Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! 

My Lord and Savior is risen!  He lives!!!

Another Newsy Post

Another post without pictures.  It's raining.  AGAIN.  It's rained almost daily for 2 weeks now.  I am water logged and vitamin D deficient because there's no sun.  I posted on facebook this morning that I was going to Lowes and buy materials to build an ark because that's how much rain we've gotten.  And you know, it's not even a warm Spring rain.  It's a cold, bone-chilling, windy rain.  The kind that gets into you and no matter what you do, you just can't get warm.  For goodness sake, last night my friend and I went out for dinner and when we left Panera we could see our breath!  People it's APRIL 23rd!  Umm-mm...a little warmth, please??

On the stitching front, I finished Alphabets!!!! YAY me!  It came out wonderfully! I'm so happy to cross another Wip off the list.  That makes 4 for the year.  A record.  Now, I'm working on ISNFB and This Is the Day.  I originally was going to stitch This Is the Day for our main bathroom because I painted it Lemon yellow and I thought the colors would look nice in there.  Well, the yellow just about burned the retinas out of your eyes so I toned it down to a Butter yellow.  Now TITD is going in my Tangerine room.

Oh, I'm giving Alphabets away now that I've stitched it.  If you want the pattern, just say so in this post's comment section.  If I have more than one person interested, I'll draw a name. 

Oh, and I've discovered I like Adam and Eve Samplers.  I never did before but seeing everyone's A&E samplers made me look a little closer at them.  And you know what?  I kinda like the guy and gal and that sneaky snake.  I came across a couple of nice patterns in my SANQ magazines so I put them aside to maybe sneak in one after I get another WIP done.  There's a really nice one that Ruth Ann Russell charted that I found in an issue of SANQ.  That's short listed now.  And have you seen the latest sampler from Brenda at With My Needle and Thread?  Oh, Ann Sandles-1846 is just beautiful! 

I love the border and I especially love that Adam and Eve are clothed!!


Yesterday, I cleaned the carpets in my Tangerine room in anticipation of putting back the furniture today but the carpets are still a little damp.  So instead, I continued to rip out patterns from my magazine collection.  I reduced 10 years worth of Antique Needlework & Sampler down to a 1" binder.  And I've been ruthlessly tearing up my JCS too.  It's actually liberating to do this!  I am feeling like I can breath again.  I never really thought of how suffocating my stuff was until I decided that I needed to actually use that room instead of making it another place to store stuff.  I think I'm going to be able to ditch one of the pantry units I had in that room.  I've got plans to buy 2 bookselves and ditch a couple of drawer units too.  Then I hope to put an upolstered chair in there so I can actually be comfy to stitch in there when the DH decides to watch another hour of Fox News or the Military channel. 

So,  I guess until the sun comes from behind the clouds, you all are just going to have to be patient with me for pictures. 

I want to wish all of you a very Happy Easter and Passover too.  I hope tomorrow, the buns brings you a ton of chocolate and jelly beans.  Or a ham.  LOL.

Thanks for coming by, I really enjoy your company!

Random Thoughts on a Dreary Monday Afternoon

Random thoughts as I count down the minutes until I can go home....

I ate an entire bag of Dove chocolate eggs. Yes, the ENTIRE bag and now I feel ick. My bad. Tasted good while I shoveled them in my mouth. Now? Not so much. And I'm waiting for the eventual sugar crash. I have a doctor's appointment next week too. He'll just be thrilled when I get on the scale and am up 7 pounds from last year. I can't wait for the lecture and the threat of dire diseases because I can't resist chocolate-y goodness.  (Oh my, I just figured out the number of WW points in that bag of chocolate- 42!!!!  I'm screwed...lol!).

Wishing I was home stitching. I am almost done with Alphabets. Only one more bird, a cherry and the bottom border to stitch. If I put my mind to it, I could finish it up tonight but I need to stitch on something else so that will have to wait. Hey, it's only been a Wip for almost 3 years so what's a few more days or a week?

I Sigh Not for Beauty is making me sigh....actually, the sampler is making me curse. A really nasty frog has attached itself to this sampler and won't let go. I messed up those pomegrante flowers and had to rip out 2 of them and I misplaced one of the vines coming off the border. It's been a struggle, but I shall overcome! I love the sampler too so that helps.

I got Lucy Minton and Her Sampler back from Michaels. Her Sampler looks ok but I can't help but think of the crooked hacked off fabric stuffed behind the frame. Lucy Minton has "issues". Michaels left out the spacers. I got that fixed. And she's stretched a little wonky. The woman who stretched her pulled the linen to the right so the linen weave slants. It bothers me a little because if you come up close to the piece you can see it. Is it something I should have redone? Maybe. But I've learned a lesson, I will stretch my pieces from now on. Or maybe insist that Heidi (the framer that I like) frames my pieces exclusively.

Check out Woolwoman's blog for a pic of what she won for my "I'm Sick of Winter Giveaway"....the piece I made her came out sweet...

I painted my craft room tangerine. Yes, tangerine. It's the coolest shade of orange. My DH thinks I'm nuts. But I love that the room glows. You should have seen me moving all the goods out of the room. It was like a clown car. things just kept pouring out of it, filing up the hallway and the balcony. It was embarrassing and my DH was astonished at all MY STUFF. It's been sorta suffocating but I vowed, as God is my witness, that when I reassemble the room, I will be able to stitch there, paint there and not feel like it's crushing me.

I started to disassemble all my magazines, keeping only what appealed to me, mainly the sampler patterns. I felt like I was committing a crime ripping up Samplers and Antique Quarterly magazines, but people, I've been collecting them for at least 10 years and I think I can reduce that 10 year collection to a binder or 2. Please don't be hatin' me for defacing those magazines. Oh, and I threw out about 10 years worth of Martha Stewart Living too. And I have Country Sampler magazines, Country Home, Mary Englebriet, oh my...can I qualify as a hoarder? I am looking forward to getting the room back together, organized and calm. The sheer amount of stuff in there actually made me nervous. I am having the DH put up a shelf close to theceiling so that I can put my "toys"on. Looking forward to having them up off the tops of the cabinets and desk.

So, if the weather would cooperate, I may be able to snap a few pictures. I don't know when I will be able to though, it's cold and rainy here....there was SNOW in the air yesterday. I don't think Winter wants to unclutch us yet.

Oh, how I want warm weather....

And one last thing....a question about storage of linen and WIPs.
 
How do you store your excess fabric and WIPs?  I was storing my linen in a dresser but when we moved it we noticed that 2 of the 3 drawers were falling apart.  My DH isn't sure he can fix them so I may have to find an alternative method of storage.   What do you do?
 
And my WIPs are stored in hugh ziplock bags, with the fabric, pattern and fibers.  I have "ahem" many and they are stuffed in a few baskets.  I'd like to store them in one place neatly.  How do you store your Wips so they are accessible but "out of sight?
 
Anyway, enough rambling....thanks for coming by!

Pictures...as promised

Here are the pictures that I promised. I am annoyed at the color, it's so off.  Even trying to mess with the contrast and the brightness didn't help.  Today was the perfect day to take pictures too, the light was flat so I thought that the colors would be more true.  But the color is off.  Nuts.

First is Alphabets:

Alphabets

Merrily Beams

32ct Cream Belfast

946 AVAS

 I've got 2 more birds and then the personalization.  I hope that the personalization doesn't make me shove the sampler down into the depths of the WIP basket.  I'll have to get out the graph paper and figure this out.  And this sampler is not going to Michaels for framing. It deserves special handling. I'm going to take it to the the framer that my LNS recommends and  I hope that when they stretch it, the wrinkles will get stretched out.  I did iron this piece before I took it's picture but there's still a lot of wrinkles. Because it's stitched in red AVAS, it's certainly not colorfast so a warm bath is out of the question.

Next is a piece from With Thy Needle and Thread:

Needle and Pins Heart Pinkeep

With Thy Needle and Thread

DMC

35ct Flax linen

I bought an antique copper oil can to mount it on.  I'm hoping it comes out nice.

And there's In the Bee Man's Garden and I Sigh Not For Beauty:

 

The Goode Huswife

In the Bee Man's Garden

DMC

32ct Vintage Country Mocha



I Sigh Not For Beauty

C Street Samplings

DMC

36ct Dirty Linen

I'm not really far along on either of these samplers but I thought I 'd post them just to document their progress.  I'm enjoying I Sigh Not For Beauty.  I thought I'd hate that arcaded border but it's moving very fast and isn't tedious.  The Bee Man is a fun stitch.  It's my "go to" piece for the times I want to stitch something that's not going to require a lot of mindful stitching. 

And one other thing that I've noticed.  I'm stitching a lot with DMC again.  For the longest time, I'd stitch only with overdyes.  And of course, I LOVE silk but I'm finding myself reaching for those little baggies of DMC more and more. I'm liking how conveniently accessible they are (a quick trip to Michaels, ACMoore or JoAnn Fabrics and I love the colorfastness cause I'm not exactly the cleanest stitcher with 3 cats and a dog to deal with.  Things certainly go around full circle.  What about you? What's your "go to" fiber?

So tomorrow starts another week.  I always wonder what happened to the weekend.  They just go by so fast.  But the new week stretches out before us and I wish all of you a great one!  Take care and thanks for coming by my little corner of the world.  Have a great week, everyone!

Apologies all around

I'm sorry that I haven't posted more recently and I apologize to my give-away winners because I haven't mailed your goodies yet.  There was a bit of sadness here in the last 2 weeks and I've been working long hours.  I'm a bit behind, exhausted and wondering when we are going to turn the bend to happier, less stressed times.  It will be well.  Eventually.

I will be back with pictures shortly.  My stitching has been a life preserver (again!) and I've made progress on my Alphabet sampler and I've started The Goode Huswife's, In The Bee Man's Garden and I Sigh Not For Beauty by Fran Russell of C Street Samplings. 

In the Bee Man's Garden

The Goode Huswife

I Sigh Not For Beauty

C Street Samplings

I know, I know, I told myself NO NEW STARTS but I want a summer piece (the Bee Man) and I fell hard for I Sigh Not For Beauty.  There is a SAL for that sampler on Ellen Chester's, With My Needle and Pen group and it's not a lot of stitching during the month (even though I am a little behind) so I thought I'd be part of it.  I stitched my beloved John Foster with that group too.  It's manageable.

Oh! And as a treat to myself (and because I had an awesome 70% off coupon for framing at Michaels) I took Her Sampler and Lucy Minton to be framed.  I am a little apprehensive though, with this framing job this time around.  The lady who waited on me sorta scared me when she hacked off about 3 inches of excess linen on Her Sampler with a very dull scissors.  She asked if she could and I thought, "Well, yeah, go ahead, there's a lot of excess fabric to stuff under that frame" never thinking that she would cut the fabric so unevenly.  She saw the look of horror on my face and calmly stated that "no one would see it anyway".  Yikes!  I hope that she stretches the pieces straight...usually I do that honor just to be sure but I decided to let them do it before she took the scissors to the sampler.  Crossing my fingers..that the framing will be OK.

So stay tuned, I'll be adding pictures in my next post.  I am glad for all of you who stop by and HI to my new followers!