A little freebie for your kindness

Hiya!!  First off - I still hate the new Reading List in Blogger - too much text! I have so many blogs in there and if they would enter just the new post title, the list would have room to show all the new posts without clicking and scrolling multiple pages.  I think I'm missing quite a bit. Finally found that clicking on the orange "g" in top left will take me back to the dashboard.
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I've been having giveaways but still feel it's not enough for all the support I receive.  So yesterday I worked up a little pear design and stitched it for you.  This morning after a much needed haircut (I swear I lost 3# after the cut), I sewed the little bugger together. 

 As you know, I love pear shapes.  I'm considering designing one a month for you of different sizes.  But please don't count on it!  A forgetful procrastinator cannot be relied upon.  I haven't stuffed this yet and am thinking of using the Mylar inside with fleece, not batting.  I already used a mid-weight interfacing but haven't decided yet on a final fill.   I love the colors on this.  I used a piece of rolled wool for the stem and green felt for the leaf. 

These shapes are not easy for me to sew, mainly because of my lack of preparation and patience.  I just follow the outline of the stitching about an inch out, and then turn it right side outside 40,358 times to add or remove a few stitches here and there. 

Making a template would cut that time down one quarter, but I am a putz and always think I'll get it right the first time.  There are two things that help me with this shape, and also for heart designs.  After stitching, I fold in half matching the stitches on each side to see where the shape needs tweaking.   This can go on for quite a while so I use basting stitches on the sewing machine until the sides match. 

Once I have the shape to my fusspot satisfaction, I sew the seams with a regular stitch and use pinking shears.  I trim away the rounded bottom corners instead of clipping, well before the stitched seam ends, which gives me less bulk and a smoother bottom for hand sewing (or gluing) shut.  Nothing is trimmed until I'm sure there will be no more tweaking.  So there you have it.  You should be able to click on the photo and right click to save, or print from there.    I hope you like this design.  And thank you again for your concern over my wrist, for your support of my "style", and for taking time to visit with me.  Much appreciated!!! 
Welcome to new followers - hope you will enjoy your visits! 

Confession time

Hello everyone.  I've mentioned in the prior posts about wanting to talk about a needlework issue.  Time's up.  Here I go, mixed in with a few photos of Fall (ick) decorating.  And Mary.  We'll talk about her first.  The brace is back on and it has a formed cup fitted to the palm, which makes it difficult to hold small items.  I can't do it for long without taking a break so progress has been limited.  Stitching the bottom is giving me a better idea of what color I want to use for the verse.  I agree that the blue should be darker, so we'll see. 

Looking at this wrinkled piece with safety pins in the bottom holding the excess linen, my needle left in the fabric, is a good start to my confession.   

I don't follow the rules, I don't baby the linen, I snack while I'm stitching, I leave the needle(s) in the fabric, I knot the floss, I've wet and machine dried a finished piece, I don't use glass anymore, I even used a heat gun to quickly dry a spot, I insert plastic, I glue seams.  For those of you that fainted, my apologies. 

When I began stitching 30 years (or more) ago, my SIL and the shop owners were proper needlewomen.  Even to the point of wearing white gloves when going through their linens.  NEVER leaving a needle in fabric, always neatly rolling and covering current projects, following design to the letter and executing perfect stitches. I started with this respect for the supplies, the design, the process.  Forward to present day ~ what happened?   The break for many years changed my attitude, or did I change during the break?  My Dad's horrific and unnecessary death, adding on to my home immediately after for Mom, taking care of her for years and being homebound, dealing with dementia and issues, constantly in a rush, losing all trace of patience, MENOPAUSE, aging.  I'll never know the reason and I guess it really doesn't matter. 

 What I do know is it's a piece of linen.  Strong, very durable, washable, natural, used for centuries, lasting for decades, and unless the heat gun catches it on fire, virtually indestructible from my hands.  I leave my projects lying about, unprotected, wrinkled.  My SIL would be very upset with me, but it's me.  I don't follow the rules anymore, I don't fret over protocol.   Ready?  I AM A RECKLESS CARELESS STITCHER.  And here's the kicker.  I don't care.  I do this because I like the results, not the process.  It's an enjoyable pastime, which would turn into an unpleasant chore if I followed all the rules.  If my SIL was still with us and saw me using glue to close a seam or attach a trim, I would get a stern lecture along with another mention of those knots.  And the mylar!  God forbid.  Plastic inside of a project??

 When the linen is especially wimpy and I don't want a lot of stuffing for structure, I use mylar - this stuff that you buy to cut stencils.  I insert a piece between two thin batting layers and it holds shape.  Fusible interfacing?  Yep, depending on the look I want, and SIL would also disapprove.

I care about color and aesthetics and finishing.  Once completed, no one can tell the difference, unless, there is a burn mark from the heat gun.  Then again, I don't do the colorful beauties on light colored and fine linen because they are not my style to stitch.  Could I live with them on my walls?  You betcha!  Could I stitch their intricate borders with silk threads?  No.  Caring for expensive silk skeins and not being able to dye or wet the piece when completed, is not something I want to do.  I tried separating threads of a wool/silk blend and my reckless pulling and lack of patience caused a knotted ball that is in the waste can.  Except for smalls, I don't even bother to look at designs other than reproduction samplers.  Is my recklessness going to make that sampler degrade before my SIL's work?  No.  And who would even care 30 years from now?  Reproductions are just that and 50 years from now, will not be considered originals, just a piece of beautiful needlework at an estate sale.  My SIL would take it apart and study the back, which I still have an interest and curiosity to see.  The attention, care, and skill of needleworkers will always impress me, while leaving a slight pang of jealousy. 

 I'm absolutely not criticizing needlewomen like my SIL who was my best friend, or any of you that honor the craft and stitch properly.  Following with respect the principles of needlework and for those before us that offered their knowledge and expertise, will allow it to continue with proper direction for future stitchers.  But forgive me for not being a part of that respected group.  I don't want you to think I'm making light of this work by using my methods that some think as shameful.   I was once, and wish I was again, that serious needleworker, but she's gone.  I know in my heart I could not be her again, and it's one of the reasons I am so amazed when viewing your magnificent work.  If I had to go back, I would not be stitching.  Although many of you don't agree, I would rather be a reckless stitcher, than none at all.  I'm like the Little Leaguer that can hit the ball, but not far enough.  She knows she's not as good as other players, and sometimes breaks the rules, but she's having fun and wants to stay in the game.

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Jingles coming your way

Good evening all.  I feel badly about not being able to send everyone a few bells.  Seems like they are hard to find across the country.  I checked today and except for the large ones, sold out!  Ebay has a nice assortment and even multiple sizes in one package.  The winner is pj in Iowa.  Email your address to me pj and your postal carrier will be delivering with bells on!

Thank you again for your well wishes, the leg is doing fine.  The wrist, terrible.  Something is radically wrong and I heard a little snap that brought me to my knees yesterday.  I can't go into the MRI tube and I don't consider a little side slit to be "open".  Why can't I lay outside the machine and stretch my arm in?  Anyway,

 I bought another pumpkin - 55#er.  Yep, it's big.  And I hung a large gourd on the door, an added another mum.  This does NOT mean I am happy about fall.  I just hate being left out.

I painted a few safety pins with the Flat Brown I talked about.  They aren't rusted, but good enough.  I just spray lightly in every possible direction and only had a problem one time with the paint remaining tacky so I don't know if it was the pins or the paint.  Adding a final coat of a clear satin finish really helps with the pins going smoothly through fabric.  ????  Did I ever look to see if that color comes in a satin?  Nope.  Better check.

 That's it.  Can't type very long ~ the 4 hours are up and I'm ready for more Advil.  Thank you for visiting with me and participating once again.  I have a few other things planned!!!  And I still want to talk about how my needlework has changed but that would take forever with one hand typing.  Maybe next time!!

Have a wonderful and safe weekend.

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Decision made - move down

Howdy.  As you can tell, I've had the blues about Mary.  I want to move on to Pumroy and thought Mary would be quick stitch.  And she should have been.  Still not happy with the blue and haven't decided if it will change.  So I've moved down.  I visually counted and also ran a thread for a more accurate count and I am in the correct row.  This bottom area of motifs is charted in the square, not on the line, which is why I moved 3 threads from my checkpoint.  That entire verse area is one thread over between letters instead of two and now I will be back to normal.  Well... the stitching anyway.

I had one of those days Monday of playing lost and found.  Problem is, most of the lost have remained so.  I had two perfectly shaped pears sitting on my counter waiting to be poked with cloves.  The raccoon had them last night because they turned bad ~ still haven't found my cloves.  I needed Scotch tape when I was working on boxes so went up to the craft room for a new roll.  Spotted that red/brown bag and grabbed some chocolate, decided to go into the bedroom for my painting sweatshirt, saw the compression stocking for my next day surgery, remembered we needed toilet paper in the bath downstairs, caught a glimpse of my fat quarters as I headed for the stairs.   The tape never made it to the kitchen, the toilet paper was left in the craft room, the Dove chocolate was on the dresser in the bedroom, the stockings were in the closet where the TP was, the fat quarters made it downstairs, and I still haven't found the sweatshirt.  Do you know how many trips up and down the steps I made to discover where I had left these items?  On top of it all, I had a box label in my hand on the very first trip for tape, didn't realize it, and later found it under the Dove bag.  Since I didn't even know I was carrying it, I had no idea where it had gone and tore the kitchen apart looking for it.  The cloves are still missing, and so is the pincushion I made for Carol that I showed recently, which is why I was looking through the fabric again.   My rooms are small, my house is not big, but my distraction quotient is obviously vast.

Thanks for the comments about my little Halloween tree.  It's made of wire, which you can do yourself by twisting multiple gauges to form a trunk. Twist additional wire strands together and then up the trunk and out at various levels to form twisted limbs.  I am sorry my pin oak tree is gone (and don't remember the details) because it was perfect for ornaments.  Apple limbs (including ornamental crabs) are the craggiest and best but they don't last forever like the oak.  These are a few dead ones I took off trees the other day.   Perfect for stitched ornaments of all sizes.

 And thank you also for the well wishes for the leg zapping.  Didn't go as smoothly as it should have.  They ran into an area of the vein that was constricted and couldn't get through.  So.  They made another entry point in the thigh and it happened to be at a nerve cluster.  I have to say it was unnerving, but not painful, to feel something moving in my leg.  The fluid injections to numb and protect surrounding tissue from the laser's heat were directly into the vein up and down the leg and not painless.  Not.  Very sore and pulling today and will be for weeks, but certainly tolerable.  The other leg will be done in two weeks and hopefully will be one entry point and a lot quicker.  Not a bad procedure to have done and hopefully worth it.  I had to stop somewhere on the way home to walk (necessary to keep moving) so Jimmy's Italian store was it.  Taralli, cannoli, Pecorino Romano, Asiago, fresh mozzarella balls, variety of olives, and 5# of ricotta came home with me.  My sister drove because I can't turn my head to the left for merging into traffic, and I am "directionally challenged".  I can get lost in town.  She goes everywhere and always boasts about her driving ability.  We're on the interstate and signs appears for three options.  "Where do we go?" she asks.  WHAT!!!  What do you mean???  You go everywhere!!!  And yes she does, but never on an interstate.  We took the correct lane and were fine, but my GPS came out of the console after that.

Drawing for the jingle bells Friday ~ sorry I can't help with rusty safety pins.  I have seen them on EBay (homemade I believe) but not at my craft store.  I use  Rustoleum's flat enamel in #214085 Flat Brown to mimic rust.  A light uneven and quick spray of black over it is added on bigger items, and sometimes I reverse the paint color to be the rusty brown over black. Their Multicolor Texture paint in #223523 Autumn Brown is good too, but the Flat Brown is the same color as true rust.

I'm done.  Must keep moving!  I can't take a walk outside because of the rain so will wander around the house for the required 20 minutes.  You never know, I may find some missing items.

Thanks for visiting!!  Have a wonderful day.

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What the heck am I doing?

Good day to you all.  Just wanted to let you know that I am still

stitching, just not very much!  Took my brace off last week and there is no difference.  When I hold something or turn it a certain way, pain radiates toward the elbow slowly, right after distorting my face enough to pull back a jowl. 

So this is where I am with Mary.  Looking at it, I don't understand why none of the darker blues looked good to me. 

Maybe it was one of those weeks where no matter what I do, I'm not satisfied.  Regardless, I'm leaving this lighter blue.  But tomorrow starts a new week so .....

And this is what has been taking up a lot of my time.  Talk about not being satisfied.  Some times I will print the same label over 10 times because I don't like the tone of the linen and I try to get all in a set to be the same hue.  My sister can't figure out how we are sisters ~  exact opposites.  You can see how much stock and ink I use!!   I really haven't had a lot of time to check on blogs so I need to do some catch up.  This new Blogger dashboard is a pain and I can't see as many at one time as I used to.

We went into Volant on our way to Grove City outlets and I stopped at the antique shop.  Last time I was there and bought the nasty cabinet, I left behind two sweet little rolling pins.  Only one was left.  It's only 1 1/2" wide, and I brought home this very small divided box and cream can, too.

Finally, I put up the Halloween tree.  Our pin oak provided a wonderfully craggy limb one year that I sprayed black and decorated and liked it much better than this one. 

Thanks for the kind thoughts about my leg surgery.  It's really nothing - local anesthesia and a little scary whenever they go into the veins, but I'm more concerned about the 40 minute car ride!  I am always white knuckled on the road because of my neck condition and fear of an accident.  My sister is driving me so my preaching and her arguing should make it go pretty quick.  As for the giveaway, to answer some emails, you get all 4 bags.  They are from Pat Catan's since Hobby Lobby and Michaels have none that I found.   This week will be busy so how about a Friday night (28th) drawing at 8 pm.  If you didn't state in your comment that you want the bells, please do so.  Just click on the offer's photo at the top, and let me know in the comments.

That's all for now.  I have a mess to clean up and chocolate to eat.  Guess which one is a sure thing.

Once again, I appreciate your visit and I thank you. 

Have a great start to the last week of September. 

That was very painful to type.  I'm still mourning the end of August.

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For whom the bells toll

WHAT?  Does Blogger not understand there are women in various phases of menopause and PMS?  Are they crazy?   No choice any more, we have to accept the new format.  It's really not too different except for drop down menus and of course, I can't find my dashboard.  I posted a question in Google groups and received a reply that I need to go to www.blogger.com/home to see my dashboard and reader lists.  There is supposed to be a blue button on all format pages to click which takes you back to dashboard, but I don't have one.  So going to the home page and signing in, staying signed in, will take you there.  I saved it to Favorites and moved it to the #1 position so I can click readily.  I'm sure we'll get used to it and when the kinks are worked out, it will be running smoothly.  Until then, I hate it.

I've been visiting the doc getting ready for my EVLA (burn your varicose veins with a laser and catheter) in office surgery which is next Tuesday and then again two weeks later.  I got mapped today and although it's just a wavy thick blue line from ankle to crotch, I feel funky.  My first rub off tattoo at 61.  And my only. 

 I'm also working on a few boxes, one of which is the Mary Antrim that recently sold for over a million.  I did this on 3 sizes of round boxes. It's only the top portion and it's been in public domain for a while.  I wish I could do antique samplers on the boxes but I've asked sites that feature them and was told no every time.  They didn't stitch them and if a pattern is not charted for sale, I don't understand the problem.  Anyway, I'm still working on Mary when I can and thought about changing the blue again.  It's too light, and I'm too fussy about some things and too lax about other aspects of stitching.  Still want to talk about that but not today. 

This post is for ................ another little giveaway. 

I was at Hobby Lobby and Michaels today after my appointment and realized that rusty jingle bells are not easy to find.  So would you like some?  Don't know if you have access to any but thought it would be a nice offer for Christmas ornaments.  Now these are not painted rust, they are real rust!  I wipe them and then slide on to a very tight string line and spray them with a clear matte finish.  There are several sizes. 6 of 25mm, 45 of 18mm, 50 of 12mm, and 25 of 9mm.   So what do you think?  Interested?  If so, leave a comment on this post only and I will announce when the entries will end in a few days.  With the blogger changes, I'll give it at least a week. 

 Did you notice the miniature corn?  I've had it for years and wish I could find more.  They are so sweet and I just love the red strawberry corn.   I should probably check online.

For Joyce, sorry I can't answer your email since you are no-reply so I'll post it here.  I use Google's Picasa to do a collage for headers. Click on Help, How to, Edit and Create, Slideshows and Collages.  It will explain what to do.  Lots of options for sizes and layouts and you can preview it all first before saving.  It took me a while to get the hang of it and since it's been a while, I forgot most of it.

That's all I have.

Don't forget - tell me in the comments if you would like to be included in the bells offer.
Hope your weekend starts well and ends fabulous. 

Welcome to new followers and thank you all again for taking the time to visit!

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