Update on that monster SERENITY.....

Well, I only worked on "SERENITY" this weekend. Pushing aside my RR and my SAL pieces. I did that because I felt that I had neglected this piece for quite a while...and... if I am going to get this finished by this fall (a goal I have set myself) I need to finish the border. Here is a pretty good snap of the progress:


As you can see I am working counter-clock-wise around the piece. Not for any reason other than I usually work the other way round and thought I should mix it up a bit. When this is finished it will be the biggest piece I will have completed as it is about 18" across by about 24" tall. I ordered last week Vilmas newest design called "FORGIVENESS." The model I have seen was worked in VC silks and is an overall orangy biegey coloured piece, and those are colours that I am not drawn to. I will change the charted colours and work the piece in "SERENITY" comparable overdyed floss' so that I can have them both framed up and hang them as companion pieces. That's a long way off so I have plenty of time to mull over that problem. I had seen the finished model of "FORGIVENESS" on line a few months back and had been waiting for the release of the chart.

The weekend here in SF was just glorious as we had huge amounts of fog blanketing the city and the weather hovered in the mid sixties.

Thanks for stopping by and leave a comment if you get the chance.

Take care,
edgar

The Deathly Hallows, c'est Finis :(

I finished the last HP book, and was quite satisfied. There are a few little points that weren't answered, but as a whole I really enjoyed the book. There were not too many surprises in the way it ended up as a total HP reading, Muggelnet visiting fan I had sorta figured out the way the wind was blowing. There were however some quite exciting places that made the book just jump, and now I can't wait for the movie, Fall 2010!!!!!


DA RULES!!!!!!!!

edgar

Stitching on BP andRR ........and some stash

Last night I worked on two different things. The First piece was the Heartfelt Friends RR as I wanted to get the doors and windows to the almost finish point.


I also worked up and extra heart on one end thinking about putting the dates in these....and filled in the glaring blank spot in the bottom of the initial hearts. I used a little flower design from "The Lodge" chart for the flower.



The doors are filled in with a colour called Mulberry that worked very well as it is over dyed so is kinda streaky like old painted wood ( or is that a stretch?) The windows I filled in the mullions with a single back stitch thread so that they don't look so blank. The chart calls for them to be filled in with the same colour as the roof but that made them look really black/dark and I did not like that so much......but do I like the light blue or would it look better with a single dark blue thread????? I wonder????


The plan in my head for the border included an acorn in each corner... I worked one out but I am not sure that I like it....I will leave it for now and think on it for a spell.

After finishing up those little things I worked on the BP SAL which I haven't touched in a week or so. I really like working on this every time I pick it up. Here is the little bit of progress:

As you can see I am working the design around the outside and will then work to the middle of the piece. I finished up one medallion and started the next. Only this medallion and one more then I "turn the corner" and work up the side. :) I am still really liking this piece.

I haven't started really working on an Emblem of Love as I do not really like the linen now that I have decided on the silk floss that I picked and think I will replace it with something else.... maybe something with a blue cast to it???? ...... back to the LNS.

The mail brought a few nice things to add to my stash. I had been looking for more of Vilma Becklin's designs and am having the hardest time. I did find a shop on line that had four of the things I was looking for.


The four "Peace, Prosperity,Humility and Faith" charts I will work as one large piece and will adjust some of the dates and initials, so there is not so much repetition. I think that they will work really well as one project. I wanted to mention where this stash came from, I got them from Neelecraft Corner out of Baltimore, and let me just say how very fast, efficient and kind Drema was in all the help that she gave!!!!!! THANKS, Drema!!!!!!! I also picked up another Ackworth piece, the Sarah Moon Sampler. These charts seem to disappear rather fast so I think it prudent to get it them when I can.
The secondary market on places like eBay tend to run the prices rather high for things that are OOP (out of print). I found this out when I ran a piece that I really wanted ( and had lost at least two times before), but then so did about 13 other people really want the chart, in the end I was victorious after throwing a big old chunk of money at it. I am after a couple of other charts that rarely if ever come up......but when they do watch out wallet!!!!!

That's about it for this "hump" day, thanks for stopping by , and I really enjoy reading the comments so why not leave one if you've got the time.......

edgar

One more thing...I am reading the HP Deathly Hallows, and really enjoying it......I know some people have finished it and there is quite a debate going on over its merits........I will save my opinion until I finish which should be only a day or so from now.

Christmas is on it's way...... jingle, jingle jingle!!!!

I really like winter and the high holiday of winter is Christmas so here is the kind of tree I am....

You Are a Traditional Christmas Tree

For a good Christmas, you don't have to re-invent the wheel. You already have traditions, foods, and special things you bring out every year.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

Weekend stitching on the RR

Well almost everything I have been working on has fallen to the wayside as I try and get the HFRR to a point that I can send it on and get it to Donna by the 12th. Last week I worked on charting out a few design ideas for the center and was never really happy with anything that I could come with then on Thursday I finally decided to go with this rendition of the center band and I am really pleased with the way it has turned out.

It has the title of the piece and all of our initials with hearts. I still need to figure out how the dates will look on the ends and add a few fill in stitches but essentially this is how it will stand. I am almost finished with my square, finally...as it seems that I have worried over this for a really long time. For the door floss colour I listened to the suggestions posted and was going with a red......and had filled in the doors with a red that I was not sure of and finally was not happy with....... so I pulled it all out and will fill in the doors with a better red tonight, I will post a pic tomorrow. After pulling out all that work I just couldn't' redo it last night. Even while I was stitching away I wasn't happy with the colour choice. You know that something is not right but think to yourself, "maybe I just need to see it finished and it will come together..." that's what I kept saying to myself. Well I was wrong and I should have stopped when I first had the thought that something wasn't working. I really like the square and the colour changes I made from the the original charted colours. Here is a closer look at the colours and the finished border.


All I need to do now is stitch out the big border which is a simple checkerboard with little clusters of acorns in the corners, it is the border from Lakeside Lodge.

On another note.....
I work part time at a bookstore on the weekends and this weekend was the release of the final instalment of the Harry Potter books, called the Deathly Hallows. I got mine and a couple of extras for Don and my niece Lesley (if you see this before we speak......yes, it shipped today and you will have it in a day or so) I will not give anything away, as I have already read a big chunk of it, but it starts off with a bang and does not let up!!!

Hope the weekend was great for everyone!!!

Take care and thanks for stopping by, leave a comment if you get a chance.
(make it nice Don, as The Peach was mighty upset last week) ;)

edgar

Yes its Friday, and tonight is HPDH release

Well last night we went to dinner with Carol Lynn and Pat. We went to Red lobster down in South San Francisco, and needless to say it was delicioso!! Carol Lynn had a coupon so we got the appetizer for free, woo hoo. So over all it was a much better dinner than the night before and the tasty Pizza Rolls. Don't you just love those cheesy, gralicy biscuits that just keep coming and coming to the table!!!! I had the Ultimate feast and it was quite tasty. There were some fried shrimp and big hunk of crab legs, and nice dish of shrimp scampi and a pretty big lobster tail. But first they brought a pretty descent Cesar salad. This was all finished off with a piece of vanilla cheesecake. As one of my favorite cooks on the Food Channel would say - YUMMO -

After we got home I worked some on the RR and finished the houses and started on the border for the square Here is a snap of it as it stands:


After I finish the border I will need to add my name and place to the right had side then I will add the finishing border and title. I have just about charted out the extra title and things and will probably get a good start this week end on it. I was wondering and have not come to decision about the doors and windows. Should the doors be a really bright red or some other shade of blue? What does everyone think, give me some feed back about your thoughts. Tthe windows need either filling in or at the very least they need some back stitching for where the pane of glass should go. What are everyones thoughts on this?

I also said that I would get a snap of the sweet Hunny-licious. She was not the most cooperative hound last night but here are a couple.....
You have to remember she is a 15+ year old little old lady that has to be on her favorite gold pillow, not the burgundy one or even the gold pillow on the right side of the sofa, but only the gold pillow on the LEFT side will do for her imperial highness.

She is just a-laying there in all her tongue-zilla wonderfulness. I know she is thinking...."why haven't we gone to bed yet???" or she could even be thinking "Why hasn't this fool gotten me my nighttime cookie, instead of taking these dumb photos!"

After she had had enough of me she got down from the sofa and jumped on Pete's basket (because he had just vacated it and it was still warm) and I followed her to get another snap. As you see she was tired of the paparazzi following her and was even getting out of the warm basket. I think she was saying "enough already, what am I a piece of meat!"


As I sit here with my Irish Creme flavoured coffee and vanilla iced, coconut sprinkled donut I think how great it is that it is Friday and Deathly Hallows will be out tonight. Not that I am standing out at midnight to get the book but that it has finally arrived.

Have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by and leave a comment if get a chance.

edgar

What Season...........

You Belong in Winter

Quiet, calm, and totally at peace... You're happy to be at home, wrapped in a blanket, completely snowed in Whether you're lighting a fire or having a snowball fight, you always feel best in the winter.

What Season Are You?


Isn't this the truth, as Winter/Fall are my favorite times of the year. I look forward to them through the long and HOT summers. Although here in San Francisco its about 65 to 68 degrees today with the fog just rolling over Twin Peaks. Most people would not call that hot by any stretch of the imagination. Originally I am from the deep south, born in Mississippi and lived for a long time in Ormond Beach FL, so I do know what hot and muggy weather can be and here in SF we do have our few days in the fall and spring when it can get into the 80's :)

My Mom would kick my butt

Just a quick little post today, no pics. Yesterday we needed to go to the store for the weekly stuff, dog food and "mama" food ( which is what we call the baby food that we by our 15+ year old Chihuahua Hunny, since she hasn't got a tooth in her head she can't chew so we get her a variety of Gerber's baby food. The turkey, lamb, beef, veal and ham variates. She really likes the ham and she gets a little jar of this each night. No, she is not spoiled :) ) We also got some really nice peaches and cherries, yogurt, shampoo, veggies a roast.... and since ice cream was 2 for one we had to get two different kinds, Neapolitan and Butter Pecan. Now what is so sad is that after getting home and taking a shower I really didn't want to fix dinner and so..... I just threw some Pizza rolls in the oven and called it a day. Woo-hoo Pizza rolls and a soda, my Mom would kick my butt if she even thought that was supposed to be dinner.......and after spending all that time, energy and money getting together real food stuff I just make some Pizza rolls. But, that's what you get to do when you are an grown up!!! :)

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by. I'll have an update pic of my RR tomorrow or at least a pic of the sugar sweet and NOT spoiled Hunny-licious.

edgar

Working on the RR

Here is a quick snap of my square progress from the Heartfelt Friends RR. The picture is a little wonky because I was running around like a crazy person before I took it and thought it was straight.....but......as you can see the both of the houses look like they lean a little to the right, they really don't. :) I have chosen a theme of trees for my RR. LHN charts have lots of tree type ideas that can be adapted by the stitchers in the RR. The chart I am using is called "Peace and Plenty." I have modified the piece in colour and text. I have dropped all the text and the alphabet from the stitching and the houses have gone dark Williamsburgy blue.
In fact I did try doing the house in the cream that was suggested but it was just way too lite for the linen. Then I tried a really nice pale blue and that just did not look right. I then settled on this nice dark blue an am very happy that I did. I have one more house on the right and the border that will finish the square. Then I will start to work on the border that will tie the entire piece together.

Hope all is well and thanks for visiting!!!

edgar

Comments always welcome!!!!

Buying More Stash and a really pretty evening

Well, I was already to get started on the stitching my section of the RR on Wednesday night but found I did not have the right colour floss' to begin where I wanted to begin. So.....I knew I needed to make a pilgrimage to my LNS, Needle in a Haystack over in Alameda and visit with Mary, she is soooo sweet. Mary had also wanted to see the progress on the BP sampler SAL. There is also a Michael's Fabric store that has DMC floss and other crafty stuff and we started off there. Low and behold they were having a sale on the DMC 4 for $1.00, well you can't beat that with a stick!! :)


So of course I had to buy extra colours that were pretty but not really needed, because it WAS a deal. At NIAH I found a couple of charts that I needed..?... surprise, surprise, "Black Sheep Sampler" by X's and O's, and "Fox Forest" by The Workbasket.

I also had changed my mind about something I had kitted out a while back. I really like Quaker things ( if you couldn't tell) and I had gotten "An Emblem of Love" by with my Needle, probably last fall, or at least a long time ago and had gotten all the recommended threads and a lovely piece of "aged "fabric so that I could start this whenever. After working on the BP Sampler in a monochromatic silk thread I wanted to do EOL also monochromatically. I went in there thinking I was going to do this in a Gentle Art's Sampler thread, either Brethren Blue or Dried Thyme, both really nice choices. Mary suggested I use a silk instead as they are so nice to work with and she had been working on a piece using Gloriana silks and I had admired that piece and the nice deep colour that the silk had. So, you see where this is going, I looked over the beautiful choices and went with a colour called Seaweed, which I think will be a great choice. I will work this into my nightly stitching. Now that I getting close to the end of Serenity I will need something else.

After we got home and dinner was over I settled into stitching and as the evening drew to a close the sky was really getting dramatically coloured and covered in clouds so I took this snap, this is looking NW over Noe Valley towards Downtown and the Bay Bridge would be to the right.....


I thought I would also post a snap of our balcony. After seeing the lovely flowers that lots of bloggers showing from their yards I am mighty jealous. Our 5 x 3 balcony is juts out into a wind tunnel caused by the wind/breezes coming over and across from Twin Peaks and down the hills daily, often at gale force speed. It is so bad that we have a piece of plexi-glass shield on one end to protect the few things that we can get to grow out there. The petunias have done really well for the past few months. The fill flash makes it look like midnight, it really wasn't.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by, comments always appreciated!!

edgar

How COOL is this!!!!

On its trip around the country advertising the upcoming Movie - "Order of the Phoenix" and the release of the last book "Deathly Hallows," the Knight bus from the Harry Potter movies made a stop in my fair city of San Francisco....... Here are some snaps I just took:


Along with the lines of kids waiting to get into the bus. There was a contest to win tickets to get to go on the bus, I did not enter (I had to draw the line somewhere in my obsession with HP), that was really for children. Here is the front:

And here is the rear:

I have had it on the calendar since I first read about it on Mugglenet, which by the way is a great source for HP info. Thanks for looking....anybody else out there that is as excited about this stuff as I am???? Leave a comment..........

Take care,
edgar

South Dakota, Pine Ridge, and a little stitching

And I am finally getting back to the blog and posting some more pictures. One of the things that I was amazed at were the wide open spaces and the vast skies that surround everything on the prairie, reservation and badlands. Being raised int he deep south there is lots of cultivated farmland and plenty of dense forests but the miles and miles of wide open space does not happen. The only exception I can think of would be the southern part of Florida and Lake Okeechobee and the vast grass and swamp land that surround it, or I should say what is left if this area as it is a truly threatened area. But, back to South Dakota and the pics....

and here is Custer State Park again.....

and a couple taken at Pine Ridge at Big Bats ( if you ever get here stop and have a corn dog, yummo!!!)

These nest two were taken back in Rapid City showing a thunderstorm blowing in, these gorgeous clouds and the quickly moving system reminded me on north Texas and the way storms and tornado's blow through in the spring......

When we were at Pine Ridge Reservation we visited the Red Cloud Indian School. They were in the middle of their annual Art Exhibition, which is well worth the visit!! At the school which was founded by Jesuits as Holy Rosary Mission in 1888, we also visited the Church. The new church replaced the original on the burned, mysteriously on Good Friday, 1996. The interior reflects the local Ogallala/Lakota traditional arts in the windows.....

In a side chapel even the even the Holy Mother reflects this artistic influence beautifully....

The little stitching that I have done is not that exciting but......I am plugging away at BP piece and the border for Serenity

I think I will start another piece as I have a few projects kitted up, just to break into the rotation. I am afraid of having too many things going as I do not want a bunch of WIP/UFO out there....... :)

Thanks for stopping by, comments are always appreciated.

Take care,
edgar

More pictures form the Vacation

While we were visiting Custer State park, just south of Rapid City, we came across a herd of Buffalo crossing the highway. Since they have the right of way we stopped. Then we pulled over and just let them wander across the street.


You have to give them credit. They are big, they are the boss and they really know it. As they will just sort of saunter across the road.

We also saw lots of other animals when we visited a place called "Bear Country." We saw wolves, I think this is an Arctic Timber Wolf. Sorry about the blurry picture.

Here is another just regular Tiber Wolf, I think....

Then were the Bobcat, he was pretty far from me and the camera.

Then there were the Bears, and there were lots of Bears..... here is a bear eating

Here is a bear cub just a hanging in a tree

And here is a couple of Bears doing what comes naturally

Here is a Bear walking around and another one lounging about...


Overlooking all of Rapid City is a Mountain called Dinosaur Hill. The views are spectacular. The Dinosaurs where built int he 1930's by the WPA. Here are a couple shots.

And overlooking downtown Rapid City

On the way into Pine Ridge Reservation we stopped at the White River Visitor Center which was well worth the stop. At the center they give an overall introduction to the reservation and the traditional Ogalaga/Lakota Sioux way of life. Here is the view from the Center.


And here are two sweet girls, our Nieces, Leslie and Ashleigh. Ecstatic about having their pictures taken!!


Last night I did a little x-stitching and working on griding out my linen for the Heartfelt Friends RR. The fabric is by Weichlet and called Lambs Wool, sorry it looks pretty boring but here it is....

And I worked some on the border of Serenity, which I think is turning out really nice. I like the way the Sassy Brass overdyed is streaking the colour back and forth.


Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate it, and leave a comment if you have the time.
Take care, and have a great weekend!!!!!!

edgar