Tuesday, February 09, 2010

......................... Lookie what I did

First off-- the belt is here! Yahooooo But I am lame! Boooooo. I neglected to get a picture of it. Tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow... unless of course my county washes away overnight..... which could happen.

But, in other news -- the stocking is done-ish -- the stocking is done-ish!
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All I need is a couple more nights of take-away stitching and I'm done! Woo hooooooo
{for all you non-needlepointers, take-away rows are the rows of stitching you have to do around the outer edges of a piece so that the finisher has something to sew into or mat to. They always come last and always seem to take for bloody ever.... and they are so annoying because you get all excited about being done and then you get that big "but....... now I have to do the take-away rows" sigh.
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I'm loving the stitch for the name section and I can at least live with what I made up for the upper cuff.
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Now I need to finish those rows and get backing fabric ready. tee heee! I'm so excited!

In my exuberance [since I didn't feel like take-away stitching] I hauled out another old friend and made GREAT progress:
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What? You can't see my oodles of stitching?
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I did the eye in the rocking horse. lol Hey, it was 2am. I needed to go to bed.

Then last night, also in honor of the stocking accomplishment, I hauled out another UFO --
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I got all of the central chest put in and the head and neck bands --
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Oh, and also a little of the bordering color --
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Exciting, isn't it?

Today I even hauled out another languishing piece --
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my Quaker a la Six Mains, and I got a whole quarter inch of peacock put in!.... That tells you more about how short my lunch was rather than how slow I stitch --
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Ok, I've been sooo bad. I owe many DC scenes, so let me start with one of my adventures this time. In between my last trip and this one I discovered a famous American sculptor in our family tree, one Hiram Powers. So I did a little Hiram Hunt while in the city. Here are some examples of Hiram's work --
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Oh, to have that much talent!

Ok, I can't resist, one recent funny. I'm at my LNS and a frequent customer asks worriedly if we have more than one piece working at a time. We laugh and say of course. She says oh so you have 2. We say no, we have many. I explain that just the night before I had started a stitching book based on one a fellow shop maven uses. She makes a page for each piece as she starts it and notes the threads she gets for it, the ideas for stitches, and what she eventually has it finished with. I think this is pretty handy so I start one by making a list of everything I can find that I have started. So I explain this to the lady who is worried about having too many projects, and a little while later when I'm helping another customer she asks if she can look at my book. Sure. No problem. Well, as I keep helping people she occasionally calls out a question, and I one point I hear another shop regular explaining to her that she can make up her own words. I eventually finish the covey of customers to find that my little lady is ... are you ready... copying down MY to-do list. lol Honest! She eventually left and everyone in the shop is laughing and wondering if she wrote down my list of stuff to do, does this mean she is going to finish everything for me? Now what I really want to know if I put my list of household chores in there, will she do them for me?

11 comments:

Unknown said...

LOVE Tom's stocking. I have a needlepoint stocking from 199x. My mother-in-law even bought me all the threads to finish it. Someday. You are brave to do these. After I finish my UFO needlepoints, I'll probably start some Melissa Shirley Halloweentown standups. They are small. LOL.

Karen said...

great stocking!! you go girl! Do you think if i send my list of cross stitch wip's/ufo's to your customer she would finish them for me too?! LOL i only have approx 65 of them (well maybe more now that i have started some new ones). LOL

Cindy's Stitching said...

The stocking is beautiful Tom will love it. the other pieces are very nice.

mainely stitching said...

Yay for your done-ish-ness! Looks great!

Mylene said...

Tom's stocking looks Great!! Congrats on finishing it.

Cyn said...

Hi Ruth,

Love Tom's stocking and what you did on the cuff. Great job and just beautiful!

I know what you mean about the edging. Needs to be done but takes forever. I've started trying, and I do mean trying as I don't always remember, to do a little bit at that at a time while I'm working the main design. I usually have Good Intentions and often remember but not always. :-)

Progress is progress so at least you are working on the other three pieces which I enjoyed seeing.

Thanks for the DC pictures. He's really in your family? Cool!

I'm laughing at the shop customer. I wonder what she was thinking? Or did she want an example of how to do a book and wrote down what you wrote so she knew how to setup her book?

I also keep a book or I also write notes on an index card. This way I have the information for when I write up my journal entries. Great minds think alike. LOL!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Cindy said...

LOL :) I have way too many projects started!

Great stocking finish! I am pretty much a newbie when it comes to needlepoint. I had no clue about the take-away rows. I would love to know more about that, since I have a few pieces that I have stitched but not had finished yet.

Shelleen said...

I love the stocking that you finished and the other one you are doing. A lady actually wrote down your list? Maybe it was just an idea for her to use as an example or maybe she is writing a book about you. :-)

Siobhán said...

ROFLOL about the LNS gal!! That is cute. Maybe she was taking note of the list so that she could refer to it later and say "okay, I have two projects started, but let me look at the list that chick has so I don't feel so bad...". ;) That is too funny.

GREAT job on Tom's stocking! Woo hoo! Love your other WIPs, too.

Dani - tkdchick said...

Congrats on getting Tom's stocking finished, it looks fantastic!

You captured those sculptures so beautifully I love the different angles

Brigitte said...

Congratulations on the stocking finish. Your WIPs look all great - so I can understand why the little lady was copying your list, lol.