The Response was Underwhelming

Here's the flatfold that I made for my cousin's kid. You'll notice it's a little late. I'm hoping the fact that I was living out of a storage unit for ten months will serve to mitigate that fact.

I used this khaki fabric to back it. Had it on hand. Not very baby, but not bad. A bit interesting.

May Flower

The good news is that the bell pull is stitched, photographed, and winging its way to New Hampshire. The bad news is, when I was showing the finished piece to my boss, I noticed that there is one eyelet stitch in the middle box that is missing about three stitches. JM&J. It went in the mail anyway. Which brings me to the end of the month...

Here's what I set out to do in May:

• Finish the Tall Flowers sampler Nope. You know the trouble I had deciding how it should be done...
• Finish the Alpine sampler UFO Yup! (see above). Clearly I have the same trouble as Annemarie who only seems to finish stitched pieces as gifts...
• Work on the marquoir The end of the month was spent trying to catch up (HA!). I did about 1/3 of part 4.
• Work on a birth sampler I worked on two! I finished Sam's and have made good progress on Alex's. I just need to figure out how to add his name and stats

For June:

• Work on the marquoir
• Finish Alex's birth sampler (and send the damn presents!)
• Work on an anniversary present for the dude
• Work on Anna's Bird (UFO)
• Start Promise of Summers to Come, I think this may be my cousin's and her husband's Christmas present--they just bought a house in Wells, ME--yay!

So tonight, if I can whip the house into shape for our guest, I'll try to post a few shots. Otherwise, well, you can wait just a little bit longer. You don't want me to be embarrassed by my inability to pick up after myself, right?

Clusterfuck in the Craftroom

I managed to finish the birth sampler which is now two years old but finishing the bell pull is going to make me cry. It needs to be at my parents' on Friday so I hope to overnight it tomorrow. When I got home today I tried to sew it. Sat down to wind the bobbin--no spool holder. Um, if you randomly put away a spool holder somewhere not with your sewing machine where would you find it? The vegetable bin in the fridge? (And can I just remark that when I was looking for the pins, I found the old pins but not the ones I bought to replace them when I couldn't find them.) I searched high and low but I am pretty sure it is wherever the new pins are. I tried to take the holder off the other machine--but it doesn't come off. Which is sensible. But I couldn't find the foot pedal for that machine (of course not!) so I am sewing this mother by hand. What a pain in the ass. I'm up late and I'm not sure I'll even be close. I should have driven to my cousin's--90 minute round trip and I'd still be done with it already.

I was very determined only to use fabric I had on hand. The flat fold fabric is fine, and the bell pull--well, some days I like it and some days I think I should have sprung for something new. Wait until you see the stand-up, though, that fabric couldn't be more perfect if I went shopping just for that (Sam's sampler--I just have to sew the front to the rest of the cube, which is kicking my ass).

Speaking of ass-kickings work is getting me down. I love how everyone in the world is an expert. I love how their expertise extends from what they do, say running a college or neurosurgery, to what I do (write, make magazines). How much do I love being told that my article about a graduate student (MD/PhD in pathology) should include his background because you know, being a foreign-born science grad student is so fucking unique. No offense to my foreign-born grad student scientist readers--I love you, but your experience...not that special.

Plus which I have company coming on Friday. The place is a sty. The usually spotless dining room is the best example. It looks like the craft room directly upstairs sprung a leak and left crap all over the dining room table. Where's my fucking fairy godmother when I need her?

So, um, pictures another day, okay?

Long Weekend

This weekend in addition to going to the Devon horse show, handicapped riders division, to see my niece; removing about half the landscaping; laundry; grocery shopping; cooking out; getting ice cream (Milky Way Farm); and finishing Sam's birth sampler, I managed to put some beads on my yarn.

More on the finishing tomorrow.

Embroidery: A Book Review

Last time I was at the library, I picked up three books: Games Mother Never Taught You (must read), Sand in My Bra (okay), and Embroidery: Techniques and Patterns by Marie-Noelle Bayard which I shall review for you here.

The book is divided by type of stitch including outlining, filling, counted, drawn thread, and couching.

Each stitch is clearly illustrated with photographs on its own page. Bayard gives the number of steps required to make each stitch, rates each from easy to difficult, and suggests threads and fabrics that would highlight the texture of the stitch. The book seems to have an excellent mix of easy, intermediate, and difficult stitches. While there are more than 100 stitches, it is not exhaustive; no queen stitch, for example. But there are plenty of stitches that make this book worthwhile.

And the directions for the French knot are fabulous! She lists the four main mistakes people make while making the knot, so you can avoid them and make pretty knots.

Each section of stitches culminates in a beautiful project, very lovely and sophisticated as we have come to expect from the French designers. I would caution, however, that only a single stitch is used from each section on each project, which I found disappointing.

The index is visual and alphabetical, and each stitch family is stitched on a different color fabric so you can immediately tell if you're looking at an outline stitch, a filling stitch, or couching.

Stampastack

My stamping rep had a stampastack--I came home with 12 cards--with SU's retiring stamps--they're retiring about 75 in June. I totally have to buy the set we used to make the blue card. Of course, my sister went through our rep's samples, and it looks like we'll be stocking up in two weeks when we are back to learn to use the envelope template with some designer papers. You know, the night before I go to a coworkers house so her friend the Stampin' Up! rep can sell us something. I've got a sickness.

New Start?

In preparation for our outing to the Phillies, I thought I would start a project that my coworker and I had planned to knit together. It's a pattern from Sophie's Yarns for a little beaded bag. I think I reported on our excursion a hundred years ago. Anyway, you have to load the beads onto the yarn, 325 of them. So, I got right on that. Well, first I had to find a big eye needle. Then I had to find the yarn. Then I had to find the needle again, and trust me, with the craft room in the state it's in, that was like finding a needle in a haystack.

Over a year later, with thoughts of knitting with the coworker at a baseball game dancing in my head, I reunited the big eye needle, the yarn, and the beads. After I pampered one sick dude, I sat down to Dancing with the Stars (Apolo Ohno is so on my hump island.) and managed to get ONE bead on the yarn. The beads are too small for my bamboo yarn, which is shredding under the effort. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Barry Bonds Ain't Got Nothin' On Me

I think that when the Nashville-bound passengers noticed the way I stitched, the dude paid a little attention. On the plane ride home from Don't-Mess-With-Texas, he watched me carefully then asked, "how come you always get the needle in the right hole?" Besides the fact that I don't always get the needle in the right hole, I have no idea how I do what I do. So that's what I told him. (I don't know if this is how everyone does it, but I sort of use a rocking motion to get the needle into the hole before I pull the thread through. Since Michelle asked, I might try to do a video, but I'm old and technophobic.)

"Muscle memory," the dude says. "You are like the Barry Bonds of cross-stitch."

And you know, I am, right down to the steroids...but I take them so I can breathe. (And sometimes for immunosuppression.)

Speaking of baseball, my coworker and I have our tickets to the Phillies' Stitch n Pitch. Yay!

Just FYI on the flying with scissors thing: the TSA maintains a list. Scissors are the only sharps you can carry on. You still have to check the throwing stars, billy clubs, cattle prods, and lacrosse sticks. Cattle prods. Now there's an idea for getting people to stay in their damn seats!

Spreading the Good News

Thursday we flew off to Texas and while I was stitching to pass the time while those heading to Nashville got off the plane, I noticed that two women were talking about how I was stitching. They were intently watching me stitch, because, apparently, they had never seen anyone using the sewing method in cross stitch. We had a nice little chat, and that was two more stitchers taught.

On my return, I was stitching in the gate area, and when a woman saw my scissors she wanted to know how I had gotten those through security? Had they just not noticed? (As if. Do you know how heightened security is in Texas? You can imagine...) I broke the news to her that she had been avoiding bringing her embriodery with her on airplanes for two years too many.

I spent many hours in the airport stitching (we gave up our seats for free tickets), and have made some real progress on La D Da's "Sweet Dreams" which I am making into a birth sampler for my nephew Alex.

Nips

The other night at dinner, my cousin's husband--who we love because he invited the dude and I to live in his house for months (it was really his idea)--had a little Freudian slip. A Nip Slip as it were. Only without the bare breasts. He was talking about wanting more food and instead of saying "a little nibble" it came out "a little nipple." Which cracked us up because there's nothing we like better than a whole lotta dirty. Or even a little bit o'dirty.

So, the Nipple Project. Should I enter my breasts?

Oh, you know how I am!

Guys are so cute when they try to write about needlework.

And loyal reader Kunni must have given really good interview. Because he just loved your projects!

And We're Back, but Not for Long

The parents left bright and early this morning, and I am almost back to my normal routine. Tomorrow, however, the dude and I leave for San Antonio. I'm going to a conference, and he's tagging along. I'm not sure if we're bringing the laptop or not, so things are going to continue to be sparse around here I fear.

Xsquared is right. This is the Lizzie*Kate Baby Sampler. And it's as done as it is going to be for a while. I ran out of whitewash, but I saw that coming and replaced it when I was off on Monday, showing my dad a microbrewery in West Chester. (After a delicious breakfast at Classic Diner. Mmmmm, bacon.) But I somehow neglected to notice that I had nearly no blue jay left. I knew it was going to be a race with the hunter, and as you can see, I lost.

I managed to complete the stitching on Alpine Garden, but not to finish it, since my mother had us out of the house from morning until bedtime every day. I'll show you how it looks once I've made it into a bell pull. Cheers!

Quickie

Just a quick post so I don't lose the three readers I have left. I'm working on a baby sampler for my cousin who finally decided to name her kid something normal.

I'm off today with The Mothers (my mother, grandmother, and aunt) to the King of Prussia Mall, which used to be the biggest mall in North America before everyone started competing. I probably will spend most of my time in the bookstore looking for crafty magazines. I'll let you know what I find.

Consensus

Consensus is the flowers look better without the backstitch. But one of the things I like about the design is the beads on the leaves. To do that, I'd need to backstitch the leaves. And if I do the leaves, I'll have to do all the rest as Lee and Barbara have pointed out. Who'd have thunk there was so much thinking involved in this? So I am putting it aside for now. I'm bringing a baby sampler on the bus.

I am just swimming along, however, on Alpine Garden (pictured). If I keep up this rate, I may have it finished before my parents leave and they can take it with them, whoohoo! Anything to avoid putting my stitching in the mail.

You may have noticed that I modified Alpine Garden a bit. I am not a fan of backstitched letters--really not a fan, so I have converted all the writing to over one. In the original version, I was going to replace columbine with my marrying friends' names and their wedding date. Now I will have to chart columbine, for courage. Isn't that a bit ironic that columbine in the language of flowers stands for courage? Okay, you know I can't leave well enough alone. So I checked on the columbine thing. Few of the sources include columbine. (Not this one or this one or this one.) Most others suggest that columbine means folly. (Also here, here, and here.) The closest we get to "courage" is the suggestion that purple columbine means "resolved to win." Resolution is not like courage. Fortitude, maybe. But I think courage is a stretch. On the other hand, if the pattern came out after 1999, you'd see why one wouldn't want to put "folly" on the design. The word is so closely associated with the high school shootings (Think Bowling for Columbine.) that to use "folly" would be, indeed, folly. Even without that association, folly just doesn't follow the rest of the pattern: strength, hope, faith, loyalty, compassion. So courage it is. Besides, it beats the hell out of "anxiety."

They Never Put the Good Thread on Sale

Or do they? Check it out: 50% off before May 15th. The Needlecase carries Anchor, Caron Collection, Crescent Colors, DMC, GAST, Kreinik, Needle Necessities, Needlepaints, Needlepoint Silk, Rainbow Gallery, and WDW.

Baaaaaaaaaa

On Saturday, we headed down to West Friendship. I got to hang out with best pal for a while while the dude and brave astronaut and the offspring watched sheepdogs herd. BP and I met a loyal reader who was working at a rug hooking shop. I was a little hoarse, but that was fine because BP and LR had a lot to talk about. And I do hope that the blog will have brought even more people together. I bought a few things (pictured below), including a cute bag pattern, some wool fabric, and some felting fabric. I have no idea what I am going to do with any of it. A note to designers, if you just happen to find yourself in a booth selling your goods with a bunch of women cooing over what you have made, the appropriate response is "thank you." You may wish to add a few words about how you came up with the design or a little story about which is your favorite design. Grunting is not really an option.

My favorite family of three had to leave for naptime, so the dude and I perused the rest of the buildings. The dude bought himself a couple of pepper plants. He really wants to grow peppers. If he pickles them, things are really going to be nuts around here.

Somehow, I managed to leave the largest sheep and wool festival without any yarn. I'm blaming the cold. Which has gotten worse and worse. Yesterday, I thought I could manage to paint the front door, but overexerted myself. It all ended when I threw up. And yet the dude complained about the job I did. I'm home from work today, and if I can manage, I've got a little video of sheep to show you.

I Don't Know

I just don't know how I feel about the backstitching on the flowers. On the one hand, it reminds me of all the cute felt thingies I've been seeing on the interwebs and even making. OTOH, I think the flowers might look better plain. If I wanted the felt-thingie look, I could just order me up some Week's Dye Works 100% Wool Felt (I love it!) and make it outta wool.

Which reminds me, didn't I order a wool rug from the Mennonite woman like a month ago? When will I get the e-mail telling me it's ready? (Hey aren't I clever? I know she's not Amish by the e-mail account.) Wait til you see it. You are going to be in love with it!

But for now, I'd like your opinion on the backstitching.

More on the Lawn

Last night when I got home from work, I gave the dude the option of cooking dinner or pulling weeds. He chose option c: "lying on the couch and watching Champions League football." I figured I could hold out for dinner, so I went back to the dandelion fight. As a result, I took about 10 stitches on the marquoir last night.

Why am I doing it, some have asked. It would be fine to have dandelions if I had a field like 'Chelle. In fact, dandelions are almost pretty. The leaves are ugly, but the flowers are nice. And if I made dandelion wine, they'd never hit the pufferball stage (my husband says these are clocks, but isn't pufferball more fun to say?). But I have a small lawn. One that butts right up against the neighbor's lawn. I just think it's part of the Neighborhood Social Contract not to allow the weeds to take over your lawn, and thus, invade the lawn of the neighbors. (The Contract also has rules about parking a car on your lawn, putting cars in your driveway up on blocks, letting your barky dog out of the house at 3:00 am, having wild parties without inviting everyone, fighting with your spouse at neighborhood functions, and having farm animals in a sub/urban area.)

We're trying to do this in a green way, so no chemical pesticides. Just the corn gluten stuff. Our lawnmower is electric (no carbon emissions or noise), but if it were up to me, it would work entirely under our own power. Of course, the neighbors are probably wondering why the fuck we don't mow it. We're waiting for a part which we should get tomorrow. As it is, we're the last ones on the block to do the first spring mow, thus breaking the Contract. But we are keeping up our end on the dandelions.

What Shall I do in May?

1. Finish the Tall Flowers sampler
2. Finish the Alpine sampler UFO
3. Work on the marquoir
4. Work on a birth sampler

I am going back to the Alpine Garden UFO. I need a quick present for my aunt's 60th birthday party. The mistakes I made in it weren't as bad as I remembered, so I think I can finish it pretty quickly. I purchased the bell pull hardware aeons ago (because, you know, it was going to be a wedding present in 2002). I'm glad I have a reason to finish this now. I hope that I can meet the May 26th mailing deadline.

I'm not only picking this because I can finish it soon. My aunt lives in the mountains, so she will love this piece. She's also been through some tough times lately, and I think a message of strength, hope, faith, and all the rest of it would be appropriate. Let's hope we can get those creases out of the fabric!