What we learned in high school

I belong to a mystery book club, and this month's book was set in Quebec.  The author had tossed in a bunch of French words, which some readers had trouble with.  One member mentioned that she had taken Latin in school, as her foreign language, and often regretted that decision, but she found her Latin knowledge useful in figuring out the French words.

That led another member to ask "what two classes did you take in High School that you use most every day?"  He identified Latin and typing.  And many of us agreed with typing class (though I learned typing in junior high).  Another member mentioned band.

I thought this was a very interesting question, and am not sure what my second class choice would be.  Physics? No.  Geometry?  No.  Chemistry?  No.  French?  No.  Hmmm.  English grammar would be an easy choice, but we learned grammar in grade school and by the time we reached high school, we were into literature.

And on to the subject of needlework, our ANG Blue Ribbon Chapter set up an exhibit of some of our work, at a local library.  I had a number of pieces in the exhibit.

My two pieces here are the ghosts and the fancy pumpkin, done on perforated paper

My pieces here are the Jazz Square hanging on the back wall, and the Patriotic Sparklers in the blue vase

On one group, a member posted that she was in "ahh" of the wonderful work others were doing.  It seemed clear she didn't know the word "awe," and was writing what she thought she had heard people saying.  I got a kick out of this because I'm thinking that when people are in awe, they often say "ahh.

FBI, uh...Federal...uh...

One of my guilty pleasures is watching the reality series of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.  We get to see the three-part audition process to identify candidates for training camp and then follow training camp.

The funniest part, to me, is the panel interview during the final auditions.  Each year, there's someone (or several someones) completely out of touch.  The stand-out this year was the candidate who didn't know what the initials CIA stood for and could only come up with "Federal" for the FBI initials.

And later in training camp, there is an "etiquette" lesson where the candidates are served a meal in a fancy restaurant and learn proper table manners.  This is purposefully difficult, as the candidates are served food that is not easy to eat. This year, the group was served quail, and one candidate said she'd never eaten quail before, but she knew it was a kind of fish.  (Reminiscent of Jessica Simpson and her Chicken of the Sea conundrum?) On the opposite side of the spectrum, another candidate readily identified quail as a game bird, relaying that she regularly went quail hunting.

Frustration Galore

Metalforms, ANG Project designed by Jeff Kulick

Tah dah!!! Drum roll please!   My local Blue Ribbon Chapter of the American Needlepoint Guild has a chapter project that a number of us are participating in this year.  We are stitching "Metalforms," designed by Jeff Kulick.  The instructions were printed in five parts in issues of the ANG magazine.  People are picking a variety of color ways.  I picked the blue colorway, and initially thought I would stitch on black canvas, though I was sort of dreading that because it is very difficult to stitch on black.  Then, at a chapter meeting, another member, sitting at the other end of the table, made a comment about, "of course, no one would want to stitch blue on green," and I had an "aha" moment.

As to the frustration part, this project was obviously designed for the designer's own stitching and not planned as a teaching project.  The instructions were not only incomplete, but there were a number of errors, and instances in which the instructions didn't match the photograph of the project.  And one of the threads chosen was virtually impossible to work with.  But, I made it!  I'm the second person in our chapter to complete this project.

Unfortunately, this project was not the end of my frustration.  When I finally finished this, I decided I would turn next to cross-stitching a winter garden design, something much simpler, with clear instructions.  Uh oh...

First off, the design was 16" by 16", so I started stitching only to discover that by the time I got to the middle of the right hand side, I was at 9", making the piece 18" so it didn't fit  correctly on the fabric.  So, should I rip out what I had already stitched and start over on this piece of fabric?  Or just start over on a new piece of fabric.  I chose the latter.  Next issue: after I had stitched some pink sections, I decided the shade of pink the designer used didn't work with my new fabric.  So I chose another pink, which I decided, after I'd stitched some, was too light.  On to stitching another pink, which I decided was too bright.  Finally, fourth time was the charm.  Third issue: the design called for bright white floss, which I had on hand and started using.  The design called for three skeins, so I went to Joann's Fabric and Craft Store to pick up some more.  When I came to the end of the skein I had been using and turned to one of the new skeins I had purchased, I discovered that the bright white floss I had on hand had turned a bit yellow in the drawer so did not match the new bright white floss.  So, I had to rip out the white I had stitched.

But after all that, I am finally making good progress on my winter garden.

Update:  I spoke too soon about finally making good progress.  One evening as I surveying how much thread I had used and how much I had left, I realized I  had mistakenly used the wrong color pink in several sections.  So, once more I had to rip out and re-stitch.