Incoherent Scribblings

Exchanges and Round Robins

This weekend was devoted to exchanges and round robins and this is how everything that I did stitching-wise sums up:

1.) Halloween Exchange

I finished my Halloween Exchange this weekend and it turned out really well if I do say so myself.

I have decided to set myself a “finishing challenge” for each exchange piece that I do and the challenge for the Halloween Exchange was to add cording. I played around making my own cord, but on Friday when I was in the craft store to pick up some floss I found some pre-made cord that I decided would work better. I spent the better part of two hours last night learning the secrets of invisibly attaching a cord and at the end I also threw caution to the wind and decided to add a tassel too. (Hope that isn’t too much “secret” information!)

I have had a lot of fun with this exchange even though I had some difficulty choosing a pattern at first and I had that backstitching issue a week or so ago (which I resolved by using dark brown instead of gray). I enjoyed doing the stitching of course, but I am finding the finishing almost more enjoyable since I am learning all these new finishing techniques. I can’t wait to hear XXX’s reaction when she finally gets my exchange piece. And of course I can’t wait to get mine!
2.) The Headless Dragon

I volunteered at the English Language Library last Friday and because I didn’t see a soul all afternoon I got roughly two more hours of stitching done on Dawn’s Dragon RR; even though I still haven’t seen fit to give him a head!

I am getting precariously close to being in dire need of my Kreinik though. This dragon calls for two colors of Kreinik and when I ordered them a couple of weeks ago, one color was back-ordered. Luckily the post date isn’t until November 1st, so I still have a couple of weeks before I will get desperate. (You can see progress pics of my Water Dragon in my gallery!)

3.) Stitching Blogger’s Seasonal RR

The first post date of the Stitching Blogger’s Seasonal RR is now just a little over six weeks away and my tentative goal is to start stitching on it around October 1st… so I guess I better decide on my patterns pretty soon!

Originally I was going to do a four seasons pattern that I have had in my stash since I first started stitching, but I don’t think I will do it now. The design just really isn’t “me” anymore. I was then contemplating a “Four Seasons Cats” design by Donna Vermillion Giampa that I bought a couple of weeks ago, but the problem is I want to stitch all four of those little kitties myself! Now today I have seriously been considering Passione Ricamo’s “Four Seasons Topiaries,” but I still haven’t made a concrete decision… maybe tomorrow!

4.) Birthday Exchange

Because I couldn’t make up my mind about the Stitching Blogger’s Seasonal RR today, I started thinking about my next exchange piece which is for the birthday exchange that I am in with Dawn (whose birthday is first on November 15), Melissa, and Cathy.

The first person on the list is Dawn and since she is my best friend, choosing a piece for her was easy since I know her so well. Luckily I had everything I needed for it on hand, so I started it this afternoon. The only clue she is going to get is that I have decided to stitch it on the lavender fabric that I personally hand-dyed a few months ago and that I am already a quarter of the way finished with it.

All in all, I had a pretty productive stitching weekend and feel like I made up for the non-stitching days that I had earlier in the week. Now, I guess I better put my needles away and go do my homework!

Domestic Disasters – The Comforter

It all started on Thursday evening about 9:30 p.m. I went into the bedroom and proceeded to hang up a small pile of clothes that was on the bed. It consisted of my bathrobe, A.’s raincoat, and the jeans that I had been wearing earlier in the day. I folded the jeans and put them in the closet.

I then picked up the raincoat and as I put it on the hanger I noticed that the sleeve was wet. This was interesting because it hadn’t rained at all that day. Suspicious, I brought the sleeve a little closer to my nose and discovered the distinctive scent of cat urine. Reluctantly I turned around and, as I feared, I was greeted by a large wet spot on the comforter.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that not only was my robe also damp, the jeans that I had just put into the closet (on top of all my other clean jeans) had not escaped a dousing either. It was nearly 10:00 p.m. and I had no choice but to do a load of laundry. I grumbled a lot because starting a load of laundry at 10:00 p.m. that will take two and half hours to wash is a pain when you want to go to bed around 11:00, but I could deal with that…

However, it gets better, because after all, this Germany and things are never as easy as they seem!

Read the rest…

There’s One in Every Class

Today I had a pretty shitty day. Perhaps I am hormonally imbalanced, (it has been known to happen from time to time) but I think a lot of it has to do with my new class and one person in particular.

A couple weeks ago I was complaining that my class was too small and I was tired of doing all of the homework. Well, this week we got a new teacher (he is a bit unconventional, but I don’t have any problems with that) and 7 new people joined our class. This made me happy because I no longer felt like the full responsibility of class participation was on my shoulders. However, sometimes I feel like I am the only one that knows what is going on and one of the new people in particular (let’s call her Olga) is really trying my patience!

Our class evolved from a simple Mittlestufe III class to a TestDaF Preperation course. This was done because all of the people in my earlier class are planning to take TestDaF and the school was planning on offering such a preparation class anyway. At this stage, technically we are supposed have learned all the German grammar that we need to know to pass the TestDaF. That isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be practicing it, but learning grammar should no longer be the issue. Well, Olga was bitching about the fact that we had spent two days doing reading understanding but hadn’t done any grammar exercises so that we could learn grammar.

Personally I wasn’t complaining that those silly fill in the blank grammar exercises had been abandoned in favor of reading understanding. I find that one of the best ways for me to really understand the grammar is to see it in the context of something that I am reading. And besides, reading understanding is a HUGE part of TestDaF and though Olga acted like she understood everything we were reading, when it came down to discussing it, it was obvious that she had no clue!

And then another person in the class was having a hard time understanding why a physically disabled person could not participate in ballet. (Don’t ask; it was a weird exercise.) The problem was that he did not understand the German word for ballet (which incidentally is Ballett; I have no idea what it is in his language). Therefore the teacher was trying to explain concept of ballet to him so he would understand why a physically handicapped person could probably not do it. (This involved me modeling the five ballet positions because apparently I was the only one in the class that had taken ballet lessons.)

Now the teacher probably took a little longer explaining than necessary, but the important thing is that eventually the guy understood it. However, at the break Olga had a fit that the teacher took so longer explaining a concept that “everyone” should know.

Take Olga’s smugness, add a headache, and simmer for five hours and the result is an officially crappy day for the blondelibrarian. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to bed where I have officially declared a dumb-bitch-free zone.

Special Challenges

Bah! I haven’t had much time for stitching this week. I started the finishing on my Halloween exchange on Monday, but school has really been tiring me out this week and I haven’t had enough ambition to pick up a needle. Oh well, I guess a little break is good every now and again. But anyway, enough whining… on the SBQ! (Which was so kindly suggested this week by Carol.)

What is the most challenging specialty stitch you have ever stitched?

I haven’t actually tackled too many specialty stitches: I am attracted to them, as I think they add an extra, advanced-looking flair to stitching, but I rarely get around to actually learning and stitching them.

That being said however, I did do some Hardanger a few months ago and learned the basics. Of the ones that I learned when I did those pieces, the most challenging were the dove’s eyes. I think the reason they were the most challenging was because the diagram that I used wasn’t very clear. After a few frustrating attempts with the first diagram, I found a different one and using it, the following dove’s eyes turned out much better.

Needleroll Exchange

Today I got an email from Becky letting me know that she received the needleroll that I stitched for her and that she loves it. I am so glad that she likes it and that I can finally show it off!
In the beginning, I had a very generic design picked out for my needleroll partner that I am sure that Becky would have also liked. However, when I was originally looking through my patterns in an effort to find something for the needleroll exchange, I came across a German cross stitch magazine I had bought some time ago and took note of the fact that it had some cute little bee designs in it. At that time I thought to myself that since Becky has a passion for bees/beehives if I ever got her as an exchange partner I would have to stitch one (or more) of the designs for her.

Therefore when I received Becky’s name for the NR Exchange I started planning a needleroll that would incorporate the designs from that German magazine. The first “band” is bees and a beehive in a field of flowers, the second band consists of a beehive, bees, and a jar of honey, and the third band is made up of bees and a spilled jar of honey. I also wanted to add some wording: Specifically I thought it would be neat if for each of the three major themes (bee, beehive, and honey) I also included the German words. So in the end I divided each band up by stitching the English word and then following it with the appropriate German word.

You can see a larger, more detailed picture of the NR before it was finished here.

I mentioned a few days ago that Becky’s needleroll ended up a little larger than is the norm for a needleroll, but with all the ideas I had, the thing just kept growing and growing! I must reiterate that I am very happy that she likes it because I had a wonderful time stitching it.