Is it just me?

Hello all.

I just noticed something about me and my stitching. I simply *have* to have the needle/thread on top of the fabric when I end a session of stitching.
e.g.--








See! Always with the strings streaking across the piece. The only time I don't have them is when I've finished a thread and it's so far passed my bedtime that I don't bother to get another started.

Now, I hear ya-- what's another quirk in my basket of insanity really going to cost me? Welllllllll, the corollary to Always Having the Needle on Top is Always Wanting to See Just One More Stitch. Sigh. See? I'm doomed.

I'd ask again why I wasn't born independently wealthy so I could stitch all day, but then I start to worry that if I was filthy rich, I'd think stitching was something I had "people" for. Vicious frickin circle.

Ultimately, the question of the day is: Do you have needle parking compulsions?

Happy stitching to all -- no matter where your needle ends up.

P.S. Siobahn--- I promise not to shuffle out of any shrubs and gnaw on The Fluffinator's ankles. lol

Jo -- LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the "hole in road" lol

Finishes, progress, and life as a badger (and life in Hollywood)

Hello and a happy day unto you and yours. Why, yes, I am excessively perky. No real reason. I just am. It's a nice feeling to move from grousy and obstreperous to smile-y and perky. Don't worry; I'm sure it won't last.

For now, the sun is shinging, the breezes are blowing, and hte flowers (that I'm not allergic to) are in bloom --


Ok, loosing the perky fast. They are filming some show just downstairs of my office windows, and these apparently are not sound-blocking windows. Every 10 minutes the whole floor gets treated to squeeling tires. You know, the kind f squeeling that is usually followed by "CRASH" and the "whir-whir-whir" of a hubcap making its way down the street sans car. I don't suppose it's nearly as annoying to us as it is to all the people trying to drive in this very busy downtown section. Hmmm, maybe it's The Closer or some other somebody-got-murdered show which I actually watch. I'll see my building and the crosswalk leading the the best sandwiches in town on TV -- how cool. It's not like it's unusual for that to happen when you live in a film mecca -- once Monk wandered down an alley near Chez Hovel (he was an awfully long way from SF), campus was always in stuff, and just this season The Closer filmed scenes about 10 houses down from my friend's place. Ok, I admit, it's kinda cool to see your neighborhood on TV. (For the record, the camera only puts 10 pounds on people -- it doesn't work on landscaping -- just in case you thought it might make your azaleas look fluffier. That would be nice though.)

Anyway, I can report some progress. Actually let's start with the BIG news--- I FINISHED something!!!! Yes, you read that right. Little Miss Start-Something-New actually put the last stitches in a piece! Why, yes, I'm rather proud.

Ok, I don't care that it's a paltry little 4-5-inch ornament. It's done, right? A done project is a DONE project. I get credit. Sure it took me something liek 2 years, but I got bored. You go alternating basketweave in black Neon Rays on black and see how interested you stay in a piece. Currently it's off to the finishers to be flat backed and corded. Woo hooo! One Christmas present done!

My "big" finish spurred me on to other accomplishments.....
BBD Summer has made it to here--

Ok, so I only put in enough stitches to know I liked the 2nd new color I picked for the bird. So sue me.
BBD America has gotten to here --

Even the needlepoint sand dollar made a reappearance and after two nights work with three needles in process at once (memo to self: never pick a stitch no matter how cool that requires you keep three different threads in action at all times.)--


And you know what, there's even more to show, but you'll have to wait for the pics. Sorry.

I do have to leave you with my personal vote for news of the week -- Might be news of the year here:
From Monday's Clovis News Journal -- Officers Remove Badger From Outside 21st Street Restaurant
Honest, it's a good laugh. For the record, I'd be pissy too if you relocated me next to a dump.

Hmmm, maybe I need to start a badger-themed news feed.

Up to no good.. of course

Hi there. My name's Ruth and I'm a startaholic. Need proof (really, if you've been here before you shouldn't lol)

My latest in-the-door aquistion is freshly under needles.....
I "finalized" the color selection on my Tree of Stitches (designed by Abi of the yahoo group, Stitch Specialists, and she's marvelous. You've probably seen a number of these trees sprinkled around blogland. I think I personally may create a small grove of them because I want to do them in all sorts of colors.). I narrowed it from this:

to this:

And I started stitching.......

The color adjustments started with the purple. I decided it needed something to set the corners of the rice stitch off, so they became Kreinik braid in a matching purple. (At the same time two other Krienik braids had to join other pending parts of the tree --- you wouldn't want it to be unbalanced would you?)

I've even made more progress on my BBD Summer --

Actually last night I made it over to the dove and got that started. Of course when I got to him I had to change color from the Belle Soie I'd picked. Sigh. Can't I leave well enough alone?

Two new starts. That should be enough for a person, right? Oh noooooo. I've joined Pumpkin Patch & Co.'s breast cancer fundraising/ornament stitching blog. It's a community of us obsessive stitching bloggers working on donations for The Attic's annual ornament silent auction. A great cause! No doubt about it -- but also a thinly-veiled excuse to START some new stitching. hee heee Ornament patterns, here I come. Come on, you know you want to do it! Stitch and happily tell your family and friends that you *had* to start a new piece because it's for breast cancer research!

Should I seek counseling about my startitis? Should I be cured? Do I really *need* to be cured? I doubt I *want* to be cured, but...

I guess, ultimately, the real question of the day is why can't I ever catch FINISHitis??????

The Good, the bad, and me

Why do I make plans? I was going to have a peaceful and accomplishful day. I had a list of things to do. It was going to clean my desk and do some advanced Excel training. Instead I got a weird series of specialty projects including two that are still pending further input. I should have stayed home and stitched.

The Postman did his job, and delivered unto Elaine my Round 25 Fair and Square offerings:

I did a swan for Ireland (Elaine) and a squirrel for my college campus (where the squirrels will steal any food regardless of its appropriateness or the owner's vigilence). I was stitching Elaine's while I was at Discworld, and I liked how they turned out enough to do this:

My second square however is in honor of Discworld convention -- the quote (If you take thee top off, there's biscuits inside") is Sir Terry on what he thought of the Wisconsin statehouse. By the way, he's right; it looks like a cookie jar.

Now you know since it involved me, there had to be a saga with F&S 25, right? Poor Elaine. Her very first round and she gets stuck with El Idioto. I didn't check the assignment email below Elaine's address. Hence, I did not notice that *MY* address was wrong. The Post Office very kindly sent it back to her so she had to mail it twice.

Claiming to be celebrating this fine F&S accomplishment, but really I'd have done it anyway so why bother with the justification, I've begun the starting process for another new project --
The Stitch Specialists' Tree of Stitches:

That's the designated fabric (a baby blue lugana which I really wish were jobelan--- I might have to do more scouring of Chez Hovel this evening to see if I can scare up more fabric) and attempt 57.4 of the floss pull. I think I need something like 16 colors. Yes, Virginia, I do believe there's more than 16 colors there. Narrowing will be tonite's job.... and boy am I looking forward to it! No more urban agriculture questions, or requests for the economic impact of marinas in the Caribbean, or frantic calls that begin "I heard about this article......"

Happy stitching to all and to all a good weekend!

I should have just joined the Crazy January Challenge

Yes, dear friends, I started something new. Annnnnd not only did I start another project, but I *ordered* the project just to start it. Did I think I lacked for potential projects??!!??! Sheesh

Here it is -- BBD's Summer with the fabric it apparently called for

I couldn't control myself. I had to have it. And I loved the fabric the model was stitched on so I had to order that as well. But do you see the problem, fair stitcher? The pictured fabric and the ordered fabric aren't even close. Ok, I get it, "hand dyed," but can't we at least get it remotely close?

Never fear! I strolled through the vat of fabric under the bed (and on the floor by the TV, and on top of the boxes of threads and misc stuff) and settled on a 28-count RR Creme Brulee. Then we had to contemplate threads... (mind you this is one day after it's arrived in the mail.... only 24 hours of restraint!). Let's face it, the Belle Soies called to me far louder than the Sampler Threads. So off I went a-foraging and came up with this:

I have to admit I wasn't happy with that bright green near the middle, but I was too lazy that night to go scouting for the other bags of silks. So off I sailed. The pic above shows Night 1's accomplishment.
By Night 3 I'd not only made good progress but also pulled some different greens--

I'm a little further along now and owe you a new picture, but that will have to wait for another day. Trust me, I'm loving this. I have other stuff that needs accomplishing and I'll miss this like all heck when I need to put it down--- it's hard enough to go to bed as it is!.... just one more stitch..... you know the drill.

By now I must have started nearly the full 15 new things required for the January Crazy Challenge. I might as well have joined it! I guess the benefit of starting them slowly throughout the year is that the UFO list doesn't get overwhelmed all at once. ..... like I need help with that. hmpf

And what about the ornament challenge that I *did* join? At this point I deserve to be asking "what's an ornament?" Yes, dear ones, it is that bad. Apparently I need to discover the folds in time that would allow me 9-12 hours of work time, 8-10 hours of stitching time, and 12-14 hours of misc stuff time per day. When I find it, I'll let you all kow how to get there.

I want a vacation again... now

Yes, I know I just got back from a vacation. But last night I was sitting around Chez Hovel realizing that across town my friend Jenn was packing for a conference-vacation, and I got all pouty because I want one too. And I want it now.

Sigh. Maybe I just need to bask in some former glory....

There he is, The Man Himself, Sir Terry Pratchett -- with his assitant, Rob meeting an upscale C.M.O.T. Dibbler with a lovely tray of sausages in buns. (For those of you versed in these things, they were prime Dibbler sausages -- made out of stucco I think) This was at one of the signings -- you got a signed bookplate and Sir Terry would stamp your con passport. It's a thing. Actually, it's a thing I should take pictures of. Hmmm.

The line for the signing was entertaining as well --

Yup-- the Death of Rats and probably Tiffany given that she's clutching a feegle.

Even the halls were festively entertaining --

Detritus posed for pictures with my bear, Missy.

And posters abounded -- this one from the Sunshine Santuary for Dragons.

Not only did I fictionally (is it still fiction if there are actual Deaths of Rats and feegles roaming the halls?) entertain myself, but I also started a new project --


That's the beginning of America by BBD. I've changed a number of the colors called for because when I pulled the collection they looked nothing like the colors in the picture. In this case I rally love this piece as pictured so I had to go color hunting. I think it has worked out for hte best. We'll just have to wait and see. Mind you, Since the plane ride to Wisconsin, I haven't worked on this at all. So much for the exhuberance of a new start.

You'll know if you watch the sidebar here that I've actually had a lot of new starts -- Not only have I recently started 3 surprises (sorry no pics), but I've even finished one. I also started and finished Round 25 of F&S for Elaine. Of course I can't show you that but I can show the floss toss --

I can say that the squares were fun to stich up until I was an idiot and had to pull out a bunch of over-1. That was a whiney, 3-day process. It could have been accomplished in a day, but I did mention the whining, right? I think what made it really annoying was that before I put in that particular over-1 part in I thought that the thread might not be dark enough for over-1ing. Then when I got part way through the stitching and thought that the thread was really too light to show. Did I stop at either point, hop over to the Belle Soie bag and pull out a darker color? Nooooo. I fished stitching, carefully ran the tail under in a couple directions so it wouldn't get loose, and then sat back waiting to be proud. I wasn't. It was too light. Drat frell drat. Why can't I think when in the grips of stitching?

Other than the things I can't show you, I did make progress on while away on some things you can see. For one, Rose City Stitchers--

I was enjoying this a lot in Madison, but I haven't worked on it much since I got back. Maybe this weekend when I should be cleaning and I probably will be napping.

And I did have a convention finish --

I did all but the gold ring in the airport and on the flights to Madison and finished the edge and the take-aways rows at the con. This is one of a set of 3 little ornaments I have from Richland Designs. I did the colored stripes in Fyre Werks and Silk Lame in the mosaic stitch. The white is Snow and the gold is Fyre Werks and both are basketweave.

I suppose I need to get back and check on my Microsoft search bot which is hunting a lost folder. A pox on all people who don't properly label their documents and folders!

Happy stitching to all----


P.S. For those of you familiar with Sir Terry and his world, the con was a success. About a thousand memberships and quite a number of single-day attendees made the trek to Madison. If you know his personal story, you will understand when I say it was 5 days of great joy tempered by sadness. He shouldn't have Alzheimers -- no one should. It's vicious and vile.

Discworld countdown and other Vitally Important Things

Terry Pratchett in roughly 6 days!!!! Yes sirrie, Madison, Wisconsin here I come!

What? You didn't know that Madison was the vacation hotspot of 2011? Missed the memo, eh? Sorry about that. I'll have fun on your behalf. Dear friends, next Thursday I leave for Madison (I think I do anyway, I haven't checked when I made my flights for) for a lovely extended weekend of Terry Pratchett-affiliated happiness. There will be dressing up, quaffing, and general good times. If you haven't experienced the Discworld series of novels--- then go do so. Don't do it in public though because you won't be able to control the need to laugh out loud (seriously) and the outbursts might frighten people walking by.

Now you know me. You know that this impending adventure means there was to be packing plans. Sure, clothes, shoes, shampoo, blah, blah, blah. But more importantly -- what books are coming and what stitching will make the trip? Oh the choices!!!! All I can say on books is that a couple Pratchetts, 2-3 Baxters (that's Stephen Baxter who is attending as he's working on a series with Terry currently), and possibly a couple Esther Freisners will hit the case. But the stitching oportunities are so difficult to wrangle.

What to take, what to take? I could try finishing some things that are pretty darn close like --
Tilogy's "Gathering of Hearts"

or Sampler Girl's "Hope Perches"

or this little bookmark

or SB's Joy in the Journey

or even Quaker a la Six Mains


But then they are the things I really want to take like --
my sand dollar--

or GOS' "Jeanne d'Arc"

or A Mind Independent and Free

or Martina Dey's Tsunami Sampler

or good ole Beatrix

or Lanarte's Arabian Woman (which I have made such immense progress on-- snort)

or the red house (Ewe and Eye, I think)

or The Golden Gate

or my quail



If I could pack anything irrespective of reality what would come would be:
1. Beatrix (can't go becuase those dang beads end up weighing a lot)
2. the Tsunami piece (might go despite being huge and therfore hard to work on on my lap in a convention room)
3. Arabian Woman (too complx to balance not only the stitching and pattern but also to hold the highlighter for each and every stitch)
4. the quail (too big)
5. The red house (too big as well)
6. The Golden Gate Bridge (needs to be on a stand for neat stitching)

At the moment I think what's making the cut is:
1. the sand dollar (it's a small enough needlepoint and it doesn't require the use of my stand, but it is sometimes to balance it with 3 needles of varied threads in process at all times)
2-5. some of the surprise pieces
6. F&S Round 25 (hi Elaine!)
7. the Tsunami sampler -- because I love it so much right now
8. some Christmas ornies

But maybe, gentle reader I should start a couple whole new pieces in hour of the adventure? After all, you'd hate me to to bored, right?

Happy 4th (and Canadian national day) to all --

I need to 'fess up to something.

It's an odd and overdue confession, but then again that might be the best description of me -- odd and overdue. Anyway, I'm confessing to a Christmas present from last year. My sister got me.....

Yup. A trip to Ireland (and affliated locales). Yes, I do have a very cool sister. No, she is not up for grabs.

The reason I haven't confessed to this totally wonderful gift is because I find it daunting -- it's just too much. You know what I mean, right? Anyway, now it's July and I sort of need to start figuring out where I'd like to go. Ok, I have to admit to smiling while I type this so maybe the "freaked out" stage has passed into the "excited" one.

So, dearest British Isles friends, do you have suggestions? I know I want to go to Giant's Causeway, and I'd like to go some museums. I do not care a single fig if I kiss the Blarney Stone.

On the stitchy front I haven't been up to much. I've been working on the first of a series of surprises. All I can show you for now is--

That's all for a few months. Sorry.

Part of why I haven't stitched much is it's turned warmer. It's hard to get enthused about extra bright lights and fabric all over your lap when your hovel ranges around 80 degrees when you get home. Another part which kept me from stitching all of last weekend was this lovely young lady --

That's Ari messing around with my camera and having a blast the day after her Bat Mitzvah. She rocked! I claim her as a niece even though she's really the niece of my best friend. So leading up to the Big Day there was dress shopping to do and then all weekend was out for celebrating. And, Ari, don't be offended, I'd give up a weekend's stitching for partying with you any time!

See ya'll later. Happy stitching -- here's hoping your staying cool.