Winter!

Winter weather has blasted into the Chicago area. On my ride home yesterday I encountered rain, sleet, snow and a bit of tiny hail. Mostly sleet. Today is very windy and snowish (not really snowing but almost) and the temperature is dropping.

The conference is over. It went well and people were happy. Now there's the huge aftermath, clean up, pay bills, gather forms, document continuing education credits, and catch up with things set aside for the conference. And I just want to go home and sleep.

I still have my cold. It's eased quite a bit but I'm really dragging. Today I got my annual mammogram and took myself out for a Mexican breakfast afterward. Whinge over.

I'm chipping away at it all, slowly, and making some progress.

During the conference, I knit. (I'm mostly stuck at a registration table, with no place to plug in my computer, or running around checking on this and organizing that. I need something to occupy me in the odd quiet moments--something that I can pick up and put down in an instant. Simple knitting is perfect.)At the event, I worked on a new, small entrelac bag to be felted, this with the leftover yarns from the first bag I made. At home, I worked on a washcloth. Good, easy mindless knitting. I love these colors (Lily Sugar 'n' Cream).

Oh, My!

I completely forgot I had a giveaway going on that ended Monday! Not much interest in this one but that's okay. Alena said she really wanted the canvas and hers was the only comment so it works out. Alena--you didn't leave an e-mail address so please get in touch with me. Thanks!

overwhelmed

I've got a few minutes lull. Tomorrow's conference plans are almost finalized. I've been on the phone (or e-mail) all day with last minute changes, additions and snafus. On a day when I can't really talk--I came down with a bad cold this weekend.I've been organizing a conference or two (or four or five) a year for about 20 years now and I've always feared this--getting sick on the eve of an event. I'm actually doing okay. I took yesterday off and slept and the world didn't end. I think things will all happen as planned. It's all coming together. My hubby's been great and even brought me the Chinese take out I was craving yesterday (not that I could really taste it, but it hit the spot anyway!). My coworkers are amazing. I am truly blessed!It's amazing to me how focused and small my world becomes when I don't feel well. So much becomes totally irrelevant. I know it can't stay that way, but it's nice to know it can be like this for a little while, until the conference is over and I'm well again.

I finished these homey projects over the weekend, before my cold hit on Saturday afternoon. (The cold wave hit here last night and last I looked it was snowing quite prettily outside.)
On Thursday we had our Thanksgiving at the zoo (followed by a yummy taco dinner). I dragged the guys to the children's zoo to watch them feed the animals.The llamas posed for me. They were quite quizzed by the zookeeper in her holiday hat--and tried to eat it!Here are the kiddies getting ready to feed the animals. For the pigs they put the food into paper bags for the pigs to break apart. Apparently that's a big treat for them. And in a quite corner, a lovely sign of the coming holidays.

We had a busy Friday, with me completing projects. On Saturday we had our family get together. I felt fine in the morning, kind of blah during the day (and I completely forgot to take pictures--a sure sign that I was not myself!) and it hit around 3:30--I needed to be home and in bed NOW! So we headed home and I crashed. I had all of Sunday to rest, too, and laze about.

Well, my last bit is here--I have to view and approve a video to be played first thing tomorrow. Then I can go home. I have to be here at 6:30 tomorrow--yikes!

The most fun ever!

This weekend we visited friends with young children. E is, I think 5, and K is, I think, 7. We watched acrobatics and karate practice. As usual, I had stitching with me. This time a stamped dish towel to outline stitch. E was quite intrigued. I had a baggie of felt scraps from another project in my tote and pulled them out. We decided on a butterfly. I sketched one in pen and then she picked her colors. I've noticed children prefer to have choices. I showed her how to pull strands from the cut length of floss. I doubled them over and locked them in the eye of the needle (thread the loop through the eye and then put the point of the needle through the loop and pull tight.

She couldn't unthread the needle and set off with me showing her how to do a running stitch. She finished her butterfly quickly. I was intrigued to watch her lay the colors of thread out in the order she wanted. The first time she came to the end of her shape she waited patiently for me to thread a new color in the needle. The second time, she picked her color, cut a strand of thread with me guiding her regarding the length, and then began pulling out the strands. I threaded needles and made knots in the tail after that--otherwise she was on her own.

Next she wanted a horse. Her daddy drew that. Then she noticed I wasn't doing the same stitch she was. So I taught her outline stitch and she stitched her horse. We discussed how curves came out nicer if you made smaller stitches on them and she continued to do that as she worked her way around the complex outline.

She then carefully trimmed around her treasures.

Her brother was intrigued but not at all sure about those needles that prick fingers. (He saw me prick myself.) So he dictated and I stitched. I think it's a Pokeman figure. He carefully selected the figure, drew me several sketches to base the design on, picked out thread colors. When I didn't have black, he suggested I cut very tiny pieces of black felt and sew them on with the darkest thread I had.

We then backed his figure with another fabric and stitched around, with K carefully adding a cotton ball to round the shape out. Then he cut around the shape, with mommy's help. (The photo was taken before we stitched on the back and cut the figure out.)

Boy, was it intense! Both children had much more concentration and focus than I did at their ages. All the while the adults were having good conversations, over the top of our our stitching. The fun only stopped because we had to start on our long ride home. I realized I hadn't moved for hours... youch! But it certainly was fun.

Crazy Busy

Time to post is hard to find right now. I'm about up to my eyebrows in planning a conference for next weekend. It's a bigger than usual event with a few more pieces than normal.

And I've had Finished Objects to show! This weekend I got the sewing machine out and finished some things. I'm going to put them all here in one post, because I know I won't get back to the computer for a while.
This 1970s Columbia Minerva, Erica Wilson design chatelaine is brand-spanking new. I bought it at an antique shop several years ago, all in the closed package (probably what's called "mint in box" by antiquers and they'd probably be appalled that I opened and stitched it). It took me a long time to stitch. I found it a bit fiddly but fun. The duck fabric was hard to sew and my hands hurt from the finishing by the time I was done--and I did all I could on the machine. But I like it, it's so bright and colorful.
The loops at the bottom hold strands of thread or scissors. The pattern had them stitched but I sewed on large snaps.This little pin doll is another long-languishing project. It was just a pattern so it took forever to find all the bits of fabric and trim and get them all in the same place at the same time. Once I had that, it went together quickly. The design is called Lil' Butterfly by Susan McFadden (1990--I told you it sat around a long time!)I know I've shown this before, with the knitting complete. But now it's really, finally done. It has ties and a lining (red corduroy). I also have a lovely little red corduroy gift bag when I cut the original lining piece too small and didn't notice it until it was stitched, French seams and all. It will come in handy for the holidays.I found these nifty little bits at J0-Ann's. The are preprinted fabric designs but instead of buying yardage, you get a small piece (fat 1/8th?) with the two ornaments (printed front and back) or the pincushion (front, back and sides). Both came with instructions and the ornaments came with the ribbon for hanging. I added some touches of embroidery to the angel but left the others alone. The bottom of the pincushion has the blue of the angel on it. Everyone needs a holiday pincushion! I also stitched the completed pears. Here are the third sides. I began stuffing them and ran out of polyfill. The pattern suggests doll pellets to weight the pears and I think that or a large washer is a good idea, but I haven't had a chance to get out to the store. Maybe Friday.

We're off for the long holiday weekend and I can't wait. (although I know I'll be tempted to come in to work--it's just looming!) Thursday we're going to Brookfield Zoo with a friend. (it's free day, too!) We're doing the family gathering on Saturday. Sunday is a car event (a collector is hosting an "open garage"). Busy weekend.

Tuesday is my first holiday party and I need to have gifts done, wrapped and ready. Yikes!

A weekend at home at last!

Saturday's mail held a lovely surprise. We'd been out to the Indiana dunes to enjoy the rare warm and sunny day and this was in the mail box when we got home. One of Pat Winter's lovely Bliss Kits and beaded Dragonfly kits. Pat is so lovingly generous. I have just the project for these goodies, too. I found this pincushion tutorial over a year ago at Ivory Blush Roses. I love it and have collected the necessary CDs to use as the base. Now I have my central fabrics and color scheme (thank you, Pat!). I think this will make a wonderful pincushion.Can you believe it? Finally a finished project. Actually, I had two finishes last weekend but one's a Christmas gift that might be obvious if I showed it.Sunday dawned late and gray and it was chill. Indian Summer is over. We really enjoyed the sun and warmth last week and so did my herb pots. I went out Sunday and harvested sage, thyme, parsley and rosemary (shades of Simon and Garfunkel!) and the last few tomatoes. It's supposed to be chill and rainy this week. The herbs will mostly do well for a while longer but this just seemed the time to harvest.

I made up a couple of fragrant gift baggies for friends and then destemmed and froze the rest for us. This was the first time I'd grown thyme and I was quite pleased. Sometimes sage and rosemary will winter over, but mostly not. My hands smelled of thyme all evening--I really enjoyed it.

New Blog Announcement!

World Embroideries and I have teamed up to begin a new blog for our embroidery group, the Homewood Embroiderer's Guild. Stop by and see what we've been up to. We're just getting going but have plans for more in the near future.

In addition to news items for our members (what to bring to the meeting, etc.) we also plan to announce Chicago area needlework events, show what our members have stitched, and hopefully discuss issues relevant to us and other needlework groups in this day and age (how to raise funds, how to increase community awareness and membership, how to promote needlework and share, and how to attract younger stitches).

HEG was begun thirty years ago. The group grew out of Hardanger classes at a local shop, the Scandinavian Boutique by owner Aina Momquist. She was a major influence on me and my interest if fine embroidery.

HEG is a smallish group of about thirty right now. We're not affiliated with any larger group and we follow our own muse. As member's interests have evolved, so have our meeting workshops. We tend to stick to projects that require a needle with an eye but that's been everything from needlelace to bookbinding to beading. We've also veered a bit on occasion and included knitting and other textile arts.

We meet in Hazel Crest, IL, at the Hazel Crest Community United Methodist Church, 17050 California Ave., Hazel Crest, IL 60429-1137 on the second Monday of the month at 7:15 p.m. We welcome visitors who are interested in needlework and perhaps in joining our community.

The picture above was my entry into our summer challenge--to stitch something geometric for the trivet.