When nature gets out of hand, stitching is put on the back burner

A few things have been happening in my stitching world lately, which have been derailing my routine!

Things have not been going all that well lately, and stitching problems are the least of them. First a series of bad storms that caused all kinds of problems, followed by a nasty insect bite that sent me to the doctor and pharmacist.

I live in the Deep South in the USA, more precisely in Tennessee and lately we have been having storms after storms, after storms,  with tornadoes’ warnings sent to us on and off.

On one of these storms, the wind was blowing so hard during a storm that almost everyone who had trees found themselves with at least one tree down. Even the very big ones did not escape that faith. I was watching the storm through my kitchen window and there was this wall of rain falling down, being pushed by the wind, a minute from one direction and the next coming from a different direction. Scary experience as you just never know what will happen next, like will a tree fall on the house, will the glass window hold, is a tornado around the corner, etc. 

I was looking at the newspapers this morning and there has been 342 deaths accounted for at this moment and these numbers will no doubt keep climbing in Alabama, which is the state bordering Tennessee to our South.

The counts are 254 people dead in Alabama, 34 in Tennessee, 33 in Mississippi, 15 in Georgia, 5 in Virginia and 1 in Kentucky.

Here is a link to the latest news about what happened to the Deep South states: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/30/severe.weather/index.html?hpt=T1

Apparently this is the worst episode of deadly storms in 90 years, the worst having happened on March 18, 1925 with 747 deaths. They did not have the sirene warnings back then like we do now so no doubt lots of lives have been saved this time around because of those warnings.

I came out ok out of all these storms, only to be taken down by an insect bite. A few days ago, after wakening up, I felt something wrong on the back of my neck, and discovered a big bump. I showed it to my husband as it was impossible for me to see exactly what it was. He said it was big,  swollen, all red with a yellow center. Obviously some insect had bitten me, but what? I endured it for a day and then the following day, it had remained about the same size, still very red and the yellowish substance was becoming bigger and bigger, so I decided to go see a doctor about it.

When the doctor saw it, she said that she had seen this before and she gave me a prescription to prevent/stop the infection and that it should be over in about a week’s time. I wish she could have told me the name of the insect, but she could not recall the name just at that moment and I did not press her on it. It was not a spider, she assured me.

Last evening by 7:30 I was already in bed, feeling very tired and woke up around the same time this morning.

So, my stitching has been put on the back burner for now, that is until I start feeling better and then I will go back to Trish’s Chinese flower painting project.

Until then, happy stitching!

Pierrette =^..^=

Florentine Fancywork has been framed & 4-Way Bargello Orchid has been inserted in a Sudberry trivet

 I have updated my Photoblog “My Stitching Gallery” with two finishes.

I had Florentine Fancywork come back from my framer, have taken a photograph and added it to my original post. This link will get you there. I think that the purple mat makes the whole project looking quite vibrant.

I have always love that shade of purple ever since I was a child. I remember when I was around 4 or 5 years old and my mother got me that lovely summer dress and it was a beautiful purple shade, close to the one used for that project. Oh, how I loved that dress and I remember feeling like a little princess each time I wore it.

Here is a photo of myself in that little purple dress. Now, you will have to use your imagination as unfortunately this is a black and white photo that my father took at the time but I can still see the colors vividly in my mind like it was just yesterday.

The second finishing is about a little project I stitched a while back called 4-way bargello orchid. It measures 6 inches by 6 inches and I found a trivet on the Sudberry House website which had those exact dimensions, so I bought it and used it for it.

These days I am getting a bit tired of having most of my projects framed and hanging on my walls. I am starting to have a space problem as there is just so many frames I can hang, without my walls becoming a gallery, though I must admit they are getting close to that stage, so lately I have been looking for alternative ways/sources to get the job done and hopefully get some practical use out of them. With a trivet, it is decorative and at the same time useful by putting things on it.

With my 4-way bargello orchid, I had little sections of the canvas that were not covered by stitches, so I needed to add some fabric underneath to make it look nice. I looked in my fabric stash and found just the right one. The color was just right, almost the same color as the canvas itself, so I cut a little piece of it and covered the board with it and added my canvas over it and I was about done.

If Sudberry would have had other color options for their trivets, I would probably have chosen a different color, but overall I think it looks allright.

With the glass reflection, again, I had a bit of trouble getting a decent photo, but managed to get a half decent one so that you can have an idea of what it looks like.

Those Sudberry wooden finishing products are relatively easy to use. The mounting instructions are provided with each one and anyone can do it and save a bit of money in the process.

Almost forgot to give you the link to this one too. Here it is.

A quick note to say that I have made my first ever blog available for public viewing again. At one point, at a time where I was quite exhausted and not feeling very well, I had stopped blogging and made my blog private. From time to time during that period I had added personal stuff. A lot of my friends were missing it and I thought it would be nice to reopen it again for viewing, so removed the private stuff from it and here it is again available for public viewing: LovetoStitch99 (the 99 at the end was just because I had to add this at the end if I wanted LovetoStitch, which I did).

Pierrette =^..^=

Trish’s Chinese Flower Painting, lesson 1

For those of you who are wondering when, if ever, I will post about Trish Burr’s Chinese Flower Painting, I intend to work on it today and complete lesson 1.

During my numerous attempts, I managed to do the short and long stitches ok, but I was not happy about my shading results, missing the mark a bit due to the fact that we have to use 5 different shades in a relatively small space and so far I have always ended up with not enough dark colors and too much of the light ones, but I will get it in the end or will die trying, like a good friend of me always says

I am including a photo of my first attempt, which I did not complete when it became quite obvious to me that I was off the mark with the shading and just did not have enough room to keep adding shades.

As you can see from this photo, I stopped working on the first bud before arriving at the beginning of the sepals as my shading was off.

I have tried a few additional times after that and ended up ripping it, just not happy with the end results. When things like that happens to me when I just don’t get it for whatever reason(s), I usually try to take a break from it and let my brain do a bit of leisurely thinking about it.

During that time I had the opportunity to wonder why I was having so much problem with it as I have done one project with Tanya Berlin (my first time with such technique) and do not recall having such problems at all. Here is the photo of Tanya’s purple pansy.

Looking at the photo again with fresh eyes, I can see that the short and long stitches on the darker petals could have been a bit more staggered. If I were to do it again, I would no doubt do it differently. I was too hooked up on the short and long bit and not thinking enough about the staggered part of it.

I think that in the pansy project, things were easier as the petals were a bit bigger with less color changes. I will have to get Tanya’s instructions out again and have a look at them.

Using Trish’s DVD for this current project helps a lot, but it is not exactly the same as if she was actually stitching the current project. It is more a general information DVD where she is showing us how to go about stitching short and long stitches.

When I wrote Trish for help about my shading problem, she said that in reality I need to find space for 4 shades and then the last one (darker shade) I just add a few stitches over to give some additional shading, new information which should have made things easier for me but for some reason have not, until now that is.

Anyway, I will give it another go today and I have more or less decided to live with the results, good or bad. Let’s hope that they will be good. I hate bad results, don’t you?

Well, better get at it. Will have another viewing of Trish’s DVD and then hopefully it will be a breeze this time around.

Will be back in a few days with the results and then later with Trish’s comments.

Pierrette =^..^=

Little Bear Pincushion received as a gift from a dear friend of mine

My friend Terry, who happens to live in England, has recently started learning how to make teddy bears.

Terry has always loved teddy bears and one day she decided that she wanted to make a few for herself, family and friend(s). 

It just happened that this lady called Danni lives very close to her house. She got in touch with her and she was invited to go to her place for a couple of afternoons so that she could learn how to make them. How lucky can a person be? Danni has her own website called Barrel Bears where her teddy bears can be seen.

So far she has made 3 of them and this one (picture below) being the latest one. Before mailing it to me, she sent me a photo, probably just to get me salivating a bit while this little darling was on its way to me. It took about 8 to 9 days before this little one reached my front door, but it was well worth waiting for. It is so cute.

The one I just received though comes all the way from a website in Australia called Kympatti Bears where my friend purchased a kit.  She knows that I just love pincushions, so when she saw it, she thought it would be perfect for me ………… and it is

This little teddy bear comes to my life with a big job to do, which is to make my life simpler by keeping my needles safe.

Instead of searching all over for my needles I now have this new friend complete with its special pincushion attached to its front for me to use when stitching.

Thanks, Terry!

Pierrette =^..^=

Spool Holder

Ever since I read Mary Corbet’s post about Spool Holders on her blog named Needle ‘n Thread, I wanted to have one just like it for myself and having no idea if I could actually find one like hers or not. I am very happy to report that I have just found one on eBay and it is now in my possession. I have just taken a photo for you.

As you look at the photo above you can see how ingenious this little spool holder is. I have removed one of the peg that holds the spool in place so that you can see how this works.

It will now be so easy to just unroll a little bit of thread, cut it and insert into my needle and the spool won’t find its way on my floor anymore. What a relief!

I just love all those things that makes a stitcher’s life easier

Better go back to my stitching now as I am running a bit behind. See you all later!

Pierrette =^..^=