Back from SANDY!

It is so nice to come back and read all of your nice normal blogs! Normalcy is wonderful! I love just ordinary days!

Our power came back on last night (Friday) about 10pm. Just when I was beginning to think that it would never happen!

Monday night with that storm was truly a horror! We lost four 50+ ft trees, and many, many branches! It was so loud, all the crashing and snapping. We knew something huge had come down because the house shook each time. The sky was lit up with blue flashes. Later, we figured out that they were all the transformers exploding. When there was a momentary lull, we went out on the deck with a flashlight. The big hit was a 200 year-old Silver Maple, which landed on our newly constructed chicken shed. When we came out in the morning, we found out that although damaged, the shed part was intact, but the chicken run was completely destroyed. Some of the chickens had gotten out and were running around. Some of them were trapped in the shed part. Amazingly, all of them survived! I did take us a while before we could count them though!

Hard to tell,but the roof of the chicken coop is in the left of the picture.

One of the trees that came down cut off access to the rest of the yard. It left a hug 15 foot hole in the ground where the roots pulled out. I don't know how, but we will have to fill the hole, though I think the tree itself will be there for some time to come!

We were so lucky that the house was spared. The divider on our deck was ripped off, but other than that, the old house remained intact. I guess someone up there was watching out for us! We spent Tuesday and Wednesday trying to clean up. We ate omelets courtesy of the chickens for dinner, and gave away some eggs to our next door neighbors, and the man who helped us pull the tree off the chicken coop.

Our road was closed because of the many trees stretched across it. Finally when the Tappan Zee bridge re-opened, Keith went back to work on Thursday. It was really awful being stuck alone in a dark house, wondering what was going on in the rest of the world! He was disappointed that the power was not on when he got home Thursday night, and Friday night.
Four days and 5 nights without power was a pain in the neck, but nothing compared to what others have had to contend with though.
I am a pretty easy-going person, but it will be some time before my nerves recover from this one. I still jump when I hear a loud noise!

I am so glad to be able to get back to stitching! I wasn't able to with the power off because I really need my magnifier light to see anything!

Exactly what we did NOT need !

Keith was going to his brother's house to pick up a small generator, when he saw this. He caught it on video.

I just love their explanation of what went wrong! (Heard at the end of the video).




This is right down the street from us. The road in front of the dam was closed. He walked down the road on the way back and found that a pipe had burst somewhere in United Water’s property and there was a gusher of water shooting up about 50 feet.

Great! Can't wait til the storm gets here! This area is usually under water anyway!

Deep Peace is finished!

I was beginning to think it would never happen! Actually I finished the stitching last week, but I didn't iron/steam it until this morning. Hopefully I took enough of the volume out of the center of the D with the steam. It seems to lie a bit flatter now. I hope when it is framed, it will not be noticed.

First I had to re-stitch the berries with the pink color.

Then I illuminated the vertical and horizontal columns with silver back-stitching.

I didn't have a picture that showed the pearl purl around the letter last time. This one shows the completed D.

The letter is over-layed with gold filament as well. I was worried about ironing/steaming the metallic area, so I used as little heat as I could. The purl at the top still looks a little wonky, but I am hoping it will stretch out when it is framed.
Next, the gold and silver paillettes were added. They were supposed to be done with French knots, but on occasion I had to take an extra stitch to keep them secure.

Here is the whole piece completed:

Deep Peace

Phew! I am very glad to have this one finished!

Just in time for the hurricane! Hope I will be able to get some Deep Peace and we don't lose any more trees! The winds have really started to howl here! I wanted to post this before we lost power.

Hope all of you stay safe from Sandy! Good luck!

TUSAL and. . . getting closer with Deep Peace

Here is my October contribution to the TUSAL:

All the sparkly bits on the top are from the metal stitching on Deep Peace.

I have made more progress on Deep Peace, but it has not been without frustration!

I finished illuminating the D.

I did not stagger the rows as described in the directions, except where the rows were uneven. I started to, but just didn't like the way it was turning out.

I was pleased that it was finished, and I was ready to go onto the pearl purl part, until . . .  to my horror, I discovered that I had one skein of silk that was unused! I checked and discovered that the berries were supposed to be stitched in pink! This was sort of buried in the text and I missed it. I stitched them in the same shade as the vines. Admittedly this gave it a rather November look, but I thought it looked ok. Then I realized that the scene inside the D was a Spring scene. Yes, it would be better to have pink berries! Those !*#&@ berries got me again! Well you guessed it, spent the next two evenings replacing the brown with pink. If anyone out there stitches this design, I would strongly suggest going through the entire set of pages and highlighting all the steps. Some of them are easy to miss.

Ok, now it was finally time to go onto the pearl purl. I found the secret to this was to go very slowly. You feel like you need 3 hands to do this, but it finally got done.
Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of this yet, but I will very shortly.

I do have another problem though, and I'm not quite sure what to do about it. The linen inside the D has stretched. It now puffs upward. Grrr! Not sure how to shrink it back to size. Not sure if it will show when it is framed. I am really not sure what I could have done to avoid this!

Have to think about it for a while I guess.

OMG What a dummy I am!

After all that crowing about finishing the border, I just looked at the picture and discovered that I still have to stitch the berries on the top right-hand side of the border!

Oh well,. that will be quick!

Deep Peace progress and some non-stitchy stuff

I  finally finished the border of Deep Peace!
Whoopee!

The berries are made up of Smyrna stitches. I am not totally happy with the way all of the leaves came out. They are done with a satin stitch. On some of the leaves, the center line did not work out exactly perfectly, but I am not going to change them! I prefer to look at them as a "variation occurring in nature" ! LOL!

Here is how it looks so far:

Now, on to the illumination!

The entire D is to be overlayed in cross stitch, using two strands of gold cord. Thankfully, the stitching is one over two threads. The underlying stitching is all one over one!

I finished the border very late last night, so I only made a small start on the gold work. Only the very first row at the top of the D is done completely. The second row is done in one direction.

Click to get a better view of the gold stitching

The cord has to be very short. I am using an 18" length, folded in two. The cord has to be looped to the needle so the two strands don't move around. The stitching has to be done vertically with a quick jabbing and stabbing motion. This takes a bit of getting used to. The length has to be very short because it frays easily.The idea is to lay the strands down side by side, so more of it is illuminated. Well, you know how that goes! It is very hard to keep it from twisting and laying down on top of each other! I am doing the best I can, but all bets are off here! LOL!

The real problems will begin when I start working with the purl. That is very slow, fastidious work. It has to be couched all along the outline of the letter. Well, I am getting ahead of myself. I have a long way to go just covering the initial first!

I was hoping to be working on some Christmas designs by now. I had no idea this one would take so long. Hopefully I will be able to sneak in a little ornie before the season is upon us!

Now for some other stuff.
Most of the chickens are now laying on a regular basis. Gertie, one of our "Easter Eggers", presented us with this little prize:

A Blue-green egg !

We still have about 5 chickens that haven't laid an egg yet. Not sure what's up with that. Hopefully they will catch up.

I spent quite a bit of time working on some signs.

I have a great respect for anyone who makes signs! No one knows how much work is involved! It really took a long time. I'm sure that someone who really knew what she was doing could have done it much faster.
Unfortunately, I'm not so sure the sign shows up well enough. It looks rather small out by the driveway.

I also had to design a simple label for the egg cartons (hmmm, not so simple)!.

So far we have sold 5 dozen eggs, and of course we have given some away to friends and family.

We were hoping to have another honey harvest this week, but Keith says there isn't that much honey in the hives. The bees need what is there to make it through the winter.
We have been selling the summer honey on a regular basis, but only have about 18 bears left now.

 It's so pretty! Don't you think? I hate to see the end of it.

WOW! I lead such an exciting life! LOL!

By the way, I have added my blog reading list to the side bar. I don't know what happened when I did this, but not all the blogs made the transfer. I am adding them as I find them. If I am a reader of your blog, please don't be offended. It is just techno-fizzle with blogger!

This has been a very long post. Congrats if you have made it all the way through it!
I will be back soon to let you know how the gold work is coming along.

TUSAL and some progress on Deep Peace

Hi Everyone,

I never meant to be gone so long! I have been very distracted with medical appointments, and other such annoyances!

He is my long overdue September TUSAL:

Lots of colors here!

There is some progress on Deep Peace, but it has been slow going. This is not the kind of piece you can work on when you are overly tired or distracted. I found that I was making a lot of mistakes so I put it aside for a few days.

I finished filling in the big "D".

click pictures to enlarge

I still think the top filling is too dark. It seems to obscure the dragonfly and the butterfly, however I am leaving it alone for now.
Next I worked on the 5 "eep Peace". The directions call for the "eep Peaces" to be a darker color brown, and the rest of the verse done in a lighter shade, however I decided to complete the entire verse in the same color. It seemed to be more cohesive that way.

There is a blue wave over the first line, and some wavy design on the top that is made up of back stitching and cross stitch.

Next I stitched the little designs on the corners of the "D".
The horizontal box on the top was stitched with a diagonal Queen stitch.

The vertical box on the bottom of the "D" was done in Satin stitch.

Next came the illuminated initials for the last two lines.

After that, I worked on the curvy scrolling lines in celery colored silk.

I put my initials and the year above the last line. The designer embroidered a very curvy '98 there, in the same style as the curvy lines below. She put her initials in one of the Forget-me-nots on the edge. There was no way that I could have made a '12 into those curvy lines, and I wanted all the forget-me-not corners to be alike, so I put both initials and date here. I hope it isn't too abrupt of a style change.

So here is where I am with it so far.

 I am beginning the vines at the top, but I was making so many mistakes, I had to stop. I am picking it up again this evening, so hopefully I can get some more done on this. It is coming along, but oh, so slowly.

I received my metal supplies in the mail.

Oh boy! More fun to come! Stay tuned!

I am not sure I like this background.

After frogging, re-frogging, and frogging again, I finally finished the area inside the big D.
The forget-me-nots proved to be challenging because the chart showed the easier choice, rather than the written directions. I decided to follow the  written instructions which were considered a bit more difficult.
The forget-me-not is made up of 3 different parts. In the center, there is a tiny gold eyelet. This is surrounded by 12 tiny cross stitches (one over one). This area is surrounded by satin stitches, of varying lengths using the silk.

The buds on the stem are made with Smyrna stitches.

At the top, there is a dragonfly in the upper left, and a butterfly in the upper right. These are both done in silk with satin stitches. At the ends of their antennae are petite French Knots.

The background stitch is done in a darning stitch. There are 5 colors of cotton floss used here. The top is the darkest, which fades to the lightest color at the bottom. I can't decide if I like this or not, It seems to muddy it up a bit. It is harder to see the small details.

Here is the whole thing so far:

Not sure if I like it, but I don't know how it would be without any background. Maybe it should be lighter?
Just don't know.

On a different note, we had some eggciting news!

Gretchen presented up with a little egg! She is about 2-3 weeks early. I understand that sometimes they do that before the regular egg production begins.

It is a perfect little, light brown egg! It is hard to tell from the picture, but it is much more slender than a normal size egg.

That's all I have for today.
I hope you have all been having a nice summer!

TUSAL, some groaning, and a small finish!

That time again!

Here is my August TUSAL:

You see these guys?

FROGS ! ! !

They love Deep Peace soooo much, that they have decided to live here permanently!

Here is my progress (though you could hardly call it that)!

I have officially spent more time frogging this than I have stitching it! AGGGHH!
You would never know it from this rather innocuous looking picture, but a great deal of drama has played out on this little piece of linen! I was further along. I even had one of the forget-me-nots partially finished, but it all had to go. I had all kinds of problems with the stem. It definitely looks a little different than the picture. Something in there has gone very wrong, but I will be darned if I can find out where it went off the track. Also, I think mine is a little wider than the directions say it should be. Also I don't particularly like the dramatic differences in the green of the stem and leaves. I would prefer it to be a more subtle change in color. I refrained from frogging it though because I have had enough of that!

This was giving me such fits! I was very frustrated. That, combined with my insomnia induced jumpy eyes, I decided to take a break.

I always keep one of my easy little projects nearby for just such a situation.
I pulled out The Most Wasted Day, and finished it!

The Most Wasted Day - Erica Wilson 1972

I know, it's a silly little thing, but I love the crayola colors!

Well, I can't say that I have particularly enjoyed our summer weather this year, but atleast my Clivia has enjoyed the humidity. I was so pleased that it bloomed. Last year it didn't bloom at all. In fact it has been almost 2 years since I got a bloom. When they do bloom however, they are quite spectacular.
I will leave you with this tropical picture:

Happy stitching everyone!

Some progress on Deep Peace

I have finished the outer part of the initial. It was a bit easier once I finished the border.
The blue in the upper, middle and lower parts of the initial are done with Anchor 134, 133, and 132. Although the DMC equivalents were given, I chose to stitch it with the Anchor colors. The blue is graduated from dark to light so subtly, that I decided not to try to match the colors.
This is a somewhat pricey piece. There are many Anchor threads called for, as well as I think, 7 different shades of Silk 'n Colors, plus the metallic threads, gold purl and the gold and silver paillettes.

This is what I have so far:

Most of the initial is stitched one over one, but the border is cross stitched over two threads with Periwinkle Silk 'n Colors. The outermost row is stitched with two threads. The rest is all done with a single thread. In between the last row, there is a stem stitch done all around in Camouflage Silk 'n Colors. It is the dark line going all around. This color ranges from bright green to brown. I wasn't too sure how it would look because I kept getting a lot of dark brown, but I think it turned out ok.

It is hard to see it from the picture, but the lower part of the initial features evergreen trees against the blue, on both sides.

This is a blow-up of the lower left-hand corner. It shows the trees

This pictures also shows the tails (ornamentation) coming off the initial. I am not thrilled with the way they came out, It is very hard to see them.They seem to disappear into the threads. It is supposed to be back-stitched with a single thread, but I think I may try it with two threads to see if it looks better.

That's where I am now. The next step is to fill in the center of the initial, starting with some grass at the bottom.

Hope everyone is managing to stay cool in this weather. I am so done with summer! I am not a fan of the hot weather, and this summer is just relentless with the heat! I am looking forward to fall, my favorite season!

Okay. Now I do like a challenge, but . . .

I just cannot follow these directions as published!
In fact, if I had started with the border of the letter, it would have saved me a lot of time and frogging.

This is what I have so far:

The directions directed you to finish the D first, then do the corners. The border is to be done at some later time. This didn't work for me. I had to stitch atleast part of the border.
The problem is that there is no good picture to go by.

The stitching is mostly one over one, but the border is one over two. Where these two meet, is the problem. There is space left between them. In the upper right hand corner, it is hard to see it, but there is a moon there. The background is one over one, but where it meets curved areas, the space is not entirely filled in. I am not sure whether to fill it in with one over one, or leave it blank.
The directions are not clear.

I think I am going to go off grid here (literally), and just make it up as I go along.
Also, there are supposed to be tails coming off the letter that wind around into the border. This was supposed to be done, but I just didn't see how it could be done until the border is in place.

Well atleast the pulled eyelet turned out well. I am happy about that.

Has anyone out there stitched this? I would love to see some pictures and hear from you

Agghh! All of this has been very tough on these aging eyes!

I will keep you posted with my struggle.

TUSAL and Deep Peace

My jar is starting to get very full!

You see the light gold threads at the top?
That was my new start. - Not fun frogging one over one stitching!

I have had Deep Peace in my stash for years. I decided it was finally time to stitch it.

Deep Peace - Forget-Me-Nots In Stitches
by Lauren Sauer 1998

I think the reason I haven't started it before is that I find it quite daunting! It comes in a booklet form, and the directions are largely written. Although many helpful diagrams are included, it is very different from the usual type chart. I have the utmost admiration for the designer for attempting such a complex design.

Unfortunately the only picture included is very small one on the cover. I have enlarged it here so you can see the detail.

I started on the initial as the instructions suggest.

Not much to show. I had more before I realized I was following the wrong chart. It is all one over one. I was using the smaller overlay and didn't realize that everything was shown one over two! Ugh! Lots of frogging! I was considering buying another piece of fabric and starting over, but the materials for this project were quite pricey, so I thought it best to do the frogging.

One of the things that I am apprehensive about is working with real metal. It calls for gold purl for parts of the initial, as well as real gold and silver paillettes. These were a special order and I am still waiting for them.
I am nervous about this one! I really want to do a good job on it.

Well, I will let you know how it goes. Hopefully there will be no more frogging in my future!

The Sarah Whiteley Sampler is finished!

Yea!
It would have been a day sooner but I discovered to my horror that the border did not meet up.
Every stitcher's worst nightmare! It took me a bit of fiddling with it, but finally, with some creative stitching, I managed to get the ends to meet. Hate when that happens!

Anyway, here she is:

The Sarah Whiteley Sampler
Stitched with DMC on 32ct Natural linen

The chickens are giant! The rooster looks like he can peer into the second floor windows on the house!
I had fun stitching this one! I love the colors. I am always partial to red.

I had some trouble photographing this one. This was part of the reason:

Furrytail was hungry, and was not to be ignored!

I want to thank you for all of your comments. I love reading them. Will let you all know how it goes with the chickens. We are looking forward to our first egg somewhere around the middle of September.

Sarah's house is finished!

I also finished the floral motif in the left-hand corner. ( I am  not sure what that little basket looking thing is).
I still have a few more flowers to do, and then it will be on to stitch the giant chickens!

Speaking of giant chickens, I took a few pictures of my own giant chickens.

DeeDee

Millie

Dotty

Gigi

Gretchen

Andy (Formerly known as Annie)

Bonnie

Sally

Any Jane Austen fans out there?

This will make you drool !

Jane's ring

How cool is that?


Sotheby's is auctioning it off. You can read about it here.
I would love to have this!
I mentioned to Keith that our anniversary was coming up, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears!