Happy Dance Time! And snow......

I just put the final stitches in Sarah Woodham.  Yay!  I think I'm extra happy because this means I'm finally -- FINALLY! -- through with that over one verse in the middle!  lol!  Here she is!

Sarah Woodham by Shakespeare's Peddler

40ct Vintage Maple Sugar linen

Fibers called for (Gloriana, Belle Soie and Thread Gatherer)

 

If you look closely at the verse in the middle, you may notice a pinkish cast to the linen background.  Isn't that lovely?  That's from the Belle Soie Rose of Sharon used for the verse.  I'm planning to try taking a soft toothbrush to it, thanks to the advice of my friend Joy.  

 

Whew!  That's a relief!  I just had to share!  Now I'm feeling that overwhelmed feeling again.  What to start next?  New start or WIP?  Or should I try to tackle one of the quilt projects I keep dreaming about?  The market stuff doesn't help.  I've added even more projects to the "I have to stitch this now" category.  Not good!  

In other news, yes, indeedie, we got walloped (finally) with a real winter storm Thursday into late Friday night.  Two, count 'em two, snow days from school.  Although the district did mess up sending the kids in at first.  Whoopsie!  We lost the TV/internet service for Friday, which was a hardship.  :D   But we were extremely lucky.  All around us, including just next door and up the street, people were without power for days.  Next door, they're still hoping to get restored today.  I think that's the worst, losing power.  We had that happen back with that April Fool's storm.  Remember that one?  Ugh!!!  No power for days!  So we were lucky this time!

The reason for all the power outages?  The snow was very very heavy, and stuck on all the trees and wires.  There were sounds of falling branches all night Thursday into Friday.  We got over a foot of snow too.  Here are some picture of the debris from the storm -- these are just the branches that fell on our driveway.  There are plenty more throughout the yard.  Oh, and keep in mind that a lot of the snow has already melted.

 

 

(Thank goodness for the neighbor with the chainsaw.)   

And here's a good one.  A branch still stuck up in the tree.  

 

Can you guess where this lovely "widowmaker" -- as my next door neighbor calls it -- is?   Well, look at the next picture.  See the branch?  And now you understand. 

Hmmmmm.  Of course, the father type, being the father type, insists it won't fall.  Me?  I called the tree service.  They're coming, hopefully tomorrow, to pull the lovely thing down.  I haven't told the father type yet.  :D 

So that's it from here.  Hopefully I'll be making a decision sometime soon on what to tackle next.  Decisions, decisions!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!  I love our blogging community!

What would you do for market stash?

I think the title says it all.  Kathy (no blog) and I had an adventure today, to say the least.  A huge snow storm has hit around the tri-state area here.  We thought for sure our planned trip to our not-so-local LNS would have to be cancelled (it's a little over an hour away in New Jersey).  But we woke up this morning to a rainy looking day and schools in session with an early dismissal (which means letting out by mid morning to noontime).  So we consulted each other.  And we decided that we really really needed a market stash expedition.  So we went!

About halfway there, I got a message from the schools saying school was cancelled and the kids would be gotten home asap -- the younger kids hadn't even gone to school.  Pshaw, we said.  The roads weren't so bad!  :D   So we kept going.  About 15 minutes before the LNS was supposed to open, I started calling to see if they were there.  And they weren't!  Even after their opening time they didn't answer!  That's ok, we said.  They often open a bit late.

We pulled up to the LNS and were horrified to see the store was dark!  No lights!  What?!  They have to come!  They have to open!!!  We were in panic mode.  We drove around back to see if their car was there.  Nope.  We drove back around front and were just about to do a Google search to see if we could figure out what the LNS owners' home phone was when -- voila!  The lights in the shop turned on!!!!   Oh we were sooooo happy!   lol!

Our poor LNS owner.  (Our LNS is Where Victoria's Angels Stitch.)   She'd gone to Nashville and brought home tons of things.  And she still wasn't finished unpacking  yet.  We really got first dibs on the market stuff!  Here's a picture of my stash.

Now keep in mind that I do have some more stash coming from a couple of my favorite ONS's.  I thought I was going to be so good this market.  Sigh.

By the time we drove back home, the roads were getting pretty iffy in New York.  New Jersey still wasn't bad for some reason.  But we got home!   So what would YOU do for market stash?   lol!

While I was at the LNS, I picked up one of my framed pieces, Rebecca Robinson by Scarlet Letter.  I'm so pleased with it!

Here's a detail of the frame.

And finally, I'm still plugging away on Sarah Woodham.  Of course, I didn't follow my promise to myself to stitch the verse along with the rest of the piece so I wouldn't be stuck doing the verse at the end.  I'm finished with Sarah -- except for the verse.  Sigh....   Here she is.

Here are some detail pics.

 

I really love how Sarah is coming out.  I'm just tired of that over one verse.  lol!

So it's snowing away outside.  The boy child is counting on a snow day tomorrow.  I guess we'll see!  They certainly messed up today sending the kids in.  

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.  I love reading your comments!  Hope it's less snowy where you are!

Sarah Woodham progress

Well I've made up my mind -- Sarah Woodham is looking just fine on this 40ct vintage Maple Sugar.  Here's my progress as of the weekend.

I'm using the called for fibers.

The chart says that the model's verse was done in tent stitch over one.  But I was stubborn and I'm doing mine in a full cross over one.

Sarah is such a pretty piece!

In other news, we finally had a snow day last week with maybe half a foot of snow.  Still nothing compared to what you folks down south have gotten so far this year.  This past weekend, instead of celebrating Valentine's Day like we usually do, we cleaned the house from top to bottom in preparation for a visit from my sister, BIL, their two kids and their dog.  They couldn't stay long, just a couple of nights, but it was nice to see them and hang out.  And of course, it decided to snow more for their drive to their next destination today.  Silly weather!   And silly me -- I didn't take a single picture while they were here!  Didn't take a single stitch either.  Ah well!  

Now it's Winter Break this week, so the boy child is lying around being bored and not wanting to practice his bass.  He had a lot of fun with his fellow boy cousin while they were here, but now he's waiting for one of his good friends to get home from Florida so they can hang out.  It's snowing, but for some reason it's melting away on the driveway.  Which is a good thing -- less shoveling to do later!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!  Hope the rest of your week is a good one!  Can't wait for market!!!!   :D

Finish, new WIP, and some answers

So I did manage to finish Beneath the Waters.  Yay!

Beneath the Waters

Carriage House Samplings

30ct Legacy Custard Creme Linen over one

NPI threads called for

I really love how it came out!  

 

Now all I have to do is attach it to the box I made it for.  lol!

But instead of doing that, I happily gave myself permission to start a new project.  Bad girl!  Oh well!  I started Shakespeare's Peddlers' reproduction of Sarah Woodham.  I needed me some good flowery border to stitch!  I know some of you hate to do borders, but I sorta like stitching them!  And with my projects recently, there's been nary a sign of one.  

Here it is so far.

 

The fabric color doesn't show up well in the picture.  It's 40ct vintage Maple Sugar, and I'm using the Gloriana, Belle Soie and Threadgatherer silks called for.

I have to say, these are not my favorite fibers to use.  I have to use much shorter lengths and even so they tend to fuzz and shred.

I'm also doubting my fabric choice.  I keep worrying that the white isn't showing up as well as it should.  But I'm far enough along that I'll probably keep going.  I think it's looking ok.  I hope!

There have been a number of questions that I really should answer.  For starters, someone asked what the samplers in my new header are.  Here's the list of samplers from left to right.

Historic Countries Mystery Sampler (from the Gift of Stitching Magazine, a series)
Time and Season Sampler (Moira Blackburn)
Plantation Sampler (Canterbury Designs)
This is the Day (Hands to Work from JCS Magazine)
Dutch Beauty (Permin)
Lois Minshall (Threads of Gold)
Rachel Hyde (Threads through Time)
Ann Rogers (The Essamplaire) (also the first piece on the 2009 finishes post)
Hannah Lancaster (Porcupine Collection)
Charlotte Clayton (Northwest Sampler Guild)

Part of Charlotte Clayton, of course, was my old header picture. 

I've also been asked how I stitch since I don't use scroll rods or q snaps or hoops anymore (as I did in my old stitching life).  I stitch in hand with the sewing motion.  I think those who can stitch with a stand and who keep one hand on top and one on the bottom are the ones who are the fastest stitchers.  But I hate being tied down to a stand, scroll rods or whatever.  In hand stitching gives me the freedom I love.  Which is a good thing -- if I used things like scroll rods or stands, I'd be wanting all the cool ones with the pretty woods!  lol!

A while back I gave Sherry a chart she'd been searching for.  Imagine my surprise when an envelope came in the mail with a lovely card containing this.

(Sorry -- the streak of sunlight was supposed to be artsy but now you can't see the top pins very well.)   Such beautiful pins for my collection, on a nice red piece of fabric!  Thank you so much Sherry, for such a wonderful surprise!

In other news, the girl child is more than halfway through her first week of the second semester now.  She went back to college on Sunday -- and immediately emailed saying she needed money.  lol!  Our fault for not realizing that of course with the new semester starting, she would need money for her textbooks.  The boy child is through with his midterm exams and is now finishing up the first week of his second semester at high school.  Tomorrow is that mysterious entity known as Superintendent's Conference Day, so no school and a three day weekend.  The poor teachers have to go in though.  There's another SCD the weekend of his birthday -- that one seems to be a permanent fixture since it's occurred on his birthday weekend for the past few years.  But this one was a surprise from the blue.  Good thing it's on the calendar -- I had to check online several times and ask the boy child if he really had the day off tomorrow or if I'd written it in on the calendar by accident!  

So who's excited about market?  :D  Meeeeeee!   Kathy  of Carriage House Samplings has started showing peeks of her Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow on her blog.   I'm impatiently waiting to see any sneak peeks from Barb and Alma on their Blackbird Designs blog.   (Pretty please, Alma?)   Lisa of Primitive Needle has shown a few sneak peeks on her blog as well.   As has Paulette of Plum Street Samplers.  And Ellen of With My Needle.   Etc etc etc.  Oh I'm going crazy already!   I'd better stop talking before I plotz!

Enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend!  Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!