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