I found my ideal weight

Hiya.  How the heck are you?  I'm about menopaused out.  Ishkaboobled day I had, let me tell you!  Nothing went right and the more frustrated I became, the hotter the flash, the more chocolate I ate, the more potty mouth I yelled.  

 But anyway, I finished a little project.  My interfacing choice of late has been lightweight but it really doesn't feel like that.  For this little pillow I tried the midweight and guess what?  Unless my mind is backwards, it feels lighter than the lightweight.  Very nice body and stiffness.  I'll have to do a comparison on the same fabric to really tell.  For now, my ideal weight is this one.  To avoid choices, decisions, and confusion, I would rather have one product to use for all projects.  It just makes my life easier.  That little 3 drawer chest that was going to hold three needle sizes - forget it.  I'm sticking with one size and  getting rid of the rest.

 

Here's the little pillow.  I found this chart, Dutch Sampler, when I was doing the Ebay listings and planned on selling it, but I'm glad I changed my mind.  I think this design fits a lot of decors, even primitive, and it was a very quick and easy stitch.  There is an error on the chart but easily corrected.  It's OOP but on Ebay right now and Etsy. 

This is the book.  The sampler is very nice also but I really like the friend pillow.  I backed it with a brown that has a little blue dot.

I had to buy a new printer which has been the hold-up on the tags.  Didn't really want HP again and after an easy set-up, two color cartridges wouldn't align and the intake rollers mark every sheet.  Not happy.  Bud liked the box though.

I found two new items last week and with wood everywhere and the rest of the crowded mess, I just stuck them here for now.  I love red boxes and this is a ???? butter churn thingy-ma-do?

Tomorrow it's back to the doc that did the EVLA on my legs last year, which failed, and my legs are worse than before so they want another 2 hour ultrasound.  If they think I'm going through another EVLA, they're nuts.  We'll see what the test shows.

Thanks for all the entries for the pear!  Oh.  One of the blogs I wanted to mention is Eff's Needle.  I came across her post on the Mary Beale sampler wreath and enjoyed seeing her other work.  Translate button is at the top of her page.  I really love the Beale wreath but I'm not sure if I would stitch it.  Her Christmas wreath that I stitched last year became my favorite holiday piece. 

Back to my mess!  Thanks for visiting.  If I forget to draw a name Friday, please email to let me know!  My email button is in the right hand column.

Have a safe and enjoyable end of week!

 

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Chart is posted

I've had several requests so I thought I would let you know it's here, under the Pears tab.   Some of us are busy, some ..... not so much.

Swan Song offering

Hello people.  I don't have the chart ready but I do want to get started on the offer since I would like to draw a name on Friday.  Ed is going to rip out the kitchen cabinets and flooring to start laying the new oak, so the confusion and misplaced items will be ......... well ...... let's just say MORE than usual.

The pear is stitched on 28 count linen, and the backing fabric is one of Blackbird's sampler prints.  The stem is a grapevine piece, crooked, and sporting a wonky leaf that I may change.  I'm in control so I can do that. 

 

 

 Leave your entry on THIS POST ONLY, please include your initials in case there is more than one Deb Mary Jan Bev Carol, and a way to contact you if you are no-reply.  I will open the comments to anonymous entries and these must have a name or initial.  Drawing will be Friday 8/2 at 7pm EST. 

Open to all!!!

I really want to bring up two blogs that you should visit and will do that next time. 

 

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My swan song

Hi everyone.  Just a quick post about my swan song.  I enjoyed these 12 pears, but am glad I won't have to rush every month to come up with a design and stitch it!

This last one features two dogs (my two dearly missed Labs) a black sheep (who could that possibly be?), and a pair of swans.  

Our local park which features a mansion overlooking a lake, had a pair of resident swans and everyone so enjoyed watching these majestic beauties and their offspring every year.  A few weeks ago, an idiot ran them over with his truck and killed both.  There is no way you could miss seeing this extremely large white pair, on a side street of the park.  Both of them.  Their young were not hurt.  So I included them to represent not only the beauty, but the evil in this world.

I am still not up to par and my head is pounding so I will just show you my swan song, and post the chart in a day or two.  It seems I ate tainted meat or fruit and bacteria decided to take up residence.  I am better.  I can't swallow pills so I cut the meds, and the taste is so horrible even an entire bag of Dove doesn't remove it.  Anyway, another little surprise.

This final pear will be offered as a giveaway - my cousin came home!!!  She is in a wheelchair and has her right arm held in a sling since it is unusable.  But she's home.

So tomorrow or Tuesday, I will post the details and the chart.  Tags are still coming!

 

I hope you like this final design - thanks so much for your compliments and comments this last year, and thanks for visiting.

 

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A slow down

Hi everyone.  Hump day.  Can you believe how fast the weeks are going, let alone the summer?  Winter lasts forever and summer is very brief in my opinion. 

I haven't chosen a new sampler but it will probably be one of my RandR reproductions. 

Been working on the final pear and because of your tag design choices, thought you would like a house.  As usual, what I chart is changed continually as I stitch but I think I have it now!  Should be finished by the weekend.  Some tags are ready but I want to offer them all at one time so probably Monday.

 

Ed was here briefly this morning and will come again tomorrow morning for drywall mudding.  Things have become slower than usual because of a health issue that is not serious, is being treated, and will hopefully be cleared soon giving me my energy back. 

I've made a path to the chart stash so I can browse my choices but it won't be a large piece for sure.  I'm considering these santas too.

 And we have one more cutie to watch - now there are three.

Have a wonderful day - stay safe - thank you for visiting.

 

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Letter to Eliza Low Pumroy

Greetings.  Thanks for your comments regarding my animals!  I will explain more in another post.

 

 

 

Do you remember my Letter to Lucy post?  She was a real trouble maker for me, but I did learn from her, and Eliza (Threads through Time) showed me the light in another sense.  Even with the eyelet, rice, satin, and daisy stitches, she was an absolute pleasure.  Here she is.

I was browsing for samplers and what did I see?
Your many bright colors and thought "this isn't me!"

 

My primitive style is drab, dull, and dark,
on all those counts, this misses the mark.
But your elements and size were right for my style,
and I knew this large piece would take quite a while.

I clicked with my mouse and you entered my cart,
but when you arrived, I hesitated to start.
The colors, I thought, would need to be changed.
Seventeen in all - would that make me deranged?

I tried and I tried but to no avail.
Calm down, deep breath, and a long exhale.
I toned down the threads with a little gray Rit.
Stitching then began, and soon after I quit.

Too many changes, too dull a look,
I decided to give up and follow the book.
With very few changes that were close to the chart,
once again, Miss Eliza, I was anxious to start.
The more I stitched and followed it through,
those bright colors you chose were fitting and true.

I haven't colored this much since I was a child,
to say your stitches were scattered is putting it mild.

As I look at my finish, so bold, so striking,
I realize that color is now to my liking.

Farewell Eliza!!!

 

Thanks for visiting and staying with me during this long stitch.

Enjoy your day!

 

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My weekend deadline

Hello people.  I hope everyone is well, safe, and enjoying the weekend's start.  Things have not been going well for me.  Animal wise.  Very upsetting and it's been a rough couple of days - not sure what to expect for the next few.

I worked on the final pear design for two days.  Most of the ideas I had were not compatible with the size, and then I thought maybe it should be a large one.  Really large.  So naturally I want to do one now.  But first I need to stitch XII and there's more stitching than usual.  I hope the last one (?????) will be appealing to you. 

My progress on Eliza was slowed because of it but I think I will make my weekend deadline and should be able to show the finish tomorrow.  It won't be long!  Lots of satin stitched leaves, the roof, and one more side element.  Mark thinks it should be framed, I want to fringe the bottom.  Guess which it will be?  Bingo.  I can always have it framed later but I like the long long samplers without.  I should have continued on her instead of the pear, but it's so close to month's end and I needed to try out a few ideas.  Where did July go?  My brother's 70th is tomorrow and I can't have him over for dinner.  Can't use the room with the new unfinished wood, the dining room and parlor are packed with flooring bundles for the back of the house, so we have no where to serve!  The kitchen bar is where we eat, just enough for two.

Tomorrow I get in the stirrups for the doc that gave me my hysterectobelly.  Fun for all.  Speaking of stirrups, I've had my comments closed to only registered users because of the amount of spam I receive.  Most of it porn spam.  They are wasting their time because embarrassingly, I have no idea what they're referring to.  I would have to look up half of the words, and the rest I am totally clueless.  Before I get back to stitching, I'll show you Nitzy sitting in the shade, thinking of what trouble to get into next.

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to show off my long time coming, long arce sampler.

 

Stay safe!

Thank you for taking the time to visit.

 

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Not much stitching - here's why

 And the kitchen guy didn't even get back to me yet.  This was just removing a wall by the fridge so I can have a fridge cabinet built, which creates more drywall dust than a new wall!

Here's the floor.

Yes the table is wearing socks.

Here's the other end showing the new doorway.

You can see how many doors I would have had to repaint, because I wanted a different trim color in the new room. The broom closet is a single door but those other two have two doors each.  Closing it off defined the room, the foyer, and the new door to the garage is the only one I need to paint now.  A simple solution and now I can choose any color I want. 

But I did get some stitching in and will continue to do so, in 95 degree temps with 2,514% humidity, with a hot pack on my neck so I can look down.  Between the flashes, the temps, and the pack, stick a fork in me - I'm cooked.

And finally - meet the newest members of my crew.

Mickey and Sparky.

These two are Skinny Limper's babes.

So darn sweet!

I'm still cleaning up dust and don't know why because more is to come.  Besides, I want Eliza finished by the end of the week so maybe the dust should stay.  My other project is coming up with the final pear. Can you believe half of July is over already?  Honestly, the graph is a complete blank.   My pear has shriveled up like everything else.

 

Thanks for visiting!  Stay safe!!

 

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Lazy Daisy/Busy Bees

Hiya.  How's everyone?  Hot?  If you already know the Lazy Daisy stitch (which most of you do) and you're not interested in seeing the reckless stitcher's version,  you won't learn anything by reading further.

Lazy Daisy                                            Busy Bees                             

                                                                

 I tried to follow the chart's uneven petals.  Some times it's harder to follow a reproduction than a more complicated new sampler.  Remember the completed sampler I bought?  This is it.  Very nicely stitched on linen for only $25 which I thought was reasonable!  It was the only one she had (myoldejunque on eCrater) but she had tons of magazines and older books for crochet, knitting, needlework.

On to the laziness.

I start with my usual loop knot and run it under the floss of a stitch on the back.

Come up through the fabric leaving a large loop of floss and insert the needle back down into the same hole but don't pull the floss through.

 Bring the needle up through the fabric again with the same motion, in the spot you want the petal to end, making sure the floss is under the needle, not on top.

Now pull the floss but not so tight that you don't have a loop.

Secure the loop by going down into the next hole in the fabric.

 

Lazy Daisy - right or wrong. Then do it again.

 

 

That's it!

 

 

Between the air compressor coming on every five minutes and scaring the heck out of me, the nail gun, the saws, the dust, and the heat, I'm not in the mood to do much of anything.

I'll stitch more this evening. 

 I just noticed that the above photo on the left showing part of the house looks like the stitches are crossed in different directions.  So I kept enlarging the photo to see if that was the case.   I have the stitched piece right next to me, why am I straining to check the photo?  Anyway, here's a close up and they are crossed the same, but some being stitched horizontally and others vertically must be the illusion in the other photo.

They're almost done with the floor now and he'll be back tomorrow for the doorway and electrical.  His son came with him today and he may be the guy to make the corner unit since Ed doesn't have time.  We'll see.

I also have to apologize for not reading and commenting on your blogs.  With everything going on, I try to keep my free time for stitching and avoid the computer.  Except for Pinterest which gets me in more trouble than usual.

Take care and stay safe.

Thanks for visiting!

 

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Progress, but no donuts

Greetings!!!  First off, the cats want to know what that bright light is.  Sun!!!  Finally an end to the rains and humidity.

Missy feels pretty good about it.

Progress on the house project.  After waiting two weeks Ed is finally coming Monday to start the flooring so we had it delivered today.  We planned on bringing it into the dining room but the delivery man said it's over 2000# - don't do that!

We ordered 6-10 foot lengths instead of the smaller piece bundles.  We got everything ready for him since he is so far behind.

 

Also making progress on stitching.  These simple to do vines are on both sides and the bottom so I 'm getting excited.  I changed 3011 to 3012 in the flowers.  I saw a kit (can't remember which) that contained 36 count linen and a 26 needle.  Hmmm.  I thought that required a 28 needle.  So I went down to 24 for my 30 count, just to see how I like it.  I had quite a time of it trying to secure the floss ends on the back.  The needle was a little too large to go under the threads.  Back to 26.  If you take a good look at the house, you can see where I changed direction.  I use the sewing method and over the bottom window on the left, you can see how it looks like the rows are off a little.  I stitched vertical rows and the rest horizontal.  Yes I know that's another needlework rule that I fail to follow.  Been there before, and I run the eye of the needle, letter opener, bone folder, ruler edge, little screwdriver, nail file, my nail, laying tool between the rows in one direction and it usually solves the problem.  Strange isn't it, how the same exact thread and same stitch can look different depending on direction?  Sort of like the nap on velvet. Well I did it, I'm not sorry, and I'll do it again. The top windows were all done vertically between them and the very top horizontal.   OK, quit looking for more.

I was waiting for snap rings before I offer a few tags, and check this out.  The package (which are 89 cents for 2) states 1".  So I ordered 1" in bulk online to get them a little cheaper.  Here's what their 1" is like compared to the others.  Looks a bull's nose ring.  So now what?  Do you care if the ring is larger?  Should I quit offering the rings?  Do you use them? 

 

Oh my, I just had a hot flash and my head picked up like a buck smelling a doe, but it was a donut that I was looking for.  Damn.  I ate the last one.

And finally, in my stash tossing I found this.  I lined the inside of the tiny drawers with a heavy red cardstock and I plan on painting/distressing the piece, and adding old gold lettering in 24, 26, and 28 on each drawer for needles.  Sounds like a good plan, but I think I should put a few needles in and see if my fat crooked finger can retrieve them from these tiny drawers first.

 

I have to run over to my sister's and let her have my car for the day so I best be moving.

Thanks for visiting!

Enjoy the weekend and stay safe.

 

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