A little More stitching.....

Thank you all for the nice comments about the box I made for Nicola!! I have always liked LHN designs as they are nice to stitch and easy to adapt to many different finishes.

Last night saw Part 1 of Sail Away finish up. Here is a snap -


It was VERY hard not to continue on stitching away on this piece all evening - but I made that commitment so I refrained from doing....... the heart, 1/2 medallion to the right and the flower on the left.... I really enjoyed stitching the 1 over 1 part and at some point will probably do some whole Quaker thing that way. I am thinking that the band beneath the words may be some sort of rope like bar - it is alternating Smyrna crosses and rice stitching and looks to me like bumpy twisted rope..... I wonder? Most of the stitching is really hard to see.... the herringbone beneath the bar/rope is a pale grey and that stain stitched triangle just melts into the fabric, but that's what is called for so on I stitch.

After I finished up the SA section I picked up AEoL RR piece and worked a little on it
- Here is a snap of that...


I finished up the medallion I was working on and started the flowers in the pot. I am going to try and get my section done this weekend. I have also ordered some back up floss to send with this and am praying that the dye lots are not too far off.

Here are the last two Questions and my answers.....

Question 5 - Finally, what do the cross stitch magazines on the market offer you? Do they relate to you as a cross stitcher? Do you look at them and think to yourself, who do they think buys this magazine? I guess what I'm asking, when you see the current cross stitch magazines do they make you feel like they know their readers or do you find it's more of the same? What could they do to be ambassadors for the art of cross stitch other than putting a sampler on the cover with "F-U" on it? What are we missing on a PR level that could change the opinion of cross stitch itself?

Wow - what a loaded question. Lets take each piece at a time... For me Cross Stitch Magazines as a whole offer me very little. I only subscribe to a single one now - SANQ - as I do enjoy reading the articles - and at some point may even stitch something from the pages - I also pick up occasionally JCS - the ornament issue for sure and any other one that has something I want to stitch, but JCS rarely has anything I want to stitch. I did take an online magazine for the last two years and not once was there anything that I stitched from its "pages" - and there where only a very few things I could even see myself stitching so I let that subscription expire last month and will not renew. I would guess that creating a magazine is very hard - as you are constantly trying to include so many different kinds of stitchers. I would hope that the few magazines for cross stitchers would know their audiences - but sometime it is hard to see who on earth they are targeting as so often I think to myself what a waste of paper and could not imagine who would ever do the projects they print. I haven't a clue how to change how cross stitching is perceived by the masses - if in my own home it is still either called "sewing " or "needle point" how is someone that doesn't have a clue going to understand. I think that most cross stitchers either grew up in a home that had a needle worker or had a friend that crafted with a needle.

Question 6 - And Finally, finally, do you do other crafts and if so what are they and why do they pull you away from cross stitch?

I don't do other crafts as no others hold any interest for me - so my focus is only on cross stitch. I have in the past done quite a bit of needlepoint and would do more if the project interested me, but for now cross stitch does it for me!!

Last night the flickers where a couple from Judy Garland Day on TCM as part of their Summer under the stars month. I got to see two films - first up was "The Clock" - 1945 - starring Judy Garland and Robert Walker. One of the rare non-musical Judy flicks that really show off what a superior actress Judy was. It is basically a cute love story during WWII movie set in New York. The second flick was "Meet in Saint Louis" - 1944 - starring Judy Garland, Mary Astor, Margaret O'Brien and Lucille Bremer. One of my all time favorites!! Great songs, great story, just a feel good movie!! I would recommend both of these films to anyone!

Tomorrow is Bette Davis day and the line up is top notch!!! - 24 hours of Bette - starting with "Pocket Full of Miracles" - 1961 - a really cute remake of "Lady for a Day." Then "Return form Witch Mountain" - 1978, followed by and interview worth watching The Dick Cavette Show: Better Davis - 1971, then a really good, gritty film - "Marked Woman" 1937 - this is one of those 30's films that was "ripped from the headlines" that Warner's did so well!! Next up is a tour de force - "Dark Victory" - 1939 a quintessential Bette Film that if you haven't seen you should. "Now Voyager" - 1942 is next and is Bette at the top of her game. Then a film biography that is very good called Stardust:The Bette Davis Story. At 8pm EST or 5pm PST is one of the Essentials - "The Man Who Came to Dinner" - 1942 - One of the rare Bette comedies and really not her movie but Monty Woolley's movie - more of an ensemble piece, very good and pretty funny!! The last four movies in order of showing and all superior flickers.... "Deception" - 1946, "The Letter" - 1940, "In This Our Life" - 1942 and finally "Watch on the Rhine" - 1943. All of the films are available on DVD so if you can't catch them on the TV you can always rent them.

Thanks once again for stopping by - have a great weekend!!!!

Take care,
edgar