special stitches

Remember the Susan Greening Davis sweet tin class piece I had been working on, oh not too long ago? I took a small break from it for two reasons. One, I’ve been so involved in my Little House Needleworks designs and two, I’ve been psyching myself up to attempt the “dreaded” interlacing double herringbone stitch. Quite a mouthful, ugh? Photographed below is where I stopped.

And finally, below is where I am today with the interlacing double herringbone stitch in place.

I was quite proud of myself for getting this stitch complete in only one afternoon, and with a bad hand too (I’m injured, long story). I have to admit, there were a couple of people that had hell to pay in order to understand this stitch. I mean, over, under, over, under, under, over, under; UGHHHHH!!! Luckily for me, this stitch appreciated my efforts and it clicked. Of course, there was some playing around on the second interlacing pass at first, but I managed. I think it looks really nice. Besides, it is my first time on this. :D The empty column to the right of this special stitch will be filled with the cloud filling stitch. It reminds me of lattice. I’ll post more on it later.

I leave you with Mr. Funny Face. I caught him playing at the sink. When we ask Cameron, ‘show me your funny face’, these are the faces he gives us. Faces only a mother could love.

Talk soon!

stitching, movies, reading = favorite things

This is such a sweet stitch (frog attack forgotten). I have since started the border and I’m waiting to start the second flower…again. I may start on her blouse next which is done in Old Blue Jeans by CC. It will be so cute and fresh. I’ve been invited to participate by adding photos to this blog so I will be posting there soon.

I am on disc 3 of Whiteout by Ken Follett. The drama began as soon as it started and it continues to grab my attention. I especially like the Scottish accent of the reader because that connects me to the characters. The story does take place in Europe so the accent helps capture the environment. The man nearly drowning was a little hair raising and some of the language used gives a chuckle. It's all good though.

Since Jose has been out for the summer we’ve been watching a lot of movies together. We’ve seen all these movies hundreds of times before, but we’re huge fans so it never gets old or boring watching the same things over and over together. We’ve decided to watch movies that extend the trilogy, more like a series. So far we’ve watched all the Alien movies. We just got done watching all six Star Wars (I always cry at #3) and next on the agenda are the Superman movies. Awhile back it took us a month to watch all ten seasons of Friends, but we had a fabulous time together. We laughed soooo much! Next week me and my son have a movie date. Mom is going to babysit Cameron during the day so we can have an afternoon mother/son date. We’re going to see the new Star Trek movie. Can’t wait!

Talk soon!

frogs stink!

Last night I posted about the frogs attacking The Sampler Lady. Of course, I brought it upon myself by not stitching when I was more coherent, but anyway I started ripping the threads out last night and still wasn't done by morning. Today I spent the afternoon ripping more threads. The entire left side flower is officially ripped out. I had just as much stitching complete on that flower as I have done on the right side. Thankfully the frogs are done ribbitt-ing around my linen. I think the worst part of frogs is the ruined thread. Can't reuse it, for obvious reasons. The thread looks dreadful (photo above). Anyway, I'm done venting about that. Now I can start stitching again.

To make this a more pleasant return, I went to the library this evening (Jose tagged along) and checked out four books on cd. I am getting ready to cozy up in bed and listen to a story. I've never done this before so I'm a little jittery at the anticipation. The audio books I checked out are:

Watchers - Dean Koontz
The Associate - John Grisham
Whiteout - Ken Follet
The Navigator - Clive Cussler

I'm beginning with Whiteout. I also checked out two DVD movies. Rush Hour 3 ("Do you understand the words that are comin' outta my mouth??? - Chris Tucker to Jackie Chan. I love this line.) and Fried Green Tomatoes (This movie is wonderful!). Enjoy your evening. Talk soon!

LHN and a Gibbon???

I finished hand-sewing The Traveling Stitcher to the pre-finished needlecase and project keeper. The needles design gave me some trouble and I had to use my seam ripper, but all ended well. I am pleased with everything. At first I was going to sew the project keeper design on the underside of the flap, but decided not to. Mainly because the floral/coral design is only on the flap and no where else, I didn’t want to hide such a gorgeous, yet small, piece of fabric. Anyway, I sewed mine onto the biggest portion of the keeper; the backside of the pocket. This was such a fun design to stitch and I highly recommend it. I noticed on this blog that some have changed up the colors which add interest. Anyhoo, the verse on this piece stands true to me. I do bring my stitching everywhere because you never know when you’ll need it. My motto: I’d rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

I helped my friend, Sally, finish the lid of her Susan Greening Davis basket at a recent moonlight stitching gathering at our LNS. Truly I had a lot of fun helping Sally put this together. I always learn something when I finish projects and I think Sally learned something too. :D We had fun with it! Sally did such a nice, nice thing for me. Because I helped with her basket she was kind enough to purchase me a chart as a thank you. Of course, a thank you and a hug would have done just fine by me, but Sally insisted and I wasn’t going to argue. LOL The ‘thank you’ gift was The Sampler Lady chart by LHN.

I couldn’t wait to start her. The design reminds me of myself. Weird, I know, but it just does. The over-dyed and DMC thread color scheme is so pretty, but I did exchange two over-dyes for some Gentle Arts I had on hand. They are still in the same color group though, so really there isn't much of a change. Unfortunately, after I took these photographs and put in a couple of hours of stitching I found a mistake. My mistake! I was so peeved. The left flower is off by like six stitches. I still haven’t learned my lesson. I need to quit stitching when I start dozing off at night. I guess I’ll never learn. Needless to say, the frogs attacked on this one BIG TIME. I had that flower just about done and I had to rip everything out. A big poohy there!

Lastly, Jose spent the night at mom’s Saturday and was with her for most of Sunday. In the meantime, dh and I took Cameron to the zoo to blow some of that jumpy, crazy, bent-up, baby-boy hormone steam he seems to have a lot of these days and we ended up in the Jungle Gym which is a play area for tots. He loves it there! This was the first time daddy did this with him and he was in love with the act. He screamed and cried when we needed to leave. I bet people across the way thought the zoo added a new Gibbon (Cameron’s cousins) to the exhibit. (I’ll spare you the horrifying death screams and fire spitting this child can, and did, make that afternoon upon leaving the tot area - you get the idea by Cam's cousins.)

Talk soon!

tokyo cuisine

I don’t have any stitching photos to share, but I have been stitching. I finished one Little House Needleworks design and started another, which I will post photos of once I get the chance.

More miso soup, please!

Tonight we had sushi and salmon for dinner with my mom and brother. Me and the boys love sushi and teriyaki salmon. Jose prefers teriyaki chicken though. Cameron really got into his miso soup and he loves that steamed rice. Cameron loves to look around, babble and eat. Jose loves to well, play video games and eat. Jose was very fortunate this time because he never gets to bring his games to the table.

We had a nice dinner. My dh had two large hot Sake so I had to drive us home. Jose made plans to spend the night at Nana's tonight so he left with mom after dinner. Me and the other two boys went by the local park and had a quiet evening at home. I hope to have a more stitchy post in the upcoming days. I hope you've enjoyed your evening as I have enjoyed mine.

Talk soon!

new sampler released

(A map of all the places Jane Austen lived and visited.)

OMG!!! I love samplers and by far my favorite designer is Tanya. Isn't she the best?!?! The Sampler Girl really knows how to capture history and literature and enhance it on linen with thread. Anyway, I just got word of her newly released sampler called On Travel With Jane Austen. It is amazing! Stunning is a much better word I think. Go check this sampler out and place that order...NOW!!! The motifs are sweet and the verses even sweeter. Go have a looksee!

movie preview ~ must see

You have to see this!!! Can we say E*D*W*A*R*D???

june 1

June 1st marks 3 years that my mother-in-law, Barb, passed away from cancer. She was diagnosed with breast cancer 9-10 years prior to her death. She was given 3-6 months at that time, but managed to beat the odds for 9 years. She was quite the fireball and one to be reckoned with.

After nine years of treatment and remission, and at the same time I married her son, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. For eleven months she fought so hard and for one brief month she beat it, but after numerous set backs and more cancerous pop-ups, it was unstoppable. She passed away in the comfort of her home which is where she wanted to be.

June 1st is a difficult day. One I'd like to forget but one I have to acknowledge. Aside from it being the day she passed, it follows my son's birthday - May 31. We try very hard to make his birthday a happy occasion and it is, but it's also a reminder that she isn't here to celebrate with us.

Here is dh and his mom at Christmas several years ago. They were very close and spoke nearly everyday at least once. You know mothers and their sons.

I love this picture. It's one of my favorites. This was our first Christmas with my future in-laws (of course we didn't know that at the time). This was Christmas 2001 and Barb was quite taken with Jose. She thought he was a well-mannered boy. She didn't have any grandchildren of her own and over time developed the relationship that would have played the part. My heart aches when I look at Cameron and realize she'll never know her very own grandchild and he will not know her. Ahh, she would have loved him so and been so impressed with her son (my dh) by his parenting skills. He's such a good daddy to Cameron.

We miss and think of Barb daily. Much love!

wow...thanks!

Thank you so much to everyone for leaving a comment and having input on my little dilemma. I agree with everyone about securing the knot and moving on. I'll use my star detailer to secure this bad boy under the more cooperative threads. I appreciate all your feedback. I am so thrilled that all of us agree on this issue. I can't count how many times I wondered what the majority vote would be, but I'm so thankful that my first thoughts were alike.

To answer the question of how Cameron got up there...it's really a mystery. I have no answer, only assumptions. This is where our dishwasher is located. He has a tendency to open the door, pull the drawers out and stand on the spokes to access the top (maybe he's Hawaiian and can run across hot coals). But I'm not for sure. He didn't use a chair, I know that. His father could have very well put him up there and I hope not because that's just giving this little monkey more bad ideas. Like he needs anymore.

Thanks Everyone! Talk soon! I'm off to stitch and secure that knot. Yay!

what would you do???

Okay, I'm taking a teeny-tiny poll here to find out what everyone else would do if they came upon THIS dilemma...

I turned her over and this is what I found. I'm pissed! I'm not going to lie. I know better than to go all this way without checking the back. Damn muscle relaxers!

This is the backside (obviously!). With that in mind, I don't know if I should frog all this or secure it and leave it. If I frog it that means having to start from the beginning of the green. Since this is the back, the thread is around 18" in length starting from the right side, continuing left and jumping down and traveling back the way I came. Make sense? Hmmm ~ I guess that's why they call this design the Traveling Stitcher. I didn't know they'd mean that literally...ahem! lol

Here's another close-up and angle of that stupid loop. I'm torn on what I should do. Should I securely leave it or rip it all out? Please, please, please...I want your thoughts.

On a lighter note, I can show you the front for progress' sake...and mine.

I am so enjoying this piece, even with that awful loop on the back. I have the top border to stitch and the verse underneath and I already have the case for it. I have this piece on a rod 'n roll so that's why the right hand house cannot be seen fully. I am lazy and still pissed.

WHAT'S HE DOIN' NOW!!!!!! (This is exactly what my grandmother would say if she were here today.) Cameron is nuts ~ that's all I can say about him right now!

Jose turns 12 on Sunday, May 31! We're celebrating his day on Saturday though. His Mamaw is coming into town from Canada tomorrow to spend his birthday with him. We'll be busy the next couple days. I can't believe my little boy is a tween - I'm in a bit of shock right now and I'm always overwhelmed around this time...but more so now than ever before. Thirteen is going to kill me, I believe.

Talk soon!