Incoherent Scribblings

Wind of Change

At last I feel ready to share the reason that this blog has been so quiet for the past few months.

After many months of unhappiness, A. and I have decided to go our separate ways. This decision was not an easy one to make as A. and I still deeply care out each other, but unfortunately we just feel that we can no longer live together. As you can imagine, this development has caused me to spend many hours soul searching and, as a result, I have come to conclusion that it is time for me to repatriate.

Since I am planning on leaving Germany and moving back to the United States within the next couple of months, obviously the focus and title of this blog will change. However, as I have really enjoyed sharing my “culture shock” stories with you and plan on blogging my way through these changes in my life, I do hope that you will stay tuned for my “reentry shock” stories and whatever else may follow.

Stitching for Sanity

As I mentioned the other day, this past week was sort of chaotic. And though I didn’t spend as many hours stitching this week as I normally do, I think if I hadn’t spent at least some time stitching I would probably typing this from the funny farm.
Consequently, in an attempt to save my sanity through cross stitch, I managed to make slow but steady progress on almost all of my WIPs last week. I made some solid progress on “Above the Clouds,” “Fairy Flora,” and “Home of a Needleworker.” I completed roughly half of Mary’s ruffle on Tuesday and on Wednesday I happily realized that I am nearing the end of the cross stitching on my Spring Cat. Today was my exchange and round robin day and as you can see, I worked some on Leslie’s RR. (You can see the progress on my other pieces in my gallery.)

I had every intention of continuing my rotation Saturday and working on “Celtic Spring,” but I was out and about all day. Then when I finally did get home all I wanted was to soak in a bubble bath, so Mae was neglected for yet another week.

Saturday is always a day when I may or may not get much stitching done and, as a result, my progress on “Celtic Spring” has been sort of hit or miss the last couple of months. I am not too troubled by my recent lack of progress on “Celtic Spring” though: I have decided that once “Catch the Wind” is done I will slide “Celtic Spring” into my Tuesday spot and designate Saturdays as Stitcher’s Choice Day.

And now in exchange news… I have some good and not so good news on that front. The good news is that Nicki received her Summer Exchange from me safe and sound, so now I can share a picture. The pattern is a Janlynn freebie full of bright summery colors that I stitched on a piece of Dawn’s hand-dyed fabric. I love, love, love the way this turned out and some day when I have time (say around the year 2050) I intend to make it for myself.

However, on the flip side I learned the other day that I will have to make replacement piece for the Recipe Exchange. Replacement piece, you say? What happened?

Well, my recipe exchange package reached its recipient (Christine) in an amazing four days from Germany to Canada. This in and of itself would have been wonderful except Christine got a surprise that she wasn’t expecting when she opened the package: It was empty!

No, I did not send the package to her that way! Apparently someone decided to take the exchange but send on the empty envelope. Needless to say both Christine and I were shocked about this development. And though I am somewhat angry that someone would steal the contents of a package but send on the envelope, I have to admit I also think the situation is slightly amusing.

I have started the replacement piece and hope to finish it up this week. Christine said it would be OK if I waited to mail the Recipe Exchange until I mail her Leslie’s RR in a couple of weeks, but I would really like to try and get the replacement stitched up and sent to her before that if possible.

So that’s all for this late night edition of “Stitched with Love and Cat Hair.” Good night.

Better Late than Never

Sorry I am so obscenely late with this week’s SBQ, but it has been kind of crazy around here this week. I have tried to sit down and post this numerous times, but every single time something has sidetracked me! Be that as it may, here is this week’s SBQ as suggested by Cathy:

When you get a project professionally framed do you get glass inserted into the frame? Why or why not?

So far I have only had one piece professionally framed and I didn’t get any glass in it. When I took the piece to be framed I knew that professional framing was going to be expensive, but I wasn’t really prepared for how expensive it ended up. Simply put, leaving out the glass saved me a few Euros.

Will I get glass inserted into the frame when I get another piece professionally framed? Honestly, I am not sure. I suppose glass protects the piece to a certain extent, but it seems to me that unless the fabric will get smelly or discolored because you smoke or you have kids that might fingerprint the stitching, it is probably not essential.

Miscellaneous Monday

To the left you can see my July Stitch-A-Thon progress. Though I didn’t start on Mary’s ruffle, I did manage to finish her skirt, so I am going count this month’s stitch-a-thon as a success. It won’t be long before I am happy dancing now!

Yesterday after I finished my SAT I also found the time to get a good start on my square for Leslie’s RR. Leslie has chosen Lizzie*Kate’s Seasonal Samplers from the Snippet Collection for her theme and I have chosen to stitch my favorite season of spring for her. (Big surprise that I chose spring, huh? )

Leslie was kind enough to include the GAST threads that these patterns call for and after working with them a bit, I am seriously considering changing the not-so-positive review I gave concerning over-dyed threads a couple of months ago. The GAST threads seem to be softer to the touch than the WDW that I used and at a glance I think they have a more pronounced variegation. In fact, though I have not yet stitched too much on my square I can already see the subtle differences in color from one stitch to the next. Hmm… Maybe there is hope for a relationship between me and over-dyed threads after all.

In other news, the deadlines for first two exchanges over at The Robin’s Nest have passed and already today the first exchange has been received! Su received a lovely flat-fold from Nicki for the Summer Exchange. The Summer Exchange and the Recipe Exchange may be closed, but we still have lots of exchanges planned and I still have room on the board, so if you are interested in doing some exchange with us, drop me a line.

My Flower