Rooted in Mississippi

I posted a photograph of the tiny amount of progress I made on my Cherry Tree Cottage project from Share-A-Stitch XXVIII over on Crewel Intentions. Just in case you do not want to head over there, I will include it here too. I did not get a lot done, but Lisa came over and we did stitch a little.

I also spent some time wrapping Lisa’s new hoops for her.  I tend to consider myself as sort of a zen master of wrapping hoops. I mean, anyone can wrap them, but I have done so many that I have developed a special way of doing it, depending on the size of the ribbon I am using. I actually like wrapping hoops, not for the obvious reasons: that it keeps the hoop from crushing your work, prevents rough spots on the wood from rubbing against your fabric/work, and it makes for a more taut work surface. I like wrapping, because it is sort of like a puzzle.

Silk satin is the best ribbon for wrapping, but it is expensive and tends to fray and slip, so you will have to re-wrap your hoops more frequently. Basically any high quality double-faced satin will work, regardless of the width of the ribbon. I have used ribbon from a half inch to two inches wide. I almost always do two layers of ribbon. I wrap the first pass tightly and the second looser, with the edges meeting, instead of overlapping. Personally, I am not a big fan of cotton tape, but it will work too. If I do wrap with cotton tape, I put on several layers to make sure it is amply padded.

And there you have it, my personal musings on wrapping you embroidery hoops! Sorry about that.

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Since Princess got the spotlight yesterday, I thought I would feature some of the other pups today! Well, Princess is there too. I love the side by side shot with Louie. She is usually partial to Rudy, but over time she has become more social with all my boys. Oscar is the only one missing, because he is usually under my feet and hard to photograph!

And I felt compelled to share a video of the incessant dog play that goes on around here. Rudy and Roscoe are always creating trouble, because they love to tussle and play dog games. They use the area rugs as wrestling mats and sometimes jump from one to the other. Occasionally, even the old men get involved, but mostly they want to sit quietly with mommy.  Princess prefers solitary activities, like digging, unless it is snuggle time!

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I have never seen a dog who liked digging more than Princess. I have certainly never seen on who loved digging in the mud. She throws her whole body into it and guards the holes from the other dogs. The girl is covered in mud, the floor is covered in mud, the sofa is covered in mud flakes, and the bed has red tinted wallowed in place, like a pig sty!

The good news is that she is getting plenty of exercise and is the thinnest she has ever been. This was really meant for her foster mom, so she could see how happy and fit Princess looks, but if you are interested, you can check out the video on YouTube.

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It was a quiet day, well as quiet as my life gets with five dogs. I included this photo because it is what my life is often like: dogs moving everywhere, sitting on top of my library book, crap all over the place. By the way, that is Rudy and Roscoe, playmates extraordinaries. In case you were wondering, the book is Sue Grafton’s “T is for Trespass.” I have been going to the library a lot and running through their fiction section at an alarming rate.

Speaking on books, my husband bought me a Kindle for my birthday! I took a little time to figure it out and read the user guide, before I went searching Amazon for titles. My husband was right, all of Stuart Woods’ titles were there, but I have also read everything he has ever written, so that point is moot for a few months. Actually, after downloading a sample of a needlework book, the first thing I bought was a Parallel Desire by my high school classmate and friend Deidre Mosteller Knight.

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OK, so I did take some photos of my work from class at Share-A-Stitch. I have finally taken everything out of the bag and even put it into my hoop and worked on it for a short while yesterday, but this is a photo of just of the work I did in class.

The second photo is of the wool needle-nest that came with our kits. I was surprised when I saw it, because this was a custom order I did for Barbara Jackson. I completely missed the whole concept of what she intended to do with them, so it was fun to see them and it was a great addition to the kit. What a great way to supply needles to students, especially in the humid south.

I do not think I included photos of this project while I was working on it, but I did take pictures of the wet felted wool drying on a screen out back. I did this project for Barbara between trips to Atlanta, so there really was not a lot of time for taking pictures. I was lucky to get it done in at all!

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It is good to be home and have the car unpacked, well for the most part. I loved my class. Not only did I have yet another class with Barbara Jackson, but Lisa and Cynthia were there with me. We had a lovely hotel room on the twenty fourth floor of the Hilton Memphis and got the chance to meet lots of CyberStitchers face to face, as well as recruit new plural members from the Tennessee Valley Region.

I did sell some things at merchandise night, but not as much as I had hoped. I ended up taking most of the stuff back to ARTichoke. The silk dupioni fat quarters sold the best, but when we did some rough figuring and it was just depressing. Oh, well, it was better than my sales have been locally, so I really have no right to complain.

I will try to post a photo of my progress on Cherry Tree Cottage. Plus, I will upload photos of the gang, when they have been forwarded to me.

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I saw this on Lisa’s blog and thought I would play along. At least I love purple!

You Need Some Purple in Your Life

Purple will make you feel ambitious, independent, and creative.And with a little purple, you will project an aura of individuality. If you want more extravagance, you’ve got to get a little purple in your life! For extra punch: Combine purple with green or orange The downside of purple: It can evoke sad feelings The consequences of more purple in your life: You will feel an increase in your artistic abilities You will find balance in the most chaotic parts of your life You will feel calm and will be hard to disturb

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With luck, I am in Memphis, Tennessee…enjoying a rubber chicken dinner right about now and this post is being brought to you auto-magically in my absence.  Lisa, Cynthia and I all signed up for the same Crewel Embroidery class with Barbara Jackson.  I am sorry that I will be missing my former boss’ retirement party, but there was no way for me to be two places at once.

CyberStitchers put together a basket of blue themed items to be donated for the Tennessee Valley Region’s Teacup Auction. I donated the rolling needlework tote, figuring it would be perfect for someone to carry on a plane. I used mine on the Russia trip, so I know how practical it can be! With luck, it will help raise money and some lucky person will be be really happy when they win this!

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I gave a lecture on Crazy Quilting to the Mississippi Quilt Association June Gathering last Friday at about this time.  I was surprised by how many people were there! I had not spoken to crowd that large in many years and I am not ashamed to admit I got a little dry mouth.  I wish we could get that many people excited about embroidery in our fair state. They used the facilities at the Rankin County campus of Hinds Community College. They were an interesting group and I really enjoyed my time with them.

I think it went very well, but you never really know how you come off in these things.  Rhonda gave me some very nice feedback, as did a few member who stopped to talk to me afterwards.  I took a ton of things that could be passed around, so they could examine my work and see some of the blocks, projects, and techniques up close and personal.  I was well prepared and well versed in my subject matter and I wrote out my lecture in advance instead of just depending on notes.  I did ad-lib a little, but I wanted to make sure I did not leave anything out of my history and examination of current trends.

I also set my cell phone to vibrate when I had 15 minutes left, so I could wrap things up in plenty of time and let the program get back on schedule.  Personally, I think ending on time is almost as important as giving them good information.

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There are a variety of things pictured here, inluding the padlocks that Russian newlyweds attach to bridges. The locks were damaging the ironwork, so they put up “trees” that the newlyweds could use without risking any damage to the railings. Actually, our guides told us about dozens of Russian superstitions.

These are some ducks near a convent in Moscow. Next to the real ones, in the park, is a sculpture of a mother and her ducklings, which was a gift from Barbara Bush.

I also could not resist documenting the westernization of Moscow. I ate the first Big Mac in a decade while we were on Arbat street in Moscow. That is an Indiana Jones Poster, McDonald’s, and Sbarro…all in Cyrillic lettering. However, Starbuck’s is just Starbuck’s and I only saw one in all of Russia. McDonald’s, KFC and Sbarro were pretty well franchised throughout the urban centers.

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