Vacation stitching and then some

So, I promised to give an update on what I accomplished on my AZ vacation. 

I want to give this to my Dad ASAP.  He contracted a staph blood infection this winter and is back home after a couple weeks in the hospital and another 4 in a rehab. facility.  He is blessed to be alive at 87 years old.  He is very proud of his military service and so am I.  I've often thought what could I stitch for him and when I saw this on Paulette's blog, PLUM STREET SAMPLERS, as a freebie I knew this was it. I matched the red to a poppy from Veteran's Day.  The poppy will be included in the framing.  Can't wait to see it framed.

                                                            Picture this plus Dubloon 32 ct. linen

NPI silks

At one of Tiara's stitch-ins, one of the ladies had completed this 3 part sampler, Margaret Cottam.  I absolutely fell in love with it.  Why do we start something new when we have so many beautiful things already started?  Well, BAP Turquoise Sampler is on a frame and much too large to pack in a suitcase and since this was brand new in my hot little hands, it had to come with me. The colors, as usual, are not showing up well.  The linen is about 2 shades darker.  It's 36 ct. confederate gray, which I don't understand the name since I see very little gray in the color, but what do I know.

An interesting fact about this sampler. Part 1 starts at the bottom of the sampler.  I have never started a sampler at the bottom but it is the cutest part of the sampler.  Course, you wouldn't know from what I've accomplished but you'll see.  The threads came with the first part and are WDW using one thread over two.

Another interesting thing about this graph, is a little extra addition.  Maggie's Color Key.  At first I didn't know what was meant by that but if you look closely, the symbols are stitched in their color floss.  OH!  I want to do that!  I found a scrap piece of linen at the ATTIC that was almost dead on color-wise of the linen and in a larger count.  Snatched it up and when I got back to the hotel, spent the evening stitching it up.  At first, I thought I would make it into a pin cushion like the instructions suggested but when I got it home, I knew it had to be a floss tag.  It would be right with my flosses every step of the way.  So, I made it last night.

the back.

I have missed stitching on 'I Sigh Not for Beauty'.  She was put down last April when we got Buddy.  Buddy is now a pretty good stitching companion.  He is much more patient and able to doze in his LLBean doggy bed for longer stretches of time.  Now when he comes over and puts his paws on my leg, I agree that he's been a very good and patient dog and we will go outside for a while. 

I digress.  I took Beauty with me and finished the third line of the verse and a little more.

Yesterday, I finished the last line and the cute little flowers on right hand side.  I also organized all my SAL notes from last year for her and will try to get her done this year.  I think it's doable and as many people have said, she is a really fun stitch. (Glad the over one part is done though - yeah I know, there's more, but we'll think about that later)

I am so sorry about the wrinkles.  I refused to fire up the iron in the hotel.  That would have been just wrong. No excuse for home, just didn't want to take the time.

Today, I knew I had to do at least a little on my BAP.  She is coming along so nicely.  I did find a source for the Kreinik Milk Paint silks - whew.  I realized the problem with not having enough.  The little skeins were half skeins - WHAT!  What a panic I was in.  I didn't even know if they still made them.  Did the old Google search and found them at Waste Knot Needlepoint :: Threads. Lucky me. Finished my four sided alphabet, the line underneath and started the whatcha-ma-call-its.  When I started on blue, I discovered my very first one on the left is one stitch too long.  Will be ripping tomorrow.

Hope you like my small stitches.

Marsha

Sunny? Arizona

My DH had a work conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.  I look forward to this trip for months.  Warm weather. Pool time. Sunshine.  Yeah, not so much this year.  Our first full day was rainy and COLD. 42 degrees cold. I am so glad I threw a fleece into my suitcase at the last minute.  Here's the view from our room as one of the storms blew through.  This storm system dumped 2 - 4 feet of snow in the mountains.  I rethought my vacation days and ended up having a great relaxing time off.

My favorite store is closed on Mondays so I made do with a trip to the Desert Botanical Gardens. I am so glad I went and explored for the day.  The desert is blooming.

 A butterfly show was going on so I had to visit.  Not many were fluttering because of the wind, rain and cold but I got some good photos. 

Love the stark white on deep purple.

Dale Chihuly had a glass show a few years ago at the botanical gardens and gifted them with these 3 glass towers.  If you ever get a chance to see one of his shows, go.  These are at the entrance to the gardens.

This is called a pink fairy duster.  It was one of my favorites.  Love the name.

Love that contrast sharp sharp needles soft pretty flower.

This mountain intrigued me.  The picture doesn't do it justice. Big and red with lots of rounded cave-like indentations. So cool.

Sunday, the day before, while the storms came through I amused myself for hours at a HUGE quilt store Quiltz.  I thought I was done going through one part and it would open up in another whole store front. I behaved and kept my buys mainly to fat quarters. The sale of the month (March) was 15% off any fabric with green. Didn't matter how small an amount of green - it counted!

I love purses and have made a few so, this is next on the list.  Pretty fabrics.

Tuesday arrived.  Got my rental car keys with never-lost fired up and drove to....

The Nashville Market items had a room all to themselves.  I apologize for no inside pics but I wanted to do serious shopping with no hindrances.  And I did.  Three hours worth.  It was heaven.

JBW makes the most delightful patterns and once I saw this, had to have it.  Love bags.

I had a small list that I thought I wanted to purchase.  Rethought the whole process, and got something all together different.  Butterflies, birds and flowers.  And luscious colors.  Chantilly Cream linen.  Can't wait to stitch.

A few of the colors were out of stock so the very helpful staff helped me pick substitutions. 

Attic Addicts receive a special every month.  March's special was 15% off Belle Soie silks.  Made the easy decision to join and almost made my $$ back.  Embarrassing.  Not really.  It's a wonderful trip and next year the conference is in Florida not AZ.  Not sure I'll ever get a chance to come back. 

I saw this on The Scarlett House blog and had a so so feeling about it.  Seeing it stitched in person was a no brainer. Must be the turquoise.  The linen is vintage exampler.

I've been wanting to try a good hardwood hoop instead of a q-snap.  I did start to wrap the inner hoop with the twill but realized I did not have the correct needle and thread to finish it off.  I tried it briefly and it is so easy to hold and lightweight.  I think I am going to like it.

Next time I will show you what I got accomplished stitch-wise in the evenings while I was on vacation.  Haven't had time to stitch since then and I'm itching to get going again.

Marsha

Hari-Kuyo Needlebook finish

If you've never visited Plays With Needles, you should get yourself a cup of coffee or tea and go visit a while.  Her stitching is amazing and so inspirational.  A couple of weeks ago she offered an e-course to make a needle book and I jumped at the chance. I'm so glad I did.  I thought it might be over my head but she takes you through step by step with excellent video presentations and written instructions. I finished my book last night and I'm pretty happy with it.

This the front cover tied closed with cute flowers on the ends.

Here is the inside.  She suggested hand stitching the pocket in at the very end and I should have listened but I jumped ahead and machine sewed the pocket in. As you can see, I misjudged where that pocket should be. Not going to change it now!

Pay no attention to loose threads.  The reason I moved the pocket over too far was because the felt on the inside back cover was too close to the edge.  Sigh.  Too bad so sad.  It's still pretty.

View from the top.

A little trimming is needed.

And the back. 

This was a fun project in very manageable steps. 

I will post pictures this week of my trip to Arizona.  Yep, I was on vacation for almost a week.  It was very enjoyable.

Marsha

Hail St. Patty's Day!

Since the weather has been so weird, I just had to add my 2 cents.  It was bright and sunny out yesterday morning.  I've been busy cleaning out flower beds around the house which is a lot of hard work and discouraging since I didn't do it at all last year.  Lesson learned.  The weeds WILL take over.  I can't decide between thistle, clover or wild strawberry which I hate the most.  Dandelions are up there too, but at least they come out.  Anyway, I was computing and giving myself the morning off from weeding and kept hearing a strange rumbling noise every so often.  Light bulb finally clicked on (have I told you before I am NOT a morning person) why it's thunder.  It gradually grew darker outside and while I was in the basement I heard some loud noise.  What the heck is that now?  I run upstairs and here is what I see.

HAIL!



That is hail under the tree not blossoms.

As quickly as it was there it melted.  What a doozy of a storm.

I was delighted to find a Saint Patty's day gift in the mailbox from my secret stitcher.  My card has lots of sparkly glitter.  A new pair of holiday socks - so nice and soft.  3 new skeins of green floss.  Yummy colors.  Thank you so much secret stitcher.  I love everything!

Marsha

  Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is starting another giveaway for 5 BIG skeins of their flosses for 5 people.  Get on over there and get yourself commenting so you can win. Lucious new colors.  Sadly, I did not win any of their giant giveaway prizes but I am happy for those that did win.  Very generous and many prizes were gifted.  Love their stuff.

I was wondering around JoAnn fabrics a couple weeks ago and found this cute clock on sale.  I love buttons and like a nice big clock in a room I spend lots of time in so, I snatched it up.  It's now hanging in my sewing/craft room.

I received my package from the Girl Clubs | Country Sampler. 




The Prim Sisters Club's first package arrived. Pineberry Lane designed the first package.

They have room for two more people. So if this looks like your cup of tea, get on over and join up.

Thanks for all the sweet comments about Buddy. 

Marsha

Busy Buddy

So, I worked this past weekend and Mon..  I work second shift so I'm up extra late and then Mon. and Tues. morning I drive over to DD's and get my grandson on the bus so she can leave for work by 7 am.  By Tues. morning I am a zombie. Today I got an early phone call releasing me from bus duty.  Back to bed but I'm still tired.  So, how do I entertain a year old Buddy, who doesn't know he should be calm, cool and collected?  I go to the bag of new toys and choose one that I think should entertain him for at least an hour before he shreds it.  His special delight.  And I can veg. on the couch catching up on email etc.

I throw it to him and he brings it back. Maybe 10 times. He's quiet.  I'm happy.  10 min. later.  This is the scene:

He's done with it.  10 minutes?  Really?  I have a couple more hours until I'll feel up to speed.  Back to the toy bag.  These look indestructible to me.  But what do I know about a determined Cavalier.  Toy number 2!  Here he is after maybe 5 throws. 

Here Mom.  Don't you want to chew it too?

See what a good boy I am?  It's not your shoe laces!

It's fun to lay in the sun.  I'm almost done.

That was great!

Can we go outside now and play with my biggest obsession?

Marsha

Hari-Kuyo Needlebook

I have to get business over with first.  I have made my blog a word certification free zone.  I can't tell you how frustrating it is to want to comment on someones beautiful stitching and then spend 5 minutes entering crazy letters that I can barely figure out only to find out that, yes indeed, I did enter the wrong letters and now here's a new set to piss you off even more.  I usually give up - my time's too valuable.  If I'm blogging and reading blogs that means I'm not stitching. Sooo, if I hate it so much why should I make you suffer through the same frustration.  There, I feel better now and I hope you do too.

Have you seen my side bar with the Hari-Kuyo badge?  I enrolled in my first e-course and it's been great.  The Japanese have a wonderful ceremony every February 8th for their broken needles that have served them well the previous year. They honor them and then bury them.  I loved Sue's of Plays With Needles needle book and when she offered a course to make one I jumped at the chance.  I didn't have enough time to pick my own fabrics so I went with her kit.

Here are most of my supplies with everything pressed and ready to go.

I started lesson two with the making of the front cover flower.  I'm still thinking of adding some beads but I did suck it up and make my french knots.  A couple are wonky but I'm not going to fuss about them.

I haven't embroidered or used silk ribbons in many years so I was pretty pleased how it turned out.  It was fun to embroider again.

This is lesson 3 all completed.  All french knots came out great.  Stitching over tissue was new to me.  That was how the lettering was completed.  Still thinking about a couple of beads.  My peeps know how much I like sparkle so I think before I start lesson 4 a few will have to be added.  This is the inside of the back cover.  Our next lesson will be the start of stitching the book together.

I have lots of other things to share but I thought I would keep this separate and do a different blog post later.

Marsha