In my part of the world we say you are a fool if your passion for a pursuit overcomes all practical sense. I am a stitching fool, and I stitch foolishness.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Beady Little Eyes

Tuesday night I finished the last stitch on the pocket for Pineapple Perfection.

I thought.

In the middle of the night, I woke up and realized I needed to stitch on the beads that create the eyes for the birds. And then I started worrying that I would not remember those beads until I had put the whole thing together. I finally talked myself off the ledge and went back to sleep.

And I didn't think about it again until about 4:30 a.m. today, when I woke up again, trying to figure out what was nagging me. Beads, that's what was bothering me.

I rolled back over and tried to get back to sleep but since I had then remembered that I had already forgotten about the eyes once, sleep was not going to come.

This is the true mark of a stitching fool. I got up and went downstairs.

Now, as anyone who has kept up with this blog knows, I do not have a good working relationship with beads. I either flick them across the room or stab myself with the beading needle--assuming I can get it threaded in the first place--or drop them into a black hole or a rift in the space-time continuum, never to be seen again.

I needed four tiny little black beads.

There were four tiny little black beads in the kit.

No room for any of my usual disasters.

I found the black beading thread with no problem and got the needle threaded on the first try. I was amazed.

I very gently eased one of the beads out of its little plastic bag and cradled it in my left hand. I ever so carefully inserted the point of the needle into the hole in the bead and gently eased it onto the needle's shaft.  Barely daring to breath, I sewed the bead into its appropriate place.

And repeat.

And repeat.

And repeat.

And the birds have eyes!


Sunday, July 21, 2019

The Carrots

I was trying to straighten up my corner Friday evening, and realized I have way too many things started in my workbasket.

I decided I needed something to motivate myself to get a few things done.

And this showed up in the mail:


Lakeland Odyssey
Jenny Adin-Christie

It followed The Ort King by only days.

Two things that I really want to work on. Soon.

So I've decided to use them as the "carrots" to get some of the previously started projects finished.

But which one to work on first?

I wrote the names of all the things in my workbasket on little slips of paper, put them in a bag, and made Dearly Beloved choose.  

And this is what he chose:


Pineapple Perfection
Barbara Jackson

So this is what I'm stitching until it is done.  Then I'll get him to pull another slip, and then another until I don't feel guilty starting something else.

Please note that I have never felt guilty about starting a new project, so I'm not quite sure how well this will work--but at least there will be fewer projects falling out of the basket.

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Christmas in July

This lovely little dude came to live with me last week:


This is Rachael Kinnison's 2019 Limited Edition Christmas Ornament, The Ort King.

The directions are wonderfully complete and detailed--and you can hear Rachael's voice in her instructions. The materials are lovely and include my favorite Soie de Paris colors. And there are some unique trims and materials that truly make this a limited edition.

And it is a limited edition. Once it's gone, it's gone. There are a few kits left at Rachael's Diamond K Folk Art site, so if you're interested, you may want to go right over.

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And on to other things.

Like this poor, neglected blog.

I blame the weather.

It's hotter than the hinges of Hades.

Not that I would know about that personally, but it's hotter than I imagine they would be.

Believe me when I tell you that I stay in the AC as much as possible, and there are fans running as well just to keep the air moving. However, the air just feels heavy from the humidity. We have not only heat in this part of the world, we also have steam. Steamy air. Air you can practically see and can definitely feel.

I take my daily constitutional at 6 in the morning, and it's humid then.  It is just wearing me down. I thought it might be my age and relative decrepitude, but Baby Girl is having the same reaction. She is 30+ years younger and a gym rat, so she should be able to withstand it.

It is affecting my life in a number of ways. I trudge out to the car, which has been sitting on an asphalt parking lot all day, drive home, and trudge inside, where all I want to do is take a cool shower and put on as few garments as possible. This means that social life has vanished--but then, our friends don't want to do anything either.

And I have not been stitching very much for the last couple of weeks. This is most unusual, and it does not do my stress level any good at all.

That's the same stress level that is caused by the heat.

I'm thinking of moving to Antarctica.