Here's Something I've Forgotten

We had the Frank Lloyd Wright Tree of Life Window framed as a Christmas gift for my in-laws. The interior of the frame is silver with a goldish hue. It's perfect for my SIL who is a museum curator. (Or so I tell myself!) The colors are perfect for her house--they did just buy a new one, but I'm hoping they won't change too much!

I'm a little peeved at myself--there's a loose thread. Not unstitched but just not tight enough. Because it's so graphic, it's all I can see.

A Finish!

Thank you all for your comments of late. I'm sorry I'm not going to get to them today. I have been busy all day, and I'm about to rush out the door to see Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique at the Kimmel Center. I really shouldn't be posting, but I must.

I had hoped to finish this project for my SIL and BIL for Christmas. I had thought the framing deadline had passed, but I got an email last week saying it was 11/20. Woohoo! I got to work and finished last night. May I present Heartland House's Tree of Life Window (Frank Lloyd Wright). You can read more about its circumstances here.

Football Season Begins!

I am sorry to have abandoned you. I've been stitching. A great deal. And now I am getting ready for the Season of Stitch Ass. I wonder sometimes if I love football for the game itself or for the necessity of sitting down all weekend which means I'll pick up a needle.

At Friday stitching, my nemesis was there. She's always there, but we had a particularly humorous round this week. This woman is 70something, disabled, and has an opinion on everything. Not an opinion really, THE opinion. If I say something is black, she will, with great authority, declare it white. This week someone mentioned she had a couch she wanted to give away. Nemesis told them to put it on Freecycle. Having recently joined Freecycle, I thought Craig's List might offer her an easier way to go--no joining up, one and done sort of thing. She said, "No! Don't put it on Craig's List! They are under investigation right now." Of course that investigation doesn't have anything to do with giving stuff away for free, but that didn't matter a bit. She would have none of it, even though many of us have had plenty of positive transactions on Craig's List. Later, we were talking about M*A*S*H. I have this silly little story about Alan Alda. It's like a parody of name dropping. I was once a seat filler at a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie premier. At the post film reception, I was talking to some other seat fillers when Alan Alda, who was standing behind me, swung around with arms akimbo and elbowed me. He apologized to me, very nice guy. So I tell my Alan Alda story.

First she calls me a name dropper. Come on, does that story make me sound like I'm friends with Alan Alda? I was a seat-filler. I'm pretty sure I know my place in the hierarchy. Then she asks for the deets. When I say it was a Hallmark film, she says, "I won't have anything to do with Hallmark." Which is just awesome. Kind of like when my students were writing papers and using the phrase, "uncalled for behavior." The "uncalled for behaviors" students wrote about included homosexuality, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. Both are such a bizarre application of phraseology. The kids clearly thought that their mother's or teacher's reprimand described The.Worst. And for some reason Hallmark deserves to be shunned. I'm not sure I understood her critique. But I do know that I was somehow tainted for attending a Hallmark Hall of Fame premier. I'm an agent of the devil.

I do try to keep a sense of humor about it. After all, I get out a lot more than she does, and my life, from what I have been able to gather, is a lot easier. But it can be a little frustrating to have her hijack every conversation, hold forth loudly on every issue, tell experienced knitters how to best to achieve their knitting goals. I'm jealous of the people who can turn off their hearing aids.

Above, Scared Silly BOAF called for fabric and threads. Don't you love how the yellow looks like it's going to stand out and scream for notice, and the orange sort of absorbs it and instead the yellow is just a harmonizing note? On the Tree of Life Window, I'm trying to put in a length of floss every day so that I can get through all that backstitching.

I Can Quit Any Time I Want

You've all left for the weekend. I know because I was sitting in the traffic you caused when I was driving to the Strawberry Sampler to drop off my framing. You know one piece that I brought. I'll make the others a surprise. You'll know more in June.

As promised, I have turned to Tree of Life Window (Frank Lloyd Wright).

Last night I was finishing up one of those small squares on the bottom when the dude declared he was off to bed. Was I coming?

Me: "Just a few more stitches." (Four to be exact.)
Dude [in his best Lebowski]: "'Just one more stitch, man.' Can you quit anytime you want?"

I'm not sure I can. Can you?

Zoo Goers

Yesterday the dude took off from work and because he's just finished Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation, I thought he might enjoy a trip to the zoo. We have done Philadelphia's zoo--America's first zoo--so many times, I thought we should change things up. When I suggested the National Zoo, the dude wanted to know what they had. I was very excited about elephant washing, but he was won over by the chance to see a panda. (You never know with him. Remember the sheep herding?)

We were aiming to be there by 10:30 so that I could see the elephants being washed, and we arrived by 10. Not a bad job avoiding rush hours. But they had temporarily closed the elephant house so there was no elephant washing for me. I was mildly disappointed, but we saw so many other wonderful things, I forgot the stinky elephants. When we finally got round to the panda, most of the school groups had left (phew!) so it was a little quieter. Pandas spend about 16 hours a day eating, and this one spent most of our time with him lounging in a corner chomping on bamboo. What is it with girls of a certain age? They all want to adopt cute animals--from the fisher cat to the panda; all we kept hearing was "I want one" in cutesy-girl teenage voices. Then the adorable panda did a big poo. The girl decided she didn't need a panda anymore. (Quelle surprise!) The dude was off to the side of the crowd, and the panda strolled over to where he was and started rolling around. So cute! I almost wanted a panda. But the best part was it was like he was performing just for the dude. Then everyone ran over to the side where the panda was, so we decided it was enough panda. We also saw golden lion tamarins, golden-headed lion tamarins, black and rufous giant elephant-shrews, prehensile-tailed porcupines (who knew?), naked mole rats, Madagascar tenrecs, meerkats, black-tailed prairie dogs, gibbons, orangutans, a sloth (in a box), mongooses, lemurs, pale-faced saki, Prevost’s squirrels, a rock hyrax, Asian elephants, cheetahs, zebras, an emu, Mexican wolves, Prezwalski’s horses, a hippo (just the nose, ears, and eyes), lions, a caracal, a giant anteater, poison frogs, many birds from the Amazon, jelly fish, cuttle fish, nautilus, spiders, giant octopus, corals, sea anemones, starfish, butterflies, leaf-cutter ants, beatles, a fishing cat, river otters, Mexican wolves, eagles, a sloth bear, a komodo dragon, a red panda, a tiger, sea lions (not seals), turtles, lemurs, a beaver, and a collared peccary. And deer, but I think these were more of a "suburban nuisance" than an exhibit.

He's having fun, really.

Of course, there's nothing like watching the people. It was shocking the number of signs people didn't read. They would charge up to the gorillas, knock on the window, stare at them and wonder why the animals didn't come over to them. (The sign explained how to "make friends with" large primates; none of those actions were on the list.) One group of kids was making up what a komodo dragon (or as one group of teen girls called it "the kimono dragon") was; neither of their chaperones made it over to the sign so they could tell the kids--clearly curious--about the animals. I showed the kids the sign, but they couldn't read it. (I'm terrible at judging children's ages and how old they should be to read.) I think teachers should have exercises for the students to do while they are there. Then it's not all just running around like they are part of the exhibit. (And what about the signs telling everyone what a bad idea it is to stand on the railing? And the kids lounging all over the railings. Oh how we would cry and gnash our teeth and rend our clothes about the injustice, if one of those kids were trampled by an elephant or eaten by a lion.)

Education and entertainment have a sort of uneasy coexistance at zoos. Zoos were nominally created for both reasons, but today zoos seem to focus more on education (environmentalism, conservation) and do things like provide "full experiences" by having you walk into an environment that includes animals, birds, and reptiles that coexist in the wild. Most people, it turns out, don't really want this from their zoos. They want to move from one freakish animal to the next where they can see them (don't be hiding in a hole!), point at them, scream and laugh, and frighten the poor animals by knocking on the glass. When we were walking through "Amazonia," two women said to each other "There's nothing here." Well, there's nothing to see if you don't bother to look! Harumph.

At any rate, that's why I couldn't show you what I finished on Sunday night:

Anna's Bird
copyright 2003 Good Huswife
Called for WDW and GAST on black 32-count linen
(That dark spot on the left is a shadow.)

And as promised, I picked up Tree of Life Window for the drive to DC and back. More photos soon.

Results

My computer froze, so you're going to have to make do without the waxing poetical about driving out to Cathy's--the wildlife, the farmhouses, the Christian radio stations doling out financial advice. Maybe I'll save it for a rainy day.

UFO: Tree of Life Window

I'm continuing with the marquoir abc ancien, and I wish I had some good photos for you. I'm home sick from work today, have the stomach bug that's making the rounds. I feel like crap. We know this to be true because I haven't taken a stitch today. But by tonight, I will be finished with partie 1 of the giant marquoir. I only have a few days before partie 4 is released. I feel like I'm catching up, even though I am destined to be behind...

Oh, and check it out, I put up a photo of the latest wreath.

Ah, yet another UFO. (Glad I'm entertaining you, Cheryl!) This Heartland House Designs features Frank Lloyd Wright's Tree of Life Window. This is yet another piece started in the mid-90s, when I was studying for quals. This was started as a wedding present for some friends. It was good and masculine, and it was pea green. (A friend read "The Owl and the Pussycat" at the wedding.) But then they didn't even invite me! I didn't have to give them anything, so I stuck it in a box. I didn't even remember it until I came across it in the great sorthing of the craft room.