Vacation!

I’m leaving tomorrow for a week of vacation.  I’m visiting upstate NY, where my parents and I have rented a camp on Lake George.  So, we’ll be doing lots of outdoor stuff and visiting with my grandparents and other relatives.

Of course, I’ve started a small travel project to take along with me.  I’ll be stitching M Designs Celtic Letter “H”.  I started it last weekend and did a little more last night. I’m using waterlilies on this, and am trying to think about how I want the color changes to flow… I’ve kind of figured out most of what directions I’ll stitch in.  I’m sure I’ll be happy with it regardless as I like the design and the colors I’m using.  Anyway this makes a good travel project as I only have to carry around one skein of floss with me.  I think this will keep me plenty busy.

I have done a bit more of the border on Alpine Seasons.  I’m pretty certain that when I finish this section, I’m going to work on the mountain scenery in the upper left hand corner.  I really like doing the geometric borders and I can see that I might burn out on the mountain stuff as it looks like some pretty heavy counting.  I figure the next section of fun border can be my reward for finishing a section of mountains.  I took this approach when I did TW’s English Garden Welcome, except the center part was my reward for all of the confetti and backstitching in the rose border:

Teresa Wentzler’s English Garden Welcome

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good week and a nice holiday weekend….

Celebration…..

Yesterday I mailed in my registration for the Celebration of Needlework in Louisville.  I’ve never been to anything like this, so I’m really looking forward to it.  Susan and I are going to take Friday off work and head down early in the morning.  We’re signed up for an event on Friday night and a class on Saturday afternoon.  The rest of the time will be spent stitching, checking out the market, and hopefully meeting up with other stitchers that we know from online.  I am soooo looking forward to it!

Back of the stitchers pocket…

Victoria Sampler has released the Mystic Needlework Smalls leaflet, which I adore.  That Biscornu is to die for!  I’ve never seen one done with hardanger and I want that to be the first biscornu I attempt.  I also love the stitchers pocket.  I think this will be next on my list of yummies to add to my stash.  This could be the piece that causes my stash storage area to overflow, as its pretty much packed to the brim.

I have a little plastic 3 drawer chest for my stash.  The top drawer is filled with fabric and my watchmaker bead cases, the second drawer is filled with charts and magazines, and the third drawer is where all of my DMC, silks, and other fibers live.  I also have VS accessory packs in that drawer for all of the VS charts on my list of things to stitch.  Additionally, I have a plastic box (which was the original home of ALL of my stash) that now houses all of my q-snaps, hoops, and other various stitching accessories.

I know that this is modest compared to some other stash collections I’ve seen in my lifetime, but I am not a “collector” and only buy things that I fully intend to stitch and usually allow myself to buy any needed materials (fabric, beads, fibers) that I may need for what is already in my stash so that I can start any of them on a whim if the mood strikes me.

I got rid of most of my no-longer-needed stash (previously stitched charts) at the GTG last weekend but had a few things leftover that are free to a good home….Victoria Sampler Green Earth and Crimson Fire leaflets.  Crimson Fire is discontinued, so the link is to my slightly modified version on my webshots page.  If you’re interested in either chart, let me know and I’ll pop it in the mail to you.

Altoids Tin Finish!

This pattern is “Good Friends Name Tag” – a freebie from the Victoria Sampler website.  I started it Friday night and finished the stitching up during the GTG Saturday afternoon.

To finish this, I glued a piece of batting directly to the tin, trimmed up the fabric and glued it to the edges of the lid.  Once it dried, I glued the ribbon around the sides of the lid.  I’m actually surprised it turned out so well as I approached it as a learning experience… I might do some things differently next time, but for my first try, I’m happy with it. 😀

Midwest Stitchers Get Together (GTG)

My friend Susan hosted a midwest GTG on Saturday at her Chicago apartment and I had a great time! Ten wonderful stitchers from 5 states attended – most of which were people that I’ve known for years from the TWBB and The Wagon, but have never met!

Jenn (JenJen3574) from Wisconsin
Kelly (marissasmom2) from Wisconsin
Melissa (Missycor) from Wisconsin
Eva (Frauevi) from Illinois
Anita (Anita in Iowa) from Iowa
Chris (NCRichards) from Iowa
Jenn (U9Corn Amgel) from Chicago
Annie (annieadams) from Ohio
and me (indystitch) from Indiana

We had a small gift exchange, where I received a cute little Whitman’s tin filled with thread and a box of Whitman’s Chocolate from Anita.

We also had a swapmeet session where everyone brought their excess stash to give away to anyone who wanted it.

Everyone brought WIPS and finished projects to show off and we spent most of the afternoon stitching, chatting, and laughing. I don’t have many female friends, and I work with all men, so the afternoon with stitching women was a welcome break from the norm. I hope I can do another GTG with these fun ladies in the future.

Susan did a wonderful job as hostess and provided everyone with little treat bags filled with nice things like lotion, chocolate, snacks, and lovely silk.

Jenn (JenJen3574) and Susan have posted some pictures on their blogs.

Only a Few States to Go!!

How fun! I found this on another blog and decided to start checking off states that I’d been to and was surprised to see that there’s only a few I haven’t been to! Most of these I passed through on long driving trips.

Internationally, I’m pretty sparse… Canada, France, England, and I think a plane landed in Belgium. I’d love to visit Australia, New Zealand, Italy and Greece. 😀

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Weekend Stitching Progress

After a Saturday morning visit to House of Stitches, I decided I was really in the mood to make some major stitching progress. We were busy most of Saturday, but I stayed up late stitching, then Sunday I was actually grateful for the rainy and stormy weather, because it was the perfect excuse to pop in a couple of chick-flicks and stitch the afternoon away while DBF was off doing Father’s Day stuff with his son.

So…. Here’s what I did. I’m 1/ 4 of the way finished with the border that goes around the inner section of Alpine Seasons. I just love the way this looks and geometric stuff is so nice to stitch because once you get a pattern laid down, you don’t have to use the chart as much and you make some quick progress. I just love the Rhodes stitches in the top and the brighter colors on the diagonal. This will alternate all the way around.

Right now, I’m trying to decide if I should branch out in this corner to the mountain stitching that will be next, or if I should go ahead and finish the border. I’m thinking about doing the mountains, just so I can start to get a feel for what this is going to look like when its finished. I would need to do one more section of border before I can get started on that, so we’ll see how I feel when I get to that point. This will be 18″ x 18″ when finished, so I’ve got plenty of stitching to go! I’m having fun with it though, so I’m glad I picked it up again instead of starting something new.

For anyone who’s not familiar with this project, visit the Chatelaine website for a pic of this, as well as many other of Martina Weber’s gorgeous designs.  I’ve been eyeing the Alhambra Garden, but have been resisting the urges of my clicky finger… mmm…. I digress….

ANYWAY, my intent right now is to work on this exclusively up until I go on vacation in early July. Sometime between now and then I need to find more of a travel-sized piece to kit up and take with me. Stitching in airports and planes definitely makes for quicker travel time.

Happy Father’s Day!

Here are just a few thoughts about my father:

• Always provided a roof, a warm bed, and three daily meals for his family. I never appreciated this until I grew up and had to provide those things for myself…
• Gave me the Heimlich maneuver at a mill picnic when I was a teenager and choking
• Brought home magazines for me when I was home sick from school
• Took me and my sister ice skating and kite flying on weekends… probably providing a much-needed break for my mother
• Worked full time and went to night school, but I never remember him not being there for us
• Spent countless hours of his free time tutoring me in long division and algebra
• Saved his family from bats that somehow found their way into the old farmhouse where we lived
• Drove me around the country for three summers in a row so that I could do college internships.  We drove to Seattle WA, Longview WA, and Denver CO. Those are some of my best memories of him
• Countless other things

Thanks Dad, for all of those things you did, and still do for me today.  I’m looking forward to seeing you and Mom in a couple of weeks.  😀

I’ve Been Tagged

Boo Hoo!!!!  I’ve somehow managed to delete my last WIP post and all of the lovely comments left!  I’m so sad!!

So a couple of days ago, I was reading Kirsten’s Blog and her answers to a meme.  I asked my friend Susan, what is a tag, what is a meme, etc.  So later in the day, I see that Kirsten has updated her post and tagged me!  How weird is that??

Where were you 10 years ago?  Hmmm… 1998… I was in Vancouver Washington, married for 4 years and had been 3 years in my first home.  I was working as a technical writer, loving my job, loving my life, living the dream.  Little did I know I was within a year of everything unraveling…  I’m over it though, and happy with my life now!

Five things on your to do list for today.  It’s almost 9:00 pm, so how about my list for tomorrow?  Pretty boring, actually, just a bunch of work tasks, really. I would like to get out for a nice bike ride after work tomorrow though.

Snack foods I like.  I’m mainly into the salty snacks… potato chips, popcorn (98% fat free “smart pop” in the 100 calorie bag).  Chocolate is always good tho!  The healither stuff includes roasted almonds, any sort of fruit (OMG it’s almost peach season!!!!).

If I were a billionaire.  Build a modest, but very well done house on a lake somewhere, gift my family, travel and find some great causes to donate to.

Places I’ve lived.  I’ll qualify this as saying that neither me nor my parents are in the military.  I’ve just moved around a lot!  This is pretty much in order…  Schenectady NY, Hudson Falls NY, Ticonderoga NY, Idabel OK, Norman OK, Seattle WA, Longview WA, Denver CO, Portland OR, Vancouver WA, La Center WA, Liberty Lake WA, Hayden ID, Coeur d’Alene ID, Elkhart IN, South Bend IN.  Hmmm where to next?  I’d love to move back to the Portland/Vancouver area or back to my roots in upstate NY.

I’m not sure how I feel about being tagged, so I’m not tagging anyone in return…. just inviting those interested to copy and paste the questions into their blog!

Tomorrow is Friday!

I Love Scrabble!

My passion for Scrabble began the summer before my senior year of high school.  My family had moved from upstate New York to Oklahoma and my father’s company put us up in a hotel for a couple of months while we waited for the closing on our house.  The novelty of my five member family in two adjoining rooms of a Holiday Inn wore off pretty quickly.  We got a scrabble board and started playing by the pool.

I’ve loved it every since.  When I was married, my husband and I would frequently play.  I’ll admit that he was a better player than me.  I usually played cooler words, but he was good at placing high point tiles in strategic places on the board.  I got better, and even though he still usually beat me, many of our games came down to 10 points or less and games hinged on what was left on your rack when the other player used their tiles up.

I’ve become a collector of Scrabble boards too… Its a very small collection, but I do have trouble deciding which version of the game I should play…. 😀

I’m lucky enough that DBF also enjoys Scrabble and we are pretty evenly matched.  About a year ago I got Super Scrabble, which truly is super!  You get twice as many tiles, and the game board is larger with quadruple word and letter score tiles!  It’s so fun and you can get some really high point plays and games.

My kitty Mia loves it when we play too….

The Wonderful Online Stitching Community

The Mailman Has Been Kind… This was the original title I had in mind for this post… but I decided the on above was more appropriate…

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered an extra Mystic Retreat class pack from Victoria Sampler. I got an e-mail a little later on saying that the person before me had gotten the last available pack, but that the leaflet would be released in July – not a problem. I just loved all of the stitching accessories with their sea-side theme and was eager to stitch them, but I had enough to work on that I could wait until July…

Later in the day, I got another message from Cathy at VS saying they thought they had one more available…. Then another message later saying that she was mistaken and that she was going to send me a “tiny gift” to compensate for my “emotional upheaval.”  😀

None of this was a problem at all – I just planned to pick up the leaflet after it was released.

So a couple of days later, I receive a package from VS that had a nice note, printed copy of the “Serena” angel ornament, available on the VS website, along with the accessory pack for the design! What a sweet and thoughtful thing to do! The people at VS have always been great with customer service, but I thought this small gesture was over the top!

I had shared this story with my friend Susan…. I went home today during my lunch break to find the leaflet for VS’s “Where Stitchers Gather” waiting for me. This is another VS release featuring stitching accessories! How thoughtful of her! How lucky for me! Two items from my favorite designer in less than a week!

In other news… Kim (Cymberleah) was drawn from the people who expressed interest in DBF’s potholders! Kim – send me a Yuku message with your address…