Smelling the Roses

Greetings! I just got back from a hot sticky walk. Sundays are a bad time to walk in suburbia; everyone is getting ready for the work week, and the smell of dryer sheets is in the air. Sheesh! It is an incentive to walk farther up the road where you can smell more natural things: honeysuckle; mud in the puddles left by last night's thunderstorm; and a nice, ripe deer carcass being picked apart by turkey buzzards. All the same, the walk is over, and now I can stitch!

I did more eyelets on Dorothy this week, but nothing much to look at there. I also worked on Liz Easdon, finishing the foliage on the big tree (there is another tree just like it to the right of the house), and starting the bricks and windows on the house. Love the green in the bricks!


I've always wanted to stitch this Mary Beale piece, and I picked it up for a reasonable price from an Etsy shop called the Pampered Stitcher. Thanks to Maude and Mozart, who recommended it!


So of course I started it. I'm stitching it on 40 count Lakeside buttercream using the called-for DMC colors. There are about 30 colors of thread in this smallish design! I am not planning to finish it as a wreath. I will finish it as a framed picture and either leave the center circle blank or fill it in with a monogram.


I also started Jane Tindall yesterday. I'm stitching it on 40 count Lakeside tundra, also using DMC. You may have seen my photo of Teresa's finished Jane on the In Stitches Shop blog. I took a look, took some photos, and immediately went to kit it up. I had owned the chart since it came out, but until I saw it IRL, hadn't felt compelled to stitch it.


Pink: I'm just sitting in my hay box, all by myself, because someone is stitching and has no time for me....

Happy week ahead!

Zigzag

Dorothy is zigzagging right along, as you can see. The flamestitched band is time-consuming (each straight stitch is one thread wide and four threads long), but it's a nice little break from the eyelets. So much fun, and a great way to pass the day out of the heat.


Heeeeeere's Elvis! (On the outside, looking in, while I cleaned the rabbits' tile floor. Note the chewed woodwork, by those who who have been inside, looking out.)

Happy rest of the week!

The Missing Sunday Post

It's already Wednesday! It has been hot and sticky here--temps in the 90s already--so I've been getting up early to get in my exercise. Then I come back to the house and work on my so-far fruitless job search, which feels a lot like casting pebbles into a dark well--pebbles that are not going to come flying back up with a dollar bill tied to them. I have found that stitching helps manage my anxiety; as you can see from my stitching pics, I have been extra-anxious lately, and consequently I have gotten quite a lot done. I am hoping that one day in the future, safely re-ensconsed in corporate America, I will look at the walls full of samplers I completed and fondly reminisce about the stomach-clenching angst that drove them.

Progress on Dorothy Walpole. I'm actually enjoying the eyelets, and I've started the flame-stitched band, which is swoon-worthy. And yes, Daffycat, "blefs" seems to be a word.


I reacquainted myself with Christinia Cathcart. I did it to take a break from the eyelets. Hah! These eyelets are twice as much work! Of course, it did make the work on Dorothy seem easy when I went back to it. Christinia's eyelets call for a "ray" on each of 16 threads in a 4x4 square, whereas Dorothy's call only for 8 rays in a 4x4 square.


Here's a shot of the section I've been working on. I'd like to finish to the right-hand edge this week.


And here's a shot of most of the sampler. It is really bright, although Dorothy is no slouch in the brightness department either.


Peaches: "A blefsing on the rest of your week."

Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue...

...because it's going to give me a break from these eyelets. All the same, I have completed four of the ten lollipops or "candles." Just six to go. Very time-consuming, but they're turning out well. We will not discuss the tedium of the over-one verse on 40 count.


Here's Dorothy Walpole, as far as I've stitched. Although I complain, it's going to be a stunner.


I love stitching patriotic designs in the same way that others like to stitch Christmas, and I actually manage to finish one most years. (Last year was Prairie Schooler's "July." Or wait. The year before?) I was thinking of stitching "America" or "Brave Hearts" by Little House, but then I spied this little Crown and Thistle kit on ebay called "Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue" (I think--I don't see the name on the package). It came with everything in it, but I swapped out the included 32 count fabric for a 36 count mystery linen from my stash. After all those eyelets, I'm enjoying the variegation of the WDW threads and stitching the little white stars. Of course, I've defied the instructions to stitch with one thread in most of the areas since I don't like that coverage even on 36 count, so we'll see how that goes.


Here's what the the design looks like. Out of print, I'm fairly certain.


Pink: "I'm a little white star." Yes you are, Pink!


Happy week ahead!

Eyelets

Greetings, All! I've been stitching eyelets this week! Scarlet Letter's Dorothy Walpole is full of them, and while I don't really MIND stitching them, they are time-consuming and a little tedious. I've been working industriously away on the alphabet eyelets:


And then came to the realization that this entire band is made up of eyelet stitches as well. (Fabric: Picture This Plus in Legacy 40 count, using the charted AVAS fibers).


So mid-week, to take a little break, I started "Town House Sampler" by Brenda Keyes of The Sampler Company. I'm using my favorite go-to fabric (again, PTP in Legacy, 40 count), and I did a little conversion from the DMC to silks--a combination of AVAS and NPI from my stash. I'm happy to say there are no eyelet stitches in this sampler! It's also not huge, as you can tell from my progress of not quite a week.



And here we have ten pounds of bun in a five-pound box. Just before I shot this I saw little Peaches try to squeeze herself into this box as well. There just wasn't room, so she went off to the corner to pout.

Peaches is happier now; I went out into the garden and gathered some salad for the bunnies.


Happy week ahead!

Madonna of the Trail

Greetings, all, and Happy Mother's Day to all you moms! I had occasion to go to Bethesda on Friday. I do not care for the escalator at the Bethesda Metro (although Dupont Circle is worse)--too steep. I cling to the railing on the way down, not skipping down the stairs as I see many doing (some wearing stilettos or flipflops). I walk up without fear, eyes forward, not imagining my demise, but I don't like the downward trip at all.


Right outside the Metro stop is this statue, placed by the DAR in 1929, to commemorate the mothers who ventured on the trail west. There are 12 such statues between Maryland and California, although only Maryland's faces east. Lost already? Reluctant? This statue sits right on Wisconsin Avenue, facing an Indian restaurant across the street, cars whizzing past.


I picked up and put down lots of projects in the past couple of weeks. Here is Essamplaire's Sarah Hatton McPhail. It just goes on and on, however much I stitch, but I don't begrudge a single thread, because it's really fun to work on. I added to the right-most rose and the tan alphabet at the top.


And Dorothy Walpole. Such a pretty sampler, but like the Bethesda Metro, it goes down and down and down. I can't wait to get to the large area of flowers at the bottom, and away from the eyelet-stitched alphabets.


We lost our kitty, Little Friend, two weeks ago, to a long illness. We miss her terribly. She had belonged to another family in our former neighborhood, but that family just moved away without her. She sat patiently on their step for weeks, which broke our hearts. We began feeding her and eventually moved her inside.


Little Friend must have whispered in this guy's ear on the way out. He showed up at the door the day after she died. We have been feeding him--he consumes a huge amount of food, but he's quite the scaredy cat.


Perhaps these guys look in the door and see this piece of needlework hanging in the foyer:


Here's little Peaches, waving hello, getting ready for her pedicure.
Peaches: "Heeeeellllpppppp Meeeeeeeeee!"


Happy week ahead!

Easter Greetings!

I spent some time this week on a WIP--and I also started something new: "Dorothy Walpole" by the Scarlet Letter. I'm stitching it using AVAS (it's also charted for DMC) on 40 count Picture This Plus in Legacy. I love the PTP fabrics because they're substantial and the dying results in a particularly nice mottled appearance (which you can't tell from this close-up). The alphabets are mostly done in eyelet stitch. Interestingly, the alphabets make the sampler look Scottish, but it is Irish.


Here's Dorothy's chart.


This is Catharine McNeal 1843 by Samplers Revisted. I made some good progress this week, although the over-one section has slowed me down just a bit. This is being stitched on 36 count Picture This Plus also in Legacy, I think.


I have a concern though. Normally it's my policy not to frog unless it really bugs me or causes havoc with future stitching on the design. The windows should be done in rice stitch (the two-tone is correct on the left window, but I mistakenly stitched it in regular cross). Would you frog it and restitch in the rice stitch, which I correctly did on the right-hand window? There are several more windows, all of which should be done in rice stitch. Hmmmm. It does bug me a bit....


Here we have the Easter Bunny, investigating his treat basket. "Wait. Where are my treats?"

"No treats here! I'm throwing this thing around! And maybe moving out!"

"The Easter Bunny is very unhappy today and is going to make you pay!" Don't feel sorry for the bunny: the basket itself is the treat--it's made from Timothy Hay. And later on there will be fresh dandelions for dinner for all the rabbits.


Happy week ahead from the Grumpy Bunny and all his friends!

Bats in the Belfry

Happy Sunday, all! I crossed from spring into winter somewhere during Friday's grueling 11-hour drive here. Meet my mom, who will be 80 this year. We should all be in her physical condition at that age--I watched her literally run across a parking lot. May those be my dominant genes...


I was recruited to help with a spiff-up of my parents' church. Note the pipe organ on the right (the real kind with air--not digital). There were white streaks on the pipes. What is that, I asked innocently--some sort of oxidation? The cleaning crew leader laughed and explained that the church apparently has some resident bats, and they poo as they fly.


I loaded about six stitching projects into my car and have worked on two of them. Here's the Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat (Carriage House):


And Liz Easdon (The Essamplaire):


I'm homesick and am missing my routine, my stuff, and my peeps including these guys (and Peaches too, of course). BF reports that the bunnies are having quite the party without me.


Happy week ahead!

Malasadas

Greetings, all! I've spent the day toiling in the yard and doing garden prep, so this will be short since I need a nap now! Why is it that working in the yard/garden always sounds like so much fun from the safety of one's desk, but in real life it's tedious and exhausting--and downright dangerous what with the brown recluse bite I got a few years ago.

Stitching is both safer and more satisfying. On Stitch Night last Wednesday at In Stitches I started this new design: "Roses de Mai" by Reflets de Soie.


It is charted for either Gloriana or AVAS; I'm stitching it using AVAS on 40 count Lakeside in vintage magnolia, one of my favorite Lakeside colors. And to those who wonder how many WIPs I have--well, I'm not really sure, since they're scattered around the house in various bags.


I indulged a little sweet tooth today, with a small batch of chunky peanut butter cookies (the recipe made seven cookies) from "Small-Batch Baking" by Debby Nakos. I highly recommend the book. All of the recipes make small desserts--layer cakes no bigger than an easy-bake oven cake, chocolate cream pies that fit a tart shell, a batch of brownies that yields just three treats. My cookies called for, among other things, just a bit more than 1/3 of a cup of flour, 1/3 of a cup of peanut butter, 4 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of butter and roughly half an egg. Damage containment! What I have a craving for is a malasada (sort of a Portuguese donut) from the Portuguese Bakery in Provincetown, MA, which I intend to satisfy at the end of the week with a trip to the Cape. I'd also like a stuffed quahog and a cup of quahog chowder from the Green Harbor Fish Market. Mmmmm. I'll be heading out of here on Friday and posting pictures of all the fun stuff I eat.


Speaking of which, these are my parents, swiping some "wild" beach plums from a neighbor's back yard. My father appears to be the lookout. Bad enough to steal the neighbors' beach plums, but we drove to an upscale neighborhood and parked along a beach plum hedge when we went to visit a lighthouse a couple years back. My mother got that gleam in her eye; she loves free stuff. Mother, I said sternly, we are NOT helping ourselves to their beach plums! But they aren't using them, she protested, and we could make jelly! Typical Cape back yard--sand, scrub and the occasional dead fish deposited in the marsh. Some years ago I did a photgraphic study of the various decomposing fish in the marsh and posted them on my work bulletin board.


Pink: "I don't suppose you'll be taking the bunnies." *Sigh*.


Happy week ahead.

A Woolly Story

Hi, All! I stitched away on several samplers this week, but mostly it was nuts and bolts dull stuff--borders and more borders, filling in, stitching lots of leaves and vines--not much worth looking at really. But, I did start a little something new this week:

"A Woolly Story" by Homespun Elegance. It's a sweet piece with lots of writing, but I loved the sheep and the simplicity of it.

As always, I had to fiddle with the colors and did a conversion from the recommended GAST, WDW and DMC fibers to Silk n Colors. I'm stitching it on a mystery color of 40count Lakeside from my stash.


We have a big, noisy thunderstorm moving through, so off I go to disconnect. Happy week ahead, and hopefully you can spend time with a friend.