Fairy Grandmother

Here's the promised updated photo of FG. Apologies for the poor scan. No sun around here in the last day or two so I just scanned the pertinent area on my trusty scanner after removing a most comfortable cat. I didn't bother with a scan of the dress, the area I stitched doesn't show up too well. The lower wing area though, if you compare it with the small pic in the side bar, progress is quite obvious if not as much as I would have liked. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, not while stitching, that I get the wing finished today. The color changes are slowing me down. I've tried the prethreaded needle method and that just doesn't work for me so it's stitch, snip, rethread, stitch, snip, rethread. But can I say again how beautiful this is. The color changes are so subtle, they flow so quietly into each other, just gorgeous!

Now for a quick book review. I went to the library on Friday and checked out a few books and some books on tape. I started Alice Hoffman's The Ice Queen Friday night and finished it last night. Alice Hoffman is a gifted storyteller. This story had me from page 1. The book jacket describes the story this way, "Be careful what you wish for. A woman who was touched by tragedy as a child now lives a quiet life, keeping other people at a cool distance. She even believes she wants it that way. Then one day while standing in her house she is struck by lightning. But instead of ending her life, this cataclysmic event sparks a strange and powerful new beginning."

I had been unconcious for thirty two hours, hence the IV in my arm. Naturally things were fuzzy. Of course my brother and Nina looked concerned. And so I didn't mention anything when the nurse came in with a dinner tray and didn't say a word when I noticed the Jell-O I was being offered was the color of stones. The nurse herself, not more than twenty-five, appeared to have long white hair. The flowers my brother and his wife had brought me seemed dusted with snow. I understood then. I had completely lost the color red. Whatever had once been red was now cloudy and pale. All I saw was ice; all I felt was the cold of my own ruined self....Why the absence of a color would affect me so deeply, I had no idea, but I suddenly felt completely bereft. I had lost something before I'd known it's worth, and now it was too late.

This paragraph haunted me. I thought about it often yesterday. When I finished the book last night, I cried. I don't want to tell any more of the story, even parts mentioned on the book jacket, the story is so powerful, I'll carry it with me for a long time.

Amazon.com: The Ice Queen : A Novel: Books: Alice Hoffman

This is the best book I've read in a long time. I don't know if there's some deep emotional connection I made with the main character, if the story really is that powerful, for some reason, it touched me, moved me. If I even let on why I cried at the end, it will give the story a way and I don't want to take that moment from anyone who hasn't read this book.

Question of the Day:

Do you all think NBC knows that their Olympic coverage sucks?

Let's be clear, they have 5 or so channels, the Olmpics are in a part of the world that is oh, 7 hours or so ahead of us, it seems like something other than hockey could be shown in real time. Seriously. This is a big event, doesn't it make since to show some of this stuff when it is actually happening? I get the whole "prime time ratings" stuff. I understand. But why not show the events in real time on all five of your channels so we can flip around, watch the events we want to, then show your packaged prime time extravaganza at night. We'd all watch again. Not everyone works during the day, some people work at night, give us all a taste. We get the scores. You may have the tv coverage but you don't control the news. Don't you think you are doing your viewers a disservice having Chris Jansing say, "Big happenings on the slopes today. Tune in tonight to your local NBC affiliate to see what happened." Hello, it's happened, you aren't showing it, don't you see something wrong with that? All I have to do is flip over to ny other news channel and find out what happened which I'm going to do because of your stupid tease. 5 channels!!! 5 Channels and we can't get one flipping thing in real time. Even on the stupid weekends! Why were cartoons on instead of the biathalon on Saturday? Why not catch adults when they are lounging around on Saturday morning before taking kids to basketball games? No you wait to show them later in the afternoon. You have 5 channels and there's rarely Olympics on any of them.
You're showing hockey this morning over skiing. You can't show skiing or bobsleding on a Sunday morning? SUNDAY MORNING!

Olympic Stitching

Coming later today a progress pic of Fairy Grandmother, but for now a few reflections on stitching her and major miscalculations.

So week one of the Olympic Stitching challenge has come to an end. While working on Fairy Grandmother yesterday I realized that I made a grave error not touching her last weekend. Friday passed, not one stitch, Saturday, not one stitch, Sunday, nada, Monday, zippo. Ok fast forward to Friday of this week, I've worked on her every day since Tuesday, right now I'm enjoying her. I like her, I really like her! When you turn the piece a certain way and all the shading is evident, it's just breathtaking. Breath taking to the point that I suck in my breath, let it out and say to myself, "You are creating this, freakin' gorgeous piece of needlework, you, just someone with thread and needle." Amazing. The DH was home Thursday and Friday and it cut drastically into my daytime stitching time, but yesterday when I pulled out FG he kept commenting on how pretty she was and how he bet I really hate giving her away. I looked at him and said very clearly, "I can't get this out of the house fast enough!" So yep, she's gorgeous, I'm loving her again but nope, don't want her around. I can very easily part with this piece of needlework. Believe it or not I have a long long list of larger projects that I want to stitch and give away to people, the problem is that FG has taken about 5 yrs, not of steady stitching, there were two false starts(one where I actually believed I knew more than MLI about fabric choices, boy did that bite when I accepted the fact that I'm colorblind and it's best for the profressionals to do the color choosing and I'll just be a little lamb following the pack, the second false start was when I cut the fabric wrong, I hate that), and of course there was the bitterness surrounding my hatred of the color changes, not so much the color changes themselves, let's face it I have a gazillion TWs in the stash to keep me stitching and changing colors for another lifetime, but with MLI's patterns there are usually nice big blocks of color but not with FG, the color changes are tedious, and when you aren't mentally in the zone for frequent color changes it can be disheartening. I've given away very few larger pieces mainly because I'm a very, very slow stitcher. I have umpteen hundred WIPs, I stitch to decorate my house. It's my art. For years I stitched for the sake of stitching, then a few years ago I started being fairly picky about what I spent my time stitching. I spent one summer stitching only on Halloween things, which became the quilt top from last summer-nice, easy stitching, good for lazy summer days(hope to do the same with Christmas pieces I have in the stash this summer), then I spent a few months working on pieces for my boys' bathroom. It's got a sea theme, so I stitched a Stoney Creek fish design and a turtle piece, and the Rainforest Frog. Oh and I stitched BN's Key West Sampler but it was hanging near the sink, the cats got in a fight, knocked it off the wall, it hit the floor, glass broke and then one of them peed on it. So it's kind of a do-over at this point.

Then I started focusing on the living room and stitching things I loved. I have a vision but no inate since of style. That makes for lots of stitching hanging haphazardly on living room walls with no sense of place, they create no, oh, what am I trying to say, no feeling of comfort, just of cross stitch chaos. I have this huge, huge wall by the front door and three approx. 8x10 cross stitch pics hanging on it. They look like 3 little fish in a 100 gallon aquarium. It doesn't work but I can't figure out what to do with them at the moment. I hate to hide them away in the bedroom. I'm hoping that eventually they'll tell me where they belong. My Le Printemps and L'Ete would look great on that wall. They are larger designs but I have them hanging on the girlie end of the living room on my tropical punch painted wall. They work there, but somehow I feel they deserve a more prominent place.

Anyway since getting a rythmn going with FG I do believe I'll get her finished this time, maybe not by the end of the Olympics but in the not so distant future. I'm not giving up, I may surprise myself, I just seriously underestimated the amount of stitching I had left. It really didn't look like a lot but, we'll see how it goes.

So then while stitching I started thinking about other WIP close to finished. I have DS#2's Dragon Isle, I haven't underestimated the amount of stitching on that, it's just 14ct black aida with fractional stitches. ICK, ACK, PTUI! Then there's Mirabilia's Lady of the Flag. She's not quite at the halfway mark but close. I still have the banner at the bottom of her dress and the flag on the bottom half of the chart and then I think that page of the pattern is complete. I do believe once FG is completed, LOTF will get a lot of attention. Next is Mirabilia's Mermaid of the Pearls which I promised to my niece Megan because she asked for it when she saw me stitching it, what was I supposed to say? There's an error somewhere in my stitching and I just hate to touch it because I'll obsess over the error. Then I'll whine about frogging, then I'll hate to part with her because I do love me some mermaids. But there are a ton of other Mirabilia Mermaids I want to stitch and have been sort of planning to stitch 3 or so on the same piece of linen, but then I decided if I did that I'd never finish them. Better to stitch one at a time, but wouldn't a few of those mermaids look great all stitched on the same piece of fabric? I had always planned to do this and hang it over my bed.

That was just a glimpse at what's started and remotely close to finished. Then I have my 13th Colony Bay Parts 1-3 on the same piece of linen(I love stitching on big pieces of linen). I want this finished by the end of March so I can get it in for framing and up on the wall ASAP. The stitching on that piece does go quick, talk about big blocks of color! I think it really is doable, if I forget that I have a life, family, commitments. But isn't the whole goal to get it finished and on the wall?

Then there's my dream of a Quaker wall, my dream of a wall of all redwork pieces, can you tell I'm a theme stitcher?

My friend Siobhan has finished Sarah Tatum and Victorine Bonnegent already this year. Can you believe that? I started Sarah Tatum New Year's Day and haven't finished one motif. Victorine was Siobhan's Olympic project. She's definitely gold medaled in her event.

My friend Sharon finished Homespun Samplar's The Hunt. She finished it in record time. I had planned on stitching this with the recommended threads but am going to steal Sharon's idea and stitch it in red. Her's looks fabulous.

How About Some Pictures?

The picture above is the little bit of progress I've made on By the Bay's 13th Colony Bay. I'm stitching parts 1-3 on the same piece of 32ct Star Sapphire linen. That's one honkin' big piece of linen. Once the Olympic Stitching Challenge is over I'm looking forward to getting back to this design. I think the stitching will go pretty fast. Can't wait to get it framed and hanging in the kitchen.

The DH was greeted by the above snowfall when he reached Memphis Friday Morning. Since he hadn't seen snow in years and years it was an added bonus to seeing family.

The picture above is what he left just prior to flying into a snowstorm. Do you know what's the best thing about this picture? No people! I had the beach all to myself on Friday when I took this picture. That ROCKS! There is nothing like February on the Gulf Coast, the beaches are their prettiest and there are no people here. Some times it's even warm enough to wear shorts and get a little sun.

The picture above is of my current knitting project. Taken from a distance to show off the tulips the DH gifted me with for Valentine's Day.

Above is a close up of the knitting. It's my first attempt at a baby sweater. It's all in garter stitch because I can't flippin' purl. The long thin piece to the left is the front panel, the big square is the back, and on the needles is the other front panel. Only a few more rows and it will be finished then all I have left to knit are two sleeves then sew it together and block the you know what out of it. The friend I'm knitting it for will forgive any mistakes, I'm knitting it with TLC Cotton Plus but I can't remember the color. Yes, the one front panel looks a little longer than the back but I'm hoping blocking will fix that. It's my first sweater, give me a break.

Market Reports

Shakespeare's Peddler1 has a market report up. Two pages of cross stitch goodness.

There are also market reports up at Elegant Stitch.

Some friends and I are planning a SAL to BN's Ezmeralda's House. A must have for me is Workbasket's Mermaids Singing. I also like Hands to Work Harvest Blooms. Love those flowers in the shoe. I also like BOAF's Spring and Summer Gardens. Those will make great pillows. I love CHS Tombstone Angels and Scarlett Berries. I also like all of the new Blackbird Designs. One that caught my eye that is a must have is Victoria Sampler's Heart's Secret. It went right to the top of my wish list when I saw it.

Coming Soon:

A current pic of Fairy Grandmother, bet you just can't wait......

Listening to:

Stevie Nick's Timespace

Olympic Progress

Anna asks how I'm doing with the Olympic stitching? Well this weekend I was Michelle Kwan. Out for the count, due to kids with too many commitments, and one unexpected basketball game so Sunday was a rain out. But today call me Emily Hughes. I'm back in, put in several lengths of floss. Unfortunately the progress doesn't show, the stitched piece still resembles the pic in the sidebar but hopefully by this weekend I'll be able to take a progress pic that will actually show some progress.

Lessons learned over the years I've spent with Fairy Grandmother:

1) Never ever tell anyone you are stitching something for them. NEVER EVER!

2) Sometimes doing the majority of the background stitching in the beginning because the stitcher believes it will lend itself to boredom during the last leg of stitching is a mistake. God help me but I'd love me a big block of the same color right now.

3) Always, always make a working copy of the chart for a long term project and make it at the start of the project. To someone who can't see shades worth anything and the chart is falling apart, a working copy at this point doesn't offer much of anything but confusion and wasted time trying to mark out what has already been stitched. My time is better spent stitching and working it out as I go. But I will never again start a project without a working copy.

4) Try not to get emotionally attached to the project. This project is kicking my ass. I can't stress enough that it will be one of the prettiest things I've stitched in my lifetime of stitching but I truly, hate the Grandhag. When I started it for my grandmother it represented to me who my grandmother has always been in my life, a fairy grandmother, the stitched fairy even reminds me of my mamaw in her younger days. She is everything a fairy grandmother should be, my mamaw saved me, she always made me feel valued and loved. Living in a home with a revolving door and I won't go into it but use your imagination, revolving, someone going in and out, my grandmother kept things stable. She was a constant in a dysfunctional family. She offered unconditional love, support and always believed that I was somebody special. So this piece is just an emotional mess where I'm concerned. There's so much more tied to this piece of cross stitch than some thread and fabric. A lot of baggage if you know what I mean.

So while going is slow, uphill all the way, if I can get the cross stitch finished by the end of the Olympics the beading should be a breeze. Truthfully I enjoyed stitching on her this afternoon. It felt right. It's the first time working on the grandhag has felt right. I hope to put in a few more stitches tonight, and get right back on it first thing in the morning. I believe I've found a rythmn and think I can keep it up. Then again I could have just jinxed myself.

In other news, I've been listening nonstop to Cat Power The Greatest and Lucinda Williams World Without Tears. Do I need to say how much I *heart* Lucinda Williams?

From Righteously:

You don't have to prove
Your manhood to me constantly
I know you're the man can't you see
I love you Righteously

Why you wanna dis me
After the way you been kissin' me
After those pretty things you say
And the love we made today

When you run your hand
All up and run it back down my leg
Get excited and bite my neck
Get me all worked up like that

Here's a little taste of Ventura:

I wanna watch the ocean bend
The edges of the sun then
I wanna get swallowed up in
an ocean of love

From Cat Power The Greatest -Islands:

The captain has a treasure
Says I hold the key
But old mangroves
And sweet winds blow
Songs of you and me

I haven't had time to read lately, but if anyone has read Stephen King's Cell leave me a note about your thoughts on this book. It's the first book I've wanted to run out and buy in a long time. I read some reviews on Amazon and can't determine if people liked it or not. I came very close to buying it last weekend but decided that even with 40% off I shouldn't spend the money right now, but I sure wanted to curl up with a good Stephen King novel last weekend.

I'm Here, I'm Here!

Thanks to everyone for your encouragement regarding Fairy Grandmother. I feel that before these 16 days are over I'll be ready to stab myself in the eye with my #26 Piecemaker's needle.

I spent the better part of the day running errands and tonight will be spent at DS#2's basketball game. Not one stitch will be crossed until later this evening. The DH went to Memphis to visit family and took my camera. I assure you that I have made no progress on Fairy Grandmother since I placed the most recent pic of her in the sidebar. I'm going to attempt a pic in the morning with the old camera, it's kind of duct taped together but I think it will make a decent pic for my purposes.

Other news, I also need to take a pic of my pile of hexes for the Grandmother's Flower Garden Afghan CAL over at Crochetville Forum. My intention is to get a few flowers sewed together before taking a pic but who knows when that will actually happen? It's a good project when the eyes are too tired to cross stitch. The pattern was easy to memorize, I seem to be meeting gauge with each one, so it's a pleasant project to work on. Those hexes are addictive.

With DH gone this weekend I hope to get to stay home and stitch the weekend away but so far today was too busy and tomorrow morning we will be busy with haircuts, a little running around, but hopefully when that is all done I can stay home the rest of the weekend and do as I please. The kids can eat frozen pizza three meals a day for a day or two. I mean it's got your dairy, wheat, meat, vegetables. Everything is covered. The perfect meal!

Radio Silence

Thanks to everyone for the compliments on my skull girl. She's still just a cross stitch piece, haven't turned her into a bag yet. Too much going on, health problems related to my mom. Sometimes being 600 miles away isn't a good thing. 99% of the time it's the best thing, but that other one percent can really bite.

Not much of anything has been accomplished around here in the crafty endeavors department. I did start my 13th Colony Bay Parts 1-3 last weekend. The stitching is going a little slower than I'd like but that is more due to the aforementioned family issues than anything. I kept waiting to write until I took a pic but decided picture taking just wasn't in the cards any time soon so there you have it.

I've made quite a few more hexes for my Grandmother's Flower Garden CAL over at Crochetville. I've been working on the 63 Squares CAL for over a year and keep setting it aside because I become disenchanted with my color choices. I've restarted this afghan several different times. I think I've finally come upon a color scheme that I might actually follow through with. Ever since discovering Celestial Creations, I've become obsessed with the Espresso color in Caron One Pound yarn. It's a beautiful, rich brown. I'm thinking the 63 Squares afghan might look nice in the Cream and Espresso colors. The pattern calls for three colors but I don't see why two colors couldn't work just as well. After looking at the few afghans I've made, we're hard on them. Celeste mentions in her blog that the Caron is an ultra-washable yarn. It's probably not as soft as Caron Simply Soft but for an afghan with cream as one of the main colors I think ultrawashable is a positive. At first I was worried that the Espresso might be too dark to really show the difference in the stitches of the various blocks but Celeste has a picture of an aran tote bag she's making and the stitches show up nicely on that bag. So I think I'll restart this afghan sometime after the Olympics. That'll give me some time to gather up the Caron I'll need for the project. I just got the new Valentine's flyer from JoAnn's and they'll have the Caron One Pound for $3.95 a skein. Pretty good deal.

I'm psyching myself up for my Olympic stitching. It's going to be the longest 16 days of my life, but I have to get that out of my head and look down the road to it being the 16 days of my life that get this Fairy GrandHAG out of my stitching basket and off to the framers. How's that for putting a positive slant on the project?

Once this albatross is no longer hanging around my neck I see lots of fun stitching ahead. Fun, completely and utterly selfish stitching, the best kind!

Adventures in Cross Stitching

Or maybe I should say designing. I have a favorite t-shirt, I've been wanting to make something else with this design on it so I begged the spousal unit to draw it off for me and he did. His artwork is shown below:




I scanned his interpretation of this design into Patternmaker and printed out a chart and stitched the design on 28ct Mulberry over 2 using two strands of DMC 3716:

Now I plan to turn the cross stitch piece into a pocket for the front of a bag. The fabric underneath the cross stitch design is the outside of the bag and the lime fabric will be the lining. I'm also hoping to add inside pockets like you will find on my favorite brand of tote bags and purses.

I will use either the pattern for the red bag shown at the top left of this pattern or

Bag C, shown at the top right of the pattern shown below, it's the pink bag.

Now I'm planning to crochet the same design to the front of bag that I will then felt. I'm trying to decide whether to do a burgundy bag with a pink design or take it to the next level and crochet a lime bag with a pink design. I have wool almost ready to koolaid dye but if I decide to go with the burgundy bag I may just use wool I can buy already the color I want.

I hate sewing so this should be another adventure. I've been inspired to try this thanks to all the creative people over at Craftster.org.