Why it's a problem if you get all your news from Instagram

Well, another Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders issue.  One of the candidates was "released" after seven weeks of training camp, for utterly failing the mock interview with a TV reporter.  The reporter asked her about the "me too movement," and the candidate had to admit she had never heard of it.  In a follow-up meeting, the Director asked her how she got her news - did she watch TV or listen to the radio.  Well, no, she got her news from Instagram.  Hopefully she took some time after she left training camp to catch up on some news and check out the "me too movement."

And lest you think the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader candidates are the only people with an intelligence deficit - one of the members of one of my stitching groups on Facebook asked this morning that, if she bought a yard of fabric that was 60 inches wide, how long a piece would she get?  Duh...  This reminds me of something Dr. Seuss might say: "A yard's a yard, no matter how wide."

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.

The Best Laid Plans, or What's In a Name?

Our local Blue Ribbon ANG chapter has planned an exhibit for an area library, showing examples of a wide variety of types of stitching.  We headed to the library this afternoon, with tote bags and roller bags loaded with stitched examples to choose from, and planning to spend several hours putting together our display.  Only to find out that the person in charge of library displays had neglected to tell the staff on site that we had permission to install our exhibit.  So, back home we went with our tote bags and roller bags.  We'll try again in October.

Here are a couple of examples of the things I will be contributing.

Jazz Square, a Blue Ribbon Chapter project, each of us selecting different colors

Winter Snowflakes, a free pattern from Caron Threads that was a project for CyberStitchers

As for what's in a name.  Our ANG area representative came from Chicago to give us our official charter as an ANG chapter.  Only trouble was, the charter listed us as the Bluebonnet Chapter, not the Blue Ribbon Chapter!

Adventures in Dying Thread

A number of years ago, at one of the annual stitching festivals, I took a class in hand dying fabric and thread.  I have started stitching on one of my dyed fabric pieces, and I still have the other examples tucked away for future use.

My most recent experience with thread dying, however, was unplanned.  Here's my new recipe:

1) Pour some red fruit punch and put the glass on the side table.
2) Stitch some snow on a winter scene using off-white "parchment" colored thread
3) Add the thread to the side table.
4) Mix in one cat.

Here's the result:

Hand (er "paw") dyed thread using spilled fruit punch

Christmas at Easter

We had a belated Christmas at Easter time as I finally had some finished (completely finished!) ornaments to give.  These ornaments are in memory of Mom.  Grammy was committed to (passionate about, obsessed with) the AOPi sorority.  She served as National President at one point and attended national meetings into her 90's.  That meant, perforce, that even though Mom was never really interested in AOPi on her own, she nevertheless had to be as the daughter of her mother.

I found the AOPi ornaments on line.  A company called Kangaroo Paw Designs, is licensed to design sorority and fraternity needlepoint canvasses.

Heart ornaments for my brothers

The plaid ornament is based on Mom's birthday (11/25/24).  Since AOPi's colors are red and white, that limited the plaid a bit.  If you look closely, you'll see the plaid is composed of: 1 row of shiny white, 1 row of shiny red, 2 rows of matte white, 5 rows of matte red, 2 rows of  matte white, 4 rows of matte red.

Angel ornament for Dad

The ornaments were finished by Connie Finck, a local finisher.