.
ro·man·tic
adj.
Given to thoughts or feelings of romance;
imaginative but impractical;
tan·gle
v.
To mix together or intertwine;
n.
A confused, intertwined mass.
A jumbled or confused state or condition
Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.
Stitch Maynia has been taking up all of my free time since the first of the month, to the point that I hadn't picked up my knitting needles in literally weeks.
Instead of feeling bad about that, I'm telling myself that it's good for the muscles in my hands to take a break and do different things now and then. I'm also kind of itching to cast on a new shawl.
The biggest surprise on this trip was how little had changed since our last visit. The ship in a bottle kit and conquistador lamp were gone, but I think almost everything else I took pictures of on our last visit was still there after three months.
These cross stitch parakeets were new. They're on ten count which gives them a kind of pixelated look.
I would've brought home these two ladies if the price had been right.
One of the volunteers saw me crouching to pull this out from under a table and encouraged me to open it up. I haven't seen a case quite like it, and I'm wondering if someone peeled the original covering off to reveal the wood.
Inside was the most run-of-the-mill electric Singer ever. Some days it's really easy to remind myself that I have enough sewing machines.
Gridding seems to be one of those topics that cross stitchers have strong opinions about. Every time someone asks on one of the discussion lists, it sparks nasty comments from people who think it's a waste of time.
I grid almost everything these days. I can stitch without the lines, usually, but that extra safety net keeps me from abandoning projects.
I lost almost an hour to this project. The red stitches weren't lining up with the blue letters correctly, no matter how many times I counted. Finally, I realized that my "W" is misshapen. Everything else I've done lines up with the mistake in that first letter. Which means I can re-stitch just the "W" and keep the rest of my progress, but it took lots of counting and frogging stitches to get to that point.
If my fabric was gridded, I would have found the problem much sooner.
I don't think I've tackled this kind of stitch along before, where the pattern is revealed a section at a time. There have been a couple of quilt alongs that I didn't manage to keep up with, but I've never tried something quite like this.
Just look at the Phantom of the Opera with his pipe organ! Room number two, The Mummy, is even cuter. If it wasn't for Stitch Maynia and all of the other things I want to stitch on, I might actually have had them done before the third room comes out. It's the Universal Monster SAL and we've still got the Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, Frankenstein and his bride, the Wolfman, Dracula to look forward to -- and a haunted mansion to stitch around the outside of the whole thing.
It's like a wonderfully creepy dollhouse.
The house is the first bit of the Emerald City SAL, a free download from Owl Forest Embroidery. There would already be a cyclone if I'd been able to remember which project that shade of grey floss was hiding in. There are three sections available so far, all depicting scenes from the story. I'm a little less likely to keep up with this one, but I can definitely see myself stitching the whole thing.
Now that I've started these two, I'm sure I'll be susceptible to other SALs in the future.
Between writing this post and publishing it, the third Universal Monsters room was released and I had to drop everything to start stitching the Gill Man because he is the cutest thing ever and these colors have me imaging the smell of musty old tropical fish stores...
Remember that thrift shop that had the jelly rolls and the charm packs? I had to drive out that way again on Wednesday and look what they'd added to the sale basket....
I was only going to buy a few of these, but they were three for a dollar and fabric was half price and I took that as a sign that I needed to restock on novelty prints for baby quilts. I didn't buy it all, but at six for a dollar I bought everything I reasonably thought I could use.
The blue floral print in the right hand corner looked like a big cut but it's actually a bunch of 12" squares and something else I didn't measure. That'll limit my options, but it's still pretty fabric. The mottled green is easily a yard and a half. I'm guessing that the others pieces range between quarter yards and half yards but I'm not going to measure it all today. I will get that masking tape off, because it's only going to get stickier if I let it sit for too long.
I'm not driving almost an hour out of my way to check for clearance fabric. This trip was to see my daughter's wedding dress which came in the mail and is absolutely amazing. (No pictures until after the wedding, then I'll point you towards her blog.) Planning a wedding today is so much different than mine was almost thirty years ago. She got a fabulous dress custom made to her measurements for half what my dress cost. And she won't be paying for alterations.
We did spend four days holding our breath when the package tracking went wonky, but the bridal shop lost my dress for a while. Both dresses appeared in time so I'm not sure which was worse.
I was hoping I'd have time to put in a few stitches but the rest of the family was busy with other things and I got a lot done. I love how that shading of her dress looks!
Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.
The Habitat for Humanity Restores close to our house are mostly building supplies and appliances, but we've found some interesting things in other cities. These two stores were full of needlework.
Needlepoint soldiers from the Revolutionary War...
Have you ever seen a barefoot Santa on the beach, cross-stitched or not?
That piece on the left is a fairly convincing photo copy of a cross stitched piece. It's effective and if you hung it on your wall no one but another stitcher would notice..but that's definitely cheating, right?
I love the bright colors on that floral piece.
I didn't get pictures of the sewing machines, because this is a picture heavy post and we all know what treadle Singers look like, but I did take several of the dollhouse with the haunted vibe.
With about ten days left, I'm starting to look at my Stitch Maynia plans more carefully. I might be able to start ten more projects, if life cooperates. So which ten?
These are all possibilities...
There are others that I can't lay my hands on right now. One would be at the absolute top of the list if I hadn't put the required threads in a safe place. Others have jumped to mind but I haven't seen them in months if not years and don't remember which magazine it might have been in or where that single sheet printout got tucked.
Once May is over, the plan is to focus on something else in June and make (hopefully) steady progress on the things I'm already stitching.
So even though it's all in my head I've got a definite feeling of "now or never" or "now or next year."
That still life with the cheese has to be one of my starts, right?
I kept checking out The Chrysalis by Brendan Deneen and renewing it until I hit the limit and checking it out again. I couldn't seem to make time to read it, but the description sounded so good. A broke young couple buys a surprisingly affordable old house and the husband finds something in the basement that he rapidly becomes obsessed with. Oh, and they find out that they're living in the local murder house which explains that dark stain on the kitchen floor.
Books with scary old houses in them are one of my favorite things and The chrysalis was okay. Except for references to phones with flashlights and some other things that are definitely recent, it felt a lot like the horror novels I was reading back in the 80s.
I picked up An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good for the cover. How could I not? A tiny book made up of very short stories, it was a fun read. Imagine an eighty-eight year old woman with no family or friends who is going to get exactly what she wants out of life. That's Maud. Now imagine what she might do to the people who dare mess with her. Maud isn't particularly nice, but she's very entertaining. I suspect I'd be even more entertained if I'd read the author's other books. Disclosure -- This post contains affiliate links.
One of the things that's surprised me about Stitch Maynia is how frequently I'm looping back to my earlier starts. A Caledonian Sky is the long kitted up project that I started on the first of the month and since then I've found myself putting more and more stitches into it.
I tucked it into my purse on our last laundry day because I'm filling in blocks of solid color and the lighting at the laundromat is surprisingly good. I'd get in some stitching while the dirty clothes sloshed around and got clean.
Maybe I'll stitch at the laundromat next week....
This time, I put up my stitching halfway through the load because my oldest son had run across the parking lot to Walmart to pick up a couple of things and came back to tell me they were evacuating the store because of a chemical fire.
A chemical fire? How bad was that? There's a large expanse of parking lot between the laundromat and Walmart. I had eight minutes left before the machine unlocked and no one else in the building seemed worried. If it was a big fire, they'd also evacuate the strip mall, right? I was watching the timer on the washing machine tick down while also watching more emergency vehicles arrive and wondering at what point I should abandon all of my husband's and sons' clothing. As soon as that lock clicked open, we got everything together and joined the line of cars waiting to leave the parking lot.
On the drive home, we passed fire trucks headed from our small town to Lebanon. That didn't seem like a good sign at all.
I love that social media lets us find out what really happened. There was a fire on the shelves of pool chemicals. Several streets and businesses around the store were closed because of the smoke (I'm guessing that included the laundromat and so glad our timing wasn't worse and that we didn't lose our clothes!) On Friday, a local man was arrested for arson.
Remember the jelly rolls I bought at the thrift shop last week? Mom said I should go back and pick up some of the charm packs if they still had them. The ones that I showed in the post picture were gone, but I picked up these...
They'd been marked down to three for a dollar. When I was paying for them, the lady said that there was more fabric inside that hadn't been marked down yet.
Yet? I stopped by on Friday just in case, but there was nothing new on the discount table. We'll see if I can find another excuse to wander out that way later.
Start #7 -- The Goblins (Cross Stitch & Country Crafts September/October 1995)
I've had this one kitted up for years. The original choice was some greenish linen but there wasn't enough contrast between the color of the goblins and the fabric. Or that's what I told myself, because these days I'm more comfortable stitching on aida.
Start #8 -- Grand Resorts on the Lakes (Cross Stitch Plus August/September 1991)
This is another one that I've had in my stash forever. I love the way the chart looks but I would never ever have decided to stitch it based on that photo. Hopefully I succeed in changing the colors to something I'm happier with. (There will be much less dusty pink and blue!)
This start involved a couple of hours of gridding fabric. I got a little stitching done before I put it up at the end of the evening but my progress isn't much to look at. I can't wait to work my way down to the pile of books and the other fun details.
And there are four more starts, but I'm breaking this up into separate posts so the individual projects don't get buried in the wonderful chaos. I've also got progress pictures of the earlier starts.
Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.
I made another shawl and I'm not at all happy with it. Except for the colors, which are gorgeous. And the pattern, which I'll definitely be following again.
This is going to be more of a yarn review than a post about a finished project. Yarn Bee Wildstreak comes in gorgeous colors, but it's loosely spun and I had to focus on every stitch to keep the tips of my needles from going through the yarn. The second of three skeins had multiple knots and stretches where the fiber wasn't twisted at all.
I need to learn that it's okay to give up on yarn that just isn't working, especially when it was 75% off in the first place. I spent a whole lot of hours on a project that's probably going to wind up at the thrift shop because I don't feel like it turned out well enough to donate and it's not quite bad enough to throw in the garbage. (I'll make the final decision after seeing how it holds up in the wash.)
So much for trying new yarns...at least this particular new yarn.
I really want to know the story behind the fabric stash I found at the thrift shop last week. I don't think I've ever seen precuts, let alone three small laundry baskets full of them...
There were jelly rolls and charm packs and some others I don't know the name off, all dirt cheap if you were comparing them to the original prices and all in the condition they'd left the quilt shop in.
See that bundle in the top center? Someone could use that to make a 30s Barn Raising quilt just like the one I made.
Like I said, I want to know how and why all of this was there. Did someone give up quilting? Die? Read that book about decluttering and make some drastic decisions? This particular thrift shop supports a local no-kill shelter so they get some great donations, but I've never had a thrift shop find like this one.
Luckily, the fabric wasn't in colors that made me swoon. I picked up three jelly rolls to give to my mom for Mother's Day (with a full explanation of where they came from because the backstory makes them even more fun) and left the rest for another quilter to be excited about.
So what's your opinion on thrifted gifts? I'm all for them if they're going to someone else who enjoys thrifting, but I wouldn't try to pass anything off as new.
And have you ever found fabric like this at your thrift shops?
This adorable little guy may be my undoing. There's not a lot of stitching but that outlining -- the whole reason the rabbit is so stinkin cute -- is hard to figure out. And made harder by the fact that I'm using aida and have to pierce the fabric to get it in what I hope is the right position.
Start #6 is Peaceful Countryside, an old Dimensions kit by Charles Wysocki
I do not know where this one came from. I must have either traded another stitcher for it or picked it up in a thrift shop. The previous owner had started stitching it in the middle and after fifteen or twenty minutes of trying to pick out her work, I grabbed the fabric from another thrifted kit and started using that. It's an odd size, longer and skinner than most of the pieces I already own.
After an hour or so of stitching, I'm almost wishing I'd left the fabric where it belonged because that kit is also one I want to start...
I can cut another piece down from my stash. It's just aida and aida is relatively cheap. This is the only one of my ten new starts that I'm not excited to pick back up, so if it goes back into the stash with only a few stitches I can live with that.
Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.
The ad for the estate sale promised seventy years accumulation. What we saw at the actual sale was more like "do we have enough to bother with a yard sale?" Aside from a collection of sewing machines and a latch hook Jesus rug, there wasn't anything interesting.
Then I saw this....
I should have put something in the pictures for scale, because you can't tell how big this is. Imagine the big packages of Quaker Oats. Full of gold glitter.
And did I mention that it was fifty cents? I bought it for the packaging because it's neat and old and that looks like such an insane ridiculous amount of glitter. But when we got home I carefully pried it open. Outside, because I didn't know what I was getting myself into.
I'm the very happy owner of an obscene amount of gold glitter. I can't even begin to justify it, but I knew this one would haunt me if I passed it up.
I love, love, love ghost stories. The Invited by Jennifer McMahon handles the idea of a haunted house a bit differently. Instead of moving into an existing house, Helen and Nate are building a house from scratch, doing all of the work themselves while they live in a trailer on the property. Once Helen begins researching local history and seeking out salvaged pieces with ties to the place, things start getting spooky. It's not a fast paced book, but the ghost is downright chilling.
Hattie Breckenridge was killed by her neighbors, her body sunk deep into the bog, and she's never left the land. If you like reading ghost stories late at night, I highly recommend this one.
Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy.
Over the past few days, I've been doing a lot of stitching and not much blogging. As I type this it's day six of Stitch Maynia and I've started five new projects. There's a sixth one sitting next to me that I plan to start this evening.
Remember how happily obsessed I was about Cat With Clock a few months ago? It's that all over again.
Start #3 is a Dimensions Kit that I bought when I first started cross stitching and a local independently owned craft store was closing and had everything on clearance.
It's been fun to play with so far. I think I'll incorporate it into a project bag once I'm done.
Start #4 is Ripe Apples, one of the Riolis kits I bought when Hobby Lobby had that huge clearance sale last yet.
I had my doubts about the 10 count fabric, which makes the stitches almost twice as large as when I'm working on 18 count, but I think it's going to look just fine. The wool is heavier than cotton floss and I'm going to trust the manufacturer and do it the way they packaged the kit.
I've got to admit that the title of Cross-Stitch the Special Moments of Your Life confuses me a bit. It definitely doesn't describe the contents of the book, unless maybe you special moments include fox hunting.
It would be easy to overlook this one, especially if you flip through and only notice the teddy bears, but there's an amazing variety of patterns in here. I definitely want to stitch the girls on the left...
And those rabbits! The cross stitching world is full of amazing rabbits, but those have to be some of the best.
You can see all of the patterns in my video review over on YouTube.
Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.
In Monday's post, I explained a bit about how Stitch Maynia works. After lots of debating with myself, I actually waited until the first of May to start my first project.
This is A Caledonian Sky. Mostly the floss and first few stitches of A Caledonian Sky. It's been kitted up in my stash for almost twenty years. I was going to stitch it. Someday.
I printed off the pattern in December of 2001, probably a year or so after I started stitching, and somehow I didn't forget it. At one point, I'd converted the Anchor colors to DMC. Those notes are written on the pattern. Some time after that, I apparently got my hands on the Anchor floss the pattern actually calls for.
The picture on my printout isn't great. But the Internet Wayback Machine is a thing and after some fiddling around to remember how the site works, I found the actual picture and the chart. It looks so much better there!
Last week, my daughter and I spent a day digging through the bins up in Portland and falling in love with chairs.
I'll start with the one that isn't going to haunt me --
I love wooden swivel desk chairs. They capture my imagination and make me think of old movies and this one was in great condition and only seven bucks. But I have one already and I like the one that I have. It's also much easier to resist temptation when the person you are with is buying the thing and you know you'll be able to see it again.
This pretty little rocker wasn't too tempting because even though it was only five dollars I knew I didn't have a place for it.
I walked away without even taking a decent picture because I wasn't tempted. Then I saw it in one of the bins being wheeled away to the back and realized that it hadn't found a home and I felt a little sorry for it.
Then I got back to my own house and a day or two passed and I realized that I had the perfect corner for it. It could have replaced the child sized rocker in my bedroom corner. Damn.
I am totally going to buy a print of The Fairy Tale, but it isn't going to be this one. The whole thing was much greener in real life.
This landscape wanted to come home with me and it would have been soooo cheap. But it also would have taken up a huge amount of my extremely limited wall space. There will be other paintings like it and some will be just as pretty even if they aren't as inexpensive and I really do want to fill the wall space with my own quilts and stitching...
Just because I can smell the trees and river and imagine crawling over that fallen log doesn't mean I have to succumb to temptation...
If you want to see what else we found, click on the video --
