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.  

Garden In Progress

Square Foot Garden Planter: Zucchini, Cucumbers, Broccoli, Tomatoes, Thyme and Basil

Basil and Chives, The poles are for Blue Lake Green Beans that have yet to sprout

My Garden guardian and a small Christmas Tree

The Van Houten Spirea in bloom above the retaining wall.  It will need some serious pruning this fall.


Just a few shots of the garden that has been consuming my time and energy for the past week or two.

Wednesday's Tale

Monday morning's rain prevented me from turning my finally filled planter box [4 feet x 4 feet square x 32 inches high] into a square foot garden a la the old PBS gardening show.  But I managed to screw in the i-bolts Tuesday morning before heading to work.  I hope to lay out a string grid and start the planting today between work and the Parish Advisory Committee meeting.  I bought a variety of vegetable flats over the weekend: three kinds of tomatoes [sauce, sandwich and snacking], some zucchini and cucumber sets, sweet peppers, broccoli, and some herbs [thyme and basil].  I'll pick up some eggplant when it becomes available.  And that should pretty much cover the first planter box.  The second one will be planted up in mid-May with lettuce, carrots, radishes, a second round of green beans, and some lima beans.  In early August, I am hoping to put in some late September/early October harvest items: peas [since I missed the boat for a Spring planting] and spinach.  This coming weekend, I'll hit the nursery yet again, hoping to see some eggplant flats and picking up some stakes and tomato cages.  I'll also be making the final payment on a wicker chair for the patio that suits my husband's taste and comfort requirements, an early Father's Day and birthday gift.  I can't see making him wait till he's lost a month of patio sitting weather just because of a few arbitrary dates on a calendar.

As to stitching, I am anxiously awaiting my Tokens and Trifles cards for my scissor keep exchange.  In the meantime, I am continuing work on The English Band Sampler.  There hasn't been quite enough progress to justify another photo.  In light of my recent activities, I'll have to scale back my monthly goals considerably as the weather warms.  There are so many other things to do in Spring and Summer: gardening, barbecuing, reading on the patio, taking day trips to flea markets and antique malls, picnics at the various parks along the Hudson River, enjoying membership at the town pool.  Somehow, life just seems to open wider in late Spring and Summer.  I don't abandon stitching totally but it does tend to take a back seat to other interests.  So the tone of this blog may change a bit: fewer entries a week and those entries may be more diverse in subject.  The occasional run of rainy weather may restore stitching to its more usual priority but for the most part, things will slow down a bit till Fall.

Weekend Progress Report: April 22, 2012

This has been one of those weeks that I didn't blog much so this post will be longer than usual.  I didn't manage to get in any stitching time on Monday at all.  But Tuesday morning, I managed to squeeze in some twenty minutes or so after breakfast.  And I managed a bit more early morning stitching on Wednesday.  In spite of the pollen counts, I have been having my breakfast and my morning stitching on the patio.  Having been diagnosed with a Vitamin D deficiency at my last physical has made me more conscious of the need to get a little more sunshine in my life.  My project for the week, Phyllis Mauer's Kogin Tea Cozy pattern is very easy: all straight stitches of varying sizes.  The trick is in the counting and the placement.  And even that is a relatively simple process.  So this piece is the perfect early morning project for a bit of drowsy outdoor stitching before one has finished that first mug of life giving Assam or Irish Breakfast.  However, Thursday morning was just a bit too cool for the patio.  Even with the best of wills, I can't stitch with cold fingers.  But Friday the weather was balmy and I spent my day off relaxing on the patio reading, napping and intending to stitch but never quite getting round to it.  All I really got accomplished was trimming away some hideous vines that were growing over the fence from the neighbor's yard and planting some Blue Lake green beans.  Saturday was more organized if only because I had more to do: getting to the nursery for 4 more bags of soil and 1 more bag of peat and assorted  vegetable flats, catching up on the laundry, cooking and baking ahead for the next few days and doing a quick housekeeping of the living room, dining room and hall.  My youngest son came Saturday afternoon and helped with adding the soil to the planter box.  He then stayed for a very pleasant visit.  I am beginning to think of my planter boxes as huge black holes:  we had to buy 4 more bags of soil on Sunday but, at last, one of the boxes is finally ready for planting.  I filled the second planter box two thirds of the way full of dead leaves and will let it season till mid May in hopes that I'll be able to halve the total of  14 bags of soil and 2 bags of peat greedily consumed by the first planter box.

Mauer's Japanese Kogin Tea Cozy

English Band Sampler, Final band, Part I

As to stitching this past week, here are photos of my progress on the two pieces that saw any stitching at all.  I alternated between the two projects you see pictured here: two very different pieces in style and technique.



Wednesday afternoon, when I got home from work shortly after 5pm,  I had to breach a barricade of packages, boxes and bags just to enter the house.  The milkman had made his delivery, my seeds had arrived as had my order of loose leaf teas from Culinary Teas and the latest Nora Roberts book, The Witness.  And there were three packages for my husband as well.  Since I went to bed before he got home, I still don't know what he had ordered.  I have mentioned before that I dislike the chore of shopping.  All that sweaty effort of running hither and yon, wasting gas, and you still end up settling for not quite what you set out to buy.  This is why the internet is such a boon: the endless variety, the delivery to one's doorstep, the effortlessness of sitting at one's computer in one's pajamas with a cup of tea at one's elbow.  Of course, Wednesday's bonanza was unique enough to comment upon; often weeks, even months, go by without a package.  Bill and I must have been bitten by the consumer bug at much the same time.  Next week will be another week of "deliveries" but this time from Girl Scouts bearing cookies.  Word has gotten out in my religious education program that Mrs. D used to be a Girl Scout leader and Service Unit Chair.  Four of my students came with their cookie sales sheets and of course I bought several boxes from each.  I am only afraid that the numbers of Girl Scouts will rise in a geometric progression next year as the word continues to spread.  As it is, I'll be donating a lot of cookies to our Midnight Run  for the NYC homeless.  But, what can I say, I remember the years my daughter sold cookies to earn enough for camping trips or other outings.  It's a good cause and who can resist a little girl's hopeful smile as she asks you to buy cookies?

I also admitted defeat in my search for my Tokens and Trifles triangles and ordered another package.  Given Murphy's Law, this means I shall find the missing pair any moment now and then have four extra in my stash when the replacements arrive.  But I have to get cracking on my scissor pocket exchange.    I also pulled the fabric for my Christmas Bird ornament exchange but have yet to cut  and bind the edges of the two pieces needed.  I have a favorite chart that is quick and easy to stitch and has the added advantage of using up any odds and ends of colorful floss one happens to have on hand.  So, if this week is all about the Tea Cozy, next week will be all about exchanges.

Photos to Go With Yesterday's Post

The new planter boxes

Here are the promised photos, now that my camera battery is properly recharged.  I am very pleased with the new planter boxes and will be even more pleased once I have finished filling them sometime this weekend.  I expect I'll be haunting my favorite nursery over the next few weeks, purchasing topsoil and peat and sand, checking out the vegetable seedlings as they arrive, picking out my stakes and trellises.  I am also anxiously awaiting my package of heirloom seeds so I can get some seedlings of my own started.  There's still a bit of work to do in the backyard.  I never did get around to painting the back door and frame and remounting the bird feeder.  And I would also like to get to work on the concrete retaining wall [at my back as I took this photo], scrubbing it, sealing it and painting it white.  Next year will be soon enough for doing something about new fencing.  One major investment in this space at a time.  This year it was the planter boxes.

And below, my current progress on the English Band Sampler: the Redwork section is complete and I have nearly finished work on the leaves of central tree motif.

English Band Sampler from SANQ

Weekend Progress Report: April 15, 2012

Things have been a bit hectic here this weekend.  The garden is coming along.  The raised beds are assembled and one has been half filled and I need to buy more topsoil and peat this week to finish filling it.  And I have made a start on filling the second one by filling it 2/3rds of the way with leaf mold.  I figure I'll let it season till  early May and then top it off with a mix of top soil and sand and peat for my lettuces, radishes and carrot crops.  I ought to be ready to do some planting next weekend.  I ordered some packets of heirloom seeds for a number of vegetables: carrots, cucumbers, zucchini and eggplant; and a few packets of wildflower seeds for the front yard planter box.  The flowers are billed as "often self seed" so there is a chance that if they take this season, they may return next year.  I filled three of those heavy duty paper Lawn & Leaf bags with the remaining leaves and swept the patio.  No sooner did I get everything nice and tidy then a breeze sprung up sprinkling everything with tree pollen and tiny little yellow green florets.

As to stitching, there has been some progress there as well.  The English Band Sampler has gotten some quality time and Part I is closer to a finish.  The Redwork section is done.  Though I like the look of it, I am not sure I'd ever want to do a whole project in Redwork.  And I have worked steadily on the tree in the center of this bottom band, nearly completing all the leaves.  A lot of that stitching was done out-of-doors yesterday.  It is always nice to stitch in natural light.  I don't need a magnifier even for 40 ct when I stitch in natural light.  The weather was a very pleasant mid-70 degree day with light breezes every so often.  I had been diagnosed with a Vitamin D deficiency at my last physical and had been making it a point to spend at least 15 minutes a day in the sunshine.  But yesterday I spent most of the day outdoors.  The simple joys of Spring!  And I shall have my breakfast on the patio this morning.

But it is time to get cracking on my stitching goals for the month.  Having spent the last week on an off-goal project has put me a bit behind.  I intend to spend the entire coming week on the Kogin Tea Cozy.  It is my goal to complete that monthly goal during the week since I spent so much time off-goal in the earlier part of the month.  And since I haven't found my Token and Trifles triangles in my stash, I'll have to order some from 123stitch.  I have one last place to look but I am not optimistic.  I figure I won't find these elusive little cards till I have ordered the replacements!  Happily, 123stitch tends to mail quickly since my scissor case has to be stitched and mailed by early May.

Photos will have to wait till Tuesday since my camera battery needs a recharge.

Looking to the Weekend

The modules for my raised bed planter boxes arrived in record time.  My husband and my youngest son will be assembling them tomorrow.  I am very excited about this and can't wait to fill them with soil and compost and peat and leaf mold.  I am thinking seriously about emptying the richer soil in my large round terra notta containers into the raised beds and refilling one of the containers with a sandier soil mixture suitable for growing carrots.   I miss fresh baby carrots.   The other container will be used for lettuce since I'll be able to put it on a wheeled water well and move it to shadier spots when the weather starts to warm too much for ideal lettuce growing conditions.  I have even looked up directions for making a cucumber frame for use in one of the raised beds.  I am so looking forward to gardening again.  It's been too long!

The Redwork section of the Band Sampler thus far

As to my plans for stitching yesterday, things didn't go as well as I had hoped.  I am still plugging away at the redwork section of the bottom band.  But I hope to finish that section today and get going on the tree motif.  I got side-tracked by some literary nostalgia.  In doing some of the Spring cleaning, I came across my daughter's complete set of Anne of Green Gables books and nothing would do but I should settle in to reread this classic series.  Cleaning was suspended, stitching ignored, but I spent a very pleasant afternoon and intend to continue reading all about Avonlea and Prince Edward Island for the next little while.  I have decided that at my age I should spend my time doing things I enjoy at least as often as I do things I ought.  That's my justification for leaving some of the Spring cleaning till Summer.  The real purpose of the Spring cleaning urge, anyway, is to gather up all the extraneous stuff that Bill and I have accumulated in the past three decades spent in this house for one huge yard sale.  The neighbors will probably think we are getting ready to move but in truth I am only looking to declutter  the closets, cupboards and the junk room and make this house easier to maintain.  And it won't hurt to make a few dollars in the process.  As we get older there are so many things we no longer use or need.  My husband's complex of arthritis/gout/rheumatism all prevent him from being the handyman he once was, so all the power tools can go.  We have books we have accumulated, books we have inherited and books left by our grown children.  We have all sorts of odds and ends of housewares and giftware that just gather dust or take up space in cupboards, never seeing the light of day.  I just want to trim down our possessions to a reasonable degree.  No more overflowing closets or untidy junk rooms.  I would like to have the space to bring some treasures ought into the light but first I must weed out the unnecessary to make room for the cherished!  And if, in the process, I find a few old friends to reminisce with [like Anne] then I shall enjoy the chore all the more.

More About the Band Sampler

Today, I plan to finish the red work section of the sampler and begin work on the satin stitched tree design in the center of the bottom row of Part I.  I have decided to stagger my satin stitches so as to make them look more like the natural striations in the bark.  There's still quite a bit to do after that: the queen stitched strawberries, the cross stitched bunch of grapes, the Jacobean floral motif, the remaining leaves on the tree and, of course, the saying in Row 3 of the alphabet section.  Even so, I feel I have made quite a bit of progress on this sampler and am confident that I will finish Part I well in advance of the publication of Part II.

On the gardening front: after several false starts in which I thought I had found the right planters on-line only to discover that websites had not been updated to match inventory and what I wanted was no longer available;  I finally found a  modular system that will allow me to construct two planters 4 feet wide by 4 feet long by 32 inches tall.  Of course, it ended costing me twice as much as I had planned.  I figure it will take four years of vegetable gardening to recover my costs but then there are all the benefits of organic food, fresh from the garden.  Priceless!  This year I will just go to the local nursery and get flats of vegetable sets.  But next year, I will plan ahead and get catalogs that specialize in "heritage" vegetables and I will start my garden from seed.  Starting from seed is much less expensive and using old time vegetable varieties tends to be so much more flavorful.  So many modern varieties  were developed with hardiness, ship-ability and insect resistance taking priority over flavor.

I'll also try to squeeze in some sewing finishes in with the Spring cleaning and routine house-keeping that is crying out for my attention.  Full time employment and maintaining a home isn't easy in the sixth decade.  I am just going to have to win a lottery and get maid service!

Some Books Are Best Read Piecemeal

I have been reading George Carlin's Last Words.  It has been a slow journey.  I have always enjoyed his work even as I have considered some of it problematic.  Also, sharing the NYC Irish Catholic background, I can understand him without agreeing with him.  I know something of the experiences, good and bad, that shaped him, for better and worse.  But for all his brilliance and wit, he was an embittered and angry man ... and that makes reading his story a slow and sad experience.  I tend to read just a chapter at a time and then move on to other things ... the mundane, the ordinary, the gentle, the satisfying routines of everyday life serve as an antidote to the overwhelming bleakness of Last Words.  It is a book well worth reading as much for what it reveals about my ethnicity and my church as for what it reveals about George Carlin.  Of course, what it reveals is heavily skewed toward negativity.  But, it is sometimes a salutary experience to examine the failures of an institution, the darkness within a tribal group.  I had much the same feeling when reading Angela's Ashes.  It doesn't do to romanticize one's heritage.  It stops all growth and development and evolution, all forward motion, when one is so busy glorifying the past that one forgets to analyze it.

At this rate, I'll probably finish the book sometime in the summer.  But along the way, there will be plenty of thought and reflection.  And isn't that precisely what a good book does: provoke thought and reflection?

Weekend Progress Report" Easter

In between errand running, garden clean-up and visiting, I have continued to work on the English Band Sampler this weekend.  Part II will be arriving in the SANQ Summer issue and I would like to have Part I completed before that time.  I have gotten to the more interesting and more complex section of the sampler: satin stitches, long stitches, Queen stitches and Algerian crosses have begun to crop up as well as more complex motifs in cross stitch.  I have decided to stick to the colors as charted.  The colors are typical of the 15th century embroidery on which the design is based.  I must say aesthetic sensibilities as regards color have changed dramatically since that time period.  The color palette is definitely not particularly pleasing but I have chosen authenticity over aesthetics for this project, at least as regards color.  

After Easter Mass, I set up the small composter we bought at Home Depot.  I had the spot in the backyard all picked out.  After an afternoon alternately stitching and relaxing with season one Picket Fences DVDs, my husband and I met my youngest son for our Easter dinner at his favorite Japanese restaurant.  I know sushi isn't exactly a traditional Easter meal but sometimes traditions need to be jettisoned.  I have never really liked ham since one summer in our childhood when my Dad's union was still on strike ... the contract ended December 31 and negotiations broke down sometime in January.  As the strike lingered on for months and months, the union officials decided to buy a couple of truckloads of canned hams and distribute them to the striking workers to help ease the pain of lost wages.  When all you eat is ham for a whole summer, it tends to lose its appeal.  My Mom was considered a creative cook for her time, but even she could come up with just so many ways to present ham.  I can still enjoy a real ham ... one that is slow cured, like a genuine Virginia ham or a ham from Amish country ... but most of what is available in supermarkets is anathema.

Today, I'll celebrate the first day of a week off from work:  I'll plant the pansies in the front planter box, continue my on-line search for the right planter boxes for the backyard, get some house-keeping and some more garden clean-up done and, finally, continue my work on the sampler.