Just chugging along....

The Proper Stitch has been re-issued!...While this is good news for many, I wonder how many of you are kicking yourselves.Have you seen the price the originals go for? I have seen them go for upwards of $400.00! If I had shelled out that kind of money for one, I`d be really cranky about now. Not that it`s not an invaluable book, but would I pay that kind of money for one? Not likely...

That got me thinking about my favorite reference books.So here they are [in no particular order]...

1. Samplers [from the V&A] - Clare Brown & Jennifer Wearden
2. A Record For Time - Deborah A. Young
3. Girlhood Embroidery - Betty Ring
4. Linen Stitches - Ginnie Thompson
5. Needlearts in N.S. Womens Lives- N.S. Museum publication
6. Samplers From The E.A.C. Collection
7. The Proper Stitch- Darleen O`Steen
8. Making Samplers- The Embroiderers Guild Practical Library
9. Complete Encyclopedia of Needlework- Therese de Dillmont
10. Samplers- Clabburn
11. Millers Samplers- Stephen & Carol Huber
12. Beginners Guide To Blackwork - Lesley Wilkins
13. Traditioal Blackwork Samplers- Lesley Wilkins
14. Beginner`s Charted Hardanger Embroidery- Susan L. Meier and Rosalyn K. Watnemo
15. Advanced Charted Hardanger Embroidery-[same authors as above]
16. Sampler in The European Tradition- Kathleen Staples & Margriet Hogue

These are my favs...what are yours?...

Mail Call...

This is what I got in the Mail yesterday...more stash![like I need more stash].I was waiting for the Just CrossStitch ornie issue for awhile...the Scarlet Letter patterns were holding up the package.I thought i`d try the DMC colour variations...I seem to be stuck on over-dyes lately.

I love the Scarlet Letters` patterns...these make me want to start another project, but i`m trying to restrain myself.I have 12 WIPs now...I really need to finish something.

I`m not so sure if the Fine Lines is worth the $10.00 price tag...this issue is only a B&W photocopy...I was expecting a magazine...13 photocopy pages does not a magazine make, not to me, anyway...I`ll see after I get a chance to read it.

The S&ANQ mag looks really good this time...I have been a bit disappointed in them lately...I wonder if there is a UK mag devoted to antique samplers? Anyone know? I really love 16th cent. english samplers...

Well i`m still stitching that ornie...must get back to it...ttfn

Just another WIP...

This is my version of Little Paradise Sampler byVirginie Menzildjian.I started switching colors on it because i didn`t have the desert sage by The Thread Gatherer, but I did have a lot of Caron Wildflowers I had bought on e-bay.I switched the desert sage for Tahiti, and the green leaves[also Thread Gatherer] for Jade Wildflowers. As always, one change leads to another.I used a DMC varigated for the flower bed border, and DMC 3821 for the house[that color always reminds me of the south of France, for some reason.]The bee hives are also a DMC varigated.

you`ll find the pic of the original sampler in my webshots album...

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2049641850100316727mInGIv

It was in Sampler and Antique needlework Quarterly mag.,summer 2002.

I`m still stitching the ornie for the exchange.I hope it`s done soon...ttfn

Remembrance Day...

Its Remembrance Day....

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

R.I.P. Dad...

You like me, you really like me...

Sorry,...I was channeling Sally Fields there for a minute...
I just want to say thanks for all the comments and kind words on this blog. I love your comments, and i`m tickled pink to see them from people whose blogs I read.

Have you ever had a stupid day? A day when everything just goes to h*** for no apparent reason? Actually, it`s not just the day....more like a phase of life. I blame it on menopause.`Course, I blame everything on menopause lately.

I used to be smart. Not brilliant, but capable of most things, esp. the settings on electronic gizmos. I was the one who hooked up the new VCR, DVD,stereo, etc. When I first started using a computer, it was easy. Not so much anymore. It`s like I lost my tech. mojo....

Take this blog, for instance. I started off with the basic blogger, figuring it would be easier than Beta. WRONG. If you have been reading my blog, you`ll have noticed (with much hilarity, i`m sure) my attempts to add links to my sidebar.I thought the whole point of using a blogger service was so you didn`t have to learn HTML(and i still have to remind myself that doesn`t mean hotmail...duh!). Oh, yes,just type in the add. of your link, change the "Edit Me" to the name of said link, and there you go! Uhm...really?...but what about all those symbols and squiggles? What the heck do they mean?...I just wanna type it in, push a button, and have it appear.Please!...

So,I check out the Beta blogger features...A-HA!...This sounds like what I want...and at first it seemed easier...I actually added links...and then I logged out.How in the world do I get back in to post to my blog? My navigation bar is gone!...there are little tool symbols for changing things on my sidebar...

So, after muttering some not-too-nice words, I went to another blog,used their nav. bar, and managed to access my account.There has to be an easier way.If you don`t hear from me again,you`ll know why. I`ll be the one seeing if my laptop will fly... off the nearest wharf....ttfn

Inspiration...

I recently went into Halifax [a three hour drive] and went to Chapters...just to find needlework magazines [insert eye-roll]. What gives with magazine publishers?...It seems that no sooner do I find one I really like, then it either goes belly-up, or the quality goes down so it isn`t worth buying anymore...I regularly buy Sampler and Antique Needlework quarterly, and am working on collecting all the back issues of Fine Lines...I used to buy Just CrossStitch, but found the projects weren`t great, and the articles were repeating themselves from years ago...hence my trip to "The Big City" to find inspiration...and I found it...I bought this mag, the December issue of Just CrossStitch..[almost a waste,`cept for the article on Cherished Stitches], and an issue of Classic Stitches. So,$40.00 later, [isn`t that ridiculous!], plus a cup of very overpriced cappuccino, I finally had some new reading material.

The title of this mag. is perfect...it is inspiring. I love the sweetbag on the cover...I don`t do crewel, i`ve never done any freehand embroidery, only counted work. This bag is so beyond a starters project. Well, a girl can dream, can`t she?

Colour Love...

For some reason, the darker and more dreary the weather, the more I yearn for colour, and the easiest way to get it is in my stitching.What is your favorite colour?I don`t mean for walls, or for your car,or the new sweater you need to match those pants you`ve never worn, but your absolute fav.? The colour that just seems to sing to you,that makes you happy just to look at. It`s at this point I usually get some weird looks.
Ok.I know we`re adults, but remember the first time you got the really big box of crayons [I think it was 64?]. O,the choices! But if you are like me there was one crayon that just screamed to be used.It was usually long gone before the rest of the box, and then you had to move on to other choices, unless you could trade another crayon for it with a friend.My fav. was blue-green. I`d make everything in sight blue green, [except, maybe faces] then I usually moved to pink.
My point is, [yes,there is one], that as we grow up, we forget how to feel colour.We think about neutrals, co-ordination, and trends. I have always felt colour. If we have to get a new car, my first stipulation is the colour, [followed closely by air conditioning].
If the title of this post sounds familiar, I snitched it from an article by designer Sharon Cohen.I don`t know which mag. it was in,but it was a eureka moment for me.Someone else that feels about colour the way I do! She even admits to "getting a colour high" complete with "tingling in her fingertips" when she gets the colours just right in a piece she is designing.I haven`t felt the tingle yet, but i`m working on it....

This is a cushion top i`m doing for my aunt in England.I haven`t had much time to work on it lately,but I might stitch on it today.I love the colours...It is from New Stitches Magazine,and is called Indian Garden.And ,in case you haven`t guessed, my fav. colour is green...have a good stitchy day!

Hello blogging world

Ok...gonna try this out.This is my first post....I don`t know how often i`ll update, i`ll have to see how much I have to say[not usually a problem for me...].This is what i`m stitching on at the moment... Celtic Banner by Butternut Road[Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum,copywrite,etc...] The Mandala at the bottom took forever to stitch...I was starting to call it the never ending square of death...it took about a week to do...but maybe i`m just a slow stitcher...

I`m also working on an ornie for the Needle and Thread BB[which I can`t show for obvious reasons].

other than stitching, I lead a pretty boring life [or so it seems at the moment]...thats all for now [keeping fingers crossed that this posts ok]...ttfn