New travel blog

My friend Jenny is a travel writer (amongst many other things). We first met in person on a trip she made to the U.S. and, I think, Canada. Anyway, she's begun a new blog about being a part-time travel writer. It's full of intriguing insights, the ins and outs of traveling and writing about traveling, and great photos. (The pix above is copied from her blog. It's a window in Vienna.) Please swing by for a visit and say "hi!"

If you're a Louis Carroll fan, she has another blog about the author and the book she's written about him.

A couple of finished projects

I'm still spending much too much time just sitting and staring off into space, but I'm doing much better than I was and have gotten a couple more projects completed. (Now my sweetie has the cold and is miserable with it. Even then, yesterday he picked up my car from the transmission place and took it to a friend's garage to fix the suspension problem the transmission place found. Now that is definitely above and beyond!)

The first is the silk sampler from Kreinik. This had been sitting around for a number of years. It was fun to do but the silk threads kept catching on my rough fingers.

I even felt good enough to root around in the basement and find the frame for the friendship tea sampler. The chart is from Charland, I think, and was kitted with the frame by Tomorrow's Heirlooms shop in Glen Ellyn, IL. I believe the original design was to be stitched over 2, but to fit the frame, this was done over 1. I also noticed the dye lot of the Needle Necessities overdyed blue used was much lighter than that shown in the model. I think this works fine, though, and had fun stitching it.

I haven't begun anything else. I finished reading the fifth book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross. I have the sixth book, A Breath of Snow and Ash, but decided to wait to reread it until it's closer to the pub. date of the next book in the series. Reading nos. 4 and 5 had me noting references back to the earlier books so when this cold took hold, I picked up the first book in the series, Outlander (or Cross Stitch in England). It was like coming home.

It's still my favorite book in the series and I really enjoyed rereading it. Now I'm reading book 2, Dragonfly in Amber. I'm liking it better than before. This series is a very intense love story and the beginning of Dragonfly backs away from that story line a bit and I missed it. But now that I know more of the whole story, I'm really enjoying rereading this book. I must say I have my eye out for a passage I wish to avoid (a graphic description of drawing and quartering). It gave me weeks of nightmares the first time I read it and I've always skipped is since then.
These huge books are the perfect thing for reading with a cup of tea while not feeling well.

Time for a Giveaway!

Please comment on this post by Sunday, March 1st, to be entered into a drawing to receive this kit to cross stitch a "Photo Pocket." This chart has been used, by me, so I can guarantee it's a fun project. I've just realized I'm not going to make the second one.

The kit includes the chart, linen banding, floss, interfacing, and buttons needed to stitch the project. It does not include the fabric lining required for finishing.

You don't need to live in the U.S. to enter. Spread the word.

benefits of being ill?

Well, I've spent the last few days sitting on my duff, coughing, sneezing, and not doing too much else beyond contemplating why on earth I pulled out three over-one stitching projects to do now. (That's mainly because the other thing I have to be thinking about is how are we going to pay for the new transmission my car is getting right now and I just don't want to think about that.)

These were long days. I've learned you can't cough and sleep. And if you cough while trying to sleep not only are you kept awake but your very patient hubby is, too.

So I got some stitching done. I decided to first finish the plum pudding since it was closest to being done.

Then I got to work on the Ohio sampler from mom's stash. I realized quickly that I need to switch off between an over-one project and something else. The sampler went quickly and was completed in the wee hours one night. I still haven't gotten up the gumption to get it pressed, but here it is.

The pattern had an option to make it a picture or a needle roll. I don't know what mom's intention was, but I'm thinking a framed picture.

Once I finished the plum pudding, I got seriously to work on the plumeria scissors keep. It's coming along. I can't see how mom did what she managed on it. I find it tough going and finally had to add in some color to keep track of where I am with it. The white is nearly impossible to see and I don't last long when working on it. Thankfully, what mistakes I've made have been minor and the colors are so close that it doesn't show. I can see that it's going to be lovely when done. And I'm determined not to put it back in the pile.

As a balance for this, I got the silk sampler from Kreinik underway. It's going quickly (it's quite small, just over two inches across). It's just over halfway done now.

I didn't pick up the little friendship sampler over-one sampler again. For now I'm going to focus on the plumeria.

As I've been stitching these pieces, I've been contemplating what I'm doing and why. I'll be happy to have them done. And I'm pretty sure this isn't what I want to be doing (definitely not over one!). I pulled out a couple of larger projects to put on the "find-a-new-home-for" pile.

lure of the new

Why is a new project so alluring? I already have two projects actively underway now--both cross stitch--in my quest to finish things up.

Yesterday my hubby knocked over a basket where over the years I've tucked various odds and ends. As I was putting things back (cards, letters, some small purse frames, a piece of Japanese fabric, a green gingham check dishtowel and pot holder embroidered with strawberries that I don't remember putting there.

There was a narrow tin with a couple of small embroidery projects inside. There was a cross-stitch gift tag of a plum pudding. The holly is about 1/4 complete--but it's over one and so got set aside. I set it aside yesterday, too.

There was also a unstarted kit for a small friendship sampler. I have the too-cute frame for this somewhere in the basement stash. It's also over one but I was compelled to begin it. Mostly, I think I wanted to do the mindless overcasting of the outer edge and basting of the center lines. Once that was done I stitched one over-one letter and decided that was plenty 'nuff. So now I have three "over one" projects underway. Perhaps I should get them all done and finished and remember that I'm really not fond of cross stitch over one.

I went back to the basket and found a booklet, a roll of linen, and silk threads from Kreinik. This project is at the end of the booklet. Before I could even think about it I was cutting the linen to size and overcasting the edges. Then I spent a very pleasant hour basting center lines, top and right margins and counting threads. (It made me realize how much I enjoy this kind of thing and that I should probably find some hemstitching project to take up. I haven't done that in a while and I really like it.)

I didn't take an actual stitch in the project itself, but I really found all of this preparatory work quite soothing and pleasant. Perhaps that's why I start many more projects than I complete.

I can remember that I got this project because I liked the design. At a distance it has a nice Art Nouveau or perhaps Arts & Crafts feel to it. I also was looking forward to experimenting with the Kreinik silks (which were new when I got this). The booklet shows it framed in a mirror. I really like the way it looks, not that I have any purpose for such a mirror or even place to put it.

Now I need to find stretcher bars for it before I can begin stitching.

I didn't purchase anything new for these projects (part of my goal) but there was no logical reason to begin two new projects right now. But, I guess, there was also no logical reason not to.

post-Valentine's cold

The strings of Valentine's hearts were a great hit. The sparkled and twirled in the morning light at our bedroom door. Such a simple thing, but it was great fun. My pleasure was not diminished by having loads of time to spend looking at them. I came home from work Friday night coughing with what has become a nasty chest cold. I stepped off of the merry-go-round and spent some extra time in bed having very interesting fever dreams.


So the weekend was a wasteland insofar as embroidery went. I stitched a very little bit on mom's plumeria fob. Trying to stitch over one on fine linen with a cold is just plain silly, so of course I gave it a go. I didn't last long at it. I made a little more headway on mom's Ohio sampler. But still not much.

Since I was spending so much time in the bedroom, I decided to take some pix there. It's a small room. This is my corner, with my Glinda pillowcase. The lion lamp with the frilly pink shade came from Steve's grandpa. I can remember when he painted it. My dad made the bookcase. (We have another small one that Steve's dad made on the other side of the room.)

The samplers are two that Steve got me as gifts, quite a while ago now. The small painting is actually encaustic. It's very impressionistic. It replaces a 1960s car advertising photo. (I like this better for the bedroom.) The portrait of the astronaut chimp is our newest addition. This wall changes fairly often, except for the sampler.

This last photo is the top of Steve's dresser. (Mine's the white one next to it.) I love his collection of odds and ends. The clock may work (I don't know) but we don't have it running. The ticking would keep us both awake, I'm sure.

Thanks to everyone who made comments on the Trees post. I think it's quite hard to judge one's own work--of any kind. I really appreciate the feedback--thanks for taking the time.

More Trees

Well, I wasn't going to post the trees again until I had it framed but when I ordered the frame from Jo-Ann's (just the frame and mat, mind you--I'll frame the embroidery myself), they said it would likely take two weeks.

I don't have that much patience. So, here it is again, this time with the background painting in place.

This is about how the mat will hit on it, just covering the edges of the drawn threads on the sides.

Posting it here has a couple of benefits for me. Seeing it here gives me a different perspective on the piece. The background comes out more in the image than I see in the actual piece. That's probably more real--when I'm looking at it, I'm focusing on the embroidery.

And, second, I hope to get from feedback on it.

Perhaps I need to add a bit more foreground to the right side. It looks a but lopsided to me but perhaps that's just me.

I'm not sure about that background. I tried to do a couple of things with it. First, I wanted an effect of some sun coming through the trees. But still making it clear that this is background and therefore more subtly colored than foreground.

Second, I, hmmm, well, painted seems an overrated word for what I did. But I did use paint. I painted in a couple of brown blobs that are supposed to be deer. I'm not sure they "work" at all.

Now adding more stitching now is possible (not simple, but possible). Adding a new or different background painting is a matter of painting one. This one is just held in place by Scotch tape right now.

So, whaddya think? Does it work? Or not?