Would it be blasphemy?

It's Monday morning -- anyone  disagree with a little rearrangement of the week?--
"... on the Seventh Day he rested.
And on the Day Following he stitched to his heart's content."

Yes, dearies, I did not want to be going to work this morning.  But the Lord did prove it was not my day to hang around stitching and whining about day-time television because as my commuter bus curved one boring corner, there was a rainbow.   Yes, a Monday morning rainbow.  I perked right up.

Remember last weekend.  No, not the one we just had, but the one before?  Well, The Country Club (aka my needlepoint stitch group) was scheduled to have Ruth Birthday Fest 2012, but everyone in the Club save me was sickly.  Gratefully, they did not share any of their germs with me, but they did make it a lovely day.  I mean check it out --

Cake AND chips.  What more could a girl want?   Ohhhh, that's right!  STASH!!!!!!!   I got that too.

They gave me the Lani canvas I had been coveting.  They would like you to know that they mostly gave it to me because they love me, but they also did it for themselves-- it hung in direct eye sight of the stitching are and they all find it creepy. Since they gave it to me they figure they don't have to look at it any more.

Also they gave me a little A'Tuin--

For the less Pratchett-y of us, that's a turtle needle magnet.

Gotta run--I have corned beef and cabbage to heat!

hugs and happy stitching!

Beatrix and birthdays

Hello World -- Guess what?   I celebrated another anniversary of my 32nd birthday yesterday.  It was a lovely day.   I had thoughts of being productive, if only in a self-indulgent way..... they did not come to pass.  I lunched with buddies.  I dined with different buddies.  Other than that the most strenuous (and stupid) thing I did was decide to go pattern hunting.

You see I deserved to go pattern hunting because.......   BEATRIX IS DONE!!!!!  DONE.  DONE.  DONE. Hee heee.

Can you believe it?  I can't.  Especially since I think it took 6-10 months for me to get passed the head of the first beaded bird in the central "token" motif.

For the record she's done in 4 shades of DMC and a Vikki Clayon overdyed silk with 3 colors of beads (from a powwow so I can't tell you what they might be in official color terms) on cream linen.  I decided to put my ladies' initials in in the varied tones already used in the sampler.  So here's mom--

and the grandmothers--

Aunts Anna Lou and Mary

and Great Aunt Kayte--

-- my apologies to Aunt Kayte --- I owe her a better picture.

All the other initials are all the 2nd 3rd, and 4th great grandmothers I know, as well as a single representative of 5th through 9th generations.

As for birthdays.... I can prove I had fun --
I went to PaleyFest-- TWICE --

and 

Jealous?

How about now?

For the Record, Castle was wonderful, but Bones was the very best Paley event I've ever attended.  Hey, Booth doesn't bring just any ole crowd donuts.

Besides public events happiness comes with family festivals--

Just imagine putting all that chocolate (which is exactly as rich and decadent as it looks) in those little people.

Aside from celebrating with chocolate-enhanced squirrels, I will be partying with a new stitching start.  Tonight begins Mouse's Spring Sampler --

Now I just have to figure out what thread to use where.   Such fun!  you know I think the new start is more exciting than a finish.  What do you think -- what makes you more energized -- starting or finishing?

Here's to you having as grand a day as I have had.

Yee haw!

Beatrix Potter is all done but the shouting... errrr... initials (and some beading)--

This little corner came in last --

I've decided to turn this into an honorarium for the ladies of my family tree so I spent one evening with my family tree software collecting initials, one evening with graph paper testing alphabets, and finally another evening putting all the initials unto my working copy of the pattern.  As it stands I'm able to get my mom, my grandmothers, my aunts, and my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 9th generation great grandmothers (well, at least the ones I have knowledge of).   Now the big question is whether the initials ought to be in one color or multiple colors -- at the moment I'm leaning to putting them in in the varied colors I've been stitching the piece with.  Thoughts?  Opinions?

And to follow up the joy of the last motif, I even finished my Tudor rose ornie--

It's on an overdyed jobelan from Wichelt called Raspberry Lite.  I did some messing about with the colors and stitches, but I'm rather pleased with it nonetheless.  One down -- 6 million ornies to go.  lol

I volunteered at the shop this weekend to mixed results.  We had a series of grumpy customers.  I'm willing to accept people's moods and confusions, but sometimes you can tell it's all a front.  We had a person come it to pick up a finished piece who started the conversation with she was "here to see" her piece and that she'd never even been called with a quote on the finishing costs.  Well, finishing for her particular type of item is pretty much always the same.  It was, of course, far too much for her, and maybe this wasn't right, and that was off, and maybe it was too dressy, or maybe it was not dressy enough.  Oh dear Lord save me from people posturing for discounts..... especially when they are wearing several large diamond rings, designers duds, and spend more having their hair done than I spend on food in a month.  

Aside from the troublesome types, I made progress on Ladies Day --

I thought I'd never finish the grey robe!  the bulk of it is Waterlilies, and there's a highlight stitch of a gunmetal Kreinik.  I do have to go back in and couch in a line around the sleeve to delineate it from the body of the robe, but that can wait until I enjoy a little purple stitching on The LAST lady!   hee  heee

I also got to check out the recently back from the finisher penguin from Sew Much Fun.  The shop's teacher did it.  I'd like to do it, but it bugs me.  Because of all the color on it's front it doesn't look very penguin-ish to me.  What do you think?

I wonder if I lightened up the bands on the stomach if it would work.  Whatcha think?

Go have yourself a beautiful day!

Happy March!

Well folks, we've made it through another leap year and into another March.  A fine month if I do say so myself.  Here's hoping your March will treat you well.

I've been cleaning.  Maybe it's Spring.  Maybe it's a fear of what might be developing sentience in the corner of Chez Hovel or under the bed.  Anyway, I wonder why it is that cleaning leads inevitably to chaos.  I worked in a pair of kitchen cabinets and on the kitchen table and somehow that spread boxes and piles and bags (and dust) throughout the hovel.  I got somewhere.  I suppose I'm satisfied with what I did, but now I have spare boxes and piles (and a certain amount of dust) in new parts of my life.  Sigh.

I didn't even get to the fun part of cleaning -- the stash sort.  Oh come on, you know you do it.  Stash accumulates where it ought not be and we all tackle it with great joy.  If you leave it grow long enough, putting it away is a bit like shopping for it all over again.  Well, it is for me.  I get that whole stash-shopping joy all over again.    Anyway, this spring cleaning thusfar has afforded me no such joy.

On thing awaiting "organizing" in the stash pile is a new acquisition of mine --

Yup.  I got a new canvas.  Hee heee.  Technically, it's not mine since I got it for a friend.  Stash that's destined to become a present isn't really stash, right?  (ahhh, rationalization -- my middle name)
Here it is with the first round of its thread pull --

The velvets are for the pig, the non-sparklies (floss, Bermalana, and Mandarin Floss) are for the bulk of the dresses, and the sparklies (Flair, Sparkel Rays, Neon Rays Plus, Fyre Werks, and Silk Lame) are for all the little decorations on the dresses.  I'm quite looking forward to getting going on this.  Do you suppose that despite its size I can complete it this year?  I'll take all good wishes... I think I'll need them.

Possibly I can also rationalize starting the farm-girls-go-to-the-festival piece by proving that I finished something --

Yup, after at least a year, my little moose ornament is done..... courtesy of my buddy, Jenn, who finished putting the slated gobelin in the moose.--- it's her own fault.  She knows I can't see the gobelin and yet she convinced me it was the "perfect" stitch.  Do you have those?  Not friends that lead you astray, but stitches that quite simply escape you?  Mine's that danged gobelin.

I've even made some progress on my Prairie Moon piece --

I'm actually kind of surprised how much I'm enjoying working on this.  It's in what I think of as Jerimiah Junction colors and I'm generally not the biggest fan of those.  And ya'll know ho w I feel about fiddly color changes--- and every blasted building and decoration is in another color in this one.

But just to show that I can't control myself even with plenty of things underway and a really cool pending new start barely cool in its shopping bag -- I've also started an xs piece called Welcome to the Nuthouse by Waxing Moon.  I have had it for years and kept getting thrown off by the threads.  It is charted for Sampler Threads and in between when the model was stitched and when I went to start it the colors had changed so much that I didn't fancy them so I was on a semi-occasional hunt for replacement colors.   Finally I've found a mix I rather like.  Sorry though, it's not even worth showing a pic since I have made it a grand total of maybe 30 stitches in so far.

To add insult to injury on the stash/startitis/need to clean front, I also recently acquired other stash too--

These canvases come with matching blown glass ornaments--- if you are calculating that means I have twice as much stuff to find a place for the the Hovel.  I plan on having great glittering fun with them nonetheless

I have to admit that the above items are from a probably 3 weeks ago.  I kept losing the pictures.  More recently I also picked up some xs I'd been eyeing --

I'd been thinking about doing something in honor of my great Aunt Kayte, and this is just perfect.  She and Uncle Leo had a white house the backyard of which was focused around a walkway lined with giant camellia trees (they seemed giant to me at the time -- I suppose they were about 7 or 8 feet tall).  I know since this is Peony Hill that they aren't camellias, but I won't tell if you won't.

ttfn-- gotta run -- but I wish you well on cleaning or stitching or whatever excitement you have planned -- go March!

Hope springs eternal.... and not so very bright

Dear readers, why is it that our stitching eyes are always bigger than our capabilities?   I mean it could just be me.  Maybe you all and logical and prudent.  In which case, here's the case for me being nuts:

Last weekend I joined my sister and brother-in-law at a lawyers conference in San Diego.  I was going to be there from Thursday night until Monday morning.  So of course I had stitching to pack. Over the course of the week before I left I started tossing stitching in a bag to come along.  By Thursday this was the collection of xs:

and the needlepoint collection stood at:

Really, Ruth?  What were you thinking?   Sure I tend to do just-in-case-of-armagddon packing --- you know, what if you suddenly have to stay an extra 2 days and you run out of stitching (and reading-- the same Ruth armageddon-packing principle applies to reading).  And besides, I'm a mood stitcher.  I have to be in the mood for a piece or a type of piece.  If I don't have something to match my mood, I wander about grumpy and disconcerted.   Anyway, there I was Thursday afternoon with 3 medium-sized needlepoints, about a dozen xs ornies, 3 medium-large xs samplers, a large over-1 piece, and a giant xs flag (completely unstarted).  Who was I kidding??????

Ultimately the stitching bag included the powwow shawl dancer and the pot of flowers needlepoints, 5 ornaments, and 2 samplers.  Oh, and the needlepoint stocking which I was delivering to my sister for her to work on --

I had put in the velvet for the hat and scarf and tested my plan for the fuzzy cap parts (namely I padded the base and covered it with a randomized application of Fancy Fur (from Rainbow Gallery)-

Want to know what I stitched?  Not a single solitary thing.  Not even a single stitch.

Apparently I was in need of the exercise of carrying my stitching bag to and from San Diego.  You would think that I would learn from this experience, but I doubt it.  After all I've been down this road before and not yet learned a thing.  Oh well.  At the very least I will always be ready for armageddon.

While I'm at it I may as well share some of the loveliness of San Diego.  The lovely view from my hotel room (God bless lawyers -- they pick some wonderful hotels)--

We (the sister and I) checked out some museums in Balboa Park)

We met some lovely paintings:

Maiurice Braun's "Southern California Landscape"

Alfred Stevens'  "The Parisian Sphinx"

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's "A River Scene with Houses and Poplars"

Well, I have to run, but I'll be back with more stitching and San Diego sharing -- after all, I haven;t shown you my fresh stash accomplishments or my collection of San Deigo orchids and fruity drinks!

Have a great rest of your day.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wish you a very happy Valentine's Day -- a day free from the general annoyanecs of life -- people who drive with their blinker on for no reason, annoying coworkers, cold coffee, inconsiderate neighbors, people who can't make up their mind at the lunch order desk, and Blogger when it keeps giving error messages.....   Yes, that last one is my personal wish.  I've been trying to post for a week now and all I get are error messages.  If this goes through, I'll be back later..... fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

***********WOW***************

A verifiable Valentine's Miracle has come amongst us.  I am honored.  {Perhaps I'm supposed to sacrifice a flash drive to the IT gods?}

Before the fickle Blogger winds blow in a contrary direction I'll do some sharing.

I've been up to much, but since I'm in the very slow class of stitchers it's not like I have all that much to show for my efforts -- let's face it, if we were talking super cars here I'd be an Edsel on blocks.

First up, Beatrix--

She actually has 1.12 more motif's done than this picture indicates.  That leave me with 1.7 motifs, a couple dozen beads in an otherwise done motif, and letters to go.   Beatrix, bless her soul, provided me with another miracle moment.  I'd been working on her for several nights alst week at Chez Hovel, and I took her along to The Country Club (aka the stitch group) to say "look I got that done last night," and when I rollwed her out n the table it suddenly dawned on me how very close to done she was.  Now I'm not actually certain I want her to be done because I have so much fun working on her!   Oh the trials and tribulations a stitcher has to face.

Now that they are received I can share some F&S accomplishments --

Those are my Red Round squares to Renee.   They are done in Bell Soie Sister Scarlett which varigated so nicely for me--

The birds I got from maybe a dozen different charts and just puzzled and puzzled until I got them to fit in a way I liked.  then I just randomized some hearts and picked words that felt right.  All in all -- a fun square experience.

I can also report progress on my Prairie Moon piece --

It too is much further along.  If I play my cards right and the sacrifice of that flash drive is acceptable to the IT gods, then mayebe tomorrow I can have a new pic of this for you.  Cross your fingers-- just not any that you need to have available to accept presents of extravagent jewelry from your Valentine!

I've also been getting in trouble... or potential trouble.   I've been playing around with kitting stuff up for new starts.  These are potentials......

.... for a sampler in memory of my grandmother.  I'm thinking of doing EMS' Rose Sampler -- that freebie series she did in 2008.  Remember it?  Anyway, while my grandmother wasn't among hte world's most warm and fuzzy people, it suddenly struck me the other day when I was fondling my fabric stash that she and Grandpa's car was the exact smokey rose color of this fabric-- and so was that horrid couch she had in the living room.  At that pont I was doomed.  Now that I have the obviously PERFECT fabric I have to do a sampler for Ms Usually Grumpy.  Ok, ok.  I'll cut her slack-- after all, it's not like I was the esiest of grand children. 

Wow... could this really work.   Might that "Update" button actually work.   Oh please, oh please, oh please...........

Is it really only Tuesday?

You know how weeks like to play with your mind?  Wel this is one of those weeks for me.  I could just swear it was Thursday, but nooooooo.   Not only is it not Thursday, but it's not even Wednesday yet.  [You should read that with a little whiney voice to simulate thevoice in my head as I type this.  I swear that if keyboards had sounds, mine today would default to .]

When not whining about how slow the week is going (please note:  we NEVER have this problem with weekends!--- must be some special physics corollary to the laws of time and space that speeds up time between Friday night and Monday morning, then slows it down Monday morning through Friday afternoon), I have made some small bits of progress.

My Prairie Moon start (aka Did-I-Really-Need-Another-WIP-in-2012 #1) has amde some small advance:

I would also like to take this opportunity to tell designers everywhere that if you feel somehow compelled to chart your latest and greatest in a thread not readily available in every corner LNS, then the Nice Thing is to give DMC/Anchor equivalents (and even nicer-- Anchor as well)/  At the very least, check to see if the Web has available some COMPLETE transfer charts for your stitchers to use.  This Prairie Moon piece is charted entirely in NPI silks.  I can find no online conversion that includes most (let alone all) of the NPI numbers.  It took the better part of an entire day to try and wrestle out a conversion working from the picture alone.  Please, designers, don't frustrate your stitchers like this.

I've also been doing a little masonry --

That there tower of gold-ish is a chimney on my Chessie and Me piece.--- oh how I love Belle Soies!  It's like stitching with air.

And, check this, my Ladies Day by Tish as been progressing too --

That overdyed grey is by Thread Gatherer in their Silk n Colors line.  The little "seam" in the middle of each diamond is going to get a smal ine of Kreinik #8 in gunmetal grey.

I keep thinking I've made it so far, but really after this lady is done, I have "Lady #4" (who is the biggest of the group), and the ground and sky behind them.  If I focus, maybe they'll be done by June. .... I'm not saying June of what year though!

Now, a cautionary tale --- look out for those parking berms --

As one of the Country Club ladies left stitching the other night the parking space stop tried to go home with her.  Literally, the rebar on one end of the berm got hooked under her bumper and brought the whole thing with her as she pulled out.  All is fine -- car, person...... don't know how the parking berm is feeling, but I don't suppose I care all that much.  Sorry parking structures everywhere.