Some Stitchin'

Time for more pictures - in case you thought I was slacking!



The heart is the February Rainbow Gallery Heart and was finished a while ago but I kept forgetting to take a picture. I haven't done the REAL finishing work yet. But it's stitched and that's what counts here.

Next, my progress on Galaxy. I'm thrilled with this piece and this time, decided to work downwards instead of across. Mostly because I finally chose my silk. The one to the bottom that you can see I'm still stitching is done with Gloriana silk. It's called Rosebud and is really pale.

I think that overall my Watercolor choice is not dark enough but too bad. I like the colors in them. :-) And I REALLY like the colors I chose to go with them. So far anyway! I can't wait to put the star in that starts in the corner with the bright green! This piece is GREAT fun.

Off to stitch some more!

Now That's a Plow!

There I was grocery shopping and minding my own business while the 8" predicted fell. Apparently Meijer's has contracts with owners of John Deere products for more than just produce. This puppy cleared more than 2 lanes at once. I hope YOU don't run into this one on a county back road!

Bath Day...

Okay not me! Don't worry, I shower daily. Today was a bath for Star. I've been taking her to a groomer for over a year but today I decided to do it myself at home. The last two times I took her to her usual groomer they haven't trimmed her feet so...I bathed her myself in the downstairs shower. I suppose I should have taken a picture of her all wet for you but that would have been mean. Kind of invading her personal space don't you think? :-) Maybe next time.

She was terribly good about the whole thing. She doesn't run away from the blow dryer, in fact tries to catch the air. Don't ask me! She's done that since puppy-dom. And then she enjoyed the brushing and the trimming and all the extra attention. Oh and she looks good too. :-)

I had so much fun Saturday with the 3rd Saturday stitchers. They decided to give everybody at the table names for what they THINK they look like. You know how sometimes you meet somebody and you think "Barb! She doesn't look like a Barb to me. She looks like a BETHANY!" And then sometimes by mistake you call her Bethany? Okay, you don't know? Well we have one stitcher who keeps calling me Tricia and somebody else Gail. Don't get me wrong, I LIKE being called Tricia. I even answer to it! But it was making us all laugh so we renamed everybody. Apparently next month we're having a test on our names. Our FAKE names. Wish me luck because I didn't write them down. But I do remember one of them because I recited the Lizzy Borden poem for it. You know, Lizzy Borden took an axe... That one. Who could forget that one?

I think you had to be there. After all, you learn SO MUCH when you go stitching. :-)

Off to bed! Hopefully I can show you my progress on Galaxy tomorrow during the big snowstorm.

I Hate Vacuuming

Today is the day when I run around and do everything. I have a complaint so hold on to your hats.

I went to Meijer's to grocery shop. I was greeted with lots of drywall, big white drop cloths covering the usual stuff around (including where the grocery carts are!) and a general air of depravity. Okay not really depravity. But I'm not happy. They JUST CHANGED my Meijer's about 3 years ago. I put up with it then. But now, they're changing it AGAIN to look like the Hartland store. BAH! I don't like the looks of that store. What do I have to do, go shop at Kroger? I couldn't find stuff, they shrunk some of the aisles down to jam in the products they moved, grrrr...So now you know that I'm getting old and crabby and don't like change.

Then I went to the local bird store to buy a new water heater for the bird bath. Pretty exciting, I know. Oh my gosh (OMG?) they had like FIVE to choose from. What luck! We can't have our birds without water. Our other one bit the dust sometime during the week. No, they don't seem to bathe in the winter, just drink like little horses.

In between those trips of course, I hit the library, post office and McDonald's for an ice tea. I had to stock up for this BIG SNOWSTORM we're expecting. I can't wait to see Star playing in the snow again. It's practically mud out here right now.

Then I had to come home and unload everything. The fun times began with Star and I taking a winter walk. Brrrr! No, I'm not healthy, I'm trying to lower my cholesterol. Quit laughing. Then I decided to vacuum the 20 lbs. of dog hair out of the car. I usually do this weekly in the fair weather months but WHO wants to be outside vacuuming their car when it's 30 degrees out? So that's done. Then I had to come in and vacuum inside. The only good thing about that is Star is constantly at my heels. No kidding, this dog LIKES the vacuum cleaner. "Somebody" taught her it's a good thing. She especially likes being vacuumed. Don't you think that Eureka would like a video of my dog getting a vacuum?

Oh stitching! Yes, you'd like to read about that! My ANG chapter decided for the next 3 mos. that we would do either Galaxy or Sierra. I went with Galaxy because I love stars. (Duh.) It's kind of a quilty looking thing but you can change it to your own colors quite easily by just choosing a light and dark Watercolors and then 13 perle cottons and a couple of metallics. I'm actually doing this one for ME - in between all the shop models. I didn't get too far this weekend. Maybe I should give up vacuuming? :-)

Theresa

Thoughts on Upcoming Birthdays

So...some of my dear sisters and hubby keep hassling me to find out what I want/need for my birthday. Which is for MONTHS yet. Tonight Chris informed me that it was a MILESTONE birthday. I told her "Yes, it's a milestone, not a TOMBSTONE."

We both thought that one was good enough to share with you. :-)

Stitch on! Theresa

Hearts and Housework

So today my choices are to do housework (blech) or finishing. I'm not so great at finishing. First I did laundry, made a chicken and sausage pie for dinner (yum!) ran the dishwasher and then looked at all the housework. BOOORRRRINNNG. I'm off my schedule since I grocery shopped Saturday after work.


After doing a tiny bit of actual MENDING on some clothing, I whipped out the January 2010 FREE heart from Rainbow Gallery that Janet started for me and I finished stitching. Talk about a team effort! I'll add this chart as soon as I can. There's going to be a heart a month. Talk about fun. I love hearts.

That's Crystal Braid, Very Velvet and Neon Rays in there. Don't look too close because I saw some spots I should have added more Crystal Braid but I left it at work so I went and finished it anyway. Hey, I had the sewing machine out!

Anyway, if you've ever done finishing, you know why I usually send mine out. First, it takes too long. Secondly, mine usually comes out a little - er - misshapen. But this one isn't too bad. If you're going to do these, run to the fabric store NOW for some awesome heart fabrics. It's that time of year! I also got some lace for a song that has hearts on it. Kind of hard to see it in this picture. What a bummer, you can't even see my twisted cord hanger I made too.

So I have this nice fabric for the backing and some nice lace and I ACTUALLY REMEMBERED how to pin the lace on for it to come out the right way. The first time I ever made a quilted pillow in a class about 20 years ago, my ruffle was inside the pillow. Not good. You should have seen the look the teacher gave me. I had to go back to the shop ALL ALONE for remedial pillow sewing. How embarassing.

It gets worse. I start pinning and realize I don't have a hanger. So back upstairs through the ribbon box, but do I have the perfect burgundy ribbon? No. Do I feel like going to Joann's to buy it? No. So I search through my floss and decide 814 is the best color. There I am, attaching a doubled length to my cupboard knob and twisting away (and then it falls off and I start over) while Star looks on. She was much more interested when I was cooking of course, but you never know what might fall on the floor.

Finally, I get it twisted to my satisfaction, and tie a knot in both ends so it won't untwist. I pin THAT to the heart and sit down for some careful sewing. I remember to leave a hole to turn my heart inside out.

It's all sewn together and I'm clipping the seams when I realize that I have (most stupidly) sewn, pinned and sewn the hanger on so it will nicely hang INSIDE THE HEART with the knotted ends on the outside! (sigh) I only rip out that part of course at the inside point and turn it around and sew it in again. That along takes a good twenty minutes because of course I BACKSTITCHED IT THERE so it would be EXTRA SAFE. What an idiot. I should have cleaned the house!

NOW you know why I send out the finishing. Can't you just see getting your standups back upside down and backwards? :-)

Theresa

Happy Pills

I guess I better start blogging since I have THREE FOLLOWERS! AAAAHHHH, the pressure!

I'm working on the March Tree of the Month now, taking time in between to knit some cool fingerless mitts. You're not supposed to know that I knit too so I have to hide it at home. I tell people I'm a closet knitter. There I sit, in the closet at home, knitting so nobody knows. Don't let my dirty little secret out okay? It's just between us.

This picture is blurry. I didn't say I was GOOD at this, did I?

Oh and I'm also stitching this new piece for a beginner's class. And today I stitched on a class I took at a Market who knows how long ago. A year? It's Jeannie by Ewe and Eye. Of course Jeannie was there stitching today and knew the name of it. Can you imagine? :-)

Here's the beginner's sampler.

I must say, I'm a little freaked out because the February Trunk Show - Petei - was supposed to be in the shop for the "first two weeks in February". I guess she really meant the first two weeks and it will show up Monday when I'm not there. Of course that doesn't really give me time to inventory it all in does it? I think Tuesday will be a heck of a busy day for us.

On a happy note, have you taken time to look at your life lately? I mean, I did the other day. With all this crappy stuff going on, I realized that these are probably the best days of my life. Some day when I'm old I'll look back on these days and think, "Wow. Those were the days."

Before you think I'm getting all sappy on you, think about it. I have the best job of my life right now. I answer to me, which in itself is pretty nice. Sure the pay is - um - not commensurate with the position but - whatever. I get to take my DOG to work for pete's sake. Who gets to do that? I have a job doing what I absolutely LOVE - it's stitching related PLUS it includes the business side of stitching so my brain doesn't turn into jello. Honestly I could do without some of the accounting, but I HAVE learned stuff. A lot of stuff. Computer stuff is the first thing that comes to mind. I'm still learning it. Look at this blog! I didn't realize this part would be easier than my own website!

I drive a 12 year old car but it still runs and the seat heater works AND I don't mind if my dog scuffs up the back seat. I can wear casual clothes to work which is handy because there's a lot of crawling around on the floor to be done. My job is FULL of exercise. Really. I can't believe how much better shape I'm in than I used to be. This was a good time of life to STOP working in an office and sitting on my butt for 8 hours. I've met lots of stitchers that turned into friends that I wouldn't have known otherwise. To me, this is all great fortune that I've been in training for my entire life.

Maybe take a look at YOUR life and figure out what you like about it. Surprise yourself! Because when you start looking at the positives, the negatives can take a back seat. Don't let them drive. :-)

P.S. No, I'm not taking happy pills, I'm an eternal optimist.

P.P.S. I would have been nearly done with the March tree by now had I not used Princess Perle Petite by mistake for have the tree and had to rip it out and start with regular P.P. Grrrrr.

P.P.S.S. I looked up how to spell commensurate in the dictionary before I realized this thing has a spell check on it.

Theresa