One more row

 

and Martha will be done.

Another small will be chosen soon.  I still have those two big girls in my mind but it's not the right time. 

 

After working Virginie to fit a square box, I tried Sally.  Got her reduced to fit but not sure if I can work the photo to be clear enough.  I am planning on purchasing a nice camera and want it all automatic.

 

Earlier today we went to my sister's for her grandson's birthday.  I baked the cake as always, and this time made one of my favorite icings.  The first time I made it was many moons ago for the Italian Love cake.  That cake takes a lot of ricotta and it's fabulous.  I like light and not overly sweet icing and this old standard fits the bill.  One small Jello instant pudding (chocolate) beat with 1 cup of milk for 2 minutes, then fold in 8 oz Cool Whip until blended well.  Love it and I always have the items on hand.

 

We came home and husband started cutting a rotisserie chicken for use in recipes.  Men.  No matter how many times I tell him to put a wet dishrag under the cutting board, he doesn't.  The board moves and slides all over the place!  Put the damn wet cloth beneath and it won't move, but no.  He'd rather mumble about it sliding.

 

It's so warm and wonderful today even though gloomy.  I need to take Carole to doc appt's this week so I'm glad there will be no snow.  I told her to drive her car to my house and I will take the wheel from there, rather than picking her up.  I can't wait to be behind the wheel of my old Escape.

 

I put the six red boxes on the Sampler Box tab this afternoon and there will only be six.  It takes me quite a while to two coat and varnish the interior and then three aged coats on the outside, the sealer, then the wax.  I can't just slap a label on it so no additional orders will be taken.  Sorry.  I get so many requests after an item sells out and I have usually obliged but I just can't keep doing that.   If I see a big demand for a particular item, I will try to have a second offer, as a batch.

 

Enjoy your day - stay safe!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

March!

Hello fellow stitching buds.  Have you drooled over Amy's blog yet?  I haven't had time to peruse the entire site but am planning on doing so this weekend.

 

A few things.  Thanks for letting me know about Googlegate.  Those naughty techies.  I guess those dropped can still follow by email notifications.  They already made 95% of you no-reply and now they want to force out, as the doctors say, noncompliants.

 

This is to Debra and Deborah who asked about purchasing a box.  You are no-reply so I cannot respond.  For any information about anything, you must use the email link at the top right column in order for me to reply.   I am making a few more boxes to fill your current requests but I can't take any more.  So Debra, please email me and let me know which you would like.

 

Now for the sneak peak of a sample label on an unpainted box lid for March.  I couldn't wait to show you.  I love this sampler, pass it every day on the wall, and never thought to use it.  Hopefully, boxes will be in by then.  I ordered a fabulous chair in Ohio and think there may be a Catan's close by and will check it out.  The green in this piece is the 500 series and that's an odd teal so I don't know if the box should be a dark teal, or dark brown.  I'm leaning toward brown, my favorite shade that the paint people quit making.  I went all over looking for the last few bottles with no luck.  Need to mix my own I guess.  As you know I have issues about color.  Browns can be too gold, too red, too cute, and you already know I am a wacko so I'm sure you will understand and humor me.

 

Mark was planning on golf tomorrow, to be 48 degrees, but the white crap came down today and may not melt on the greens.  Get in the cart with a leaf blower and get it off people!  You only have to do it 18 times.  I received this joke recently and got a good laugh.  The crab has mostly left, leaving me with a clown.  I used to have a decent laugh, not great like some, but mine.  Now I am laughing for almost no reason starting out with a little air sound, then silence, while distorting my face until gums are fully exposed and cheeks are almost covering eyes.  Looks like I'm having a facial spasm.  This is new.

 

One day on the golf course, a golfer accidentally overturned his golf cart.
A very attractive woman, who lived in a villa on the golf course, heard the noise, came out onto her balcony and called out to him, "Hey, are you okay"?

"I'm fine, thanks," he replied.

"You look  frazzled", the woman said,  "Come up to my villa for a drink and I will help you get the cart up afterwards."

"That's mighty nice of you," he answered, But I don't think my wife would like that."

"Oh, come on," the woman, a gorgeous brunette in a sexy bikini, insisted.  "I can see you've cut your head. It could be serious. Let me take care of that right away.  I'm a nurse". She was very persuasive....and he was weak.

"Well okay," he agreed, but added, "But my wife won't like it."

After she bandaged his wound, she gave him a most welcome brandy. They talked a little about golf and he discovered she was an avid golfer with a four handicap. When he confessed to a weakness in his putting, she gave him a putting lesson holding him close and intimately as she did so.

Finally he confessed, "I feel a lot better now, but I had better get going. I know
my wife is going to be really upset with me being here with you."

"Don't be silly! the woman said with a smile, She won't know anything. By the way, where is she?"

"Under the cart," he replied.

 

Enjoy your weekend!

Thanks for visiting.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

Goodbye George

Breaking up is hard to do, but sometimes, it's necessary.  One of each.  Flag, and no flag.  No flag is on aged parchment paper with black interior, flag is on aged paper with tan interior.

 

All new boxes will be $16 including shipping.  I figured it out (finally) and added the Paypal fee and the cost of the box onto the $12 box and realized it wasn't enough. Email me if you are interested in either.  Red boxes are ready and will be posted beginning of February.

 

Two things - is there a forum or group that has said something negative about me?  A friend emailed to tell me to check my followers, since they dropped over 50 in one day, the day I posted about the George box.  Still dropping.  That seems very odd to me.

 

Second - Nostalgic Needle's Strawberry Thief is on Ebay and it's one I had not seen before.  Backstitch outline filled with tent.  Not for me but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy studying the work and design.  So I Googled it to see if I could find a better photo of the chart.  Holy crap am I glad I did. 

 

It led me to a blog Thread in Hand that I will certainly spend hours days browsing.  I briefly scrolled June July and August 2013 and I couldn't get enough.  Cases, caskets, Amy Mitten, boxes, the mermaid mirror, and just so many stitcheries that can knock your socks off.  Most of her work is new to me since I only look for samplers and miss all the wonderful designs that I would not attempt but love to see.  Stunning items. It will take me quite a while to view it all but well worth the time.

This photo is from one of her posts.  Check it out if you haven't already.

Sun is out.  Reubens for dinner. 

Have a great day!

Thanks for visiting.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wasting time

Hello folks.  My plan to offer six boxes a month started off poorly.  February's box was going to be George (for president's day), our first president elected by the new Constitution, and also instrumental in the document itself.  Then I thought red would be more appropriate for Valentine's Day.  So George moved to January with no related reason for that month.  I have wasted days on end working on this three layer design,  and I still need more work to now shorten the width.  Before I go any further, can I ask for your opinion once again?   

 

There is a subtle suggestion of our flag as a background on ivory parchment paper, the beginning of the Constitution, and lonely George.  Cornballishness?  Certainly not related to stitchery but I've wanted something patriotic for quite a while. 

 

Working on Martha with the 300 thread.  It looks fine, no reason other than nitpickiness to change the color now.

 

 

We're warming up this weekend and Mark is waiting for a phone call to golf.  We got my car back from the hospital and I finally found a tube of O'Keeffe's for my hands.  Everyone was out.  Good stuff - thanks for the suggestions.

 

Hope everyone is doing well.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copper penny

Hello people.  Hope those of you that are snowed in are safe and warm.  The wind looked vicious in the continuous news coverage.  Whenever I see people stuck on highways for hours my first thought is always, where is the bathroom?  I would never make it!

 

This is Martha, in the series of offers that included little Robina Leadbetter that I stitched months ago.  And just found when decorating for Christmas.  My forgetfulness is still giving me double the excitement from my re-discoveries. 

 

 

 

 

Stitching with one thread only happened on 35 or 40, and that was only three small projects.  This is 32 but I thought the look was a little more subtle and stuck with it. 

Rust was my color choice but I think the 300 I chose is too red.  This little sample is 433 and it's more of what I wanted, so........ to be continued.

 

As for the copper penny linen, I love it.  It was used for Eliza Pomeroy and I only have a small piece left.  I purchased it at the only shop within a hour from me and she said other pieces had quite a bit of blue.  This one is perfect.

 

Just enough of the mottled bluish green with the coppery tone and here's a better look for those of you that are shopless and need to order online. 

 

So here's where I am, haven't removed the two thread portion and probably won't.  I'm sure there was a young girl stitching her sampler many years ago that did the same thing.  If not, an old lady in 2016 did.  But will I continue in this color since the 433 is calling my name?  Why didn't I choose it first?  The 430 series was in my bag from Sally and I had enough of those colors.   I can always do another small with it though, and just continue with the 300.  My house is dusty, floors need cleaned, drywall isn't finished, projects half completed, but thread color on a small piece bothers me.  I am so totally weird.  And another 5# heavier.

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Martha

Martha Hards, a small marking sampler from Needlework Press was chosen from a pile of twenty.  I really want to do Ann Spence and Mary Elliott, both LARGE, and I am afraid the stitching desire may be gone before I ever get to them.  Maybe after this small project I will attempt one of them.

 

For Martha, I chose copper penny hand dyed, greenish bluish bronzy linen.  It's a monochrome sampler of blue on natural but I wanted something different. 

The only shop I have, a half hour from here, may have wool thread and I thought a rust wool would be a great option on this fabric but I need to start right now so I'm using DMC in 300.  The owner of the shop stitched the bag on the cover of SANQ (the one I modeled my sampler sack after) on osnaburg with wool threads.  It is fabulous.

 

Not sure if you can see the difference in my photo, but the right side top border and the F is using one thread and the rest is with two.  Not sure which I like best.  That's bad because any choice - chart, fabric, thread - paralyzes me and even after those are decided, I find something else to stall the process.  Then of course, I wonder if a dark blue would be better ALWAYS questioning my decisions and that drives me nuts. 

 

We missed the snow storm, just south of us.  Good thing because if I was any more crabby my shell would burst.  Hope those of you experiencing it stay safe.

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~