Stitch In Saturday

This was a wonderful weekend for stitching! I got to sit on my butt with a bunch of other stitchers and stitch my fingers to the bone. What's better than that? On Saturday, I picked up Wisteria Snowman. Click to see what it looked like in September.

In addition to Strawberry Sampler regulars, there was a special guest, Diane from Silver Creek Samplers. She is from northeastern Pennsylvania and was good enough to pack up all her models and charts and join us. (She doesn't ship
out trunk shows since she stitches her own models.) So we got to see everything, even the ones the shop doesn't usually stock. (There were four displays, like the one pictured below, with at least this many models.) There were four new patterns among the pieces but they won't be released until market. (Sorry, I arrived a bit late and missed the intro.)

I found four charts I liked, two for me and two for the dude. I have always loved Promise of Spring and since I was getting the others, I had to. The sheep was too cute to pass up, though the dude had an extraordinarily difficult time reading it. I loved the idea of forty-seven hearts, but I'm not sure if I'm a couple years late (the dude's 48) or if I have to wait until our 47th anniversary. The umbrella sampler is wonderful, though I think it's hilarious that it is a sampler with ducks on it...and I'm always saying how people complaining about ducks and geese in cross stitch are relying on stereotypes. LOL

Speaking of stereotypes, some days in groups of women are better than others, and I have to say Saturday wasn't great. There were a lot of women talking about things which some women find a lot more interesting than I do (children, sports) and using such stereotypes--about their own people! Fortunately, there was no election talk so I just stuffed my gob full of this dip, kept my head down, and stitched!

In addition, to seeing the trunk show, I was sitting right near where Diane was showing her ideas file to Beth from the shop. So I got to see her future ideas file. Let me tell you, you are going to looooooove the Christmas sampler which will probably come out next year. What a lucky break!

Even more stitching was done today, can't wait to share tomorrow!

Where the Hell Have You Been?

Dear Friends, I have been away for weeks, and I'm sorry. So much I wanted to do--keep you up to date with my rotation stitching, wish our friend Jo a Happy 50th Birthday (my own is not far behind), check in with the Spinster and our dear pal Stewie, but it's just been busy. (I can't comment from my phone, and this drives me nuts!)

The dude is hogging the computer with his "work." (It's actually real work, a second job no less.) (I apologize for the sarcastic quotation marks.) I had to go away for work last week, and I thought for sure I could catch up but I was delusional. So here we are. I'm supposed to tell you about my stitching small, but I fear that will have to wait for Saturday. (It's not quite done. And tomorrow is Stamp Night.)

When we last met, I was picking up Wisteria Snowman from Shepherd's Bush. She was headless then. Not so headless now...This is about the time my parents' DNA results came in, and I was trying to find my mother's father's relatives. We need more Eastern Europeans to jump on the bandwagon, alas. (My mother is a veritable stew of peoples. Including trace amounts of DNA from North Africa, South Asia, and indigenous America. My father is not as French Canadian as we thought clocking in at 57% British and Irish!)

I next picked up Christian's Stocking because I thought I was going to be able to get this done for Christmas. I haven't picked it up since January 2015 when I was in the throes of Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge. Now it looks like this:

During this three day period, I was also attending Cookbook Club (Chasen's Chili from A Twist of the Wrist) and trying to salvage the overload of pears we got from the farm share. (I made pear sauce, which is like applesauce, but we all need to make it more often so pearsauce becomes a thing I don't have to explain.)

I moved on to Our Souls but I was in the midst of getting a flight for my Big Birthday Trip that my mother and aunt and I will be taking in February. More later. I was also attending meetings for my volunteer work and preparing the invitations for my Big Birthday Celebration. This poor sampler got so little attention.

I moved on to Cinnamon Stars but with only one day of stitching, I'm not sure it's worth the photo.

When I went off to Pittsburgh for the conference, I brought a small, Lovebird, and Ladybug, Ladybug (it's been found!), but I only worked on the small...and I'm still working on the small.

So there's been a little stitching and a lot of thinking of you all. I think that catches you up!

In the Meadow, We Can Build a Snowman

In the U.S., it's definitely not snowman building time. We're back to PA with temperatures in the mid-90s and humidity to match, barely cooling to the 70s for sleeping. In Maine, temps were in the mid-70s during the day--with low humidity--and cool nighttime temperatures. No wonder I popped out of bed between 6:00 and 6:30 every morning ready to start my day (with a long walk with the dude, my mom, and her dog). Sigh. Who ever thought I'd spend my summer vacations chasing cooler temps? Would that the memories would help me sleep better. Anyway, the ride home gave me plenty of time to work on Shepherd's Bush Wisteria Snowman (kit). (I've gone out of order, since my sister was with us for the last three days of our vacation, and Mary's Stocking is for her.)

I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that one of our vacation days was spent in South Berwick (in Maine, they pronounce that W) (in the UK, they don't) to see Sarah Orne Jewett's house. We arrived at 11:30 not realizing that tours were only given on the hour. There were about six shops on the tiny main street--that hadn't changed much according to pics we saw from the 19th century--but fortunately one of them was a quilt store! And it just so happened that my mother needed fabric for a quilt.  (I acted as her proxy.) She recently gave in and bought my father a lift-chair, which she has declared the "ugliest chair you have ever seen." Complaining on Facebook brought her the offer of a quilt to cover the chair. Of course, I've never looked at fabric without needing some myself. This is what I picked up at Saltwater Fabrics for me. I bought larger quantities of the waves and jellyfish for my mother.

Days 9 & 10

Friday night, as planned, we went to see the Psychedelic Furs. I didn't realize how 80s that was until I told my (younger) boss about it and she had no idea who they were. Fortunately, I just had to say "Pretty in Pink." Anyway, it was one of those things that was a little fun and a little sad and a little scary. It's the first concert we've been to in a long time where we are among the younger (looking, anyway) people in the crowd. The band was all dressed up like they'd just shot out of the 80s, including the hair.

So I just got a few stitches in on Shepherd's Bush Wisteria Snowman.

On Saturday, I turned my attention to the first of the Shepherd's Bush stockings I hope to finish this year. This is Charland's Stocking. I'm not sure which niece this one will be for, but I think it will come to me before I have to put the name on!

Sunday was more Shepherd's Bush. It's was a whole Shepherd's Bush weekend!