July 04, 2013

Pool Party at My House

Happy Fourth, everyone! Sorry for the glare on the glass--I stitched this some years ago (it's a Shepherd's Bush design) back before I knew about museum glass. I don't normally mat things, but this piece was so small I did.
We had a pool party at my house today. When I got up this morning I went downstairs to feed and clean the rabbits and discovered a large pool of water on the utility room floor. My house had asked me the other day: "Hey, have I messed with you lately?" and I said, no, I didn't think so. The house didn't say anything, just hummed a bit. So we had a crimp in a pipe with some solder on it let go and there was a tiny fountain in the air that formed a puddle pretty quickly. Have I mentioned that our plumber charges $200 just to say hello on an emergency call on holidays? That's in addition to the actual repair. Sigh. In my next life I'll be a plumber or an electrician or an hvac repair person instead of a super model. 

Anyway, it's been nuts at work, so I haven't had much time to post lately, although I do stitch into the wee hours.  Here's what I've been working on lately:  "Peaceful Paradise," by Midsummer Night Designs. 

I really like stitching on this except for one thing: the shreddy cotton overdyed threads. I had a crazy moment when I considered scrapping the project and restarting with Belle Soie, but I couldn't bear either to pull out all those threads and so keep the fabric or ditch the wonderful piece of Lakeside I'm stitching on. I started this around 2008, and Lakeside, although I love it still, was much richer and smoother then.  There are more slubs now, and it's a little more coarse.
I changed the color of the cat here, to memorialize my cat, Martha, who had died shortly before I started this. And the black rabbit is not charted on the design at all, but memorializes my first bunny, The Bunnyman.
I especially like the top of the tablets, showing night and day--the sun, moon, stars and clouds.
And of course, I'm still working on Agnes. What a pleasure she is to stitch, but I got a bit bored with strawberries, vines and blue alphabet letters.
Pink says "Happy Fourth of July!"

11 comments:

marly said...

Happy 4th to you. Wow. How did I miss this Paradise design? Magnifico! My favorite is the top too. Just love it.

Melissa said...

Glenna, I love the Paradise piece you are stitching and the way you've made it special to memorialize your furry friends! Agnes is looking so pretty - hey I don't remember the blue colour in the design...are you doing the Independence Day theme? ;-)

Happy Fourth! I hope your house behaves from now on!

Anonymous said...

Oh geez, house, why do you have to vie for attention with my stitching? LOL Happy 4th! Sent you an e-mail.
Robin

Margaret said...

Yikes on the repair. Always has to happen on a holiday, right? Love your Paradise piece -- love the little touches you made. I like the older Lakeside linens cause I think their colors used to be better. They are muddier and darker now. But I still like them too. lol! Agnes looks great too.

RG said...

What pretty work you did and have going.

Yuck on the leak - our fiasco usually involves a lot of company, a holiday, and the septic system.

You should thoroughly coat all your pipe joints with gorilla glue, then wrap with duc-tape, and paint over it all with a thick coat of epoxy on top of fiberglass wrap. That ought to do it.

We had a hot water issue the other day and a young man about 26 or so came from the Plumbing company. He was polite, dressed in a uniform and explained the whole thing clearly - including the various options of $350, $1,000, or $1455. I asked him how he liked that job. He said he felt blessed to be a plumber. I'll say!

Cover those ears Pinkster!!!!

Giovanna said...

Lovely stitching! Sorry to read about the flood though... hope everything's ok now.

Cari said...

Oh I so love your stitching. The changes you've made are awesome. Enjoy your week !!

Paula said...

Paradise is gorgeous!!!!

Karen said...

Bummer about the leak...stuff like that always seems to happen at the most expensive time :-(

The Paradise piece is beautiful! Love the colors and your little black bunny.

Melody said...

Yikes on the plumber! I have thought before, I should have encouraged our son to become a plumber instead of the IT field. They have to be rich, right? LOL.

Your stitching is coming along great!

Shebafudge said...

Gorgeous progress on your project. I love how you are adding past pets. Lovely idea :)