WIP Updates

You have to click on this picture to get the larger one to see the real progress. I'm using GAST Kudzu on the grass in a bargello stitch. Will give you a complete color chart for the piece in May, as I've made more progress. You can't really see through the threads as in the pic!! Yikes!Plantation Sampler is so much fun to stitch. The froggies have left me, somewhat; at least the majority of them have fled!! I've still had to contend with a few of them on that border. I'm counting and recounting like an old fashioned cash register!! :P

It's shameful that I'm still stitching on this, isn't it?! The metallics mixing has slowed me up, I think. I'm trying to mix it up more, now, to speed up the progress. Have only stitched a bit on this to start catching up. It's difficult to see...just try to look closely.


I've been clearing out old CD's today...all day! It was amazing how many I have collected that I'd never really listened to. There's another swap online just like the paperback swap...it's a CD swap...check it out. So far I haven't found anything, but I didn't really have time to look today.


Have any of you been watching American Idol? I have to tell you I can't stand Adam. I can't even hear him singing! He just makes me cringe. Sorry to any fans he may have amongst us. I think he's creepy. Ugh!! I'm a fan of Chris and Danny. I think Danny will probably be left standing with Adam. What do you think? The little red-haired girl certainly has a great voice!!!


Other favorite tv programs:

In Treatment
Fringe
Mentalist
Gray's Anatomy
Private Practices
Nancy Grace
Masterpiece Theatre
Big Love
True Blood
HBO Specials


How many of you saw "Gray Gardens?" OMGosh, it was brilliant. I just loved it. I could watch it again and again. Drew Barrymore was amazing, I think she really became the character. It was so much like the documentary, it was almost creepy! Jeanne Trippletorn played a good Jackie Kennedy...complete with a slight NY accent. I thought Jessica was the least real in the cast.


Must go....I've bored you to pieces!!!! Please leave me some answers and/or comments. It's always so much fun to hear from you, dear friends. I check my blog every day to see who's visited me!

Hugs, Deb

Thread Selections

Dear Stitching Friends,

Thanks so much for the interest some of you have shown for my thread choices for pieces I'm stitching. I'm going to post a list of them, just not tonight. I appreciate your comments so much!!

The frogs are still lingering.... Don't know what they want from me! :P I've had the Plantation Sampler in a trunk for about 16 years, so maybe some stitching spirit is unhappy and wants to give me some pestering for my delaying!? :B Beware when you start a classic you've had stashed away too long!!!

I have so many new blogs I want to list on my favorites. So much fun to read and see these new ones...at least new to me. I'm just delighted to add a couple of new ones on my front page and on the 2nd page of my blog.

I'm feeling a bit disappointed in the newest crop of books on the market. Is anyone with me there? So, that's why I'm reading the Patricia Cornwells, etc. that you see on my bookshelf. These are truly good books...all of those authors. I highly recommend the Karin Slaughter books.

Have you been watching "Little Dorrit" on Masterpiece Theater? It's been very good, but has pushed me a little to read the book instead of paying close attention to the tv special, which seems a bit slow in parts. Perhaps reading a few classics would be a good thing right now in what seems to me to be a publishing slump.

Here's the only other book I've found interesting... The Graveyard Book. It's young adult fiction, but all ages are raving about it. It's about a baby whose parents are murdered and who runs away to the local graveyard where the ghosts there help raise him as he lives amongst the tombstones... It's supposed to be a very good tale, sweet and an excellent, unusual read. I may try this one on my Kindle~"Stella"

Thanks so much for your comments, dear friends. I check every day to see who's visited me. And, I try to get to most of you in every week! Love to see what's up with you and what you're stitching.

Lots of Sampler Pictures & Nicole!!

My darling friend, Nicole (Nicole's Needlework) and I met at our favorite shop last week~~The Golden Needle in Port Charlotte, FL. I'm so delighted when Nicole drives down from Charleston to see her family because she always makes a point of getting together so we can talk needlework shop and have lunch.

We mostly bought fabrics this time. We bought 40, 38, & 32 cts. I bought the 32 ct. for my Mirabilia RR coming up in defference to dear friend Kathy A. who is now having trouble seeing 40 cts. I understand the feeling sometimes!!! Will talk about my Mira ideas in a later blog.... :)

A new update on my Beatrix. The bottom medallion and the bird medallion are newest additions. I just love the bird. Hoping to get more done on this for April.

Nicole and I had fun looking at my color palette for this piece. I finished my little house over the weekend, and can't wait to stitch more. Choosing my own threads makes this like painting a picture. Doubles the fun.

Speaking of which, I've been working out my thread colors for The Plantation Sampler, as well, hoping to update it a bit. Well, perhaps because of that or some reason or another....I've had a swarm of frogs on my stitching!!! I've been absolutely plagued all weekend. I've frogged and frogged this small section out until I nearly gave up on the whole thing altogether!! I was beginning to worry that I was going to wear out the linen! Truth be told I'm still not sure if they've left me. I'm nearing trepidation to pick The Plantation...up! Has anyone else found this border difficult???

An and Harmien, do you think it may not be a frog plague but a nest of goonies and mcgoblins that are playing havoc with my stitching??? Argh!!

That's all for my long weekend, except that we had a wonderful Easter with sweet Kellan, Jessica and her DH, Kevin. Kevin made brunch, I fed Kellan, and Jessica laughed and talked with us. Then, Kellan had a nice swim with his bath toys outside in his little pool. Jessica tells me today that Kevin said they really have to bring it in because the birds have been delighted to find a big birdbath today!! Oops!

He loves his red car. Got his first little boy (10 mos. old) haircut this week.

Bye for now! BTW, thanks everyone for leaving such awesome comments last time. I felt like we really had a stitching visit. Thank you. It's a big part of my life to have stitching friends like each of you. You mean so much to me. Hope your Easter was a good time with good friends and family.

Love and hugs, Deb

This Is The Day ~ or The Sampler A'fire

Don't you think this is the "little sampler that could," by now? Sioban, Nicole, Lizzy, Katrina, Vonna...and I am stitching it!! Who else has fallen prey to its charms? This is going to be a fun project. I saw that Katrina wants to add more people and to start a Group. Anybody else interested??

Above is my own selection of threads...my expression of the sampler. I've pulled from GAST, Belle Soie, Gloriana, Weeks and Silk 'n Colors. Couldn't resist the sheen of silks. I decided to make the background of the top alphabet a light blue instead of the cream color. I'm going to leave the lower, numbered section without a background filler, I think.

After working hours on my Beatrix Potter Sampler today I hardly seemed to get anywhere! I don't know why...just one of those days when the chart wouldn't coordinate with my eyes and hand, I guess.

I was watching a beautiful 1800's timeframe movie called "Valmont," that takes place in France, so my eyes weren't particularly focused on my stitching. The silk dresses and furnishings in that movie are just scrumtious. It starred Colin Firth, Annette Bening, Meg Tilly and others...run out and get it if it's not on your tv!!

My plan is to start finishing some of my WIPs this Spring and Summer. I have some that are so nearly finished. Kathy A. has kindly allowed me to join with her and others in a Mirabilia SAL group so I can get some inspiration and encouragement to finish Jessica's "Mermaid of the Pearls," which I promised her 2 yrs. ago!!

I'm just dying to start some oldie classics like: The Plantation Sampler, and Moira Blackburn's Time and Seasons.... These are ones I've been promising to stitch for several years but haven't even put needle to linen, though they are already kitted up.

Do you have pieces kitted up that you haven't stitched yet? What are they?
If you start one or two of them, I will, too!! Somebody start a group for us, pleeeease!!! We have to get going before time leaves us blind as bats (a quote from my 93 yr. old Aunt Manthie!). :) *"Manthie was a pet name for Amantha.

Happy weekend! Deb

Beatrix Potter Progress

Isn't this a funny way of photographing my Beatrix?! :P I don't like to iron my work until the end because I think it flattens the threads and takes the sheen out of the silks and cottons, so I'm always looking for a way to take a picture that can plainly show the stitches. Oh, well. Here's my progress, anyway.

I know that lots of us are stitching this "Needleprint Beatrix Potter Quaker Sampler" at the same time and in our SAL. It's just amazing how beautiful it can be in different colors and variegations. It's really an absolute joy to stitch.

As an update: there's very little news about my son's dog, Hollie, except that they can't really tell what's wrong with her. The vets believe it is dire and fatal. They believe it's neurological...and are treating with steroids. We aren't sure what to expect.

Jessica and Kellan and I went shopping for his mommy's new clothes today, and he was a perfect gentleman. He flirted with the ladies at Ann Taylor's. And, he laughed at Grammie when she sang and danced to rock music for him! Then, we went to Johnnie Rockets for lunch and he ate half of Grammie's grilled cheese sandwich and a few sips of a vanilla milkshake before going to sleep in his car seat as we headed for our favorite needlework shop, The Golden Needle, in Port Charlotte.

I was on a hunt for fabrics, but only left with one piece of 40 ct. Vintage hand dyed linen. It looks tea stained, actually. I also picked up a couple of Belle Soie...the shop was out of the Crescent Colors I went there for. But, never fear, because Nicole (Nicole's Needlework) will be here to visit this week, and she and I always get together and go to Golden Needle before lunch!!! Maybe they'll have gotten their CC's shipment in. :)

Tonight I visited many of you, my friends and enjoyed your blogs and stitching. You are all so accomplished and brilliant. Quite amazing to find that ones friends aren't just talented and creative, but are smart and beautiful inside and out. I'm so proud of all of you and I really treasure our friendships!!

Gotta go to bed....I see I've pulled another all-nighter. DH will be away at a treasure hunting trip in Dayton Beach tomorrow, so I can sleep in.... :]

Anne S. please email me your home address so I can mail your Victoria Sampler chart to you!!

Have a wonderful weekend all! Hugs, Deb

Lo the Rose.... How I'd love to Stitch Ye

I've seen so many of you stitching or have stitched this "Lo...the Rose..." piece, and I'm just dying to stitch it, too~ I've searched Amazon, but no more copies are available of the BH&G Christmas book. HELP!!!!

I will trade a chart with anyone who is willing to trade with me....even on a temporary basis. Or, I'm willing to purchase your copy of the book if you are finished with it.

Really, I'd love a copy of this chart. Will somebody out there help me out, please???

I think it's only fittin' (as Miss Scarlett would say) that a Lavender Rose person should stitch "Lo the Rose..."

Please don't make me beg....anymore.... :[

Hugs, Deb

Pictures and New Stitchers' Charts

Here's a picture that warms my heart! My son, Jason, who lives on the Cape in MA, and little Kellan (10 mos. old), DD Jessica's boy, getting to know eachother. Jason, wife- Adrien, and my grandgirl, Hadley, came to Naples to visit a couple of weeks ago! We were on cloud 9.
Here's Hadley...I'm sweetly prejudice, but she's got those Angelina Jolie lips and she's beautiful! Difficult to see from this picture. She's very proud of her pink crocs... Kellan is so funny! If he knows Jessica is about to take a picture he stops smiling or laughing and gets this expectant look on his face...every single time. We laugh so much! So here he is with that, "When's it going to flash," look!

After getting much of my stash out of my living room and into my little needlecraft/sitting room, by way of organization, I've found so many projects that I've meant to stitch but haven't gotten to. I've also found many that I have no intention of stitching.

I have several little Victoria Sampler charts for learning new stitching techniques. I'm wondering if any of you would like them. They have lessons including hardanger and darning stitches, etc. If any of you are interested, please leave a comment for me so I can sort them out. Thank you! These would be for new stitchers or those who want to learn or perfect a new skill. The finished pieces would make into fobs or pincushions or small boxtops. Please say a prayer for my son, Jason and his golden retriever, Hollie, who has just been diagnosed with the last stages of cancer and is failing very rapidly day by day. Hollie has been the family pet even before they had Hadley. The situation happened so quickly...last Saturday she just went down for no apparent reason, and was diagnosed. Jason and his wife have been shocked and really hurt and sad. I think losing a dear pet is one of the most painful things one can go through.

On a happy note, Kellan is now starting to pull himself up on things and Jessica is going to have her hands full! He says lots of words, the newest of which is "wal" which we assume means, "walk!" LOL Very scary because he crawls faster than either Jess or myself can catch him...going straight for the dogs bowls!! :]

I'm starting on a new series of books, I think. I've never been attracted to them before, but I started reading a Laurell K. Hamilton last night and thought the writing was good, better than I'd thought it would be! The book is "Bloody Bones" (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 5), and it's much less sex and blood than I thought.... I'm forging ahead with it. Any of you fans or readers of Laurell K. ???