Aug 30/09

This weekend my cats have been amusing me with the weird spots they using as sleeping spots. Apparently, sleeping on top of the kitty litter box is comfy:

and so is wedging oneself into the shoe box that used to contain papers in the end table in the living room:

Last night, the other cat was sleeping on the back of the couch with her head on my shoulder while I was watching movies and cross stitching. That was before she decided to sleep on my pillow in bed. Unfortunately, my head was also using that pillow and now I have a stiff neck!

Aug 28/09

The first of my Ebay purchases has arrived. My mother likes Nativity scenes so I would like to stitch this one up for her some day. There is one more booklet called "The Shepherds" which has a shepherd, some sheep and the angel who calls them to Bethlehem.


Still working away at the Teresa Wentzler booklet of celtic knot bookmarks. Here are 2 more of them that I finished as recently as last night.

Another gorgeous day here! Yesterday I had lunch at the Vintage Bistro here in Hampton and then toured Credo project which is a memorial to John Peters Humphrey, the man who wrote the UN Declaration of Human Rights. It was a very fitting place to visit as over lunch Victoria, a past Rotary exchange student from France, and I were talking about human rights issues in countries that we have each visited. We are so fortunate to live in peace and freedom here in Canada. So fortunate.

Aug 25/09

Meet "Heartfelt Harvey" from the JCS 2008 ornament issue, designed by Imaginating Inc.. I did not have enough thread in my mystery thread box to stitch the design in its intended redwork style so I played around with the thread and fabric colours to end up with this finished ornament! The blogs all seem to be pretty quiet these days. My visitor count is way down and I see that few people have been posting to the Ornament SAL. Perhaps once the cooler weather hits the Northern Hemisphere, more people will come indoors and have more time for blogs.

Aug 23/09

Now I remember why I avoid Ebay. There are 5 more patterns coming my way. Well,there is always my next life time or perhaps the one after that to stitch these ones! I am bidding on 2 more and thinking about 2 more. The selection is smaller this time of year, but it makes it easier to look through. There are also fewer bidders, it would seem, so I have managed to win more auctions at lower prices.

Good thing my youngest brother does not read this. He would just roll his eyes if he knew I had just bought more patterns just like he did the other day when he came over to help me move my desktop. He looked around the room and announced that I have become just like Mom with my rooms full of stuff that I will never use. Ahem! Mom no longer does crafts, but she hangs onto the stuff where as I still stitch like a maniac!

Aug 22/09

The other night while I was sitting out on my deck, enjoying the summer weather that has finally come to this region of the country, I looked down to see this:


She freaks me out when she lays like this because I always have to check to make sure that she is still breathing as I think that she looks dead!

Once I ascertained that the cat was still alive, I tucked into this:


The tomatoes are the result of my first foray into vegetable gardening. I am inordinately proud of them as they are my first produce. As I chowed down, I thought about where I can grow more vegetables next year in my yard. Variables I have to consider: areas that get full sun that are not under the two clotheslines that cut across the corner of my property, that are not likely to be trampled by the neighbours kids (we do not have fences so 5 yards all open onto each other) and what I would to grow!

I have been working on some more bookmarks by Teresa Wentzler in the evenings because I would like to finish that set of projects. One of my little obsessions is to clear things out so when it comes to cross-stitch, that means using up as much thread as I can. I know that this sounds weird, but I actually get excited when I finish a skein while working on a project and have to go fish another one out of my enormous skein stash. Eight years ago or so, the drugstore I work at was clearing out the inventory from its venture into craft supplies so I bought up the DMC floss. Hey! It cost me about 20 cents a skein so at $1 000 later you can well imagine how many skeins I have in my craft room......I have made a dent in the stash over the years in between friends needing a skein, giving bags of skeins away to charity auctions and all of the stitching I do. Part of my obsessiveness stems from the fact that I am mulling over the idea of building a small cottage style house on my country property and all of my stuff has to fit into that house along with my three cats and the dog that I want to have when I move there. This little side line is related to the TW introductory sentence in that I have used up several skeins of thread in stitching all of the bookmarks in the booklet and a couple of pieces of fabric from my fabric stash!

Aug 18/09

These photos could be called "Variations on a theme" I suppose. I stitched up all four of the kits that I bought called "Kindness", but discovered on the first kit that there was not enough green so I dug out my mystery thread box. Does any one else keep threads from kits and such just in case or am I the only one? Most serious stitchers probably do not use kits so perhaps that is a dumb question. I am such a "could be useful someday" kind of person although I try to keep a lid on keeping stuff just because. Anyhow, each piece is slightly different in the stems. These little kits have come in handy as one finished piece is now in British Columbia and another one will be going to Cuba this week with a professor friend who comes here from Cuba every summer to teach.

Aug 17/09

I was checking out the Christmas Ornament SAL blog that I post to and I was very pleased to see that the designer of the last ornament I had stitched complimented me on my ornament! How awesome is that?! Thanks to Brooke Nolan for designing "Elf In a Box" and for her kind words!

Aug 11/09

This little cutie will be winging its way to Fort St John, British Columbia tomorrow with my friend Dave to share with his family. He was home to NB for a week and we met for a big greasy feed at the local diner this morning which is where I took this photo. I have 4 of this same kit so it will be variations on a theme of green for the next while as the kits do not have enough green in them so I am playing around with the stem colours.

Aug 9/09

Summer has finally arrived here on the East Coast of Canada! I spent the afternoon out in the woods, clearing poplars and birch trees from around my apple orchard. The woods are really wet for this time of year, but the mosquitoes were mercifully held at bay by the insect repellent.



And another shot of the orchard.


Yesterday was so beautiful and sunny that I went to St Martins to sit by the ocean and read "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell. The sun shining on my face, the waves whispering and crashing against the rocks, few people on the beach.....Heaven!

Aug 8/09

I stole these questions from this blog just for fun:

1)Why do you stitch?

I have always done handwork of some sort ever since I can remember. It is a way of life for me to make stuff.


2) On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being least important and 10 being most important what is your cross stitch passion level?

10 does not even begin to describe my passion for stitching.


3)If you're only option for cross stitch supplies and patterns happened to be the major chain craft stores would you just walk away from the little X? Kiss it goodbye?

Nope. That is pretty much my only option at the moment. Fortunately, my stash is so big at the moment that I do not have to rely on the chain stores for materials.



4)Also are you so passionate about cross stitch that if indeed your only option was the major chain craft stores, would that inspire you to create your own cross stitch pieces because you have to stitch and you've stitched your way through the whole of Dimensions catalog--because you must stitch and the thought of life without a relationship with the little X leaves you feeling empty?

I am stitching on mosquito netting at the moment to add cuffs to a bargain jacket I bought a while ago. Need I say more?


5)Finally what do the cross stitch magazines on the market offer you? Do they relate to you as a cross stitcher? Do you look at them and think to yourself, who do they think buys this magazine? I guess what I'm asking, when you see the current cross stitch magazines do they make you feel like they know their readers or do you find it's more of the same? What could they do to be ambassadors for the art of cross stitch other than putting a sampler on the cover with "F-U" on it? What are we missing on a PR level that could change the opinion of cross stitch itself?

I think that cross stitch magazines have come a long way from the cutesy (*gag*) country style patterns that used to predominate to the more artistic and varied styles of patterns that I see now in the magazines I come across. I still buy alot of magazines, mostly for inspiration as I have a couple of life times of patterns already at home. Do the magazines represent me as a reader? Sometimes. How can magazines change the opinion of cross stitch itself? Perhaps more smalls and more tutorials and techniques for current stitchers to share their skills and passions. I have never joined a stitch and bitch group because I can not fit one more activity into my schedule, but my blog reading fulfills that part of me that wishes to socialize with other stitchers because I can see what they are stitching and get a glimpse into their lives.



6) And finally, finally, do you do other crafts and if so what are they and why do they pull you away from cross stitch?

I dabble in other crafts from time to time, but my "talents" lie in cross stitch. All the other crafts went by the wayside once I discovered the little x twenty years ago.

Aug 6/09

The Iris HAED is underway! I decided to bite the bullet the other night and start a big project. Plus, I needed the space on my cluttered desk so the material pile had to be moved. My eyes are probably going to lose a few years of usefulness as I am stitching over one on 28 count. Thank heavens for the natural lamp that my mom bought me several years ago.

Well, it is a beautiful sunny day here and I am not scheduled to work today so once the laundry gets hung out, I am off to sit by a friend's pool and soak up the few rays we have had shine us this summer!

Aug 3/09

Because I have not been able to find the motivation to start working on some of my big projects, I am still concentrating on smalls. This ornament is from the JCS July/August issue in the ornament preview section. The design is called "Elf in the Box", designed by Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books. I stitched it up in the evenings after work this past weekend on mystery cloth and with mystery threads. The little ornaments that the elf is holding are supposed to be stitched on perforated paper which I dislike working with so I used some of my little decorating snowflakes that I have in my stash instead.