Red

 

I had a few unfinished heavy wooden heart boxes from decades ago, only kept the smallest.  Today I finally painted it, to match the little basket.

 

Used two shades of red over black, tried to get an old look to the smooth wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other red was found on the bottom on my favorite brown 3 gallon crock.  Mark was doing some spring cleaning and loaded the kitchen with the brown crocks and jugs for me to wash.  When I turned it upside down to dry, I realized the bottom is red.  Hmm.  None of the others are and now I know why this piece is not the rich deep brown of all the others.

 

 

And while feeding the girls, we caught a glimpse of another red. 

 

 

Woody.  Good grief the Pileated is back.  Please stay away from the house Woody!!  You're within 25 feet and we have a Pecker Free zone of 50 so move back!

 

And the final red, another bag of grapes.  I used almost 2Tbsp of brown sugar in the Greek yogurt and oh my, I need to find my will power.

 

Have a great start to your week.

 

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Ruby Slippers

Before I get to the threads, friends on Facebook are requests from stitchers or primitive decorators, the only reason I visit FB.  Once I accept a request, I see their posts and anything they share including family news of people I do not know.  These photos come up on their posts because they are appalled by what they have seen and are sharing the "news" of disgusting abuse and neglect.  This last one of those two posing over the bloody dog in shock was just too much.  I wanted to clarify that these horrors are not from sites I visit, they come up in friend posts as I review for needlework. 

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Anonymous - you asked where I found the Ruby Slipper conversion.  The DMC is 3831 and GAST is Mulberry.  BUT, I found out that is incorrect.  Why?  Monroe's thread lists Ruby Slippers as GAST but it's listed here as Crescent Colours, because that color name is used by both.   I made the error of not reading the column titles and assumed the Ruby was from GAST.

 

But here's how to do a search by color name anyway (or for anything in a .pdf file)

 http://crownstitches.nl/web/garenconversie.pdf - enter the name of the color in the top search box (circled in yellow) and hit Enter.  It will say that no results were found, or scroll to the first instance of that word which will be highlighted as shown in the lower yellow circle.  Equivalents are shown on the same line, manufacturer at the top.  Unless the color was used by two companies.  Now we're in a pickle.  A Polish dill.  So I have no absolute answer on the correct conversion!  The GAST Ruby isn't listed on any of sites, and this is the case with a few other colors too, maybe the newest ones.

 

Note - If you ever want to search a document or page online, hit Ctrl and F at the same time and you will get the search box top left.  Saves looking through page after page.  You knew this, right?
 

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Upset

Dear friends,

I ask you all to please, please, report these disgusting, vile, evil, photos on Facebook.  The most recent, which appeared on a stitcher's post, pictured two men with knives holding parts of a living Labrador chained at their feet.  I have been unable to think of anything else.  Why oh why would you post this and give these sick people more hits?  Report it to Facebook immediately and do not share the photo so others can try more horrendous acts to record on their fricking phones and get even more shares.  I heard that is exactly what happened.  Instead of just ears, the copycats did nose and ears.  This fills me with such hate that I actually want these people dead.  I know that is sick and I am upset with myself for such thoughts, but I am bombarded with these types of shared photos and I can't take it anymore.  It is truly affecting me.

 

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I have once again changed what I plan to stitch next.  I have this Quaker Blackbird design on my needlebook and love it (even though I had to change it to fit since I cut the linen wrong).  I found the small piece of leftover linen and thought making my mini basket to match would be a nice set.  Using the midsection I will add the row (above the berries) beneath the berries making it a really good fit for the lid.  I reversed the chart so the bird will be on the right facing left.  For the round box I chose a circular quaker design and will use the same floss colors. 

 

I was directed to a shop's site, The Strawberry Sampler, and so happy to see large photos of all the designers from Nashville.  If you'd like to check out the new items without having to click on a small photo and go back and forth, and see just about every design, click on the link.  A lot to take in, but it looks like you get "nash cash" if you purchase more than $25 of those items.  I need to take my time viewing the offers and reading their notes, just can't concentrate enough right now so I may have misunderstood.

 

Have a great weekend everyone.

Thanks for visiting.

 

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Convert!

Hello people.  March is flying by isn't it?  This weekend marks 16 years that my Dad passed away after a few weeks of terror and panic caused by a clot in his lung they failed to diagnose.  I previously wrote the story and how the "specialist" punk saw me in Macy's parking lot and ran into the store.  Now, hardly any people in the lot or store since they are ready to close, so if I happen to see him, no crowd to save him.  I've seen people say they have forgiven the person that murdered their loved one.  I'm not that merciful.  People make mistakes, but for a specialist to watch someone with claustrophobia gasp in panic for weeks, no way.  I hope your weekend has happier thoughts than ours will.

 

Comments about overdyed and expensive silk thread coversion were left and while ordering the Animal Crackers, I found these.  Didn't look for the silk but I'm sure they are out there.

GAST to DMC
http://www.stitchesnthings.com/GASTtoDMC.html

http://www.stitchersvillage.com/images/conversions/Gentle-Arts-threads-to-DMC.pdf

Weeks Dye Works to DMC

http://www.stitchesnthings.com/WeeksToDMC.html

This site starts with the DMC number, but you can type the color name in the top search box (empty text box in the middle), hit enter, and it will highlight the name.  That's how I found Ruby Slipper that wasn't on the other sites, and found the DMC equivalent.

http://crownstitches.nl/web/garenconversie.pdf

I hope this helps someone.  I didn't look any further because we are packing up the smart tv to exchange since the backlight slowly darkens the screen.  Over and over and over.  It was only smart for two days.

Possible next project for the little round box I bought with the picnic basket.  40 count is perfect.  Stitched it once on the fabric covered box for my cousin Pat, personalized.  Her mom's name was Jenny and I used Pat's initials and those of her sister with early dementia instead of the date.

 

 

We are covered in heavy wet snow and will have very cold temps for a while. 

Have a great weekend.

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Over one, The End

This is it.  All other drawings, diagrams, videos, gone.  Except for Barbara's suggestion on the fine cloth beneath.  Still holding on to that and will give it a try too.  But this one absolutely makes sense to me.  My problem with over one is not only ugly twisted bumps of a stitch, it's the floss disappearing behind the linen weave.  Very hard to explain, but seeing this method in a diagram sunk in.  You must cross over two threads on the back.  Bingo.  But looking at my linen and trying to do it, just confused the heck out of me... because ....  I stitch from bottom to top, left to right.  That creates a straight line of floss on the back that doesn't cross over. Well you can't do that.  Left to right is done top to bottom, opposite of mine.  Of course.  By going over two threads on the back and following this sequence, my floss cannot slip behind.  The ugly twisted bumps will stand proudly. You can click on these photos, then right click to print if you want them for a reference.  I asked Joanie F's permission and since there is no credit printed on them, we don't know where they came from. 

 

And one other thing - the grapes.  Still sucking down sour grapes but I made a similar dish to the big grape salad recipe and it's just as good.  Use one single serve Oikos vanilla Triple Zero Greek yogurt ( you can make two or three servings from this), adding about 1Tbsp brown sugar (to your taste), and sprinkling with pecans (or walnuts), add the grapes and it tastes just as good as the larger higher fat recipe.  It's the brown sugar that gives that great flavor to the grapes.  We added bananas too.  Next time, apples or coconut flakes.  Wonderful!  And easy for small or single servings. 

Glad to say that I let go of my Basic Cloth packages to someone who loves that fabric.  

 The wind today is violent and I just heard something hit the house, probably another limb.  My husband is on the golf course.  I doubt he will make any pars, and the only birdies will be whizzing by in the wind.  Better duck!

 

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What a difference a day makes

I went from wanting Monroe, a tiny picnic, miniature sampler, a filled cart at 123, to ..... eh.  I should have known better than to not have another project at the ready so there would be no slack time.  But I failed.  Slumping slacker I am.  Have no desire to even look through charts.  So instead I started another pile for reduction.  Another bag of floss, this time almost 400 skeins, shipped out yesterday to the next in line from the prior offer.  That will probably be all of it.  No one was interested in the Soie d'Alger I tried to sell a while ago so out it went along with the cards of Alpaca and remaining Whisper.  I just don't want to continue storing items I have not and never will use. 

For some reason, Basic Cloth is something I just keep putting back.  I won't stitch it but love the fabric so maybe I will find another use for it. 

Tons of small freebies and notes, instructions, hints, tips, take up several thick folders and I will go through them next.  In that group, is the detailed instruction for over one stitching from Joanie F that I will be holding on to.  It makes good sense to me and is different from what I've always done, so it may be the solution.

My extra wide LoRan magnetic board that I used to use is now hanging over my sewing machine to keep needles and dodads handy.  The large clips can hold instructions or pattern, and especially small pouches for rulers, pokes, and rippers.  Mark drilled slotted holes for hanging but I will use screws for securing it to the wall, otherwise, it moves outward when removing something from a strong magnet.  It will keep small items that I continually lose in one place and be smack in front of me. 

 

Another thing I don't need is a very nicely made tote, I believe for a frame of some sort.  It is heavy loop soft pile fabric lined with a very nice sort of silky material.  Gusseted bottom, 16" wide and 24" long.  Black twill straps and Velcro top strip for closing.  The lining is a grayish color and the outside a dark blue.

 

I will probably sell this for $20 including shipping (USA) because I have another that is short and wide for a frame that I don't even use.  That will be the next to go.

 

I've asked Mark to hide my Dove chocolate because I NEED to lose weight and have no will power.  Unfortunately, this is a task he doesn't excel in.  I have found them every time, so asked him to lock them in his car.  He's afraid he will need to replace a window so declined my request.

 

We set up a new TV today, ultra high def and in order to get a decent picture, we need to rent a cable box for another $15 a month.  The other HD TVs are sharp and clear without the box but not this one.  It's a "smart" tv that connects to my wireless internet service and offers everything everything, of which I know nothing nothing.  A smart phone before a smart tv would have helped.  Well... any smart would have.

 

Have a good one!

Thanks for visiting.

 

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