The week of smalls

I am working on my friend Nancy's project for her friend. She's doing Sue Hillis' "A Good Friend is Like A Bra" pattern for her and couldn't get the wording spaced right. So I am working on that for her. I can understand why she was having issues. I make a mistake last night while I was working on it, and had to frog. BUGGER. BUGGER. BUGGER. It's going pretty quick. I should have it mostly finished by the end of the night tonight, then try to get it sent back to her by Saturday.


I guess it's a little nutso that I have two big, deadline projects to get done, and yet I am so wanting to do small things right now, but I do. I was cleaning up the other night in the sewing room and kept finding cute tinies. I want to do them, like crazy, but I have four months to the fair. Everything going in a frame must be in at my LNS for framing by June 20th, in order to get it done in time for the fair. That sounds like a long time ahead, but it's only 6 weeks, and that doesn't allow for a lot of wiggle room if they don't have the frame moulding readily available. And I tend to get a little, um, frantic, about deadlines. And in turn, that gives me a month and 20 days to get that lioness finished. She will become my May focus. I know I'll get her done, but, it's gonna be a kicking push.

But I have July 2nd through the 6th off, so that gives me time to work on those smalls I love.

I continue to teach SO about the rules of stitching. He's learning that "don't ask, don't tell" is a good policy, LOL. Yesterday, I surprised him by wearing a belly-dancing top one of my coworkers gave me (we're moving and cleaning out our desk--you should see what these people pulled out of their drawers). I told him I was going to wear it to work over a tank top. We compromised that I'll wear it to hand out candy on Halloween, but he did laugh in the good way. He told me I sounded like Christmas, LOL. So I took it off and ran it out to where my deep winter clothes are stored, and of course, found some more cross stitch charts, these were purchased, oh, January of 2007. So I brought them in to drool over.

He of course wanted to know why I have to look at stash when I have so many UFOs. He says, "That should be illegal til you get all the stuff you have started finished." I glared at him. He asked how many I had started. I told him probably 20 things. I don't know an exact figure, probably more like 60. Having stash spread between two houses makes for inaccurate record-keeping. And there's always the, "Should I count it if I haven't worked on it in 5 years?" ethical issue. I just opted to go with what was in my sewing room, not choosing to count the WIPs in the mancave (because it's manly), in the bedroom (because we sleep there, and counting WIPS is stressful, and I can't sleep thinking of all the WIPS in there), and in the garage (the garage is almost outside, and we don't count what is outside, or nearly so). I mean, we need limits, right? Are you with me? So then he asks if all cross stitchers are like me. I shook my head and said, "No . . . some are worse." BUT . . . I just realized that the deck has been an ongoing project for as long as I've known him and, til that's finished, I feel no shame (but I am not being smug, we can't fit the pool and the table on the existing deck at the same time, and we don't live that close to the beach, and it gets hot in Maryland in August, y'all. That deck will get finished before August, I know it.)So I better get hoppin.

Freebie wrangling

I think the heat got to me yesterday. I was a little snippy. And fighty. And hot. And frizzy.

In addition to my helper project for my friend, I have a couple other teensy projects I want to do. I am modifying a teacup and plate into a stitcher's caddy. My aunt made me a candlestand two summers ago from a saucer on top of a pretty water glass, and I liked the idea of repurposing items like that. I was going to give this teacup and plate to an exchange partner, but I found a chip, and I couldn't see giving that away to someone, knowing it was flawed. And while I was thinking of what to do with a chipped cup and not quite matching plate, it struck me to do this stitcher's caddy. I can make an ort collector out of the cup (or a floss holder or whatever), cover it with a removeable pincushion, and then make a needlebook and attach that to the plate. I think it's doable. I already have a design for the pincushion. Heck, I already stitched the little design, and I can do the needlebook with the coordinating pattern. I asked SO to cut me out some circles from posterboard. Not because I can't do it, but because he has infinitely more patience than I and is more careful. I asked my aunt what cement she used to do her project, and bought a tube of that. I figure with some ribbon and hot glue, everything else is possible.

But that is not my only planned project.

Have I told you all how I adore the 4th of July, because it's a holiday in the truest sense of the word: a really fun day that doesn't require you to give cards or gifts to anyone, it's warm enough to actually enjoy a parade, you eat good food, you don't have to wear fancy clothes (just red white and blue ones), and things get blown up usually without a hitch. SO I LURVE PATRIOTIC THINGS. Of all kinds. I could decorate the whole house in patriotic and be blissfully happy. I actually start looking for new knick-knacks to add to the collection about this time of the year. This year, I found little patriotic buckets with lids at Michael's. $1.49, and they were on sale for less than that. So I thought I could stitch a little something and make a really cute little bucket, just perfect to sit around the house. I totally blame this on Just Nan's toppers, but they don't seem hard to do, and it's a cute decoration.

But I needed a little design to put on the top. And none of my boughten charts had that right feel of whimsical, simple, small item that I need. So I spent a cheery evening delving in my binders of freebies. Which, to be serious, I doubt are all my freebies. I know how I am, I know how many freebies I've printed over the years, but, for now, we'll go with what I got.

It actually was a fun evening for me. I told y'all how I love looking at my charts, but I didn't realize that extended to my freebies. Even though a lot of them, I wouldn't stitch anymore. I have bunches I printed off the first day I yahooed the phrase, "free cross stitch" that appealed to me because they were millenium-themed, that I don't think I would actually stitch, at least not right now. But there were a lot of really cute charts. I have scads of September 11th themed charts. Don't know about those either, but, I mean, they're beautiful charts, and I never want to forget, so those may come back on the priority list.

Of course I did not find a chart I could use. But I am going to Mom's this weekend, and surely, I'll find some of those other charts, LOL.

Where did spring go?

Hopefully this works. I'm too hot and too tired at this point to fight this computer.

At some point over the weekend, we lost spring here in the Mid-Atlantic. We're in August right now. To celebrate, we cooked out last night. Eastern Shore ribs and chicken with asparagus and a green salad, as well as fruit salad for dessert. I went a little crazy with the fruit, I have to admit. I wanted to get some, as I am on a new doctor-recommended diet that relies heavily on fruit and vegetables, and there are times when all the fruit we have in the house is whatever flavor is in our candy stash. Of course, I tend to go a little overboard, and spent 2 weeks' food budget on kiwis, mangoes, bananas, and asparagus. Oh, we're eating it all. Trust me! If I can't go to the craft store til the 14th, we're gonna eat every but-sour kiwi (they were not ripe) I brought home. Anyway . . .

We're trying to conserve electricity, so aren't turning on the AC. SO is holed up in the mancave, which we didn't use all winter because it was too cold, now it's perfectly, delightfully cool. And I'm sitting here, stitching an afghan. No wonder they say this is a winter project. I just have two more kitties to do and it's done. And I can move on to the other small projects I have lined up.

I may end up taking a break this week on it, because my friend Nancy asked for help centering lettering on her current WIP. Nancy is one of the ladies I roomed (and had happy hour) with at Sue Hillis' get-together and is SO MUCH FUN. She needed help with this. And it's just lettering. PIECE OF CAKE.

Let me run for now. It's so muggy in the computer room, I'm melting.

Not much happening here

I keep meaning and trying to get home in time to show how to do the Nun-stitch, because Riona asked, but traffic and the weather seem to not be cooperating with me, and I've been rolling in close to 8 every night this week. This is getting so old. SO actually asked me why it takes so long last night. He can not believe that I leave the house at 7:00, get to work at 9:00, work all day, then leave at 6:00 and get in at 7:30, and it's only 40 miles. I told him I do the best I can. He understood after I told him it took 45 minutes to go 10 miles yesterday. He works his own schedule, so he never hits traffic at night, but I think people just turn into angry slugs on their way home. I keep praying something closer to the house will come open at pay that we can live on. Some people dream of opening their own business, of living in the city, and being glamorous. I just dream of having time to cook dinner for my boyfriend. That probably sounds bad, doesn't it? I can't help it . . .

I went over to Mom's to get my mail yesterday. It was a good stitchy mail day. One chart I ordered from ABC Stitch Therapy a while ago, 3 charts I had special ordered by 123 Stitch from Stitching Studio. An order from Picture This Plus. Three hanks of silks from China (I played with those last night). And my order from Violarium. I seriously never thought they would come. Not because the shop is bad--they're not, she responded right away when I told her that they never came, and sent new charts--but just because I wanted them so badly. I could have cried, I was that happy. I held them all afternoon; I just couldn't stop looking at the bunnies, and the horses, and planning how I would stitch them, what fabric I could use, if the Chinese silks would work on them. I get that way about lovelies. I was trying to figure out what the writing in French was, but it's been a while since I spoke French all the time, and, somewhere along the line, perhaps when we were learning smatterings of Creole, I didn't learn most of the words on the chart. If my French teacher were still teaching, I would advise her that future classes need a lesson in cross stitch. Far more useful than knowing that French people LOVE jeans and cafe au lait (written as cafe ole by me for far longer than it should have been).

I finally talked to my aunt about finishing off the kitty afghan. She said she would do it for me, after she gets back from the wagon train she goes on. That gives me plenty of time to get it finished. I am going to try to be prepared a little earlier for the fair this year, so I can enjoy my days off, so it's important to get it done.

Teacups up for an LNS owner

I found out today the lady who owned and ran the closest LNS to my former home died. Inez Fowler owned Inez' Creative Stitchery, in Kensington, Maryland. She was 89 years old when she died last month.

Ms. Inez's shop was the first real LNS I ever went to as an adult. I found it on New Years Eve, 1999. I had a boring day at work, and started flipping through the phonebook, then went home at lunch. She was on the way home, so I stopped in, and bought a kit--my first evenweave kit--and I used to go there a lot. A lady I worked with who was crafty said she'd been in business a long time. It was 30 years, even on Sundays. Every Sunday.

She had treasures in that shop. I'd always come out with some little goodie. Now I regret the ones I passed up. The Gone With the Wind kits. Not getting all the Prairie Schooler nursery rhyme leaflets. But you could find things you wouldn't find anywhere else: napkins, placemats, unusual colors. Amazing finds.

She had a kind of prickly reputation. Her staff seemed afraid of her, but she was ALWAYS nice to her customers. At least when I went in. Even when she found out I was a Kentucky alumni--she was an LSU grad. Maybe she liked seeing a young, enthusiastic stitcher? Maybe she loved needlework and wanted to keep it alive; she stopped and gave me a lesson in needlepoint one day. I never finished that bird, but it wasn't for lack of a good teacher. Whatever it was, she lit a fire under me. For a girl who had never had beautiful threads and fabrics and charts to work with before, her shop was a whole new world, and I went from a hobbyist to an artist. And I am forever grateful to her for that.


Whereever you are, Ms. Inez, thank you.

It seemed like a good idea in theory . . .

I am officially 2/3 finished with my kitten throw. I worked like a booger on it this weekend, even found a kindred stitching soul at my part time job, because I was working on it. A patron, really, who stitched a while ago, but had given it up because of her eyes. I told her she should go online and see all the new things available and be inspired.

And I was pretty pleased with myself because I managed to get my two kitties done this weekend, in spite of going dirt-track racing on Saturday night. The guy who built SO's drag car also races dirt track cars, and I've never seen that kind of racing, so we went out to watch. It was a nice night in Maryland, almost summery. And I had fun, other than when two people in front of me started having words because someone got hit on the track, and his fan didn't think it was right, and the other guy said he deserved it, so they had to start at each other. So stupid. Why face arrest and a night in the correctional facility for a driver who probably wouldn't care that you were in there? But it was fun, even though I am still coughing up dust, and my butt is still flat, and SO's friend did not win. Did not even win the consolation race. Did not even place in the consolation race. But then again, to go out on a track that looks slick as anything and drive around at a high rate of speed, drifting half the time, is well beyond my ability and frankly, the idea of driving fast around a circle makes me slightly nauseous. So I admire anyone who does it!

OHHH, plus, someone I knew in high school won his race. I didn't know him well enough to know he was into cars--he certainly was not in the group of guys who used to dragrace the backroads in their muscle cars, my brother amongst them--but I saw his name on the car. And I figured there could not possibly be that many people in the Western half of the state with that name; he doesn't have a common name. Now, I know full well Maryland is a decent-sized state and people move in and out all the time. But some of us do actually stay here our whole lives. My SO has always lived here, even I just moved away for college and came home. It does happen. And it was him, and he's actually a really terrific racer. I was proud. I'm always thrilled when someone from my hometown becomes known for something other than being on a reality show (Bachelor contestant who got booted out the first rose ceremony) or something illegal (we've had several of those people, it must be something in the water, thank God I bucked the trend), so it was good for me to see!

Anyway, about my afghan. I was sitting there last night, after work, playing with it. It's starting to shed threads off the side, and, from that store of useless knowledge I have accumulated for the past 32 years (because I think my destiny is to be on Jeopardy), I remembered that Stoney Creek magazine had a suggestion to use the fallen threads in order to do the nunstitch to finish your afghan. It seems like a good idea, right? Color matches, it's not wasteful of the threads, this isn't a large afghan, so it's not unreasonably wieldy to do this.

Well, I tried it. It's not so easy. And the threads don't go very far, not when you are nunstitching. It looks a little crappy right now. But, I'm trying to keep calm. A lot of times, things look crappy in the beginning, and fine at the end. And it's a lot of fabric which will end up relaxing during the stitching. And this is a safe, pretty way to finish it. It will be OK. I am confident of that.

The resiliency of cat hair and other musings

I pulled my kitten afghan out at lunch today to work on it. I got a little stitching time last night, the first real time I've had all week to do so, and I want to get two more kitties done. I have three cats. My mother is keeping them because SO is allergic to cats (let's be real here, violently allergic--he ran out of the house, wheezing, because I touched his face after petting Gus) and my parents are very attached to them, so they keep them and I visit. Anyway, I don't usually take my stitching with me when I visit, because I'm there to socialize and cuddle. I know I haven't taken this project over there. The fabric hasn't been in the house, the thread hasn't been in the house. Neither has the magazine. The tote I have it in, was, but it was in plastic at the time. The shoes I am wearing were in, but they're on my feet, far from my stitching. Nothing else I am wearing has been. So why, pray tell, was there cat hair on my afghan today. I can't blame the pittybulls; their hair is black and white or brown and white, and this is distinctly of the orange tabby persuasion, LOL. That hair is resilient, I tell you. I guess when it comes from a former barn cat(er, kitten?), it's a little tougher than average. You have to be strong to survive in a barn. Anyway, I picked it off. I love Gussie, but his hair in my WIPs, especially in the unglassed ones, adds a certain something I don't really like. But I do treasure the one where his hair got in among some sea grass in the picture, so it belongs.

I really need to set some time aside this weekend to neaten up my sewing room. It's starting to become the catch-all room again, and I can't have that. When I was digging through the stash of bags in the closet to find issues of TGOSM, I kept finding charts. I was actually embarrassed about that. My nice room, with all this stove shoved in the closet. It shouldn't take that long, an hour at the most. I think, and then it will be nice and neat and springy. If only I could get my pictures hung up, it would be perfect.