Queen Stitches are fun!

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to stitch more...a lot more.  After 17 years in the business, 2012 left me feeling pretty burned out, and a few times I felt like packing it in.  But, I am a thinker, and so I thought...I still love needlework.  How could I continue doing what I love?  I'm in the process of re-configuring how I operate my business to make certain aspects of it easier, I'm down-sizing in other areas (I don't want to travel much anymore), and I want to focus more on what I love...reproducing and designing samplers and running the store.

I started the Elizabeth Hudson Sampler (by The Scarlet Letter) a while back...maybe two years ago?  It is a BIG one.  I'm stitching it on 36 count hand-dyed linen in the Au Ver a Soie silks.  There is a TON of over-one (all of that verse).  And some Queen Stitches.  Which I happen to love.  In the picture above, lower right corner, you can see one of my Queen Stitch strawberries.  How fun is that?  I just really enjoy them.

I'm pretty pleased with the progress I'm making so far -- the colors are cheery and bright, and when this one is done, it will be a STUNNER.  And all that red....love it!

Here's what the original sampler looks like -- and yes, I've got the charts at the shop if you want to order one (they're $18.00).  At the bottom, Elizabeth stitched family names...I plan on stitching in my family names to make the sampler really mine.

Just this week, we said good-bye to our last foster kitten of 2012, Magi.  We called her "Little Boopie," "Cookie," and "Sugar Foot."  We took her in to help her get used to humans.  She adjusted really well and is now over at the Southern Pines Animal Shelter's Adoption Center waiting for her new home.  We do miss her -- she'll be a lovely pet for someone, and it was fun to host her for a few weeks.

In the meantime, our cats are LOVING all of the extra attention at home.  So much purring.  So happy happy.  This year, I have promised my family only three fosters (at most) at a time.  I am working with the shelter on a new fostering program to help shift the burden onto other volunteers.  I can't foster them all!

Here's my November's Angel (Raise the Roof Designs).  She was actually really fun to stitch, and I love the golds/browns/dark chocolate.  Just two more angels left to do -- December and January!  I'll have to put a picture up soon of all of these angels in a grouping -- they look so CUTE all together!!!

I hope you are well and happy -- are you getting time to stitch?

New year, new news

Has it been a month since I last posted (Yes, I can hear you saying.  It has.)  Well, hey, if I wasn't so full of Christmas cookies and egg nog (still), I'd wade through the piles of wrapping paper, and ... oh, I don't have the energy.  Sorry for the long delay, and it is good to be back writing.

We are down to, can you believe it, ONE LONELY FOSTER KITTEN.  I counted this week and discovered that we fostered/saved 56 kittens this year (six did not survive, but they did get a lot of love and are sorely missed.)  So, 50 cats got to celebrate Christmas this year, because we opened our home.  I'm not wanting to toot my own horn, but ... TOOT TOOT!!!  We love fostering.

This one lonely foster kitten is Magi, who we call "Boopie," "Sweetie," "Honey," and sometimes "Cookie."  She was surrendered by a community member who found her wandering around in the cold.  She was so nervous of humans, that when you picked her up, she shook like a chihuahua; she didn't try to get away, but she was terrified.  We took her home, picked off the fleas, gave her a bath, and she spent the first week hiding under a bed.  Now she has the run of the house.  What a darling dear.

Super Cat was adopted this last week.  We had him for FOUR months, which could be some kind of record.  He will be a tiny guy -- at four months, he still only weighs about two pounds.  He was adopted by a college-age woman who just lost her elderly (blind) cat at a ripe old age.  She also adopted another cat from the shelter, so "Soup" will have company.  She was accepting of Super Cat's vision deficiencies (especially since she has expertise in this area.)  We are so happy that this little friend of ours found his way to a real home, and out of the way of tough old 'possums.

Jack and his sister Pumpkin (see previous posts) were also adopted.  And Jack was adopted with a fellow shelter-mate, Doe.  Salem, Wolfgang, they were adopted, too.  It was a great year for saving kittens.  This coming year, I will be doing less fostering.  I am currently working with the shelter to organize a better foster care system, so I won't feel like I have to take in so many...but I will take in three at a time.

Here's a new sampler to start the new year.  Some of you collected the parts and pieces to this last year for free by placing orders through me.  But now I'm releasing this pattern to the shops.  It's Elizabeth Milner's Sampler from 1848, and it's a beauty.

My good buddy, Jennifer (see "Jen's Stitching Projects" blog link to the left) finished this sampler lickety-split last year, and she brought it to the shop, so I could share photos with you.  Isn't she an amazing stitcher?

You may notice that old Elizabeth had problems with hitting the brakes...some of her lines continue on outside of her border, which she stitched last.  Jennifer said she had trouble with the verse that says a woman should just shut up and make sandwiches already (essentially), but I told her that it should serve as a reminder to her about how far we've come.  And WHOO can resist cute little owls hiding underneath a big bouquet of flowers...see if you can find 'em.  The charts are printing this week and will retail for $12.00.  You can order them through me, or through your favorite-est needlework shop.

Gift break!  (It was a coffee mug -- this picture was taken at mom and dad's in South Carolina -- I went for a quick visit for New Year's.)

One of the fun things about Christmas this year is that we had someone new to celebrate with -- Christiana!  We have taken to calling her "Cha Cha," and she spent Christmas eve with us watching "It's a Wonderful Life" and then she came back over Christmas afternoon for cookies and such.

What-ta-great-family.  We actually all got up at 6 a.m. on Christmas and went (on Harrison's day off) to the animal shelter to scoop poop and feed everybody, so the staff who had to work could get to their Christmas celebrating earlier.  Instead of a crew of three, the seven of us got about 150 animals or so taken care of in a couple of hours, and we got to see the sun rise.  We came back, showered, opened gifts...then took naps.  Well-deserved naps.

Zero the Amazing was most-enamored with the tree this year.  I took this picture of him as we set up the tree.  He wanted to be the first ornament, I guess.  Climbing through all of those branches made his fur very soft, but we found clumps of him here and there.

I will mention, too, that I'm in the process of reproducing another sampler.  I thought THIS TIME it would be fun to do a surprise.  I own a fantastic sampler (along the lines of some of my bigger ones like Ann Grant, Jane Philpott, Sarah Woodham, etc.) that you HAVE NOT SEEN BEFORE.  I'm 20,000 stitches charted so far, and will soon be sending this to my model stitcher/friend, Kathy.

I don't want to give much away, and I am NOT going to post photographs until it's ready.  I think some surprises are good, don't you?  I will tell you that it's got a fantastic red house, a verse in a very unusual U-shaped border and a few peacocks.  As I get closer to release, I will post a supplies list, so shops and stitchers can get ready.

I promise it won't be such a long time before my next post.  Hope y'all are having a very happy new year.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

This past year or so, one of the new things I've been trying is painting.  My friends and I have taken a few classes over at Painting with a Twist, a chain that specializes in making painting a fun experience by encouraging you to bring a friend and a bottle of wine.  I skip the wine -- painting is fun enough.

My friend, Jennifer, is such a good help at the shop all year, and a great personal confidant and supporter.  She loves Santas, and I painted her this canvas as part of her Christmas present this year.  I love the way he turned out, and he was really fun to do.

Lindy at The Silver Needle was bugging me earlier this year to NOT STOP DESIGNING towards the end of the year.  There typically isn't a lot that comes out during December, so I promised her I'd have a few new releases.  The previous blog post showcased "Christmas is Coming."  Here is "Jolly Joy Jingle," another new release for December.  Jennifer stitched this one for me, and she did an awesome and QUICK job.  The fabric is 32 ct. Swamp by Picture This Plus, and the buttons are by Just Another Button Company, of course.

We're down to just four kittens at home right now.  Birdie (above) is a fantastic little cat.  She's happy, intelligent, independent but loving, well-adjusted, and very pretty.  We had her for around a month.  She was easy to have around, and we were pleased to save her life.

Greyfell was Grasshopper's brother (Grasshopper had to be put to sleep over a month ago due to a digestive system malformation).  We just called him "Grey," and he is earnestly loving and always wanting to be held.  He'll make someone a great lap cat.  He's had his surgery and is going over to PetSmart this afternoon to find his new family.

Yes, Halloween seems like eons ago, even though it's only been six weeks or so.  I was tickled to see the above Halloween display on the Shepherd's Bush web site showcasing a Halloween display.  If you look at the top left corner of the display, you'll see two of my designs...Boo Scurry Yum and the old standard...Witchy Washy.  I always love seeing my pieces in other environments.

I've spent the last week or so with the stomach flu/gastroenteritis.  No, it wasn't food poisoning.  And you'd think after a week of eating almost nothing but Saltine Crackers, oatmeal, rice and bananas that I'd be going INSANE for something like ice cream.  But nothing sounds good, still, and I'm hoping to feel much better in the next few days.  The Internet tells me a good bout of what I've got can last ten days.

Hope y'all are enjoying a fantastic Christmas season so far.  I am getting caught up with preparations, and may brave setting up the tree tonight.  I will have a LOT of wide-eyed cats at home.  And while we look at our pretty glass ornaments...they go back in the storage box.

Christmas is Coming ...

Christmas is Coming, don't you know, and so I have some new news to share with you -- a brand new design by me, and some COOL offerings from Just Another Button Company...but first, a word from the kittens.

"The nice lady made this delicious and (smack) juicy turkey-bird for Thanksgiving, and she cutted it up some and we eat-ed it, and it went into our bellies, and then our eyes got really blinky, and then there was some sunshine, and we collapsed-ed in a pile and we sleeped-ed.  We are growing and happy, and our names are Pumpkin, Jack, Wolfgang, Super Cat and Salem.  Birdie was sleeping somewhere else when the nice lady tooked this picture."

This is a nice shot of Pumpkin with Super Cat and Jack in the background.  Pumpkin is a pretty girl...she had five orange brothers.  We have Jack (who was the runt).  Three of the kittens did not make it, and the other one is in another foster home.  Pumpkin is independent and has a gorgeous round face.  She's smart and VERY soft.

You may remember Super Cat -- his siblings were eaten by a 'possum, and he was the lone survivor of the group.  I took him in about six weeks ago, and he is growing nicely.  But, the vet and I have discovered he is vision-impaired.  We think he has a narrow field of vision and doesn't see detail well.  But he can play with toys and other cats, and he finds his way around the house, sometimes by feeling his way along the walls.  I am hoping to place him directly into his new home without having him go back to the shelter or PetSmart.  If you know anyone who is interested in a VERY sweet and loving cat, let me know.  He is not going to be big, but he is otherwise healthy.  He will need a patient new mom or dad to help him learn his way around a new house.

And I did want to let y'all know that our cat Boo did find a new home with a family with two children. I have been in contact with Boo's new mom, and she is doing fine.  She has a pretty new pink collar, and she got to keep her name.  The family was concerned about Boo wanting to be UNDER blankets, but I told them she LOVES that.  We do miss her, but I get photograph updates from her new family, and they love her!

Here's my new piece: Christmas is Coming.  It's stitched on 35 count Cappuccino linen by Weeks Dye Works (yes, 30 would work just as well) in Weeks Dye Works flosses Linen, Parchment, Havana, Rum Raisin, Bark, Charcoal, Stepping Stone, Bullfrog, Hazelnut, Brick and Kohl.  It uses a button pack from Just Another Button Company, and if you buy the button pack, you get the Figgy Pudding pattern by Cecile at JABCo for free!  Shops and customers may order this chart directly from me, but the distributors will have these in short order.

Cecile designed a kit to go along with the release -- it's Kissing Ball Ornament/Scissor Fob and it retails for $24.00.  You get everything but the cording in the kit.  I want to make one to hang on my tree!!!

This is the Figgy Pudding design, which you can finish as an ornament if you please.  The button pack retails for $7.60, but the chart is free with the purchase of the button pack for Figgy Pudding AND the button pack for Christmas is Coming.  AND, Cecile is gifting my customers the chart for free with ANY purchase from me.  I'll be handing them out until the end of the year with any order.

The Kissing Ball kit comes in Cranberry (as shown further up) and in Snow, shown here.  I love, love, love this kit.  And it was a ton o' fun to work with Cecile, who is such a nice and creative lady.

I'm not done for the year -- I have several new designs that I'm shooting to release next week.  So stay tuned, dear readers.  And have a wonderful weekend.

Grasshopper and a neat old sampler

Grasshopper and his brother, Greyfell, came to us a few weeks ago.  They had been hanging out in the exam room at the shelter...but that's not a healthy place for small kittens, so we took them home.  This little Siamese mix moved right in and showed such a unique personality.  Like a little old man...wise...like an ancient Samurai he would suddenly appear on my lap.  I never heard him or felt him; he would just be there, magically, quiet and calm.

But Grasshopper was having stomach issues.  He had problems using the litter box, and I was having to bathe him every day (which he hated).  But he didn't hold it against me.  He'd just climb back on my lap, or my shoulder, and sit.

His stomach felt lumpy to me, so I took him to the vet, convinced he was constipated.  It turned out he had a malformed digestive system, one that wouldn't allow him to pass waste easily, one that could not be fixed.  The vet and I decided to put him to sleep.  He was under the gas, but they lifted the mask off, so I could talk to him one last time.  I kissed him, told him I loved him, and that I was so sorry.  He's gone now, but he had several weeks with a very loving family and lots of playmates.  I want to say that he would have been a great cat...but in reality, he WAS a great cat.  He just didn't get to be a cat for very long.  (The picture above is the last picture I took of him on my cell phone before we went to the vet, not knowing I was going to have to have him put down.)

Sorry these pictures aren't very clear.  I doctored them up a little, but the originals were low-quality.  But would you look at this sampler!  It's on eBay as of this writing, but only for a couple of more hours.  It's one I've been watching, but I'm afraid it's going to sell for more than it's worth, based on the condition it's in.  It's from 1792 by Isabella Henderson and is English, most likely.  I put a bid in on it a few days back, then called Diane Williams from Little House Needleworks to have her look at it -- she thought it was great.  I told her that I thought the tree and Adam & Eve figures in the middle looked like something she'd design.  But she told me to be careful to not get excited and spend too much.  It's easy to do that with something this unique.

One of the things I really like most about it is that border.  How unusual...an unkempt mess of nature.  It looks like it'd be super-fun to stitch, and although I do not copy pictures like this when I'm designing my own samplers, I do use them as inspiration.  This teaches me that it's okay to mix a variety of flowers and leaves on a border, and leave larger open spaces.  I like that there are different colors in the leaves, on the berries, and the weedy-looking flowers.  Again, that kind of thing is fun to stitch.

Another super-awesome element of this sampler is the over-one bushes to the left and right of Adam & Eve.  The birds are over-one as well, and her name is in an over-one cartouche below the main scene.  The bushes look wild, too -- not too evenly spaced or designed.  Just like nature!

The verse is an old one:

You whose fond wishes do to heaven aspire,
who make those blest abodes your sole desire;
if you are wise, and hope that bliss to gain
use well your time, live not an hour in vain
let not the morrow your vain thoughts employ,
But think this day the last you shall enjoy.

I found a web site that listed the sayings on old gravestones in their churchyard in the UK, and this was listed as the inscription on the stone of Mary Manchester who died in 1811 at the age of 81.  You may have seen this verse before...it usually starts with: "Fragrant the rose, but it fades in time./The violet sweet, but quickly past its prime...."

Anyway, I can't get them all, but this one was special enough that I thought I should share it with you before it goes into someone's private collection.  I so enjoy these "old girls."

Happy Halloween and a story about a real-life angel

This is Salem -- she's our newest foster kitty.  SHE IS SO AWESOME!  Very independent, brave, fuzzy, sassy, and she walks with such attitude.  Two of her siblings (Pugsley and Wednesday) are being fostered by an employee at the shelter.  Salem is MOSTLY fur.  She's going to need a good six weeks to come up to surgery weight, which means she'd make a great Christmas gift for someone...hint, hint.  Want to adopt her?  Let me know!  (Yes, we think she has some Persian in her.)

I'm participating in a community Halloween parade this evening, and will be dressed as a hipster witch. If the weather stays warm, I'm going to take Miss Salem with me, and we're going to throw candy to the kids.  Steve is out of town, but Harrison and Christiana are all enthused, because they love Halloween.  They're coming in costume, too, and I'm going to see if I can talk the shy and reserved Mr. Graham into coming with us as well.

***

Hey, do you believe in angels?  I DO!  Let me tell you kind of a cool story about something that happened to Harrison and me yesterday.

Earlier this year, we paid for my husband's grandmother's car to be transported to Hattiesburg.  She doesn't drive anymore, so the family decided Harrison could have her 20-year-old Ford Taurus, with only 35,000 or so "little old lady" miles on it.  Toots is a dear, and she was happy the car could stay in the family.

He had been driving my 13-year-old Ford Taurus with 135,000 "mom" miles.  We told Harrison's sweet girlfriend that we'd sell her the car, which needs some work, for a song.  The problem was, Harrison had lost the last key to the car a few months back, so yesterday, FINALLY, I called a locksmith to come and make us a new key.  The locksmith is a retired police officer who drove his cool van over to where the car was sitting...and had been sitting all this time.  He made a few keys while I waited in the parking lot (he had a neat little workshop in his van.)  And then he helped me jump the car, as it was dead.  Super-dead.  Like, couldn't-even-pop-the-trunk dead.

Now, as I mentioned, the car needs some work, and we figured the alternator was the first repair needed.  The alternator helps keep the battery charged, so Harrison was having to continually have someone help him jump-start the car.  The car was also nearly out of gas, so as soon as we had a key, and the car was started, we drove over to the closest gas station for some gas.  Harrison shut off the car, put some gas in, then went to re-start it and...nothing!  The silly thing was dead, dead, dead.  Again, again, again.

I went into the convenience store and told the clerks our car was dead and we'd need to run and get some jumper cables.  One woman scowled and said, "You can't just leave your car there blocking the pump!" The other one said, "I think I have jumper cables in my car!" (There are two kinds of people in this world....)  Miss Sunshine went and got us her jumper cables, and we said we'd be right back.

So, we get out to the car, I pull my Rogue around, and I say to Harrison: "Have you ever jump-started a car?" "I've seen it done," he says.  Okay, so, we have no idea what we're doing, and I pull out my iPhone and Google "how to jump start a car" to make sure we didn't blow up the entire block.

I start reading the directions out loud to Harrison, and I'm sure we look like a couple of morons out there trying to figure out which end is the plus-sy end, and which end is the minus-sy end.

Enter: our angel.

"Hi," says a kind-looking man in a stocking cap.  "I'm a such-and-such certified mechanic.  Can I help you?" (I have no idea what kind of certification he was talking about...I am an automotive idiot!)

I tell him, excited now, that we're trying to jump start the car.  He goes back and gets a battery tester from his truck, and as we chat about the condition of the car, he tells me that yes, it sounds like the alternator is dead.  "How about I replace it for you right now," he says.  "I've been sick with the flu all week, and I'm starting to get bored anyway.  Oh, don't worry, I'm not contagious anymore."

He calls the parts shop and has them hold a shiny new alternator for us at his discount.  We pushed the old Taurus to the side and left the mechanic, whose nickname is "ROADSIDE" of all things, to take out the old alternator.

I'll spare you all of this middle stuff, but let me tell you, that sweet man replaced our alternator IN THE PARKING LOT of the gas station IN FRONT OF CAMPUS for the cost of the alternator ($99.00 and tax) and $35.00 for installation.  AND, while we were gone getting the part, he "tightened up a few wires and checked out a few other things" to just kind of look the car over for other problems.

He tells me he works at one of the local dealerships, but he also owns his own little fix-it shop and does everything. ("We even do glass," he says.)  So I ask him about the tune-up Christiana is going to need on the Taurus.  "Oh," he says, "that's fifty bucks and then whatever supplies we need.  You can stand there and watch us fix it and see exactly what we put into it if you like."

So then, I tell him my husband needs something fixed on his 2005 Mustang, a job we had researched and knew would be about $700-$800 at the dealership.  "Oh, yeah," Roadside says, "Those Mustangs have that problem all the time.  That's kind of expensive, because you have to take off the dashboard."

"How much are we talking?" I ask.

"Whew, about $150.00 or so."

I tell him that he is our new mechanic, that he was exactly the angel we needed to run into yesterday.  He writes down his cell phone number for me, and makes sure to give me a receipt for his small fee. ("Don't worry, I report all of this on my taxes," he says.)  We parted ways with a smile and a handshake.

And I feel like I just won a lottery of sorts.  If he hadn't been at that gas station, if Harrison's car hadn't died, if I hadn't waited until YESTERDAY to finally get the whole key situation figured out...we never would have met this capable, experienced, honest and friendly mechanic.  Those guys are worth their weight in gold, don't you think?  He was still hoarse from the flu, but was as pleasant as if he was on vacation at the beach.  He could have ignored us trying to start Harrison's car, but he knew he could help, and so he did.

***

It's situations like this that I am reminded of Matthew 25, specifically:

"For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invited you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?

The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

We have a Christmas ornament that says simply: "Every man shall give as he is able."  I think there are a lot of ways for a person to show spirituality.  I am especially thankful when a person sees someone who needs help and then steps up to get the job done.  What a blessing to live in a world with people like dear Roadside.

Two new graduates

Two more of our dear kittens graduated last week...they went for surgery yesterday, and will soon be up for adoption over at PetSmart.  I thought I'd share pictures, since it's Friday, and don't we all need a good smile?

Twee came in the shelter one Saturday with two brothers and a sister.  The brothers were big enough to stay, but the sisters needed help...quickly...and I just happened to be standing there when they came in. Twee has a really unusual coat -- almost raccoon-like on her body.  She's very independent, but gentle, and I'm happy that we could help.

Above is Leia, Twee's sister.  I don't know what it is about her face, but to me, I always felt like when I looked at her, I was looking at a person.  She's very serene and has fur soft like a rabbit's.  She's a beauty, and she'll make someone a wonderful pet.

And while I was at The Salty Yarns last weekend, Harrison texted me from the shelter to ask if he could bring three more home.  They're very cute, he said.  Above is Carrie.  Um.  She's ridiculously-cute.  And wouldn't you know it, she has the personality to match.  Very bouncy, sweet, and she peeps all the time like a little bird.  Some friends are coming over tomorrow night for drinks, and they are looking for a new cat.  I texted them a picture of dear Carrie, and I think they may be going home with her.

Carrie has two siblings -- Ash and Marion.  Oh, and then Birdie, Grasshopper and Greyfell came home this week, too.  It's a never-ending rotation, but I will say that the kitten cottage right now is at about half-capacity, since things are slowing down.  Super Cat is doing well -- eating food and using the litter box like a big boy.  Han Solo and Chewbacca go for surgery next week.  We've had those two FOREVER.  Steve is so good to put up with my crazy need to help our feline friends.  I'll post more pictures soon.