Winter stitching

Winter weather was pretty horrible, lots of snow, bitterly cold temperatures.  First, the "polar vortex," then later the "polar plunge."  I'm sure glad I'm retired and don't have to go outside every day to go to work!  I spent February stitching a lot of little things. Some Christmas related, some not.

Two versions of "Christmas Tree Ornament" by Pat Mazu from Needlepoint Now magazine

Elegant Simplicity, also by Pat Mazu 

Medieval Flowers bookmark from Textile Heritage, Scotland

Sparkling Star ornament, by Laura J. Perin Designs
This pattern and canvas was a "freebie" with purchase from Nordic Needle in Fargo, North Dakota

Lily of the Valley, by Textile Heritage, Scotland

Toward the end of the month, I went to see the movie, Frozen, which was very cute.  Our local theater offered free popcorn on Tuesdays in February, which I couldn't turn down!

A milestone is approaching

I turn 65 in May, and in January I received my Medicare card, followed by an assortment of mailings from CMS and Social Security.  That hasn't been too bad, but I have also been inundated by telemarketers and junk mail from private insurance companies offering Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare Supplement plans.  All I can say is that Medicare insurance plans must be very lucrative, as eager as they are for my business!

As for stitching, I'm still in the Christmas spirit and spent time in January stitching the twelve "'Twas the Night" ornaments by JBW Designs.  I decided on different embellishments than the designer used (each ornament has a button or charm added to the stitching).  Here they are, stitched and ready to be finished into ornaments.

Three Christmases This year

We normally have two Christmas celebrations each year, once when brother Robert returns home from abroad, usually in the fall.  And then again at Christmas.  This year we had three celebrations, the first one when we exchanged gifts with Robert, as usual.

The week before Thanksgiving, Mom was transferred from the retirement apartment she shared with Dad to the assisted living wing in the same facility.  So we celebrated Thanksgiving at the nursing home, with a turkey dinner and all the trimmings.  Then we celebrated our second Christmas of the year, by exchanging gifts with brother John and his wife Renee.  They were planning a cruise over Christmas, so we would not see them then.

And for the third, and final, Christmas of 2013, we had Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts with Mom and Dad on Christmas Day.

One of the gifts to my Mom was a hand stitched sachet, filled with  lavender potpourri.   The pattern is from The Victoria Sampler, "French Lavender Pillows," by Linda Rosser.  I found some "vintage" lace on Etsy that matched the colors perfectly, and also found the lavender potpourri on Etsy.

Empty sachet awaiting lavender potpourri stuffing

I did stitch a second sachet, though it is not yet assembled with the lace edging.

I have a friend who is not much into gift-giving on any occasion.  A couple of weeks before Christmas, he stated, "Don't get me anything for Christmas."  (If he doesn't get a gift, he won't have to give a gift...) To which I responded, "Of course I'm getting you a gift!"  Among my gifts to him were stitched ornaments from the Bent Creek "The Bugs" patterns.  One ornament was the "Humbug," and the other ornament was designed to be a Y2K bug, but I changed it to a "Bah!" bug.  Unfortunately, I didn't get photos taken.

Remembering Ernestine

In Mid November, we saw Lily Tomlin on stage.  My favorite character of hers, Ernestine, made an appearance.  No longer working for the telephone company, Ernestine now works for an unnamed health insurance company, busily denying claims and offering absolutely no sympathy:  'That's an elective procedure.  By that I mean, we elect not to pay.'

And I began work on some Christmas-related stitching.  This one is based on an ornament from the 2013 Christmas Ornaments issue of "Just Cross-Stitch" magazine.  The Assisi piece is designed by Elizabeth Gorski of Primrose Needlworks, though I changed her lettering from "HOPE" to "NOEL."

Children's Reunion

Archaeologist brother Robert let us know he was planning another trip to the United States in October. He represented our family at our Aunt Mimi's memorial service in Louisville and then headed to Dubuque.

Uncle Fritz speaking at Aunt Mimi's memorial service

Brother John and Sister-in-Law Renee had already made plans for a trip to Coralville to visit me and to see the play, "Spamalot."

We invited Rob to join us, and we "kids" had a reunion.  They arrived Sunday morning in time for church (our brand new organ had its debut!) and then the play Sunday afternoon.  We met again for supper Sunday evening, and then said goodbye Monday morning.

At Bandana's restaurant - Dennis, Linda, Robert, John, Renee

Here we are at Perkins for breakfast - Renee, John, Robert, Linda, Dennis

Inch by Inch

I am taking an on-line stitching class called "Inchies," taught by Kathy Rees.  It is a canvas work piece of 40 inch-sized segments (8 by 5), with different stitches and different threads.  It's a way to try out new stitches and new threads.  I really do not need another piece to hang on the wall, so did something different.  I stitched the inchies in groups of 9 (3 by 3) which I'll make into ornaments to hang.

"Inchies" stitched 3 by 3 to be finished into ornaments

Pink ornament

While waiting for some canvas and threads I had ordered for my next project, I was sorting through a stack of magazines and found "Look What I Did" by Jennifer Rodriguez of Always Time to Stitch in the September/October 2013 issue of "Just CrossStitch" magazine.  The design comes with a ghost holding up a Halloween quilt.  I decided to stitch the Halloween quilt portion and left off the ghost.  I'll finish this into an ornament for my Halloween tree.

Latest Finishes

A few weeks ago I got the urge to go through one (get that - one!) of my UFO (Un-Finished Objects) boxes and found two pieces I wanted to finally finish.  The oldest one was a Ewe and Ewe and Friends design called "Sampler Pincushion."  I had finished stitching the sampler part in 2007 but got stumped by the section the designer had left blank with the instructions to "Be creative!"   So I set it aside.  I've taken it out and looked at it several times since then but couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with the blank section.  Then, finally, inspiration struck.  I had another pattern that had some stitched "lace" sections (that too was a UFO), and I decided to combine some of the lace sections from that pattern with this sampler.  And voila!  A six-year old finish!

My second UFO finish is a bit more recent: "Take Time to Quilt" by Jeannette Douglas Designs.  I started this back in 2011 and set it aside once because I couldn't decide what saying to put in the center. When I decided on "Autumn Colors," I stitched some more and then set it aside again when everything was done except the block in the lower left corner.  I simply could not figure out the instructions. This time I was determined to finish the project with its gorgeous colors.  Though I still couldn't figure out the instructions, I did figure out that if I put the booklet cover under my magnifying light, I could see how it was stitched and follow that as my stitching guide.

This past spring I completed "Variations on a Rhodes Theme," in honor of our cruise last winter that ended up having Rhodes as a port of call.  That was the first of three Rhodes patterns, and I more recently completed another of the patterns, "More Rhodes to Follow."  There is a third pattern, "All Rhodes Lead to Stitching" that is in my "to do" pile.  I am using the same colors throughout all three pieces.

Lest you think all I do is stitch, a friend and I took a two-part Introduction to Islam class that was very informative.  I'm also attending a six-part class on Anton Chekov.  I didn't study him in school so was not at all familiar with any of his work.  We started the class by reading his short story, "The Lady with the Little dog," then moved to his play, "The Seagull."  We are now discussing "In the Ravine," a long short story.