How did it get to be Friday already? I swear it was just Tuesday a minute ago . . . wasn't it?
I've been working steadily on Marriage of Minds. This is not a pattern to be hurried through -- not that any needlework is to be hurried through, but especially not this one. It's big, it's complicated and it's a bit finicky as to stitches, all of which are good things, and I expect to be many months on this project. (Our tenth wedding anniversary is in January 2012, and it might actually be finished by then!) Quite a change from Midnight Watch, with its big sections of fill-in-the-moon. So I'm taking my time making sure that the branches of the tree are properly placed, and the leaves, and the roses . . . . Y'all understand.
I've found some really lovely tiny samplers on a French blog, Echevette. I fell in love with her freebie chart "Tea Time", and I think it would make an exquisite needlecase. She has a lot of charming patterns, and even those of us who can't read French can appreciate her work -- we stitchers all speak the language of needle and floss, anyway. (There is a button for a Babelfish translation on the webpage, but personally I think Babelfish makes matters worse, not better.)
Tomorrow we go to Fogler's Greenhouse and Greenmarket in Rochester. Wiggy is packing up his cameras, so there should be some photos of our adventure.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Woodward Dream Cruise 2010
I was never "into" cars the way a lot of my friends were -- gearheads and dirtballs (as they were called in my high school) spoke a completely different language, and I didn't think I could learn it. I could tell a Mustang from a Charger from a Barracuda, because those were what was in our high school parking lot, but that was about it. That was Long Island, in the early 1970's.
Fast forward to SE Michigan, 2010. The annual Woodward Dream Cruise was this Saturday, and Wiggy and I went off to see it, armed with folding chairs, water bottles, many cameras (that's Wiggy's thing), and umbrellas. Thank God for the umbrellas -- it rained almost the whole time we were there. Wiggy ran into a friend of his, who invited us under their tent, so we didn't have to hold umbrellas over the camera. Thanks, Grumpy!
But the cars. Wow. Just -- wow. Yes, the muscle cars were there and suddenly I was a senior in high school again (hi, Rene! hi, Tom and Fred and Geoff and all the boys who owned three cars and cannibalized two for the parts to make the third one run!). And I found myself falling in love with cars that are older even than I am. 1940-something Mercuries; 1930-something Ford pickups; 1957 BelAirs.
WANT. I have told Wiggy he can pick one up whenever he gets a chance.
Who knew? 35 years after the fact, I become a classic car buff.
Not much stitching this weekend. After the Cruise, I picked Mom up at the airport and collapsed into bed early. Sunday was New Member Welcoming at our church, and then out for a fancy-schmancy lunch at Culver's. We love Culver's, it's our favorite guilty pleasure.
According to the rotation, it's time for me to put Midnight Watch aside for a while and pick up The Marriage of Minds. I need to reconfigure my lap stand to accommodate the roller bars first, and I'm eager to get started on this one. It's big and elaborate and has lots of interesting stitches -- I can always count on Drawn Thread to give me a good challenge.
Fast forward to SE Michigan, 2010. The annual Woodward Dream Cruise was this Saturday, and Wiggy and I went off to see it, armed with folding chairs, water bottles, many cameras (that's Wiggy's thing), and umbrellas. Thank God for the umbrellas -- it rained almost the whole time we were there. Wiggy ran into a friend of his, who invited us under their tent, so we didn't have to hold umbrellas over the camera. Thanks, Grumpy!
But the cars. Wow. Just -- wow. Yes, the muscle cars were there and suddenly I was a senior in high school again (hi, Rene! hi, Tom and Fred and Geoff and all the boys who owned three cars and cannibalized two for the parts to make the third one run!). And I found myself falling in love with cars that are older even than I am. 1940-something Mercuries; 1930-something Ford pickups; 1957 BelAirs.
WANT. I have told Wiggy he can pick one up whenever he gets a chance.
Who knew? 35 years after the fact, I become a classic car buff.
Not much stitching this weekend. After the Cruise, I picked Mom up at the airport and collapsed into bed early. Sunday was New Member Welcoming at our church, and then out for a fancy-schmancy lunch at Culver's. We love Culver's, it's our favorite guilty pleasure.
According to the rotation, it's time for me to put Midnight Watch aside for a while and pick up The Marriage of Minds. I need to reconfigure my lap stand to accommodate the roller bars first, and I'm eager to get started on this one. It's big and elaborate and has lots of interesting stitches -- I can always count on Drawn Thread to give me a good challenge.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Midnight Watch 8-19-10
I've been working on this for about a week, and I'm pretty pleased with my progress. Think I'll take a break from filling in the moon and work on the cornstalk (cornstalk?) on the left.
A Hallowe'en rarity for me
I'm not really a Hallowe'en stitcher. Autumn, yes; harvest, yes; Thanksgiving, yes; Hallowe'en not so much. I think because so many of the witch and monster and jack o'lantern patterns strike me as a little too cutesy or twee -- not really my thing, you know? But I fell in love with Blackbird Designs "Midnight Watch" and have been stitching on it for a week now. Love the border, love the checkerboard pumpkins, love the cat silhouette against the big full moon, love the whole thing! It's Hallowe'en, it's a sampler, it's not at all cutesy, and I'm a happy camper.
I do wonder about the floss requirements, though. The pattern notes state that it requires two full skeins of CC Gingersnap and GAST Gingersnap. There's no note about extra amounts of any other color, so I assume from that omission that you only need one skein of the other colors. Now the cat silhouette, the vast majority of the border, the trim on the house and at least one-half of the alphabet are done in CC Blackbird. I've done the cat and one-third of the border, and I've already gone through more than one whole skein of Blackbird. I'm thinking it'll take a good three skeins, maybe four, to finish the piece.
Is anyone else doing Midnight Watch? Are you finding the same thing about the amount of Blackbird needed?
I do wonder about the floss requirements, though. The pattern notes state that it requires two full skeins of CC Gingersnap and GAST Gingersnap. There's no note about extra amounts of any other color, so I assume from that omission that you only need one skein of the other colors. Now the cat silhouette, the vast majority of the border, the trim on the house and at least one-half of the alphabet are done in CC Blackbird. I've done the cat and one-third of the border, and I've already gone through more than one whole skein of Blackbird. I'm thinking it'll take a good three skeins, maybe four, to finish the piece.
Is anyone else doing Midnight Watch? Are you finding the same thing about the amount of Blackbird needed?
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Why "early Sunday morning"?
Because it's the first day of the week; the day of rest, the day of connecting with your God, in whatever form or location you find God. Because Sundays are also for having brunch, reading the paper, having an extra cup of coffee, taking some time to slow down and see what's actually going on around you. And in my case, doing some peaceful stitching, maybe baking something sweet that will put smiles on the faces of those I love. That's the best part.
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