Rebooting

After Rebecah French went into time-out, I was a little out-of-sorts and cranky so I didn't stitch for a few days.  Or maybe I was out-of-sorts and cranky because I wasn't stitching. Anyway, I decided I needed to get my act in gear, and I sewed linen to scroll bars and sorted threads and ordered 30" scroll bars because out of all the scroll bars I own, I didn't own that size, and I started a handful of projects.

Introducing:

Frances Burwell

The Examplarery

When I was in Williamsburg in December, I saw Frances in one of the drawers in the textile gallery. Again. And every time I see her, I think to myself, she's in my stash, she's been aging in my stash for awhile, she needs to come out and play. Well, by golly, she's out. And we've started to play.

Cupid's Delight Sampler Accent

Periwinkle Promises' Events in Stitches

I'm getting a head start on February's project. There are a LOT of little red hearts to stitch.

Sally Munro

The Essamplaire

There's a SAL for Balch samplers on Facebook, and this is one of the samplers I'd like to stitch. I've always loved that family of samplers with their groups of partying people and houses and large floral surrounds, so this may be the impetus I need to get going on my own collection. I have Cynthia Burr and Sarah Tuel already waiting in the stash, and I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Mary Balch sampler (assuming our UPS driver can manage to deliver it to the correct address--he has difficulties with doing his job accurately).

Pins and Needles . . . ZZZ

Jackie du Plessis

Another small from my collection of travel projects. I figured I was going to need a quick project amongst all the big samplers.

And speaking of big samplers . . .

Mary Lea

Hands Across the Sea, Attic's 2017 SAL

As much as I love this sampler, I was adamant that I absolutely was not going to do it. I told myself I have enough in the stash to last for another 300 years. I told myself that this is the year the I'm going to start stitching my casket from the Cabinet of Curiosities class. I told myself that this is a huge undertaking, even if it is all cross stitch. I told myself it didn't make any difference if the colors in it are colors that sing to me. I told myself all that and still succumbed because of the cat on one side of the house and the dog on the other. And that's when my will power went right out the window.

I have other things in the basket that are going to be started in the near future. And, no, I am not anticipating that all of this will be finished in 2017. I may be optimistic, but I'm not delusional.

And now it's time for a personal rant.

While the rest of the state enjoyed a beautiful snowfall, in my part of the county, we got virtually nothing. We were promised a Winter Wonderland. We got a Winter Wonder Dud.

Friends who grew up in or live/lived in snowier climes do not understand why I become positively giddy at the thought of snow.

I think there may have been two, possibly three, significant snows in my childhood, and maybe four in my entire adulthood. By significant snows, I mean enough snow to make a whole snowman, not just his head. I mean enough snow for a snowball fight with more than seven snowballs--and that's for both sides. I mean enough snow that you can walk across your yard and see only white indentations and not muddy footprints.

What we got was ice and forty-three snowflakes. And then the sun came out and melted most of it. And what melted froze overnight when the temperatures dropped into the ten's. So now we have black ice and regular ice. And I don't care who you are or how skilled you are, you can't drive on this stuff. So we are stuck at home without anything pretty to look at.

And Dearly Beloved has a cold, and is definitely not, at the moment, pretty to look at.