The Perfect Palette

I have decided to kit up Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie as part of my participation in the Crazy January Challenge ... I love this chart in spite of the rather problematic faux antique spelling ... in fact, having done my graduate work in early American literature [which is mostly documents, letters and journals], I can actually make a case for spelling being as diverse as the sum total of individuals doing the spelling ... trust me on this, I spent the better part of two years in the rare book room of U.Va. in Charlottesville ... turning ancient pages ever so carefully while wearing white cotton gloves.

I am running into one small problem, though, the chart calls for fibers from a company called The Perfect Palette ... a company completely unknown to me and to the staffs of several LNS's I have contacted. Some of the colors I will be using should I ever locate them are named Bailey's and Dry Martini and Spanish Coffee [is that anything like Irish Coffee?]. I suspect I will be consuming the real thing long before I locate the threads.

If anyone knows of a source for this fiber, I would appreciate it if you would share the information. Even googling didn't help! I figured if I could find a color chart on-line, I could make substitutions from within my existing stash. But no joy!

My 15 for the Crazy January Challenge

I have way too much stash and way too many choices ... it was difficult to winnow my list down to 15 ... but it is done.

1. For my Town Square SAL: Knotted Tree Needle Art's Post Office
2. " " " " " La-D-Da's School House
3. " " " " " WDW's Town Hall
4. " " " " " The Trilogy's Church
5. Sue Hillis' Cookie Baking Santa
6. Homespun Elegance's The Stitcher
7. Barrick Sampler's The Gilded Cage
8. Workbasket's Quaker Squirrel
9. Workbasket's Quaker Bear
10. Workbasket's Quaker Owl
11. Homespun Elegance's Witches Stitch
12. Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie
13. Alexandra Adelaide's Zucca
14. Teresa Wentzlr's Tracery Dragons
15. Dragon Dream's The Ice Dragon's Kingdom

Six of these projects will require framing finishes ... a real difference from 2010's stitching with no framing finishes whatsoever ... I'd best start saving my pennies.

WIPs

Life hasn't left much room for stitching this week as we enter into the final countdown for Christmas ... cleaning and shopping have supplanted my usual leisure hour activities ... and work seems to be taking up more than its fair share of the day: a nine hour workday on Monday and an eleven hour workday on Tuesday and another eleven hour workday today ... even though today was punctuated with the mandatory Christmas parties, regional and parish, it's still work so far as I am concerned since I am hostess of the parish party with all the set-up and clean-up that entails ... and though this afternoon's event was a luncheon party, glad-handing colleagues-in-ministry, it kept me from all the things I needed to do at home and at the parish office. Call me Scrooge, but I really wish I could get off the merry-go-round of professionally mandated Christmas celebrations and just celebrate in my heart and in my home. I guess as I get older I find myself in need of more simplicity ... less stuff, less fuss, less running to and fro, and, dare I say it, fewer people. My natural inclination to be something of a hermit is intensifying at an alarming rate. But comparative solitude shall just have to wait till the retirement years and then, with all the natural contrariness of human nature, I shall probably long for company.

But I did squeeze in a bit of stitching, if only for the sake of my sanity. Here's my current progress on one of my ornaments for the Bride's Tree SAL: Workbasket's Quaker Santa.

2010 Giveaway Summary

This year I have been trying to de-clutter my stitching center by giving away gently used charts that I know I will never stitch again. It has been an interesting exercise: going through my binders and deciding what I want to keep and what I have no problems parting with. I have been accumulating charts over a period of thirty years and I have discovered that my taste has been amazingly consistent, for the most part. Of course, when my children were quite young, I did a lot of "kiddie" stuff that no longer interests me ... but other than that, I still like much the same sort of thing. Fantasy [dragons and mermaids and Celtic gods/goddesses], primitives, country/Americana, samplers, Halloween & Christmas, the whimsical and the witty. I have slowed down on the Christmas themed charts as the years have gone by and I have added Quaker designs to my repertoire. But all in all, the list of favorite designers that appears in the sidebar today differs very little from what it would have been ten or even twenty years ago. A few new faces from among the gifted next generation of designers have been added ... and most of the people I liked 20 years ago are still among my favorites.

Between January and December of 2010, I have given away 56 charts, 1 piece of aida, 1 piece of Silkweaver 36ct linen, 1 biscornu, 6 stitching magazines, a set of 4 silicone cupcake molds and 3 cards of Rainbow Gallery Mandarin floss [bamboo fiber]. I have been very happy with the responses to my giveaways: an average of 16 participants each month. It is a pleasure to pass on something I have enjoyed. I have always been a great one for passing on books, sharing recipes, gifting people with some of my favorite finds [scented candles, gourmet jams and salsas, gadgets I have known and loved], etc. But this is the first time I have systematically passed on stitching stuff. I have mailed packages to Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. I am happy to say that every single recipient of my giveaways has e-mailed me a very nice thank you message or sent a handwritten card or note ... some have even given me a shout out on their own blogs ... it just goes to show that the stitching community is populated by some very nice people. So thanks to stitchinfiend, Myra, Paula C, Alex, Vicky, Karen, qsnaplover, luvmyqsnaps, Dani, kittycat, Mary and Blu for sharing my love of stitching and agreeing to PIF the charts that I trust are now happily circulating through the international stitching community.

And then there was the massive inventory and giveaway of my mother's crafting stash that consumed the first two months of this year ... a project that will live on in infamous memory ... and, the project that inspired my own de-cluttering of my craft stash ... I will NOT do this to my own daughter, at least not on the same scale.

Looking to 2011, I expect things will slow down a bit ... I have a few extra special giveaways planned for the beginning of the year ... but then it will be back to de-cluttering the stash center: gently used charts, as well as some odds and ends of floss or fabric, with the occasional stitched piece thrown in to add the personal touch. It has been suggested by a few of my stitching friends that I set up a sale album instead of giving away my gently used charts but I know myself better than to do that. The tedium of maintaining and updating such an album, the possibility of dealing with an unhappy customer, the compulsion to get to the post office immediately rather than when I happen to be in the area, the minimal monetary return for all that effort ... well, it just isn't for lazy old me. All I really want to do is de-clutter my stash so my daughter never has to contend with what I did when I inventoried and gave away my Mother's sewing and crafting stash and if I can make a few other stitcher's happy in the process, all well and good.

Weekend Progress Report #49

This week has seen little time for stitching ... let alone for the mini-finishing-frenzy I had hoped to manage. I've put in 10+ hours overtime because of various Whole Community Catechesis Events I've had to run three times this week and will be running once more next week. Then late Thursday night I ignored Doctor's orders/warnings and indulged in a Sicilian pizza with black olives ... people lacking gall bladders should not eat such fatty foods ... but it has been four months since the surgery, all has been going well, and I thought I would risk a small indulgence. I didn't even finish my second piece. Never again, I was in pain all night and wasted my entire day off Friday retreating from the lingering pain by catching up on my sleep for the better part of the day ... not at all the way I had intended to spend the day off. In fact, I wasn't fully back to normal till late Saturday afternoon.

Even so, I squeezed in a bit of stitching time on Workbasket's Quaker Sampler, maybe an hour or so a day. This has been such a pleasure. I like the delicacy of stitching with one strand over two threads on a higher count fabric [in this case 36ct] ... and am amazed that all these old eyes require is a good light without yet having to resort to magnifying glasses. In fact, I have been enjoying this piece so much it has been all I worked on from Monday through Sunday morning before church. I just had to complete a third motif and the letters that were stitched in the same shade on either side of it. I am using only four shades of GAST on this project: Cranberry, Forest Glade, Gold Leaf and Midnight. This contributes to the elegant simplicity of the piece. Can you tell I am loving it?

Bride's Tree SAL ... the last two ornaments: Quaker Angel [November] and Quaker Santa [December]. I did manage to get back to work on the December Santa piece for an hour or so in the afternoon. The photo shows the minimal progress I have made. This is the very first time all year that I am working out of order on this SAL. The reason is simple: though I have chosen the Quaker motifs I wish to combine to make my November Angel, I haven't actually charted the piece to see how everything goes together. I have a feeling that the November Angel may very well be my Christmas break stitching project. It will make it to the tree sometime before the New Year but probably not in time for Christmas. But since I keep my tree up til January 6 [Little Christmas, aka The Feast of the Epiphany], I'll have a little time to enjoy it this year.

But, alas, no sewing finishes.

Just to round off the photos, I am including one of the round robin that was finished last week. Waiting for the perfect conditions for daylight photography was my excuse. Well, what with working extra hours and sleeping away my day-off, I was never able to take advantage of the good photography conditions on offer this past week. So here is a less than perfect indoor shot.

Christmas Gifts

I thought my husband and I had agreed to gift each other with a new mattress and boxspring for a combined Christmas and anniversary present [January 10 - 40 years]. But then he made noises about a pen he wanted [he collects special edition fountain pens] ... so I figured I'd better consult the folks at the local pen shop he frequents ... sure enough, there was one laid away for him.

My husband is a true romantic and he finds my practical approach to gift-giving appalling. He would see the mattress/boxspring deal as something we had to do anyway as a normal household expense and not an appropriate gift, at all, at all. He prefers the personal touch to the pragmatic. No doubt I will receive some jewelery or perfume or some such lovely item ... he is very sweet and considerate that way. He also likes to come up with gifts that carry on family traditions ... for instance, he has purchased our tiny grand-daughter [15 months old] a cheerleaders outfit for the Washington Redskins ...he and my oldest son are fans ... and, after all, what could be more appropriate than having this little person indoctrinated into the fold.

If I were to characterize our gift giving and receiving personas using the yardstick of the characters in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings ... my husband would be a man of Gondor, full of honor and a sense of his people's glorious history, romantic, brave, passionate and the tiniest bit chauvinistic ... and I would be a hobbit, loving my creature comforts of home and hearth, more concerned about the quality of my next meal than the elegance of a gift. Over the past decade, my favorite gifts from him have been a cozy floor length chenille robe and gift certificates to my favorite on-line provider of fine teas [www.specialTeas.com] and to Barnes & Noble and yet he has given me jewelery and perfumes most women would envy mightily. I am inclined to fill stockings with food and household items: things like jars of Nutella, boxes of marzipan, tins of smoked oysters, jars of mango salsa, boxes of hazelnut candies, bags of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, scented candles, interesting gadgets and a new toothbrush. His inclination would be to fill a stocking with earrings and pins, gift certificates to a classy restaurant, a stitching retreat, a resort getaway weekend, a spa or a local theater. He thinks big and dramatic; I think small and domestic. One good thing, I have managed to convince him that one gift is more than sufficient.

We have both reached an age when the last thing we need is more "stuff". At least we are in agreement that the most important gift we can give one another is to choose a worthy charity and make a donation.

Upon careful reflection, I think he deserves his pen ... he is such an all-round good guy and I am a very lucky woman!

December Giveaway Winner

And the winner is Blu chosen for the totally unscientific reason that I liked her comment best ... it seems to indicate that she shares my love for fantasy themes in general and for Dragon Dreams charts in particular! I will be e-mailing her today to ask for a postal address and I'll get her package in the mail soon.

Sometime later this year, I will be doing a giveaway of just Dragon Dreams charts ... after I have stitched them, of course ... so far I have stitched Storm Bringer but I plan on stitching Dragon of the Summer Sky and Dragon of the Winter Moon in 2011 ... and possibly The Ice Dragon's Kingdom, if I can get to it. I think this would make a nice group of charts for a giveaway late in 2011 ... a unified grouping that would appeal to those who love dragons as much as I ... I wonder just how large such a group would be!

Weekend Progress Report #48

Stitching progress this week:

I finished the empty panel on the round robin ... but a photo of the whole piece ... with all the lovely contributions from the other stitchers ... will just have to wait till daylight. The piece is so large that using my Ott lamp as I usually do with my photos just doesn't light up the whole project

I frogged out my error on the Workbasket Quaker Sampler and restarted the piece. Now the recommended linen for this piece is Lakeside Linens' Navy Bean 32ct. But since I am stitching from stash as much as possible, I have substituted Silkweaver's Shadowlands 36ct. I wasn't all too happy with the way the recommended GAST Dried Thyme faded into the Shadowlands ... so having frogged it all out anyway, I replaced it with GAST Forest Glade ... same tone family but several shades darker. Otherwise, I am using the recommended GAST: Cranberry, Midnight and Gold Leaf. This piece has three medallions in the center which I will fill with the dates 1971-2011 on either side and my husband's and my initials in the center heart. Several years ago, my favorite framer lost his wife who was not only his life partner but also his business partner. The heart went out of him and he shut down his business. At the time, he had in his possession an anniversary sampler I had made and a birth announcement celebrating my grandson's birth and I have given them up for lost. I'll be using this sampler to replace the anniversary sampler: 40 years is a nice round number and better than the 37 years celebrated in the lost sampler anyway. I know I tend to be a slow stitcher but, counting the stitching I had to frog and the frogging time, the progress you see here is the work of 6 and 1/2 hours ... pathetic, huh? On the other hand, I am really enjoying this piece so the longer I get to do so, the better!

I'd also like to take the time to respond to some comments that readers have made during November.

To Rachel S: I do use pillow forms for my pillows, for the most part. Whenever I stuff my own, I get weird corners because I have never mastered the art of tapering the corners to make them appear square. Having little or no spatial intelligence, I always forget whether I am supposed to taper them at an oblique angle of 100 degrees or an acute angle of 80 degrees to give the illusion of a sharp 90 degree corner. This lack of spatial intelligence is why I always just squeaked by in geometry and trigonometry while doing quite well in algebra and calculus. I've got plenty of the logical/mathematical and verbal/linguistic intelligence [google seven intelligence theory] but virtually no spatial intelligence. Also, I'd love to do an unofficial Ice Dragon's Kingdom SAL with you, each of us posting on our own blogs ... maybe starting in February.

To Carol: The generic all year round pillows are mounded on my bed. Seasonal pillows are used to decorate the couch at the appropriate seasons and then are stored for the next year. And, I 'm glad you liked my Pilgrim Woman with Pies ornament ... see below for a funny story about that ornament.

To Hillery: Thanks for all the kind words about my designing skills ... I plan to do a lot more this year ... stay tuned for future developments.

To Sharon: Glad to find a kindred spirit when it comes to attitudes about overdyes. Whether silk or cotton, they are addictive and I am weak ... but I do believe designers need to be aware that not everyone shares the passion ... DMC conversions are becoming an economic necessity for many stitchers.

To Dani: I loved reading your answers to the stitching meme and have to add that I find your disciplined pursuit of one BAP at a time to be amazing. Me, I've got stitcher's ADD and constantly need a change of pace. And thanks for your encouragement as regards the encrusted crazy quilt project.

And, in closing, a stitching anecdote. Normally, my husband is the most appreciative audience of my stitchery ... very supportive: driving me to retreats [I am not comfortable doing serious highway driving], bragging about my work, gifting me with new charts, tolerant of the multi-colored orts that stick to his clothing and a companion as I stitch, either reading or watching DVDs as I work. But the other day, as he was going down the steps, leaving for work, he called up in a very puzzled voice, "Uh, why do you have a Groucho Marx nose ornament on the Thanksgiving tree?" Groucho Marx!!!!????!!!! Well, naturally, I took umbrage. How could he possibly mistake any of the gorgeous ornaments I had stitched for Thanksgiving for something so ludicrous? But, damned if he wasn't right! As I came down the steps a few minutes later and casually glanced at the tree, I had to admit that the Pilgrim woman with the pies did look like Groucho ... her apron made a perfect nose, the skirt below it looked like a mustache and her outstretched arms holding pies in her hands did indeed resemble eyes. The curses of an open mind ... I had to admit Bill was perfectly right ... and now I will never look at that ornament without thinking of Groucho.

December Giveaway

Looking ahead, I predict I will hit my 500th post by February 4th, 2011 and my 100th follower sometime soon as well ... and I have special giveaways planned to celebrate each of these personal blogging landmarks. For this month, though, we'll stick to the tried and true giveaway of gently used charts. This time it is a very mixed bag, so we'll call it a miscellaneous grab bag of five charts with the bonus of the latest Stitcher's World magazine [including the free kit] thrown in for good measure. I bought the magazine to see if all the hullabaloo about the new editorial direction was warranted and decided it just wasn't my style. It has many Christmas designs but none were to my taste. I doubt I'll ever stitch anything at all from this magazine, so it seems far more sensible to pass it on to someone who will enjoy it. The charts are Lizzie Kate's Housework, Rosewood Manor's Flowers in Bloom, Elizabeth Design's Honey Bee, Imaginating, Inc.'s Spring Welcome and Dragon Dreams Imagination Creation [from Fantasy Faire 2005]. This last is a signed limited edition.

If you wish to enter your name for this giveaway, the usual conditions will apply:
-- open to all stitchers
-- leave a comment below as to why you are interested in the giveaway
-- include an e-mail address in your post if clicking on your name will not lead me to an e-mail link
-- a winner will be selected on the 10th of the month and informed by e-mail
-- winners are asked to commit to PIF charts to other stitchers through message boards, guilds or stitching groups or to donate the charts to a women's shelter or prison, a nursing home or some other venue where a stitcher would enjoy them.

Good luck to all who enter.

Crazy Making

There is a new challenge making the rounds in stitching circles: the Crazy January Challenge of 2011. The plan is to start a new piece everyday from January 1st to January 15th and then complete those pieces in the course of the year. My first thought was that with all my UFOs [see sidebar] I really don't need another 15 WIPs on my conscience. But then I realized that the 2011 goals I am already formulating include working on and completing one medium sized project a month and a few more ornaments for my January Anniversary/February Valentine's Day ornament tree display ... and that's not even counting my goal of stitching one Town Square SAL piece a month as well. So what's to stop me from starting 15 of these projects at the very start of the year and then completing them as the year progresses? Let's be honest here: I have a two inch binder filled with charts that I have optimistically labelled Current Stitching, meaning stuff I intend to do this year whatever this year happens to be. The binder never seems to empty out though I faithfully remove charts from it as I stitch them and I have been careful to limit my purchases of new charts these past few years.

So I can do this ... at least, the starting part ... the finishing part of the challenge, well, that remains to be seen.

Now for the list:

We'll start with the first four of the Town Square SAL pieces I wish to do ... I don't want to load the list entirely with these pieces ... that would be boring.

***Knotted Tree Needle Art's Post Office

***La-D-Da's School House

***WDW's Town Hall

***The Trilogy's Church

And then there is my personal tradition of stitching a Christmas piece in January to extend the mood a wee bit. Since for the past several years I have chosen a Sue Hillis or Prairie Schooler piece for this purpose, this year's choice will be
***Sue Hillis' Cookie Santa
And two more definite must-stitches, just because I love them and have been itching to start these:
***Homespun Elegance's The Stitcher
***Barrick Sampler's The Gilded Cage
Next up, The Workbasket Quaker Animals I am stitching and collecting for a quilt.
***the Squirrel from Quaker Acorn and Squirrel leaflet
***the Bear from the Polar Quakers leaflet
***the Owl from the Quaker Halloweens leaflet
That makes 10 for certain. Now things get a bit more problematic. Lots of great choices but only five more slots.
So, moving on, some Halloween/Fall pieces. I'll need to choose three of these:
Alexandra Adelaide's Zucca
Ink Circles' Celtic Beasties: Halloween or Knot
The Cricket Collection's The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy
The Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie
Hands To Work's Harvest Blooms
La-D-Da's Something Wicked
Homespun Elegance's Witches Stitch, Too
And I'll want to choose two of the following dragon charts.
Teresa Wentzler's Tracery Dragons
Dragon Dreams' Dragon of the Winter Moon
Dragon Dreams' A Dragon's Tea Party
Dragon Dreams' Dragon of the Summer Sky
Dragon Dreams' The Ice Dragon's Kingdom
Dragon Dreams' Here Be Dragons

Anyone wishing to help me choose the charts from these last two sections, please leave a comment. I am leaning toward Homespun Elegance's Witches Stitch, Too [as a companion piece to The Stitcher] and Alexandra Adelaide's Zucca [just because I love pumpkin charts and this will work for Thanksgiving as well] and The Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie [jut because I love it, eccentric faux olde spelling notwithstanding] in the Halloween category. In the dragon category, I want to stitch them all, especially the Teresa Wentzler piece.

My stitching in 2010 was dominated by ornaments and other smalls for some reason so it will be nice to concentrate on medium to large pieces in 2011. Fewer finishes, to be sure, but the satisfaction of having accomplished something substantial ... and not nearly as much sewing/assembly finishing to tackle.