We've Had a Touch of Winter, and That's Enough, Thank You

We've had a couple of days of brutal winds and dropping temperatures, then yesterday morning we got up to a glaze of ice on everything.  That's enough winter for me.  Thanks very much and all that, but it can be warm now.

 

It actually turned out to be not so bad yesterday.  Because of the ice, my husband took the pick-up truck to work, so that left me high and dry at home with no vehicle that I could drive.  The trusty old Saturn is at the shop, and DH's Mini-Cooper has standard transmission.  I, alas, have never learned to drive a stick, so I stayed home yesterday and did some laundry, did a bit of tidying, and baked cookies.  All in all, okay for a chilly day.

 

Today started out warm, but turned blustery and cold -- a perfect day to stitch the afternoon away.  I worked on the wookie quite a bit.  Here's how he looked last Sunday when I put him away:

 

I worked on him a little bit during the week, then made some good progress today.  Here's where we are now:

I'm putting a narrow border around him to give him a bit of a frame.  I'm about half finished with him.

 

I also worked on Salina Dunwoody last weekend.  The little dark blue line in the middle of the design is the start of the roof of a house.  I do like this piece and need to buckle down and get her off the WIP pile. 

 

I also did a spot of baking last weekend.

These are called Mini Chocolate-Cherry Bundt Cakes, and the recipe is from Food Network.  I saw it on the Pioneer Woman show; I love Ree's recipes because as a rule they don't require unusual ingredients that I have to order from Amazon because no grocery in three states carries them.  Her recipes use ingredients that I usually have or can get easily.  These turned out really well and they're not difficult to make.  The recipe should be here, if you've a mind to give them a go.  The recipe does call for a special mini bundt cake baking pan; I found mine on Amazon (where else!).

Wishing everyone the happiest of whatever holiday or holidays you celebrate -- and, as always, happy stitching!

Holy Clothespins, Batman!

After my dad passed away last spring, Mom made the decision to move to an independent living facility.  She's on a waiting list for a place, and in the meantime my sister and I are helping her clean out the house and get it ready to go on the market when the time comes.  It's difficult for all of us, of course; she and Dad built the house in 1961, and it's where my sister and I grew up.  So, not so easy.  But that's not what this post is about.

 

When I was home a few weeks ago, my sister and I were working in the basement when my sister came across a clothespin bag.  We have no idea how old it is or who it belonged to, my mom or my grandmother.  I don't remember seeing it as a child, so I wonder if it might have been my grandmother's.  If it was Mom's, I figure it's maybe mid-fifties vintage.  Mom and Dad were married in 1954, so if it's hers, she probably got it sometime after that.  Anyway, my sister loves vintage linens -- as do I -- and she decided that she would take this little bag home and try to clean it up.  Yesterday, she sent me some before and after pics.

 

This is one of the before pictures.  As you can see, it needed a LOT of cleaning!  It was, in a word, nasty, but still cute as it can be.  This is the front.

 

And the back.  It looks worse than the front.

 

And under the skirt on the front.  Ick.

Just a close-up of the pattern.  I think it looks very 50-ish or early 60-ish.

If you take another look at the picture of the back, you can see this spot near the lower left corner.

 

So my sis got to work.  The first mixture that she treated it with was just water with -- ready for this? -- Efferdent.  I kid you not.  Apparently Efferdent is good for lifting stains out of old linens.  I had never heard of such a thing.  She told me that she treated the bag several times with different mixtures; I think the Efferdent was only step one.  Finally she decided that it was as good as it was going to get.  And if you ask me, as good as it's going to get is pretty remarkable.  At some point along the way the red faded so the top of the "dress" is now kind of pinkish, but I think it's still adorable.  Take a look: 

 The stain on the bottom left wouldn't come out completely, but it still looks pretty darned good.  The bag's new home will be her sewing room.

I've been working on my quilt square, and the Wookie is looking more like a Wookie.  It's a pretty quick stitch -- large blocks of the same color, and no confetti.  He'll meet the design size requirement for the quilt block as he is, but I'm planning to stitch a border around him, just to make the picture a little larger and break up some of the white space on the block.

That's pretty much it from my little corner of the world.  Here's hoping that everyone has a good week -- happy stitching!

Wookie Progress

I've made some decent progress on my Wookie project this week.

 

I actually re-started him on 16-count Aida.  I had been using 14-count, but I didn't like the way it was looking, so I switched it.  It's a pretty fast stitch, but I expect I'm going to have had enough of brown for a while once I get him done.

I have a question for you.  What kind of stitching light do you have?  I had an Ott floor lamp for a number of years until the switch crapped out on me.  Now I use the regular lamp at the end of the sofa and supplement it with an Ott tabletop.  I need to get another light for my stitching room/library; I've had my eye on an Ott on the Joann Fabrics website, but I'm a little leery of it because of some of the reviews.  It's a floor lamp, and some of the reviews make me think that it's not very stable.  Any thoughts, recommendations, or stay-away-froms?

Thanks much!  Have a good week and happy stitching!

WIP Progress



It's been over a year since I've showed you how things are going with Salina Dunwoody.  At that time, I had just finished the alphabet, and the top and right side of the border were done.  Here's where she is now:

I've made a little start on the left side of the border; it's hard to see because I didn't move the threads before I took the picture.  She's probably the WIP that's closest to being finished, so I'm really going to try to work on her as much as I can.

I don't remember whether I showed you this one.  It's "Their Song", from Blackbird Designs.

Sorry the picture is sideways.  It was correctly oriented in the file, but blogger rotated it for some reason and I can't for the life of me figure out how to fix it.  I'm using the called-for GAST and Weeks fibers, and stitching it on 40-count Lakeside Linens "Pearled Barley".  Love that fabric!

 

Finally, here are a couple of quilt squares.  The first one is the nose and part of the eyes of a Wookie.  (What, you mean you can't tell?)  It's for a Love Quilts UK quilt, and when finished will be the stylized head of a Wookie.  I'm thinking it should be a fairly quick stitch; it's not due until the end of March, so that should give me plenty of time to get it finished!  The design is from Hermit Crab Stitchery on Etsy.  It's actually designed for needlepoint with Appleton wools, but I found an on-line converter and figured the DMC colors.

This last square is finished.  The design is from Connie Gee; her website is here.  This will be mailed this week.

 

It has been super windy here all day -- a good day to stay in and stitch!  Wishing everyone in the US a happy Thanksgiving, and happy stitching to all!

Mickey Finished

Mickey is finished, washed and pressed (after this picture was taken), and on his way across the pond.  I'm happy with how he turned out.

 

Happy stitching, all!

Mickey Has Hands!

 

I finished the cross stitching on Mickey Friday night, and I've got a good runny-go on the backstitching.  The fiddliest part of the back stitching is around his head and face, and that's about done.

I figure if I can get  in 45 minutes to an hour of stitching every night this week, I can get him done and on his way to England.

We've had a lovely weekend here, with mild temps and sunshine.  Yesterday was a little windy, but that has died down.  DH and I went to a going-away party last night for one of his co-workers who is transferring to Kona, Hawaii.  The co-worker, Bryan by name, has a Great Dane who was also at the party.  I think he is the biggest dog I have ever seen, but he was very well behaved and just wandered around all evening, looking for people to pet him :-)  Just a big ol' love sponge.

Other than that, there's not much going on.  Wishing everyone a good week and happy stitching!

Pawprints On Our Hearts

 

We lost our sweet Mimi cat yesterday.  She was 19 years old and her kidneys had shut down.  She was so very sick, and, despite the vet’s best efforts, the kindest choice was to let her go.

Mimi was full grown when she came to us at age 12.  She had lived in one home from her kittenhood, but her owner was going into an assisted living facility and was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to care for Mimi there, so Mimi came to us.  She was frightened and confused at first; I put her carrier in the powder room with a litter box and a food dish, and it was probably 3 days before she ventured out.  She was also coming into a home where another cat – Timothy – had already established himself, so she had that to deal with as well.  But she got used to her new place, she and Timothy became best friends, and she decided that my husband had the best lap to snooze in.

She was diagnosed with kidney failure a little over a year ago.  I’ve been feeding her the prescription kidney diet cat food, and she had been doing quite well.  We’d noticed some weight loss recently, and she’s been thin almost to the point of emaciation, although she was still eating and drinking.  Then, just in the last couple of weeks, her health took a downward turn.  With no muscle mass, she was getting more and more frail, then she lost interest in food.  She was lethargic on Monday, and could barely stand, so we took her to the vet that evening when my husband got home from work.

They kept her overnight to give her IV fluids and to do blood work.  I talked to the vet on Tuesday morning; Mimi’s kidney values were off the chart and not in a good way, and they had her in an incubator to try to regulate her temperature.  We went to see her Tuesday afternoon, and she didn’t respond when I slid open the incubator door and rubbed her head.  We agreed to try one more night of fluids and blood work.  Yesterday afternoon we went to see her, and after talking with the vet, we realized that we had to let her go.  They brought her in to us and she didn’t seem to even be aware that we were there.  We petted her and talked to her and she finally did twitch her tail a little.  I held her while the vet gave her the injections that would take away her suffering; she was so sick and so frail that it took only a very few seconds for her to pass.

It’s hard to let a beloved pet go.  I’ll miss seeing her waiting at the top of the stairs when I come in from work.  I’ll miss seeing her play with Timothy, and climb into Greg’s lap, and snooze under the dining room table.  I’ve read a little saying that pets leave pawprints on our hearts.  You’ll get no argument from me.



She loved shoes.  She didn't chew them or play with them; she just hung out with the shoes.

Best buds, keeping an eye on things from the top of the stairs.

Favorite thing to do:  drink out of the faucet in the hall bathroom.