Incoherent Scribblings

Tagged Again

Ash tagged me for the book meme that is making the rounds. You can read it over on my main blog!

Oh No! Another Book Meme!

I’ve been tagged by Ashleigh…

1. Total number of books I’ve owned.

   The only person that could possibly answer this question with a definite number is someone who doesn’t like to read. And that, my friends, ain’t me!

2. Last book I bought.

   The last three books (because I never just buy one book at a time) I “bought” I actually got on trade. They are: Summer Sisters by Judy Blume, Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper, and Blood Roots by Richie Tankersly Cusick.

3. The last book I read.

   The last book I finished was Meridon, the third book in the Wideacre Triology by Philippa Gregory. I am currently about half way through The Other Boylen Girl, also by Gregory.

4. 5 books that mean a lot to me.

   The Heaven series by V.C. Andrews. I read these books as a teen and had such sympathy for the heroine, Heaven. I had a crush on Troy, her true love (and unfortunately, her uncle). I have read them over and over since I was a teen and while I recognize now that they aren’t “great” literature, they still have a special place in my heart.

   The Pokey Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey. My grandma and I used to read this Little Golden Book together all the time when I was a little kid. I currently don’t have a copy of it, but someday would love to get one. (Hint, Hint, Mom!!)

   The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. When I read this book for the first time, I really discovered “classic literature.” As a direct result of it (and a few others I read in my high school literature class) I decided I should major in English in college.

   Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. My favorite book of all time. I loved the sweeping saga of the Civil War, admired Scarlett, and lusted after Rhett. This book fueled my desire to live in the American South. Of course, once I got there, I found it hot and humid and the southern “gentlemen” were WAY too conservative for my taste. (Not to mention none of them looked or acted like Rhett Butler!)

   Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. This is not my favorite Anne Rice book, but the first one that I read. After I read it, I devoured all her other books and she became, without doubt, my favorite author. I say, without embarrassment, that I see true literature full of symbolism and meaning underneath what others consider pop horror fiction. After all, remember authors like Dickens and Austen were the Anne Rice’s of their day!

5. Which 5 people would you most like to see fill this out in their blog?

   I am not going to tag anybody for this meme. However, if any of my readers fill it out, leave me a comment.

Star Wars Mania

I’m not sure I would say that I have been a Star Wars fan ever since the original Star Wars (aka Episode IV: A New Hope) was released. After all, when it was released in 1977, I was only three. I didn’t even see a Star Wars movie in the theatre until The Return of the Jedi. However, by the time the final installment of the first trilogy was released, I was a full-blown fan.

I was just a little kid and was of course, very susceptible to media influence and technically it probably did have something to do with it. However, did I become a Star Wars fan because I had Princess Leia Underoos, because I had a Star Wars lunchbox, or because of the Star Wars toys that I faithfully fished out of cereal boxes?

Actually, no. I became a Star Wars fan as a direct result of my cousins Scott and Jeremy.

The summer before Return of the Jedi was released, I spent three glorious weeks visiting my cousins. In 1982, Amy was a teenager and Matt was just a toddler; but at 9, Scott was only a year older than me and at 12, Jeremy wasn’t yet too big to play with Scott and me.

Though I was never a traditional tomboy, I was never overly “girly” either. During those three weeks Scott, Jeremy, and I were inseparable. We spent some time outdoors playing baseball or running through the sprinklers, but we spent most of those warm summer days in the cool basement rec-room playing “Star Wars.”

Scott and Jeremy had been bitten hard by the “Star Wars” bug and had nearly all of the action figures. They had a ping pong table and two or three card tables set up in the rec-room that had been converted into different Star Wars scenes. They had the “Millennium Falcon,” Luke’s red space ship, and Darth Vader’s fighter pod… all of which could be opened up and the action figures set inside.

It was grand. Jeremy was the “Dark Side” and Scott and I were Luke and Leia. They had seen the movies so many times that they could recite the dialog. In the days before the Internet, they still knew amazing details about the new movie that was still nearly a year away. By the end of my stay, I too felt like I had seen the first two movies at least 10 times.

I suppose I was smitten with my older cousins, for we wrote letters back and forth all that summer and I remember that I suddenly was interested in things that had never before appealed to me. When asked what it was all about, I remember telling my mom that was what Scott and Jeremy did or said.

And of course, the greatest impression they left on me was the love of all things Star Wars, even though I had yet to see any of the movies. Those Underoos, that lunchbox, and those toys that came from the cereal boxes? None of those came into my possession until after my visit to my cousins’.

Every year my cousins came to visit my grandparents over Memorial Day weekend and almost exactly one year after I had been introduced to Star Wars by my cousins, they took me to the theatre with them where I saw Return of the Jedi for the first time. And yes, I have been a Star Wars fan ever since.

How Many Strands?

Since today is Wednesday, it is time for a new Stitching Blogger’s Question, and it is…

How many strands of floss to you prefer to stitch with? Why?

As for myself, I prefer two strands of floss as a general rule. Normally I work on 28 or 32 count Evenweave (or occasionally 14 count Aida) and I think two strands provides enough coverage. In addition to that, I recently started using the “loop” method to start my floss and that can’t be done if you need an odd number of threads.
I have experimented with how many strands of floss I stitch with though.

Last fall, for example, I tried using three strands on a baby sampler that I did for a friend. The fabric was 25 count and I initially thought that two strands wouldn’t give me enough coverage. Three strands did provide full coverage, but I didn’t really like the way it turned out. I felt that the thread was too bulky, it knotted up too easily, and overall I had a rough time stitching with it because I couldn’t get it to lie straight on the fabric. Since then I have used two strands on 25 count and, in my opinion, it looks fine. (See the baby sampler here!)

I also tried stitching with only one strand of floss when last summer I did a kit that came with 14 count Aida printed cloth that called for only using one strand of thread. I was a little skeptical of it at first, but the piece turned out really nice and has a very delicate look. (See “Delicate Dragonflies” here!)

I think that the only time now that I would use more than two strands would be on something big like 10 or 11 count Aida cloth, but I would probably use four strands instead of three so I could “loop” it.

However, I think each piece is unique and the fabric, a person’s stitching style, and the floss itself are always important factors that must be considered when choosing how many strands of floss to stitch with.

So-So Weekend

We had a long weekend here in Germany and though I stitched through most of it, it was not, in my opinion, one of my best stitching weekends.

First, my weekend stitching disappointments:

I started that Petit Point project on Thursday and finished it on Saturday. I really liked it. It was very *petit* and I found it to be challenging. I loved the way it looked and along with the “continental stitch,” loved the way it felt. However, one-over on 27 count starts to get hard on the eyes after a while and I think that I stitched on it Thursday and Friday evenings long after I should have stopped.

Then when I was finished, instead of framing it as originally planned, I decided to make it into a needlecase. Unfortunately, that was my undoing. When I washed it, the reds in the little ladybugs bled onto the fabric and surrounding floss. (I think I have a bad dye lot. I bought some red to replace that skein today). It wasn’t that noticeable at first. But then I trimmed the fabric for the needlecase too small and decided to make a sachet out of it. Because it was all bunched up, I dampened the fabric so I could iron it. The red bled again, almost completely ruining my work. I was frustrated to tears and put it in drawer because I couldn’t bear to look at it, let alone blog about it!

I do think that design is perfect for a needlecase though, so I am going to try and do it again sometime in the near future.

I also worked on “Kitten and Hummingbirds” for my EMS RR. I was (and still am) excited about this RR, but for some reason I am not really enjoying stitching the pattern that I chose. I got about 45% done with the square and just couldn’t work on it anymore. Luckily, the posting date isn’t until June 10, so I will get back to it later.

Now, my weekend stitching enjoyments:

A week or so ago, I ordered Ellen Maurer-Stroh’s three newest “Babies in Costumes” designs. They are called “Little Stitch Devils.” There are three of them; one with a thimble (my favorite), one with a tape measure, and one with scissors. They are so cute and I just couldn’t resist them, so I started stitching them last night. They are actually three separate patterns, but I am stitching them all together on one piece of 27 count Linda. I haven’t gotten too far into them yet, as I had to make a floss run today.

On Friday, I got a call from the framer’s telling me that “Girl’s Time Out” was finished. Since yesterday was a holiday in Germany, I didn’t get a chance to pick her up until today. Even though I have been stitching since 1999, this is my first professionally framed piece and I admit I was a little nervous… especially since the framer is more of a yuppie-art kind of framer than a cross-stitch framer, but I was surprisingly pleased with the way it turned out.

I probably paid too much for it, but it looks so great! I am planning to give it to my mom someday. Originally, I was going to send it to her (in America), but after what I paid and how great it looks, I have to say that I am reluctant to do so. Therefore, while “Girl’s Time Out” is technically for her, I am holding it for ransom on my wall until she comes to Germany to pick it up herself!