January 16, 2011

Love the One You're With

A few of you asked what my favorite new/old projects were and what I intended to stitch first. My answer would have to be "it depends..." I've never been a fan of a rotation; when I'm ready to stitch, I like to poke around through my treasures and select what appeals to me on any given day. I tend to lose interest in a project temporarily after about three weeks of concentrated stitching, and because I have so many WIPs (many more than I showed you during the challenge), it might be a long time before I return to a project that I've set aside. Also, some of you hooted at my classification of the last two snow projects as "small." To me, jumbo, large, medium, small and tiny relate not only to the stitch count or dimensions of the finished work, but how dense the stitching is, how many color changes there are, and how complex the stitches are (more and more designers are adding speciality stitches--have you noticed?). It's relative--I've got about 30 WIPs going--so I do my mental scale related to my other projects.

Here are the three I'm concentrating on right now, with before and after photos. My very favorite "large" project is Ann Rayner. Here's the before, where I left off on Friday.


And Ann Rayner today.


My current "medium/large"--Sous le Soleil as I left off Friday:


Sous le Soleil today:


The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat (small/medium) Friday:


And the Gingham Dog today:


Sunday salad. We've been doing well with our salads. My goal is for us to eat more good salads and also consume all the stuff we buy so that we're not wasting food by having it turn into jelly in the crisper. Last night was the end of most of it, so I combined what was left--romaine, some radishes, sunflower seeds, a few Kalamata olives and slivers of red onion--and then made homemade blue cheese dressing with the leftover blue cheese from the salad earlier in the week. This is not low-fat blue cheese dressing, but a little goes a long way and if you eat it, you will never buy that bottled stuff, with its preservatives, uniform, stamped-out "chunks" of blue cheese and pourability again. This is the real deal: stuff that has to be spooned onto your salad. (1/2 c. of mayo, 1/4 c. of buttermilk, 2 tbsp. of sour cream, 3 tbsp of olive oil, 3 tbsp of red wine vinegar, 2 tsp of sugar, pepper to taste. Wisk those until smooth, then gently fold in 4 oz of crumbled blue cheese. Allow to chill for several hours to let the flavors develop, but you can eat it right away also.)


Elvis loves to snuggle,and here Pink seems to be using Elvis as a Pillow Pet.
It's a sleepy Sunday here--cold and sunny out. I think I'll stitch a little more!


Oh, to answer a couple questions I've been asked: the banner photo is the upper left-hand corner of "Christinia Cathcart." And the cats and the bunnies get along fine--mostly they ignore each other's existence. At night when I let them out of their room to run around while I clean their cages and floor, they're on the loose with the cats. Occasionally Peaches and Chester will engage in a game of chase and a nose bump or two, but mostly they pay no attention to each other. I've seen Elvis lying calmly next to Yazziebear under the bed nearly touching.

See you later in the week--perhaps with a new start!?

28 comments:

Danielle said...

What colorful proje ts! They all look great. I always like to see pics of the bunnies.

Unknown said...

I just found your blog this morning when following a link from Beth's Garden Grumbles blog. I am in awe of your beautiful work and your choices for the Crazy Challenge. It is going to be fun watching all the different design develope!

barbara said...

I like going with whatever strikes my fancy, too. ;) Your projects are stunning.

Margaret said...

Your projects are just wonderful. It's always such torture to see what you're stitching -- I always want to stitch what you're stitching right now! lol! Your salad looks so yummy. I should follow your lead and eat more salads too. Interesting about the cats and bunnies ignoring each other. I'd always wondered about that myself.

gracie said...

verything is looking great...this is the first time that I have more than 2 projects in the works! But I have to say, I have enjoyed the challenge...

Kim said...

Great projects, Glenna! Love watching your progress!

Karen said...

Looking back through your starts, you have some wonderful projects for the Challenge! Looking forward to the finishes....

happy stitching....

Robin (Samplerbird) said...

I'm a multiple project girl myself and probably have close to the same number of "in progress" projects around, too. I must say that you have excellent taste in projects...I always look forward to see what you have been up to, cause I know it will be something good! I'm going to tell my husband about your recipe, he loves blue cheese dressing and I'm sure he'll want to try it. Thanks for sharing the recipe. Your little bunnies are so darn cute and it's wonderful that they and the cats do so well together.

sarahbb said...

Definitely making that blue cheese dressing! Thanks for sharing that.

Melissa said...

Oh the BUNNIES are so cute there. Elvis is a little star isn't he?;-)

I love seeing all your big samplers - the colours are such a treat!

Sue said...

Love your WIP's that you've shown. I can't believe you have 30 of them. I need to be on a more regular stitching rotation or nothing gets done.

valerie said...

Great progress! I'm completely enthralled by Sous Le Soleil. So much so, I may need to add itt o my stash one day soon.

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Love that pile o' bunnies!

Jan said...

I adore the colors on all your projects. 30 WIPS?! I'm way behind LOL!
The bunnies look so cute all piled up.

Alice said...

I think if I had that many WIPs I would soon forget what I had! I love the notion of having your own classification system. I don't think in terms of size either, but more in terms of how long it is likely to take me. Lots of colour changes and smaller linen count make a difference!

Giovanna said...

Love them all - as well as those in the previous post!

Katrina said...

Love all your projects!!! I am looking forward to watching your projects.

Cute bunny pics, my girls lay all over each other like that too :-).

KarenV said...

Gorgeous projects! I love the CHS piece and also the Reflets de Soie. The Gloriana silks are gorgeous; I've been stitching with Gloriana today and loved it :)

Catherine said...

I always enjoy seeing your stitches!


The bunnies are too cute!

Catherine said...

I always enjoy seeing your stitches!


The bunnies are too cute!

Siobhán said...

Dang, I'm coming to your house for some salad!! LOL YUM-O!

I love the progress you've made on your samplers. Did you see Nancy/Thread Through Time's recent blog post with pics of the original Ann? Very pretty. My biggest problem is not adding about twenty new things to my WIP pile, having seen what everybody else is working on! Ann Rayner and the Gingham Dog are two charts that were in the 'probably' pile and didn't make it into the definite start pile for the Crazy Challenge. Can't wait to see more WIP pics of yours!

Daffycat said...

Oooo, thanks for the bleu cheese recipe. I don't like it but DH is rabid for it. I'll give it a try next salad time and see what he thinks!

Michelle said...

Love these - especially Soleil. The colors are just so pretty!

RG said...

That's a fine stack-o-bunns too!

Chocolates4Breakfast (Terri Malinovich) said...

Great progress, Glenna! I always love seeing how much you get done and on such gorgeous projects, too.

I'm amazed the kitties and bunnies get along so well.

Lucy said...

OMG..you're stitching is so beautiful! Found your blog from another...very nice.

jayne@~an eye for threads~ said...

You have a wonderful taste in stitching and a very nice blog. Congratulations.
Be always in stitches

eye surgery said...

Nice when u see such great colours. I like the way you did it.