Bark!

We made it to Bark! I just love the store and wish we had one nearby. I do a weekly stock-up on catfood, litter, bunny hay, etc., so it I had allowed our supplies to dwindle, knowing that I would be visiting. Bark! donated 10% of their sales today to Bright Eyes Sanctuary.

They are state-of-the-art. Our cats are mostly older and have various eating quirks (and Lord, they're all such pukers!), so it was nice to have a huge selection of non-grocery-store type cat foods to choose from. I'm hoping for the perfect food: something to soothe tender tums, something to fatten up the skinny ones and slim down the fat ones, and something they all like. I filled the trunk of my car with about 10 different brands. The lit case has fresh refrigerated food, which I didn't try because I didn't bring the ice chest and the temps were in the 80s today.

And that's Patti in the blue shirt. Better shots of us coming from Patti--I do better photographing needlework than people and places. I met such lovely people too--several other adoptive bunny families.

Here's little Earless Glenna bun. Also missing most of her teeth, which were surgically removed. Aside from her physical challenges, she's bright and lively and has attitude to spare.

The pink tissue is healthy tissue. Glenna Bun was a throw-away/stray, and she lost her ears to frostbite. I got to hold her on my lap; she's quite the cuddler, even with all those people around. Patti took some photos of us which I'll share another time.

These three are Patches (the mom) and Dario and Hazel. They are up for adoption, but as a family, as they are closely bonded.

Here's Audrey, enjoying a visit with Dario.

Audrey and I had a blast at Bark! I'm wiped out, so it's off to bed for me as soon as I can clean out the bun room. See the post below if you're here for needlework--2 posts today. Happy week ahead!

Going to Bark!

This will be quick, because we're headed out to "Bark!" for a benefit for Bright Eyes Sanctuary, the wonderful bunny rescue who rescued Pink. We'll do a second post this afternoon with pictures from that event. In the meantime, if you live nearby, think about going to one of the Clarksville or Olney, MD locations from noon to 4:00 p.m. I'm headed for Olney. Bark! is a wonderful place with premium pet food of all kinds. You know that with 3 bunnies and 6 cats, I'm going to be stocking up. There will be rabbits to adopt as well from Bright Eyes Sanctuary; BF has warned me not to come back with any other little bunnies.

School has pretty much faded away, so I had more time this week to stitch. I ordered a pale blue 40 ct fabric from Picture This Plus, which arrived yesterday. You know I had to put just a few stitches in to the Eliz. Welford Sampler (Handwork) to see how it would look. This isn't the best light, because it's very gray today.

I worked quite a bit on Scarlet Letter's "Diligence."

There are lots of specialty stitches in this sampler. Here are a few: rice stitch (the light green), backstitch, four-sided stitch, queen stitches.

I've looked at this sampler for years and finally ordered it. Ann Wallace. I started kitting it up yesterday. Oddly, the required AVAS thread for the huge building IRL is brown, not gray, so I'm thinking of changing it to gray. I don't think the brown has the same impact.

Audrey arrived this week, bearing gifts, from Hef's Mom at the Bunny Lounge. Audrey and Bearly There are discussing Audrey's upcoming trip to Bark!

Pink knows that I will be visiting with Glenna Bun, who lost her lovely pink ears to frostbite. Mama Patti, as we refer to Patti Henningsen in our house, has nursed Glenna Bunn through horrible surgeries and has never given up on her. Pink says he's grateful for his soft pink ears and for Mama Patti, who's pretty much the Mother Theresa of bunnies, as far as he's concerned.

Back later with pictures from Bark!

Scarlet Fever

One last paper to write this weekend, so I took Friday off to get some things done before I killed the rest of the weekend with schoolwork. One of the things I did was gather up a few of my many Scarlet Letter charts and take them to In Stitches to kit them up. The nice thing about going to the LNS on a weekday morning is how uncrowded and peaceful it is. I spent a happy couple of hours chatting with the ladies there and pulling the threads I was missing for Elizabeth Welford (I don't remember if I cannibalized them or just never finished purchasing them), by Handwork Samplers, and for three Scarlet Letter samplers. Here's Elizabeth. This is the designer's photo. Doesn't it appear to be stitched on silvery/blueish/gray fabric? The design actually calls for lambswool, which I don't like using. It's worked on 40 count, with NPI.

Here's the floss toss in not-ideal lamp light. On the left is Picture This Plus silvery gray called Fog, and on the right is Lakeside Buttercream. The Fog looks truer to the design photo but the Buttercream shows the ecru NPI better, I think, and there's quite a lot of stitching in that color. Since then I added two more colors of fabric, a darker blue PTP, and a pale blue/gray Lakeside. Still undecided.

Scarlet Letter: I have been collecting them forever--everything from Ideal Landscape to the various Elizabeths, Sarahs, Margarets, Rebeccas, Anns, Mary Anns and Robertas. This is Diligence, a chart I've had for several years. I had to start it, because when I kitted it up (AVAS and Maritime White Lakeside), I realized how unusual the colors were--bright enough, aren't they?

Diligence. I love the verse (over one), which says "Diligence: If you would adorn human nature/embellish and improve your understanding/How truly blest are they who leasure find/To dress the little garden of the mind/That grateful tillage will reward our pains/Sweet is the Labor certain are the gains/The rising harvest never mocks our toil/We're sure of fruit if we manure the soil."

Ann, which I fell in love with after seeing Nicole's. I noticed that In Stitches had Ann Smith plus several others I want to collect. Between Scarlet Letter and Essamplaire, you really could spend a lifetime stitching and never get through them all. I have spent many happy hours looking at their charts online and in shops and planning what I will hang where when they're finally done. Never mind the odds of that.

Here's a closeup of Adam and Eve (and like a lot of you, I'd like to have an Adam and Eve wall). Doesn't it look as if Adam is rolling his eyes and saying "oh, crap?" (A&E photo borrowd from Scarlet Letter's website.)


Mary Ann. I like the scene with its outsize chickens and sheep, the nicely done house, and the hovering angel who sports a goofy grin (you can click on the photo to enlarge it and see the angel's expression).

Elvis is feeling sorry for himself here. He was being soothed after having his nails clipped. Sorry, Elvis! There will be a nice salad for you later, after I've finished this stupid paper.

I'm off to dress the little garden of the mind and manure the soil! That doesn't really sound very good, does it? Happy week ahead, and may you spend as much time happily anticipating stitching as actually doing it.

What to Do at a Dandelion Party

This has been a fraught week, with little stitching but with much studying, since school will be wrapping up in a couple of weeks. I spent the entire weekend working on a paper (an in depth analysis of accounting fraud at AIG with respect to offshore accounts and finite risk insurance--don't you wish you were me?) and didn't so much as pick up a needle. So tonight I'm cranky, but because I finished the paper, I'm going to go stitch in just a moment. What I did accomplish was a little stitching on the Christmas ornament by Blackberry Lane Designs. I'm working it over one on 32 count cashel (I think) with DMC. I like the linen, because it's just stiff enough. And I love the design.

We did have a dandelion party. I groomed the garden bed (yay for planting perennials last year--the ultimate timesaver is to have your garden grow its own flowers and not have to go buy more and plant 'em) and plucked out the dandelions for the bunnies, who generally adore them, and had a little party.
Discovery. Pink: Woooo! Par-tay!

Pink: Look! I know a trick! I can pull the tablecloth out from under the food without breaking a wine glass!

Peaches: What wine glass? There's wine? Oh! Maybe dandelion wine!

Pink: Ok, now that the dandelions are gone, we'll eat the tablecloth!

Happy week ahead, and don't eat the tablecloth!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter morning! We have a quiet day planned. Hopefully I can get in a little stitching today. I picked up and put down any number of projects this week, but I couldn't settle until late week, when I did some work on this. It doesn't look like a lot of progress, but the over-one verse takes longer. So do the bullet-hole stitches, as I call them (the green letter on the lower left). This is Janet Gibson's Scottish Swan, by the way. I'm working my way down towards the house and the swan. The swan is to be filled in with buttonhole stitch, so I'm eager to learn it and then get it behind me.

This was peak cherry blossom week in DC, and the streets were overflowing with tourists. I go visit the trees every 2nd or 3rd year--I don't like crowds--since my office is only about six blocks from the Tidal Basin. This year the weather was warm, so it was a nice walk.

The Washington Monument, wearing a tutu:

A different view of the Washington Monument, with the Cherry Blossom Porta Potties (CBPPs) in the foreground. I'm showing you this because you can see the blossoms floating in the breeze. Whenever there'd be a good puff, everyone would sort of sigh in unison and say "ahhhhhh....snow!" It was pretty funny to hear that every time there was a new breeze.


This may give you an idea of the crowds. Everyone who marches in the wall to wall volksmarch around the tidal basin seems to plop down at the Jefferson Memorial to contemplate the water, the blossoms and the beautiful day. This shot was taken from my firm's roof deck.


Here's the Easter Bunny, catching a snooze.
Pink: "I was up late delivering candy and eggs!"
Pink, Peaches, Elvis and I want to wish you a happy Easter. For fun, go here to see the 4th Annual Peeps diorama contest from the Washington Post. The contest is called "Peeps Show." As always, the entries are so clever.

Happy week ahead!

Getting a Jump on Christmas

Just a quickie today, as I'm supposed to be toiling on a paper for school and I procrastinated yesterday by thoroughly cleaning the house which so desperately needed attention. I haven't stitched much this week, but here's where I am on Catharine:

And on Peaceful Garden. PG is a great bus project; I can outline large sections at home where I can carefully count, then fill them in on the bus, where it's harder to count and where I'm more likely to make a mistake.

I stopped by the LNS yesterday when I was doing errands and picked up a couple of these new Christmas ornament charts, which in itself is unsual because I'm not much of a Christmas stitcher, and I don't generally even think about stitching what little I do work on until about August. But I had to have these. They're not widely available quite yet, although they will be, and I think they'll sell like the proverbial hotcakes! The owner of my LNS who saw the stitched model(s), says they're stunning IRL. "Three Wise Men" is stitched on 40 count--over 1! (Not going there, but I might do over-one on 32 count.) They're charted for DMC--lots and lots of colors of DMC. Even better, they're each part of a series: there will be 6 snowglobe designs and 6 designs as part of the First Noel series. I can't wait. Marie Driskill of Blackberry Lane Designs is an extremely talented (and prolific, apparently) designer (I'm working on two of her other designs), and if you like the color and detail of the HAED designs but don't have the time to work on something so huge, Blackberry Designs is for you.


While I was at the LNS, this plastic tote caught my eye. They come in various sizes--this one's big enough to hold full-size charts, a set of q-snaps, fabric and threads for at least one project--and they're just perfect for hauling around your WIPs. I love the mesh bags, but they don't have handles, so they're harder to keep track of (I generally stuff a couple in my commuter backpack, but I always worry about setting one down on the bus seat and leaving it behind). Not very expensive either--this one was a bit less than $13.

Pink: "You spoiled my nap by running the vacuum!"

Happy week ahead!

Here Comes the Sun

"Here Comes the Sun" has always been my favorite Beatles song, and it fits so well today with this sampler, from The Stitching Parlor, called "Peaceful Garden." I'm stitching it with the recommended Crescent Colours (all 47 of them!) on 40 ct Lakeside Linen in vintage buttercream. I think the reality of this little sampler (not so little, actually, at about 240 x 260 stitches) is so much prettier than the chart photo would indicate. And it's a nice break from the fiddliness of some of my other samplers with their elaborate stitches and over-one. Oh, yeah, I got my copy of Scarlet Letter's "Grazing Sheep" yesterday. Wow. What a major undertaking! If you want to see it in action, you should watch Sandra's at the Sampler Lover's blog. She's an amazing stitcher. Now that I've seen the chart (so MUCH over-1), I feel a tad intimidated...


And to switch songs to "Uncle Ernie" from The Who's "Tommy," here we have much fiddling about with Catharine McNeal's sampler. I was so pleased to get to the brickwork, and I'm working away on the border thistles as well. I'm skipping some of the thistles and the roof of the house until the end so that I don't damage the satin stitches, some of which cover 12 threads.

I got a kick out of everyone's comments about the trucking and the parallel parking last week. I believe the world is divided up into two camps: those who can parallel park, and those who can't. In my case, I consider the damage I could do to someone else's car by cutting too close to the side, my own car and whatever's up on the sidewalk and just decide I need the walk--sometimes a very looooong walk. And Barbara, I'm definitely older than you are! Here's my photo to prove it, and for you local stitchers who mused that you wouldn't know me if you ran into me in the needlework shop.

Peaches is contemplating an Easter dinner for us here while the boys sleep. Isn't that always the way, Peaches?

Off to make our dinner--happy week ahead, and may the sun shine on you--especially you folks in Oklahoma!

Day Out

I took today off to get a doctor's appointment out of the way and buy a tire for my car. The tire took two hours to install, so I got some stitching done.
I'd like to say how honored I am to be selected for an award by blogging buddies. This is from Crafty Green Poet.


Margaret at Days of a Sampler Lover and Theresa at Giraffe Xing awarded me with this.


Let's see--I'm supposed to tell something interesting/secret about myself. I don't think I'm that interesting, but I'll tell you a few things you might not know:

1. I drove a tractor trailer coast to coast for two years when I was much younger--this was taken in 1980. My ex-husband and I owned this franchise. We had neither power steering nor a jake brake, so you had to put some muscle behind a slow turn, and you'd better be in the right gear going down a mountain!


2. In spite of that, I cannot parallel park a car. People who ride with me are crying "Look! there's a spot right in front of the place!" If it's a single parallel spot, I will drive on by while everyone has a fit. Fortunately, in Massachusetts, where I initially got my license, parallel parking was not required.
3. I finally finished my first college degree when I was 48.
4. I play the violin. I had stopped for a long time, and I took it up again a few years ago, although I've shelved it again until I finish this latest degree.
5. The best job I ever had was 15 years ago, when I was a night word processor for a law firm. I worked the 5 p.m. to midnight shift, and I was generally the only one in the building. I usually finished my work by nine or so, but because I had to stay until midnight, I did whatever I wanted until it was time to leave. Unfortunately, I had not developed the stitching obsession yet. When I walked the few blocks to get my car I used to note the number of rats in the big decorative planters in front of the office buildings--along which people would sit during the day to eat their lunches. If only they knew how many rats had been cavorting in their picnic spot!
Five's enough--they're getting boring.

I am supposed to name some other blogs, to receive the award, but I can't choose! I enjoy so many of your blogs, and I think you all deserve an award!

On to the needlework!
Here's a little work I've done on Catharine McNeal--photographed on the rug in the room where it'll hang. I like how well the colors go together:

And a closeup of the over-one stitching. The tree is over-two, but the fruit basket is over one. Because the fabric threads as plump and so are the NPI fibers, I elected to do tent stitch instead of the full cross. The bottom three rows on the basket are full cross, but I didn't like the way they were squished, so I decided to do tent instead.

The bunnies are busy today planning their Easter events.
Scratchy: "They're very busy under the bed!"

See you Sunday!

Spring Cleaning/March Madness

Now that it's so much warmer and the trees are budding, I've started cleaning and airing the house, which extended to cleaning (but not airing--so sad that you can't open the windows in a tall city-building) my office. I dug through my closet and in desk drawers that I seldom open and came up with a dozen or so needlework charts and magazines, mostly ordered from ebay. Here's one of them, a little chart called "Lambs Garden," by Earth Threads. It's charted for 32 count using GAST, but I'm stitching it on 40 count Lakeside (Light Examplar, I think), substituting a few colors I didn't have, since I arrived home Friday night and immediately kitted it up from my stash. It's springy and pretty cute! It seems to be OOP since it's a 1996 chart, but I noticed a copy of it selling on ebay today.

When I get on a tangent, off I go! I got "researching" sheep samplers, looking for more Earth Threads Lambs (they're a series, apparently, and I successfully clicked and bought "Lambs Easter" (not to be confused with Easter Lamb with mint sauce) and "Lambs Halloween." Look what jumped into my cart! "Grazing Sheep" by the Scarlet Letter. Now there's a chart that will take a year or two or three to stitch! But don't you just love it? Come on, Stitchers, you know you've got to stitch this! Here you have it: my little version of Spring Fever or March Madness:


I also worked on Catharine McNeal this week.

And here's a chart I ordered from Emlis a few weeks ago. You've seen Village Square Sampler, which has been re-released by Kelmscott. I also wanted Miriam Chilvers (you can see the photo here at Valley House Primitives. I'd like to say, by the way, that I aspire to own a Valley House Primitives frame for my finished works--they are exquisite). Miriam Chilvers may be released eventually by Kelmscott as well, say my sources. Emli's did have a copy of this chart--the Chili Pepper Sampler--though, so I snapped it up. I suspect this is something of a sleeper--a chart not widely distributed at this moment and which people aren't aware of and on which the photo of the project isn't very clear. But I think it will be very bright and compelling design to stitch--just a hunch.

Speaking of spring cleaning and little lambs, here's my little lamb who appears to need a bit of a shearing.
Elvis: "Not if you value your stitchy fingers!"

Happy week ahead!