Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

I Have A New Boyfriend...

His name is Adam but he has a girlfriend named Eve.  They live beneath an apple tree that Eve adores.  And I believe they have a charming pet snake that Eve shouldn't pay attention to but he's pretty persuasive! 
Yes, I've been bitten by the A&E sampler bug!  I'm up to my eyeballs looking for that couple and their pal, Mr. Serpent.

And I've been charmed by older patterns, now I'm on a Merrily Beams hunt.  Does anyone have a  know how many patterns she published? She published her designs under Merrily Beams, The Sewing Bird.

Now, to tie this together.

Merrily Beams published an Adam and Eve sampler.  And I am on the hunt for it for myself and for another obsessed A&E lover.  Gosh, we sound kinky, don't we?  Anyway...I've searched high and low.  Obviously very OOP but I'm sure it's spending time in someone's stash. And maybe, that someone is willing to quench the desire burning in the heart of this newly obsessed lover.

If you have that pattern and are willing to let it go for a reasonable price or a trade from my enormous stash let me know.

And, if you have any Merrily Beams that you want to send to a loving home, I'm that address.  Thanks for helping and I'll be back with update pictures. I'm making progress on the Bee Man and Done By Me.

Happy day!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

I'm Ready For My Screen Shot, Mr. DeMille

Before we start, I have a favor to ask.  I am looking for a Cross-eyed Cricket pattern, Leaflet 171 called Green Thumb.  Is there anyone out there that wants to part with it?  I've got a ton of stash to trade or if you want, I can pay a reasonable price...let me know, K?

Now for the pictures...TA DAA!!!!
Here's my OLDEST WIP and it' now finished!  I can't believe that I waited over 25 years to finish it.  Granted, I had the unfortunate red candle incident but still...

 Alphabet Sampler
Leisure Arts #280
14ct. White Aida
DMC

 Alphabet Sampler Bottom

 Alphabet Sampler Top

This is the Merrily Beam's Sampler I'm stitching for Lee's "Older But Better" SAL.  You can see it in all it's 1980's funky colors.  But I like it!

 Done By Me - 1982
Merrily Beams
32ct Flax Linen
Recommended DMC

I worked a little on the Bee Man tonight - I've stitched most of the verse.  I really, really like this sampler and now, I'm looking all over the internet looking for more patterns with Bee Skeps. 

 The Bee Man's Sampler
The Goode Huswife
32ct Vintage Country Mocha

Lastly is I Sigh not for Beauty that I'm stitching as a year long SAL with Ellen Chester's With Thy Needle and Pen's group.  I'm hopelessly behind now but I have to be in the right frame of mind to stitch on her. I don't mind the arcaded border but those pomegranate flowers..oh my, they tax my patience.

I Sigh not for Beauty
SANQ
32ct Antique Ivory
DMC
And the Wips, that were finished a long time ago, soon to be made into pinpillows and pinkeeps:

 LHN Watermelon
32ct Flax Linen
Crescent Color Overdyes - Cotton

Ewe and Eye and Friends
Liberty House
32ct Lambswool Linen
Recommended Threads

So, that's all folks, I hope you like what I've done.  I'd write more but I have to go to sleep. I'm tired.  I've been up late going through job boards looking for work.  So far nada, zilch, and zero.  I've applied to a few local companies but I don't think I'm even going to get a second look.  Sigh.

Thanks for stopping by....love to have you visit!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Joanie Has NOT Left the Building

Hello all! You probably thought that I up and vamoosed!  But I did not.  I am still here.  I hope you are glad.

I want to thank everyone that's commented, emailed, prayed, encouraged and generally put up with me this past month.  I am so grateful for the advice and general feel good comments from you.  I treasure you all! This month hasn't been stellar but I could count on my stitchy-bloggy friends to lift me up. And you certainly did lift me up!  THANK YOU!!!!

I am actively searching for work in my area and the surrounding 50 miles but pickin's are slim.  I applied for 3 jobs today, one that I am over-qualified, one that I am under-qualified and one that I am partially qualified to do.  I'm crossing my fingers that someone out there will look at my resume and see that, YES! she can be trained! Or, OMGosh we have a live one and YES! we want her. 

Did you know that resume writing has become a game?  Most jobs are posted online and there's a definite strategy to applying and then getting past the keyword searches.  I'm finding out that every resume that I post must be customized for the particular job and must be filled wth keywords that are listed in the job posting.  Otherwise....it's BAD news for your effort.  Like the potential employer won't even look at your resume because there weren't the right keywords to get past their auto-scans.
I have to tell you, I'm pooped.  Today, I tried to upload a resume to an online job board and it took almost 45 minutes to fill out a their application to upload it.  There were things I purposely left off my resume, specific dates of employment (I gave date ranges), salary history, things that would let the potential employer know that I was an "older" worker (which is bad news cause employers perceive that you come with BAGGAGE from your previous employer and MAY be change resistant and become a problem child for your new employer). It was mandatory to fill those fields in on the application to upload the resume and employers looking at my resume once uploaded would see that information.  If I didn't fill them in I couldn't proceed to upload. I finally got smart and instead of putting in actual values, I put in spaces. HA!  Take that online job site! If I made one mistake in inputting my information, POOF, all my stuff was gone and I had to start over.  I was more than frustrated.  But eventually, I got the resume posted.  Tomorrow, I get to do it all again because I tweaked it tonight.  I'm going to need to have a large, strong cup of coffee and the ibuprophen handy.

I know that this is a stitching blog and it's woefully without pictures or any information about what I'm working on.  I am finishing up the 2 exchange gifties that I owe and I've finished my oldest Wip. From, get ready...1986!!!  It took me an hour.  Can you believe it?  It's a sampler from a Leisure Arts pamphlet (280) called Keepsake Samplers. I needed to personalize it, do a little back stitching and add the date.  I know why I put it away, years ago, I stored it in a drawer along with red candles (the HORROR!) and some of the pigment bled onto the Aida (yes, it's stitched on Aida.  I was a newbie, thank you very much) and I didn't know how or what to do to get the stains out.  The stains were close to the stitching and I was afraid to do anything about it.  So it got relegated to the very bottom of the WIP heap.  Lost and forlorn.  Fast forward to 2011 and to the invention of the Tide bleach pen. A careful application with the narrow tip and oh my!  The red stains are gone!  I did a happy dance around the kitchen and then promptly gave the sampler a bath in Orvus.  Once dried and pressed it's ready for it's framing.  Oh, and for the record, now all my stitching is carefully stored away from anything that could bleed, puke or leave stains on it.

And, I pinned and laced Alphabets today.  It's going to Michaels to get framed tomorrow.  I have a 60% off coupon and my birthday is next week so I thought I'd splurge (but not too much) and have it framed.  I stretched it because unfortunately, the last 2 pieces I let them stretch were terrible.  I have to take them both apart and re-do them.  The stretching is crooked and not tight.  The samplers are puckering.  I'm going to have to be in a patient mood to take them apart and re-stretch them.  Bah.

I'm working on a  piece called "Done By Me" from Merrily Beams.  Lee of Lake Stitcher challenged us to stitch a piece from our stash during our birthday month that is Older and Better.  So, to further explain what this is, here's Lee's explanation:
"In order to keep reminding myself about the whole "older, wiser, more gracious and better" thing, I'm going to do a little stash diving and pick one design that has been around since my very early stitching days. You all know which ones I mean. The ones that you bought in 19whatever and loved and never got around to stitching. And every time you decide to weed out your stash, you wonder why you never stitched it. Well, I'm going to choose one of those. Maybe update the fabric and thread choices a little, but at heart it'll still be an oldie but goodie. And I'm going to try to finish it before my next birthday".
So that's what I'm doing.  Done By Me was published the year I started stitching.  That would be 1982. I decided not to change anything about it, not the DMC 1980's colors or the fabric. My only update will be to include the year 2011 to it which will require me to shrink down a bird in order to put the date in.  That's it.  It's stitched in those rust, mossy greens, mauves and steel blues of the 1980s, such a throw back but somehow a little contemporary.  I'm enjoying stitching it, oddly enough.
And, I've kitted up some LHN ornaments, worked on some July 4th Wips from last year and got out some things to finish.  Oh, finish. There's something I don't do often.  Is the moon blue?

OMGosh, I've written a novella.  Sorry kids, I guess I had a lot to say.  Well, tomorrow, I WILL take some pictures.  And actually post them.  I'm glad you all stuck around for me.  I hope you'll come back to Joanie's World cause you never know what zany thing is going to happen to me next.  Who knows, I may get a JOB!   Woot.