Halloween Body Parts

OOH Sounds Scary doesn't it.  But actually the only scary part is how far behind I am on The Roo Bear!

Roo Bear Leg

Roo Bear Arm

Top of his head

Roo Bear's other leg

I have two more half done canvases and four that I have never looked at.   One of the good things about the Recession is that you get a chance to dive into your stash!  Plus this is fully kitted with Amy's stitch guide!  Extra sweet.

My "so called" friend Susan from Washington DC just called me and would you believe it asked how the Nativity was coming along.  Guess I'll have to find Joseph.  Susan can be such a pain- always reminding me of stuff.

Keep stitching!

Linda

The Story of The Little Needlecase

Whimsy and Grace Needlecase

I just finished my needlecase- the last of my basketweave projects for a while.  Supposedly this should have taken me 26.25 hours to stitch since it is 3 3/4 inches by 7 inches and I've been told the default stitching time on 18 count canvas is 1 hour per square inch.  It seemed to take a lot longer, but that could have been because I added in the time I THOUGHT I should be finishing it along with the actual stitching time.

Oh well,  it's done now and I plan to use it to store my chenille and beading needles to keep them separate from the regular ones.  They seem to be more delicate and prone to bending and breaking.

We have our ANG meeting in a few weeks and everyone is going to bring in their "Go To" and "Can't Live Without" tools and gadgets for needlepoint.  As you can imagine I am struggling with this since I have all kinds of gadgets spread out around me when I stitch.  Plus, in my tool stash I have 3 kinds of laying tools, probably 5 kinds of scissors, lights, magnifiers, 2 table stands, 1 floor stand, several kinds of needle threaders, tweezers for loose threads and pullers for threads that are jammed in the back of the canvas.  I have punch needles and felting needles and it goes on and on....

The Wall Street Journal used to have a column about what's in the CEO's briefcase which I always thought was a lot of fun- everyone had some unique personal item beyond the usual keys and phone.  (Maybe no phones - this was a long time ago- even before the internet when people actually read the paper.)  Here's a picture of my tool kit that I carry EVERYWHERE.

Contents of my tool bag

These must be my favorite things.  How can I choose? - Oh, and it's good to have a store coupon in there too!!!

Linda

Happy Days are Here Again...the link

Happy Days are Here Again

This has nothing and everything to do with needlepoint.

 I have FINISHED my taxes!  More time to stitch!!

Enjoy the video

Linda

http://youtu.be/KGqfGJds5fE

Halloween in my Mailbox

Halloween Candies #1

Hi everyone,

It is definitely not cool outside, but Fall came early to my mailbox!  We are just back from the EGA Seminar in Naples and while I was tempted... I was able to resist most of what was put in front of me.  Now I am back home and a NEW CLUB has started!  I am going to love these Halloween candies from Bedecked and Beadazzled...yes I am!

 I am going to come clean about my "Club involvement" right now and maybe add a new column in my blog.  We travel a lot and it is so nice to have a project with stitch guide and threads ready to go all the time.  I have Halloween clubs, Christmas clubs, Flower clubs, Heart clubs and Village clubs.  Sometimes when we are tired of stitching, we sit around and count our clubs and how many canvases we have left.  OOH that is not such a good idea.  But we are still signing up and cranking them out!

Do you think the designers have caught on that we like clubs? and series?

I think so!

Linda

September 11

Like most of you I spent this morning watching the tribute to the victims of the September 11th attack on our country.  We were all changed by that day whether we knew a victim or a New Yorker.  We have two friends who worked for Merrill Lynch at the office building across the street from the twin towers and often had meetings in the World Trade Center.  As we watched the buildings fall we wondered if we would ever see them again.

For the longest time, my youngest daughter couldn't bear for me to leave her alone unless she was at
school .  When she interned in New York as a freshman in college we saw the site for the first time. It was overwhelming.  Today there is a beautiful memorial with all those names so we will never forget how many people were lost.

Vickies's Mostly Needlepoint blog today has an entry about a "survivor" that I never even considered.  It will take your breath away.

A day like today puts your life in perspective.

Linda

And The Winner Is...

Santa Parade

Last night was the UFO Throwdown meeting and I presented my choices for the project that I should be able to complete by June 2012.  I picked three projects from my list.  The autumn candle, the 4 Roo Bear half done canvases and the Santa Parade.  (Note that these are all on my list)

The comments ranged from:

1.  You must be kidding- the Candle
2.  Finish it already!- also the Candle
3.  and my favorite - Do the whole Bear why stop at 4 canvases

I think everyone had a great deal of fun at my expense and in the interest of time they finally decided that I should finish the Santa Parade.  It is about half done and I really can't even remember why I stopped unless it was for a class that I signed up for and probably never finished either.

So when I finish the candle I will reacquaint myself with the stitch guide for the "Parade".  It is very sweet and it has a great guide!

Wish me luck.

Linda

It's Time for the UFO Throwdown!

David McCaskill Autumn Candle

This coming Thursday is our September ANG meeting when we choose the unfinished project that we will TRY to finish in the next 6 months.  This year a new category has been added...Project Half Done.  I have quite an extensive list of those so no problem there.  It also must have an incredibly sad story to go with it as to why you never finished it.

I have chosen my Autumn Candle by David McCaskill (pictured above).  Now it may look like it is more than half done, but if you have ever done a "David" piece you will know that I did all the easy parts and broke down when it came to compensating around all those leaves!  It also has a SAD story...

This was a class at our local needlepoint shop in the fall of 2007.  My youngest daughter had just gone to college and we were "empty nesters" for the first time so why not a challenging needlepoint piece to while away the hours!  Not long after the third class my husband had a medical emergency involving his leg (it's fine now) which effectively transformed him into my third child- a 200 pound child in a wheelchair.  This lasted for 2 1/2 months and I was way too exhausted to do any COMPENSATING.  He was still in that wheelchair when my baby got mono at college and was hospitalized.   I contacted a few of my friends and asked them to feed my third baby and I flew out to take care of the REAL baby in California.  (She's fine now).  Are you crying yet??  When I flew home with the REAL baby 3 days before Christmas that year I had abandoned the candle.

Since then I have learned many things that will  help me finish the candle.  First, from Amy's creche I have learned to baste the canvas to help with the counting for compensating.

Basting stitch

I have also learned how to read a graph much better and figure out different pathways for the same stitch.

Lastly, I learned that you need to have an emergency needlepoint tool kit and project ready to go!  And the easier the project the better!

Happy Labor Day,

Linda