MARCHing Along

I just realized that I have only posted once this month.  What a surprise that was.  I have missed you all and will try and do some catching up this weekend.  We got the peas in the garden on St. Patrick's day.  I was always told that was when you were supposed to plant your peas.  Although, I guess, if you live in - say - Maine - that probably is not when you plant peas.  Here in the Virginias, it seems to work pretty well.  The remainder of the garden still waits for spring.  And, speaking of SPRING (I feel if I shout it, it might hear me and come to me!) that stupid groundhog!  I hear that there is a prosecutor in Ohio who wants to try the groundhog.  Wants the death penalty.  Well, I think a life behind bars, eating nothing but wheat germ, would be a fitting end to that stupid rodent.  I am never listening to him again.  We're going to be freaking three weeks late  for spring, now; according to our local weather prognosticators.  AND, we have "Shovelable" snow coming tomorrow night into Monday. 

But I digress; there is needlework to talk about.

First, Peg C.  If you don't contact me before the end of the month, I'm going to draw another name from the folks who entered the giveaway and find someone else to send the Prairie Schooler chart to.

Now, the things I've done lately  . . . .

This chart came out of an old Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine.  I think it's charming.  See how they are marching?

A while back I showed you progress I was making on this crewel farm.  Well, she's all finished.  Zoomed in pics of the cornfield and the tomato garden; I think they're my favorites.

 I've been doing a little applique.  Above is the second block I've finished of the six I have.   When I was working on this the other night, I actually sewed one of the leaves to my finger.  That was a surprise! At the left is the next one I'm going to do in this Tulips in the Park series - yes, I know the picture is upside down, but you can still see the block, right?  It will not look like the finished piece as I have only half the patterns; but close.

This is Gentle Susan, the sampler I'm working on for Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year (logo in sidebar).  I cannot remember if I've actually posted this on the NSLY2 blog yet.  I have gotten a start on the next tableau down, but gave it up to stitch other things for awhile.

Yesterday I went and picked up a few things.  First, my granddaughter's quilt came home from the quilter.  Top is a peek at the quilt top and bottom is a good look at the backing fabric.  Siobhan (who is doing a LOT of applique lateley) told me that the fabrics are designed by Pam Kitty.  I absolutely LOVE the backing fabric.  Apparently a lot of other people do too, because when I went to the shop to buy it, I needed 5.5 yards, but could only get 5.25.  With a little fineagaling I was able to get it to be big enough through inventive pieceing.  This print reminds me of percale sheets.  I love it so much that I am sure I have a quilt like this in my bedroom's future.  I chose to have the quilting done in a petal pink.  Emma vascillates between pink and purple being her favorite colors.  My son, Mitch, says she'll be fine with the emphasis on pink.

I also picked up the label for the Civil War quilt.  That will be attached to the quilt sometime around beginning of April:

Also awhile back, I showed the in progress photos for this bag I'm making for a friend.  He is a former White House gardener and specializes in trees.  I think he's gonna love it.

          WOODLAWN


I have now been twice to the Needlework Exhibition at Woodlawn Plantation in Alexandria, Virginia.  It is held each March.   There's still time if you can make it.

What was on display this year?  Well, it seemed to be less of a variety, but very, very, very, very good.  Once again, it was a map that took my breath away.  It was an original design, US map.  I think that the linen was painted.  Then, in the Appalachian and Rockies section, the maker had done something like trapunto, to give it a 3-D effect.  Then, in two corners, there were heavily embroidered sections of landscapes.  It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!

Unfortunately, they had hung it high on the wall - well over six feet up.  The piece was relatively small.  I'd say it was about 9 inches high by about 15 inches wide.  Which, hung over six feet in the air, is not so big.  It was very difficult to make out the details because it was hung so high.  And it won one of the very prestigious awards.  I was sad for the maker whose work was under-appreciated.

Another piece that ended up being my favorite was a sampler called Susan Rambo 1839.  It has, as my friend put it, demonic looking squirrels on it.  But, I liked them.  My favorite part of it is the outer border.  It's very pretty.

Another that I saw was a personalized Christmas Garden sampler that was designed by Blackbird Designs.  The stitcher had stitched an on-point square in the center and put (I guess, her) one initial in it that happened to be a "K". 

 It's a shame that they don't allow even non-flash photography, because just the little tweaks that these stitchers put on their pieces make them look outstanding.

Let's see, they had a room where purses were on display that had been stitched.  One there was all beaded.  I felt quite put in my place in that room.  The thought went through my head that I'm just not that good, when there are stitchers - and finishers - that can do that work.

The only thing that they didn't have was quilts.  Of any kind.  Yet they have one on their booklet.  And isn't quilting considered needlework?  I don't know, maybe they host a separate quilt show sometime in the year.  Overall it was very nice.  I got to see lots of different stuff and be inspired by many wonderful stitchers.

Then it was on to In Stitches, (link to the blog) the shop that Glenna writes so well about.  The nice thing about going to In Stitches (link to the shop website) in late March is that they are fresh back from market with lots of new stuff!

I discovered two new-to-me designers, picked up a couple of things I've been looking for, and found some lovelies to add to my collection.  I will, throughout the coarse of the year, show you the new charts.  Here are the lovelies:

Little red storklette scissors and another red pair I could not resist!  My friends and I celebrated the birthday of one of us (not me!) with lots of wonderful prezzies and late lunch at TGI Friday on the way home.  It was a l-o-n-g day.  I'd left my house at 8:30 and didn't get home until after 6.  Just as I was getting to my highway exit, there was an awful accident - I was pretty sure it had just happened because there were still people milling about on the highway and emergency equipment was arriving as I was crossing the bridge.  A semi lost control in the lanes I was in, went across the median, across the southbound lanes, through a fence, across a road that parallels the highway, into a ditch and up into the back yard of a house.  It gave me chills, because I thought, oh, what if there were kids playing there?  Fortunately, it was supper time and all the kids were indoors, because they do, indeed, play there!

Had an appointment in Winchester yesterday and killed the afternoon running errands.  But, made it a point to get by one of my favorite thrift stores.  I found the above, Prairie Schooler, number 9, Johnny Appleseed.  It's in really rough shape, but I think if I iron it and then press it between some books, I should be able to get it back to good condition.   I don't have it in my collection and they wanted too much for it on Ebay, so it was nice to  just find it - for a DOLLAR!
I think it will look nice if I stitch it  up, changing the colors, like I did on Adam Names the Creatures (you can see that one in my header picture).

OH!  Almost forgot to tell you - I was able to find a copy of the Prairie Schooler Garden Samplers chart and sent it off to Maggee to give her a great day!  YAY!  So, we can call off the search.  

I will leave you with this.  It's sunrise and the black splotches in the field are the deer.  I call it "Deer Rising".  I love it when the sky looks like this.  I call it fire-sky.  The only time I see sunrises like this is in February or March.  In cold weather.  I think that it has to do with virga which is rain that doesn't reach the ground.  Except at this time of the year, virga would be ice crystals because it's so cold; right?  And I think that these sunrises are made because the sun is reflecting off thousands of tiny ice crystals.  I'm no meterologist, but I think that's what's going on.  All I really know is that if we HAVE to have crappy, cold, snowy weather; then at least we have sunrises like this one.

Hope you enjoyed!

What Does It Do When it Has Five Leaves?

I have a patch of clover in the back yard.  Well, one of many.  These are patches of clover that Southern States did not kill when they sprayed herbicide on the cornfield next to my property and allowed the spray to drift all over my yard - where my dogs go; where my child goes; where I go.  Anyway, I discovered this patch quite by accident one morning when I bent down to pick something up.  There were some four-leaf clovers, but there were also these  . . .

A few weeks ago, I took a weekend and cleaned up and rearranged my work space.  I have it  in the guest bedroom until other space becomes available in the house.  So, here is a peek behind the curtain . . .

 
I used to sit at my sewing machine, facing the wall; now I can look out the window and enjoy the view.  That doesn't really help with the rest of the configuration though.  It actually makes it a little more unweildy.  But, I have high hopes a new space will come free soon.

In the wasted corner, I've got a spot for Buddy to lay on the floor - he usually has to be as close to me as possible mostly with his head resting on my feet.

   A wider view.

The work table; fortunately, the ironing board slides right underneath.  Just under the window I have a bookcase chock full of quilting, sewing, and needlecraft books, magazines and pamphlets.  The plan was that would actually be seen, but I ran out of space.

The decorating theme in this bedroom is Americana.  You can see some hints of it here in these pictures.  The most atrocious gaff, however, is the paint color on the walls.  We are just the world's worst at painting, so we put it off and put it off.  I know this may sound counterintuitive with Americana, but I was thinking a nice brown would set things off.  The quilt, hanging on the bottom of the ironing board is one I made and quilted.  I am quite unhappy with the quilting, so hope to one day undo it all and take it to my long-armer for a proper quilting job.  My most recent tool acquisition can be seen sitting on top of the cabinet in the window.

I have wanted an Oliso iron for something like four years.  My current iron gave up the ghost as far as steam went and I've been working on a project that really needs steam ironing.  I spent a lot of money buying the iron, got it home, pulled out the manual and read and stopped and went, oh, I'd better talk to hubby about this.  The manual said that so many amps were drawn when using the iron.  You don't usually see that kind of language in manuals for electrical things; I mean, they don't usually feel they need to inform you of a units amperage.  I was curious why they would do that and felt I should not continue until I had consulted my own personal Electrical Engineer.    The geek hates to read stuff - especially manuals.  Mostly because he's a man.  But also, I have found, engineers are a little know-it-all-ish and feel manuals are beneath them.  But, mine read the manual when I asked him and he got to the part about the amperage and he looked at me and said, "You haven't used this thing, have you?"  I knew my instinct had been right.  Basically, he told me, we would have to turn everything else off that is drawing power on the circuit that I would plug the iron into.  Since my workroom is in a guest bedroom, then that pretty much means almost everything upstairs with the exception of the washer and dryer which have their own circuit.  So, until we can run a circuit for the iron - and only the iron - to run on, I have a very expensive paper weight.  Sucks.

I finished a project today that I've been working on since January -

My DAR chapter supports a unit at the local VA hospital.  The unit is called CAT-5 and is for vets with alcohol and drug dependence.  These guys have hit rock bottom; so far down that even their families have given up on them.  I don't judge the families because I haven't walked a mile in their shoes.  But, at Christmas-time, we try to bring these folks a little cheer.  Every year we stuff stockings with sudoku books, playing cards, socks, canteen chits, etc.  Chock full.  And the staff at the hospital put the stocking out for them at Christmas.

End of last year, I volunteered to do the stockings this year.  They were made out of a lot of wool yardage that I'd felted, a lot of upholstery and home dec. fabric that I had in my stash, and some things that I picked up at yard sales and thrift shops throughout the spring and summer.  The biggest deal was getting the trims that went on them.  There are 100 stockings (I recounted this morning) and no two are exactly alike.

 

Finally, I mentioned the Quilts of Valor program.  I email-exchanged with the WV/VA regional contact and found out for sure that in order to participate now, you don't need to work through a quilt shop.  That was a big hang up last time I looked into this.  I talked to my Regent last night about the program and us -as a chapter- getting involved and she wants me to bring it to our board meeting in January.  I did go and get some material for that quilt in the Fons and Porter September/October magazine -

The fabric in the middle, the tan paisley on navy - that one is for the inner border.  The stripe on the bottom is for the outer border.  I love the way the tan paisley plays with the navy paisley that's going to be the "field" portion of the "flag".  I also love how the leaves in the red fabric read like stars.  I don't know the final destination for this quilt.  It may end up being for my own son, who is a veteran; or it could go to the chapter project.  I guess I'll have to see how much I get done and how that January board meeting goes.

A final shot - this is Leamann Mill north of Hagerstown, MD.  A gift/decor shop is run out of it now.  I just love old mills and love it when they are repurposed. 

Name Tag

For my partner, Cheryl, and myself, I made name tags that have the house on them. Same design - my own - as for the owners gift, but without the dog and house name - adding our names. I could just be catching up to those in the know, but I used floral pins on the sides. Please do not reproduce the designs.

House Tour Gift

This weekend is the house tour. I have wrapped up the gift we are giving the couple who own the house my partner and I are hosting. It's a rendition of their house.

Lately . . .

. . . I haven't had time to post new blogs. I am involved with my county historical society. Every year we do a historic home tour in the fall. If you're interested in that sort of thing, go to this website: BCHS.org to get the 411. I and my BCHS partner Cheryl are in charge of the Lester Butts House. This means we have to put on the show. We divided the responsibilities and I'm doing the display boards on the house's history. So, I've had to put a lot of time into that. In addition, I'm in the DAR. Right now I'm working on stitching a piece that I will enter - if I ever get it finished - in the national DAR needlework competition. I also had a special request for a shark towel from my grandaughter. The picture of her with her towel is living on my other computer right now, so if I get a chance later, I'll post it. So, between researching and stitching, I haven't had much time for anything else. Hope all your stitching dreams are coming true!

Name Tags

I will also make name tags for us to wear while we're touring people through the house. This is Cheryl's that I've stitched. Mine is yet to be done. When I finish them I'll make them so that magnets will hold them to our clothes.

Lester Butts House 1935

I volunteer with the local historical society. Every fall we sponsor a house tour where people open their homes to the public. This year my friend Cheryl and I are assigned to the Lester Butts House. I designed this piece for us to give to the homeowners as a "thank you" for allowing us to show their home.