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.

Oh, Are the Olympics Over?

Sorry I didn't post a picture of this sooner. I can assure you I haven't put any stitches in since the Closing Ceremonies.

The only thing of a "personal" nature that has been stitched since my last report is the flag next to the sand castle. I have done my best to make it look like the flag from the state of NH.

For easy reference, I've also added the picture taken at the start of the Olympics below. I don't think I podiumed. (Was anyone else as annoyed as the dude was with that verb? It's not just me, it runs in the family!)

What did I learn as a one-at-a-time stitcher?
I learned that I could take "big" projects on public transportation. But that's about it, I'm afraid. I didn't stitch at all on Saturday or Sunday; I believe my enthusiasm began to wane with such focus on only one project. And this morning, I got out the ornaments I was working on before this experiment.

Souvenir Explained

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


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

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

Souvenirs and Memories

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

Bright!

Here's a pic of the (too?) bright Souvenir Sampler for my parents' fortieth wedding anniversary in April.

I chose the birds (option 1) because one year my dad gave my mother a charm of geese in flight. My parents think geese mate for life, well, at the time, scientists did too. He is the most romantic cynic I know.

Wherein They Convince Me

I showed the Souvenir Sampler with the too-dated colors to Sissy and the Dude. They liked it. They convinced me that my mother wouldn't like the heritage colors and I have chosen the precisely right, bright, colors. So I am sticking with it. I've done pretty well too. Pictures soon.

Today, I received La D Da's Miss Mary Mack pattern from Wyndham Needleworks with their recommended fabric, Lakeside Linens Vintage Nutmeg. This weekend, I saw that Wyndham had a sale and I saw a couple of patterns I would have liked to add to the stash. But my weekend internet access is well, stolen, and so, not secure enough for placing orders. And this morning the patterns I wanted were gone. Boo hoo. I should just go shopping in my stash.

I was supposed to do some finishing this weekend with Friends Gather, but I was still coughing and that, combined with the codeine, was giving me a wicked headache. Next weekend, the dude is playing in a chess tournament, so I'll have some quiet alone time wherein I can attack some of the projects on my to do list.