Christmas in the City

The law firm where I work is across the street from the White House, the Old Executive Office Building, the Treasury Dept. and the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery. Nice neighborhood, although I don't particularly notice it most days. But everything seems extra spiffy for Christmas this year, so I thought I'd share some pictures. It's even nicer at night when I leave, but my little camera doesn't do well with night shots. This first photo is of the Old Executive Office Building (there's a new Exec. Office Bldg., but it's hideous in the way of contemporary government space). My favorite part of the OEOB, which I only caught a slice of, is the pair of enormous magnolias on the lawn. I love the huge wreath and the column wrapping, all of which is lit up at night.

This is the Sun Trust Bank building. I like the building, which reminds me of Glasgow, Scotland, where there is block after block of buildings in this style. Nice wreath.
This is the Renwick Gallery. I'm disappointed with the Smithsonian folks, who I think could have done a better job with the wreaths and swags. They're way too small for the building's scale. All the same, the banners are intriguing; I'll have to check out the exhibit one of these days at lunch, maybe during the quiet time between Christmas and New Year.

The last photo is the Christmas tableau at my desk: Coke's Christmas polar bears and the bright red binding of the SEC Handbook, which spells out all things related to the reporting duties of publicly-held companies.

Long Ago and Far Away (Sampler Sunday)

I pulled out this UFO today, and now it has become a WIP. I'd forgotten how much fun it was and also, how huge (it's a little more than 3 feet wide!). I bought it years and years ago (maybe 17) and started it, then put it away and didn't cross stitch at all for a number of years. I had taken up knitting then and I remember being really tired of stitching it. Back then there weren't as many cute smaller projects for taking a break from a major project as there are now. It is called Stockholm and came as a kit. It lists only "evenweave fabric" and DMC cotton. I ordered it from a beautiful catalogue from Eva Rosenstand, which is still in business and now has an online presence although you can still order the printed catalogue (you must order the kits from a dealer or from the catalogue I think). I discovered this design is still in print. I searched for it and found it in a few U.K. shops for about 75 British pounds--yikes--that's about $135 U.S.! I know I didn't pay nearly that much when I bought it. The design is described as a "map," and there are others: Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Oslo, London. They are all extremely elaborate.

It was nice to get this out because I am taking a bit of a break from stitching Whale Hunting. Partly I was getting a bit bored (although I'm determined to finish it sooner rather than later so that I can have it framed to hang in our new house) and partly it's the demands of the season; Christmas shopping, house hunting, my neglected accounting class, resuming an exercise program. I'm determined to give myself the gift of weight-loss and physical fitness. I think from time to time of what I would regret if I were lying on my deathbed (other than all those UFOs) and I feel that although I've lived a full and rich life so far, I live too much in my head. I'd love to be fit enough to run a marathon. As an over-40 runner, I'd be considered a master, but I kind of like that title anyway. Think how many things that can apply to. Master stitcher?
We are still looking for a house but we still haven't found the perfect residence for us. We saw about eight houses this weekend. One of the houses we was a bargain-basement price because, aside from the really terrible housing market, there is a scorched-earth divorce going on and it needs to be sold. Although it's a beautiful and hardly-lived-in house, I'm uneasy. My X-DH used to say it was bad luck to buy someone else's tears.

We visited this house yesterday. Although this is an artist's rendering, we toured the model, where the sun was coming in through the large windows and bathing the bed in the wonderful master bedroom with warmth. What a fantastic place to curl up and have a nap, surrounded by cats and stitching.

Sampler Sunday: More Cranberries

With the exception of putting in a few more stitches on the large tree, this panel is done. Now the question is whether to head left or right. The "holes" in the bushes to the right of the tree are to be French knot blueberries; I am waiting until the end so they aren't damaged by the Q-snaps.

I mentioned that I collect cranberry samplers. Here's another from my collection, by the Sweetheart Tree, to be done on 32 count Cream Belfast Linen over 2 using mostly DMC and a variety of stitches. The pattern calls for lots of beads and pailletes as well, so the cranberry sampler will be glittery--always a plus. I like to have a house on all my samplers, but that won't stop me in this case from stitching this cranberry sampler.

We went back to one of the houses to look at it a second time yesterday. It's the one with the hobby room. I took a surreptitious picture of the hobby room to show you (the saleswoman was roaming around and I'm never sure how they feel about photography of the decorated models), so the color and focus are a bit off.

And the kitchen, which has a family room full of windows snugged up against it. That would be the room for stitching, in my opinion. I'm rushing a bit today, as we're heading out to look at another development and then off to the grocery store.

Poultry Seasoning and Cranberries

My mom always used this seasoning for the stuffing in the turkey, and I always have too. I used to have to buy it in New England and bring it back, but now you can get it here. Probably the seasoning inside is no different than any other, but I love the graphic, which I don't think has changed a lot.

My turkey's stuffed, trussed and in the oven. I slept late, did some stitching and looked for the Thanksgiving sampler WIP I have tucked away somewhere while BF went off to the nursing home to give his mom some sherried cream of crab soup and applesauce, things you can eat without teeth. She always knows him, but she doesn't remember a lot otherwise. She's 89 and utterly immobile. I am thankful for my wonderful guy, who has bought his mother a fruity soda and chocolate pudding she shouldn't have, and is giving her a Thanksgiving dinner, one spoonful at a time.

As a former Cape Codder, I have more than a passing acquaintance with cranberries and cranberry bogs. Oddly, I have forgotten to buy either fresh or canned berries this Thanksgiving and have been debating running across the street to the grocery store, which is likely to be chaos on this day. I remember in high school, playing hooky with my friends to go skating on the frozen bogs in the winter. In the fall the bogs are flooded to harvest the berries and protect the plants, and the water, about a foot deep, freezes to make a perfect skating rink. I collect cranberry samplers; here's one of them:

It's by the Sampler House, by Eileen Bennett and is still in print I believe. It's to be stitched in DMC on 30 count linen. There's an information box on the sampler chart that says: "Although the cranberry wasn't cultivated to any extent until the early 19th Century, the berries were among the first fruits to be canned. Back 1828, cranberry jam was processed and sold for $1.50 a can!" I did the calculation--$1.50 in 1828 would be worth $31.88 in 2005!

No stitching progress to show. I have been working on Whale Hunting, but I haven't achieved anything remarkable. More on Sunday! Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!!

She Seeketh Wool and Flax Worketh Willingly With her Handth: Thampler Thunday

This is the sampler for today: "She Seeketh Wool" from Purely Samplers of Homespun Elegance. It's likely a quick stitch, and it has some added interest in the form of little buttons in the tree and a blob of wool roving (sold sometimes in yarn shops, online or as doll's hair for doll crafters) for the sheep's body. The verse has me lisping though--not sure I could look at it day after day without doing the lispy thing mentally--kind of like your tongue playing with a loose or jagged tooth--so I'm setting it aside for now.

I didn't work as much as I'd have liked this week on Whale Hunting, but I did make some progress, working on house and tree details. I'm anxious to move on; with the completion of this section, the sampler will be only half done. Fortunately I have the four-day weekend coming up, and other than trying to remember not to burn the Thanksgiving meal, I have no obligations other than to stitch and stitch some more. I'd so much rather buy the meal prepared by Whole Foods to just pop in the oven, but I won't get away with that--I can't express what a dismal waste of time and energy I find cooking to be. Unfortunately, BF's mother always worked herself into a frenzy, baking multiple pies, two kinds of stuffing, and baking both a country ham AND a turkey, so BF is wistful about his mom's meal and while I'm not foolish enough to reproduce it, I at least try to make it special. (The country ham thing, by the way, is a southern thing this Yankee had to get used to. In fact, I had a BF a while back whose family slaughtered a hog the week before Thanksgiving so that we stood around elbow deep in sausage-making ingredients with a hand-crank meat grinder piloted by yours truly so that we could stuff the turkey with sausage dressing, making what came to be known in my mind as the grease bomb turkey.) Under the circumstances, although I never much appreciated my X-MIL, I still laugh when I remember the satisfaction in her voice, some time after her husband died, when she announced that the kitchen was forever more closed). Two years ago I got my wish to have Thanksgiving at a huge Dim Sum place, where they motor by with carts loaded with different tidbits: Chinese buns stuffed with barbecue, pork dumplings with garlic sauce, chicken wings stuffed with crab, pieces of duck with dipping sauce. I'm the only one who really enjoyed it, I think--everyone else thought it was weird and mourned their dried-out turkey and sticky sweet potato and marshmallow concoction. Jeez--a trip down memory lane with 2 boyfriends and an X-DH in one paragraph--quite the checkered past--hopefully you all don't think I'm a thlut. Every single one of them wanted a homemade Thanksgiving dinner, though. One of my friends is entering into her third marriage (at 60!); remind me to ask her if she served all her husbands the same meal, giving a new definition to the word "tradition." I can report that I have tried to vary mine!

And of course, as usual, we devoted some time to looking at houses yesterday. We looked at a new model home that blew us away. Among other things, it featured a fully built-out and staged "hobby room." The builder has it as an option for some ridiculous amount of money. It's a room on the lower level with built-in shelves, cabinets and a work table. The designer had placed fabric, a sewing machine and craft books around the room to suggest the happy crafter's life. I'm a sucker--I was so enthused that I didn't even remember to take a picture. It doesn't make sense, of course, because aside from the cost, what every crafter needs is abundant natural light, not an interior room by the furnace and storage rooms as if sewing, stitching and crafting were a dark and shameful secret. I think I would just seize one of the bedrooms and turn it into Stitcher Central. Still, it was a lot of fun to see it set up, and the design of the room was worth copying.

Sailing Hardships Through Broken Harbors (Sampler Sunday)

Can't you hear Neil Young's whiny, nasal voice?

Sailing hardships through broken harbors
Out in the wastes of the night.
Still the searcher must ride the dark horse
Racing along in his fright

From Harvest, I think. I was listening to it on XM Friday on my way from work, knowing that we would spend much of the weekend househunting again. Actually, I love househunting. So much fun to unearth goodies and quirks. But this was too big a quirk for me. We knew it was a distressed property, with a price to match--$50K less than the surrounding properties for sale. We pictured ruined walls or floors, perhaps some water damage, rickety decks, missing appliances, wrecked bathrooms. What we found: all those things plus a giant crack in the foundation. Not good. Former Homeowner hammered some nails into it then filled it full of bathtub caulk in a vain attempt to conceal the problem? hold it all together? It did neither. In fact, the garage had pulled away from the house, fleeing eight inches in its fright or shame, and allowing rainwater to enter the basement directly. Look--a lap pool! Then the Caulk-king wandered around the house, caulking other things: leaky faucets, loose tiles, all the grout around the kitchen sink. There's nothing much seismic in VA to cause this, so we speculate that it's maybe bad soil or an underground stream causing the house to move around.

Next property: someone bought this old tear-down and put a lovely new house in the resulting slot in the city (small photo borrowed from www.fredericksburg.com). They lovingly hand-built the replacement and filled it full of goodies: Brazilian walnut floors, tray ceilings with hand-applied copper leaf, upgraded appliances, quartz cambria counters. We love the house, just love it. But it's no larger than our current property, even if a good bit fancier and more than twice as expensive. The house has been standing empty for a long time--maybe a low-ball offer?

So it's a relief to contemplate this: no cracks, no dripping water, no mold, no short-circuits, no grimy carpet, no financial decisions. It's by Sheepish Designs, called The Garden Path and is is meant to be worked on 32 ct Belfast Linen with DMC. Because I have six cats, I might take out the four sheep and replace them with more cats.

I stitched on Birth of Jesus this week, giving the sailors a few days off (although I've missed them--they'll be back in my bag tomorrow). I've started a sheep on the left with the furry Wisper. Funny, Carol recently reported how difficult the Wisper is to thread on a needle, and she's so right! All the little hairs point off in different directions while you're trying to thread the needle!

Sampler Sunday

This is the Sampler Sunday sampler, Christmas Village by Victoria Sampler, where I borrowed this photo. The minute I saw it last week, browsing on ABC Stitch's website, I placed an order for it. It's getting a lot of attention on the 'net on various stitching blogs, and I'm thinking it'll be a sampler "best-seller." It's designed to be stitched on 28 ct. Zweigart smoky pearl cashel linen with a variety of fibers. Obviously I'm related to a magpie in liking sparkly things; everything I've bought lately requires Kreinik, beads, pearls and silk. All this work to hang on the wall just at Christmas though? Although I have a stitchy friend who leaves her Christmas pictures up year-round. Maybe if I eliminated Santa and his sleigh? I don't think the wonderful wintery, joyful feeling of the design would suffer if he was banished.


In the meantime, I've been stitching on Whale Hunting. I had somewhat less time this week because I've been up late every night diligently cleaning/decluttering the house in order to show it to the realtor who came to assess it yesterday. He pronounced it spotless and ready to show, which would amuse anyone who's ever seen my house: I'm a clutterbug who would rather stitch or read than clean. Fortunately, he didn't open my oven to see what I had stuffed in there to get it out of view.

Yesterday was another day of house-hunting. We looked at this property which we will not purchase. It comes with a huge responsibility which I don't really want to assume: it sits on a double city lot and has a full-lot-sized garden (not shown in the photo). Because the house, built in 1919, is in the historic district, it has to be kept as is (no tearing out the garden and bricking it over for parking--not that I'd do such a thing), and frankly I'm not enough of a gardener to take that on. Because of its location, it's very much in the public eye if you fail, too. It's an interesting problem which I've read about before: there are women (and men too) who buy properties with major, serious gardens and throw themselves into the task, and the garden thrives spectacularly (I'm guessing no one writes about or photographs the ones that wither and die). What I did love about this house though is that it is the perfect "sampler" house--it looks like something that would look great stitched on a sampler, and there is ample room for hanging all of one's completed samplers on the lovely plaster walls. Also, it's just about six blocks from my LNS--clearly a dangerous location. I borrowed this photo from the multiple listing service of MRIS in the DC area, the wonderful folks who save you so much time by publishing scads of photos on the web detailing homes for sale. How did anyone manage to house-hunt before the web?

Sampler Sunday: Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenter

I've been working on a house for my homesite in Whale Hunting. Wouldn't it be nice if it were as easy to put a house on a real homesite?

We've been IRL house hunting. The neighborhood we selected is not that far from where we live and still walking distance to my commuter lot. It's a pretty neighborhood of about 1000 homes with miles of paved walking trails and graceful common areas, and I've wanted to live there for years. It's about 15 years old, so it benefits from mature plantings and trees, and the houses appear to be in good shape. Except they're not, at least inside, where there's stuff falling off, falling apart, dirty, unworkable, shorted out. There are transparent attempts at concealing deficiencies and coats of paint just slapped on over the grime, and poor patch jobs. And why does it not occur to anyone that we might be opening the refrigerator, the oven, flipping the light switches, sniffing the air for signs of wet basements, mildew and mold, peering into attics and garages and cabinets? So many huge houses, and a lot of them look inside like the houses in ghost towns in the west, where some cataclysm occurred, and people moved out seemingly within minutes, leaving a half-finished meal and dishes on the table. It wouldn't be remarkable if it didn't seem to be most of them! And yet drive or walk through the neighborhood and everything looks just so: neat, manicured, landscaped, decorated, serene.

So in this soft market, we've moved on to new houses, where the builders are adding incentives by the day to move their inventory, so that new pristine houses are much less expensive than used houses. We are considering this model, where they're so far willing to throw in a free finished basement. There is 3,500 feet of space for our offices and hobbies. I'm thinking there might be room for something I've always wanted to buy--an ironing table. An ironing table is bigger than an ironing board and stays up all the time. I love to iron, and it's essential if you sew, which I want to do more of. I dislike the screechy crashing noise of putting up and taking down our present ironing board. The house is pretty, but the neighborhood is not, at least right now. It will take a number of years for there to be the plantings and trees. Developers in this area just bulldoze it all, throw up the houses and move on. I was thinking that if we buy this though, I will embroider a copy of this drawing onto the sampler hill surrounded by blueberry vines that I showed you a couple of weeks ago--the one with not enough stuff around the house. Just like in real life.

Here's the Sunday Sampler. I think the verse is a hoot: "Needles and Pins/Needles and Pins/When a Man Marries/His Troubles Begin/Needles and Pins." Sexist, but still funny, especially since it's a wedding sampler. I like the border and the animals. It's by Theron Traditions and is charted for 36 ct. linen in DMC colors. It'd be a great jokey--but still pretty--gift for the bride and groom with a sense of humor.

New Friends and Old

I took my new best friend, Bernina, for an outing yesterday. I took a getting-to-know-your-new-Bernina class at a quilt/sewing center. It's not exactly a new machine, since it's been tucked underneath my computer table for the last three years, waiting for me to get a chance to read the manual. My old machine was a used, much-loved simple Singer, so I was a bit intimidated by the new machine when I got it, even though it's pretty much the bottom of their line (quite deliberately--I sew enough to know that I don't need--could never justify--a fancier model). This model is the only mechanical one they make, and clearly the ladies at the sewing center found it kind of quaint and inferior. It was as if I'd ridden a bicyle into the local Mercedes dealership to request service. Most of the quilting center ladies, it seems, own several different models of the elaborately computerized Berninas which are capable of everything including driving the family car and running a CT scan on the brain. The computerized machines do an unlimited number of embroidery scenes--horrifyingly sterile things. And if I wanted my quilt to look store-bought, I would go to the store and buy one!

Not only that, but my mother (a couture-quality sewer who used to make our lined winter coats), could sew rings around them and their fussy machines (jeez, you look at your computer screen instead of the fabric) with an old treadle machine that had nothing but a backward and forward stitch.

I did pick up one handy hint though, even for us hand-stitchers: cut your thread at an angle, and it slides right into the needle's eye--no wetting or pinching required. I tried it, and it works!

Anyway, I'm pleased with my machine (even though it's disconcertingly quiet; I miss the thunk thunk thunk of the old Singer). I want to cut up this table cloth and stitch it into a set of curtains for my sewing/computer/fish room. My great-grandmother stitched this cloth, and whole load of others like it, several of which I have. It's not particularly delicate work, as you can see, but it's charming anyway, indelible gravy/wine stains and all. I love the idea that it will hang in my sewing room where I have my comfy stitching chair and now my new sewing machine sitting out on the table, ready to be used. Maybe after the curtains, needlework smalls!

And here's an old friend--and not a single stitch of it done by machine.

Sampler Sunday: House Hunting Edition

The first two days of vacation have gone wonderfully. We went IRL househunting today and looked at a house on a precipice. It had the best glassed-in sunroom I have ever seen and would be perfect for stitching. So who cares if you'd have to mow the lawn with a mountaineering rope tied around your waist anchored to a tree? It made me think of the Jeep? Subaru? commercial where the guy parachutes out of his house and to his waiting car.

Sampler Sunday wouldn't be complete without a sampler, though, would it? I have nothing to criticize in this one. I love it--the Plymouth Sampler--although I've seen it everywhere. I saw a stitched model done in a high threadcount in, of all places, Plymouth, at The Sampler, and I have tried test-stitching it on a couple of different fabrics to see which I'd prefer. I'm doing it over one on 38 count linen with DMC in half crosses (no room for the full cross, which makes it go a tad faster, although you have to stab rather than sew so it's probably a wash time-wise). This is fun, but only in the best light! The penny will give you an idea of the scale. My motto: why do anything the easy way and why stitch something you can actually see?

Warning: Adult Content Ahead

Because I’m a bunny mom, I’m crazy over all things rabbit and look for projects that feature them. I also like snowmen. So imagine how thrilled I was to find that Sisters and Best Friends, one of my favorite needle artist teams, who are also the designers of the Uncle Willy snowman chart that I just kitted up to stitch soon, which pictures a confused-looking snowman wrapped in Christmas lights and sporting a bright orange button nose, has designed a snowman looking at his little friend, a bunny. It’s called "Pals." This snowman isn’t sporting just a nose. He looks to be sporting a uh...um... Well. The bunny is too small, and his placement in the scene is problematic.

I am imagining the conversation over in the Quality Control Department at Sisters and Best Friends Corporate HQ:
"Sister, you know that I love you, don’t you? And you’re my best friend, too, right?"
"Of course, Sis. What’s up?"
"Well, I am not sure quite how to say this, but you know that cute snowman you just designed with the bunny friend?"
"Yes, Sis. Why do you ask?"
"They’re really cute and all, Sister, but perhaps you should take a few steps back and look at the chart again?"
"Sis, I don’t have time for this. We have to get these charts to the publisher!"
"Oh, right. But maybe we should stitch him some pants?"
That said, I do like the chart and the cute button pack that comes with it. The designers really are wonderful; is it their fault I have a smutty mind?

Treasure Chest

Photo used by permission of Button & Needlework Boutique.
If I were going to own a needlework shop, this is exactly how I would want it to look. This is the Button & Needlework Boutique in Victoria, British Columbia. Isn't this inviting? I wish I had known it was there the last time I was in Vancouver! But since a five-hour flight isn't in my vacation plans next week, I called up and ordered a kit instead. It arrived promptly, sent by the nice person I spoke with on the phone.

If the B&NB is the treasure chest, here is the treasure:


This chart was designed by a Canadian designer, Bunny Tales Embroidery. (B&NB highlights Canadian designers, including Victoria Sampler and Jeannette Douglas Designs, on a portion of their website.) This particular chart, called Afternoon in the Orchard, is a recreation of a decoration from a margin in a Book of Hours. Bunny Tales has other Book of Hours needlework projects, but they are all much larger. This will not be a quick or easy stitch either, as it's full of fractional stitches, beads, Kreinik metallics, backstitching and sections of over-one. On 32 count linen, this project will be something like 3" x 26" before the framing margins. Because it uses mostly DMC flosses (about 60 colors) it will even be a fairly reasonably priced project. The beautifully executed stitching directions and symbols on five large sheets of paper look to be precise and easy to follow and hint at the glories to come. I will be kitting this up and starting it on my vacation next week, since I have the week off and have tried to keep my other obligations to a minimum. Poor BF: "Glenna, do you want to go out to lunch? How about a drive in the country? Or we could see a movie. How about a dinner at that nice place on the river?" Glenna: "No. Shut up."

And here's some more progress on Whale Hunting. Now that the ground is stitched in this section, I'm free to do ocean stitching and the big red house that sits on the hill. I'll work on that next week too. Plus Birth of Jesus. As you can imagine, I'm looking forward to this vacation hugely.

Sampler Sunday: Chiggers and Ticks and Fleas, Oh My!

This is one of the sight-unseen samplers I ordered over the 'net from the fabulous Homespun Samplar, in Rhode Island. From online order to my mailbox has been 4 days for each of my two orders. And their web site is wonderful for passing the time on a slow day at work, too, since they have samplers I haven't seen anywhere else, and you can work your way through their stock aphabetically by name of sampler (or by designer). As I've said, normally I see a sampler in a needlework shop, sometimes after having seen it on the web. Buying a sampler on the web can bring surprises, because the photos are small and indistinct and you don't necessarily notice features that reveal themselves only "in person." This is one of those samplers. I loved it online--it's a Scarlet Letter Sampler called "Sarah Ann Downend." With certain reservations I also like it in person, especially the flock of sheep, whose bodies are stitched in French knots. Interestingly, there are no people in this picture. Perhaps they are staring out of one of the 18 windows?

What I didn't notice online: check out the border. Now it may just be picky on my part, but doesn't that border look an awful lot like chiggers? I don't remember seeing chiggers up north when I lived there, although we have them down here. If you've never experienced one, they're tiny red bugs (they look like miniature red ticks) that attach themselves to your legs when you're walking through high grass or a field, and their bites are a terrible torment. Just think--we could do a whole series of pest samplers after stitching the Chigger Chart. The pest possibilities are endless: The Mighty Mite Sampler; the Green Bottle Fly Sampler; the Anopheles Mosquito Sampler. Two other things about this sampler: the verse is unpleasant--"the loss of a father is much/the loss of a mother is more..."--but it is a historical reproduction, so that's okay (and might explain why there are no people in it, after all). I don't care much for the awkward, off-center medallian with Sarah's name in it either. Too bad, because I really love that flock of sheep and the sheepdog.

Today I nursed a headache and did some more stitching on Whale Hunting but put the stitching away early and took a nap before dinner.

Laying Groundwork

I spent quite a bit of time this week stitching grass and rocks on Whale Hunting. Yawn--but it needs to be done. I'm excited about beginning to stitch whales and more ocean and the church that sits on the grass, so that will be my reward when I get the ground on this page completely stitched. The dark spot in the corner is my shadow.

Tomorrow is Sampler Sunday, otherwise known as my Sunday Open House, in honor of all those houses that BF and I have toured on a Sunday, finding glaring flaws of one kind or another, and then coming home to quarrel about--LOL.

And speaking of samplers, I think we should all support companies that give us a nice tasteful sampler on their packaging. This is the Route 11 Potato Chip Company. It may be a regional company, so you may not have seen these in your part of the country/world. I liked the flavor of the Yukon Gold potatoes, but I prefer a drier, softer potato chip--I think the kettle fried chips are too hard and greasy.

Sold, for $6 Billion

We knew they were up to something, didn't we? Did anyone notice how plump the shelves had become? How many new brands of embroidery scissors there were, and the fact that the anemic-looking DMC slots were suddenly stuffed full? Well this is the answer. Michaels' shareholders on October 5 voted for a merger with a couple of private equity firms. Those firms paid a tasty premium to the shareholders; last spring Michaels' shares were trading at about $29/share, and the merger agreement is for $44/share. Once the purchasers have acquired all these shares, they'll then delist the shares from the stock market and take the company private. A lot of companies are doing that now. Once the company is private, they'll be able to get out from under the onerous chores of financial reporting to the SEC and the public. There was a flurry before the meeting of company insiders doing some perfectly legal exercising of their stock options to buy shares of stock for $10.50 (give or take) a share, which they will receive $44 for. Do you think the guys who brought you cut-rate crafts and cheesy materials and not enough of anything really (and who incidentally drive all the little scrapbooking stores out of the neighborhood when they came to town) deserve to become millionaires over their great craft and home dec insights?

So all that business with the overstuffed aisles and nice coupons and lots of choice? It's nothing more than someone getting gussied up for a first date. It'll be interesting to see what happens after they're married....

Here's some progress on a project that I didn't buy at Michaels (and I need to stitch poor Joseph's eye first thing). Isn't his robe a hoot? I didn't even mind that the pinkish stripes are actually mauve.

Sunday Open House

I'm conducting a small experiment in selecting a sampler online. While I like all of the things I am stitching, I have a hankering to find a "historical" feeling sampler, and I want to find it online. I want a pleasing design not overwhelmed by alphabet/numbers--not for me the samplers with nothing but strip after strip of alphabet. There needs to be an architecturally pleasant house, some flora and fauna (preferably sheep, rabbits, cats and/or birds--all other wildlife is optional). I want my real estate to have a water view, something I could never afford IRL. A stream or pond is nice; an ocean is preferable. If an ocean, there should be a ship, either docked or sailing. The colors should be vibrant--not muted and dull--and contain little--if any--mauve, since I despise mauve. It has to be something I haven't seen all over the net and in every needlework shop. The Plymouth sampler (which I own), is a perfect illustration of many of the elements I'm looking for, but I've seen it everywhere, so it's disqualified for these purposes, although I'll stitch it very soon anyway! The design elements have to be balanced--neither crowded/cluttered nor sparse. It has to be complex enough to be interesting, but not so complex as to be daunting. It can be all cross stitch, or contain other stitches. Specialty fibers are great but not necessary.

The contenders, chosen after squinting at the tiny and in some cases blurred pictures online (and I have a 17-inch screen at work; it's just as bad there) have begun to arrive. Yesterday I received four. I won't post them all today, but I will post them periodically, along with my impressions. You're free to disagree, and bear in mind, even if I'm critical, I like ALL of these things and would not insult a designer; I'm simply expressing disagreement with some elements of the design. In short, I'm no expert or artist, but it's like any househunting expedition--some houses that others may find attractive might leave you cold. And you might fall in love with the funky house with the awkward rooms and bad mauve carpet because you love the built-in shelves around the stone fireplace.

Open House Number One is "The Farm on Blueberry Hill" from Griffin Needleart Designs. I like this, but there is a problem. The colonial house is nice. The sheep are done in various colors of Wisper mohair fiber--fun. The colors are great, particularly the blue, and I love the twining blueberry vine. There's a cute pond with a bonus swan. The alphabet is simple and nicely balanced. What I don't like: there's too much empty space around the house--those flying birds don't fill it enough. And I don't mind charms and buttons, but they should enhance the design, not simply fill up some space. How I'd change the design: elmininate about 15-20 rows in the middle, pulling the house closer to the alphabet. Of course, the blueberry vine would have to be re-balanced as a result, but I believe that would be a winner. Not sure I want to go to the trouble, but I like the lovely colors and fuzzy sheep. In short, appealing, but not The One.

I'll leave you with a picture of my latest WIP: "The Birth of Jesus." I'm using 34 ct Legacy Linen in "wren's wing" and Needlepoint silks. Love this project so far, especially the lazy daisy stitches that form the fronds of the palm trees. I wish this were a larger, more complex project, because it's a blast to stitch.

Distractions

There are lots of distractions this weekend. It is chilly and rainy, and I'm thinking about that impossibly soft yellow sweater I'm knitting. I really should pick up the needles for a while this weekend.

Then there's Charles Frazier's new book, Thirteen Moons. He's the author of Cold Mountain (loved the book, but despised the choice of actress--the brittle Nicole Kidman--and I thought the screenplay was awkward and clunky), and this new book promises to be interesting. Like Cold Mountain, it's off to a bit of a slow start. I love his voice, though; I can hear western North Carolina in every sentence. I lived there for a while, and in Eastern Tennessee, and I've spent a lot of time camping and hiking in the Smokies, so it's like a return to a dear and familiar territory.

I'm off to the library too, to pick up some books I reserved ages ago and still want to read (although I may decline a couple of them since I won't get to them quickly, and others might as well read them first). Doesn't it figure they'd arrive when I have all these other things to read and do?

Some stash arrived in the mail yesterday including the rest of the fibers for "Birth of Jesus," and I'm becoming a total fan of Elegant Stitch in California. In each case I've ordered from them on a Tuesday afternoon and have received my order in the mail Friday. I've started "Birth of Jesus" which is working up to be far more colorful than the picture hinted at. Pictures of all that tomorrow, when I've made enough progress to share. And I've moved into a fourth page (out of twelve) of "Whale Hunting." There's lots of ground to cover, quite literally. Funny that I am not tired of stitching the ocean but don't much enjoy all that yellowy-green grass. Fortunately, I have a week off planned later this month so I can get some of this stuff done!

A Nice Morning to Stand on the Side of the Road

Two mornings in a row they closed I-95 so a helicopter could come in and wisk someone away who'd met with misfortune in the form of a couple of tons of moving metal. In each case we sat for a long time. Today we got off the bus and looked around, enjoying the sunshine and the novelty of walking up and down the HOV lane, if not the prospect of being late for work a second day. For those of you who live in Northern Virginia, you'll recognize that lollipop sign in the distance as being Potomac Mills. To the twitchy, anxious federal agent who looked like he was going to fling himself out the window and sprint the remaining 25 miles to work: a portable hobby helps.

So when I got back to my seat, I got out my portable hobby and completed the Christmas Sampler in Red by Plum Pudding Needleart (one strand of burgundy Needlepoint Inc. Silk over two done on 38 ct Italian cream linen): I need to do French knots on the "P" and the "E" (or is it just the "E"--I have to consult the chart), but I might use some beads instead. I like doing French knots, and they turn out well, but I think they'll be too small, so I'll use gold or burgundy beads.


I've enjoyed working on this sampler and will go back to working on Whale Hunting until the rest of my fibers arrive for Birth of Jesus. And in the meantime, I got busy with the Internet and ordered some stash I've been wanting from Em-Li's in North Carolina, the sweetest lady who calls herself "elderly," but who has a positively encyclopedic memory for the name and designer of every sampler we talked about. Then I purchased a couple of items from Homespun Samplar in Rhode Island. I'm feeling as if I want to do a traditional sampler, a big, complex, historic sampler, maybe something different than I've tried before. We'll see. It's harder to choose something on the internet than in person, though, isn't it? There are just those thumbnails that blow up into something just a bit bigger, but never big enough. So this will be an experiment.

And Michelle, if you'll permit me this once to imitate your wonderful idea of a gratitude each day:

I am grateful for having a bathroom on my commuter bus.

Sail Into the Mystic

Picture of Gay Head Light at Aquinnah courtesy of Capecodphotoalbum.com

"Hush now, hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly
Into the Mystic.
When that foghorn blows,
I will be coming home....
Yeah, when that foghorn blows,
I want to hear it.
I don't have to fear it."

Van Morrison

St. Peter's Church on the Canal, Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts
St. Peter's was moved all in one piece, by floating barge, down the Cape Cod Canal, to its present location. It has a ship's-bow ceiling, and the altar has carved wooden fish and a ship's wheel.


"Whale Hunting"