Best Pal

Dead of the Day

You sometimes have heard me talk about best pal, my um, best pal. She has started a blog. I'd love to be able to tell you it's got lots of pictures of her fabulous stitching on her needle books (yup, that's her focus). But she hasn't been stitching much since she had the kids. Don't worry, she'll be back.

Instead, it's going to feature people who died on a given day. She's an archivist, so she knows a lot about dead people. And she's an excellent writer. She's only got the first post up but I know that there's a great deal of promise here. Join me in reading along!

Hand Model

I want to thank you all for your wishes for my recovery. I'll keep you posted on how things are going. But I have to give props to the dude and his mum who have been fabulous to me.

Last night, I bullied best pal, who is in town for our 20th reunion, into visiting. She asked if she could bring anything for me. "Ice cream!" I shouted with abandon. Because I had asked the dude, and I knew he wasn't thrilled with the idea but he had already done so much. She showed up with 3 pints of Ben & Jerry. And you wonder why I love her so much.

This is taking forever. I'm signing off for a while.

Gifted

Back in the 80s and early 90s, my family took a lot of cruises. One thing we learned from sailing around the Caribbean with a bunch of people: your experience is what you make it. Focus on the negative, and surprise, you’re pretty unlikely to enjoy yourself. I think that happened a lot at this camp. There were lots of people bitching and moaning, and honestly, there were a few things to complain about, but in the end all was made right, and really, you have to focus on that.

My flight arrived in Tulsa at 4:00 and by the time we moseyed out to camp, all the tables were filled! Sure, we could have sat two there and a few there, but we came from across the country to be together. In the end, that was remedied. By the time we sat down to stitch on Friday night, all was well. As usual, we had three kits: a SamSarah patriotic design finished into a cube, a bunny stitched using Medici threads and finished as a needlebook, and a small Prairie Grove Peddlar “Bee” chart stitched with luscious Crescent Colors Belle Soie silks and finished in an exclusive Just Nan WhimZi frame. Two of the three kits didn’t have enough floss. (What’s new?) But, that situation was rectified. You would have thought it was the end of the world the way some people carried on when they were missing one length of thread. For sheesh! Anyway, I ate some more Starburst jelly beans and focused on the positive. I left with three stitched projects. Two of which are completely finished, and one I only need to add trim to.

I’m in love with the CC silks. They did not fray or get fuzzy, and they felt so nice! The colors were lovely. They were so inspiring. I changed my options of “bee gentle,” “bee kind,” or “bee happy” to “bee bitchy.” It was a late night and some of us were a bit cranky. It got a few laughs, and I’m thinking about using it in a new header design. But first, I’ll have to take a photo.

On Friday night, we went to our Amish dinner. The Millers have built a new eating establishment so we don’t have to invade the privacy of their home anymore. The new atmosphere leaves a little to be desired: unfinished garage, springs to mind. Well, it is a garage-style building. And the inside is unfinished in the classical sense. So it’s not much of a stretch. Of course, a few people got lost, and I’ll never know why the organizers don’t write down directions for everyone and post a big sign at the turn that people always miss. They were supposed to have posted a few people out on the road to signal the turn, but the signalers thought their job was done and they left before we got there. Fortunately, we’ve done this a few times. The lost people did show up before we had shoveled down a first plateful of food and well before the arrival of the rolls. Oh, the rolls! They were later than the lost people, and I was positive we weren’t getting rolls. But we did; focus on the positive.

After dinner, our little crew handed out surprise gift bags to the campers in honor of our friend, V’s, birthday. People were easily bribed into singing happy birthday with a few trinkets from Oriental Trading Company—oh, and 72 cupcakes. She was shocked and surprised, which was just the effect we were going for. Happy significant birthday, Vickie!

On Saturday night, I overheard someone looking for Anna Van Schurman. Anna would have loved to attend camp, but someone had to stay behind to make sure the dude doesn’t have sex with my sister. (A running joke.) Now, I know I’ve alluded to this before, but that’s my nom de blog. So anyway, best pal, being who she is, asked if they’d like to meet Anna, and they said they had something for her. Why on earth would anyone have anything for me? Well, Chelle is just the kindest person. She had her friends who were attending camp give me a little giftie, a RAK. She sent a little kit to make an ornament out of the JCS ornament issue. I was so surprised. Thanks, Chelle! When you least expect it, expect it!

Since I brought geegaws for 48 people, I really thought I’d be going home with an empty suitcase, but between the RAK, a belated birthday present, and the gift bags that my devoted friends brought for us (not to mention the giant bag of polyfill that I had to buy at the Wagoner Wal-mart to finish the biscornu ), it was full-up on the trip home. (Yes, the biscornu got finished on time, but I did forget to photograph it. I’ll see if we can rectify that!)

Of course, I shopped and shopped, but that report will have to wait for another day.

round robin focus

I have been working on my best pal's round robin today, so no pictures, unfortunately. We are doing Christmas trees so she can hang it in her Christmas-miracle-baby's bedroom. My pattern was designed to be stitched on black fabric, but her fabric is ecru, so I'm worried that it's not green enough. It's sort of chartruese. I think she'll love it anyway.

Of course, this means I haven't been working on attaching the (twisted cord) trim. The worst thing that could have happened to me happened at the post office on Friday. The postal worker told me that it would take 4-6 weeks to get the presents to England by slow boat. Given that the dude's mum's present cost $11 to mail and it wasn't even that heavy, I'm a little bit worried about the ones that will weigh more--there's no way I can send them airmail. Nevertheless, I just have to mail them next week for surface to get them there on time. She should never have told me that. It. just. slows. me. down.

I Have the Best Friend in the Whole World

My best pal sent me a surprise. Perhaps a housewarming gift? Whatev. It was amazing.

It's a framed bookplate of two pre-Rafaelite ladies sharing a cushion and sewing a fine seam.

I love it.

And if I can manage to point the camera away from my adorable nephew (it's like Christopher Robin has come to life in our house!) this weekend, I'll see if I can share it with you.

Madame Defarge

When I'm stitching, my dad always refers to me as Mme Defarge. How many times do I have to answer, "She knit!" before it sinks in? Like my friend MB says, it's that stupid Quilted Northern commercial all over again. Remember? The women were quilting with knitting needles. D'oh! No one in the ad office or the tp company had ever seen anyone quilt before? Or were they just not paying attention? The ad came out after How to Make an American Quilt.

I guess there's a lot about "women's work" that's invisible to outsiders (male or female). It seems so obvious to the insiders, but I guess it's not:

I've had people thank me for the petit-point and needlepoint I've done for them (it was cross-stitch)

the soldier who asked me to sew his button didn't realize my needle was blunt while sewing needles are sharp (much better to ask a quilter)

the confusion between knitting/quilting/needlework in contemporary culture and my contemporary family

the program director who assured me that all Polish girls would be accomplished needleworkers (she's living in fantasy land)

Maybe stitchers need a stitch-out like the knitters and crocheters have. Tiny-needled women of the world, unite!