No Retreat for Me

 

I should be on my way to Maine right now to attend a cross stitching retreat in Augusta. My bag had been packed, my cross stitch pieces packed, and Emma’s bag had been packed for a stay at her home away  from home. (I’m blessed to have friends whom Emma loves and who welcome her when I go away.) My plan was to leave this morning and take my time heading up the coast. I was going to stop at Portland Head Light to do some photography. Unfortunately, a foot issue will keep me from attending. As you know if you follow my blog, because of a foot issue, I recently had to cancel attending a guild quilting retreat on the Cape. Things had been healing well, and I was really looking forward to this retreat, but it was not to be. Yesterday there was a problem which means no retreat for me. Yes, I will be off my foot again for at least a week until an infection clears and things heal once again. :-(

I’m super grateful that it happened while I was home and not while I was away. So, it means time again to just sit and stitch and read. I had preordered and received yesterday Doris Kearns Goodwin’s new book An Unfinished Love Story - A Personal History of the 1960s, which I know will be a fascinating read. 

I’m also grateful that I had a visit with my cousin Kristin and her girls (the Ladies Lunch group) on Tuesday. It was a perfect day for outdoor dining and our destination was Tony’s along Wollaston Beach. Tony’s is the place if you love lobster rolls which I do, but the other day I was in the mood for a whole belly fried clam plate . . . Yum! Yum! Yum! 

The cross stitch piece above by designer Priscilla Blain of Stitching with the Housewives was completed last year, but I wasn’t crazy about how I had finished it. When I saw this display piece on the Paisleys and Polka Dots website, I knew it would be perfect for this piece. Paisleys and Polka Dots sells kits that you paint and then assemble. I glued a magnet to the wood  piece and a washer on the back of the cross stitch, so that I will be able to use it to display other pieces.

Lastly, here’s a look at the table mat that I had made for the retreat. The small green wool square is where I could park my needle and next to it is a place for my scissors. The little Campbell Kids lunch box was a thrifting find, and it contains my other stitching accessories. 

Well, that’s it. I have a jigsaw puzzle on the sunporch, and if it isn’t too cool, I may work on it for a while. Sit, stitch, read, puzzle . . . decisions . .  decisions . . . decisions. :-)

Two More Cross Stitch Ornaments

On this the eve of Christmas Eve, I thought that I would show you two more ornaments fully finished today and added to my cross stitch tree.  This sweetie is “Skate with Mrs. Claus” from Stitching with the Housewives - Round About Series. Priscilla Blain’s designs are always fun to stitch. (Priscilla and her daughter Chelsea have a shop on Etsy where you may see all of their designs, and they are, of course, available at your local needlework shop if you are lucky enough to have one.) 

Another favorite designer is Cathy Habermann of Hands on Design. This chart is part of her Polar Plunge series and is called Polar Bear Peek. I’m currently stitching another design in the series. This piece is finished on an ornament backing board from 141Design Company. Both “Hands on Design” and “Stitching with the Housewives” have very fun, entertaining flosstubes on Youtube.

At this point, I would have liked to show you a third ornament which was stitched about this same time last year. The finishing of that piece would have been a bit more challenging, so I put it away in a safe place until I had more time. Okay . . . I know . . .  you are a step ahead of me . . .  Yup, I have absolutely no idea where that safe place is with my unfinished piece. ;-(  When and if it turns up, I’ll finish it and tuck it in my ornament box.  That’s the trouble with safe places; they always seem perfectly reasonable and safe when you first tuck items away. :-)

Moving on . . .

 If you enjoy online projects, you may want to check out SAHRR 2024. You will find all the information “Announcing the SAHRR2024” at Quilting Gail. SAHRR stands for Stay at Home Round Robin. I participated last year and plan to do so again this year. This was my 2023 project which I made into a wheelchair quilt for a veteran.

You may make a project of any type or size and how you interpret the steps and what you do is all up to you . . . definitely my type of project. 

Earlier this month, I dropped off a box of items at a local thrift shop. Entering I kept repeating, don’t look, don’t buy anything, don’t bring anything home.  It didn’t work as this charming Pfalsgraff little house is now sitting on my dining room table. So, from our house to your house, Emma and I wish you all the happiest of holidays.

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!!! 

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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.