Merry Christmas

Merry Rainy Day Christmas!  I am sitting here Christmas afternoon alone with my two dogs and two kitties.  My husband is visiting his son and grandchildren in Indiana.  I would have gone with him, but it is hard for me to travel long distances, and we had no one to care for the pets.  My son couldn't come down to Tennessee because he had to work.  My mom went to visit my younger brother for the holiday, and my older brother also had to work.  I am ok with spending the time alone.  It has given me some much needed quiet time, as well as plenty of time to get back to my stitching.

My Joanna Brimblecombe sampler is going to sit for just a little while longer as I work on stitching two small pieces for my husband, then I will get back at it.  It is so large, and I was struggling with one part of it, so it is nice to step back and reassess for a while.  Just like when I read a really long book.  When I am finally finished, I want to read something quick and easy to make me feel like I am actually accomplishing something.

I am working on a La-D-Da chart called The Raven.

It is hard to read in this photo, but it is the opening line from Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, Once upon a midnight dreary, as I pondered weak and weary.  Stitched on 35 count Havana linen, it is only three colors, so it is easy to just thread up and stitch.

Once I am finished this, there is a companion piece, Something Wicked This Way Comes.  This is a photo from the website.  Stitched on the same linen, I think it uses the same colors, so it, too, should be a quick stitch. 

Once these are done, I will get back to Joanna. At least until I receive my first project from Thistle Threads, the small trinket box to design and stitch.  Hopefully I can get most of The Raven finished today since I plan on stitching my holiday away.

Again, I say Merry Christmas to all, and to all a stitching night.

Donna

Embroiderer's Guild of America

I have been thinking about things I can do to increase socialization, and I began researching EGA chapters in my area. The closest chapter meets in Kingsport, and that is almost an hour away.  I was about to give up when I noticed they had a cyber chapter.  Since I don't drive and there is no form of public transportation in the country,  I discussed with my husband about maybe joining the cyber group.

His immediate response was, "No."  He then went on to say that if I were going to join, I should join an actual group.  He is about to join the Confederate Sons of the Civil War, and said if he was going to join a group, I should, too.  I explained that the closest group was an hour away, and he said no problem.  He offered to drive me there every week and find something to do while I stitched and socialized.  I married a very special man.

I contacted the president of the local chapter, and this week I went to my first meeting.  I think I am in love LOL. What a wonderful group of women.  I was hoping maybe one of them lived a bit closer to me, and could offer me a ride once in a while, but the closest one is in Limestone, and she would have to go far out of her way to pick me up and drop me off.  Until someone closer joins the group, Gene will just have to drive me for now.

There are monthly projects available to stitch, but they are completely optional.  In fact, one woman worked on her knitting while we chatted, so they are very relaxed and not at all regimented in any way.  I really liked a few of the pieces they have planned for the next year, but with the stitching list my husband has for me, and the casket class I am taking, I will be a very busy stitcher over the next year or so.

Gene is leaving for Indiana to take my step-daughter home on Tuesday the 23rd, and will be gone until after Christmas, so I wont be going back until the following week, but I am content to wait.  Hopefully this will work out well for me  and I can start making a few friends in the area.

Millenium Frame But NOT Necessaire Stand

A few months ago I e-mailed Needle Needs, the UK store that exclusively carries the Millennium Frame and the Necessaire Floor Stand.  They offer a combination package where you can get both, plus a longer pair of bars (the frame comes with 10" bars, but I work mostly on larger pieces so I need a longer set.)  Both items were out of stock, so my e-mail was basically a question of when they would be expected back in stock. I did a very rough estimate of currency exchange, and the total cost with shipping would be just under $400, but if they were as awesome as people claim, it would be worth the money.

The reply I received was fairly quick, and stated they should have a shipment before Christmas and she would put my name on her list and email me when they were available.  BUT, they generally sell out within an hour.  Ok, these are hand made items, so I can understand them taking a while to make and supply. 

We are a week out from Christmas, and I have not received any e-mails.  I went on to their site the other night, and I saw that the frame was in stock, but the stand was not.  I really wanted the frame more than the stand, so I went ahead and purchased just the frame ($110 with almost a third being shipping costs). Had I been smart, I would have added the extra bars, but it was one in the morning and was tired.  Now I will have to pay their shipping charges again.

I began doing a little research online, and what I have been reading, the company's customer service leaves a lot to be desired.  I read one blog where a woman waited almost two and a half months to get her frame (which had been list as "In Stock"). Most of the posts were about the stand, it seems the stands are much more difficult to get.  I really like the design of the floor stand.  It has no clamp, your work simply rests on two arm so when it is time to finish off a thread, you simply flip it over, no unscrewing and taking your frame out, then replacing it.  This may seem like an easy task, but when you are working a complicated piece, and there are a lot of color changes, you could spend more time screwing and unscrewing then actually stitching.

I started thinking maybe there was another stand that would meet my needs. I did a general Google search for Embroidery Floor Stands.  Across the top of the results page was a "Shop for...on Google" bar, with photos of different stands.  I began scrolling through these, and of course, most were the clamp type.  Then I saw it! There was a stand, similar to the one from Needle Needs, available on Etsy.  I immediately went to the site, and it looked as if it might work. However, I had a few questions for the shop owner, and sent an e-mail. 

I stitch on a reclining sofa.  This is a sofa where both ends are recliners.  I asked if the stand would be tall enough, and if the top could turn to allow the stand to be at an angle to my seat, but I could adjust it so that I was stitching straight on while the seat is reclined. Call me lazy, but after my accident, and my stroke, the hospital put in an IVC filter.  This catches any possible clots that may break off from my legs and prevents them from causing another stroke, or worse, death.  I don't know about you, but I can't stitch if I am dead LOL.  I really need to keep my leg elevated for a good part of the day, because I retain fluid in my legs because of the filter. It can become clogged over time with tiny pieces of debris, thus slowing the blood return, yada yada yada.  Bottom line, my legs swell, so I need to keep them elevated when I can. 

That said, the owner of the Etsy shop promptly e-mailed me the next morning. He said it would work, but I would need the extender piece to make it higher, and the yoke to allow it to turn 90 degrees. The way he talked, he has developed some attachments to allow people in hospital beds to stitch.  I went back to Etsy, and ordered the stand as well as the two attachments he recommended.  With shipping it came in to just under $100. The Etsy shop is Kevscorner.  As soon as I get my items and actually get to use them, I will post about any pros or cons.

So, for just about $200 I got what I really wanted.  I will have to go back after pay day and order the longer bars for the frame, but I am sure I can find some smaller pieces to work in until they arrive,

Cross Stitch Floor Stand from Kevscorner, Etsy.

Christmas is Coming!

I have been so busy the last week or so.  I finally finished stitching two of my ornaments and started a third.  The first is a Just Nan design from 2003, Italian Ice, a free chart which was given out to needlework shops. The second is from the book by Donna Kooler, "201 Cross Stitch Christmas Designs" 

The next couple of ornaments will also be from the Kooler book, but this weekend I plan to go through my stash and pull out some of my back issues of magazines to look for a variety of things.  What I don't get finished this year will wait for next Christmas.  I generally don't stitch specifically for Christmas, but I have joined a few Facebook groups, and seeing all of the wonderful things people are stitching has inspired me.  We generally don't exchange gifts in my family, just giving to the children, but I am not a fan of this, and a small stitched ornament is just the right thing to give. A little piece of the heart to be remembered every year as it hangs on the tree.

My gifts to the grand children are wrapped and ready to go with my husband in two weeks when he goes to Indiana to visit with his family there.  I will be staying home for the holiday, doggie and kitty sitting.  We have had my step-daughter with us for the last three months, and I am looking for to a little peace and quiet.  We tend to be a lot busier when she is visiting, and I am a true homebody, not wanting to be on the road all the time. Plus, I have enough books and needlework to keep me occupied while Gene is gone.


Happy Stitching,

Donna

The Castle Has Come Home to Roost

Back in the late 1990's I stitched this as a model for The Stitching Post in Catonsville, MD. Before I moved last year, I asked the owner if the chart ever went out of print and she pulled the model to place in her Charity sale, let me know so I could have first dibs on buying it. I have had the chart for years, but have never gotten around to making if for myself. Well, it happened. She emailed me a few weeks ago to let me know it was available. I think it looks fabulous hanging on my wall! Midieval Miniature #1 by Best Stitched designs by Bev. Stitched on 25 count black Lugana linen over 1 thread. The entire design is less than 4" square, and that includes the gold braid work.

There are a few tricks to working over one and on black linen.  I do a lot of work on 40 count linen, many times working over 1 thread.   When doing a row of stiches in the same color, laying one leg of the x across the row, then coming back with the second leg does not work well.  I find if I try to do this, especially with more the two stitches in a row, the thread gets "lost" in the fabric.  It will actually tuck up under the fabric thread, making your x lopsided.  The trick is to cross each stitch as you go.  This uses more thread, and if you are stitching with more expensive threads such as silk, it is painful to waste.  Trust me, the finished effect is worth the little extra time and thread.  Crossing each stitch as you go gives a much cleaner finish when working such small stitches.

When working on black  or dark fabric the easiest thing is to keep a white sheet over your lap.  As you stitch the white will show through the holes in the fabric and make them a lot easier to see.  If this doesn't work for you, you can try a light box.  Sometimes called an up light, these generally have a padded  cloth underside so when you are working with it on your lap it doesn't get uncomfortably hot.  The light shines through your cloth and makes seeing the holes much easier.  They can run about $50, but when entering your mid-50s as I am, it is worth the price to be able to see a bit clearer as I work.

As far as what I am currently working on, still doing ornaments.  I am working the Just Nan free chart that was given to needlework shops a few years ago called Italian Ice.  I am almost finished stitching it.  I have already finished a carousel horse from Donna Kooler. I have two tucks that I purchased in a clearance bin a few  years ago, they are very simple and will be a quick stitch, then I found a blackwork pattern I want to change from blue to reds and greens.  If I get all of this done before the holidays I will dig out some of my Christmas ornament magazine editions and find something else to make.  Once they are finished I will post them here.

Happy Thanksgiving

  Thanksgiving dinner was at our house this year.  We finally used our dining room for the first time, and I am glad it was a family dinner that christened it.  We went around the table and each said what we were thankful for.  I said I was thankful that no matter how stupid we act, or what stupid things we do, my mom is always there to pick us up and get us back on our feet.  Mom is 76, but she looks like she is in her 50s.  She mows three acres all summer, does all her own gardening and most of the work around her home.  I just hope when I am 76 I can still do all that she does, and that I will be there for my son and step-children.

Now,dinner is over, the dishes are washed and put away, and it is time to sit and stitch.  I have put my sampler away for the moment in favor of some Christmas stitching.  I am making ornaments to give as gifts, and the first one is almost finished.  Saturday or Sunday we will make a trip to the craft store to pick up some mounting board and backing.  I ordered a cord maker from The Stitching Post, and it arrived Monday, so I should be all set to do some finishing work.

I hope those of my readers that are celebrating this holiday today have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Casket Top Design

I have been working on the design for the top of my casket.  This is a weeping willow, an image of our one year old kitty we lost in August to a hit and run driver, with some frilly flower on the side.  I will be adding more frill once we get next month's lesson.  There should be several more pages of images we can use.

 

The pieces on graph paper are ones that I found images online and printed.  I then gridded the page at one cm intervals and transferred to graph paper.  I am almost finished an image I will be using to represent my husband, then I need to find one for me.

 

 

 

I am taking a little break from working on the 1801 sampler to stitch up a couple of quick Christmas ornaments to give as gifts this year.  We are mainly buying for the grandchildren and giving the gift of love to the adults, but I still like to do a little something for everyone.

One of the things I need to do for my casket making class is to create the design I will stitch on the outside.  Most people are cutting and pasting, making copies and resizing through the modern Xerox machine.  I don't have the luxury of access to a Xerox, and since I don't drive, trips to the library are not an option. 

Once I decided what motifs I wanted to include, I found pictures online to match.  I found if you Google "coloring pages" there are tons of coloring book pages to choose from. I then used a blank sheet, and drew the dimensions of each area of the casket actual size. Using a piece of graph paper, I marked the size of the area using each block as one cm.  I then determined how many blocks I wanted the design to occupy.

Using a ruler, I marked a grid over the original print in 1/2" blocks. When transferred to the graph paper, the design would then be roughly half the size of the original.  Then it was easy to draw each block one by one onto the graph paper.  I am planning a lion on one side of the casket for courage, and a stag on the other for strength. 

As I was working on these drawing, my son texted me, and I was chatting back and forth with him as I worked.  Our newest kitty, three month old Indy, was sitting on the table pestering me.  Each time I put my pencil down to type on my cell phone, he would do his best to grab my pencil and run off with it. 

Despite the distractions, I was able to finish a few. These are my finished drawings, the original is on the right, my work is on the left:

I am quite pleased with the results.  I have a few more to do, then I will cut and paste onto the design area and begin to fill in the background with flowers and greenery.  Once the design is complete, I will post the finished products onto the website for the class for input from other students. When the time comes to stitch (which wont be for a very long time) I will use the Prick and Pounce method to transfer the design.  You prick holes in the paper along the design outline, lay the page over the material, then use pounce (or charcoal) to cover the page.  The pounce then falls through the holes, leaving the outline on the material.  Last, use a color pencil to connect the dots and solidify the outline on the fabric.  Piece of cake.

Tomorrow I hope to do a few more.  I want to stitch our kitty that we lost last year on the top, and I have already uploaded a photo to my ipad.  I can minimize the photo until I get the size I want, then I can use the light from the ipad and just trace the photo.  I also have a willow tree to draw, a caduceus (I was a nurse), a butterfly, plus a man and a woman to represent myself  and my husband which will go on the two doors in the front.

 

Such a Klutz...

Today my husband made a grocery store run.  When he carried in the groceries, I grabbed the bag of perishables to put away in the fridge.  We have a stainless steel side-by-side that I picked up for a steal at the Sears Scratch and Dent store.  As I was putting meats into the freezer. our 3 month old kitten hopped inside.  As I bent over to pick him up and move him to safety, I didn't see that the door had started to swing shut, and I hit the corner of my eye on the door shelf.  So now I have a lovely bruise, and since I take warfarin every day, by tomorrow I will probably have a nice little shiner.

The up side, I told my husband that I will have great blackmail material.  He steps out of line all I have to do is claim he hit me LOL  The truth is, my husband would never lay a hand on me,

Today I did get a chance to work some on my cabinet for my class.  Trying to work out a design without an Xerox machine to enlarge or shrink the patterns to fit is tough. Now that I have my dining room table where I can spread everything our, it will be easier for me. I found a really neat stag to put on the side, and I think I may be able to use graph paper to draw it in a smaller size, I just need to research the technique.

Our home is finally in enough order that I can get back to working on my stitching, at least in the evenings.  I am so glad colder weather has arrived and we can slow down on the remodeling. I miss spending an afternoon stitching and catching up on recorded shows.

Celtic Alphabet Sampler

Finally, after months of disarray, I have my living room and dining room back together...and my needlework is all back up on the walls.  I promised in an earlier post to get a better photo of the Celtic Alphabet that I challenged myself with after my accident when my vision was returning.  It took me a while to finish, as it was done over 2 on 40 count linen, and each letter is done with quarter stitches to make a smoother curve, and each is backstitched.

Storage Issues Solved...Almost

If  all needlework enthusiasts are like me, they have things everywhere.  My spare bedroom closet has bins and storage containers full of charts, linens, tools, and every odd and end you can think of ever owning as a stitcher.  I have an old Dough Box that I use as my end table, and it is full of supplies, I have a chest of drawers full of crochet threads and yarns, and I just bought all the supplies I need to learn to tat.  These are in a small chest along with my pounce, and other items I bought to learn needle lace making.  Most of my supplies came from my days working at The Stitching Post in Catonsville, MD, and taking advantage of the 20% employee discount.  I learned very early on, if I see something I like, I buy it then.  If I wait, either it won't be available later, or I forget what it was I liked so much.

With the expected arrival of my first shipment of the Frostings Club from Thistle Threads in December, I needed to seriously rethink my storage options.  The Frostings Club will be sending out two shipments of specialty silk and metal threads, all for my stitching enjoyment. But, what to do with all of my treasures?

I began searching websites for storage options.  I wanted something solid wood, because I am tired of pressed sawdust passing as furniture, and plastic just isn't very attractive.  I was looking for a cabinet that I could keep out as a piece of furniture, that I have easy access to when I need it.  I came across apothecary cabinets, and decided this is what I needed for all of my smaller items and threads.

I was also looking for a project for the winter outside of stitching (I know, BLASPHEMY!).  I have been working on refinishing an old chamber pot I picked up in PA for $10.  I find I am enjoying the sanding of layers of ancient paint and discovering the beautiful grains of the wood underneath.  With this project nearing completion, I decided to look on eBay for a cabinet that I could refinish, make pretty, and fulfill all of my needs.

This is what I found.  It is NOT pretty now, but hopefully by Spring, I will be proudly displaying this in my home. These are the eBay photos, so this is NOT my house LOL.


Four of the drawers each have four removable containers, which I find quite charming, This started life as a cabinet of some sort, with doors that opened out, and someone has repurposed it and built each of the individual drawers.  The lower drawer is missing, but with a little sugar coating, I can talk my husband into putting his table saw to good use and build a replacement drawer for me.  There are 22 drawers in all, and I doubt it will take me long to fill them to the brim!  My husband has already removed the brackets on the sides, and I am hoping to find a decorative corner strip  hide where they were attached.

The knobs are just pieces of wood, and recently we were at Hobby Lobby looking at knobs for another cabinet I have, and I think when I place an order, I will just get replacements for everything.  Something as small as changing a knob can do wonders for improving the look of a piece.

 We have been walking around bins and boxes since having the carpet installed, so today we are working on replacing all of our books to their rightful places. We will get our dining room table set up (finally, after a year of eating in front of the boob tube) and hopefully by the end of the weekend I will be back to stitching.

I need to do some cutting and pasting to design my piece for my Cabinet of Curiosities class, but I have been waiting for the dining room table to be set up so I can spread out and really see what I am doing.

We also plan to hang my needlework today, so I should be able to get a better photo of my Celtic Alphabet that I posted earlier.

So much to do, so little time.  Everyone have a blessed weekend!

Donna

 
 
 

Down But Not Out

Yesterday morning I asked my husband if we could take a day trip over to Pigeon Forge.  The needlework shop, Dixie Darlin', is there, and I was hoping to start matching some Au Ver a Soie silk threads to the Scottish sampler I just purchased.  We are not on a strict budget, but I know they run about $4 a skein, and when you multiply that by a dozen or so colors, it can be pricey.  I thought maybe I could pick a few up at a time, since it would be a while before I actually started working on it. The trip is about an hour, so we decided to make a day of it.

I was thrilled to show off my new sampler, even though it is still framed.  I refuse to take it out of the frame until I am ready to chart, and even then I may leave it in and work from behind glass.  I asked my husband if he would take photos of each section so I can blow them up on screen and have an easier time seeing the pattern.  I know the piece is done on silk, and it is hard to count threads to get an accurate thread count so I can stitch on the correct size silk.  Plus, counting the threads for stitch placement is challenging, too.  The conservators lined the mounting board with a piece of raw linen, then mounted the silk on to that to help hide the few areas of damage, so I will be counting the threads on a similar colored background, not fun.

I browsed the thread supplies for a few minutes while my husband and step-daughter went to look at patterns.  (If you read my last post, you know he loves for me to stitch LOL).  There was an entire wall of Weeks Dye Works and other specialty threads, but I wasn't seeing any Au Ver a Soie.  The owner was sitting at a table working on filling a catalogue order for the little sleds that are so popular right now.  She is the only producer of the sleds, so if you buy one, you know where it came from originally!)  I asked about the silk threads, and unfortunately, she doesn't have a large enough market for silk threads to carry them.  So that was a disappointment.

As I browsed the shop, I did find that she had some back issues of Samplers & Antique Needlework Quarterly.  Browsing through I found some issue I had missed.  My subscription lapsed around 2013 and I had not yet made an effort to find them.  She had all four issues from that year!  So the trip was not a total waste.  I am so sad, though, the magazine will no longer be published.  It is one of the nicest magazines I have ever read, and I have almost every issue.  I felt the same way about Fine Lines magazine.  I had only just discovered it when it went out of publication.  I was browsing through a used book store one day, looking for embroidery books and magazines, and found issue S&ANQ, in great condition, for only $1! That is one of the special finds in my thrift store shopping.

Back to my threads...On the way to the Harley Davidson shop (if I get my stitching fix, my husband gets to have is HD or comic book fix.  He is such a geek), I was googling on my smart phone conversion charts for DMC to Au Ver a Soie.  I was able to find one, so I can match the colors with DMC, then use the chart to make a list of what I need in the silk threads. The Stitching Post in Catonsville, MD always keeps silk threads in stock, so I will just email the list to Melinda and she will get me what I need.

We left Pigeon Forge and headed north to Dandridge.  We had spent our anniversary on the road last year, as I had a doctor's appointment in Knoxville at the time.  On our way home, we found a quaint little restaurant called the Hitching Post and stopped for dinner.  It was an old general store which had been remodeled.  We sat near thee back, next to a wall sized stone fireplace which was absolutely amazing.  We had enjoyed it so much, we decided to revisit it for dinner yesterday, but unfortunately, it was closed.  The economy has been really hard on this area of TN, and many businesses have closed their doors.  In fact, when we first moved here to Greeneville, I was thrilled to find online a stitching shop right in town, but when we went looking for it, the storefront was still there, but the building was empty.

We popped into a Goodwill before leaving Dandridge.  I have been looking for storage options for the threads I will be receiving from the Thistle Threads class.  They supply all the materials needed for the different projects to be done throughout the year, so I will need storage for these threads, as well as their "Frostings" Club.  The designer of the program has worked with thread making manufacturers to reproduce silk and metal threads used in the 17th century.  Members of the club will receive spools of each of these threads in each color available (for a fee) and I am excited to be a member.  The first shipment of threads should arrive some time in December, then the package with the materials for the first class project should be arriving in January.  That will be a lot of threads to keep out of the reach of our new kitten, who seems to get into everything.

I have already found this to store some threads, but these are not closed drawers, each area is open.

I have my eye on a few apothecary cabinets, which would be perfect for storing a variety of threads, as well as other craft supplies.  Ebay has a few right now that I have on my watch list, but I am waiting for my husband's input before committing to a purchase.  He always sees things that I miss in my excitement of finding treasures.



We ended up heading back into Greeneville, and we tried a new Mexican restaurant, Casa Guerrero.  It was good, but not as good as Monterrey's in my opinion.  The chicken fajitas didn't have quite as good a flavor, and their sangria in "non-alcoholic."  I decided to try it, and was not happy with it.  The first ingredient was carbonated water, the second was sugar.  It was all downhill from there.  I prefer my sangria not fizz when I pour it.  At the end of the meal, the waitress asked us if it was our first time there, and we said yes.  She then pointed out there was  a free salsa bar we could have taken advantage of, with soups and different kind of salsas for your chips.  We may try it again some day, we did see a few dishes being served up that looked interesting, but it wont be on my first choice for dinner list.

 

 

Trees and Angels

I have spent three evenings working on charting the tree and angels on the 1801 sampler.
That may seem like  a lot of time, but there are so many little stitches to place for the leaves, it has taken what seems like forever. The angels have also been a challenge.  I have finally figured out that each one has its arms outstretched to the side holding onto the tree.   The wings are bit tricky, but I will do my best to chart them as Joanne stitched them. 

Under the tree and angels is a Biblical verse from Genesis, "The serpent tempted me and I did eat."  It makes me think that this may have started as an Adam and Eve sampler, but for some reason she replaced them with angels.  Perhaps Adam and Eve were too difficult to stitch, but given the work done on the rest of the sampler I don't see how this would have been too hard.  The piece is stitched on 60 or 65 count linen, and has satin stitch, chain stitch, cross stitch - not the work of a beginner.

Now that the charting is done, I am about to start stitching.  I have already stitched the bones of the tree, but I imagine it is going to take me quite some time to add all the little leaves.

I have also been working on how to chart the ribbons across the center of the piece.  The row of ribbon and bows is all done in chain stitch, and at this time I have not found a way in PC Stitch to chart a chain stitch. I have decided to use a grey backstitch to "draw" the ribbon and the stitcher will have to follow free hand with chain stitches.

Once the main tree is finished, I should be about 2/3 finished, which means the end is in sight. I can't wait to get this finished and framed.  I only hope that if it is published as a chart, the stitching community as a whole embraces it and enjoys it as much as I have.

 



The Healing Power of Stitching

It is Sunday morning and I sit in my living room enjoying a little peace and quiet.  The new carpet is in, and it turned out fabulous.  What a difference making one change can make to the feel of your home.  My husband has been using his new toy, a table saw, to cut new baseboards, and they are almost finished. Because the house is so old, it not only has baseboards, but it also has crown molding and corner moldings in every room.  As soon as all of that is back in place, I can finally get my needlework back up on the walls.  I miss looking at my "stuff."

Tomorrow the gas company will be here to install our corner fireplace, and my living room will be complete.  That means two rooms down, only six more to go.  We remodeled the bathroom first, because it was a mess, and that took us most of last summer.  The dining room is next, but most of the work is done there.  Hopefully we can do our bedroom after that, I am tired of looking up at nasty corners.  The crown molding has to be put up, and I hope to get some sort of heating device to sit inside the fireplace so we can eliminate the ugly baseboard heater.  But that is next spring...

I titled this post The Healing Power of Stitching, because I wanted to talk a little of my experiences with this.  In an earlier post I believe I mentioned that I had been in an accident.  I will, as briefly as possible, summarize it here.

In 2002, I had just turned 40.  I had received a promotion to department head of Infection Control at the State Hospital I had worked in for 20 years.  My son was stationed in Germany with the Air Force, and I had just received my passport in hopes of flying to visit him.  My life was finally falling into place after being a single mom for so long, working two and three jobs, and putting myself through RN school in the mornings and evenings while I worked night shift.

On Sunday, March 17th I went out with a friend to a local auction house to enjoy the day and maybe buy a prize or two; you never know where that unappreciated sampler will show up.  I had not given any thought to it be St. Patrick's Day, as I was not much of a drinker, and my running around days were behind me.  About 7:30 that evening, I decided it was time to head home.  As I left the auction house, there was a light drizzle falling, and I made a mental note to drive carefully, the temperature was just hovering above freezing.

As I was driving down the highway, I don't remember seeing too many people on the roads.  As I approached an "S" curve in the road, one minute the road was empty, the next there were headlights coming straight at me.  I had time to hit the clutch and the brake, I remember hearing the sound of the collision, but I do not remember any pain.  I was in and out of consciousness while the paramedics cut me out of the car.  I had been driving a small two door Toyota, the drunk driver that hit me was in a Lincoln Navigator, one of the largest SUVs on the road, so my car was a mess.  I have no memory of them getting me out of the car.  In fact, I have no memories for the next four weeks or so.

From what I have been told, as the drunk driver rounded the first curve in the road, a truck that was farther ahead of me saw him crossing the center line, and swerved to miss him.  The SUV clipped the back of the truck, which spun the SUV a full 360 degrees, and straight into me as I rounded the second part of the S.  I feel that had he not lost some of his momentum from the first collision, his impact with my car would have been much, much worse.  There was a woman following the SUV, and she was already on the phone with 911 reporting the man's dangerous driving, so help arrived quickly.  It turns out she was head of Patient Relations at University of MD's Shock Trauma, which is where I ended up that evening. 

According to my mother, also an RN, the first night they took me in to surgery for almost 8 hours.  Even though I was wearing a seatbelt, the steering wheel had crushed the right side of my chest, and I ended up losing the upper right lobe of my lung.  At this point, they had me in a drug induced coma, because the pain of just breathing would have been too much.  On Friday they took me in for surgery to repair my broken and dislocated right hip.  After surgery, mom said I could respond a little, the meds kept me from opening my eyes, and I was intubated for breathing because my lungs kept collapsing, but I could raise and lower my eyebrows in response to questions.  The next day when she came in, I was totally non-responsive, and after several hours she got the nurse.  It seems that sometime during the night I threw an embolus and had a stroke.  I was in a real coma.

It was April 17th when I have my first real memory of being in the hospital. I came out of the coma, but because off the area of the stroke, I was blind and I had no use of either arm or hand. (Not good for an avid reader and stitcher.) My other injuries included: a fracture at the base of my skull, fractures at C-7 and T-1 in my neck, my right knee had a laceration across it about six inches long, my right ankle was broken and both heel bones had been crushed.  At some point my heart went bad, and it was days before they finally got it regulated again.  Then my kidneys began to shut down, but the power of prayer is a wonderful thing, and I did not end up dialysis.

The other major event was my right hip developed an infection that turned out to be MRSA, a highly drug resistant form of Staph that can be deadly. The infection was treated, only to recur time and time again.  The last time it recurred, the surgeon removed the metal hardware he had installed to support the bone graft to my acetabulum (the socket where the thigh bone fits at the hip).  Once the metal was removed things settled down.  I still have to approach any kind of surgery to my hip with caution, because even though it has been years, the potential of reactivating the bacteria is a factor. Because I ended up losing so much muscle mass because of the infection, I have a really weak hip, and the injury left me with a bad limp.

I spent six and a half months between Shock Trauma and Kernan Rehab Hospital.  Over the weeks, as swelling was reduced around the optic nerves, small pieces of my vision began to return.  With extensive physical therapy, I also regained use of both arms and hands, with only a little residual weakness and tingling in my left hand.  I am still legally blind; my vision never fully returned, and what I do have is spotty and not continuous, meaning as I look around a room, things come in and out of my vision field.  I do not have enough vision to drive, and I still walk into things, or knock things over, but I can read, and best of all, I can stitch.  I just have to be careful where I place my stitches.  I have been happily stitching on one area, stopped to change threads, and began stitching again, only to realized I was in the wrong area.  It has been a challenge, but a welcome one.  I would rather face this challenge than not be able to stitch at all.

I finally left the hospital on October 1, 2002, but that didn't mean I was finished with hospitals.  I still had many surgeries ahead of me, most of them reconstructive in some way. Being admitted for surgery became routine. One surgery, I was in the recovery room after an operation on my vocal chords(they were damaged because of being intubated for so long before they did a tracheostomy).  There were no available beds on the units, and I was only being kept overnight for observation, so they just kept me in recovery for the night.  After I had gotten something to eat, I asked for my bag and pulled out my stitching.  The nurses looked at me like I was crazy LOL.  I just smiled, and told them it was how I kept my sanity. It was the one normal thing in my life I could count on at that time.

When I left the hospital in October, I returned to my apt.  My son had been sent home for a few weeks right after the accident, but he had returned to Germany, so I was living on my own.  My mom was already living in TN by then, and she made trips back and forth when she could, but I figured out how to survive. I had always been independent, but now how I had to LEARN how to be truly independent.  I used cabs to get me where I needed to go, and I discovered Pea Pod, a program from Giant Foods where I could have my groceries delivered.  The pharmacy delivered my meds, and other than social interactions, I was set. 

One of the part time jobs I had at the time of my accident was working Saturdays at a local needlework shop.  That was a dream job.  The women of The Stitching Post, in Catonsville, MD, where so supportive of me.  They would pick me up and take me to stitcher's night, or out to dinner with them if they were going out as a group. Over time I ended up moving closer to the shop, and I would get a cab to take me to visit, and one of the girls would give me a ride home after she got off from work.

There is only so much TV you can watch in a day, and when you have to plan every outing, you don't go out that often, so I spent a lot of time alone.  I tell people as long as I have books to read and needlework to complete, I am very happy to entertain myself.

My first large project I tried was a  chart I found in an Australian magazine from the late 1990s..  It is a Celtic alphabet that was charted to be done on 32 county linen.  Before my accident, I had bought material and threads, but had not started it.  Because it was such a large piece, I had bought 40 count linen to work it on.  So here was my first challenge, working on such a small count with my vision as bad as it was.  Each letter had backstitched boarders, and tiny quarter stitches to make the curves more flowing.  It took me  a long time to finally finish it, but I think it turned out pretty good for a blind chick LOL I know the photo isn't the best, but I will try to get a better one once it goes back up on my wall.

So, there is my healing story. I met my husband about seven years ago, online of all thing, (that is a story for another day) and I am happily married, and happily stitching.  He supports my needlework, and takes me wherever I want to go.  Living in Greeneville, TN, the stitching shops are a distance away, but once every other month or so he takes me over to Pigeon Forge to visit Dixie Darling and get my stitching fix. The problem is, instead of sitting on the porch with the other husbands, he comes inside with me.  He then finds two or three charts he wants me to stitch for him, and trust me, they usually are not small charts. So I spend a lot of my stitching time making things for him.  I love him, so it is ok.  If  you have seen the Sleep Hollow chart that came out last year, you know what I am talking about when I say he doesn't chose small projects. Here is a picture of the chart.

Wish me luck!

Never enough time to stitch

I haven't updated my blog because I have not been stitching as much as I would like.  We have been preparing our living room, hallway, and dining room for new carpet.  Between painting, sanding, dusting and cleaning up behind my husband, stitching has fallen to the wayside. But, after a year of walking on particle board flooring, we now have brand spanking new carpet with the best padding money can buy.  A few more days to put the house back to rights, next Monday our gas fireplace will be installed, and I will be stitching in all the comforts of the modern world. 

Our house was built in 1920 as a farmhouse. It has two fireplaces, but the chimneys had been roofed over at some point, so heating with fire is out of the question.  There is no ductwork for A/C or heating, and at some point a previous owner had installed electric baseboard heaters.  Last winter was wickedly cold here in the mountains of TN, and our electric bill ran at $500 or more for about three months.  We did our best to keep our pipes from freezing, but we did not succeed.  They froze solid for about two days in January when we were hit with a really deep freeze.  Fortunately, we had all the pipes replaced when we bought the house.  There were still galvanized steel piping throughout most of the house.  We replaced them all with the rubber hosing that is more likely to expand and contract along with any freezing, and we came through the winter blast with not a single leak.

The little stitching I have been doing, I have struggled with.  On the original piece, the stitcher created a flower basket, but the flowers and greenery do not sit evenly across the top of the basket.  I always struggle with charting for authenticity, leaving all the mistakes in place, or accuracy, correcting the more glaring mistakes for eye appeal. 

I hope to forge through this issue this evening and make a decision so I can get this piece finished. I am at that point in the piece when I have been working on it for so lone, I feel like I will never get it finished.  I need to get over that hump; when I can see the light at the end of the tunnel it seems to rejuvenate me and I become excited about stitching the piece again.

Today my new sampler arrived.  It is my first Scottish sampler.  Normally I would immediately remove the sampler from the frame and check it for authenticity, and to make sure it is backed with acid free board, but the frame is labeled as having been conserved/restored.  There is wear, especially at the corners, that I can see through the glass, and the piece has been mounted onto a piece of linen, also visible through the areas of wear.

There is the typical red/green in one of the bands, which is a strong indicator of a Scottish sampler, and the alphabet is embellished with the typical curly-cues of Scottish work.

The verse at the top reads "Fear God and keep His commandments is the whole duty of man."

The threads used in the name and date have faded, and are difficult to see, but it is by Margaret Newman, 1768.  There are sets of initials in different areas, as well a ship, a peacock, birds, trees, what appears to be a pomegranate, and an animal which has a long tail that curls back on itself, so I am thinking a cat or a lioness.  The linen thread count is very small, it looks to be about 60 count.  The alphabets have no J or Q and the S is stitched like an f, which is common in older pieces. I am still working out some of the lettering, in one band it appears to be F   I   I, a heart, I  F  A  M  P  and two more letters that I can't make out right now because the threads have faded to the same color as the ground.

The border has a flower pattern that is mirrored left and right, and the top and bottom are flowering trees and bushes.

Just from what I can see, there is cross stitch, queen stitch, satin stitch, chain stitch, and one I can never remember the name of, I will have to look it up in my resource books.  You work over two threads, stitch from the center hole and out to each of the surrounding holes, pulling the threads tight to form and open hole.

It will be a while before I get around to charting this piece, and when I do, I will need to take it out of the frame to make it easier to count threads and see stitches, but until then, she is going on my wall out of direct sunlight.

Thistle Threads

Last month I was searching for online needlework classes.  Having just moved to TN, we do not know many people in town.  Since neither my husband nor I work, we have a hard time getting out to meet new people, so I thought maybe I could develop some online friends that share common interests by taking an online class. And who knows, perhaps I might meet someone close enough to Greeneville that we could meet in person.

I found a webpage called Thistle Threads.  They offer several classes which teach needlework techniques popular during the 17th century.  As I browsed through the courses, the Cabinet of Curiosities class caught my eye.  Then I saw the price.  It was about half of my monthly income. I did further research into the classes, read testimonials, and decided I really wanted to take this class.  My husband supports me in anything I do, and said if it makes me happy, I should do it.

Even though it was very expensive, the course is an eighteen month class, and all materials for class projects are included in the pricing.  They also break it down so that you can pay monthly instead of paying up front, so that makes it easier to handle.  On further reading, all threads are reproductions of antique colors, and are silks and metal threads, so that alone takes a good bit of the cost.

We just now received lesson two. Last month we learned about the history of sewing casket in the mid 1600s.  This month we are learning about designing the needlework that is applied to the serface of the casket.  We are to pencil sketch our design ideas onto paper and post on the discussion board for input from others.  Most antique caskets have biblical themes, but that does not interest me at this time. 

We recently lost our one year old kitten, Phantom, to a hit and run driver.  He was the sweetest, gentlest, most endearing kitten I have ever known.  I am thinking about stitching him on the lid, with a willow tree in the background to represent mourning.  I am researching motifs and the symbolism in each motif and hope to use motifs significant to my own life on the rest of the casket.  The casket itself is the only thing that is not included in the price of the course, and it is a custom made piece with reproduction hardware.  The cost of this is also very high, but again, they offer pay as you go.  If we can afford it later, I will do a second casket, this one for my husband.  I will do it in Lord of the Rings scenes and characters.  He will be so thrilled, he is such a geek.

In the Beginning...

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while now, and as I get closer to finishing my current needlework project I decided it was time.

The story of me


My name is Donna West, formerly Baker, and I grew up in a small town outside of Baltimore, MD.  As a young girl my grandmother taught me how to crochet, and to do embroidery. I played with needlework off and on for years, and in my 20s I discovered stamped cross stitch.  I made a few thing and hung them proudly on my walls.  I worked mainly from kits purchased at Frank's Nursery and Craft, a company that has sadly gone out of business.  Then one day I picked up a cross stitch magazine, and was amazed at the number of charts available.  I went to Joann Fabrics and bought some supplies and fell in love with counted cross stitch.

Leafing through a magazine one day, I found in the back a list of needlework stores advertising, set up by state.  I quickly thumbed down to MD, and found The Stitching Post www.the-stitching-post.com .  The next day I took a 20 minute ride over to Catonsville.  When I walked into the shop, the walls were covered in some of the most beautiful stitching I had ever seen. I felt like I had come home.

After several years as a customer, I saw an advertisement in their newsletter for a part time sales associate and I jumped at the chance.  I had been a single mom for years, my son was old enough to drive and take care of himself (for the most part), and I couldn't imaging a better way to spend a few evenings a week.

I worked at The Stitching Post for about three years, increasing my stitching knowledge, and my stash of charts and supplies. I started entering some of my pieces in the local fair, and always came home with first or second place ribbons for the individual category. I thank the talented framers and staff of the shop for helping me to present my needlework in the best possible way.

I began to stitch samplers in the late 1990s.  I loved the idea of a small child sitting at the knee of her mother, or grandmother, or aunt, learning the basics of needlework.  I kind of thought of it as my story. I subscribed to Samplers and Antique Needlework magazine, as well as Fine Lines (no longer in publication.) I bought books about girlhood needlework, and was thrilled when, in 2012,  I found a copy of Betty Ring's "Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers and Pictorial  Needlework 1650 - 1850" on Amazon.com for less than $100.  When the two volume, cloth bound set arrived, I pulled the first volume out of the slipcase and began to leaf through the first few pages.  When I got to the title page, I was overjoyed to find it autographed by Betty Ring.  It was not advertised as autographed, and I have a feeling the seller had no idea what he was sitting on.  Betty Ring passed in  2014, and I am honored to own this fabulous book from one of the foremost experts on the subject. This is one of my greatest treasures.

In 2002, I had just turned 40.  I was department head for Infection Control at the hospital where I worked, my son was in the Air Force stationed in Germany, and I was still working Saturdays at The Stitching Post. On Sunday, March 17th, I was driving home from a day of shopping, and was hit by a drunk driver.  Very long story made short, I am now disabled and unable to work.  I ended up throwing an embolus shortly after the accident, and had a stroke, which left me totally blind for about two months.  Over the months of rehab, I regained some of my vision, but not all of it, I am still considered legally blind.  My blindness is in vision field, not acuity, so as long as I am looking right at something I can see it, but don't ask me to tell you what is next to that something.

Fast forward to today.  I am now very happily married to a wonderful man named Gene.  We moved to Greeneville, TN. in the summer of 2014.  We own an old 1920 farmhouse on a little over three acres of land on the south side of Greeneville.

The property had been vacant for a few years when we bought it, so there was a lot of maintenance work to be done, inside and out.  Summer time we spend a lot of our time outside, but come fall, we tend to slow down. We are currently scheduled to have carpet installed on the first floor, as the floors are not salvageable, and we don't have the money to get them refinished. Perhaps in the future we can rethink the carpet, but for now it will help keep the house warm and cushion my toes.  Once the carpet goes in, we are having a gas fireplace put into the corner of the living room.  Last winter was unusually cold for this area, and the only heat source is electric baseboard heaters.  We actually had our pipes freeze for about three days, so having a better source for heating will be welcomed.  Prior to moving in, we had the water turned on, only to find that all of the pipes were damaged in some way.  We had a plumber come out and he replaced all the pipes with hoses.  These hoses allow for contraction and expansion in case of freezing, and we were fortunate not to have issues from the three day freeze.

Over the last few years I have purchase several girlhood samplers of my own.  None of them are American, as the American samplers fetch quite a high price, but the English samplers are much more readily available.  I have worked on three of these samplers, charting and re-stitching them for publication.  I have not yet published, as I am waiting to finish this last sampler and will submit the three together.  I hope to publish under the name "Smokey Mountain Stitches", as looking out our second story windows the Great Smokey Mountains are easily seen.  My only regret at this point is not stitching these in silk.  My next project I plan to go old school and use silk threads.

The original piece:

This is done on 60 count linen, so the stitches are very small.  The verse is done over one thread, so it is very detailed.  It is done with silk threads, and uses cross stitch, chain stitch, and satin stitch. I have not completed the embroidery portions, so there may be other types of stitches. I am reproducing it on 40 count raw linen, so it is a littler easier to work with, but it still very painstaking work.

M work:

I hope to have the remainder finished in the next few months. I just purchased an 18th century Scottish sampler, and hope to complete it next.  That one I will make sure I do in silk threads.