A Lengthy & Overdue Post

In one of the last of my pre-disappearance posts, back in April, I said I'd post photos on Wednesday ... I  just didn't say which Wednesday.  In religion class, I would call that a lie of omission..  Now, I don't lie as a general rule.  But, somehow, life made a liar out of me.  May is always a very busy month in Religious Education: end of semester and quarter tests and progress reports, First Communion, Confirmation, Registration for next September, developing the calendar and volunteer roster for next September, the last catechist meeting of the year, regional and archdiocesan end-of-year meetings, updating permanent record cards, textbook inventory and orders.  To say the least, I was slammed at work.  And then, in June, there are all the end-of-year celebrations which I tend to consider worse than work: the parish's afternoon reception for volunteers, the parish team end-of-year dinner, the archdiocesan Communion Breakfast.  There's also plenty of clean-up and catch-up work leftover from May: making appointments for testing all the children whose parents thought Little League was more important than finals, continuing with registration, dealing with parents disappointed with their children's final progress report, dealing with parents who can't quite understand why they are closed out of the classes they "need" when they waited till the fifth week of registration to come in and why shouldn't their little darlings jump to the head of the Tuesday waiting list instead of being placed in a Thursday class where there is adequate room.  It's a fun month and probably the month with the highest number of complaints.  It's also the month when I consider a career change nearly every year.  But somehow I get through it with my sense of ministry and mission intact.  But, I don't think I have ever gone a whole month without blogging since I began writing this one.  Not only have I gone two whole months without barely a post or two ... I have been doing very little stitching, which explains why I had so little about which to blog!  Mostly I have been reading and vegging out.  I guess it's to be expected that as I get closer to retirement age that it takes me longer to spring back from a school year.  And it surely doesn't help that the Social Security Administration keeps moving the finish line.  I expected to retire with full benefits at 65 and now I'll have to wait till 66.5.   Hell, I remember  attending the World's Fair back in '63 in NYC where the folks at the GE Pavilion had promised that by the time the millennium rolled around, we would all be working from our homes on networked computers and we would be enjoying shorter work days and more leisure time.  Promises! Promises!

But, finally, I do have a few photos to show you of two off-goal projects ... with so little stitching time available to me, I just went haywire and worked on a few quick stitches/easy new starts.

The first is a bookmark started long ago, before I started lining my bookmarks, simply fringing them.  I  designed this one as I went along, using bands of my favorite specialty stitches.  I may go ahead and line this one after the fact, anyway.

And a small freebie sampler [from Plum Street Sampler, I think] that I changed up a bit, replacing the alphabet with the greeting "Happy Halloween".  I'll finish this piece either as a trick or treat bag for one of my grandchildren or as a small throw pillow.





Not much to show for two entire months ... just two tiny projects, one of which was already started.

But I hope to get back into my usual stitching routines in the coming months.  July is a much more reasonable month at work: ongoing registration slows to a trickle, the summer building maintenance walk-through is a thing of the past, the supplies inventory is done.  All that's left is  preparing the 2013-14 Catechist Binders, updating catechist files and some summer home study evaluations.  Mostly just paperwork.  And a more sanity inducing schedule of 9-5, Mon-Thurs.  I may even get ahead of the game, writing and developing some special Family Catechesis Events for November and March.  And then, in August, four glorious weeks of vacation before the whole thing starts up again in September.  There's a certain comfort in the cyclic nature of my work, since I can count on breathers after mad rushes.

A Bit More Stitching, A Bit More Sewing

I have picked up Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie again and have started filling in Block 5.  Perhaps I'll have enough done in a day or two to warrant a photo.  Nothing terribly exciting: just more text.

I have been leaving my sewing machine on the dining room table as a way to motivate myself to get a bit of finishing done and it appears to be working.  From January to June, I didn't manage a single sewing or assembly finish.  But since July began, my little sidebar of sewing finishes has shown steady growth.  My most recent finishes include The Sampler Tree pin pillow, Riona's Book Shelf Boomark and the Celtic Knot Bookmark Unfortunately, my camera decided it needed to recharge just as I started to take a photo of the Bookshelf bookmark.  Just my luck!  I also prepped the boards for my little Spring Basket scissor fob and hope to get that and the Holly & Hearts ornament assembled tonight.  I have a laundry basket full of pieces requiring finishes, so I expect the sewing machine will remain in the dining room for the rest of the summer and well into the fall ... but of what year, I wonder.

Just a note about bookmarks:  I know there is a minor controversy about how to back bookmarks.  Most "kit" bookmarks come with a felt backing which I consider way to thick.  On several boards, I have read that people like to use iron on pellon, the stuff usually used to line and stiffen collars and waistbands when sewing.  I think that leaves a rather unfinished look to something I worked on.  I used to sew an unbleached muslin backing to my bookmarks.  But now I use pieces cut from an old flannel sheet.  It is just the right thickness and is very soft.

Random Wednesday

Riona's Book Nook Bookmark, My own design

I have been taking it easy these past few evenings.  May is a pretty high pressure month at work and I have been unwinding with a bit of TV watching.  I do manage to stitch a bit as I watch my DVDs and today's photo is of my progress on Riona's Book Nook bookmark which is now ready for a sewing finish.  I apologize for the unpressed look but I didn't feel like dragging out the ironing board and iron for such a tiny piece.  I'll press it this weekend when I have time to work on some sewing finishes.

As I said, lately, I have been spending my evenings watching TV: most recently, my DVD collection of Rumpole of the Bailey episodes.  I admit I am a bit of an Anglophile when it comes to television series ... with the exception of science fiction, which I think we Yanks do a great deal better.  My husband claims I identify with the long-suffering Hilda.  Some of the verbal byplay between Hilda and Rumpole does sound a bit like my husband and I ... mainly those conversations when Hilda is being a bit repressive of Rumpole's inappropriate flights of fancy or forays into questionable humor.  Except, where Rumpole quotes from the Oxford Book of English Verse, my husband tends to quote from the U.S. Constitution and other political and historical documents.  I must say I prefer the last Hilda over the first ... can't recall the names of the actresses involved at the moment ... but the later Hilda has so much more presence.  Though perhaps, I should say gravitas as that is a word that keeps cropping up in the series.  And I definitely like the interplay between Rumpole and Featherstone [or Leo Kern and Peter Bowles, if you will].  But then I have enjoyed Peter Bowles in The Irish R.M. and in To The Manor Born, as well.  With the possible exception of The Odd Couple, I can't think of an American sitcom that can equal the quality of the dialogue in British TV ... at least the British TV that travels across the Atlantic via PBS.  No doubt, there is just as much trashy Brit TV that never makes the cut as there is trashy American TV.  As to the Rumpole series, I love the well-defined character/caricatures [one has to admit that, at times, the characters are drawn very broadly though most have more realistic scenes as well].  And the satirization of the British class structure does, I confess, appeal to my sense of humor.  And, then again, the Brits do over-the-top eccentricity so much better than we do.  And they seem to have a lighter hand with comedy that pricks the social conscience, as well.  There is so much clever humor to enjoy in the Rumpole series that it stands up very well to repeated viewings.  The odd thing is that I was raised by my Irish-American mother to think that the British have no sense of humor ... one of those unpleasant little biases bred into her by my grandmother and great-grandmother who remembered the bad old days before 1918. Mom just doesn't know what she is missing!  My husband and I are alternating [or as the kids would say: taking turns] watching DVD's.  His selection is Sanctuary, a fantasy show put together by Amanda Tapping from the old Stargate franchise.  I am equally happy with either.  But I also have the yen to add Victor! Victoria! to my Netflix queue after reading on one of my favorite blogs, Blacksheep's Bit of the Web,  about a TV reality show called Drag Queen Races.  Now, I ceased subscribing to cable nearly two decades ago, so I haven't watched any commercial TV in a very long time ... but his post had me remembering some of the wonderful "stage act" turns that Julie Andrews did in that movie.  I'd very much like to see that again.

My garden seems to have survived the various freeze and frost warnings we have had the past few nights.  I am looking forward to another weekend trip to the nursery for some bamboo stakes and trellises, some more soil and peat for my second planter box, and some eggplant and pepper plants.  I held off on the last two plants because they are more tender than the others for which I risked an early planting.  I have gotten my heirloom seeds and am anxious to sow some lima beans, green beans, lettuce and carrots in the second planter box.  Bill's wicker patio chair will be delivered on Friday.  The back garden is really coming together.  I look forward to a really pleasant summer, enjoying my outdoor living space.

Well, that seems to be all

Weekend Progress Report, April 28, 2012 & April Goals Assessment

I didn't receive the Tokens and Trifles cards in the mail yet so my plan to work on my scissor keep exchange was derailed.  Instead I continued to work on The English Band Sampler and put in an hour or two back stitching my own design for a bookmark, Riona's Book Nook.  Here are a few photos.

On the left is Part I of The English Band Sampler with the Rosebud motif completed ... I am thinking of putting the intitial R stitched over one in the darker green in the open space in the center.  And on the right is Riona's Book Nook bookmark.  I still need to stitch the geode beneath the slanting books on the second shelf and fill in the spider plant on the top shelf and finish the back stitching.  Once that is done, I will finish it by backing it with some very soft flannel cut from an old bed sheet and fringe the edges ... my usual way of finishing off a bookmark.

And, now to assess my April Goals: It is fairly obvious that I spent more time on my garden than on my stitching this month.  The unseasonably warm weather in early April threw me off track and I remained off track for the entire month!

APRIL GOALS

2010-11 WIPs: Stitch Block 3 of Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie.  NOT AT ALL.

2010-2011 WIPs: Stitch four blocks on Jacobean Elegance Afghan.  NOT AT ALL.

2012 New Start: Start work on TW's Woodland Angel Stocking for Liam. NO, but I did manage to pull the fabric and what DMC I had and make a list of what I need.

2012 Start: Kit up and start the next Town Square SAL ornament: The Primitive Shop.  NOT AT ALL.

Class Project Challenge: Finish Phyllis Mauer's Japanese Kogin Tea Cozy.  Progress was made but it is not yet finished.

Sewing and Assembly Finishing: Two pillows.  NOT AT ALL.

TSS Scissor Keep Exchange: Stitch scissor keep and fob.  Still waiting for my Tokens and Trifles cards.

Off goal stitching:   One hopes that there won't be anything in this category by the end of April.  What with the Woodland Angel, The Primitive Shop and the scissor keep for my TSS exchange, my appetite for new starts should have been satisfied. Well this didn't go as planned.  Once I received the fabric for  SANQ's Part I of The English Band Sampler, I simply had to get started on it.  Now, all I have left to do on Part I are the queen stitched strawberries and the motto line in the alphabet section.  I am hoping to chart my chosen motto today and start stitching it.  I am like a child, saving the best [queen stitches] for last.

MAY GOALS: I have to do some serious retrenching this month.  As the weather warms, I can't help but hear the siren call of garden, patio and park.  Then, too, there are First Communions, Confirmations, Registration for Sept. 2012 and final exams/progress reports for 2011-12 to manage this month.  June and July are much easier months professionally, so I expect to get back up to speed then.

2010-11 WIPs: Stitch Block 3 of Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie.  

2012 New Start: Order the remaining floss and start work on TW's Woodland Angel Stocking for Liam.  I hope to have the Name Band and Borders stitched by the end of the month.

2012 WIP:  Finish stitching SANQ's Part I of The English Band Sampler.

Class Project Challenge: Continue work on Phyllis Mauer's Japanese Kogin Tea Cozy.  

HOE Project: Stitch a Christmas Bird ornament.

TSS Scissor Keep Exchange: Stitch scissor keep and fob & mail by early May.  

Riona's Book Nook

I was very flattered by a comment asking me to share the chart for Riona's Book Nook but have to confess that I don't have a chart to share. At least, not a whole chart. I tend to use this design to use up odds and ends of floss. I have charted two or three different designs for the top and bottom of the bookcase, and I vary the number of shelves depending on the length of the scrap of linen I am using. I have charted the leaning books, mainly because I don't like having to plot it out in my head each time I stitch a bookmark. And I have charted a number of different knick-knacks and curios. I vary the number and width of books on a shelf each time I stitch this design, the colors are always different depending on what I have on hand at any given moment. I decorate the spines of the books differently each time as well, depending on my whim. So, ultimately, any bookcase bookmark I stitch is actually a mix and match affair of different elements chosen from a "library" of motifs [charted haphazardly, by hand, on a sheet of graph paper or existing only in my imagination]. I suppose I could reverse engineer a chart by working backwards from a finished piece but the reason these bookmarks are so much fun to stitch is that they are pretty much spontaneous, free-style stitching. I am reasonably certain that any experienced stitcher could duplicate my process just by working from my WIP photo. It is really a very simple project.

The Plans of Mice and Men ...

... and stitchers, Gang aft agley. With apologies to Robert Burns, the plan to earn new starts with finishes of old pieces has already gang agley. When I came home from work last night, I couldn't face either of the two challenge pieces in my rotation. So I started this little Celtic bookmark on a scrap of raw linen fabric with a very mixed bag of fibers. The chart is from Dinky Dyes and the recommended fibers are, as you might expect, Dinky Dye flosses. But since I have very little Dinky Dye floss in my stash and didn't like the suggested colorway of green, yellow and purple anyway, I substituted my own colorway of olive green, cream, and rose/brown: Caron Wildflowers Camouflage, Threadworx 1069 and some very old Needle Necessities that has long since been separated from its identifying sleeve. The Needle Necessities floss is a very nearly perfect lighter version of the Wildflowers and the Threadworx picks up the green tone in both the other fibers. Three different manufacturers but a perfect blending of tones and tints! I picked out some appropriate DMC floss for the back-stitching. The end result is this simple but elegant little bookmark. As new starts go, this wasn't a terrible deviation from my plan ... quickly worked up and not a continuing distraction from my class project and UFO challenges. But stash diving through my scraps of linen started me down a slippery slope. I found another piece of natural linen that was just perfect for this CEC Tiny Basket chart and I am stitching it up with odds and ends of floss left over from other projects. And during all this browsing through stitching detritus, I found a small project bag with another bookmark WIP, this one of my own design: a bookcase. I guess I just wasn't cut out for doing ONLY large projects for an entire year ... I couldn't even make it into the second month. I appear to need the satisfaction of a couple of finishes a month, however small.