Winter Hibernation

I seem to be hibernating this winter. I haven’t had much to say lately. I’m working on the needlepoint Santa and am just about finished with the embroidery. I’m thinking ahead to the finishing, which I plan to document and post here. I enjoy finishing and I know many people don't.

I've been browsing this book, a surprise gift from my boss. He and his wife are moving and clearing out and he noticed she had set it aside in the discard pile, grabbed it and brought it as a gift for me. Is that sweet, or what? (that he even noticed is amazing to me!)

I’ve set aside the trees where I can see them. I’m not sure about the leaf color I’ve selected for the current tree but not sure if I want to rip what I’ve done or continue on. This design requires a painted background and I’m thinking I may want to do that before deciding that the embroidery is complete. Most people did it in class but I decided to wait until I got home to try it. The painting in class was done on foamcore. I slightly changed the dimensions of my opening so the precut boards in class wouldn’t work. Plus I’m thinking about painting on thinner board or fabric covered board and using a spacer between the trees fabric and the background. Lots to think about.

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, which is not normal for me, about what I'm stitching and what I want to be stitching and why. I've been writing some of it down and hope to condense it a bit and post it. If I get it sorted. maybe.

This past weekend we visited the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University to view their exhibit "The Art of Dining on Rails (The Christopher Railroad China Collection)." It is amazing to me the variety of china patterns from the railroads, the beauty of some of them and, most of all, the varied and unusual pieces in a setting. The collection included a wide range of patterns from several railroads and from a couple of hotels serviced solely by railroads, a small collection of silver pieces (teapots, compotes, finger bowls), a large group of prints of illustrations of diesel train paint schemes, some menus and other ephemera and memorabilia, and a really sweet adjacent exhibit on the Valparaiso University "kissing bridge."

The railroad china exhibit is accompanied by a very nice booklet with notes on the different railroads whose china is exhibited and full of lovely pictures. It sounds like a really strange thing and I the exhibit wasn't on my "must-see" list but I really enjoyed it and I'm glad we went. Nothing to do with needlework but you never know what will inspire a idea or project.

A holiday gift arrived yesterday and it was a most welcome one. Tea Cosies is full of all sorts of knit tea cosy patterns, full of wonderful creative ideas. (cabled patterns, spare and modern, flower covered, pet themed, landscapes, and a few really strange concepts) The book is well worth checking out.

It came to me that a tea cosy could be an ideal swatch--it's a good size but not huge, there's often ribbing and some shaping. And I think my family has enough hats to last a few years by now (or decades, perhaps).