All Tied Up

 I really, really, really don't like doing soft string padding.

I still have one section to do. I am procrastinating. If it weren't for the fact that I get to start working with the shiny stuff once I get the stem padded, I might continue to procrastinate.

As it is, I thought I wouldn't be able to do it until I got some more beeswax, which is used to help the soft strings to stay together. Luckily, BDE had a massive block and was willing to bring it to me after work Friday. As she is not interested in doing goldwork (apparently one crazy person in a family is enough--not my words), she didn't think she'd ever use it, so it's now mine.

Elizabeth Hall, however, has seen some progress:

I think I can get another chunk of this done tonight.

After I spend the afternoon stitching sticky string down.

A day off

Best laid plans . . . 

Yesterday I was going to finish the felt padding on Peony. That didn't happen.

I stayed up way too late because I fell into a book and couldn't make myself climb out. Not a problem, I'm retired, I set my own hours, but I was planning to get up after sleeping a decent 8 hours. Meanwhile, Dearly Beloved had a very early doctor appointment, so he was setting his alarm clock and planning to get up about three hours before me.

Dearly Beloved is deaf as a post without his hearing aids. He has to recharge them every night, so he can't hear much, if anything, from the time he goes to bed until he gets up. This includes most alarm clocks.

So, we found an alarm clock with an incredibly loud alarm. Incredibly loud. I mean LOUD.  Luckily, Dearly Beloved is also one of those people who can usually wake himself up right before the clock goes off. 

Usually.

Unfortunately, he didn't do that yesterday. The alarm went off. I think I completely levitated off the bed and landed with an adrenaline rush that can only be equated with being chased by a dinosaur. However, he got up, turned off the clock, and tottered off to take a shower.

However, he didn't actually turn off the alarm. He punched the snooze alarm instead of the off button.

I had just managed to get myself situated again and was dozing off when the damn clock went off again.

I levitated again. I was trying to crawl across the bed to turn the clock off when it vibrated itself off the dresser and onto the floor, where it continue to motivate itself halfway under the big chest of drawers. Meanwhile, I was lurching out of bed, trying to capture it before it went completely under the chest. 

I succeeded, and turned off the alarm.

Dearly Beloved, of course, was in the shower and heard nothing of all this. He was surprised to find me wide awake and vibrating.

I was determined to get enough sleep to function, so I eventually went back to sleep but never slept well. I woke up with a headache, and decided that fiddly little stitches were beyond my capabilities. So I finished the book I had been reading.

That meant that today I finished the felt padding on Peony:

 And I managed to finish the alphabets on Elizabeth Hall:

Tonight I get to start a flower or a leaf or something, but NOT a letter or number.

I have made an executive decision, too. There's a lot of cross stitch over one thread in the verse on this sampler, as well as the attribution and date, but I am working on 40 count linen. If I try to do cross over one, I'm going to distort the linen--so I'm doing tent stitch instead. It's an adaptation. I seem to do that a lot.

Now if I could just adapt to Dearly Beloved's alarm clock . . .

Padding and More Padding

I've been sewing down padding for Peony today.

Some of it is really ugly stuff.

Believe it or not, that ugly stuff that looks like it's in bondage is wool carpet padding. On a goldwork project instead of the floor, you ask?

To get a really raised surface, you need really thick padding. I suppose you could get it with layers upon layers of felt, but that would likely take ages to stitch down, one little layer after another, so some bright stitcher figured out that carpet padding would work quite well.

It won't stay like this. Tomorrow, if all goes well, I'll cover that with more of the yellow felt and it won't be quite so hideous. And, if all continues to go well, I'll spend the next day after that stitching down gold string for yet another method of padding goldwork.

And then, finally, I can start doing some of the really pretty stuff.

Meanwhile, there has been progress on Elizabeth Hill as well.

And this leads to another mystery. Whose initials are set off with a dark background? I'm thinking they might be the parents' initials since the second of each is also an "H". I suppose we'll never know for sure.

In between the sets of initials will be a set of numbers from 1 to 11.  I guess she had to stop the numbers because she ran out of room.

Just another little mystery.

 

A Tale of Two Projects

 Last week during the Dayton EGA meeting, a discussion arose about why we put a project aside.

I can tell you the answer to that as far as I'm concerned: I get bored, I get frustrated, or I find something shinier that I really want to work on. I also have the attention span of a fruit fly. And I'm having some problems with my wrist and its inflamed tendon, so I have to be careful.

So, I decided to try an experiment. I decided to try to focus on two projects and see what happens

 I have an intense goldwork project that I want to do, and hopefully would like to have it done by April 4 when the videos are removed from EGA's site.

Meet Lizzie Pye's Peony in progress:

I'm working on the padding at the moment. This is one of those fiddly prep things in goldwork--the foundation garments for the glitter--and I have to work slowly and carefully. Very slowly and carefully. And I have to focus.

Remember the attention of a fruit fly thing I have going?

So I needed another project that will give my fingers something to do but let my mind wander. I finished the bargello panel for the Flame Pouch--at last!!!--and I found I'm going to have to do some planning to get the rest of the bits for the set stitched on the linen I have left. (There's that frustration thing operating, so it's in time-out for a bit.)

Country Sampler has a stitch club called Threads Through History. I joined it last year.  Ann Kemp was one of the samplers in last year's offerings, and I finished it in almost no time.  Elizabeth Hall 1771 from Needlework Press was another project in the program. It also has a big, wild basket, and I like the saying, so I sewed the linen to the scroll frame and set to work.

And I immediately realized that I had overlooked the four bands of letters and numbers in focusing on the big, wild basket.

Normally, that would be a deal breaker. However, this is a small sampler--like maybe 9" or so wide--and that means I can get a row done in an evening. And it's really easy to stitch after working on teeny, tiny stitches needed to do the padding on Peony.

To make it a little more interesting, there is a mystery word at the end of the second row. Do you see "SHIHER" sitting to the far right? Is this the name of Elizabeth's teacher? Does this have something to do with where she lives? I googled, and got nothing.

Then I thought, what if little Elizabeth wasn't the best speller--well, actually, spelling wasn't really standardized in 1771. What if she was trying to write "Shire" to indicate where she lived?

And my Lord of the Rings fangirl clicked in. This is now my Hobbit sampler.

Going Walkabout

 This all started with a bad case of FOMO.

Inspirations magazine, the Crewel Work Company, and the Online Studio classes from EGA cause me the biggest problems when it comes to fear of missing out. All of them offer amazing classes and projects that aren't just the everyday stuff. And, generally, there is a window of opportunity that may close faster than I would like.

Of course, I would like that window to stay open indefinitely.

Anyway, a recent Friday newsletter from Inspirations mentioned that they had already restocked Betsy Morgan's Stuart Reticule kit from the most recent issue twice, and weren't sure how many more times they would continue to make kits. And they were down to two remaining kits for Heartfelt.

We all know that I do love me some Betsy Morgan designs. And I've been looking at Heartfelt for a solid year.

We know what happened next.

So then, there was the wait for my goodies to arrive.

All was well at first. Shipment was sent from Australia, landed in California, got through Customs. Ended up in Memphis, which seems to be the place most things that come to me from Australia go before making the final trek.

After all, it's pretty much a straight shot from Memphis to my part of North Carolina. And, let's face it, Tennessee and North Carolina are right next to each other. We share a border and part of the Appalachians.

However, the kits seems to have had another idea.

The next stop that tracking showed was Jacksonville. The one in Florida, not the one in North Carolina. Okay, the box hopped on the wrong truck. Generally, things are put back on another truck heading north and it's no biggie.

Nope, my package decided it liked Florida and hung around Jacksonville for a bit. Then it went to Tampa. Then back to Jacksonville. Twice.

Finally, finally, it arrived in the parcel delivery box at my home address.

Am I digging right in? Well, I would, but I started two new projects yesterday.

And that's a story for another day.

Patriotic Stitching

 Seems like everyone has been stitching patriotic pieces for the 250th anniversary of the United States. 

I have finally hopped on the bandwagon.

The borders on Stacy Nash's Liberty for All sampler first drew me to this design. So that's the first thing I plan to work on:

I'm using the called-for overdyed cotton threads on Rhyolite 40 count linen from Weeks Dye Works. The color of the linen is washing out, but it's a lovely, rich color that I think will work well.

And one of the sampler guilds I belong to, Examplary Needle Guild, is having Susan Standley of Stitch in Time present a program in June. As part of the program, we received the chart and kit for Clara 1876. So Clara is my second project:

AVAS silks on 37 count Legacy Linen Smoke Signal--yummy!

There is a third candidate for Patriotic stitching, if I can find it. Merry Cox designed a needle book that she taught at Christmas in Williamsburg a long, long time ago, like over two decades. I know I have it. I know I have seen it in the stash since we moved. Which bin it's in, I do not know. 

It will likely show up after the Fourth.

Marching On

 I spent a week with my daughter and friends at our annual stitching getaway.

I took seven different projects with me. I did very little stitching on any of them. Apparently I can't stitch anywhere but home, and that's fine. I already knew I don't stitch well in class, so this is just more of the same. I like my nest. I was, however, enabled, I had some lovely meals out with friends and wonderful food, I went shopping at Liberty Hill Needleworks. And I was chastised because my blogging has been sporadic of late.

Hopefully that will change, now that I'm back home.

This is going to be my focus project for March, I think.

Peony is designed by the same person whose Hummingbird I just finished. This was one of EGA's online studio classes, and the videos will be available only for a few more weeks, so I need to get moving.

And this is my albatross:

I worked on the Flame Pouch while I was away. I thought it would be the perfect stitch-in project--don't have to think about anything but the color I needed to use and I could listen to conversations and talk while stitching. Just like I thought it would be a good television-watching project . . . but, while it is absolutely beautiful, I'm bored. I am sooooooooooo booooooooored!!! And I only have three and a half rows to stitch and then I can move on to stitching the smalls that fit in the carrying case with the pouch. (And putting it together, of course, but that's a hurdle to leap later.)

I have spoken sternly to myself, and I will put a thread a day in this until it is stitched.

Follow this space to see if I can be disciplined. I'm not usually disciplined.

In other random thoughts, wouldn't it be great if someone would provide ergonomic chairs at stitching events? Those straight up-and-down chairs might be great for banquets or conferences where you listen to a lecture for 45 minutes and then move to something else. For long days of needlework, they are killers! I had an office chair at work before I retired that did everything but provide massages and whisper sweet nothings in my ear. I could LIVE in that chair. I wish I had something like that for stitching away from home.

Or maybe have someone come in and provide chair massages every afternoon--just loosen up those shoulders and arms and hands and lower backs.

And, finally, my annual rant about going to Daylight Savings Time. I am against it. I will never, ever adjust well to it. You'd think that being retired would keep me from feeling the effects so badly, but since you have to deal with events and people who have to cope with it, it's still a pain.

Enough said.

Birdwatching

 I finally crawled out of my stitching slump and finished my Hummingbird in Silk and Gold.

I wish the camera showed how shiny this is--I mean, majorly shiny! And I'm also pleased with the way the pearl purl cooperated--I mean, I got the points exactly the way I wanted.  The silk shading could still use some work, but that will get better with practice.

Meanwhile, I'm getting ready to leave town for my annual escape to Williamsburg and a week of stitching with some of my favorite people. I am packing more than I will ever touch, mainly because the last couple of years I've taken only one or two projects for focused stitching.

Which meant I got bored quickly, so this year, I'm taking a ridiculous number of projects, and planning a trip to Liberty Hill Needlework on top of those, so I won't be able to get bored. 

I just hope I remember to pack my magnifiers and needles and scissors.

Look familiar?

 

Yep, Jackie's Flame Stitch Pouch, which is about all my brain has been capable of handling lately.

Maybe it's the aftermath of the Cold from Hell, maybe it's the winter that's been dragging on forever, maybe my mojo has gone on vacation to a sunny tropical isle--whatever is going on, I haven't been stitching much. The best thing that I've found to do when my mojo goes walkabout is to avoid forcing it.

So I've been watching the Olympics and old movies and reading a lot instead.

But, as I was looking at this the other night, I decided to glance over the finishing directions, and, hallelujah and praise the Lord! I found that I only need three complete repeats of the color pattern, not four! So I'm almost through with this part!!!

Also, I'm taking a couple of classes through the Crewel Work Company's Lady Anne festival this weekend, so maybe that will jump start the stitching fever again.

Which is the only kind of fever I want to have.

Long Time, No See

I have finally clawed my way back from the cold of the century. The last time I had a cold this bad, it morphed into pneumonia, so I was extra careful this time. Once it was determined I didn't have Covid, I was told to rest and get plenty of fluids.

So I took naps and drank lots of OJ and slurped up chicken noodle soup and did almost nothing else. I finally did get dressed, mainly because I was out of clean nighties. That was exhausting. Actually, the worst of it was getting a bra on: the girls had become accustomed to roaming free and didn't appreciate being corralled again.

Anyway, enough of that nonsense. I didn't pick up a needle until a day or so ago, and the Hummingbird in Silk and Gold appeared on the stand. I have started adding the tiniest of gold pearl purls around the wings. It is taking a lot longer than I hoped, but I am being very, very careful.

I have a couple of other goldwork projects I want to work on, but I'd like to get this one finished first. Or maybe not. Maybe I'll spend a little time with all three, or go off on a completely different tangent. I am setting no goals and meeting no challenges this year.

Other than avoiding another cold.

 

January 798th

Finally January is coming to an end! This month has lasted about three years, and it looks like February is going to continue the cold days and colder nights.

Yes, we did have snow in North Carolina. The area where I now live is close to the state capital, and we had a "cone" of dry air that kept us from getting the deeper snows that hit other areas in the state. I am not going to mention that the dry air might be caused by the hot air coming from the state legislature.

And I still am fighting the cold. The cold may be winning.

However, I have managed a couple of things.

I fully finished a couple of projects in the last couple of days.

I assembled the Elizabethan Rose by Alison Cole. I think I stitched it last year or the year before. At one point, I was thinking about doing an ornament a month in 2026. If I do end up doing that, this could count as my January entry. 

And then, while I was rummaging around in one of the finishing baskets, I found this:

This is Merry Cox's Flower Pin Cushion & Needle Book. I won it in a drawing from a blog awhile back. (Hi, Stasi!) I stitched the design. In 2017. Then last year, the Examplary Sampler Guild offered the chart to the members and had a class with Merry. At the time, I thought that I should pull it out and put it together. Somehow it didn't happen right that minute, but it floated to the top of the basket and I did it today. Why I didn't assemble it after I finished working the design, I'll never know.

I think I should make a rule for myself that will make me assemble smalls as soon as I finish the stitching.

We all know that I don't follow the rules very well, even the ones I set for myself. I could try to change. 

But right now I believe I will take a NyQuil and see if I can get some sleep.
 

First Finish of 2026!

Daily Reminder from Brenda Gervais is done!

 Will I do another Blessing Sampler? Maybe, but I don't think so. I had decided that this was to be the year with no deadlines or schedules, and here I am, first project of the year, worked on a deadline. So, I think I'll go back to the idea of stitching solely as my whims and pleasures take me.

At least as soon as I feel like stitching again. Those last few stitches on this project were really difficult because I have the head cold of all head colds. I woke up Monday morning feeling like my head was packed with concrete. Since then, I have been sneezing and coughing and dripping and aching. None of these behaviors are conducive to pleasant stitching. So I'll just wait this out and get back to normal life when I get back to normal health.

Yardwork

 Before the second phase of the storm hits us (and this is the nasty part with freezing rain predicted for our area), I thought I better do an update.

The house is finished, the trees are planted, the numbers stitched, and I've started on the fence around the front yard.

I truly did not think I would get the house filled in before the end of the month. I know there are a lot of sampler stitchers who love building houses. They find filling in all those walls rhythmic and soothing and peaceful.

Filling in makes me bugnutz crazy. 

That may be why I haven't succumbed to all the precious Animal Crackers designs. Don't get me wrong. I think they're adorable and I would love to have the entire menagerie in my house. The problem is that there are a lot of areas that have to be filled in. I know I would get one halfway done and then it would disappear into the bin of Projects That Make Me Feel Guilty Because They Aren't Finished But Not Guilty Enough To Make Me Finish Them. 

There are quite enough projects in that bin already.

Anyway, I am going to work on getting the fence around the front yard stitched today while hoping the power stays on and the dead tree we reported to the HOA in November doesn't decide to fall down.

This is the kind of excitement I would happily avoid.

Construction Zone

 I have been building a house.

I thought I was going to get it built in a couple of days, but like all construction projects, I have run into delays--mainly, there are way more stitches than I thought. This is Day Four and I'm still not through. Fingers crossed that today is the day.

There has also been an unnecessary cost overrun. The designer calls for a specific overdyed thread. For one stitch. One stitch only. The color is not used anywhere else in the chart.

Seriously?

I mean,  SERIOUSLY???????

I do not fault the shop that kitted the project because they were just pulling the threads the designer specified. But I would ask designers to really think if one stitch needs to be in a unique color.

Otherwise, I'm very happy with the design. I'm just ready to be done with the house.

Moving along

Right after I turned the light off last night, I realized I hadn't blogged. Maybe it was because we had Friday the 13th on a Tuesday. Anyway, this is where I am on Daily Reminder:

 I'm so close to having all the border done. Maybe I should just keep working on that today.

Today has definitely been a stitching day. This morning the Dayton EGA chapter held its monthly meeting and Tricia Nguyen lectured. This was the third lecture I've heard from Tricia this week--she lectured on Nuremberg samplers for the Mayflower Guild, on Saturday, then had a wide-ranging talk on a variety of subjects for the Great Lakes Region on Sunday, and today she spoke about the creation of and marketing for embroidered boxes--which we now call caskets--in the 17th century. All fascinating, all informative, all made me just want to stitch more and more.

Today was also the last class for Zina Kasban's Elizabethan Rose. This has been a wonderful class, and I truly hate to see it end. I highly recommend Zina as a teacher, and I will continue to look forward to her classes in the future. Yes, I am a fangirl. I will be the first to admit it.

Unfortunately, I now need to shift laundry. I'd rather thread a needle.

Haul

It doesn't look like I'm going to stitch today, even though I really need to stitch. Don't even ask . . . 

But the mail carrier was very good to me, and some charts I had ordered have arrived:

 Christmas 2026 (or 2027 or 2028--whenever) projects

Another BAP--but please notice no alphabet and a fairly short verse--and no over-one--thus, a very good evening project. 

I have linen for all these but I am going to need to acquire threads. This may involve a road trip. There is nothing better than a road trip for needlework projects.  And I am more than ready for a road trip.

Turning Point

I have finally reached the point where I can turn the scroll bars and move onto the bottom of "Daily Reminder."

This is about the halfway point on the sampler, but I think it's maybe only a fourth to a third of the number of stitches left to do.

And I really need to be working on goldwork at the moment, but this has been such a pleasant stitch (meaning I don't have to think about it too much) that it's hard to go back to something that requires more than two functioning brain cells. 

A Pot Full

 Finally! The big pot of flowers has been stitched!

I'm not quite where I want to be at this point in time, but I did not thread a needle yesterday. I developed a headache in the early morning. By the time it wore off, I was as limp as a wet noodle.

Wet noodles have a difficult time threading needles.

Two flowers short of a pot

When I got up, I thought it would be wonderful if I got the upper left corner finished, and stitched a couple of smaller motifs on the right side. Then I could turn the scroll frame and maybe start the house.

This did not happen. But I got this far:

Maybe I'll be able to turn the scrolls tomorrow.

Whatever, I'm going to go with the flow and see what tomorrow brings.

A little every day

 I fell into a book today and had a hard time climbing out. Therefore, I put in only a few stitches on my Blessing Sampler and nothing at all on my goldwork projects.

However, I have stitched every day of the New Year and I'm counting that as a win.

Back to the Sparkly

 I made myself get out of my warm nest this morning, came downstairs, ate my breakfast, and sat down in front of the embroidery hoop.

I now have scallops, made with double strands of passing thread and couched down. The ends have been plunged and sewn down on the back. I feel like I have jumped a major hurdle in getting this finished.

Tomorrow I hope to fill in those gaps in the frame, another majorly fiddly bit. After that, I may have a day of fairly easy stuff to do.

And for those who have asked, the patient is doing well. The after-care directions recommended that he sleep in a recliner.

We do not own a recliner.

Why do people always assume that anyone of AARP age has a recliner? Isn't that ageism?

Flower Pot

That's it for today: a flower pot.

 Dearly Beloved had Moh's surgery on his noggin today, and I have been tasked with aid and comfort in his distress.

(Honestly, I didn't complain as much after a C-Section--either time!)

Change in plans

 I was going to work on goldwork today. I had firmly decided that.

But then I slept in . . . again . . . sometimes staying in bed in the winter under the blankets is almost impossible to overcome. . .and then I needed to balance the checkbook and pay a couple of bills . . . and then I puttered around in the kitchen for awhile and planned meals for the next couple of days . . . and then I fell into a book and by the time I climbed out, goldwork was not going to happen.

But I did put a few strands into my blessing sampler, so I do have something needlework-related to show for today:

One of my very favorite stitching buddies (Hi, Sharon!) made a point of stitching at least one thread every day last year. I decided to do my best to do the same this year, even though I'm not setting any goals, etc, etc, etc. I don't count that as a goal, simply a lifestyle choice.

Turning a Corner

 I made it across the top of Daily Reminder and turned down the other side, then did a little plain old cross stitch. 

I wanted to get to the point where I could stitch some flowers, and I'm almost there.

I wasted spent some time online looking for dark green linen that hasn't been overdyed, but didn't find anything that I thought would work or arrive in time for this to be a blessing sampler.  So . . . . I have tightened up the frame and re-tighten every hour or so, and that is helping.

It also helped when a stitching buddy dm'd and made a good point--if I persevere through the struggles with this linen and get it finished by the end of January, I will definitely deserve any blessings on my stitching for the rest of the year.

I believe I will cling to that hope--and it will be motivation to finish the sampler.

However, tomorrow I think I may do some goldwork. I have my last class on the Elizabethan Rose in less than two weeks, and I have a lot of homework to do. Actually, I have a lot of things I want to do, so I'd best keep on keeping on.

Wibbeldly, Wobbly

 I started to title this blog entry "Rage and Angst" but thought that might be a little scary, even though that's how I felt yesterday.

I was working on my new project:

I spent a good chunk of time stitching yesterday. Western Reserve Sampler Guild had an all-day stitch-in, and I was there for about four hours, then I worked on this for about another four hours last night.

And this is all I got done.

I will be the first to admit that my electric needle has rusted, but this is ridiculous, even for a slow stitcher.

I was fighting the linen. The whole time.

I'm not a big fan of overdyed linen in general. I'm not crazy about mottled coloring on the background; I think it can detract from the design. On top of that, some of the linens that have a big contrast in color look like dirty rags. Like you've spent the day with your hands in the innards of a car engine, wiped them off on a clean white handkerchief, then dropped the hankie on the floor and ran over it a couple of times. Or you've used the linen to clean mud off the dog's paws. Or the kid used a towel to dry off after swimming, then left the damp towel in his duffel until the smell of mildew attracted you to his room.

But what really annoys me--and annoyance is a mild term for the way I was feeling last night--is how limp so many of the overdyed linens become. I like linen with some body. I like linen that holds its shape. I like linen that's helpful rather than adversarial.

This particular piece of linen is so limp that the threads are literally moving as I try to stitch. The weave has even loosened. The sawtooth pattern is worked in satin stitch, and in one spot, you stitch over one thread. The linen is so loosey-goosey that the floss slides between the linen threads and disappears, so I have to go over that spot twice for a stitch to show up at all.

I did try spray starch on the corner and stitched a few stitches to see if that would help. The spray starch merely fixed the linen in its wobbly state.

I am going to try lacing the sides to the scroll frame. If that doesn't make it better, I'm going to dig out a slate frame.

One way or another, I'm going to get this done.

Happy New Year!

The ceremonial dumping of the ort jars occurred about 10:15 last night, and I was tucked into bed and asleep shortly thereafter, so, as usual, I did not see the new year come in. Dearly Beloved stayed up and said it felt like just every other year, so I didn't miss anything. 

You know you're old when you don't care about the hoopla about the new year, although I have enjoyed Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen in the past--just wasn't feeling it this time.

Anyway, despite being the Grinch about New Year's, I did pull out a new project.

 Brenda Gervais' "A Daily Reminder" which I call the "Be Good and Do Good" sampler--I thought maybe it could be my blessing sampler.

Then is looked at the sawtooth border and the overall size and the solidly stitched house in the middle and thought maybe it wouldn't be.

So . . . it's now my New Year's Day Start. If I finish it by the end of January 31, it may become a blessing sampler. I am making no commitments, setting no goals, just along for the ride.

That may be the way I get through 2026.