25 Things to Do on a Rainy Day

Today was a cold and crappy rainy-snowy-slushy day. If I'd had my druthers, I wouldn't have gone to work. But I pulled up my socks and went in. Since so few of us were there today, we had a group lunch which was pretty fun. And then they let us go early, which was pretty fun. And then my driver's side windshield wiper broke as I was pulling out of the parking lot, so I drove leaning over looking out the passenger side of the windshield with my broken-wiper arm pulled off the glass and waving like an amputated hand. Fortunately, there was a service station less than two miles from my office and they fixed me up. That was pretty fun.

Photo courtesy of raumrot.

Anyway, I've been thinking about rainy days and things to do.

1. Call in sick and stay in bed.
2. Snuggle the dog.
3. Color. I still love these books. Hard to find but you can get similar ones at the big box craft stores.
4. Watch classic movies. Or organize a film festival with movies on a theme. Or watch all the movies in a series, like Lord of the Rings or Richard Linklater's Before series. Don't forget the popcorn!
5. Watch all six hours of the BBC Pride and Prejudice straight through.
6. Bake cookies: this recipe is very popular in my family.
7. Read.
8. Build a fort. Stick the blow up mattress inside. Read in there!
9. Take a bubble bath. Keep adding hot water. Wrinkle your skin. Read in there!
10. Have a tea party. Here's a scone recipe the dude and I use regularly.
11. On a day like today make hot chocolate from scratch. Or try hot vanilla.
12. Try painting your nails with eye makeup. Did you even know you could do that? Check it out.
13. While you're at it, give yourself a pedicure and a deep cleaning facial mask.
14. Experiment with make up looks. You may not know there are thousands of videos for make-up application on YouTube (like 348,000). They are awesome! (And when I say that, it's like I think Graceland is awesome--a little hilarious, a little sad, and a little educational. And why the hell not?)
15. This one is more my sister than me, but read that pile of magazines on your nightstand.
16. Organize something: your pantry, your closet, your medicine cabinet, your stash, your photos. (You can get some help with that.)
17. Just listen to the rain. (Is there a more comforting sound?) (Okay, the ocean, but rain is second.) 
18. Make fondue. (Definitely a day like today rainy-snow storm and not a summer thunderstorm kind of activity.) 
19. Walk around the house and make a list of all the repairs your house needs. Maybe do one.
20. Walk around your house again and make a home inventory. Use your phone and film it.
21. Find a Pinterest project slightly outside your comfort zone. Try it!
22. Write to someone you haven't written to in a while. Or email. Or call.
23. Take stupid Buzzfeed quizzes to find out which music video, Pixar character, or which year of the 80s you are. Find out where you should live, what nationality your inner self is, or what song you should play on repeat this weekend. For slightly more intellectual undertakings (by which I mean the geography category) there's Sporcle.
24. Make soup. Or stew. Or a casserole. Something to warm you from the inside.
25. Stitch!

Of course these were all things you can do alone. There's many more you can do if the kids or friends or a special friend are around, but those are different lists.

Reverse Bucket List

I've made some starts today but they are all gifts I cannot share. So I consulted my 93 ideas for nablopomo and decided to make a "reverse bucket list," instead of a list of to-dos, it's a list of dones. I will focus on needlework, otherwise, we'll be here all night.

Recently I bogged that I was no longer taking classes, and Jo asked if I'd done stumpwork and punchneedle. And I have, in classes. In fact I learned stumpwork back in the olden days of Spirit of Cross-stitch (mid90s).

Done That
Assissi
Bargello
Bead embroidery
Blackwork
Candlewicking
Crewel
Cross Stitch
Drawn thread
Filet lace (Lacis)
Hardanger
Lacis
Needlepoint
Pulled thread
Punchneedle
Ribbon embroidery
Stumpwork
Surface embroidery

So there are definitely things I could learn, like Schwalm, Mountmellick and other whitework techniques, goldwork, Japanese embroideries, Wessex, and the list goes on.

Whenever I make lists like this, I am reminded of my idea to make a Stitcher's Life List ala the Knitter's Life List. It's in there people, It's just a matter of it coming out of my head before it comes out of someone else's!

List #27: Unknown Vintage

The dude is off to England. It's his father's 75th birthday. Even though we were just in England and it costs a freaking fortune and the dollar is in the shitter, the dude is on his way. His father wouldn't take no for an answer. You may remember he wouldn't take no for an answer last October either. But I shouldn't complain, I'm not on my way to England for a long weekend. The good thing is that I am in total control of the working computer for four days. Hahahahaha!

Here is the last list of stitched pieces. These are the ones that I have no idea when I stitched. Well, I have some idea. They were all stitched between 1997-2003. Some I can narrow down a bit more, some not. We'll have to form a support group so we can learn to deal.

• Santa Vest Hollie Designs. For my mom who loves Christmas. I took this in a class at SOCS just so we can help date it. It uses all sorts of fuzzy fibers and overdyed flosses. It's beautiful and she wears it every year.
• Sew Simple Vest 15 Hollie Designs. I bought this after the aforementioned class. It didn't take long to stitch, and I have worn it. But vests are kind of out. And dorky.

• Willow's Garden Tin Topper Samplers and Such. Stitched for my MIL, stitched the Christmas before everyone got one.
  
• Sweet Spring Garden, Elizabeth's Needlework Designs. Definitely stitched for my mother before I stitched Blossom which led to her remark about "small pieces." Of course, all the while I was planning/toiling away on the Floral Afghan.
• Plum Pudding Ewe & Eye & Friends. See 1999 for the story on the puddin'. I just can't not stitch plum pudding.
• 

• Bristol #1 Tin Topper Samplers and Such. Stitched for my SIL the year after I stitched the one for my MIL. My SIL went to Bristol. She was an art history major so this wasn't lost on her.
• Rice Stitch Mosaic Tin Topper Samplers and Such. Do I ever talk about how much I love the rice stitch? I love the rice stitch. I don't know who I stitched this for, but I don't have it.
• Florentine Stitch Tin Topper Samplers and Such. I stitched this one for my cousin on my mother's side who I never talk about.
• Knot Garden Tin Topper Samplers and Such Stitched for Sissy, the year everyone got tin toppers. And I mean everyone.
  
• Purple Heart, Ewe & Eye & Friends
  

• Queen of Hearts, Charland Garvin, Cross Stitch and Country Crafts. I played fast and loose with this band sampler. I started it with intentions of it being a wedding sampler for the dude's friends, but I finished it after they separated so it went to my mother. It hangs in her powder room.
• Wee Baby HIHN for the dude's best friend's baby. I know I've talked about this one--Oh, and there we go, we placed it!
  
• Peter's Stocking Shepherd's Bush for the dude. This was the first one I stitched.
• Sophie's Stocking Shepherd's Bush for me. Second.
• Mary's Stocking Shepherd's Bush for Sissy. Third. So these predate the ones of known origin. I should be an archaeologist.
  
• Bumble Bunny Twisted Threads, I stitched this for Lala's room when she was a baby--2000-2001. It's still in her room, just no record of stitching it.

• Going to Market, Dimensions. I picked the name of my cousin-who-traveled-to-Africa one Christmas so I stitched this. I really liked how the background was stitched. She loved it, used to bring it in to her classroom to talk about Africa.

List #26: Short List

Craft smells I love:

1. Stayzon ink
2. The smell of cake lingering in my cousin’s kitchen

What about you?

List #21: 2002

Happy Spring. Little green things are bursting forth in my garden including the crocuses and daffodils. How happy.

Although none of us is religious, we're having Easter dinner at my cousin's. I think this just means we're having ham instead of another part of the pig for dinner. I'm not really a ham fan. When we were kids, I used to eat warm pineapples with the pineapple glaze and no ham at all at Easter, the kind where you actually go to church. I do like a good salty, salty Virginia ham. Maybe it's the salt? I'm in charge of dessert, and I have no idea what to make. My cousin bakes cakes, so that's right out. We do cookies and ice cream a lot (the dude makes the ice cream and I usually make the molasses cookies) {that's how you can tell I'm from New England}. The kids are going to be mainlining candy, so I think I'd like to make something adult for dessert for a change: frozen lemon mousse? lemon-berry pudding cakes? Lemons add that happy touch of spring.

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In the spring of 2002, I defended my dissertation. I had a lot more free time all of a sudden.

• Christmas Heart, Birds of a Feather, JCSO. Another ornament in the finishing pile.
• Angels Oer This House Chessie and Me, for Mr. & Mrs. Brave Astronaut. But I didn't take a picture of it.
• Sweet Baby, Ewe & Eye & Friends 6/7/02 For my first nephew. I changed the saying to birth stats. Even though I put it in the mail to England, I never photographed it. What a twit.
• The Marriage Sampler Hillside Samplings. For my cousin. Just the center motif. I don't like the wife that much.
• The Marriage Sampler Hillside Samplings 6/21/02 For my sister-in-law. The whole thing this time. Because she's blood and I like her husband.
• Dragonfly tin topper Samplers and Such 8/4/02. For my cousin for Christmas.
• Rose Eyeglass case needlepoint kit 9/29/02. For my MIL for Christmas.
• Thanksgiving Silver Needle Night kit 8/10/02. The Thanksgiving hat is on the fabrics I've chosen to make this into a wall hanging. But I didn't record when I did the deer (November), the witch's brew pot (September), or the apple (August). The only one that I finished was the witch's pot; my coworker was a practicing witch, and I finished that for her. Again, you will notice how close I am to finishing the deer. All I need to do is slap in the batting and sew up the edges. I think I need an intervention.

• Bertie’s Stocking Shepherd's Bush 8/14/02 for Mom. This is finished because I started with one of those prefinished stockings. Now I kind of wish I didn't. The ones I made for Lala and Yay-o are so much nicer. But each family member has a finished stocking, and, as you may have pieced together, I have finishing issues.
• Robert’s Stocking Shepherd's Bush for Dad. The year I gave my parents these stockings, I changed out their old ones after everyone was in bed instead of wrapping them up. It took my mother forever to notice, but my dad--the one who didn't notice I had gotten a haircut when I came home with a mohawk--noticed right away.
• Leopard eyeglass case needlepoint kit, 2002. Stitched for my grandmother, the leopard grandmother.
• Mary Englebreit-style change purse needlepoint kit 9/29/02 Stitched for my aunt. Interestingly, I didn't record the fact that I stitched this for myself as well, the eyeglass case and the change purse. Did I do it before or after these Christmas gifts?
• Spring is in the Air, The Trilogy, JCS magazine. Not crazy about the framing on this, I can always have it redone.

List #20: 2001

I'm trying to think of something interesting to say as a lead in for the list. But I'm a little fagged. In the past three days I have been to several meetings which have just confirmed how much I need a new job. I work for assh*les and idiots. Today the grandboss called the consultant, Jan, "Dzan"--like the woman's name--rather than Yan, even though we all call him Yan and his partner's name is Hans just, you know, as a clue Swiss, not...whatever. But wait, there's more. At the all-staff meeting, we were told a committee was going to be formed to examine "work issues" like promptness and responsibility and veracity. I'm jockeying to get appointed to head the committee because we need a shit-stirrer in charge of that pot. Someone who will say, you want us to take responsibility? Why don't you model that behavior? (You know they're going to appoint a committee of slave-mentality types who will say what the bosses want them to say. The bosses deserve to get me.)

So 2001. I'm nearing completion on the dissertation. I'm working full time heading an ORU at the university. I'm filling my days while the dude commutes 2 hours (rt) teaching in Claremont--some days he works so many hours that I see him while he eats dinner and that's it.

• Lala's sampler I designed this myself to go in the frame. When I saw the frame--a flat white wooden frame with a wooden applique bear surrounded by bees--I knew I had to make something to fit in it. They were decorating the baby's room with bees. My sampler has skeps, bees, rhodes hearts, and birth stats in pink, gold, and aqua. Maybe I'll get a photo on Sunday.
• Folk Art Santa pin, Mill Hill 3/7/01. Unlike the tipsy tree, this one was finished as a pin and worn the next season.
• Acorn, I took a class at Needles and Niceties in celebration of some anniversary or other. The Bent Creek sisters taught the class. They were great! 3/15/01

• Starlight Santa, Sandy Cozzolino 3/16/01. Another perforated paper Santa for the tree. At least these get finished and make an appearance annually.
• Renaissance Angels, Mill Hill 3/17/01. You've seen this. It's the emergency present I finished for my aunt a couple of years ago. So it only took me five years from completion to finishing. Excellent.
• Babo Natale, Sandy Cozzolino 3/17/01. Another perforated paper Santa for the tree.
• Birth Sampler for Bailey, Twisted Threads. Stitched for Yay-o. 6/24/01 This one was just too damn cute.
• Blossoms, The Trilogy 7/26/01 I worked on this on our "extra" day in Alaska on our honeymoon. Our tiny fishing village was socked in with fog, and we couldn't get to the airport in Juneau. When I gave this to my mother, she said, "Am I only getting small pieces from now on?" Nice. I know she can sound like an evil one, but she has lots of redeeming qualities.
• Christmas Spider, Lizzie*Kate, JCSO 11/19/01. Lesson, always buy the charm of projects you want to stitch when they are released. It took me years to track these down.






• Bah Humbug, Curtis Boehringer, JCSO, 11/28/01. See photo from yesterday. I made this for my father but {the chorus joins in, all together now} I never finished it!
• Happy Winter, SamSarah, JCSO 11/30/01 (See photo above.) Happy indeed--a checkered tree.
• Two by Two Deer, Prairie Schooler, JCSO 11/30/01. (See photo above.) Remember when I stitched the reindeer pillow for Sissy last Christmas because she has a reindeer collection. Yes well, I stitched this for her and {the chorus joins in, all together now} I never finished it!
• Angel of Joy, Bent Creek, JCSO (twice--one for each niece). I changed the eye and hair colors to match my nieces, but the finishing on these is attrocious. I think I just glued on a paper backing. I know! Don't even...
• Christmas Cardinal, Kitty and Me, JCSO 12/01 Stitched for my personal trainer, from NC one of the many states that has the cardinal as their state bird. He was very touched.

List #19: 2000

I didn't record any major projects this year, but I must have done some. Or maybe the dissertation was the major project? I also started working full time in 2000, so maybe that was it? I did stitch a lot of Christmas ornaments. Why are they still not on the tree? What is up with me and finishing? I have a lot of questions this morning, but few answers.

• Leisure Arts Big Book of Baby Bibs, Bees For the baby-to-be, 1/13/2000. Stitched on a prefinished bib. She was a hefty baby, and it fit her for about a week. Oh well.
• Frosty, Ewe and Eye and Friends, JCSO 2/10/00
• Hearts Entwined, Moss Creek, JCSO 2/15/00

• The Once-a-Year Visitor, Mosey 'n Me, JCSO, 2000 Notice the pathetic half finishing. I've made the pillow; I've stuffed it; I've pinned on the handmade twisted cording. Who am I kidding?
  

Joy, June Grigg, JCSO 2/15/00. I'll admit it: I took the pictures with no regard at all for which ornaments were stitched in which year. It's the one on the far right. Again with the pinned on cording. I did learn how to attach it!

• Traditional Santa Sandy Cozzolino 4/4/00. I don't know why I actually tracked this one; I have a whole treeful of these ornaments that I can't tell you when I stitched. Also, I probably can't tell you which one this is.
• Snow Fun Imaginating JCS Ornament 7/8/00. This ornament was a snowman with a little cat in a basket. I gave it to my framer who did a huge favor of framing something for me two days before Christmas. It was just a tiny little thing and I had the frame. She didn't charge me, so I sent her this. She has a shop cat, a giant lazy friendly shop cat. I should probably still be sending her little stitched kitties...
• Itty Bitty Forever and Ever, Twisted Threads. I saw this at my cousin's house this past weekend which is the only way I remember that I stitched it! This is the thing that got framed no charge days before Christmas. It's stitched over one. Why did I forget my camera?
• Rainbow Trout A Jane Greenoff kit my MIL gave me one Christmas. 7/9/00 I don't really know what to do with this... I mean, it's a fish.

• Wee Chicken Heart In Hand Needlework, Stitched for my mother. 7/27/00
• No Humbugs Sisters and Best Friends. I did this over one on the wrong size fabric so now even the tiniest JABC Christmas light buttons look huge on it. So it remains unfinished. (Unfortunately this is the one where Santa is tied up in the cord from the lights, and it really needs the bulbs. Or we could just make up a story about a Santa bondage scandal...)

List #18: 1999

My cousin thinks we made a rookie mistake with the jacket situation, so the dude slept better last night. The kids are off this week so they're coming to the city because they love riding the train. We're going to dim sum tomorrow. Mmmmm, dim sum.

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Nineteen ninety nine was a pretty big year with lots of people undertaking "millennial" projects. (I'd love to take a poll to see how those fared.) I did not. I didn't see that many that I liked but also knew that I'd be one of those people trying to decide how to make my millennial project relevant when I finally put it on the wall in 2015. I did find other ways of making it a bang up stitching year: I stitched lots of ornaments; I started stitching for the baby-to-be (Lala); and I made something pretty monumental for Sissy's 30th birthday.

• Sue Stokes ornament from Celebrations of Needlework in NH 5/8/99
• Summer is a Cumin' in Moss Creek Designs 5/9/99. This was a project I started in Sacramento 1997 with Rae Iverson. And, it turns out, I came thisclose to meeting Jo in that class. (Don't look too close, major mistake.)

• Holly Berry Heart, Sweetheart Tree, Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue (JCSO) 5/20/99
• Swedish Christmas &etc Mary Garry's Sewing Cabin, JCSO 5/27/99
• Christmas Orchid, The Lilac Studio, JCSO 6/1/99
• Christmas Eve Ornament, Graphs by Cheryl & Barbara, JCSO, 6/6/99
• 1996 Annual Ornament—Fir Tree Heart's Content. I've stitched three of these and have about three more kits unstitched. I know the tree says 1998, but I think I just stitched that part in 1998 and had a major case of wishful thinking! (Much like the 1997 on the pudding finished in 1998.)
  
• 


• Woodland Noel, Heart in Hand Needlework, JCSO, 11/13/99
• Love Blocks, Mosey ‘n Me for Lala. I started very many projects for the baby to be. This was stitched with beautiful silk floss. The little cherub's hair is all golden French knots. I loved stitching this!
• Sampler Sweet Bag Nostalgic Needle. Stitched for Sissy's 30th birthday. I even made a tag for the inside that marks the occasion. Very clever--I had forgotten about that. That center pink flower is detached buttonhole stitch; I spent quite a few days under the magnifier!
  

• Needleroll, Catherine Theron, Theron Traditions. Celebrations in Cross Stitch (Manchester). The fact that this has been completely stitched for almost nine years but remains unfinished is, in the words of my favorite poker players, just sick.

List #17: 1998

I haven't had any outraged phone calls from my cousin, so I think the mothers were right about this one! The dude did have some trouble falling asleep last night, worried about the "unsupervised" jacketless play. He had thought that my developmentally delayed niece was just "wandering around in the front yard," but since her motor skills aren't so good, she didn't just let herself out of the fenced backyard. Her sister opened the gate when I told them their parents had arrived. He felt better about that, but is still obsessed about the jackets. I tried to reason with him that it was a combined 10 minutes out of 15 hours that we had them. I think that 14 hours and 50 minutes of doing well is pretty good. Of course, it probably takes less than 10 minutes to burn down a house, ingest poison, or do a myriad of other things that would make us horrible parents. Did I tell you what my niece said when we were walking into Wegman's for lunch? I said that people were going to think we were horrible parents for not putting coats on the kids. She responded, "They're not going to think you're our parents. They're going to think you're KIDNAPPERS!" I can hear the phonecall now.

Returning to the list of preblog finishes, I don't think that 1997 and 1998 were drought years. I do think that I thought I was going to put my projects into the "new book" so I didn't take good, consistent notes. In fact, I keep uncovering projects that are of unknown vintage. I'll list those last.

• Christmas pudding kit Heart’s Content. I did this because Christmas pudding is a bit of a joke in our house. Everyone thinks we should have some because the dude's English. We both hate the stuff. 9/1/98

• Black Sheep Have More Fun Sisters and Best Friends. I stitched this on a prefinished pillow by Adam Originals. This is one of the few projects that has been displayed in our house. Mostly because it was finished before I started. I'm really no good with the finishing!

• Ho, Ho, Ho Lizzie*Kate. This would make such a lovely pillow. It was a very exciting purchase because it was the first project I did that used Needle Necessities floss. At the same time I bought Ho, Ho, Ho; I bought everything to do "Not a Creature was Stirring" but I still haven't started that one.
• Flowers in the Springtime Bent Creek. More graduate school friends get married. I love this sampler; I really like the sentiment ("And their love bloomed like flowers in the spring time"). I traded the pattern for DMC flower thread when I lost my stitching bag so I don't know the finish date.

List #16: Book Meme, the Third

My cousin and her husband went away this weekend. Sissy took the kids from 9-5 on Saturday. Since they housed us for 10 months, we never say no to any request, and we had the girls until 2:30 today. I'm pretty sure that they'll never leave the kids with us again. When they arrived to pick the kids up they were playing unsupervised in the yard without coats, and it's only about 48F. So we suck as parents. (The dude is sick and I have no excuse except I had just been worn down by 11:00 this morning when I was chasing a little girl/puppy around trying to get her to brush her teeth and sit on the potty.) Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to their house--there were so many projects I could have photographed.

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Was this on Annette's Acre or Blonde Librarian? Both? Neither?

Hardcover or paperback, and why? For books I want to have forever, hardcover. For books I want to read on the bus, paperback—they’re often lighter.
If I were to own a book shop, I would call it…Read.
My favorite quote from a book:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife.
The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with Jane Austen. (Too trite, I know.)
If I was going to a deserted island and could bring only one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be…The Riverside Shakespeare. Lots of good stuff: comedy, tragedy, romance, history. Everything you need in one book!
I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…stopped time so I could read more.
The smell of an old book reminds me of…rainy days
If I could be the lead character in a book it would be…someone smart and sassy who has a big adventure. Or, I’ll settle for the adventure: Leila Hadley. Technically, not a character.
The most overestimated book of all times is I’m going to go with the Bible. Do you know how many people have gone to war over this?
I hate it when a book…gosh, I hate a lot of things. I stopped reading Bonfire of the Vanities because Tom Wolfe kept using “raconteur” when storyteller would have worked just as well. So I guess I hate unimaginative writing? An author who doesn’t know how to use a thesaurus? Bad editing? All that and more?

List #14: 1997

Things get a bit hazy between 1997 and 2003. Having reached the end of my first project record book, I either wrote the date right on the pattern or on the sheets where I kept track of my 10-hour rotation. When I finished, I just wrote the date in the rotation box. And then I obsessively saved those papers. I did buy a new book to record the projects but I didn't keep up with it. After my great search to find it ended last night, I discovered there's nothing recorded in it--only a few photos stuck in. And a gift certificate to Yankee Cross Stitch from 1997 that has .50 left on it. What kind of a loser can't spend $100 at a cross-stitch store. {Ironically, perhaps, I have spent hundreds there since 1997.} I'm sure I didn't write in the book because I had too many projects on the go. A person could record something in the book when she started it and eight years later still have a blank where the photo and completion date would go. {And you know how I know.}

You'll have to excuse the vagueness of the lists that follow. Aren't you glad they invented blogging? Now I know when I complete my projects.

• Pins and Needles Lauren Sauer finished pin cushion 4/27/07. Finished other pieces much much later. (Sacramento SOCS)
• Watermelon Angel Douglas Designs 5/5/97 Stitched for my aunt's sun porch that was watermelon themed. Finished as a pillow.
• Stumpwork bee skep Liz Turner Diehl (Valley Forge SOCS) 7/20/97. I hang this on my Christmas tree every year.
• Beaded needlebook Judy Marcinkiewicz 8/97 (still needs finishing) I took this as a class at one of the SOCS festivals, but this was just the practice piece...







• Fishing Fools Twisted Threads 11/22/97. For my aunt for Christmas. The framer put this in a shadow box made from a wood that looked like weathered barn board. It looks great with the stitching and with the bathroom (gasp) in which it hangs. It's a little-used bathroom and it's right near the door, in her defense.
• Santa Cup Leisure Arts Magazine (Linda Gillum) 11/23/97 Stitched for my great aunt of the fudge recipe. She used to have us all over for these little Christmas parties, and I like her family; they're the only people I know louder than us. This was one of those plastic hot beverage mugs that has the vinyl weave insert. But it came out cute...
• Stumpwork thistle Liz Turner Diehl. I stitched this one for my Scottish MIL after I gained confidence in the bee skep class. I forgot that I was supposed to stitch over one, so it came out huge, but made an awesome box insert . When we shipped it to England for Christmas, all the gifts were stolen. So this is gone for good, not even a photo to remember it by.
• A Mother's Poem converted to a wedding sampler for graduate school friends. I wish I knew the name of the magazine this was in. On amaretto jubilee with DMC floss--great colors.
• Small "African" mask--from Jan Eaton's Around the World in Cross-stitch Stitched for my cousin's graduation from St. Lawrence. She had spent the fall of her senior year in Africa, and she brought me back some awesome African fabrics which I have not done enough with. I stitched this over one and finished it as a necklace backing it with the fabric she brought me.

List #13: The Beading Class list

The book that I have been taking my lists of completed projects from has reached its end. I went looking for the scraps of paper and the other book last night. I think most of 1997 is in the new book because I can't find any scraps about that year. Unfortunately, I can't find that book. You'll have to wait until I can really look. Instead, a short list of things that annoyed me last night (and the week before) at bead class.

1. I had collected my beads and was ready to start the project at 6:50. Class begins at 6:30 with the selecting of the beads.
2. At 7:25, the instructor sat down to show us what to do with our beads. Because she was still helping a woman select her beads.
3. She showed us how to make a loop in an eye pin. I waited 40 minutes for this?
4. At 7:35 the woman who couldn't select her own beads wanted more help choosing beads. When the instructor handed her some yellow beads, she said, "I don't like faceted beads." (I don't really either, but I've found if you mix in a very few, they look really good.)
5. When the instructor handed her some amber beads, she said, "these are too expensive." I was wishing I had a loaded gun.
6. For the next (last) two classes, we're getting kits. One stupid idiot can't choose three beads to string together and they institute kits? On the one hand, this is a fabulous solution for the whiner and we'll get started on time. On the other hand, I can choose a bead in less than 20 minutes!
7. I know she's not going to like the kit choices. I am guaranteeing you this.
8. When we did the fringe bracelet (I'm almost done! Really. I'll have two beaded projects to show on Saturday.)...When we did the fringe bracelet, another woman, who was mercifully absent last night, kept complaining that she couldn't do it. Couldn't choose beads (though she was trying to match a necklace she was wearing...an Afghan wedding necklace just so you know how pretentious she was). Couldn't pick up a needle. Couldn't string beads. Couldn't figure out where to come up. Couldn't figure out where to go back in. Every move she made was prefaced by how she couldn't do it. Gah.
9. Also, we had to listen to how rich her nieces and nephews were. Very, very rich!
10. This is the second week that I've left without finishing my project. The first one is really my doing--I chose to make several fringes where most people did one. But last night, well, see #2. Last semester, in the glory days when people could choose beads, I left with 4 finished projects. (The knotting class did take quite a bit of time even for those beading rockstars.)

List #12, 1996

I have beading class tonight. I haven't finished last week's bracelet yet, but that's because I think more is better unlike many of my classmates. I have one and a half more passes to make it look the way I want. Tonight, "regal chain necklace." I have no idea what that means until I get there--isn't that exciting!

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Edited: Added photos

• Candy Box, CC&N magazine I stitched this for my mother. Very fancy. Those empty candy cups were quite the pain to stitch, too much metallic floss.





• February 16, 1996 Samplers of the month, February by Linda P. Reeves in JCS. I stitched this as a birthday present for Sissy. These were so cute and so a la plage. I mean stitching with Watercolors and Access Commodity beads!
• March 24, 1996 Very Victorian Mini Sampler, Sue Stokes—third SOCS Festival (Winston-Salem). This one is framed. It's in the basement waiting to find the right wall to live on.




• Sunflower smalls by Lauren Sauer. I finished these at various times: the scissor case was finished March 25, 1996—lost less than a year later. But the needlebook is in the to be finished pile.
• June 16, 1996: Wedding sampler: “A Free Heart,” Kandace Thomas: Take II. I'm telling you--it's the go-to sampler. Stitched for a couple of friends from grad school.
• July 12, 1996 Starry Night, Catherine Theron, JCS. One day the dude wondered why we didn't have any of my stitching hanging on the walls. I stitched this to remedy that. He chose the pattern. He really digs things that are out of proportion.
  



• August 2, 1996 Mini motif sampler Sue Stokes. My first attempt at Lacis. Also, this is the pattern I would teach to novice stitchers in Poland in 1998.




• Summer 1996 Used part of the SOCS 1994 Commemorative sampler to make pillowcases for a friend’s wedding shower. It was one of those time-of-day showers; I had 10:00 pm. I stitched waste canvas on 250 ct sheets. This was another time I turned to rctn for help and received it when someone sent me English steel needles. Do you know how difficult it is to stitch on 250 count sheets with a blunt needle?
• December 20, 1996 Prairie Schooler Santa on a prefinished pillow. Made it for my great aunt. The one who sent me the fudge recipe.

List #11: 1995

I'm going out to dinner this evening, and I don't know when I'll have a chance to illustrate this one. But I will; I even own some of these!

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By 1995, I had completed graduate school coursework. I get to the grindstone. {Or not.}

• December 31, 1994 Jingle Bell sweatshirt, Lorraine Birmingham. Real and stitched jingle bells on a sweatshirt for my grandmother. From the Leisure Arts Spirit of Christmas books. I think this one got left off the last list because I entered my projects into the book by the start date, not the date of completion. Whoops!
• February 1995 A Star Danced birth sampler for my college roommate's baby. Again, no sampler for the sibling. I thought I was so sophisticated using all this colored aida!
• June 21, 1995 Family Collector Series: Wedding Sampler from Cross Stitch Sampler magazine—the magazine folded before the third in the series came out. This was one of the first projects I got advice on from the internet. The sampler contains Bosnia stitch, and the directions weren’t that good. I posted a question on rctn, and a woman answered. Later that month, I went to SoCS at Valley Forge and sat next to her! So I was able to show her the fruits. This was stitched for a grad school friend.
• June 25, 1995 Midwinter Portrait Sheila Tune Upham from a magazine. Stitched for another aunt when I picked her name at Christmas. At least she still speaks to my father.
• September 1995: Santa and His Little Helper, Alma Lynne. Man I loved the Alma Lynne. This one is on blue aida that I ordered from a store listed in the back of JCS. It was a shower gift for my cousin (the one we lived with). For some strange reason, I didn't include any means of hanging this so she drapes it across the coffee table every Christmas.
• [September 19, 1995. Now we know when I started Majestic Rooster!]
• September 28, 1995 antique button pocket pendant, CA Wells at the Sacramento SOCS. I love this little thing. I don't know why I never use it or wear it. CA is big on using your stitching; I am small on it apparently.
• November 1, 1995 Gifts of the Heart, Stoney Creek. Beaded within an inch of its life! Not my taste, but my sister liked it enough to take it in and give it a good home.
• November 1, 1995-November 19, 1995 Ship at Sea, Clover Hill Needlworks. I think this may have been my first pattern I stitched with GAST. I made it for my MIL whose father was a lighthouse keeper.
• December 1995, “Heart of the Month Wreath” from some Leisure Arts book or another. Many colors of aida cloth. The hearts were supposed to attach with hook and loop tape to a frame, but it never worked properly. My aunt stuck them all in a basket. Cute!
• December 28, 1995 Samplers of the Month, December—birthday samplers by Linda P. Reeves in JCS. Stitched with waterlilies for Auntie Em (the aunt I refer to as "my aunt" without any reference to my father. She's my mother's sister and the mother of my cousin who took us in when we moved to PA and the grandmother of my neices.)
• December 30, 1995 Simple Elegance Sampler, Betsy Stinner. I stitched the central motif from this sampler on a wine coaster for my dad.
• 1995 A Special Couple Needle Treasures. I chose this wedding sampler for my cousin because photo on the kit (kit!) listed the same church that my cousin got married in. All those effing color changes!

List #10: 1994

• A Free Heart, Kandace Thomas wedding sampler that appeared in JCS. The first of many times (this is my go-to wedding sampler), for my father’s cousin.
• I Love Dogs, Jeremiah Junction I stitched the Airedale for my aunt on a sweatshirt. This time I used the appropriate sized waste canvas!
• April 1994: Anniversary sampler “Leisure Arts Contest Favorites” Cindy McVey. Stitched for my aunt and uncle’s 25th wedding anniversary which had been the November before. We went on a cruise in March to celebrate. I would have finished in time for the celebratory cruise, but I ran out of one of the floss colors on the ship! They don't sell DMC on ships, did you know that?
• Summer 1994: To Everything a Season, from a magazine. I stitched this for one of my father's sisters for Christmas when I picked her name. She loved it, but that was back when she spoke to my father. Who knows what fate has befallen it? Also, I bought a pattern called Aunt Ina to stitch for her because how many people in the world have an aunt called Ina? Want to trade?
• July 1994: Bunny Bear birth sampler, Alma Lynne. Stitched for a cousin's daughter (Ina's granddaughter). I did a pretty nice job finishing this too. Sadly, I never made one for her sister. She was born when I was actually working on the dissertation.

I'll see about scanning some of the photos. I only have pictures of the last three. But tonight I have sewing class. I'm making a quilted messenger bag.

List #7: 1993

So, I notice a dearth of comments. Are you totally bored by this? You can tell me. I promise things are going to get better. I'm going to finish coursework and start stitching more. I'm going to go to SOCs festivals and stitch interesting things. I'm even going to do items that involve detached buttonhole stitch. Just stick with me.

• Summer: Americana Welcome, published in Just Cross Stitch, design by Robyn Taylor. Stitched for my aunt for a Christmas gift, while dad was in the hospital in Boston having another hip replacement. This may be my first foray into linen.

• Summer: Blooming Cactus, from a magazine possibly Cross Stitch and Country Craft. I started this at Brigham and Women's hospital at my father's bedside and worked on it while the dude drove me cross-country from NH to L.A. via Route 70--well, the parts that weren't flooded that summer.





• Brides Quilt wedding sampler, Sylvia Evans. I stitched this for my college friend. She had the same pattern and was stitching it as Christmas ornaments. (The pattern is 80s mauve and blue on one side and Christmas red and green on the other.) I didn't take a picture of this one, but at least the marriage is still on.

List #6: 1992

Tonight I went to a bar with a few coworkers and 50 other people to watch my former grandboss on Jeopardy. AND SHE WON! Woohoo! Go, Jake! People watching local Philadelphia news may see the party we had for her. I don't think you'll see me.

Back in 1992, I was in my second and third semesters of graduate school. I experienced my first earthquake--a tiny three pointer. I was in--IN--my first riot. And before I went back to NH for the summer, a bigger quake. Yes, 1992 was quite a year. I didn't finish that many stitching projects. Go figure.

• Quilt Sampler—made for my mother because she had a quilt shop called "Sister's Choice." The block featured in the sampler.





• Wedding Sampler —stitched for my college roommate who really helped my transition to SoCal. I wish I could find this pattern. I lost it after I finished and I’d like to do it again! This was my first time using beads in a project.
• Santa Claus University sweatshirt, a Leisure Arts Christmas book. Stitched for my mom who loves Christmas. If I were cleverer, I would have made it the University of Santa Claus and it would have been USC. That's my mom with a candy Christmas tree she made. She's quite crafty!





• Our Beginning, Imaginating--stitched for a cousin. Her taste was all froufrou and blech. I hated every stitch! But that's okay, I hate her too.

You can see that during graduate school, stitching kind of took a back seat. Fortunately, I qualified in 1995. Things will pick up.

List #5: 1991

After I kvetched about the computer issues, I sat holding the a/c cord into the computer, adjusting it every five seconds to keep it mostly plugged in. First, I retrieved the tax documents that were on the old computer so I can run Turbo Tax 2007. {Priorities are straight!} Then I started scanning pictures. Things were going so swimmingly, I went to get myself a glass of water. {So cocky!} And the computer was done. So I left it overnight, and it seemed to juice back up. You can see that I have managed to get some photos up. The lengths I go to for you people! My big plan is to bring in the old computer on Sunday. Or to convince my husband to get the new printer-scanner-copier-fax that is compatible with the new brain. I'd put my money on no printing-scanning-copying-faxing until the old computer comes back from the doctor.

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• A Wedding Sampler Carolina Cross Stitch, for my cousin. The first one to get married in the family.
• Christmas Angels Laurie Craven—either in the America's Best Cross Stitch or Better Homes and Garden's Seasons in Cross stitch; they're packed up in the basement. My mom keeps this up year round. Can you see that big stripe of 504 that got stitched in the hill that called for 503? That's when I learned the value of good lighting! But I left it in because only god is perfect. Or something.

• April: Peony baskets, Quilts in a Day or Two. Stitched for my mother's birthday when I was poor and living in NYC.
• April: Double Wedding Ring, Quilts in a Day or Two, Canterbury Designs. Stitched for my parents’ 25th anniversary party. A horrible boyfriend drove me up to NH for their party. I kept putting off writing my toast and at the last minute I stood up and said, "To a couple who has been together through fat and thin," a reference to the fluctuating weight of both parents. Everyone laughed so I was off the hook.
• Christmas 1991: Irish Chain Quilt, Quilts in a Day or Two. A gift for my paternal grandmother.
• Christmas 1991: Grandmother’s Fan, Quilts in a Day or Two. A gift for my grandmother you all know and adore. She was going to throw it away when she moved from her trailer to an apartment, so my aunt rescued it.

• Christmas 1991: Bear Sweater, Leisure Arts Book One—my first waste canvas project. I used 14 ct instead of 8ct—the design was small and stiff, but it went through the washer okay!

I loved that book Quilts in a Day or Two. I wonder what happened to it...that may have been sent on my first disastrous round robin. Take a lesson, people.

List #4 Stitching, the Early Years, 1990

Now with 100% more pictures
Wherein things don't always go to plan...I know none of my lists so far have been blog relevant and tonight things were going to change. I had taken out my book "A Stitch in Time: A Treasury of Works Crafted by Me" to show you some of the early projects. Digital cameras hadn't been invented back in those days, so I was going to scan some of the photos that I glued into the book--it's okay, scrapbooking hadn't been invented yet. (Not true, but it wasn't all photo corners and appropriate adhesives back then.) You know about the new camera and computer. Well tonight I went to load the software for the all-in-one printer-scanner-copier-fax, so that I could scan the photos for your viewing pleasure. My new computer has the new brain which is incompatible with the old peripherals. Grrr. I'd use the old computer except the battery is now dead and the reason we got the new computer is that there is something wrong with the hole the a/c adapter slides into, and it won't accept electricity. So, until I figure something out, no photos of these old projects. Which was really the point. Sigh...

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I began stitching in 1989 when best pal got married the first time. {It's all okay, she has her best husband now.} I started the stamped piece to learn how to cross stitch and the wedding sampler was my second piece. On 22-ct fabric over one. Because it's not brain surgery.

• January: Welcome sampler, stamped. Stitched for my aunt as a Christmas gift.





• August: Wedding sampler, America’s Best Cross Stitch, Maureen LoPresti.





• New Hampshire, Sue Hillis. A gift for my father, I added two green beer bottles where my father has/had his businesses.



• My Family and Me, kit by Alma Lynne, a gift for my mother. Amish dolls! How late 80s



• Christmas 1990: A Christmas Sampler from Leisure Arts Spirit of Cross Stitch, book 2, stitched for my aunt.




• Christmas 1990: For the Sportsman: Fish, David Sweet. This was in Leisure Arts: The Magazine. (Remember the days when LA had two cross stitch magazines? I subscribed to that and Celebrations in Cross Stitch.). It's a fisherman with a fish head, and the caption reads, "They said this would happen!" It hung in my uncle's office for years. Now it has pride of place behind his bar right by the giant salmon that won him the Winnipesaukee Derby.


• Christmas 1990: Hearts by Mary Scott in Leisure Arts. Stitched for my sister. I mounted it in a stained box and got stain on the piece (groan!). I restitched it.

I hope I can get this computer situation figured out because this is much more interesting when you can see the pictures.

List #3 How Bizarre, How Bizarre

Frankly, I am a bit surprised at the aspersions cast on my reading! I don't know where this list came from but it does weigh heavily with Oprah book club selections and science fiction rather than the kinds of books I enjoy reading. I may not have read the two Dickens novels on here, but I have read four others; is that good enough for you? I am a proud product of progressive English literary edumication, one that moved away from canonical literature so quiz me on the Caribbean lit I know. But don't get hung up on the fact that I haven't read Anna Karenina. Actually, I did read a paragraph or so of that in my Russian class in Russian. [raspberry] (I have had to edit the list slightly; I missed a couple the first go round.)

One of the series of lists that I planned for this month was a list of older projects from 1990 until I started this blog because I don't think I've shared that many (if any) with you. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to scan the photos to accompany those. Instead I offer you a list I made while I was sick on the couch watching loads of Travel Channel.

Things Andrew Zimmern has eaten that I have too:

• Haggis—I liked it, but then I had it battered and fried at a fish shop in Berwyck. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t just the frying that did it. It’s just meat parts and meal. They do that in other cultures too.
• Deep fried pickles--I can’t wait ‘til Tulsa!
• Cracklings—I really should have been southern!
• Conch
• Chopped chicken liver—this is a bizarre food? It’s my favorite thing from the deli!
• Gefilte fish
• Sea cucumber—the dude and I can’t agree on this. We used to have it in a soup in Chinatown. He said it was unlikeable. I hardly remember it being in the soup!
• Blood sausage—Zimmern had black pudding in the UK and I think he’s had other types of blood sausages in other places. I used to have it all the time; it’s a French Canadian staple. Very different from black pudding, though, which I have also eaten. The canuck version is much more like a blood bratwurst. Black pudding contains meal and is more like an American sausage patty.

Things Andrew Zimmern has eaten that I want to try:

• Turducken (which I don't think is bizarre at all. I've had turkey, duck, and chicken and find them all pretty innocuous)
• Boudin
• Baby eels at Casa Botín
• Criadillas--and other testicles, I love organ meat.
• Grasshoppers
• Scorpion
• Cha Ca at Cha Ca La Vong

Travel Channel tells me I'm daring. Are you?