Fall days

When we were at Cantigny two weeks ago the rose gardens were in full bloom. It was amazing.I won't be taking walks like that for a while. The final diagnosis of my hip is a hairline fracture in the top of the femur (trochanter for those in the know). I'll be using these guys for the next six weeks.So, I'm going to stitch and read and browse in my pictures. More from Cantigny--their gardens were wonderful.

At Cantigny they nurtured their mums so they formed perfect mounds.We really liked this golden plant--I think it would be great in a garden.

It is definitely fall here now. We had two days of wild winds and many of the trees are bare now. (Our dead elm lost all of it's bark and now it's shivering naked in the chilly air!

Cars

Before disaster struck, we spent a lovely autumn weekend with the car club at the homes of a collector. Homes is right--one is just for the cars!This is outside of the "real" home. I love bulging the chimney. Car's nice, too. The garages are to the right. I have to admit I don't know what most of these are. I did notice nearly all have current plates and are driven regularly.This is the inside of the swoopy car below. I believe this is a rare reproduction of an extremely rare car. It's really cool.It's an amazing place to just wander around.This the scene in the drive. The owner put little explanatory notes in the windows with stories about the cars. (He does this every year and I probably wrote about last year's event, too.) This is a Facel Vega. Rare. At least I've never seen them anywhere else.This last is me taking pix of the cars inside the second home. Yep, two cars in the living room. Lots of food in the kitchen. A room all about sailing (owns a boat, too), a room of maps, the football game was on. Fun was had by all.

Klutzy Autumn

My klutzy autumn continues. (My toe is still many shades of blue/black.) I slipped and in trying not to do the splits, tore my groin muscle. It's a bit achy but not what I'd call painful. But it appears to have destabilized my artificial hip and the last Wednesday morning something went "pop" and I couldn't move. At all. I'm up and moving again, with help. Hubby has been absolutely wonderful. That's why I was silent last week--I was at home in bed wrapped in ice. I see an orthopedic doc later this week. Preliminary x-rays look okay. We think it's just unhappy muscles and tendons, but anything with my hip pushes all of my panic buttons so I'm being careful.So, I've been busy, since sitting is about all I can do, unless I'm laying about. I made this on my mari. The paper core is not nearly as nice as the rice hulls--the needle and, more important, pins can't penetrate it. But I learned more stitching this one. Both ends are the same.I finished two more kissing pillows and have a fourth underway.Before I fell, I got this block for Deep River County Park pressed and blocked. I'm not thrilled with the green I selected, but otherwise I'm happy. I have a second one cut out but I think I need to find a different green.I had this preprinted ornament panel from Jo-Ann's so I stitched them up.This felt ornament completes the batch of eight that I cut out and began in June. I have more felt and thread but don't know if I'm up to doing more.

I worked on many other things, too, but wasn't up to getting pictures yet. Satin stitch leaves in many shades of green on an old stamped pillowcase for a garden border. I picked up the crewel needlebook that had been languishing in my pile. I designed and stitched four ornament samples for next month's class at the YMCA--I also cut out sequin waste to use to decorate them and I cut out felt shapes for backgrounds. Busy hands help the time pass.

cool stitched stuff

Before I post more photos of more cars (yep, another car show this weekend), I thought I'd post some really cool needlework. Mostly not by me. This is my sister-in-law, wearing a sweater she knit over a lacy top she knit (her show-n-tell is mostly wearable) holding a sashiko pillow by our niece. three at once.This is a runner my sister made. I adore the bright colors.Here are a couple of close ups.My sister also made this cute veggie tales quilt.
On Friday night I made this mari. Step one for a temari ball. The center is shredded paper from my office shredder. In a knee-high nylon with a run. It's bigger than I intended but I made some choices I'll make differently next time. I began with black wool, then some thinner navy wool yarn. That was fine. I topped it with random thread--mostly in peaches and greens. Very pretty on the blue wool but, hmmm, when I went to wrap the white top layer, I began to see the error of my choices. I ended up using two spools of white thread for the top layer, just to cover up all of those dark colors. I've learned.

Now I need to decide what to do with my big fat mari. I spent some time browsing in my book thinking about what I like and why I like it.

Kissing Pillows

One down...at least a few more to go...

Since I monitor outreach for the Great Lakes Region, I've been hearing about Kissing Pillows lately from other chapters. The concept began with the Yellow Rose EGA chapter in Texas and spread. My EGA chapter, Needle Artisans of Northwest Indiana (NANI), was asked to participate by a member who learned about the project through Chicago ANG (American Needlepoint Guild). The text at the bottom is from the Yellow Rose Chapter outreach page.

The offshoot project NANI is participating in plans to provide 1100 pillows for the Navy helicopter squadron of the brother of a local Chicago ANG member. The squadron will be deploying in early 2011. They use 14 count aida, three colors of floss, and about two-hours of stitching time. If you would like to participate in this project, e-mail me.

Soldier Family Pillows

In 2005, wanting to show our appreciation for the sacrifices made by military personnel, Yellow Rose members began hand-stitching small 4” X 4” patriotic pillows designed to be used as a keepsake for the children and loved ones left behind by the soldiers departing for service of the U.S. ... Each pillow is presented in a plastic bag with a note explaining the purpose of the tiny pillow and expressing our gratitude for their service. The soldier kisses the pillow and gives one to each of his/her loved ones to hold onto until he/she returns from war. When we began this project, we initially thought only about the children, but the wives and sweethearts requested them too, and then, the soldiers wanted one with everyone’s kisses on it to take with him/her off to war.

The response has been overwhelming. A very special project that we hoped would express our gratitude for the sacrifices of our servicemen and women has more than filled our expectations and has mushroomed into something that touches the hearts of everyone.

In the fall of 2006, Yellow Rose began offering the project to all Embroiderers’ Guild of America chapters. In November 2006, the project was offered to chapters of the American Needlepoint Guild. The goal was to have needlework chapters stitching for military units across the United States. ... For more information or to participate, please contact Yellow Rose.

Girlz Day Out!

And high time, too--it's been ages and ages!The day was not too cool, but not quite warm either. The morning was cloudy and we worried a bit, but decided the sun would come out after lunch. It did.We met at my sister's and sat at the kitchen table and chatted and showed and told what we've been working on and then we went to Cantigny for lunch and a garden walk. This is Le Jardin restaurant in the park.

Cantigny was the estate of Robert R. McCormick, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. It includes his home and estates. There are two musems, on about McCormick and one focusing on WWI and the First Divison (with a tank "garden"), which we did not look at this trip. We needed to be outside.

This is the view from our lunch table--this is the starting edge of the gardens.
There are a number of gardens to stroll through, including a inspiring "idea garden." I was astounded to see the rose garden still in bloom. The photo at the top of this posting is a distance shot of the rock garden.

I took several photos. I've decided to space them out and share them over the next week. It was so nice to see all of the blooming plants and colors. I know this lovely weather can't hold out forever and the trees here are already loosing their leaves. (I hope it does a bit longer--my bruised toe is much happier in open sandals than in shoes. It rarely hurts but I'm generally aware of it and it bleeds a bit in shoes.)

Temari

Over the last two months at Needle Artisans, World Embroideries has been teaching us a simple temari design. She made all the mari, we just got to do the fun stuff.This is my first side. It's what I understood from the class.For side two I decided to switch the colors. And I also decided to look through the book on Temari I have. Hmmm, the instructions looked different so I tried it. The result is very different. The stitches are exactly the same, there's only a slight change in where they are placed (inside or outside the previous row). Here's my obi. My marking thread shows through but not regularly. I wasn't sure which way to go with it (try and make it show all around or try to bury it, so I just left it.

It was really fun and I got a tad obsessive about seeing what how the next row looked. I also found it very hard on both of my hands and I ached.

But I already want to redo this using the things I've learned. She said you could use shredded paper for the center of the mari. I have lots of shredded paper....