Today....

I finished another TWO! Yes, siree, sir another pair of ornies bit the dust yesterday. The first found completion at lunch and is in 3 DMCs on a natural linen and the pattern is Papillon’s Serendipity Sampler part 5 without the outer border. I like it enough to want to do another in similar greens and maybe one in reds too. Hmmmm.


The second is the long-suffering Dutch motif in Carrie’s Highland Hills and DMC blanc. I think this will remain mine. I finished it during the stitch-in.



Speaking of the stitch-in, here’s the clan – That’s Judy wreathed in Mill Hill reindeer (she’s doing one for each family member):


Then there’s Allison working on a box for her Star Wars episodes:


And Jenn showing off parts of her pieced needlepoint poodle from Sew Much Fun (if you’ve never done one of their animals, you can try one in safety knowing that they do excellent stitch guides and paint their canvases very well):


And here’s my proof that I was in attendance—iced tea, scissors, and the Dutch piece….


Sad to say, today is not about stitching. Today is about cleaning my office. Wish me luck!


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Quote of the day in honor of the “big” memo I sent out to all offices this week—I’m quite sure no one trembled because I’d lay a quarter on the line that no one opened it yet:
“The sub-lords of Hell trembled. This was going to be dreadful. It might even result in a memo.” Pratchett -- Eric


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Looking forward to rewinding for viewing: Painkiller Jane and Doctor Who
The jury’s still out on (since I haven’t watched episode 1 yet): Flash Gordon
Currently reading: Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett; Simon Green’s The Man with the Golden Torc, and Stout’s Champagne for One
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Things to be thankful for (I’m stealing this brilliant idea from Michele.. thanks Pal!): Friends who call even when you’ve been MIA for too long. Thanks SandyLou! Love ya.

The Continuing Adventures of an Obsessed Fan

Obsession 1: STITCHING --
Guess what – the Westside Club is having Stitching Night again. Judy called this meeting to order. It was her birthday last week, but her present isn’t in yet so we haven’t had the party. My bet is while I’m home at mom’s next week, it will arrive. C’est la. Gift or no, we’re getting together for a night of stitching and gossip.

Yesterday I thought I’d name the evening Finishing Night and haul along the pile of ornies I have to finish, but then I just went to get them out and realized not only would some planning need to take place, but some ironing too and I’d have to clean off the kitchen table to get the mini ironing board out so not tonite. If any finishing takes place tomorrow it will be the things I already had all set to go. At least for those all I need to do is find the needles, ribbons, and sewing thread. What? You don’t believe I could possibly stitch fast enough to have a “pile” to finish. Well, hmpf:



And those shots don’t even include the one I finished Tuesday! So there!


Obsession 2: FAMILY TREE --
In other matters, I’ve become obsessed, and I do mean, thoroughly and completely obsessed with my family tree. I never was before. I kinda thought it would be nice to write down the tree as far as including the people I’d met, but beyond that I always thought it was sort of silly to go tracing back a dozen generations to people you’d never heard of. And yet, I am a historian at heart and I was sucked in hook line and sinker. I’m going to blame Grandma Rosemary for it.

That's her featured in the local paper after years of poetry and letter writing, quilts, tatting, etc. for misc. communities and people across the country.

My compulsion was created and fed by “the Powers book.” Here’s the “colorful bit of it with pics of some of my more erstwhile kin:

It’s a family history of one of my great-grandparent’s people. Then the book got a little tiring so I looked up a straggler on the web and there I went. Next thing you know, there I was staring at Charlemagne on my computer screen. Sure I need to do some double checking, but it looks like the Holy Roman Emperor is my 39th great grandfather, and I’m also the 42nd great grand daughter of Alpaide, The Concubine of Austrasia. LOL Cool, huh?

The truly hysterical thing will be giving a copy to my cousin Craig who shared the notes he took from our Grandpa with us. Those notes and personal knowledge got us about 50 people. I just hit 1400 tonight. Lol Won’t he be surprised! That’ll be cool. Now to just reconnect with my dad’s people. He wasn’t so much for talking about family – oh sure there was the traditional up hill both ways in the snow to school, eating scraps and being proud to have them, going to the hospital in a horse-drawn ambulance, but beyond that he wasn’t much of a chatter on the topic.


Obsession 3: PLANNING FOR COPPERCON --
Want to help with the continuing plans for the “cool packing” for CopperCon? Are any of you this over-excited about travel????
1. Reading – let’s see I’ll need a Pratchett on CD and the portable CD player (essential sleep accompaniment). I’ll also need such Charlaine Harris books as I have that are not yet signed. I should ask Anita (are you reading this Anita????) if she’d like her Charlaine’s signed. And I think Simon needs to go on the plane with me. That should keep me in reading lit for the weekend …. As if I won’t shop. LOL Oh, heavens, I need to make sure I have a truly up-to-date library list. I hate buying dups. Annnnnd, I need a “you’ve already got me these” books list from Lennie.

2. Stitching – I think my final (???) secret piece will need to come with me for the plane. I’ll make every night a Resuscitate the Vierlanden Night. And for stitching at panels or while enjoying the Phoenix air (can you do that the second week of September in Phoenix or is it still too hot????) I’ll bring along the Midsummer Nights Designs’ Quaker Meeting House and/or Mirabilla’s Halloween Fairy. Hmmmmm I might need a couple Christmas ornies too. I mean what would happen if there was a sudden emergency and I got stuck in an airport for a day? I’d hate to run out of things to stitch! Lol

3. Oooo. Gotta remember to pack the camera’s battery recharger! After all, I will be going to the Heard(s)! I am so terribly excited about the Heards.

4. Memo to self: Find out if there’s a powwow in town that weekend. How cool would that be? Fry bread from another state – yum!


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Quote of the day:
Next time you plan on saving my ass, tell me before I go to the store.
Mike Weston – Burn Notice

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Current Favorite Viewing: Burn Notice and Ice Road Truckers
Just bought: Harry Dresden Season 1 -- woo hooo!!!
Just finished reading: Jasper Fforde’s The Big Over Easy – loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!
Almost instantly started: Fforde’s The Fourth Bear
Just started reading (again): Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
Still reading: Simon Green’s The Man with the Golden Torc

Adventures in La La Land

Well, I did it. I booked my hotel and flights for CopperCon (www.coppercon.org). Whooooooo So, I’ll be spending a long weekend in Phoenix with Charlaine Harris and a small herd of fen. Such fun. Such glee. Practically bliss. A whole weekend of scifi and stitching interspersed with visits to the 3 Heard Museums and a general wander around Phoenix. I’m really looking forward to it. Of course between now and then I’ll be working 20 hours a day and having another cleaning/packing week at mom’s. But now I have the fun of a few week of plotting and scheming about what to pack. There are few things as fun to me as planning packing for a trip. Ok, the only fun part is planning the stitching and the reading, but still, I take my fun where I can get it. As a matter of fact, let's start now.... I think I'll take my Vierlanden (since it's long-since time I should pick it up again)-- it still only looks about like this:

and, of course, I'll *have* to bring some ornies (maybe even some of the new Lizzie Kate's).

The long weekend of cleaning last weekend was productive and yet annoying. I’m pretty pleased with what I got trashed, recycled, and/or boxed. I even found a home for my dad’s pigeon magazines. Yes, I said pigeon. We were a big pigeon family – hundreds of pigeons of all sorts of breeds in the back yard. We raced and showed them for years and years. My favs were the ice pigeons and my dad’s bronze tipplers (no pics at hand), as well as fantails:

And blue-bar show pens

Anyway, enough with my favorite feathered friends. The excitement of the weekend for me was finding a happy home for all of dad's magazines. 6-ish paper boxes of various title will be going to live in the library and collections of the World of Wings (http://www.pigeoncenter.org/index.html), a pigeon museum in Oklahoma. I can even get dad a memorial brick in their walkway. The thought still makes me grin. It's the little things that make my day.

I do have a bit of stitching to share. I completed the ornie from the train:


And I started another on the train ride back from mom's (Papillon’s Serendipity Sampler part 5):



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Currently reading: Simon Green – The Man with the Golden Torc (I love Simon Green!!!!)
Jasper Fforde – The Big Over Easy (you know, I might like this even better than The Eyre Affair)
Stout—Champagne for One – brilliant as ever

Behind again

Oh so much to cover and I'm too dang tired to do it.

First things first... I have stash. More stash I really don't need. What was I thinking? Besides not really needing these, they just prove that I'm slow. But getting them made me happy. I'm sure you understand.

The same day those goodies arrived courtesy of my buddy Judy. She apparently decided I needed a no-reason surprise so she handed me:

Now you must know what the presence of new stash does to me. I want to start everything now. That's probably why I have needles in a dozen things.

I'd love to show off some recent finishes. I have them. Honest, I do! Several. Oh, ok. I have 4. But I can't show them to you because they might be for you. So you have to trust me when I say I *have* been stitching. All I can show you though is that I made some progress on my Midsummer Night Designs "My Quaker House" It's my intent to do the house in Weeks Whitewash. All that needs doing is the filler in the house, the top motif, and the initials/date.

The only other stitching I can share is a little bit I did on the train here for another long weekend of cleaning and packing. It's the beginnings of a Christmas ornie:


Let's see, I'm way overdue on finishing the Napa adventure, but I can't for the life of me remember the name of the winery where I bought all my wine. "All" meaning 3 bottles. But sheesh it was yummy. I just had to. Trust me. It was essential. The perfect vintage of slightly sweet white. Yum. The funny bit was my sister who very intelligently thought to ask "do you have a cork screw? How about a resealer?" LOL Since the answer to #1 was "no," what do you think the answer to #2 is? :) I own both now. I haven't opened the wine though. It's still living on my office floor since it is to dang hot in my hovel for wine to be happy there.

Other than that, I also need to update you on all those quilt squares I was cutting. Here are the finished piles along with the binding strips:

The blue is the binding and highlight for the front of the quilt and the tan is for the back. Mine will look like my sister's which we picked up last time my sister was home from the ladies of my church's quilt group. The squares are from mom's V*A*S*T fabric collection. A lot of them are our old clothes or pending projects.



The inner band on the top of the quilt is hand quilted and the rest of the top is tied.

I'll leave you with this little chuckle. My sister decided she would like to take the skunk sculpture home with her so she had me rinse it off last time she was here. We were heading out at the time and while I was wrapping up the hose she put the skunk "by the door" to await our return. I turn around to face the following---

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that there is a skunk butt facing the world on our *welcome* mat!!!!