One Stitch At A Thyme

Lee the Lake Stitcher's Stitching Bloggers Question of the Month.....

Tell us about something that you have stitched or plan to stitch for any father in your life. Maybe it’s for your father, your father-in-law, your children’s father, your grandfather, your godfather, or someone who was or still is an important father-figure in your life. Why did you choose this particular piece of stitching? Tell us the story behind it.


And because a simple one part question is never adequate, let’s go some more:


Often times we identify our love of needlework and our skills with our mothers or grandmothers or other women. It’s understandable because often they were are first teachers or role models. Now let’s think about our stitching life as it relates to our dads. Is there anything about our approach to stitching that we can recognize as traits of our fathers? For instance, does your dad (or any other important man in your life) have an approach to one of his interests that you can observe and think, “Hey….if I substitute the word “needlework” for “fly fishing”, we’d be pretty darn similar!” So tell us about it.



Answer (part one) : There are a couple of things I stitched for my dad. The first one was back in 1988 a "Mallards in Flight" picture. It was because my dad and younger brothers were seriously into duck hunting back when my brothers were in there early teens.



The second one was a simple "fishing" verse picture as he was into fishing right after he first retired.



Answer (part two) : As for recognizing any traits between me and my dad I’m afraid now-a-days that would be a zero. He no longer has any hobbies except playing hearts on the computer, reading his email, and looking after mom.

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My Update: For my stitching on Berlin Woolwork Sampler, I managed to finish motifs # 17 & 18 and am currently working on motif #20. When I finish #20 I shall post a progress pic., Hopefully by this coming Sunday.


That's all for this blog blurb.

It's been almost 3 years since Renee "The Blonde Librarian" hosted this fun meme.  I'd like to thank Lee for bringing it back to life again.  And without futher a-do ~ ~ ~ ~

Lee the Lake Stitcher Stitching Bloggers Question of the Month.....

Suppose we say that there are two types of stitchers.

There are those who enjoy the “process” of stitching. They stitch for stitching’s sake and if something gets finished, so much the better, but it’s not necessarily the end goal. Primarily, it’s the application of needle and thread to cloth that makes them happiest.

Then there are those who are “project” stitchers. They move steadily through their projects, certainly enjoying their stitching time, but finding their greatest joy in the completed stitching.

If you had to pick one to describe yourself, which type of stitcher would you be? I imagine that we could all say that we fall somewhere in between, but really think hard about this and try to pick just one. And once you’ve decided whether you’re a Process or Project stitcher, tell us if your recognize that approach in other parts of your life.

ANSWER:
Wow that is a tough first question to get me back in the Meme mood. And you're right most the time I feel like I fall in the middle. But to be perfectly honest I'm not a "project" stitcher. I don't have the discipline to sit and stitch every day and steadily move through a project, one project at a time, until it is complete.

Which is amusing as my real life job is "project" oriented and must be completed in a set time. Don't get me wrong there have been times when the need had risen, when I had to finish a project in a set amount of time - for a wedding or birth announcement. So if push, come shove I could do it.

But considering that I have around ten projects that I've been working on slowly but steadily since before 2003, I guess that would peg me as a "process" stitcher. I go through stitching phases that last for a few months to a year and stitching slumps that can last for a couple of months to years. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever clear the WiPs page on my website. But in the end it's simply being able to put needle and thread to cloth that makes me happy and if something gets finished all the more to set up and cheer about it.
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And speaking of progress I managed to finish motif 15 of BWWS. Sorry no picture as it's 11:30pm and my scanner isn't hooked up to the computer tonight.

Once again I'd like to thank Lee for kick starting the SBQ Meme.

And that's all for this blog blurb.

This week's SBQ was suggested by Dawn and is:

If you had to choose, would you rather spend money on overdyed floss or hand-dyed fabric?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/08/sbq-fabric-and-floss/

ACK!!! What a tough question. Can’t I just have both??? { chuckle }

The first time I ever used overdyed floss was with Teresa Wentzler’s Dragon Needlebook. It was Dinky Dyes silk and I really loved the look and feel of the floss. I don’t collect it as a rule, since it’s expensive I only buy the exact amounts for what a project calls for.

As for hand dyed fabrics. I love looking at them but just can’t get myself to actually use a piece of it. I have 2 cuts of the stuff – one lt. blue, one lt. tea by True Colors.

Hummm….Well my choice would probably be the overdyed floss. I could always dye my own fabric using RIT® Brand Color Dye if I truly needed a piece for a project.

This week's SBQ was suggested by Outi and is:

What do you do to your thread clippings?
Do you just scrap them or do you use them in something else?


The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/08/sbq-and-blog-awards/

Funny enough, I saved a massive Ort pile o' bits and put them in a notch, in the old maple tree in our yard. Thinking that the local sparrows would use them as nest filler. Surprisingly enough they didn't touch them, nor did the squirrels who run wild all over the neighborhood. Maybe I should save up the next mass quantity for stuffing material for a pincushion biscornus.

This week's SBQ from Renée is:

How do you balance your stitching time with your other obligations such as work, household chores, etc.?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/07/sbq-finding-balance/

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When I was working full time my evenings were filled with getting on-line and checking my e-mail, a couple of message forums and a very long list of RSS feeds. Those feeds included book authors & publishers, my SBQ & needlecraft friends, and Brick n’ Mortar needlecraft shops. I only had roughly 3 hours in the evenings for this and then it was time for bed. Household chores, book reading, and stitching was given over to the weekends.

Now that I am temporarily unemployed I can read, stitch, or cruise the internet as much as I like during the day. Finding work is a bit more of a problem. No one wants to hire you if you don’t have a reliable source of transportation – i.e. a car.

This week's SBQ is:

Do you currently subscribe to any stitching publications or have you in the past? (Either in print or online) If so, which ones?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/06/sbq-stitching-pubs/

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No not now, but yes in the past.

I‘ve two magazines that I subscribed to in the past – Just Cross Stitch (1997) and Piecework/Needleworkers (2000 ?) magazine.

When JCS parted company with Teresa Wentzler I dropped my subscription. By that time the charts they offered were too cutesy. (FYI: To date I have yet to stitch any of those designs!) I mainly read JCS for the articles and looked for TW’s designs.

I really loved Needleworkers magazine unfortunately I only discovered it after it had been absorbed by Piecework. And when they dropped the Needleworkers half of the magazine I dropped my subscription.

Now days the only time I buy a magazine is if it has an interesting series of articles. The last one was in 2007, it was a 6 part series from JCS on how to make different types of knots and novel uses for them.

This week's SBQ was suggested by Me!!! and is:

Do you ever get to a point working on a project that you've had for so long, you start to wonder what possessed you to start it in the first place?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/05/sbq-what-was-i-thinking/

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I asked this of myself back on April 15, and will gladly reiterate it here. Oh, and thanks Renée for using my question.

That’s what I’m feeling about christmas sampler. There must have been something about it I liked back in 2003 when I started it that drew my interest, but for the life of me I can’t remember what. Now I feel like it’s a chore to finish the beast. But finish it I will, then it will either get rolled up and put away never to see the light of day, or what’s more likely, it will get turned into a bell pull and only hauled out during December to be hung up on the wall after I give it to my mom. The funny thing is I don’t really care for poinsettias.

I guess like Renée says tastes change. Most of my WiPs are long term the oldest being Pegasus and Butterflies started back in 1999. The rest of them were started between 2001 and 2005. I swear I will finish them all ---- some day. [snicker]

This week's SBQ was suggested by Renée and is:

For seasoned stitchers: Define a stitching term or acronym for new stitchers.
For newbies: What stitching term or acronym would you like defined?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/05/sbq-stitch-speak/

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I can remember the first time I joined the stitching boards over at www.ezboard.com ( now www.yuku.com ) I was so bewildered by all the abbreviations used in the messages.

The one memorable one that always gave me a start when I read it in a header was:

SEX = Stash Enhancement eXpense ( or eXperience )
: Materials bought, gained in an exchange, won in an auction, etc.

Others that always gave me trouble trying to remember:

SABLE = Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy
: To know for sure, simply ask yourself this one simple question - If I quit buying anymore stash and stitched everything that is currently in my stash? If the answer is no, you have reached SABLE.

AFAIK = As Far As I Know
FWIW = For What It’s Worth
YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary ( your experience may differ from mine)

This week's SBQ was suggested by Jennifer is:

Do you have any pieces that you would liked passed on to future generations as family heirlooms?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/04/sbq-heirlooms/

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My fantasy would be that everything I stitch gets passed along. That said, I doubt that any of them will become family heirlooms and will most likely end up in a yard sale long after I'm buried and gone. I'm not married and don't have any children, and by the looks of things I'm not going to have either in the near future. I do have 3 younger siblings,1 niece and 1 nephew so far, and they've all gotten wedding and birth announcements stitched by me. So hopefully some of them may appreciate my stitching after I'm gone and rat-pack away a few items.

This week's SBQ was suggested by Christine and is:

How do you handle blended threads? Do you kit the blends up before you start a piece, or do you grab what colors you need and blend when the need arises? If you kit up the blends beforehand, how do you store them? Do you have another option for blends to share?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/04/sbq-blends/

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Like most stitchers I blend (tweed) as I go. I set up my LoRan small project cards so the 2 solid colors are on either side of the blended color. Example [ 378 – 378/379 – 379 ]. That means I pull 1 thread from each solid color, use the blend and place the unused piece in the middle hole to be worked later in the same project. I try to organize all my blended pairs this way on 1 – 2 project cards. That way I'm not duplicating solid colors on more than one card. When I'm finished with the project I either toss the blend or, if the length is still usable, separate the threads and return them to their respective plastic bobbins.

A hint for the LoRan cards: Write on the back and not the front of the cards, that way you can easily erase the pencil markings and use the cards again.

Well after four years I finally decided it was high time for a face lift. I got tired of seeing blue skies and fluffy clouds deciding to go for a green motif and earthy flowers, orchids to be specific. It took me roughly six hours to tweak the template just the way I wanted it, and for someone who know zip about style sheets I think it looks damn nice. There's just one catch - it only works in Internet Explorer. For some reason, I can't figure out why or how, the style sheets screw-up in Mozilla's FireFox.


On the stitching front I'm hard at work on Christmas Sampler 2003. I'm up though part three, the center flowers, and halfway through part four the band just below it. I should have a progress picture by Monday or Tuesday showing both parts completed. Then thank goddess I'll be in the home stretch with part five. I've decided to leave off the bottom row of diamonds, part six, as I feel it unbalances the length of the bell pull.


This week's SBQ was suggested by Jennifer and is:

What is the most complicated piece you've ever completed?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/04/sbq-complications/

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At this moment in time none. I consider Teresa Wentzler's Camelot Sampler the most time consuming if not actually complicated, as I'm still plugging away at it after 7 years. Most things I've done aren't actually complicated. Then I guess it all depends on your idea of what complicated is.

This week's SBQ was suggested by Terri and is:

What items do you consider essential to your needlework that you keep in your stitching bag?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/04/sbq-the-essentials/

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I have 2 navy blue DMC heavy-duty travel bags.

They have a 3 ring binder that holds stitchbow transparent inserts, my charts, & working copies. Then of course there's the fabric, plastic embroidery hoop, a package of size 28 tapestry needles, needle threader, scissors, laying tool (if needed), clear tape for getting rid of the fuzzies the frogs leave behind, 11 inch bookmark for cutting 18 inch lengths of floss, colored pencils and florescent pens for marking the working copies, magnets for holding the needles to the fabric, LoRan cards to hold the cut floss, stitchbows to hold the uncut skeins. Last but not least single wrapped life saver candies!!!

This week's SBQ is:

When you stitch a pattern that you have downloaded do you print out the pattern or do you stitch directly from your computer screen?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/03/sbq-downloads/

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Nope! There’s no way I can look at the computer screen and work on my scroll frame at the same time, which happens to be in another room. So I puzzle out if I can convert the file to a PDF and enlarge the chart through the Adobe Reader program and then print it out. Thankfully one of the places I buy downloadable charts – Patterns-Online.com - allows me to save them in that format.

But whether it’s a freebie or something I’ve purchased, I collect the charts downloaded and burn them on disk. It's much easier (and cheaper!) then to keep them in dozens of 3-ring binders and use up a couple of pounds of paper and printer ink.

This week's SBQ is recycled from January 4, 2005 and is:

After you stitch a pattern or kit, what do you do with it?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/03/sbq-recycling-questions/

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Being a packrat of grand proportions I save all charts, instructions, thread samples from kits (where necessary), and design cover sheets to clear sheet protectors and organize them in a "Projects Completed" 3" D-ring binder. In the hopes that one day some other family relative or future kid of my own takes an interest in needlework.

This week's SBQ was suggested by Rachel and is:

What is your cross stitch weakness? (i.e., What do you have to have when you see it, even if you are supposed to be on the Wagon?)

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/02/sbq-stitching-weaknesses/

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That’s an easy one. Anything designed by Teresa Wentzler. Even if I don’t stitch them all, I have this compelling need to collect her designs.

Well it looks like I’ve gone and fallen behind again with updating my Blog. The only new thing I have to report is, that after going back to work at my temp job in January and managing to work the entire month. I’ve now been laid-off at the first of February. It’s been two weeks now and no phone call, so I have a feeling I’m going to be off for the entire month. Hopefully no longer than that.

I hope everyone who’s married or has a Significant Other had a happy Valentine’s Day. For me the week came and went just like any other. No flowers, no card, no acknowledgement from anyone. Not having a boyfriend really sucks during certain times of the year. Anyway, I dare say I was temped to buy myself a single rose, then I gagged at the price they wanted. Maybe I’ll head out to Wal-Mart tomorrow and see if they have any potted miniature red rose bushes left, hopefully they’ll be on sale.

I’ve gotten tired of reading paranormal romances for the next few days, so I’ve decided to pull out and do the finish work on an old project TW’s Dragon Needle Case. I’ve finally stitched a back for it and now all I have to do is sew the front to the back, line the insides and sew in the felt pages. Maybe if I can muster a little enthusiasm I might put it together in the next week.

SBQ - February 6, 2008

This week's SBQ was suggested by Kathryn and is:

Are there other crafts that you have tried and abandoned?
Why do you like stitching better?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/02/sbq-other-crafts/

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Abandon seems like such a harsh word, I think I’ll say temporarily lost interest in. The crafts that came to mind when I read this question were crocheting and knitting.

My grandmother taught me the basics of crochet and I eventually inherited her steel hooks. The projects – a circular Pineapple Sunburst doily 15 inches across and various baby blankets for cousins, and a couple of queen size blankets for me and mom were the bulk of my interest. I moved on to knitting and taught myself the basics - making your standard knit 2, purl 2, winter scarf. From there I jumped in the deep end making a long sleeved, hooded, with pockets, Irish cable knit sweater. As I recall it had 3 different types of twisted cable designs and I made it without a single problem save one. It was too small for me. So I ended up giving it to my sister. Everyone oooh’d and aaah’d over it, and even my dad whined about making him a sweater. But my interest in knitting had petered out by then - that was over 20 years ago. Although, last year I had the urge to make myself a simple knit cap for winter. I bought myself a set of double ended needles and found a free chart on-line. Just like the last time it turned out perfect except for one thing - it was too small, again, so this time I ended up giving it to my mother. You’d think I’d learn by now.

Anyway, I can’t exactly say why I’ve settled on counted cross stitch. Maybe because it looks more like art work. Or maybe my packrat gene, which I inherited from my mother, leans more towards cross stitch charts, embroidery floss, and evenweave fabrics. In any case, I’m happy knowing that I’ll be leaving something of myself behind after I’m long gone.



SBQ - February 13, 2008

This week's SBQ was suggested by Loretta and is:

Do you have any projects that you have scrapped and started over?
What made you start over from scratch?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2008/02/sbq-starting-over/

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The only project I have ever scrapped and started over was Camelot Sampler by Teresa Wentzler. I had finished the center sword block and had gotten 75% of the Guinevere block done, when I decided I didn’t like the look of the over-one section of the face. It seemed too lumpy and contorted. That and I didn’t like the count and quality of the fabric that came with the kit. So I special ordered a half yard of 25ct. evenweave Lugana [Mushroom] and started over. It will be 7 years come this November ’08 and I’m still working away at it.