Drawing

As promised I have drawn the winners of the items from my mother's attic. I created random lists at random.org. I would have taken screenshots of them all, but the pictures would have taken up so much space, so without further ado I give you your winners:
Partially Hand Quilted #1

1. Diana
2. Lisa
3. Redwitch
4. Carol G

Horse

1. Barbara
2. Helen
3. Beth
4. Redwitch
5. CinDC

Lonestar

1. Melissa
2. Coral
3. CarolG
4. Laura
5. Redwitch

Sewing Room

1. Redwitch
2. Lisa
3. Helen
4. CinDC
5. Beth

Seashell fabric

1. Kathryn
2. AnneS
3. Chars
4. Laura
5. Quietgirl

A round of applause for Diana, Barbara, Melissa, Redwitch, and Kathryn. Yay! Please make sure I have your snail mail, and prepare yourselves to receive the wrinkliest items ever. I figure you all have this ironing thing down as well as I do.

You may have noticed that I forgot to post this month's anniversary drawing. It was all the excitement of the new dog, who incidentally is not as much like a crying baby as I previously thought. Although she was up at 3am, 4:30 am, and 5:30 am barking and howling (which may register higher on the decibel scale), we put some of our dirty old clothes in the crate and covered it with a blanket (the two suggestions we received). It worked like magic. It was surreal. I wish that stinky clothes and blankets could help the human mothers just as well. Still, she farts like a stinky baby--one that's on solids--so it's not all fun and games.

But I digress...the drawing. Some of you may have noticed that tomorrow is the last day of June. I had promised one drawing a month to celebrate these five-almost-six years of blogging. So will the blogging gods smite me if I draw on Friday? Should I just have it open for 24 hours and limit the number of potential winners to those who check my blog incessantly? Or should we call the quilts June's drawing and try harder next month?

By the way, the June prize is Blackbird's Souvenir de France Freebie stitched with cashmere(!) and appliqued onto a project case made from Barb and Alma's sampler fabric.

Flea Market

When the dude's around, I'm working on Flea Market Souvenir. A girl's gotta have some secrets!

This may be the second new addition to the sampler wall. "Don't" will probably be first. Eventually, when my wall runneth over, I think I will take down all the pieces I stitched for the dude and put those in our bedroom--I have just the wall picked out. Oh, you know me, all big plans!

Thanks for all the love you're showing Stella. She says hi. She's happy to report she is getting used to the gentle leader but we are still not sure what to do about the crate. It's like having a crying baby! Terri asked how big she will get and they don't think she'll get much bigger than she is. She's part black lab and something small (she's only 30 pounds), maybe a little pit, though she doesn't have the pit neck and body. I may have to get one of those doggie DNA kits. If I do we can have a contest to see who can tell "what" she is.

Say Hello to my Little Friend

Stella came home with us today.

Anniversary Chatter

In addition to attic cleaning and saving the family heirlooms from the landfill, I have been stitching. I started monsterbubbles' "Don't." (Now Voyager, Bette Davis, "Don't let's ask for the moon, we've got the stars.") This will be the dude's anniversary present in a couple of weeks.

And speaking of anniversary presents, I do have two more anniversary giveaways to do to complete the celebration of five years of blogging: June and July. (Then in August I will have a celebration of my sixth anniversary, but it will be the kind where we have no gift exchange.) I'll put a photo of the June prize up on Friday and draw it on the 30th. I think you're going to like it!

Edited: the fabric is WDW Havanna 35-count, and the fibers are silk'n'colors espresso creme (moon), stormy skies (lettering) and windwhistle cottage (heart and spiral). Love these threads!

What I'm Keeping

There were many treasures in the attic--I guess we got to the stuff that wasn't stored in cardboard boxes. Don't store your stuff in cardboard boxes; you might as well just throw it away now. It will save your kids the trouble of doing it later... Also, don't save magazines, textbooks, photographs of things with no people (except your house; keep those because things change and your kids lived there and are nostalgic about how it used to be). There were other things that were on my list of things you should pitch, but I can't remember them now. Oh, wrap fragile things carefully; don't just stuff them in plastic boxes.

These are the textiles that made the trip with me.

Look at all that quilting. What work! Though the stitches are a little big for my mother--purposefully?


These molas are souvenirs of a family trip that included the San Blas Islands, where the Cuna Indians weild their magic needles. I think we're going to frame the masks for the map room and maybe make pillows of the squares. I may have to add some stitching to the parrot on the lower left.

Clean Attic and Resulting Giveaway

The great attic clear out is complete! Everything is out of the full walk-up attic (it was huge, people). Now all the good stuff is sitting in my living room. Or in the living rooms of the many people who came by for the giant giveaway (not open to the public). The stuff that didn't make it into the giant skip should be making its way to the Salvation Army soon. Look for it in a thrift store near you.

There were a few items my mother didn't want to part with. She didn't want to bring them to Florida either. You may remember that my mother was a quilt shop owner in the mid80s and taught classes as well. We found quilts she started but didn't finish. (She has arthritis now, and no longer quilts.) Some, pieces cut out but patterns lost, ended up in the junk pile. But we chose a few to give away to you. Please only take them if you will finish them and use them; it would be a shame for them to end up in the attic somewhere else. (Also, let this be a lesson to you--don't put your UFOs in the attic. Out of sight, out of mind!) If there is a great deal of interest, I will resort to the random number generator so please list the items you would like in some kind of order. Many thanks!

This is partially handquilted and possibly hand-pieced.
It is 24" x 41".
The colors are roughly equivalent to DMC 676, 930, and 224 (the lighter pink in the border).



Crazy Quilted Rocking Horse
Jute mane and tale
26" at widest point
Various shades of brown
I think this just needs to be sewn up--the backing is (American) muslin.
Possibly you would use it as an applique?


Lone Star quilt top
41" x 41"
Machine pieced
The colors correspond roughly to DMC 926, 676, 321. The ring that looks black is actually a dark green that reads bluish; I couldn't find an appropriate DMC match.

Sewing Room Still Life
Appliqued, sandwiched and basted, but not quilted
roughly 18" x 25"
Main background colors DMC 355 (rust) and 500 dark green (possibly closer to 501)


Sea Life squares
Polished cotton (that shiny stuff)
Main colors are 838 and 3046 (gold border). There is also a bluish hue to some of the shells (upper left and upper right particularly)
She must have had something special planned for this.

Lest you think I'm a horrible daughter for not keeping these, I have two quilts she made, one for me and one for my grandmother. I also rescued two quilted pillow tops that I will sew into one pillow for the dining room. Or maybe make a wall hanging from. It's my sister whose the rotten daughter. ;)

I will draw these on June 29th. Let your quilting buddies know!

Back 40

Sissy and I are driving up to New Hampshire right now to see what treasures we can find in our parents' attic. You may remember the last time we did this. Or the time before that.

Anyway, nothing really to share at the moment, so I thought I'd show you what's going on in the back 40.

We've got hot peppers, squash, basil, parsley, oregano, cilantro, and eggplant. (The tomatoes live on the side of the house where I think they get a bit more sun.) We did a little experiment and put one squash right in the ground. Let's see if we can keep the pennywort off it. (It's looking a little stunted compared to the squash-in-pots, so I've been feeding it special.) The cilantro went NUTS with all the rain we were having.

Hello, beautiful! I love you, future-eggplant, I will be very respectful when I gobble you up. It will be a special recipe, I promise.

And not to be outdone, a little shot from the "mother's garden," the one our mothers helped us dig and plant. So fabulous!

I know this post was a little sillier than usual. But that is exactly how this ride whole weekend is going to be. It's our coping strategy...

In the News

Oh! Thanks so much for your comments on my gallery. You all are so good to me. I guess you're going to have to come over for the grand tour. :)

And now, let me be good to you. Hop over to doe-c-doe where you can win a "Cross-Stitch Naked" bag.

In my readings around town, I've spotted these tidbits to share.

Old Lady Stitches Big Pictures
Could they at least have shown us one up close? Are these her own design? Because, otherwise, big deal. Another old lady cross-stitches big pictures. Or "samplers" which have been around since "ancient times."

Dyed and Gone to Heaven
Caron Collection website has been refreshed and new content added. They claim to have 10,000 pages of stitch goodness. Some of it is old—some of the patterns are recognizable—but there are some new ones too. Excellent pages show all the colors, a very handy reference. New designers and new stores featured.

Art Gallery on a Bus
In an effort to get people on the buses in their city, Knoxville set up an art exhibit on the bus. “A lot of people are intimidated by the bus” an organizer explains. But wait, aren’t a lot of people intimidated by art? I find the marriage of art and buses totally perplexing. I really don’t know how art makes you want to get on the bus. You know what makes me want to get on the bus? A free ride.

Someday I’ll rant about the cross-stitched piece in the exhibit. Or maybe you can do it for me…

Preventya Dementia
I like this; it's good to know all this stitching ain't been in vain. I wonder if there's not a flaw in their research, though. Like maybe getting together with other people helps you prevent dementia. In which case, I'm fucked.

And Now, Improves Unemployment Too
Oh, your supposed to use it as a reward for job searching, not in place of it. I get it.

Celebrities Cross-stitch
Miranda Richardson gets down and dirty. {Yawn.}

"Spicy Cross-stitch"
Recently I had the opportunity to hear a shop owner kvetch about how many cross-stitch patterns aren't "art" (she was extolling the virtues of Just Nan). I see what she means with these patterns. How tiring is it for "witty" but otherwise talentless people to get all the press?

"Achingly Hip"
You know me: elderly woman stitching religious verses. Thank the sweet baby jebus these kids came along and shook us out of our stupor. (At least this writer has a sense of history.)

Hip Replacement
I know it's not hip when the "retired home ec" teachers are doing it. Yes. Give us back our cross-stitch! (I also added this one because I know so many of you lament your stitching ending up in a thrift shop. Well, someone may buy it and make it theirs.)

Stairway to Heaven

This weekend, I got tired of seeing my three newly framed pieces sitting in the chair.

New frames lounging.

So, I gathered up all of pieces I had and I put them on the wall.

Well, first I had to attend to the three pieces that had been laced but not actually put in their frames. I got out my point driver and drove them into the frames but good. Then I applied the backing paper and hanging wires.

Just in case you've never seen backing paper and hanging wire.

Then, I started hanging. After I had hung about four pictures, I thought it might be a good idea to put them on the wall in a less permanent way in case I was screwing up. So I cut out kraft paper squares to match the picture sizes. Then I put the stand-ins on the wall with repositionable scrapbook adhesive and played with the layout for a while. I might be a slow learner, but at least I get there in the end.

New gallery

I have been basking in reflected glory...or something like that. I feel quite accomplished. Not that I was any less accomplished when they weren't hanging on the wall. But the pictures sort of remind me (almost constantly) that they exist.

Looking up as you enter the house.

Top down.

It reminds me of when I was writing my dissertation. I had been in the program so long I was growing moldy. But then I started keeping track of how I was doing--how many chapters complete and approved, how many pages in progress. Every time I started writing, I would open that document first as a little reminder. Suddenly, instead of lamenting how long I had been working on the project and how much was left to do, I had some kind of grip on reality. I was, say, 2/3 of the way through chapter four and had outlined chapter one while chapters two, three, and five were done and dusted. (Chapters 2, 3, and 5 really were done first. Chapter 1 was dead last.) I could see the light at the end of the tunnel--and it was rapidly moving closer.

Suddenly, all I want to do is stitch--I haven't been stitching so much you might have noticed. I want more things on that wall. And I think a few of them should be a bit bigger. I feel so focused! Let this be a lesson to me.

Anna's Bird was really the inspiration to all this. One of the places the dude and I discussed hanging her was right where she is now. Because she leads you into the dining room.

Anna's Bird, leading you into the dining room.

Chess Match

The dude, my little chess master (he's not really a master--he's a B player), has a little bit of a aneurysm every time sportscasters use the term "chess match" to describe a situation that requires a bit of strategy or tactics in say, basketball or baseball, which decidedly are not chess matches.

Lately, I've noticed that when two apparently disparate things are brought together they are "cross-stitched." "The cross-stitched legislation..." "The after-school programs were cross-stitched together depending on the teacher's interests."

Nothing to with making tiny exes on fabric at all.

Just so you can have baby aneurysms all of your own.

Thank you so much for your effusive comments on my new pieces. You are all so generous with your praise. Tomorrow I'll show you what we decided to do with Anna's Bird.

They're Back!

My pictures are back from the framer. Ooooh, pretty.

Curly Q Ewe
Little House Needleworks


Ewe and Eye and Friends
Room for You
I thought I was going to frame this in a white shabby chic frame, but this one just does so much more for it.



And, ta da!!! (Wow more than one exclamation point. You never see that here.)
Good Huswife
Anna's Bird

This frame just seemed so perfect for it! I love it. This was framed with glass because I wanted to hang it in the dining room. And where there's food, there's gotta be glass.

But up against the dining room wall, I'm not so sure.


I know we'll find the perfect place for it.

Not Stitching, the 101 Things Edition

Today, I applied for two jobs, so treated myself to a movie. The choices were rather limited since I couldn't see anything the dude wanted to see with me and I didn't want to see a load of crap. Although I have been known to see a lot of load-of-crap movies. I didn't want to drive into the city to see something, you know, really good. At least I refused to see the new flicks with Stiller or Ferrell. Instead, I went to see Star Trek. This is the first anything of Star Trek that I have ever seen. Of course, it's such a part of our culture that I know more than I should--all the characters, the plot of Wrath of Kahn, what a tribble is--without ever having seen any of it. I enjoyed it. It was great fun. I like summer blockbusters that are fun.

Even with all that I still managed to start #68 on my 101 list, "use every stamp Sissy and I have." First, I cleaned and put away all the stamps scattered across my craft table, which was unfortunately a lot of them. I decided to start with the "misc" drawer--the one that holds all the non-Stampin' Up stamps. I stamped (and then cleaned again!) just over a dozen, and now I am coloring them with watercolor crayons while I watch the Sox blow a lead against the Yankees. Still they've won six this year. All six.

Don't Piss God Off

I think it pisses God off it you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

Alice Walker, The Color Purple

April was the month to use my purple scraps. I did that this month. I don't know what I was doing in April, but it wasn't much crafting. I have been most successful in using these--the file for purple scraps is empty!

Thanks for your comments about my door and wreath. The color is Behr Grape Leaves in semigloss, at least that's what it says on the can. (Looking on the website, my door doesn't look anything like grape leaves.) I chose semigloss because I really like how they paint their doors with glossy paint in England (or at least on my MIL's street). I wasn't ready for full glossy yet.

The wreath is a product of my overactive imagination. If you're interested I can post some directions, which won't be like writing a tutorial. Because I am crap at getting things like that onto the internets.

Not Stitching

I haven't been cross-stitching. I've spent a few days working on my 101 Things in 1001 Days; you might want to follow along because there are several crafting projects on the list (see 40-69), one which will be showcased soon. I also finished a project that shouldn't have taken me nearly as long as it did. It's a little Mary Engelbreit-style wreath that I painted ages ago. All I had to do was apply a little hot glue. This was part of my last 101--creating enough wreaths so I had one for each month. I still have a few to go--two or three--not enough to warrant putting it on the new list, but I will have it as a priority because July is one of the missing months.

I will be back on the stitching bandwagon again soon. I need to start the dude's anniversary present. (We're one SNC short in this photo.)

Goodness Gracious

I don't even have words. Thanks to CinDC who fuels my obsession with celebrity face in cross stitch.

Martha Martha Martha

I saw Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts the other day and almost bought it on a whim. Instead, I pledged to check it out at the library first. It's very poplar, so I needed to use ILL. It finally arrived and I have been perusing it.

(For the purposes of this review, I am going to treat Martha Stewart as the author, even though we all know there is an army of crafters who are Martha Stewart Omnimedia.)

In the introduction, Martha claims with this book she has "brought these crafts [quilling, marbelizeing paper, candle making, block printing, botanical pressing, silk screening, and soap making] into the twenty-first century." I'm pretty sure that there are quillers, candle and soap makers, and silk screeners who thought they were 21st century crafters, but what of the crafts she has not included, notably embroidery and sewing. Are those so very twentieth-century still?

The over-all sense one gets flipping through the book is that all the projects (over 200, but I quibble) have the Martha Aesthetic: modern, classic, simple, pressed. It's like a bunch of craft sections from MSLiving magazine--which the introduction actually calls "ubiquitous" (humble much?)--have been bound together.

A is for Albums, which is sort of the scrapbooking section. But these are not like the scrapbooks in Creating Keepsakes or even Simple Scrapbooks. Some look like four-color travel brochures, others include baby clothes--whole outfits, which I suppose is better than the cardboard storage box my mother saved ours in, the one the squirrels nested in.

B is for Beading, mostly beaded flowers. This section also includes beaded monograms that I have seen before in a MSLiving Christmas issue. You know this is the one area where I frown on recycling. B is also for block printing, botanical pressing, botanical printing, and botanical rubbings. Now how do you include botanical rubbings but not embroidery. Is there an etsy shop dedicated to botanical rubbings? Probably. Still, you feel my outrage. I've always liked the idea of botanical prints--sunprinting--but I just don't have the right place for them in my house. Maybe in my hypothetical future beach house.

C is for Calligraphy. Here, one of the "projects" is to calligraph* labels for your storage projects. Now there's the Martha-of-useless-household-projects we know and love (or love to hate). C is also for Clay and Candlemaking; don't you just love how some categories are named for the material and some for the craft?

D is for Decoupage. Lovely Martha Stewart botanical prints. Birds for children that are childlike without being cutesy. The kind of projects that elevate craft.

E is for Etching Glass. (A little stretch?) Anyway, etch your glass kitchen canisters. Umm, right.

F is for Fabric Flowers. Here's something I didn't know: If you use fabric stiffener, you can use your punches on fabric. Makes sense now that I see it. Still, my punches are crafty-cute rather than elegant Martha.

G is for Gilding and Glittering. Although she does tell me things I did not know about glitter (who even knew there were things to know about glitter?), you probably don't need the instructions for these projects. Put glue on object, add glitter. I thought not.

J is for Jewelry making. You're probably wondering about H and I. Indeed, K and L are very angry about the whole H and I situation.

M is for Marbleizing and Matting and Framing, the latter can be "often quite fun!" The "matting" section includes instructions for embellishing mats in various ways, just in case you were wondering what was so fun about cutting a mat. M is also for Mosaics; here she's used sea glass in one of her projects. I have a ton of sea glass that I've collected, and I'm always looking for better ways to display it. Still, seems so permanent.

N is for Nature Crafts--acorns, pinecones, and shells. O is for Oragami.

P is for Painting China and Glass, Papercutting and Paper Punching, and Paper Flowers and Birds. There's nothing like spending your time making tissue paper birds...isn't that what we have Chinese prisoners for? To make the tedious crafts so inexpensively we don't have to? This section also contains the paper poms. I wouldn't have noticed them before except Nicole at Pink Loves Brown once put some on her porch and it looked great, until the storm. (Sorry, I couldn't find a link to the exact post.) P is also for Photo Crafts and Pom-pom Animals. Not.Kidding.

Q is for Quilling, which we're happy that Martha brought into the 21st C. When I was making quilled snowflake ornaments for my high school's craft fair that my mother sold for .25 each, it was all the way back in the twentieth century.

R is for Rope Crafts and Rubber Stamping. Maybe rope crafts for the future beach house, but not so much right now.

S is for Silk Screening. I took a class in this with a fairly famous NH silk screener whose name totally escapes me now. Let me just say this: complicated. Not something I'd undertake with just a book for directions. Applying screen filler s.u.c.k.s. S is also for Soap Making, which includes making other bath products as well.

T is for Tin Punching. Martha says that she finds this craft addicting. It's the force, I think.

W is for Wirework and Wreaths. She's so good at the latter. I'd like to make some of these. But with the gumdrop wreath...storage issues? Shouldn't we spray it with something?

XYZ suddenly we're interested in all the letters? This section is for supplies and we take a long look at glues and cutting instruments. There's also a small techniques section which includes how to spread glue. Now there's a service.

This is the second craft encyclopedia I've looked at recently (the encyclopedia of card making was the other) and I'm not enamored of the format. I'm happy I didn't buy this book.

*don't worry. The backformation is almost 200 years old.

June Goals

My experiment as a one-at-a-time stitcher went swimmingly until I finished Anna's Bird. Then, after starting with gusto on Tree of Life Window, I sort of petered out. I haven't stitched in a while. And so, Doris, we learn the truth. I am too stubborn to do what you all tell me! Still, I did make some headway on a project which had been languishing for years.












This month, I'm reverting:

1. Anniversary present for the dude
2. Complete Flea Market Souvenir
3. Finish-finish one project from the to-be-finished pile
4. Make an anniversary giveaway
5. Use up the red paper scraps