Blush & Bashful

Emma Lerch and Shelby from Steel Magnolias would have been friends.

Emma Lerch

Scarlet Letter

32ct Cream Linen

DMC

Emma stitched her house in Shelby's two colors of blush and bashful. The house does appear to be hosed down in Pepto-Bismol.

Go here if you don't know what I'm talking about:

YouTube - Pink is my signature color

I promise I tried to add the video right here but I'm not as smart as I like to think I am.

Emma has been joy to stitch from start to finish. She got me through some very sad days the last few weeks. I still can't write about the loss of my friend Lisa but Emma was definitely a bright spot in days filled with the shadow of grief.

Do Guys Dig Chicks

With porch sitting skilz? Because of all the skilz I have, I'm my very best at porch sittin'. Emma Lerch

Scarlet Letter

32ct cream linen

DMC

(click pic to make bigger)

It's that time of year, day time temps are hovering around 66°F, the sun is calling me out to soak up some of those full of Vitamin D rays, and the wicker on the porch, left so empty for the last couple of months, is yelling for me to plop my behind right here and stitch. So who I am to argue with the wicker?

I sat outside for a little while and used the time to put in a couple of lengths of DMC 352 on Emma's house. My friend Tanya mentioned that I had outlined the house and how different we all stitch, and days like this are why I save my filling in for later. You never know when opportunity knocks and you can steal some front porch time and why bother with a chart when there's all this filling in to do?

I've managed to work the border down the right side and am now keeping my fingers crossed that it meets up properly along the bottom.

Emma is a simple sampler but her bright colors make me so happy I'm finding it hard to set her aside to stitch on anything else. Once I get the border finished I'll complete all the stuff in the middle with the exception of the house and the grass and I will devote my porch sittin' stitchin' time to those areas. I can get back to outlining on Jane Atkinson and working on Isabella Johnstone when I'm forced to stitch indoors.

In other news, I've been planning my front flower bed, it's a narrow little space and I think I'm going to plant sunflowers along the back row closest to the railing and then fill the front with all kinds of cut flowers. I have two packets of cut flower mix here along with snapdragons, cosmos and zinnias. I'd also like to plant some daisies and dahlias.

I've been making lists of all the things that need sprucing up around here and I've filled up one composition book already. I started painting the patio table and chairs last week. I still have two chairs to go and then I need to get some new cushions. The table was a roadside find a couple of years ago and then the chairs the Spousal Unit found, yet again, on the side of the road. We are definitely upcyclers/recyclers so I don't feel too bad wanting to splurge on purchased chair cushions and a new umbrella.

If you like Frappuccinos but hate the price, I found a very good recipe here:

Homemade Mocha Frappuccino

Since the mornings are warmer I've decided to give the coffee pot a break and start treating myself to a morning frappuccino. This morning I even topped it with some Reddi-wip and chocolate syrup. Of course this treat caused me to add one more thing to the to do list, replace icemaker in the fridge. My ice is full of black rubber shreds from the icemaker. I hate it when that happens but my frappe was just as tasty without the ice.

Hope each of you are seeing a bit of spring in your corner of the world, unless of course you are enjoying being snowed in, which come July and August I'm going to be dreaming of six foot high snow drifts instead of 95° and 100% humidity.

A Quickie

POST--a quickie post. Unfortunately not a quickie project but one full of joy. I hope that 13 year old Emma Lerch was as happy in her day to day life as her sampler makes me. The bright colors have been nice to stitch with since the last couple of weeks have been dark and dreary here in the Sunshine State.

(click to make bigger)

Emma Lerch

Scarlett Letter

32ct cream linen

DMC

Yes my pictures would be better if took a minute to iron the stitching but that would mean taking all the stuff off the ironing board and actually putting it away, so wrinkled is ok, it gives it character.

I have developed an unhealthy addiction to Netflix streaming. Who knew there was so much tv out there that I didn't know existed? I turned off the tv last week and went back to my audiobooks. I definitely needed to get the Netflix monkey off my back. I think I've found my balance and can watch Netflix responsibly, meaning I will leave the house occaisionally and interact with actual human beings instead of the ones on my tv screen.

Hope this weekend brings a touch of spring to everyone's corner of the world since this winter has been a humdinger. My mother says she's never seen so much snow in Tennessee as they have had this year.

Of Stitching and Crocheting

The stitching around here has been slow but steady. I can stitch for hours and not have a lot to show for that time other than the memory of a pleasant few hours.

There are those that think sitting around the house stitching on a perfectly beautiful day is a waste of a perfectly beautiful day. I disagree with that philosophy. I think any day is the perfect day to sit on the couch and stitch and since recently introducing Netflix streaming through the Wii to our home, well I don't care if I ever leave the house. It's this wonderful, magical thing, this Netflix streaming through my Wii.

I've just started Isabella Johnstone from SANQ, I think last summer's issue. I'm using DMC and 32ct linen that I aged myself. I've also been working a bit on SL Emma Lerch:

(yes, that's the Wii controller, my new BFF)

The picture below is the bit that was able to catch a streak of sunlight, the only sun that I could capture this afternoon:

Emma and Isabella are great companions while I watch episode after episode of Wire in the Blood and 30 Rock. Another project getting a bit of attention is my Ocean Waves afghan. It's from Crochet Today's Quick & Easy Gifts special issue. I'm crocheting it using the recommended yarn because I had it all in the stash. Good old Red Heart. I would say that I wish I was crocheting this using the finest wool but the fact is my family is the type of family that if a drink gets knocked over they reach for the closest thing to sop it up which would be this afghan, not to mention the dogs and our pride of cats, the frequent handwashing of a wool blanket would be a pain in the butt.

All I know is that I need to stitch and crochet much faster. I have a long, long list of projects and even with not leaving the house any more than I have to, I can't get near as much done every day as I'd like. I thought for sure I'd have Emma completed by the end of this month. No way that will happen. I keep trying to tell myself it's all about the process, the finish is just a wonderful perk but I want to move on to the next project. The serial starter in me is itching to start several new projects. It's a constant battle not to put that first little X into a piece of virgin linen. I must control myself or I will spiral out of control and be sucked into the vortex to Fantasy Island or rather the land of "You'll Never Finish All These Projects".

That Emma, She's a Screamer

Since finishing Rachael Holmes my stitching time has been devoted to sweet EMMA LERCH. She seems to be yelling the loudest and considering her loud color palette, she's hard to ignore.

Emma Lerch

Scarlet Letter

32ct cream linen

DMC

started in 2010

The last couple of days have been spent on stitching the house outline and I will admit that while this is a reproduction sampler I am not stitching it the same as Emma. Her house was apparently outlined with over 1 Xs and I can't see where all that over 1 enhances the beauty of the piece so Emma is a better woman than I. I'm stitching the house outline over 2 just like the rest of the sampler. Call me a baby, I can take it. I tried a couple of over 1 stitches and truthfully, they were not making me happy so I made the executive decision to make my sampler a wee bit different from Emma's and no one would know unless I told them and whoops, I just did!

Since finishing the outline of the house I've gone back to working on the border. It's actually going pretty fast and this is from the single slowest stitcher in the history of the world.

Has anyone else stitched this sampler? Did you outline the house with over 1 Xs?

2011 WIP Challenge

I decided to try to the up for a challenge WIP challenge this year. Only I'm tweaking it a bit and only starting out with six projects. If I complete these six by June 21st I will then add six more to the stack, once those six are completed, I'll see what three projects look promising for end of year finishes. I always start challenges and SALs with so much hope. This year I'm being realistic. I have pictures of my first three WIP, the weather has been much too dreary here to take pictures of the other three. So I wanted to post this now before I changed my mind and when I post again I will have the most current pictures of all six projects, and maybe have my full fifteen projects decided upon. This is Jane Atkinson by the Scarlet Letter. According to my records this piece was last photographed on February 23, 2009. I love Jane, truly, madly, deeply and would love to finish her early this year. Not sure that will happen, that over 1 verse is a killer. I'm stitching Jane on 36ct Flax linen and using good old DMC. The colors are much brighter than what you see in the picture which is part of Jane's charm.

Above you see Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie. I had hoped to finish this project before the end of this year but as you can see that ain't happening. I know I have stitched more on this block but can't seem to find a picture. This photo was snapped on July 28, 2010. I'm stitching Black'd Skie on 40ct Vintage Pear and using the Pure Palette Silks. They are awesome to stitch with.

And Long Dog's Sonne Spotte Rounds out my top three. I'm using a mix of GAST and DMC and stitching on 36ct creme brulee I believe. This picture was taken on April 15, 2009.

The other three projects that will be seeing lots of action the first part of 2011 are Handwork's Frances Eden, Scarlet Letter's Emma Lerch and Long Dog's Moulin Rouge.

I'm looking forward to this WIP challenge and hope I can keep up my mojo and get these projects completed by June. Unless something unforseen happens I can see this as a very reasonable goal.