Tuesday Already?

When did it get to be Tuesday? Just a few short hours and it will be Wednesday. Whoosh, another week whipping by. Thanks a bunch to Jo, Carol, Nicki, KarenV and Becky for happy dancing with me over the Cross Eyed Cricket finish!! Wahoo!!

I now know who I am stitching for in the Autumn Exchange at the Stitching Bloggers Exchange BB. More decisions to make, but it is so much fun to consider the possibilities. My Move It Out Monday item for this week is the Redwork Exchange project. Just when I think I have it figured out I change my mind. The only thing that hasn't changed is my choice of floss. A few weeks ago I found several skeins of 349 DMC Floche in the clearance bin at my LNS. I've never seen Floche before. It has such a soft, silky feel. I'm looking forward to stitching with it!

On Sunday I finished Sheepish Designs Baby Alphabet. The point of stitching this project was to try a new-to-me fiber, Oriental Linen from The Thread Gatherer. This silk/linen mix has the yummiest feel - sort of silky, sort of crunchy. You just want to bite it! I bought a skein of the color "Red Brick Road" and a scrap of pretty green linen at Stitches in St. Charles. (I have no idea what the fabric is.) I started the project on June 13th and didn't get far. I was using one ply but the thread count of the linen must have been too high because the fiber shredded into little bits. (Just a note - according to web site, Oriental Linen is two ply, one silk thread and one linen thread. It goes on to suggest using ONE ply for some projects and TWO ply for other projects. I took this to mean the ONE ply projects should be stitched with a single TWO ply "strand" of silk/linen. Are you confused yet??? My head almost exploded!!) It was clear that I was going to have to change the fabric or change the fiber for the project to continue.

As luck would have it, I had another fiber to experiment with - DMC's new linen floss. When I went to Mattoon earlier this summer Adana gave me several skeins. She didn't care for it and wanted to find a home for it. I used L778 to stitch the Baby Alphabet freebie. Here is a picture:



















Here is my review of DMC's linen floss: ICK! It seems wrong to dislike it for being what it is - LINEN floss - but that is the root of my dislike. It has slubs (because it is linen) and the diameter of the thread changes (because it is linen) and it has a tendency to shred. Can you see the "thick" section in the left border? That is a spot where the floss diameter was particularly thick and I just left it instead of frogging it out. Bottom line, I don't care for DMC's linen floss. I'm with you, Adana! Thanks for letting me experiment for free.

Overall, I really like the project! I'm in love with the fabric - the scan comes close to showing the subtle color variations in it. It was great to stitch on. I wonder what it is? I think the floss color looks fine too, although in poor lighting the pink turns into Pepto!

Today is French SAL Tuesday. I need to get started on Part 12 of Terre de France!

SBQ - August 13, 2005

I'm late with the SBQ question this week!

What do you do with the framed stitching that you keep? Do you hang it up and leave it in one place, never to move it? Or do you have a rotation, where you have one place for stitched pieces and switch them out according to mood or season? Maybe a mixture of both?

Oh dear - this is a question I won't be able to answer. I've lived in this house for 2 years and in the entire house I have exactly 3 things hanging on the walls. One of those items is a stitched piece. It is only hanging there because it came home from a show and there was a nail to hang it on - that was easier than boxing it up and storing it! Am I bad or what? I guess the answer to the question is...I hang it and leave it in one place, never to move it. That might change if I lived somewhere that really felt like HOME.

Let the Happy Dancing Begin!

It is finally finished! I really wondered there for a while. I discovered 3 green stitches were missing in the flower pot so I had to go back and fill them in. Then the flower stems gave me fits. I *really* dislike backstitching! While fixing the stems I noticed the bows attaching the initials to the trowel and flower pot were also in need of repair. I told Mark that I need a remedial backstitching class. He chuckled, bless his heart. At long last I had nothing left but the knots in the flowers. I tried colonial knots and couldn't remember how to do them. Instead of pulling out a reference I switched to French knots. Big mistake. After stitching them all I decided they stunk and frogged them out. I pulled out my beads but then decided I really didn't want beads on this project. Then I did what I should have done from the very beginning - I pulled out my colonial knot instructions. I have just one word for you...DUH! The knots still aren't perfect but they are plenty good enough for me. Happy dancing all the way to the cedar chest with this one!













My next project should be TdF but I think I'll work on my Sheepish Design freebie "Baby Alphabet" for a while instead. It is an old MIOM project and I'd love to finish it sometime soon...

Finally Feeling Better

I'm finally starting to feel a bit better. I quit taking the prescription pain pills and that made all the difference. Who knew? Enough about that, I need to get back to the REALLY important stuff...STITCHING!!

I stitched quite a bit this week, mostly on my CEC project Garden Initials. The froggie trowel is DONE, the watering can is DONE and the pot of flowers is almost done!! If I get any stitching time in today, it will be finished for sure. I'll scan it and post again as soon as it is done. I'm ready for a finish!

Part 12 of Terre de France was released this week. I have it printed out and ready to go. Usually I start right after it is released, but I'm so close to finishing this CEC project that I put TdF aside for a bit. This is the 1/2 way section for TdF - when it is finished the sampler will officially be 1/2 done. I think I'm going to throw a party!! I'm a wee bit proud of myself for keeping up with it. It is the sort of project that I would never finish if I got behind. I'm not good with giant projects. The only thing that makes this one manageable is that it is divided into "bite-sized" pieces!

Thursday I had to take the car to the dealer and ended up waiting for an hour. Luckily I took Bless This House with me. I made good progress, including finishing one of the flowers. The flower was charted for GAST Mulberry; my substitution is WDW Brick. I'll post another picture when I get a little more of it stitched.

I am already planning ahead for my next Move It Out Monday project. I'm participating in the Redwork Exchange at the Stitching Bloggers Exchange and I know who I am stitching for! I am SO EXCITED!! Of course it is a secret, so I won't be saying too much about it here - certainly no pictures until we exchange in October! I'm all settled on the design and floss, but I need to pull out some fabric and do a floss toss. I should be ready to start on Monday. Yeah!

I guess that wraps it up. I will post again as soon as I get Garden Initials finished!
P.S. Thanks to everyone for the get-well wishes!!

Medical leave

I had a root canal on Monday - I think they also removed my desire to blog. I'm going to take a day or two of "medical leave". Thankfully my desire to stitch is intact. Maybe by the time I feel like dancing I'll have something to happy dance about? Ciao for now!

More MIOM

Move It Out Monday is still not quite under control, but I now have a much better idea of what is going on:

• I have two Word documents and one Excel spreadsheet with MIOM information. Yikes! Time to consolidate!
• All of the projects that were started in May have been completed. (One giant step for stitching kind!)
• None of the projects that were started in June or July have been completed. (Boo!! Hiss!!)

Carol has suggested (twice, bless your heart!!) that I need to change the starts to every other Monday instead of every Monday. It would be the really smart thing to do...but somehow I'm just not ready to do it. It feels like giving up, and I don't feel far enough down to give up. I think I'm starting to resemble a 3 year old, stamping my foot and insisting I can do it. Here is my compromise. No more whining about MIOM. If I'm going to continue to dig this hole deeper, then shut up and dig!

Hey, great news! I started my MIOM project for the week of August 1st! With only seconds to spare! It is a real cutie, too. Eventide's design called The Mighty Oak. I love anything with acorns.

Even better news! I've already started my MIOM project for this week. Wahoo! It is a special project from Needle Nutz, given to a group of stitchers that met in Denver in 2000. I met Annemiek on that trip and last week she found my blog. (Waving!! Hi, Annemiek!!) I've been thinking a lot about what a fun trip that was, so now is the perfect time to start this project.

So there it is, the couldn't-be-happier news from Toadlilyville. In a nut-Chelle.

Stitchers Are Awesome

My husband came home from Chicago this week with a stitching present for me - only the present wasn't from him, it was from a wonderful woman named Joyce that he worked with. Mark noticed a needlepoint piece hanging on the wall of her office and asked her about it. (I should note here that Mark likes to stitch when he has time, so he had some idea what he was looking at!) Mark and Joyce swapped stitching stories, etc. and Joyce sent Mark home with this pile of goodies.
















Two nifty magazines, a Caron Collection leaflet, a Lynne Tomlinson canvaswork design called Hearts n' Flowers (I LOVE Lynne Tomlinson - how did she know??) and the EGA Education Catalog for 2004 - lots of neat stuff to read (and dream!) about. Aren't stitchers the BEST? Unfortunately Joyce doesn't cross stitch. I searched my stash for ANYTHING that she might enjoy and couldn't come up with a single thing.

Thanks Joyce! Maybe we can meet up at Rockome sometime!

A Little Progress

Last Saturday I rediscovered my LHN Early America project. This is a Move It Out Monday project that I am stitching over one. Somehow I totally forgot about it and found it buried in my stitching basket. Anyway, I've been working on it and I'm making progress! This scan was taken on August 1st.















Last night I finished the top of the design. It is time to scan it again! Maybe I'll finish it this week. For the record, I'm not happy with the way the colors are playing out. I'm using the Crescent Colours that it calls for and I love the colors in the skein but they are not as "strong" on the fabric as I would like. Maybe it is because the fabric is so "strong"? Somehow it isn't popping the way I think it should. On a more positive note, I love the way it looks over one.

I would like to add that I am shocked and horrified that I LOST this project. Normally I am organized to a degree that rivals OCD. I enjoy organizing my stash almost as much as I enjoy stitching. I think it is MIOM that has me spinning out of control. I'm totally fine with having lots of WIPs now, but the fact that I am losing track of what I've started and where it is - well, that is just spooky. I have MIOM lists, but I guess they are not working the way they should. My goal for this week is to reorganize my MIOM projects in a new format. Let's not talk about the fact that I haven't started my MIOM project for August 1st yet...

SBQ - August 5, 2005

Here is the SBQ for the week:

Have you hand-dyed your own fabric? Why or why not? Would you like to try to do so?

Yes I have hand-dyed a piece of fabric - but I didn't plan to! Several years ago I tried Mountain Dew Code Red for the first time. Blech! I didn't like the taste. I was also really worried that I was going to spill some of it on my blouse. I was sure it would stain. STAIN? Now there is an idea. So I grabbed a small piece of white fabric and shoved it down into the glass. I let it slosh around in there with the ice cubes for quite a while, then I rinsed it out. Yippie zippie, a pretty pink piece of fabric!


















I bought some Kool-aid for future dyeing projects but I haven't tried it yet. I'm more interested in coffee and tea dyeing.

MIOM

I'm happy to report that I finally started my MIOM project (Sunday Sunbonnet Girl towel for Violet Threads) on Friday. I haven't done embroidery like this for years and you can sure tell - my stitches are so uneven. For some reason I keep agonizing about the colors. Twice I've ripped out stitches because I decided the colors were too fussy. For the love of Pete, I am stitching on a kitchen towel that is going to be on active duty in my kitchen and I'm worried whether the Sunbonnet Girl's pantaloons should be bright white or off white?? I need to get a grip! Or maybe what I really need is to let go a little...

That takes care of MIOM for last week. Of course, today is Monday. Here we go again!