Pretty Little Things

I was so excited about finishing Eve's embroidery that I forgot to mention the pretty things that came my way this past week-end.

I do not believe Barbara Jackson could design anything that I wouldn't want to stitch--and this one caused me to go above and beyond. I literally had to chase down our mail carrier to find out where he'd left the package. He has misread the house number and left it at a neighbor's. It was retrieved, and all is well, and I have the Shining Needle Society class starting soon to look forward to.

And at the tea, I added two more projects to my list:

Inside this little bag are the makings for the Bluebird of Happiness. I had to miss the regularly scheduled sampler guild meeting last week where this was the program. I plan to dive into this very soon.

And we received this "token of affection" as part of the festivities at the tea on Saturday. The motif comes from the Mary Drake sampler owned by Cissy Smith, who was our lecturer and honored guest at the tea. It turns into a needlebook.

There has been a wee bit of stitching. The spring lambs for the scissor fob are completed--now I just have to do the main piece of the needlebook and put it all together. Something else to put together . . .

There would be more stitching, but we have had a domestic disaster. The dishwasher has died. Again. It was fixed a month or so ago, but the part that was jiggled to make it work apparently unjiggled itself. Our friendly handyman is trying to get a part, but it's an old, old, old dishwasher and he is not optimistic--so we may be investing in a new machine. And a new cabinet to put it in because it seems that the new models will not fit into the hole that the old one currently takes up. Which may mean some kitchen remodeling. This was not in my plans for the year.

So currently, I have been washing dishes by hand in the smallest kitchen sink found outside a camper. We believe that whoever designed the kitchens in this community believed that people who live in townhouses do not eat at home but dine out for every meal.

Or use paper plates constantly.

Anyway, I'm spending part of my evenings up to my elbows in dishwater and the remaining part slathered up to the elbows with heavy-duty hand cream so that I could possibly work on silk at some point in the future without totally shredding it.

As Baby Girl would say, it's a First World Problem.

But I am going to kiss whoever fixes or replaces the dishwasher right slap on the mouth.

Slight Change in Plans

The expedition was called off due to Dearly Beloved deciding that he would rather sleep late than get up early. This decision was fine with me on many levels.

It meant, most importantly, that I got both cartouches on Eve filled in with layers of gold and silver metals.

The only problem is that this means I have to worry about the dread finish-finishing.

I think I'll pull a Scarlet and think about that tomorrow.

Winter and Spring, all in one day

This morning when Dearly Beloved and I headed out to the Farmers' Market for our first visit of the season, it was 37 degrees.

That's a bit nippy.

We did find strawberries and butter lettuce and asparagus, so it was all good.

And then I went to a lovely tea sponsored by the Carolinas Sampler Guild where we viewed part of the sampler collection owned by one of our members. We saw some wonderful examples of schoolgirl samplers, several with quite unique characteristics. I wish I had remembered to take my camera, but chances are good that at least several of them will be reproduced by their owner, Jaenn Smith, who also is the guiding light behind Gentle Pursuits Designs.

And when I left the tea, it was a balmy 74 degrees and ever so much more pleasant.

But this is a stitching blog and I should show what I've been doing.

Not much.

This has been a topsy-turvy week and there hasn't been much time to ply my needle.

I do have the sections outlined for the fob for Early Spring Lambs.

And I've finished another motif on the lunch hour crewel piece:

I am finding that crewel is also a very good travel project, and waiting-in-waiting-rooms project, as well as a good lunchtime project. I don't need extra light and I don't need extra magnification, just an embroidery hoop and my folding scissors as the only equipment necessary.

Hopefully tonight I will get the sheep stitched on the fob, and tomorrow I'll work on Eve. Unless, of course, Dearly Beloved has his way. He is threatening an Expedition.

Two down . . .

Well, two of the outlines are stitched.

And I have one more to do. But not tonight. Things are going to be topsy-turvy for the next couple of days, and I need to get a good night's sleep before I jump into the middle of it all.

I thought I was done . . .

I put what I thought was the last stitch into this panel for my Early Spring Lambs needlebook.

All those little letters and little numbers--and we all know just how much I love stitching letters and numbers--and I was all excited to think this was done and I could do the little sheep for the scissors fob--and then I made the mistake of looking at the directions.

I still need to outline the border.

So that's what I'm going to do.

All leafed out

The tree has all its leaves--or at least all the leaves I'm going to stitch.

I'm glad to have this done. I'm even happier that I decided to put the tree on only one side of the box.

Sidetracked

The plan was to leaf out the tree on Eve in the Garden today.

We got sidetracked.

• Dearly Beloved's car needed its oil changed, so we dropped it off to have that done.
• We had a list a mile long of essential things--like light bulbs and laundry detergent--so we went to the Big Box Store to take care of that.
• Sushi and sashimi have been calling my name, and Dearly Beloved loves real ramen of the slurpable variety as opposed to the college student staple type--so we went to our favorite Japanese restaurant for lunch. They were very busy, so it took longer than usual.
• I had an urge to bake a cake. This happens only rarely since we no longer live with ravenous teen-agers.
• The usual week-end household chores needed to be accomplished.

Thus, no new leaves can be seen on the tree.  There is still tomorrow.

I did do a little week-night stitching the last few evenings, though.

This is part of Catherine Theron's Early Spring Lambs needlebook. I do so love the soft pastels used in this--and somehow it seems appropriate for the season.

And I most definitely see hopping from one project to another in my future for a bit. I am making no plans, setting no goals, just playing in the stash.

This may be a symptom of spring fever.