Ancient History

A month ago I was digging in one of my MANY bags, hunting for a pattern that someone asked me about, and I found a FEW cross-stitch WIPs. Since I was just putting the finishing touches on my new pattern, Mary Bagley, I decided to pull a few of them out and work on them. Ellen Birdseye by The Goode Huswife, pictured above, was one of the WIPs. I think I started it in the late 1990's!!! Well, it's done now and ready to be framed. Another WIP was The Mustard Door by the Goode Huswife, which actually was done, but the framing wasn't finished. So, that is now done and it's up on the wall, next to a lovely fraktur.

And finally, no longer a WIP, is a Sheepish Designs piece entitled, Time Has Wings. As I completed it last week, the message became so personal. Two of my family members are dealing with serious health issues and TIME has definitely been an issue. Hopefully, I'll have a little more time to hunt up a few more WIPs and get them done!

Antiquarian Book Fair

A few weekends ago, I went over to St. Petersburg to attend an Antiquarian Book Fair. My Mother-in-Law had been to this annual event many times, but she didn't want to make the trip by herself. So, my husband and I decided to drive her over and make a weekend out of it. We've been to Tampa many times, but never to St. Petersburg. I have been to St. Petersburg Beach, but that's further west. We drove across the state in the rain on that Friday and the weather cleared up just as we hit the Book Fair for the opening night.

The event was held in an older Deco-style building near the downtown area. I loved the Women's room, which was done in black and white tile and small hexagon tiles on the floor. It reminded me of the bathroom in Grand Central Station - from years ago.

The vendor area was fully decorated and it was nice that it wasn't that crowded. We enjoyed looking through the booths of books, maps and some prints.

I loved seeing the children's books and the first booth I stopped in had a copy of  "Strawberry Girl" by Lois Lenski prominently displayed and for sale for several hundred dollars. I remember reading it when I was in grade school. I recalled that I read a lot of Lois Lenski's books, but I particularly remember that one because it inspired me to plant my own strawberry patch when I was 11 or 12. Of course that copy didn't come home with me, but I did get it from the library last week to re-read.

We went back to the Fair on Saturday morning to check out the booths we didn't get to on Friday night. Since my husband's mantra the whole drive over was, "We are not bringing anything home!" My MIL and I had been calibrated and only ended up buying one book each and my husband did agree to buying one book as a Christmas present. We were clearly restrained!!!

The rest of Saturday we spent driving around the downtown area and then visiting a very nice nature preserve that was around a large lake just south of downtown. On Sunday we headed back across the state and stopped in Arcadia for an hour or so. Just off the major route, in the historical area, are two-three blocks of antique shops. My MIL and I were able to get through a number of shops before we were ushered back to the car to resume the trip home. I'll have to try to get back there sometime because there were lots of shops and STUFF to see.

Here is my Classic Elite Yarn Knit Along project. Kind of looks just. . . BLUE. But I think I'd mentioned that I'd post my progress. I've got a few more inches to knit on the body and then I'll start on one of the sleeves. There is double moss stitch around the neck and a front button placket is also done in double moss stitch. It's been a fun project so far.

Winter Visitor

Our Winter resident Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is back and still working on the Turkey Oak, which in years past he's done a number on. Rows and rows of little holes up and down the trunk and branches of this tree in our backyard. A very ambitious fellow, but kind of hard to see - right in the middle of the picture.

I've been a bit ambitious myself in the past few weeks. With the cold snaps we've been having, I decided that I needed to finish stitching down the binding of my latest quilt so I could USE it! My "Big Print Pazazz" was not done in big prints, but in Bali fabrics I liked - 2 yard cut strips going wide to thin one way and thin to wide the other way across. Pretty simple and it helped to get me back into sewing a bit last year. I added in a few of the light thin strips to make the top wider. It has a Bali green backing - one of their 108" wide fabrics. I had it machine quilted with loops and leaves at the Olde Green Cupboard in December. The binding was put on at the end of January and I've have been working on hand stitching it down off and on since then. It's done now, except I do need to make a label for it.

The quilting is hard to see, but it's there and it's lovely.

Otherwise, I've been knitting - working on a Knit Along sweater that the Local Needle is doing. I'm using the Classic Elite yarn that the pattern calls for, Soltice, which is mostly an organic cotton. Love the yarn - nice and soft. The sweater is knit from the top down - something new for me - but the pattern is pretty clear if you pay careful attention! I didn't even notice that the pattern was labeled as "Experienced" until I had most of the yoke done. Good thing that I AM experienced, since I can't exactly breeze on up to the shop to get help or ask questions (the shop is 4+hours away). I'll try to get a picture up of this WIP soon.

With the chilly weather, Cayenne and Little Eddie have been somewhat confined to quarters - driving me crazy! One day I actually had to get in my car and leave to get some peace. They have been rather hesitant to go flying out the back sliding door onto the porch and be faced with the cold of 40 degrees. But usually by the afternoon, with the sun on part of the porch, they've been braving it. I'll leave you with a picture of them in "alert mode". What's out there in OUR backyard? Hopefully no burmese pythons passing through!

Now I Know

my ABC's. Here's my FINISHED freebie of the recent Blackbird Designs piece. I started it Friday night and then stitched all afternoon Saturday, while watching the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch marathon in memory of Captain Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie. In between, of course, I checked out the Nationwide Race at Fontana, CA, but Danica Patrick was driving around in the back of the pack, so I was only partly paying attention.
Love the thread colors in this piece (WDW Red Rocks and Terra Cotta) and I worked it on a scrap of 32 ct. Lakeside Vintage Buttercream (at least that's my guess). While I was stitching it, I thought I'd perhaps use it to make a needle case with some repro fabric, but when I went to THE ROOM to look at the fabric possibilities, I came across a Primitive Traditions frame that fit the piece perfectly. So the decision was made!

A Tisket, A Tasket,

A little blue/green basket! I forgot all about this piece that I made last month. At the January rug camp, we were able to take a class with Kay Kjeldgaard of Kay's Crafts to make her 5" Snippet Basket. It's a Nantucket-style basket. Since our class was only 2 hours long, and this was really a 4 hour class, she thankfully prepped each piece by gluing in the spokes and starting the cane weavers. Some of us still had some issues with the spokes popping out, but after some glue and patience, we were good to go. I got most of my basket woven during the class, but had to finish it off, with guidance, the next day. The cane was dyed, so the interior has the more solid side where the dye totally took, and the outside of the basket is more mottled, where the dye took here and there.

It has a nice wooden bottom, into which a wonderful little piece of scrimshaw was inserted. Since I already have another of her baskets with a rug hooking hook scrimshaw piece, I chose a lighthouse. This basket is now on my sewing table next to my machine and is used for thread snippets and trimmed fabric pieces. Love it!

Well, since we are on the subject of baskets. . . . . Here's a few pictures of my REALLY favorite type of basket. A basket full of garlic knots from one of my local restaurants. These "evil" knots are made from pizza dough and covered in a mixture of olive oil, garlic, and parmesan cheese. YUM! They are rather hard to come by this month, because the area is swarming with snowbirds and tourists. Waiting lists for restaurants and no parking - the downside of life in South Florida in the "Winter".

 

From: My Collection

Happy Valentine's Day to all! This is one of my vintage valentines (signed on the back by a young Walter) and a great "find" for me - a lamb AND a bee and beehive!!! WeeOOOOO! Hope all you Honey-Lambs have a wonderful day and get to spend time doing whatever you want! Me? I'll be watching the Daytona 500 and maybe knitting a bit during the commercials. Have fun!

The Shadow Knows!

Happy Groundhog's Day! Punxsutawney Phil was up and out this a.m. seeing his shadow and indicating 6 more weeks of Winter. Here are my two household 'hogs' who are also seeing their shadows - not the early risers like Phil however.

And of course, NO ONE roams around here without the strict supervision of the Canine Patrol, headed by Officer Cayenne! Who are these guys? And why are they looking at shadows? Move along please. Even though more Winter is predicted (it's in the 70's here???), I've already seen several butterflies. The cats are huge Butterfly hunters while on the screened porch - running back and forth to follow their flight through the backyard! Yesterday I saw a gorgeous moth emerging. I say moth, because it's body was large and antennae were furry. Nothing as delicate as a butterfly. Earlier in the day, it was on the screen of the porch and I thought it was a large beetle-type bug. Later I noticed it was not. Unfortunately, between it's lower back wing that didn't seem to be fully functional and the drizzling rain, it was not having a good day. I'll have to keep an eye out for more of these guys - just gorgeous.

And here's a final critter - from an ad that a friend sent me. No, he's not a groundhog, but surely a relative. Those are little chain saws as his teeth! Rather appropriate for the boy.

And speaking of SEASONS, the countdown has begun and it's only a few more days now until the Bud Shootout and Speedweeks, culminating in the Daytona 500 and the beginning of the 2010 NASCAR racing season. AHHHHHH. . . . lots of Sunday afternoons of watching races and stitching, knitting, and possibly rug hooking!!! My kind of season!