Incoherent Scribblings

Last week I went to Las Vegas for Christmas vacation and while I was there I met Juls for her Wednesday morning stitching group. However, before I could sit down with all the lovely ladies and stitch the day away, I had to get some S.E.X.!

As a little Christmas present to myself I bought some Cresent Colours (no specific colors, just ones that I thought were pretty), “Celtic Summer,” by Marilyn Levitt-Imblum, “The Nutcracker” by Country Cottage Kids, and the letter “R,” and “Portrait of Lauren in Blue” by Nora Corbett. I also bought a swatch of pink hand-dyed fabric and 805 of the Magenta range in Needlepoint Silks.

I bought the pink fabby and the silks for “Austrian I” by Bleu de Chine from the latest JCS and started that while I was at the stitching group. All of the ladies were very friendly to me and I got to see some great projects! Juls brought some of her stitching to show me and I got to see her “Quaker Christmas” in person. All I could think while seeing her things was how much more impressive projects always are in real life…

But as much as I like “Austrian I,” I totally fell in love with “Portrait of Lauren in Blue” and just couldn’t resist starting her yesterday. I guess I was craving a Nora Corbett design because I think that I am enjoying this project entirely too much! And the best part about Lauren? She is about half to one-third the size of a “regular” Mirabilia!

I still have the rest of this week off so I plan on stitching as much as I can and who knows? I may have one last happy dance before the end of the decade!

So Friday was my birthday and this year I decided to celebrate by going to San Antonio. While I stayed in an awesome hotel downtown near the Riverwalk called the Fairmount Hotel and I ate, drank, and drank some more, the main reason I decided to go to San Antonio for my birthday this year was to visit two LNSs there that I had seen advertised in Cross-Stitch and Needlework.

The first shop is called Stitches from the Heart and I dropped by late Thursday afternoon as soon as I got into town. It had been a long time since I had been in an LNS of such caliber and I was in heaven! As soon as I walked in I noticed a long table with four or five ladies stitching and I practically drooled as I looked at all the charts, beads, buttons, threads, frames, fabric, etc., etc.

Part of the reason I stopped at this shop first was because it is open until 7:30 on Thursday nights. Well, it didn’t take long for me to realize that the reason that they are open late on Thursdays is because it is their stitch-in. I started chatting with the ladies and before you can say cross stitch I had gone out to my car and retrieved “Fairy Flora,” “Celtic Spring,” “Passing Admirers,” and “Catch the Wind” and was showing them off! (I had brought those pieces with me to inquire about framing.) The ladies “oohed and ahhed” over all my pieces and made funny little comments like “Oh, I see we have a novice stitcher on our hands.”

I also just so happened to have “Castle Sampler” with me and they invited me to sit and stitch a while. As much as I wanted to, I ended up not stitching because I started talking with their framer and spent most of the time I was there deciding on a frame for Flo. I wanted to frame all four, but the lady encouraged me to just do one piece and if I am happy with her work to bring the rest back later. The shop is even going to ship Flo to me (insured of course) when she is ready.

I also bought some stash (of course!) and the ladies invited me to their fall retreat (the summer one is full). I had such a nice time visiting that shop that I definitely foresee more trips to San Antonio in the future to shop, stitch, and bitch. If you are ever in San Antonio, I definitely recommend a visit to Stitches from the Heart! (By the way, Stitches from the Heart’s website is still under construction, but they told me they will ship things. All I need to do is contact them with what I want.)

But wait, there’s more!

On Friday around noon, I visited the second shop, Cross Stitch Plus. It was a very nice shop as well. In fact, I think they had a better selection of fabric… which would be great if I didn’t already have Silkweaver FOM coming out the wazoo! The ladies there were very nice too, but they weren’t having a stitch-in (theirs is on Friday night) so it was a much quieter experience. I bought plenty of stash there and will go back next time I am San Antonio.

However, in all honesty, the best thing about Cross Stitch Plus was that it is in a shopping center that just so happens to have an Indian restaurant next door. So, I went there and had my birthday lunch. I didn’t have super high hopes for the restaurant because I didn’t remember coming across it when I was scoping out Indian restaurants in San Antonio online, but I was pleasantly surprised with a nice meal and dining experience.

On Saturday, I went to the San Antonio Zoo and got rained on, but was there long enough that it made me tired. After I ate dinner on the Riverwalk, I went back to my hotel room and tried to stitch, but the light in my room was terrible so I cursed the fact that I didn’t buy the portable Ott light that I looked at on Friday at Cross Stitch Plus and just watched a movie.

* Stash Report – Back Row: The Best of Teresa Wentzler Fantasy Collection Volume 2, Witchy-Washy (Raise the Roof), Halloween Eve (The Cricket Collection); Middle Row: Sew Many Memories (Sue Hillis Designs), Jack in the Patch (Cherry Wood Design Studios), Yesteryear (LHN), Summer Retreats (CCN); Front Row: Ladybug, Ladybug (LHN), French Country III – Apple (JBW Designs), Curiosity and Washing Up (Serendipity Designs); Not Pictured: Piecemakers, size 26; 4 packs Mill Hill Magnifica beads. *

Tonight I finished my square on Dawn’s Quasi-UFO round robin. I really like the way this little guy turned out… very cute!

Beyond the round robin and my SAL with Dawn (no pics this week, all I did yesterday was backstitch… blah!) I still haven’t been stitching very much. However, I anticipate that will change soon because I got a visit from the stash fairy last week! All of the charts I ordered are small to medium-sized and call for overdyes (which I had to order), so once those overdyes get here I predict I will be a stitching machine!

In fact, two of the projects are going to be presents for my niece and nephew. I am planning on stitching Country Cottage Needleworks “Little Ballerinas” for my niece and JBW Designs’ “Choo Choo Train” for my nephew. I hope to have both of these finished by Christmas, so I guess as soon as the floss gets here I better get in gear!

Oh yeah, be on the look-out for the SBQ this month! I have had some good suggestions that I can’t wait to share.

Behold! More progress on “Above the Clouds!”

And with my first official paycheck, I have some stash to report!

To begin with, I got the fabric for “Kitty Cat Row” and a pattern that I am using for Outi’s very belated birthday exchange. (Pattern to be revealed at a later time.)

Because I worked an eight-hour day on Saturday, I got today off. As a result, I decided to take a shopping trip to the Big City today. Unfortunately, I didn’t have very good luck with clothes, so I decided to stop at Michael’s and purchase the DMC 100s that I was missing.

While I was there, I also succumbed to The Best of Teresa Wentzler Fantasy Collection. I have been eyeing this collection for a while now, but at $19.95 for 10 TW patterns I could no longer resist it when I spotted it today. It is a good thing I got it too: According to TW herself, this collection is not going to be reprinted by Leisure Arts.

I will be the first to admit that my stash haul was modest. However, after spending the past year buying basically no stash at all, it sure feels like a lot to me!

As I have no stitching progress to show at the moment, I thought I would take the opportunity to do my personal assessment of the issue that Dawn so kindly sent me (along with a too cute and too tiny scissor fob)!

I haven’t read any of the articles or tried any of the recipes yet, so this isn’t a review of that, rather just the patterns… Which is all we are really interested in anyway, right?

I have three categories and if the pattern isn’t mentioned here that means I am not even considering stitching it. Therefore, my categories are 1.) Must Stitch, 2.) Might Stitch, and 3.) Like, but probably won’t stitch.

Here is the breakdown by category:

1. Must Stitch – 5
2. Might Stitch – 17
3. Like, but probably won’t stitch – 4

Total – 26 out of 75 or 35%

The five that I must stitch are:

“Noel Christmas Bellpull” by The Sweetheart Tree

One of my 101 Things is that I want to stitch something for myself for each of my favorite holidays during its season. I would like this one to be the one I stitch for Christmas.

“The Decorator” by Full Circle Designs

I can’t help it, I am in love with this little guy!

“Jingles the Penguin” by The Stitchworks

I have decided to make it a yearly tradition to make my niece and nephew stitched things for Christmas, so I could stitch this cute little penguin for either one of them.

“A Merry Kitty Klaus” by Val’s Stuff

It’s a cat! Need I say more?

“Snow Bunnies” by LHN

Because I love Little House Needleworks!

OK, now I am off to stitch!