Rung hung

Hiya.  Bought an old small ladder at the antique mart to hang towels in the bath. 

 

 Hmm.  Is hub's grandfather's handmade still in the attic?  Yep.  Wonky and twisted.  Sure is tall.

 

What can I hang on the rungs?

Enjoy your weekend!

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Barbara's charted colors

No changes.  Yet.

Memorial Day

Hi.  Please visit 2012's post here for my tribute to our enlisted we have lost from decades ago to present day. They gave everything, we can give them a day of honor and remembrance.

 

I'm still having problems with kitchen plans.  After finding out the Dekton countertop I planned won't work for my design, I went in to have the paint mixed only to be told Cabinet Coat can't be tinted in mid-range colors, only lights.  Four quarts of testing later, they still can't match my color.

 

Will be spending another day at the hospital for her second cardioversion, probably next week.  She's doing OK but needs to be out of fib because of other heart issues.

 My neighbors stopped Mark to ask him about "those damn cats".  Seems they want to "take care of them" in some way because they don't want animals on their precious property.  Mark explained that they are neutered strays so there won't be any litters (and fewer mice under their decks) but they want them gone.

 

I started the Barbara Schlater sampler after recharting the border which is Queen stitch. It worked out pretty well with only one stitch less in height and width and I can easily make that adjustment.  I'm not even changing any colors - just don't give a bug's wing at this point.  But changing from Queen to cross was a must. 

 

So tomorrow will be a somber day doing more outside work with my pal Advil.  I'm also going to order the range tomorrow and get another brand of paint.  If I am told it's no longer available, the paint doesn't match again, or I hear "people like you", I will emit a sound that could call in bigfoot and my rage will be sufficient to take him down.  Check your local newspapers Tuesday.

Enjoy your day ~ remember.

 

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Finish

Hi stitching buds.  How's the world treating you?  We're getting more storms tomorrow but next week will be in the 80's.  WHAT???  Could it be?

My sampler is finished, I did the last line over two, moved the border in closer both top and bottom, and a few other errors leading to this.

 

And guess what it may be?

 

Sewn onto fabric as a cover for a 3 ring binder.  Fits perfectly.  It may go into a frame too but you know how that decision process goes.  Nowhere.  So we'll see.

  I received almost a hundred spam comments through email, but I'm not getting all of yours.  I may just close comments completely unless there is a giveaway.  

I think I will be taking a little break for a week or so and unplug. I need it. But - you never know! I just feel physically exhausted and emotionally drained.  So until then, or sooner, possibly Memorial Day, or my birthday in June, definitely by Christmas, maybe even tomorrow, take care ~ be good ~ treat yourself ~ hug often.

Stay well friends.

 

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The sun is shining

Greetings stitching pals!  Thank you all so much for your well wishes and prayers.  Chris is doing very well and has amazed the docs.  They never saw a case as bad and ketones as high with recovery as quick.  His condition is always a challenge because of a tendency to drop below 40 in a short period of time.  But he started close to 600 and they had him down to 150 within 36 hours, and the acids were leaving his system.  The faulty pump will be replaced and it was the cause.  This also showed us how things happen for a reason.  He was supposed to be on a three day golf weekend about two hours from here with my husband and 18 others, but a mixup changed that, much to his disappointment.  With the pump failing, it would have happened out there, a long way from a hospital and with doctors unfamiliar with his erratic tendencies.  

Worrying is almost as exhausting as exercise!  I've been really tired and didn't accomplish anything I had planned.  Usually when Mark is gone for a few days, I rip a wall done, remove carpeting, tear out shrubs, anything that would be frowned upon were he here.  Zippo.  But that's OK.  I worked on the sampler and came up with another error.  I'm nothing if not consistent.

See the gray wiggly beneath the floral vine? Because I added the missing stitch in the left side border, it was moved down and the start of the wiggly would have been touching it.  So I moved the gray band one stitch to the right yet it ended up in the correct spot instead of one over.  So where did I miss a stitch?  Smack dab perfect in the middle of the wiggly.  Will I remove the row?  Hell no.  Because it is direct center, I'm leaving it.  I changed the numbers to the purplish 3860 and did both crowns in the gold wool. 

 For this bottom area of over one, I charted "her sampler 1796" over two and it fits nicely.  An area this small I wouldn't mind doing over one, but with all the errors I've made, why take a chance?

 

And a note about comments.  You're right.  If you switch to Google+ your settings are changed and the only way to go back to allowing people to reply is here.  I also see that some comments are NOT being emailed to the blog owner.  Others are going into spam.  It seems they made changes for privacy without allowing you to choose your own level.   When I click on a Bloglovin or Google+ member, I can't get to their posts (if they have a blog), comment, or email.  I see nothing but a profile.  Frustrating.  I haven't upgraded to + and won't, don't have a phone that is smarter than I am, can't do Instagram because of that, and am amazed at the technology of today.  Too bad it comes with tracking every move your fingers make! 

I need to get my boots on and venture into the yard to fill feeders and offer another corn cob to my squirrely friends.  The rain has stopped until Tuesday so I may find another use for the wood.
 Enjoy your day!

 Thanks for visiting.

 

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When it rains, it pours

Yes indeedy!  Hope your weekend started better than mine.  First it was a call from my sister that her chest was pounding and she was out of breath - yep - back in Afib.  Then I get a call from her Type 1 son at work shortly afterward that he was being transported by ambulance.  To make a long story short, his insulin pump's delivery tube wasn't delivering and within hours he was at 600.  Not one to leave work or miss work - even if he has to crawl - he stayed.  Things progressed from there and after hours in the hospital he is still at 550 and in ketoacidosis.  He'll be in ICU for at least 4 days and hopefully they can get the acid down before more damage is done, but it has to be very slowly, which means his glucose will also stay very high.  Vomiting, shakes, dehydration, cramps, delirium.  Hopefully, he will be fine and they are running a multitude of tests because they don't feel the blocked tube could have caused it to be this bad, this quick.  We're trying to think positive and believing it could have.  My sister going back into Afib would have probably happened anyway after this incident.  When I came out the of the hospital I got dumped on by buckets of rain.  This has been all week!  I have a hammer.  I have some wood.  I have a few animals.  I'm building an ark.

The other thing I didn't mention was that the day before her cardioversion, she was in an accident.  In the driving rain on a 5 lane road, neither of them saw the other wanting to turn out on to the highway.  Unharmed, but book value on a 1995 car is zilch, so it won't be repaired even though it ran well and was in good condition. Which means I will probably be getting Formica for the countertop.  Maybe that's best since I hammer, chop, slice, drill, and paint on them. She will need either my or my husband's car, and we will have to get another.  I wonder if I can put wheels on the ark?

 

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Pay attention!!!

Hello all.  Thank you for the well wishes for my sister - she came through just fine.  I spent the entire day there because they want to check your rhythm for hours after the procedure.  I took the current project with me and couldn't believe the color difference under the CF bulbs.  My pinks were dirty purple!  The overhead fluorescent didn't affect them but the compacts in the waiting rooms did.  I stitched for a while but continued to make errors because I wasn't paying close enough attention to instructions.  Or the chart.  First, I followed the in progress stitch photo, but saw on the chart later that the repeat border has an area that is one stitch less.  First error. 

 

 The diving bands of the square stitch - wrong.  I should not have done them in regular cross.

Then I read that the two eyelet dividing bands are to be the same color.  I didn't look far enough ahead and thought that the band between the eyelet rows was the first and the second was beneath.  Well.  I have three eyelet rows and I don't know if the first was to be the same pink. 

 

 

 

 

 

 Am I the only one that speed reads charts?  Instead, I should be studying them and taking notes on my neon note pad. I used to.  But it seems I am always in a hurry or impatient, and one of these days I will miss something that throws off the entire sampler.  I don't have a problem with current errors because they won't affect the outcome, but I need to stop this practice.   There is nothing wrong with making changes, but I want them to be a choice I am aware of.

 

We had the air conditioner on, torrential rains, horrific lightning, hail, and today the furnace is back on.  Out came the sweat pants that were packed away. 

I received my new little sampler and I just love it.  Will probably be the next project.

Enjoy your weekend!

 

Thanks for visiting.
p.s. Why has everyone that comments turned into no-reply?  Is Blogger doing something?  I tried to reply to many that I have before, but they are all now no-reply!!! 

 

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Another day, another gallon

Greetings!  Hope your week is going smoothly.  I purchased Barbara Schlater from Etsy and love this little gem from Threads of Gold.   I also saw Hannah Lancaster on Ebay and it didn't sell, plus Lucy Redd is back on.  

 

Ran into more problems with the chosen Dekton counter top.  I thought I read that it comes in various thicknesses, but I can only get 3/4" which they don't recommend for walls, and it's a 6 week minimum.  Hmm.  I wanted the area behind the range covered with the counter material.  I also don't want to wait that long.  Back to square one?  I changed the paint too.  Now I am using Pratt & Lambert's Winslow Grey.  It's putty with more of a pinkish tone than greenish which is fine.  That means it won't be green under lighting.  I keep going lighter with each gallon.

 

Notice anything?  I guess if I dusted more often I would have noticed this.  If you look even closer, you'll see that the blue book is also upside down. 

And speaking of dusty - the dirt rollers are enjoying the warm weather, but insisting on spending their nights inside.  They're filthy!!!  He used to be shiny black.  My group of former vagabonds just love loose dirt.

Still making progress on the BBD sampler but from what I've seen, many of you will finish before I do.  Wasn't that sweet of them to share this project with us?

That's it - gotta run.

Stay safe and finish out your week with chocolate cake.

Thanks for visiting.

 

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On the edge

Hello people.  During a chore break I popped a few Dove chocolates and quickly browsed Pinterest.  A stitch I had not heard of, the Palestrina stitch, caught my eye.  Of course the detailed instructions came from the best online source of stitches, Needle 'n Thread. 

This looks like a great method for a finished edge, whether used to close the seam or added to a sewn seam.

 

 

Here's what the finished edge looks like (from her website) and you can find more about it here.

 

 

My house project ran into more snags (big surprise) when I found more split and lifted wood in the doors.  We fixed the miter but can't budge the crack to glue and clamp. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I ordered 16 1/4" width and one of them is.  The other three are close to 16 1/2". Dominic made the cabinets for 16 1/4" doors, but I'm sure they will be fine.  If not, we'll get some hot dogs for the fire.  I'm making progress and had them work on the paint color which came out about 15 shades darker than the sample.  I bought the new water borne alkyd and it's wonderful, but I may end up with latex. 

Some progress made on the BBD sampler.  First time I ever did the square stitch (that's what I call the 4-sided stitch), that I can remember anyway.  It's not a tedious stitch but I'm glad to be on the eyelets and back to the crosses.  Aging this when finished will probably be with the pearl gray Rit instead of walnut or browns.  This linen is a warm color and I would prefer to tone it down.  The dividing bands between the square stitch are charted the same but I did a regular cross because as usual, I wasn't paying attention. I don't care for the pink and 3860 together in the double band so tried gray half way through and will probably remove the 3860.

I did get a new printer but haven't added it to the network or tried the colors.  I found some large really nice lined notebooks that I would love to label.  Most of the week will be finalizing the counter tops, browsing and choosing a sink and faucet, (all online and unseen since we have nothing around here) and will end with another hospital trip for sis.  She has to have the cardioversion done early Friday.

Be good and stay safe.

Have a good week and thanks for visiting.

 

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Happy Mother's Day

To all of you~

Have a wonderful day.

 

 

People like me

Hello all.  I have a few new products for kitchens I want to tell you about.  First though, I need to make mention of the Social Security comment in my prior post.  I have no problem with people needing help and receiving it.  I worked in an OB/GYN clinic for 10 years and know how our patients cheated the disability system, which is where I have a problem. I didn't mean to get into social issues, just to tell you how cranky I get.  My biggest gripe is government employees that do nothing yet I still pay their pensions.  Like my state's idiots that didn't lose their job over the horror chamber clinic of Dr. Gosnell under their watch, and the media barely mentioned.  But I never brought that up and have no intention to.

On to the kitchen.  If you have cabinets that you would like to paint but don't want the work involved with sanding or priming, I found a product at my Benjamin Moore dealer called Insl-X Cabinet Coat.  You can read about their products here. Satin finish, comes in white or can be tinted, no sanding, no priming.  Voilà.  The other new product is a counter top material called Dekton that I found at Home Depot.  L.O.V.E. 

 Almost a matte finish, some kind of compressed rock, extremely durable, looks a little like soapstone without the veins, but more like slate.  Another looks like cement.  Which leads me to my title - people like me.  When I was browsing (during another paint sample run) she asked if I needed help and I inquired about soapstone samples.  Once again, I got the speech about how wrong I am to want it.  This time, I was ready.  I went on and on about the antibacterial quality, the superior stain resistance, the matching sink, the ease of maintenance.  She shot back with "people like you" think you know about it.  People like you don't want to be bothered with sealing granite which is not a big deal.  People like you want the look but don't want to do any work to keep it nice.  People like you should get Dekton.  People like me just might smack the crap out of you buy this product.  But I got all warm and fuzzy because now I know there ARE people like me out there!  There has to be.  She said it at least ten times!  

That's it.  Just thought those of you wanting to change your kitchen with paint might consider this product.  He said after cleaning with a degreaser, just slap it on.  Choosing a color would be the only problem.  Which I am planning on doing this afternoon.

Have a great day!

 

 

Put it on a t-shirt

I don't play well with others.  That's what my shirt should read.  The older I get, the more this is true.  Is it just me?  Do you get so frustrated with inconsiderate people in your way, taking their time because they have nothing to do that you want to shove them out of the way?  Teen moms screaming obscenities while getting their fake nails done because their children need attention?  Attitudes that show obvious disdain towards others not like them?   Young people using grandma's handicap placard in the parking lots?  The Social Security office being filled with healthy people under thirty, their kids, and the fathers of those kids?  OK.  Obviously not what I originally wanted to post about.  But why do situations bother me now that never did?  Do we get mean as we age?  Or does our tolerance fade?  I don't know. I guess my generation was raised on accountability, responsibility, and manners.  I think about how my parents gave up new clothes or shoes, no dinners out, sacrificed for their kids.   Had respect and courtesy in public for a stranger, friend, or foe.  Moving on.

I don't play well with others.  I've never participated in a stitch along, mostly because I don't like commitments.  Many of you will be in the BBD sampler group and once again, I'm not.  I plan on following the chart and completing this without checking on others' progress.  If I see stitching from a participant on a linen I like more, with colors I like more, well, there 'ya go.  Doubts, hesitation, another start?  You know how many times this would happen?  I do like the fabric and colors I chose, but already wish the count was different.  I don't need to be confused more.  When mine is complete, I will check out everyone's work.  The four sided stitch is fuzzy with the wool and I like it. Maybe anything other than 28 count would not show as well.  As for the stitch, it takes a while to complete a letter.  And of course, I don't follow the stitch diagram, I just come up and go down where I want.  It's much easier to be visual than trying to remember correct stitch placement when others things are floating around in my head.  Hopefully, they will land soon.

My brother is on his way over to pick up what's left of my broken gold jewelry to cash out.  Just a few charms left, and this.  My original engagement ring was set high and broken in the proof machine at the bank 40 years ago.  This was my second setting.  It's 18K, doesn't even fit my little finger, and although beautiful, not me.  So I think I will have him remove the diamond and cash the gold.  Wait.  Maybe not.  No.  I have no use for it, haven't worn it in years, and it will never fit again.  Wait.  Damn.  ????  See what I go through?  How the hell can I pick a paint color?

 

He just phoned and will be here shortly.  Decision time.  And I better throw the mess into another room,  He's a neat freak and has palpitations when he enters the construction zone.

Thanks for visiting!

The final linen

Good morning to you.  How's the weekend going?  My furnace is still running day and night.  The warm up is coming the end of this week, so they say.  We've been working on the cabinet fixes and took a chance on correcting the legs - it worked.   Lots of sanding and sealing on the insides and tomorrow I will purchase the primer, or three more paint samples. 

Several of you asked if the Blackbird Chart was posted and you missed out.  Nope.  Once I see the design of the A, the rest of the letters are easy.  In fact, I usually just continue stitching letters without checking chart on most pieces, unless the spacing between is inconsistent.  So it wasn't hard to get a start, and if the chart has something different, that's OK too.

 I jumped the gun because I haven't been stitching and the longer I am not, the harder it is to start.  This was easy because I love it and the colors are simple.  It looks to be pretty worn, and in the end I think I will cut and remove the threads to be more like their antique piece.  So far- 3860, 3722, 3022, and antique gold wool. I chose 28 count natural because I sometimes have problems with wool on higher counts, but now wish it was 30.  I just noticed in the photo that I missed a stitch in the border. You can also see my cross over threads - lots of muslin snips will be on this back!

It started as apricot from this bunch of Paternayan from old needlepoint.  This really took a lot of mixing dye colors but I finally got the antique shade I was hoping for.   Should I have used the deep purple instead of 3860 DMC?  Too late.  I'm hoping this is enough of the gold to work through the alphabet and I think it will be.   Will I start again on another linen?  No.  The Sea Glass was fabulous with these colors, but I was afraid the wool threads would start shredding when pulled through the coarse fabric.  Maybe not - but this is all I dyed and I didn't want to take the chance.  I may work on it more this evening but that depends on how sore my arthritic right hand is after more sanding.  At least I have something to work on that I'm excited about.   Too many other projects going on and that can create a slump that is hard to crawl out of.

 

Enjoy your Sunday!

Thanks for visiting.

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BBD stitch-along

Good morning.  Before running out the door, I had to pull a few things together after seeing Blackbird Design's stitch-along post here.  (Photo from their blog.)

 

Love this little sampler.  I pulled a piece of R&R's Sea Glass thinking these colors would be perfect on it.  Couldn't wait for them to release more details and wanted to start on linen choice. I need to change the gold to 3829 - again - and maybe even switch to a very dark unbleached ground.  Or lighter with a darker gray for the eyelet section. Or not.  See?  I hate having to start something new. 

Colors, sizes, background, one thread or two - AWK!  Having a family of few, and not a stitcher in sight, I won't be passing it to other members as they suggested.  Just me.  The lone stitcher.  Who can't decide on 30 Sea Glass or 35 Mink. Lambswool 40?  Who may do it all!  Who has to get out the door for errands. 

 

I'm not the only one that gets the evil eye from this tiny princess.  She chased Squeak away shortly after this was snapped.  Old man Bud is tired of fighting and is sleeping sitting up.  He does that a lot.  We were watching tv one evening and he just fell over!

 

 

Enjoy your weekend!  Stay safe.

Thanks for stopping by.