Border Stitchin', Visiting NIAH, Eatin' Burgers and Brunch!

 Gentle Friends, I've been stitching away on the border, and here's a snap...

... just fill it in at the moment so it's not too exciting...

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Friday saw me finally making it across the Bay to Alameda and a visit to Needle in a Haystack...here are some snaps...

... a lovely wall of silks......

...after getting my silk and quite a bit of linen we stopped off at In-N-Out Burger...it was a perfect trip!!

  

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After Mass Yesterday we headed over to the Presidio for lunch with friends...  

to Sessions at the Presidio...

...we all got the same thing...

"Marin Farm Scrambled Eggs" 

When it landed on the table I thought they had brought me a salad, but under the microgreens were some delicious eggs, and the cheddar biscuits were delicious!!  That little cup of gravy is to pour over the biscuits, interesting, but a bit messy.

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Since we were so very close, just a couple of blocks away, we walked down to the last remnant of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition...

The Palace of Fine Arts

We walked around in the sunshine with lots of brides, and Quinceanera celebrants getting their pictures taken... also tons of tourists and just locals walking their dogs.  It's a lovely park and worth a visit.  It is actually the first time in all the years living here that I've actually been down here to just walk around.

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That's about it for today sports fans...  a few days off and some fun goings-on... 

I'm also off today and I've got some stitching and napping on the agenda!!  Thanks for stopping by.  Stay Safe!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Visit to My LNS...... Needle in a Haystack!!

Gentle Friends I am really lucky to have as my LNS "Needle in a Haystack."  I planned a trip for last Saturday and even the deluge of rain couldn't keep me from going.  I think once I make up my mind that I just go with things with a "Get 'er done" attitude they usually pay off well - like last Saturdays visit.  One of the reasons I wanted to make it over was it was the last day of the "Egg" cellent Anniversary Sale, where you get to draw a discount egg when you check out.  I made sure to bring my camera and took some snaps......

... there is a huge selection of floss......

... one of the tables of new things to peruse.....

... there are racks upon racks of charts and fun things to stitch.....

... did I mention all the gorgeous floss... silk, cotton and wool.......  at the linen wall the ladder was up and I climbed up and took these......

... looking across the store towards the front... and ....

.... looking out and towards the back of the store... you really get a feel from these snaps just how comprehensive the store is for stitching!!  It is a real joy to walk into this store as everyone is so nice - Cathe and Debi are very kind and helpful, they can answer just about any stitching question you might have.  If you get anywhere near the shop I would highly recommend a visit - and if you live far away, they have a wonderful Internet presence and can ship fun stitching stuff to you.  Of course I couldn't leave empty handed and brought home some fun things.....  my aim was to acquire some linen, specifically 40 count. 

When I started back to stitching after a break of about 10 years,  I didn't want to stitch on Aida cloth any longer and so I started off stitching on 28ct, then quickly moved to 32ct.  After a few months I hen made the leap to 36ct - and have been using 36ct almost exclusively for the past few years.  Recently I acquired a piece of 40ct linen and have been really hesitant to try it out, but with my most recent project, SMS being such a large project, I decided to just make the leap and see if I could stitch on 40ct.  Needless to say I am totally enjoying this higher count linen and needed to stock up on a few pieces for the future.  I really didn't need any more charts ( I already have 100's) or any floss..... but linen I wanted....

I picked up a couple of project zipper bags, some Petit 28 gold needles, I did find a couple of charts from my very short list of charts I wanted, a micro cloth, on the cloth a "Bat" needle minder, some 3" rings, I use these for floss organization, and some larger cuts of 40ct linen.... from the top they are, Linens by Design "Barn Owl," a special cut of "Vintage Sand Dune." (on which I think I will restart a WIP I am less than pleased with) then another giant piece of LbD "Barn Owl," and a LbD piece of "Meadowlark," and a great piece of LL "Vintage Lt Exemplar."  Linens by Design used to be Birds of a Feather, a company that made the best linen, IMHO.  It was a great visit and when I checked out I drew a discount egg that saved me 20% on my purchase - woohoo!!!

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There you go sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Very Nice Weekend

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends we had such a nice weekend - nothing traumatic, nothing crazy - just smooth sailing and two lovely days of bright warm weather.  Out here our Fall season in the city are usually warm and beautiful and the past two days have lived up to that!! In fact we cooked a couple of steaks on the grill and sat by the "cement pond" (pool) for a long time yesterday afternoon........  

The pool heater is broken so the water temps are in the low 60's so no swimming - but the breeze was warm a delicious and the sun was shinning!!  It is supposed to be nice for the next couple of days so I see more "pool" sitting in our future!!

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I have some stitching stuff to share - on Saturday after a quick and quite tasty challah/bacon/schmear and a cup of coffee at Noah's we headed over to Alameda and to my LNS "Needle in a Haystack."

I know I have posted some snaps of the inside before but here are some I took on Saturday....

Just as you walk in the front door is a great Hallowe'en tree with lots of cute ornaments!!!

Then there are all the lovely colours.....

 and the gorgeous silks.....

and more silks...

and all the racks of great stash.....   

I was very good and only worked from a list of things I wanted/needed/wanted -  so my stash acquisition was on the small side!!  Isn't the Peach cute - she has to check everything out that hits the floor!!   I have two projects in mind that I want to do so that was my focus.  Both are Christmas themed pieces - the first is -

 - from the Blackbird Designs Joyeux Noel Book they released last year or the year before - "Tis the Season" - a great red bird piece I have wanted to do for along time.  I finally picked up the 36ct LL "Pear" linen for it - it has a green cast that I think will make the Belle Soie Silks really pop.  I had all the silks in my stash except for the Vanilla one so I also picked that up.  The second project is - 

This Christmas Alphabet - I have had this chart for a few years and just never got a piece of linen I liked for actually stitching it up on - it is an odd size 15" x 15' and the chart calls for "Natural" - whatever that means - the picture of the piece on the front looks blue to me!!  So I picked up a piece of 36 ct LL Meadow Rue that I think will look nice.  I had a hard time deciding on this as one of the colours is a sort of off ecru and bled into most of the pale beige linens I was pulling - this has enough contrast to make even the ecru stand out.  I am doing this in the recommended DMC as that is the only reference for floss.  I may switch it all to HDF silks, but for now I have the DMC kitted up.  Have a month to make a final decision.
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I did some actual stitching also this weekend - I finished up part 4 of Carol's mystery sampler -

I added little touches of Blueberry Soup and changed the heart to be a bit more open.   This great little piece is really coming along!!  I also worked some on "Shores" - here is how it stands now...

I was very happy to get the rocks finished and get started on the little house.

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I think I will leave off on that for today.  I still have some other snaps and a baked goodie to talk about, but I'll chat about that tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by, do come again!!

Take care,

edgar

Part II - A Visit to Needle in a Haystack

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends since this was a three day weekend I made plans for a visit to NiaH on Friday.  NiaH opens at 11 am so we coupled this visit with a stop off at IKEA first - they open at 10.  Making our morning a great adventure of getting onto the highway and zooming across the Bay Bridge to Emeryville.  Check yesterdays post for the report about our first stop at IKEA.

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After leaving IKEA loaded down with some cool stuff we headed into downtown Oakland - Rico knew a short cut through town instead of getting back onto the Highway.  Driving on the highways is something I hate to do.  I think my biggest gripe about highway driving is that most drivers treat it like some sort of speedway. Going in excess of 80 or 90+ mph, cutting in and out of traffic and just reckless driving typify the highways here in California.  Saving 3 seconds getting someplace and disregarding everyone else on the road is not safe driving and it makes me just insane.  Getting off my soapbox....

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Getting onto Alameda and finding Niah was so very easy and the parking was plentiful.  We walked in and as usual the store is a dream and just packed with all sorts of goodies.  Here are some snaps.......

There was so much to see and look through.  When ever I make a trip over I go with a list in my head or for specific things.  If I didn't I would go wild and just spend way too much.  This time was no different - I had and idea of what I wanted to get - some linen, some buttons and any chart on my list.  Of course I picked up a couple of other things ...  here is a snap of my little stash acquisition...

As you can see I didn't go crazy - but found some things I really wanted.  Starting in the top left - this is my main WIP basket in which I keep my most current projects  - inside you can see that each project has its own zippered pouch - I needed a few more pouches for the secondary WIP basket - I also picked up a PS chart I didn't have, "May," and a couple of other charts - "Mighty Oak Sampler" from Chessie and Me and "Jenny Bean and Friends" from Shakespeare's Peddler.  Moving to the lower middle you can see my completed "Christmas Rules" by Lizzie Kate.  I stitched mine on 36 ct linen instead of the recommended 28 ct.  That meant that the buttons included with the charts never really fit right IMHO - so I took the piece with me to find smaller buttons.  Talking to Cathe I found out that these where the smallest buttons out there and then she suggested using beads - well, I never even thought about beads - so we looked through the huge number of choices and found some sparkly opaque ones that will work just great.  Now I need to clip off the buttons and attach the beads a-  I think then I will be much happier with the results.  Moving towards the top you can see a great needle minder from Klemscott - it is the sheep one that released last year - I wanted it then but never got it - I just couldn't pass on it when I saw it this time.  Next to the needle minder is a great Blacksheep, scissor holder, pin cushion and thimble holder - there were both Black and White sheep - was there any choice??  I picked it up when I first walked in and just loved this little darling!!  I stood there and thought and thought about it  - remembering that I did have a list - and then passed.  When we got into the car to leave Rico handed it to me and said "Happy Easter!!" - wasn't that a sweet thing to do!!!  All of these wonderful things are sitting on the reason I wanted to go over in the first place - for some linen.  I actually wanted a piece of linen to make a new start.... this lovely piece is by Lakeside Linens, 36 ct "Vintage Sand Dune" and a special cut for Autumn at HRH.  It also happens to be the exact size I need to make my start on "And They Sinned."  I really want to start on ATS but didn't have anything near long enough in my stash pile.  I also like to see linen in person since I enjoy over dyed and hand dyed linen - the dye lots between pieces can be really dramatic.  Cathe and Debi were a super help and they hauled out many pieces of linen that would work before I finally decided on this piece. There you go a smallish stash pile, but things  I "needed" or is that wanted.

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I have been stitching on LHN Monthlies and here is a progress snap.....

..... as you can see I have finished up April and May and am now working on June. I am making slight changes to colour placement from the charted placement - just because I think it looks better and for no other reason.   I should be able to finish up June and be able to start on ATS  this weekend - woohoo!!!

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There you go sports fans - a visual visit to a lovely shop with wonderful people and great stuff!!!  Let me know if there is anything specific you wanted to know.  Thanks for stopping by and for your super comments!!  Do stop by again!

Take care,

edgar

A Trip to the Haystack

GR&DF thank you for your kind comments - I opened up one of the Tim Tam's last night and what a great little cookie!! Crunchy, chocolaty deliciousness! I now know what all the talk is about -

Yesterday afternoon instead of heading home we ran over to Tessa's Hotel and picked her up for our trip to NIAH - It was a pretty tough mess of a traffic on the way out of town, but those are the breaks sometimes. Once across the Bay Bridge it was a clear shot through the Posey Tube and onto Alameda. For those that might not know Alameda is a island in the SF Bay and there are only a couple of ways to get onto or off by car - one is the Posey Tube/Webster Street Tube the other is an old metal bridge. We usually use the tubes. This will come into play a little later. After getting to the store we found a super parking spot right out front!!

We shopped the store pretty good. I found some things and here are some stash snaps -

I picked up a special cut of LL Vintage Autumn Gold for my SoHRH. Here is a snap of the silks with the linen. It looks like it will be a really nice piece. The only thing I am changing is the black border colour - from black to a very dark blue.

I also picked up this -

I went and pulled the chart from the pile o' stash and found that I had already kitted the project. I didn't like the linen I had chosen a 32ct Flax with Thread Gatherer Silkn'colors "Tapestry Green." I really like the silk but wanted to get another piece of linen - so I found this LL Navy Bean 36ct piece that I think will do much better.

I also picked up a couple of things for the regular stash heap -

How could I pass on this lovely piece of BoF Sandpiper. I also picked up the little chart to go along with the Jenny Bean Charts I already have. Tessa picked up quite a pile of stuff also. Mostly things that are hard to get in Australia - all together we did quite well and Jennifer was a great help!!! Here is a snap -

- of the two of us out front of NIAH.

After we left and got back on the way home we ran slap into a gigantic traffic problem - I think but am not too sure but there must have been some sort of wreck in the tub going off the island and luckily I could turn us around a get across the island and on to the bridge - this only added about 45 mins to the ride home. But it was one crazy traffic jam!!

Last night the flicker was a DVD from Netflix. I have had this on my queue ever since it came out on DVD - it has been on "very long wait" up until two days ago. Now that I have seen it I am so happy to have not spent $15 and seen it on the big screen. It was Disney's "Princess and the Frog" - 2009 - starring the voices of Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos and Keith David. I really wanted to like this film - as I am a Disney fan from way back and I did in a couple of places but overall I felt it fell quite flat - on two major points - characters and story - set in 1920's Jazz Filled New Orleans - a visiting Prince is turned into a frog and accidentally a hardworking "Princess" is accidentally turned into a frog also- the frog story then shifts gears and revolves around and evil Voodoo conjure man trying to use a replacement Prince to get rich and gain power over the city while the Frog Prince and "princess" race against time to turn back into humans. There where some really bright spots and the music was very good - not memorable but very good. A nice little film that is very rentable not buyable.

There you go sports fans. Once again I must thank you for stopping by and for you kind comments - have a great weekend!!

Take care,

edgar

Back to Blogging!!

GR&DF I sure missed this here blog and all of you dear folks out in Blog land!! I have a butt load of stuff to do this morning and my desk is a mess but I have to post something as I am having a real withdrawal from blogging. It is amazing how cathartic this blog is sometimes and just getting some words out there. I do enjoy it immensely and will just post a little bit today.

I worked on two pieces over the last few days. First up is from the AWoL RR - It is Suzanne's piece. I have a pretty crappity snap of it - the actual piece is so much more beautiful than this snap, but here it is...

I worked the two medallions in the middle. I am kind sad about this RR as it is winding down and will finish up soon. I love being in RR's and am trying to think of another to start up when this is finished.

Last Friday I made the trek over to Alameda to visit Needle in a Haystack. I needed to get a piece of linen so that I could begin the Alpha piece. All the pieces I have in my stash where not quite right. I hadn't been over to visit the store in a while so I wanted to take the dear ladies a little treat. On the way out of town Rico (he took off on Friday also) and I stopped by Dianda's Bakery - our Favorite Bakery in the City - to pick up some of their delicious Italian cookies - it is an Italian Bakery.


All along the top of this case are the cookies - and the sell them by the pound - so I took an assortment.

The lower shelf in the left front are some round powder sugar almond torte things that are to delicious with coffee!! This wasn't our only visit to Dianda's we where back on Saturday so there will be more snaps tomorrow. - Back to Friday - at NIAH I picked up s few other fun things....

In addition to the piece of linen for Alpha I picked up this piece of BOF Sandpiper 36ct and a great pair of scissors a few charts and some NPI silk. The silk is a very dark blue that I will be using for the border of my Shores of HRH - I really didn't like the black borders that are charted and think that a very dark blue will look better. At NIAH I ordered a piece of linen for the Shores as it is a special cut - I am going with the charted Autumnal Gold LL on 36ct.

Here is a snap of the start of my Alpha piece..

I chose a 36ct Vintage something by LL - and I am totally enjoying this stitch like I knew I would!!

I think I will leave off with that for today. Thank you for stopping by and do come again!!

Take care,
edgar

Stitching, Stashing and a drawing.....

GR&DF I do thank you for your kind words about last Friday's post. I am also pleased that you enjoyed the murals from last week. I know there are loads of them all over the city - as I run into others I will get snaps of the more interesting ones.

This past weekend started off with a nice cosy dinner over at Dale's house. It wasn't just for dinner as Dale wanted a "reading." A Tarot card reading that is and Rico was happy to oblige - after smudging his apartment they got to reading, I of course sat in the living room and promptly fell asleep - typical.

Saturday was laundry day - and after 5 loads I was beat but had that sense of accomplishment from getting it all done!! The rest of the day was spent stitching away on my Alphablocks.... here is a snap of where it stands at the moment -

Sorry about how wonky the piece is - but you can see that the vine met without mishap - I was so happy when that happened!! You might also notice that I have started the block fill. I figured that this will be the year of "stitching from the stash" and so that's what I did. I went to my extra over dyed floss' and found that I had quite a few OWS floss' I had gotten for an earlier project. There is plenty of floss there so I am doing the fill with the lovely softly coloured OWS floss. So far I am very pleased with the result and may have to pull other bits for the fill from that ring of lovelies.

Yesterday we made a pilgrimage to NIAH. Specifically to meet up with Susan, who had very generously offered to loan me the "Alpha" charts I was so desperately obsessing about. I had already gotten as a gift the first chart - Thank you so much dear Sherry!!!! So I was only going to have to borrow the other two charts..... When I got there I went on over to where the Sheepish charts where hanging and right there in the little pile of them was the third part - "Alpha Sheep" - damned if I didn't do a jig right there in the store!!!! I completely thought I would have no chance at finding this chart just out for sale. I know that many stitchers are looking for these three charts and they just do not appear that often on eBay or anywhere else for that matter. While looking around, we where there a good 2 hours, I saw lots of other charts that are either out of print or ones other stitchers have mentioned looking for - If you have a chart need or hard to find chart I would suggest emailing NIAH with any requests you might have and you might just luck out. Now with my having the first and third charts I only needed to borrow the middle chart from Susan - which of course dear Susan loaned me!!! I am totally stoked to get this going....

Here is a snap of the three charts and the Belle Soie conversion I made. The piece is charted for NPI, DMC and Anchor - but I wanted to do this in over dyed silks (You know how stubborn I can get about some things!!! ) - so my conversion is mostly BS but there is a Gloriana skein in there for the Olde Gold colour. I had most of silks and only need to get a couple from NIAH. I think it will work up quite nicely. I do not have a piece of linen yet - but I did pick up apiece of linen for my next piece......

The memorial sampler I wanted to get going last year - I just never had a piece of linen I liked or that was big enough - so I made my decision and got it yesterday - it is vintage navy bean (I think) and is nice an lightly splotched - I have had the floss kitted up for the longest time and now with the fabric it will certainly be the next piece after Alphablocks.

We had the drawing for the JCS yesterday....


and from the BOD a name was pulled - and after being checked out by The Peach....

It was Donna's name that was pulled and is the winner of this the First Drawing of the Year!! Congratulations, Donna - I have emailed you for your snail mail address.

There you go sports fans!! Another low key weekend - Thanks for stopping by and thank you again for your kind comments!! Such nice things to read on a cold a windy Monday morning!!!

Take care,
edgar

It's Thursday....

.....and you would think by this time in the week I would be able to get it together!!! I am so far behind in blog reading that it just isn't funny! I got a chance this morning to see whats up over at the Ornament swap and a ton has been going on - Vonna has gotten some gorgeous ornaments!!! What a talented group of stitchers those ladies are - I hope when mine arrives it can stand the test!! I totally loved the ornie I made for sweet Vonna so much that I am making me one just like it! Last night in the realm of stitching I worked on AND finished the MAW for Gabby - so that it CAN leave today - I really think it is cute and hope that she likes it when it arrives - in the next week or so. I also worked on the VoHRH some and here is a snap of the progress -



The mail yesterday was super as I received my Christmas Ornament issue and some stash
(like I needed more!!) Here is a snap -



You knew I was going to get that "Alphabet Zoo" - so when I was placing that order with Drema I thought I would also get the "Quakers and Quilts" as it was another one I HAD to have - this chart has quite a few extra bits in it and an extra chart I didn't realize was included is on the back cover - so you really get a ton with this chart!! The silk pile is me steadily stashing away the NPI for the Shores of HRH and I am getting very close to having them all... I think I am going to trot over to NIAH and check out the linen .... I also want to kit up "des Arbes" as I know I want to change the colors from the model...I need to be in front of the racks of floss to decide.

There you go - thanks for stopping by!!

Take care,
edgar