Another Cross Stitch FFO - Carrot Patch

Hi Everyone! I thought that I would take a moment to hippity hop on in to show you my latest cross stitch finish - "Carrot Patch." Doesn't it make you smile? It's another pattern by Prisicilla Blane of Stitching with the Housewives, and this pattern/chart along with many other colorful, whimsical cross stitch charts are available on their Etsy shop,  Stitching with the Housewives. 

It was stitched on 14 count blackboard aida and the cross stitch piece itself measures 3.5 x 4.5. I  mounted it on sticky board, added ric rac, and then mounted it on a cardboard piece covered in denim. (I never ever throw out old jeans as one way or another you may use the fabric for something. :-) The finished piece is 5.5 x 6.5. I used the denim to match the overalls. I'm not going to stores, but hopefully I will get a call soon saying that a piece I brought for framing at Michaels is done, and when I go there to pick it up, I'd like to find some teeny tiny carrots or something like that to put around the edges. This piece will go on my two-tiered stand on my kitchen table.

Recommendation: I watch a great deal of Youtube as you may find the most unexpected, magical things there. Last night for some reason there was a suggestion to view a twenty-one year old Julie Andrews in a 1957 live broadcast of Cinderella. Why it was suggested, I have no idea, but it was a complete delight. CBS had commissioned Rodgers and Hammerstein to create the lyrics and music for this piece, and what glorious music it was. It was filmed on a very, very, small Broadway theater stage and broadcast live on Sunday evening, March 31, 1957. According to an article that I later read, it garnered over 100 million viewers. 

Now, if you follow my blog, you know that I am always recommending something or other, but please, please,  do check this out as it a wonderful look at the early glory days of television. It is, of course, in black and white and was filmed in kine scope, but the quality of the viewing is excellent. Trust me; it is a treasure!!! 

____________   _______________     ________________     _________________    ________________

On the night before his Inauguration, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris held a memorial ceremony to remember the 398,000 men, women, and children in the US who had died from the coronavirus. Now just one month later the death toll in the US has reached 500,000. On Tuesday evening January 22, the President addressed the nation, and his speech was followed by a candlelit commemoration and moment of silence.

Here are a couple quotes from President Joe Biden's address:

"We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur or, on the news. We must do so to honor the dead. But, equally important, to care for the living."  

“Let this not be a story of how far we fell, but how far we climbed back up. We can do this,” Biden said.

“This nation will smile again. This nation will know sunny days again. This nation will know joy again and as we do we’ll remember each person we’ve lost, the lives they’ve lived, the loved ones they’ve left behind. We will get through this, I promise you.”

Several news reports offered the following about this grim milestone. More people in the US have died from Covid than in both World Wars and in Vietnam combined.

God bless us all.  Stay safe.  Stay strong and hopeful and get vaccinated as soon as you are able.

Busy Doing Not Much of Anything

 

I had been meaning to write a post every day for the last week. It's on my "to do" list which is sitting on the kitchen table. (It feels so good when you can cross off completed tasks. :-) Anyway, I have no excuse to offer. We have had ice and on again, off again snow, but nothing of consequence for hardy New Englanders. I took Emma out last night about 11:15, and the snow was really coming down. It was silent and absolutely beautiful. We received about six good inches by morning, but that is really just nuisance snow for us. 

Aren't these icicles something! They were from the end of last week. Did you know that Alfred Hitchcock said that an icicle would be the perfect murder weapon? I won't go into details here in case one of my readers happens to be a homicidal maniac quilter or cross stitcher. ;-0 One reason is that the murder weapon won't leave prints and it will evaporate. How it is used I won't say. . .

I'd like to blame my not posting on spending all my time cleaning and sorting things here in the mansion. I'd like to say that my house is spic and span from top to bottom, but that would be a BIG FAT FIB! Have I spent hours practicing the flute? A few. The piano? No. Have I spent hours quilting? No.

Honestly, the only things that I have been doing are reading and cross stitching. This Valentine pillow looks a bit lost and lonely in this dough bowl, but non cross stitchers would be surprised at how long this piece took. The red square alone took perhaps three nights of stitching! 

This long narrow Valentine piece was a freebie pattern offered by The Primitive Hare.

I finished the Suffrage piece that I have been working on, and it is off being framed. As I have written before, if you have any stress in your life (and don't we all during this pandemic,) cross stitching has a pure, calming, meditative quality to it.

I'll try to post more frequently as long as it doesn't interfere with my new pastime. . . attempting to find an appointment for the Covid vaccine. I, along with 999,999 other people in Massachusetts,  became eligible for the vaccine on Thursday. No surprise the state's vaccine registration system crashed. Since then I have been  checking constantly for availability with no luck, but I will keep trying. 

Please have a safe, healthy, creative week. Stay sane.  

____________         ___________________             _____________

God Bless the folks in Texas who are struggling with the effects of a winter storm. They are not equipped to deal with frigid temperatures and snow. Thousands and thousands of people were without power for three to four days. There have been no food deliveries to grocery stores, and the shelves are bare. Pipes in many homes have frozen and burst. The drinking water supply was compromised. Officials said it was and continues to be the worst disaster that the state has dealt with since Hurricane Harvey. Again, God Bless the folks in Texas.

Covid Statistics:

Deaths in the World: 2.46M

Deaths in the United States: 496,000

Deaths in Massachusetts: 15, 726

Snow, Stitching, and Super Bowl LV

 

As the weather folks had predicted, the snow began falling around 11:00 am on Sunday with very large powder puff size snowflakes. Things began to get more serious as the day progressed. Here's Miss Emma on Sunday checking out the snow before briefly venturing out. I spent the afternoon inside cross stitching and watching the pregame programs. 

"Just My Type" is from the Fat Quarter Shop. I love the design and the colors, but the typewriter in the center will be slow to stitch. I made more progress on this piece as the day went on. You will see that I outlined certain sections, so I could easily fill in those sections during the game. Alas, the best of plans went awry. I was enjoying the game and Tom Brady's performance when suddenly the lights went out. The heavy wet snow had evidently brought down a power line somewhere. G'rrrrrrrrr!!! It was a bit into the third quarter when the lights went out. I did have a crank radio from L.L.Bean, and I was able to find a station and hear a play by play. . . not what I wanted, but at least I could hear what was happening. It was funny to hear the announcer describe the action of the man in the pink onesie attempting to streak down the field as if he was a player on the field. :-) :-) :-)

The electricity came back on in the early morning hours, and when I went downstairs to turn off the lights, I settled in to watch the post game highlights which were being repeated. 

Tom Brady won his seventh Super Bowl in twenty years, G.O.A.T. just begins to capture the magnitude of that achievement. It was wonderful to hear some of the veteran players of the Buccaneers who in all their years had not ever even been in a playoff game let alone a Super Bowl . 

So, I end this here where I began. Yes, it is snowing again this afternoon and it is beginning to pile up. It may only be three to six inches, but I don't really care as with this pandemic I am not going anywhere anyway. :-)

Stay safe.

              __________________          ______________________        ___________________

Covid Deaths:

World . . . 2.33M

United States . . . 465,000

Massachusetts . . . 15,054

Valentine Cross Stitch FFOs

The impressive Northeaster that hit yesterday left towns and cities north and west of Boston buried in snow. Lowell won the jackpot with twenty plus inches!!! My area which is south of Boston had very high winds, but we only received three to four slushy inches. Though I love snow, I was happy not to have to do any shoveling this time. In some spots in Massachusetts there was a fifteen degree difference in snowfall between neighboring towns. Incredible!

I spent the day stitching and turning my two latest cross stitch FOs (finished objects) into FFOs (fully finished objects.) I'm not putting out Valentine's Day decoration this year, but I did put these pieces on the  two-tiered tray on my kitchen table.

February 14th, that I made into this small pillow, is a chart by Primrose Cottage Quilts. I also purchased another chart, but that one may not get stitched until next year.

 

 

Valentine Bakery is a chart from the Stitching Housewives on Etsy. Their designs are so much fun. On their floss tube channel, they have shown peeks of some pieces which will soon  be available for  Easter stitching, and they are beyond adorable. Whether you enjoy cross stitching or not, you might enjoy Priscilla's blog where she shows her cross stitching and decorating ideas. 

 

That's it for today. Stay safe and stay well. Have hope.