city. The Stitching Post is spacious, it's full of great stuff but seems so uncluttered...it's a stitching store paradox. You should see it for yourself!
2. Elegant Stitch, Modesto, California I'm not advocating Modesto as a vacation destination; face it, it's pretty much an armpit, but Elegant Stitch is amazing! The people are so nice and knowledgeable. Lois is a pip, and I like her because she doesn't think Mimi's constitutes fine dining. There is an In 'n' Out in Modesto. (See why I'm obsessed with In 'n' Out below.)
1. Silver Needle, Tulsa, Oklahoma Wowza! this store could knock you out. It's huge! They've got great walls filled with samples, all the accoutrements, tons of patterns--just everything! They do some interesting things when they put someone else's pattern on 10-count Betsey Ross linen and unleash their creativity with the fibers. But I don't have to tell you--you've see it on the internets. I spend most of my time in Oklahoma at these rustic camps, but I can recommend a visit to the Gilcrease or the Philbrick. I also once ate a burger where Garth Brooks gets his. In 'n' Out is still better.

If I didn't recommend your favorite store, please comment about it! I love knowing where I should visit when I travel around the country. (I have a trip to Houston in the spring.)

If You Don't Buy it, They'll Stop Making It

I've been reading how everyone is cutting back on acquiring new stash until they complete their 10/25/50 project challenge. This is crazy! Do you want your favorite stores to go out of business? Well let me tell you how lucky you are that I am still buying things!

I fell in love with Liberty Street's new design, In the Tall Flowers Sampler. I had a hard time finding the fabric that it calls for, so I contacted the maker. I noticed also that she did the fabric called for in Mermaids Singing. It is not the bright yellow that shows up in the picture on the Workbasket chart. (Has no one heard of color correction out there?) It's actually a lovely green. So I had to get some of that. And then while I was ordering, I figured I should also get the fabric for Rose Bunnie [sic] by Liberty Street. La Fern is a beautiful color, perfect for the bunny.

My mom also asked me to do a Mirabilia mermaid for her for her 65th birthday (2009). I figured I'd better get started. I chose Emerald Mermaid. I can't believe I'm doing one of these. I can't beleive my mother was so enamored of them.

Edited: When I added the picture, I realized I forgot about the celtic pumpkin by Sunflower Seed. I did need to replace those two pumpkin patterns that I stitched.

round robin focus

I have been working on my best pal's round robin today, so no pictures, unfortunately. We are doing Christmas trees so she can hang it in her Christmas-miracle-baby's bedroom. My pattern was designed to be stitched on black fabric, but her fabric is ecru, so I'm worried that it's not green enough. It's sort of chartruese. I think she'll love it anyway.

Of course, this means I haven't been working on attaching the (twisted cord) trim. The worst thing that could have happened to me happened at the post office on Friday. The postal worker told me that it would take 4-6 weeks to get the presents to England by slow boat. Given that the dude's mum's present cost $11 to mail and it wasn't even that heavy, I'm a little bit worried about the ones that will weigh more--there's no way I can send them airmail. Nevertheless, I just have to mail them next week for surface to get them there on time. She should never have told me that. It. just. slows. me. down.

Adventures in Babysitting

I have taken nary a stitch today. My cousin asked us to watch the kids all day today while she and her husband took his siblings and mother to New York to see The Producers for MIL's 85th birthday. The girls had a full day planned for us. Lala had a soccer match and they wanted to see a movie. These are the snapshots that made us smile today:

1. Yay-o holding her arms up in victory and yelling "Yay, Lala" every time Lala touched the ball in soccer. (If you haven't seen an under-7 soccer match, I'd recommend it. It's the cutest thing on two legs!)
2. Lala wondering if aliens said that people didn't exist.
3. Yay-o copying Auntie Sissy using chopsticks at dinner by eating her sesame chicken with toaster tongs.
4. The movie we saw, Flushed Away. Thumbs up all around. We're big fans of the singing slugs.
5. Lala's rendering of the characters in the movie.

I'm sort of glad that I signed up to blog every day this month. Otherwise you'd have never heard about today...

Will I Get a Show When I Top 500?

A New Windsor man had a show which gathered all of his cross-stitch pieces--500 of them--for a show in his hometown. Once he hit 500 he wanted to see them all together. I just have the feeling though, if some crazy broad went over number 500 and wanted to hang them all up in the local Y, the local newspaper wouldn't have thought it newsworthy. Well, if I wanted to have my 500 projects covered in the paper, I imagine I would have to move to a tiny little town.

What I liked about this guy was how he put a mini-journal on the back of all his pieces. Reminding himself what was going on in the world and with the weather--are all old people obsessed with the weather? I ask because my grandmother always asks about the weather and gives me a dissertation on hers whenever we talk on the phone. You can imagine how boring this was when I lived in Los Angeles. At any rate, he must be a one-at-a-timer because he can do that. I mean how would I write a message about the ten years I've spent on Toy Gatherer, to name one? It's an idea, though. And I put it out there for you.

SBQ: The Bitch who Stitches

SBQ: How did you decide on the title of your stitching blog? Was it random, or does it have a special meaning to you or about you?

There was this wedding sampler I was stitching for my cousin, bride and groom standing at the edge of a wood surrounded by bushes. Every single stitch in those bushes was a different color. Hundreds of blended needles. I could hardly stitch for the complaining I did. I mostly got through it because a group of us stitched together semi-regularly. Whenever I took it out, they'd say, "here comes the stitch and bitch." In fact, we decided when we opened our stitching store cum bookstore cum coffee shop (no coffee in the stitching area) that we'd call it "Stitch and Bitch." This was before Debbie Stoller took the name for her own, of course.

When I imagined my blog, there were no stitching bloggers (that I had yet found) and I took as my inspiration the Knitting Curmudgeon. Like her, I hated when newbies-who-didn't-know-enough-to-realize-there-was-life-beyond_________ (aida in this case), took over interesting places. I was on rctn in nineteen-dickety-two when there were about 50 posts a week. Fifty intelligent and interesting on topic posts. Then something happened (I blame AOL and compuserve for releasing idiots the ill-prepared into the wilds of the internet). And then there were thousands of posts many of them on homeschooling, dying relatives that needed praying for, and how great Precious Moments kits were. It made me bitchier. And I thought this blogging-thing would give me a chance to unleash my ranting without having to actually read what those others were saying. So I was going to bitch...and the stitch and bitch thing came back to me. (The Knitting Curmudgeon has a lot more fortitude than I do because she continues to read those boards, at least every now and then, for fodder. I can't make myself. Who really cares if Jim-what's-his-name is stitching nude women--it's neither cute nor offensive.)

All this said, with the exception of my rants concerning Martha Beth Lewis, I actually find it hard to sustain the attitude I had set out to share. When I'm saying mean things to people I know, it's easy to know how far I can go. When I'm saying them in person to people I don't know, same thing--you stop when people recoil...or maybe just one more jab and then you stop. Out here, people are kind of thin-skinned. And it's hard to know when I've gone too far. OTOH, I'm not called the Stitch Bitch for nothing: WYSIWYG.

Recently I met people who I didn't know who also read the blog. Suddenly, I was horrified. I had said, things, and there were these people...Reading Them. And here I was talking to them. What had I said that they would remember; had I embarrassed myself? the poor dude? It's completely counterintuitive, but I like you all a whole lot better in the abstract than when you are shaking my hand. (Oh, it was a pleasure to meet you all, btw!)

If you're asking why I use a nom de blog, that's a whole other story.

Follow Your Dreams, You can Reach Your Goals, November

I'm not entirely sure what makes everyone think I've actually attached the trim. I just have found directions to help me do it. When I'm up for it. It might take a few more days of reading the instructions before I feel sufficiently fortified to actually follow them!

I'm not making any more Christmas presents this year, so I will turn my focus to finishing some of my ongoing projects this year. I had hoped to be down to four WIPS by January 1, 2007. Unlikely...unless my fingers fly. (I will be off my feet for the week of Thanksgiving because of my upcoming bunion surgery, so that should give me some more time to stitch!) I won't get down to four, but let's see what I can do.

1. Sissy's laptop bag
2. Work on best pal's round robin
3. Keep up with Start! the Marquoir
4. Dolly Mama Freebie Poodle
5. Elizabethan Rose
6. Bead the Toy Gatherer

I am also going to try to blog every day in November.