Stitchery.

I did a little digging around in the closet today and unearthed these fairy cross-stitch pieces. I stitched them when we were living in Idaho, which makes them at least 15 years old. I was more into cutesy designs back then, but after I stitched them and found them frames, they just hung out in various closets.


I had a brainwave a few months ago, realizing that my nieces Natalie and Marissa have a fairy-themed bedroom now, and hmm...that might be my chance to unload these little darlings! How perfect. We're going to see them tomorrow for Marissa's birthday and the fairies are coming along.

It's so odd to pick up an old piece that was stitched ages ago and think about what my life was like when I did it. Back then I never dreamed I would have such riches in my life--not just two nieces, but six nieces! And two nephews!

This is a piece I stitched late last year. (It needs to be re-ironed and framed better, but oh well.) Todd and I were in an antique mall in northern VA in the fall, and they had a darling cross-stitched sampler in the women's bathroom. But it was $12.00, and it was sloppily done on a very rough-weave cloth.


I've never done anything like this before, but I took a picture of it with my cell phone, and printed it out when I got home. It kind of felt like stealing, but I don't think it was...was it? The design was simple enough that it was easy to copy from the printout, and of course I did it neatly, and on a nice linen cloth. Now I just need to get it hung up.

So it's been four months since I blogged, my longest hiatus ever. It's been interesting to check in with myself every so often and see if there was anything I felt like communicating to the world at large. Every time I checked, the answer was, "Nah."

A fluctuating depression problem has contributed to that, but mostly I've just been absorbed in other things. I started Weight Watchers in February, but weight loss is not something I find interesting to talk about. Neither is depression, for that matter. I've been taking walks, and listening to books on CD. I walked a 5K in May, which was my first exposure to communal exercise since high school. It was fun.

I got to the bottom (no pun intended) of the abdominal pain I was having in January and February by having a colonoscopy in April. By that time, most of the pain had subsided, and the procedure showed that I have diverticulosis, which is no big deal. It was a relief to know that nothing serious was wrong. I've been taking a probiotic supplement, and that, along with a better diet, seems to have helped a lot.

I've done some stitching, a little cross-stitch--the first I've done in years--and a little embroidery. I spent a week at home in Ohio in May, hanging out with my parents and other family, which was really great. Time with loved ones feels like such a luxury when you spend your life so far away.

I even got some scrapbooking done--went down to Beach Scrapbooks in Virginia Beach and took advantage of a couple of their day-long crops. That was in March and April, and I'm dying to get some more done. I never dreamed I'd be a traveling scrapper--I always hated packing up for crops--but at this stage of my life, it seems to be the best option.

We're into our horrific hot humid (HHH) summer weather now, so I'm trying to think of more indoor projects to tide me over till fall when I can emerge into the outdoors again. Might be time to clean out under the bathroom sinks, or wash all the curtains, or create a complex shelving system for my books or something. Who knows what mischief I can find this summer?

Cat at work, and other stuff.

I won an Ebay auction last week for a miscellaneous batch of vintage iron-on embroidery transfers, and it arrived yesterday, a big ziploc bag full of large sheets and smaller images snipped from large sheets.

It was really fun to go through them, and this was a set that caught my eye. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of different tea towel designs in the embroidery transfer world. Some of them have the seven days of the week, with a chore for each day; some of them just have seven different chores listed, with the seventh always being something like "rest" or "worship" or as with one set I saw, "quit!"

The chores are done by cute dogs or cats, ducks, roosters, Dutch or Mexican girls, sunbonnet prairie girls, or sassy newlyweds. This set features a kitty cat, but it was the household appliances that I first noticed, in particular the TV:


I've looked at about a million of these things on Ebay in the past few weeks, and I've never seen a TV on one before. So that made me look closer at the rest of the set:


Most of these mid-century designs have an old-fashioned feel to them, so washing is done with a scrub board, sewing is done with a needle and thread, cleaning or sweeping is done with a broom, etc. But this set shows all the labor-saving devices of the day:


Love the little grocery cart here:


And this is the one that made me do a double take...


...I always thought I was fairly knowledgeable about antique household items, but this is a gadget I'd never seen before. After a bit I realized it must be what I'd heard called an "ironer," which I'd sort of assumed was just a folksy way of saying "iron," but which really is a real thing. I guess it's also called a "mangle," which I thought was the wringer thing that used to be attached to washing machines, which it is, but it's also an ironing device.

This is a cute video of one being used: ironer in action.

So it really is true, you do learn something new every day, even when it's taught to you by an ancient kitty cat.

In other news, Todd was involved in a rear-ender accident a week ago...we'd had torrential rain for three or four days (more rain in three days than in the past three months, seriously!) and he was headed to work and slid into the back of a couple of kids on their way to school. I guess there were four rear-enders in the space of a couple hundred yards, all at the same time--it was some seriously heavy rain!

We thought for a few days that we might end up getting a new (to us) car if the insurance company decided to total our old car, and the repair estimate was right on the borderline, but in the end they decided to repair, which is just fine with us. That means the money we'd have to chip in for a new car can just stay in the bank where it belongs!

So I've been driving rentals for a week, and will be for another week, and I can't believe I'm saying this but I want my crummy Volkswagen back! Sure, the rentals are clean and smell good, but the first one we had, a Pontiac something, had the most uncomfortable seats I've ever sat in. We took it to Harrisonburg on Saturday (a six-hour round trip) and we felt like someone was kicking us in the lower back the whole way.

So we traded it in for a Chevrolet something yesterday and that's definitely more comfortable, but I feel like I'm driving in a box, all the windows are so tiny. When I have to back up, I cross my fingers and hope that nobody decides to run behind me, because I'd never see them.

So I think when I get my crummy old car back, I'll clean it out and maybe have it detailed, and appreciate being able to get another year or two or three out of it.

In stitches.

As it happens every year, I started to get in a creating kind of mood as soon as August was over. (Somehow my brain thinks it's fall--even when it's 95 degrees outside--as long as the calendar says September.)

Specifically, I really wanted to pick up a needle and do some stitching. I've done loads of cross-stitch, especially before the late 1990's when I discovered scrapbooking, and I've done some needlepoint, which I really enjoy, but I was wanting to do embroidery this time around. I haven't done a lot of it, mostly just some of Hillary Lang's cute little girls and boys from her site, which I did as stuffed Christmas ornaments several years ago.

Coincidentally, two books came out right around the same time that I was starting to get that needle itch: Alicia Paulson's Embroidery Companion and Vicki Haninger's Embroidery Craft. Alicia writes the delightful blog Posie Gets Cosy, and Vicki writes the equally delightful blog Turkey Feathers. The books are both terrific, too. Reading them really made me feel ready not only to hone my embroidery skills, but maybe also branch out into actual sewing with a machine, which has always intimidated me.

So I started thinking about what to make. Vicki runs a sweet little online shop called PatternBee, where she sells reprints of vintage iron-on transfers. I picked out one with horses and one with ballerinas, with the idea of making one of my nieces a horse pillow and for her sister, a ballerina pillow.

At this point I've finished the horse embroidery, started on the ballerina embroidery, and I'm having a great time with both. The ballerina has a fairly detailed face, and I felt nervous about attempting it, but she came out prettier than I could have hoped for.


As I prepared to start embroidering, I realized I needed to do something about my boxes of embroidery floss. I've done a few small projects over the years, and never bothered to put the cards of floss back where they belonged. I also had a bunch of skeins that needed to be wrapped onto cards and put in the proper order. Each color of DMC floss has a number--when doing a cross-stitch project, it's important to have the right numbers, and easier if they're boxed in order. With embroidery where you can pick your own colors, it's less important but still helpful to have the colors in order.


So I spent a pleasantly mindless afternoon last week sorting colors into their proper order, wrapping loose skeins and labeling them, and pulling out loose bits of thread that made the boxes look messy. When Todd came home and I showed him what I'd been wasting my time on that day, he totally got it. He loves to putter and organize and make things tidy, too. Further proof that we were meant for each other, no?

A couple of weeks ago, I found out that another blogger I read, lovely Barbara of Oodles and Oodles, was selling some lots of vintage embroidery transfers on Ebay. Amazing though it may seem, I was an Ebay virgin, but I set up an account and avidly watched my bids remain the highest--until I was sniped on both auctions in the last five seconds. Oh, the humanity! I'm afraid I didn't handle my brutal introduction to the world of Ebay very gracefully. I may have wished harm and mutilation on the person who sniped me. Oh, who am I kidding? I totally wished harm and mutilation on her.

After a couple of sulky days, I realized that Barbara was surely not the only person selling vintage embroidery transfers on Ebay, and I spent several enjoyable hours one night while Todd was out fishing, rummaging through the lots for sale. It's fun just seeing what's out there, so many goofy and kitschy patterns. I'm especially fond of all of the "days of the week" patterns for tea towels--apparently everyone in the mid-2oth century felt the need to feature dogs, cats, Dutch girls, anthropomorphic vegetables and dishes, and Mexican senors and senoritas on their dish towels. I'm going to make myself some very soon--I'm leaning toward Scotties.

I cannot believe September is nearly over. I was just trying to get through August, telling myself that September (and cooler weather) was on its way--and now September has come and gone with very little long-term change in the weather. I feel gypped. Maybe October will be better!

Punkins.

I've had a stash of felted wool sweaters sitting around for ages...finally decided to make something and use some of them up.


Aren't they cute?


The pattern is from Blanket Statement by Vicki Haninger. Vicki also writes the wonderful blog Turkey Feathers.

Roses, encyclopedias, a globe, and a unicorn.

I've been feeling a desire to do some kind of needlework--it's been a couple of years since I've stitched anything--so last night I dug through my sewing box and found this:

I started this unicorn needlepoint when we were living in Idaho--say, about 1994? It was a big splurge: I bought a brand-new (then) hardcover of Flowers, Birds and Unicorns: Medieval Needlepoint by Candace Bahouth for the pattern, and a big canvas, and a huge pile of wool yarn. A large expenditure fifteen years ago, when we were still practically newlyweds.

Todd was very much into the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA) then, a medieval re-enactment group which had a very active branch in Idaho Falls, so we had a lot of medieval books and such, and I was very much into cross-stitch then, so when I found this book and was able to find all the supplies at the very nice needlecraft store downtown, it seemed like the perfect project. I think it was the third (and last) needlepoint project I ever attempted. Here it is in the book, completed as a pillow:

I got it about 70% done, and then abandoned it for fifteen years, crumpled in the bottom of my sewing box. Every now and then I would paw through and think "I should finish that," but never seriously. Somehow something just clicked last night and I pulled it out and started stitching and am having a grand old time with it. I like needlepoint a lot--it doesn't seem to age as badly as counted cross-stitch has. And I'm not sure why. Cross-stitch's heyday seemed to coincide with that cutesy-country period, and so there's a lot of just lousy cross-stitch out there in the yard sales and thrift stores. Needlepoint seems to have a more timeless look--except of course for plastic canvas. *shudder*

(I do have to say that I have made a lot of really terrific cross-stitch projects that still (in my opinion) look good, and the wedding sampler pattern that my mother-in-law stitched for us still looks quite up-to-date 17 years later. But we won't talk about some of the odds and ends at the bottom of my sewing box...)

One danger of abandoning a project for that long a time is that you won't find it appealing or to your taste after so long, but I do still find the unicorn and the design really beautiful, even if we're not quite as heavily into all things medieval as we were years ago. And the colors will still work in several different rooms in our home.

Sometimes when I look at a piece of stitching I've done, I can remember so clearly which apartment we lived in, and which of our old couches I sat on, and can pinpoint the year from there, but not with this. I have no clear memory of working on it. But it does stir up a lot of memories of the three-and-a-half years we lived in Idaho. I miss the big sky and the foothills of the Tetons you could see from town. Maybe someday I'll dig out some pictures from that era and post them here--that would be fun!

Anyway...here are a few other things from my life right now...the first two roses from my rosebush out front:

Once or twice a day when I'm in the kitchen, I just pick them up and take a few deep sniffs. Mmmm.

I bought this little Homer Laughlin bowl for $3.00 at an estate sale a few weeks ago:

I LOVE the little inset details--love, love, love.

I bought seventeen--yes, seventeen--of these small (maybe 5x6") encyclopedias at the thrift store last week. They were published in the early 1930's, and they are in perfect condition. It was one of those things where you're loading them into your cart and thinking, "What is wrong with you and what on earth are you going to do with these?" but I couldn't help myself. They were dirt cheap and just so cool. I love the design on the spines.

They don't have many illustrations, but the ones that are included are quite nice:

It's not a complete set, but that's okay. I think I have a fear that in another 20 years books will be a total anachronism, and I feel this need to grab all the oldies I can find and take good care of them. These books are already an anachronism--do encyclopedias even exist any more?

And speaking of anachronisms, here's the globe I found at another estate sale five or six weeks ago:

I was so excited to find it, because I didn't have a black one yet, and the price was very fair. The colors are so nice, and I believe it's about 55-60 years old, because Israel is a country, but Korea hasn't been divided yet. I love dating globes, it satisfies the utter dork in me.

And with this purchase, I am officially out of room for globes, except maybe a few more of those little globe banks, which are getting rare as hen's teeth, but way more expensive. Time to buy a bigger house, right?

We are still without our second car, which is getting the automobile equivalent of triple bypass surgery right now--a gamble on an eleven-year-old car, but we agreed that neither of us had the energy for a new car search right now. Nor do we have any burning desire to make car payments again. It seems like a law of our lives: within six months of when we get one car paid off, the other breaks down or gets in an accident and has to be replaced. But we're going for the surgical option this time, with fingers crossed that we can get another two or three years out of this car if we do the work on it now. But I am ready to have my car back and start running useless errands again!

Stitched in Time.

I doubt that she needs my paltry publicity, but Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy has a book called Stitched in Time that just came out a couple of weeks ago, and I picked it up, I confess, in order to fill out an Amazon order and get the free shipping. I'm glad I did, because it's really a sweet book. It has lots of simple sewing projects for gifts, home decor, and holidays, most with the theme of capturing a memory in a non-scrapbook-related way. She makes a lot of use of those fabric sheets you can run through your inkjet printer and print photos on--one of my favorite projects is a very simple pillow made of sixteen 4" black-and-white photos stitched together in a patchwork. It's eye-catching with a black piping around the edge.

She also spotlights a softie designed from a child's drawing, a stuffed heart garland, a felted wool tote, a laundry bag, a growth chart, a patchwork quilt made from baby clothes, and lots of other projects. The projects are sort of like what you'd see in a Martha Stewart magazine, but more colorful, more old-fashioned, more for real people who don't live in mansions in the Hamptons.

What's especially wonderful about the book is Alicia's warm writing style and her fantastic photos. You can tell she put her whole heart into the book. She has written thoughtfully about her memories, as she does in her blog. One paragraph about some pillowcases she sewed for her father shortly before his death, and his response to them, was so lovely it made me cry a tiny bit.

I just got the book, so I haven't tried any of the projects and can't speak to the accuracy of the patterns or directions, but I see a number of things I'd like to try and think I can make, even with my extremely limited sewing skills. Plus, it's just a very pleasant book to curl up with. I recommend it! And Alicia, I think a cookbook should be next on your list.

Little people.

The boxes are mailed, what a relief! Now I just need to finish my cards, come up with a few more things for Todd, and do a couple more odds and ends. But the boxes were the big Christmas hurdle--five of them to various homes in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Here are the little ornaments I stitched for the kids on my side of the family. I got the patterns from Hillary Lang's Wee Wonderfuls site. I mailed them to my mom to stuff and slip stitch them closed, as I was down to the wire with no time to spare. So they're deflated here, but still darling, I think. I can't wait till she comes out with the winter set!

The prompt for today's journal entry has me scratching my head, so it may be a bit before I get to it. I may have to come up with my own idea instead.

Today I'm packing up some project supplies to take to a crop in Virginia Beach tomorrow. Later I'll make some fudge to take, too. Tonight is Todd's office party, so I'll need to doll myself up, as I have to make a good impression on all these people I haven't met before!

Race you to the bottom of the slide.

I'm loving this long slow slide into middle age, and how the angle keeps getting steeper, oh, every week or so.

I started stitching a Christmas ornament for one of my nieces tonight, and had to prop my glasses ON TOP OF MY HEAD the entire time so I could see what the heck I was doing. You know the glasses on top of the head maneuver--the one your parents and grandparents and great-aunties all do? Yeah, that's me now. Dear Lord.

Here are the patterns at the Wee Wonderfuls site...if you scroll down you can see the fall set, and I'm doing the little girl with beret and backpack for Kylie, who started school this year. And the summer set above it just came back out today and I ordered some--I was too late to snag them when they were out earlier this year. These are great--you just iron them onto whatever fabric you like and backstitch or chainstitch or do whatever you like with them. So cute!

I can't wait for the winter set but I guess those won't be out till after Christmas. In the meantime, you'll find me stitching on the couch with my glasses on top of my head. You know, the head with all the gray hair.

Dog.

I've been cruising various sewing and crafts sites for a couple months now, and at some point I found this site and this pattern for an adorable stuffed Scottie dog.

I'm not particularly a dog lover, but I like Scotties, I think because they seem so "Forties" and also because I used to have these little black and white Scottie magnets that I would play with in church.

So I printed off the pattern ages ago and then it just sat. Because I've never sewed a stuffed animal before, and I've never sewed anything three-dimensional before. But I would keep looking at the pattern sitting next to my computer and thinking about it.

Then three weeks ago I was at the Disabled American Veterans thrift store with my MIL and I found this super-soft light blue wool sweater. I took a wool appliqué class with my friend Sheila moths and months ago, and I remembered vaguely that the teacher said you could felt wool sweaters by washing them in hot water. And this stuffed Scottie was sewn out of felt so that it didn't have to be sewed inside out on a machine, and then turned around and stuffed.

So I bought the sweater, brought it home, blasted it through a hot water wash, and lo and behold, it shrank down into this gorgeous soft thick felt! It's an amazing transformation.

So then the felt sat around for another week or so. And then I cut out the pattern and cut out the pieces, and those sat around for another couple weeks.

Finally yesterday I decided to bite the bullet--I was hesitant because I just wasn't sure how to do it, but the only way to learn is to do it, right?

So here's my little blue Scottie:


He doesn't have an eyeball yet because I don't have a bead or button in the right size, but otherwise he's done. I certainly learned a lot of what NOT to do while sewing him, but it was fun.

I have a heather gray Scottish wool sweater that I felted sitting here, too, and I think I might make a gray Scottie so they can be friends.