Marching Along

 I am so punny!   LOL.   It has been another good month.  Daylight lasting longer and temps are edging up and I have been able to get my hands in the dirt!  I know yard work is not for everyone but it feeds my soul like stitching feeds so many of us.   I’ve ordered a bunch of bulbs from Breck’s for summer and fall flowers.     I am anxious to get them in the ground and FINISH up my work on the back 40.    I have been bringing home landscaping blocks and stones my son is removing from his yard to finish up my pathway.  

The first weekend of March I was treated to a mini get away at a friend Vicki’s home.  She is a two hour drive so naturally it was an overnight trip.   Her townhome was lovely and we all enjoyed seeing her stitching pieces as well as enjoyed the delicious food and stitching with friends.

My WIPGO goals for March were the best!   I have been lucky with manageable projects being called.   Being my first time doing WIPGO - I think?? - well at least in recent years.   This month, the assignment was to stitch and fully finish two Christmas ornaments and to work 15 days on my hexagon quilt.    I am finding how beneficial it is to be a monogamous stitcher!   Are changes coming to my habits?  

For my first ornament, I used an EGA pattern for this little wreath.   It was stitched  and finished, except for the ribbon trim and twisted cord hanger,  in a day!   My kind of instant gratification.

My second ornament was also just as easy although it took more than one day to stitch.   I am not quite finished but I have until Friday to do so.  This it from Lila's Studio.

As for my hexagon quilt I made even more progress than I had hoped for.   It just took about 18 days of working on it to get the quilt top finished.  As to when I  assemble the ‘quilt sandwich’ and get it going on my machine, well that's a different challenge.     Finishing this up in one month has left me with two blocks now open on my WIPGO board as I had working the Hexagon quilt on the board three times.

Beginning of the month, and end of the project.   It measures 4 foot by 6 foot.   I nice size to snuggle under while watching TV.

I fully finished all the pieces for the Violets & Verses To Emeline Shaker Sampler.

I did the hem stitched to finish off the sampler after I returned home from Tennessee.   

I stitched this up in not much more than a day when I was in Tennessee.  When I returned home, I fully  finished the July Birthstone Thimble box from Noteworthy Needle.

So here comes, by justifiable rational,  a promise quickly broken....    Earlier in the year I spent an afternoon updating my X-Stitch ap and much to my chagrin I found I had an embarrassing number of  FULLY KITTED projects.  I immediately vowed to ONLY stitch from stash.   Talking to fellow stitchers, so many of us are on the same page.  We all have that STABLE  (Stash Total Available Beyond Life Expectancy!)  supply of kits, floss and fabric.   But when in Tennessee, I finished the thimble box, I finished the stitching the Shaker Sampler, I stitched on my canvas piece until I was tired of it and found working on my Hexie quilt was not the easiest traveling piece.  And what to my wondering eyes did appear..... I found myself  in a small little cross stitch shop.   Am I the only one that feels you HAVE to buy something when you visit a new cross stitch store?    I think it was training from my mother.   She wasn’t a stitcher but always felt the need to buy a little trinket, etc. when visiting a little shop.  Oy!  I have already justified the purchase using the small-store-support-theory, using the memory of the trip excuse, blaming my guild because of the need to stitch a Plum Street this year and any other twisted reason so alas, I found a bag in my hand with a chart and fabric as I left the store.  I bought Goodbye Fall from Plum Street.   I DID use my X-Stitch ap to check what floss I already had - I should get a points for that.   Here is my progress.   

I am stitching this on 36-count parchment with the called for WDW and Crescent colors.   I using this as my Thursday morning stitched group project.     I count myself fully justified for the purchase but plan to return to my vow to stitch from stash for as long as I can!    Pretty good that I lasted 8 weeks into the year before I fell off.  Climbing back on the wagon.     I want to work on reducing my WIPs this year and also start working reducing the number of fully kitted projects I have.  It will likely be a several year process to make a dent.  Geez, imagine that, me, another list.  Shocking!

Starting in April,  my stitching will take a back seat to the yard.  The new WIPGO numbers have me starting a wool applique piece and to stitch and finish two bunny rabbit pillows.    I feel like even with being outside more, that I should be able to accomplish both.  

Thanks for stopping by.   I know commenting is not all that easy anymore.  I love reading them when they are posted.  I am checking all your posts and progress out as well but not always able to comment.   I got inventive and posted my comments on some bloggers instagram pages.  And sew it goes….. Keep on stitching…….

February Follies

We woke up to SNOW on February 1st.   It really doesn’t count because it was gone by noon.   I long for one nice snowfall.    But let me back up into the last weekend of January.   A friend and I spent three days at Salty Yarns in OCMD helping get the shop set up in their new location.  We wiped down cabinets, assembled shelving, set up the cheater glasses rack, stocked a couple of thread cabinets.  We were in awe of the size of the new store.   I am really anxious to visit it once Sara has everything in place.   They are up and doing business and are planning a Grand Re-Opening soon.  Salty Yarns has always been so generous to us with our retreats that it was a pleasure to give back.

In the beginning of the month we celebrated Reagan’s third birthday.   How time flies.   She is a trip and often referred to as Boss Baby!

For February WIPGO, I worked on Land That I Love from Teresa Kogut.    Thanks goodness for before and after pix.   Still a long way to go but I accomplished 15 days/my goals of stitching on this piece.   It is on my WIPGO board two more times this year.

Before February WIPGO

The ‘after’ February

WIPGO 

 I fell in love with this piece when I first saw in a few years ago.   I convinced my stitching circle to do it as a SAL.   I think there may have been 7 of us and guess what, five have it stitched and framed for well over a year.   Oy!     There is an Instragram page with an ongoing SAL divided into 12 monthly sections.   I spent the first day trying to see which monthly sections I had that were almost finished and set out to complete them.  I also have made this a Challenge piece for Western Reserve Guild for 2023.   

 My other WIPGO for the month was to start and finish this Shaker Pin Cushion as seen on the right.  EZ PZ.  This was stitched in a couple of afternoons and then put together on a third afternoon.  I decided to add in the strawberry and the scissors fob.  On the left beneath the strawberry, scissors fob and pin cushion, is the  finished Shaker Sampler.  It was my January WIPGO to start it and I was able to finish it in February.   Winner! Now all my Shakers pieces are completed!  I plan to do a hem stitch on the sampler, maybe this weekend.

My new WIPGO projects for March are to spend 15 days on my Hexagon Quilt and to sew and finish two Christmas ornaments.  Another easy stitching month for me.

Mid Month I went to the Franklin Institute with my son and his family and what were they using in the display showing how machines work......good old singer sewing machines. 

Wherever I go I just can't get away from stitching and sewing.

Raegan channelling her inner Kate Winslet we're guessing at the Disney Display at the Franklin Institute

At the end of February I was in Tennessee for 8 days.   A friend from our Thursday group moved to Tennessee years ago.   We still see her when she comes up for retreats or to visit family but  this time we went to see her.  She was a fantastic hostess except for the part that she didn't want to take us Chattanooga Airport for our flight home.   She is a member of the Knoxville EGA which we joined and we were able to attend their winter retreat with her.   It was a great visit and a great retreat at a Baptist Conference Center in Carson Springs, TN.    The facility, the our accommodations, our stitch room,  the people, the great projects, the meals and the fun were all beyond great.    

Sitting here you could hear the water babbling along in the nearby stream.  

Inside, little sitting areas with great light and comfy chairs to stitch in.

 Other than the rules on parking, there were no rules for the weekend.   Just the kind I like.   Park you car and never have to get into your car until it is over.   The Knoxville EGA stitchers were so nice and friendly.  The accommodations were great.   The meals were delicious.  I am sure I will be making this an annual visit.

We did have time for Diane to take us to Signal Mountain.   There was an awesome community at the top and it looks like a lovely place to live.   Diane knows I enjoy nature and breath-taking views.  Thank you for feeding my soul Diane!

And look at those Mountains in the distant.   Not hard to understand how they are called the Smokey Mountains.

Lake views near Diane's house

Thank you Diane for indulging me and my need to be outdoors and see all the beauty nature has to offer.  

I was able to start and finish the July Birthstone Thimble Box from Noteworthy Needle.  When in Tennessee we went to Cross Stitch and Crafts cross stitch store in Johnson City and they had this finished at the check out counter.   The shop owner, Sharon, took it apart and showed me how it was finished.  So simple that the September Birthstone Thimble Box jumped into Diane’s pile at check out.   I have the threads pulled and hope to fully finish this in the next couple of days.

I almost forget to share the progress I was able to make while in Tennessee on this EGA Petite Project called Overdyed Spools.  It is a lesson in manipulating the colors in varigated floss.  I’m not sure how much we are supposed to have completed by our next meeting but I think I completed the assignment!

That's it for stitching but I have another peeve to add to my ranting from last month about a pet peeves of opening child proof containers, namely cold medicine when you are not feeling 100%.  Here’s another pet peeve I discovered really irks me…..those invisible to the old naked eye symbols for recycling.   Hey, I am all about recycling.     It’s  an easy extra step that quickly becomes automatic.   It just baffles me when it is introduced in a nearby state and the residents all flip their wigs.  But back to the teeny tiny symbols on the bottom of the plastic containers.   My town only accepts #1’s and #2’s   So let me apologize to my public works department for sending the wrong numbers their way.   If you want 100% correct from me someone needs t make the symbols readable!  And that ends my rant for this day.     

December!

 I hope everyone stateside had a Happy Thanksgiving!    Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and this year did not disappoint.   We were all together again at my house.  There was that nasty pandemic thing and also for several years,  the middle child has stayed in Massachusetts and celebrated with friends. This year she came home for the week.

There were no cell phones at our table, but we did have a little fashionista.  Aunt Heather gave Miss Raegan some costume jewelry and she had to put it all on right away and leave it all on all day.  

I do admit I got myself a little wrapped around the axle and in a tizzy at the end of November/beginning of December.  All of a sudden  it was the week before Thanksgiving.  

You know how is goes when you start thinking of all the things you have to do and don’t know when you will get them done?  And this person wants something from you and another person wants something else, and someone guilts you into something, and you have your own list and you’re supposed to somehow fit it all in.   I needed to drop back and punt.  It was time to stop everything and just kind of review and plan what was needed.  I made my list and prioritized it.   It is the only way I could 'unwind', get it all done, see progress with increasing check marks for  completed items and feel in control of what is a sometimes out of control week!  I had just  run amok for a bit.   Not too much of a control freak am I?  Or too many years as an Executive Administrative Assistant and using that Franklin Covey Planner I guess.

It started with some texts.  I am doing an advent exchange with four friends and they were all trading texts about shipping  their boxes!  What!!  I hadn’t even wrapped my gifts!  What am I saying, I hadn’t even finished the construction of my gifts!    I’d better rethink how I use that  list  that I believe keeps me on track because “wrapping” has been on my list since August so has the ‘construction’ of a couple of the gifts.    Maybe #1 on the list is to CHECK the list.    Taking a realistic assessment of what I had to do I could see it wasn’t that bad.    I spent an afternoon to sort and wrap up to December 11th for all four exchanges.  I spend the next afternoon figuring out what I still had to construct and got started.    In four days, I got things constructed, wrapped and shipped.  Things do get easier if I just stay home a for a few days to get things done. Why is that I so often BLOW the task up in my mind to something bigger that is actually turns out to be?    It’s true, every journey begins with one step and the first step I must take is jumping over the hurdle of my avoidance……I just needed to jump in and do it.

Since middle daughter was here for a week and since we were delaying our Thanksgiving Dinner to Friday due to work schedules,  she and I had a mini-sew-a-thon.   It is great to be able to leave everything (and the mess) set up for several days straight.  This is when I was able to get those items constructed; and was able to trim, press, and interface four cross stitch pieces for finishing.  

I helped her make her layer cake of backing, batting and top and then helped her quilt this quilt.   She made and attached the binding and took it back north to hand stitch the binding down.

She also made this banner style wall hanging.   Don’t you just love that grumpy cat face?  She took some Kreinik and some Etoile floss to stitch whiskers.

 

I didn’t do any work on my Block-a- Day Quilt.   Boy oh boy, am I on a hiatus on this one or what!  It’s only been 6 weeks since I  dropped the ball but it seems like it was six months.   13 blocks left to cut, sew together, assemble and I will be done.  I am taking the pressure off myself and I am not worrying about finishing it after the first of the year.  A good two or three days will do it.

As for stitching, I have made decent progress on Garden of Stitches as well.   I hope to get another big chunk stitched by the end of the month.  It is such a pretty piece.   I need to finish that row above the WXYZ  and I have the large flower basket under the WXYZ and I will be done. There are some other little things - like satin stitches - we were to leave to last that I will have to go back to complete.

I did fully finish HOD’s Costume Party.  This was a mystery SAL in September.   I added the purple beads for what my mind sees as bubbles coming out of the witch's brew.  I also added some JABCO buttons from my stash.   Why save them, right?   I might do a stash dive and change the ribbon to a purple.

I am in the homestretch for the Civil War Huswif, from Linda Vinson.  It is from a  July Guild program.    I used my grandson’s name and 1st Pennsylvania represents him being my first  grandchild and he lives in Pennsylvania.   I only need to finish the flag that is taking forever. 

The Liz Mathews Tree was a project she created for my Delaware Guild.   We pre-stitched the piece and part of our November meeting was dedicated to the assembly.   Liz was a great teacher and I was able to work right along with her via Zoom and have my tree done by the end of the meeting.  

I stitched this Jeannette Douglas Design last winter and fully finished it this weekend.   I need to glam it up still with some ribbon and a sprig of greens.

 I stitched and finished this cute little ornament that was one of my Advent gifts.

I also stitched and finished this perforated paper pumpkin from my Shaker retreat.   This one and the bird above were stitched and finished in a day.  I have one more holiday finish I hope to work on tomorrow.  The piece is stitched, pressed, interfaced and finishing fabrics chosen.    I have the incentive of Show and Tell at my EGA this Thursday which is motivating me.

The first weekend of December I participated in Jingle Ball.   It was an online event put on by Lindy Stitches.   The concept and the execution were  very well done.  There were 10 or 12 designers participating.  Cathy Haberman, Linda Stoltz, Janis Note, Beth Seal, Stephanie Webb to name a few. They had Meet and Greet zoom rooms with each designer, lecture rooms, online classes (which sold out in seconds), finishing tutorials and of course, a merchandise mart.  A girlfriend spent the weekend and we stayed up until midnight catching up chatting in zoom rooms with friends from all.   We drank Mimosas and stayed in our PJ's all day.

Made some new friends, chatted with designers, was able to order show exclusives, saw previews for the Nashville Market,  and just enjoyed the weekend long event.   It was a bargain for the $10 ticket price.  

Back in August, I  gifted myself the advent stitch from Moonfeathers in Denmark.   It is an embroidery project.   Each day I open another little bag and stitch with the directions and fibers inside.   The design is outlined like a Christmas tree.....time will tell what the finish will be like.

My (current) plan is to start the Jackie DuPlessis piece from my September  Class on New Year’s Day.   This piece and working towards a finish on Land That I Love by Teresa Kogut are my ONLY 2023 stitching plans......oh fear not,  I am well aware something will come along and cause me to stray.....this stitcher has no will power.   In fact, I am intrigued by the WIPGO SAL many are joining on FB.   Since I want to stitch on ALL the things at once, I need someone to be the director of my  chaos and tell me what my assignment is for the month.   And of course, a class, a retreat, a new design that everyone else is doing will easily divert me from my appointed path.    Oh if only I could be monogamous.   There is slim chance I can stick to my pledge to only have a new start AFTER  after  two finishes.........  I know all my plans are likely to be feudal.   Too many projects and too little time.  I got nothing people.

Thanks for stopping by, stay healthy, stay happy and keep on stitching!

   

New England - Days 4, 5 and 6 Part Two.

So what are “Shakers” you may ask.   They organized in the United States in the 1780’s.  They were first called the “Shaking Quakers” because they actually shook their arms and bodies during singing to cast off the bad thoughts and ill will.  They practiced celibacy and lived in a communal, utopian society.  They were pacifists and believe in the equality of the sexes.  They were known for their simple lifestyle, their thirst for technological innovations, their music, they were avid gardeners saving seeds for the next season and their furniture making.  There is only one Shaker settlement still in existence today and since Shakers are celibate…..well, I need not say any more on that.   

The Enfield Shakers farmed over 3,000 acres.  In nearby Mount Lebanon, NY they had a successful seed business.   The Shakers were the first to package seeds for sale. They create innovations in marketing seeds, distributing them, packaging and cataloging which lead to lasting change in the horticultural business forever. 

They also did broom making.  On site at Enfield, is a building they that are renovating a building that will house the broom making.   They are currently renovating but allowed us in to watch the broom making process.   Did you know a good broom will stand up on its own?   Their’s all did.   They sell all the different varieties of brooms they make in the gift shop and they also offer a 3 hour class to make your own broom!

Also onsite, the 1854 cow barn…..mainly full of pigeons now.

In the next building, there was Shaker

 clothing on display as well as The Tempestry Project.

The Tempestry Project started in Washington State in 2017.   Because climate change is always a difficult topic, crafters used their medium to ‘chart’ temperature patterns and changes.  In Enfield, they knitted with worsted merino wool tapestries.   Using a key with a different color to represent every degree.  

Done in 10 year increments, they knitted a row to represent the average temperature for each day of one of the years in that decade.

It was surprising to me to see this visual.  I for one do believe that global warming is happening but looking at this nearly two hundred year record what I took away was more cyclical.     

Some decades warmer, some not; some decades with longer summer seasons.  Recently it looks like the slightest shift to longer summers with more higher heat days.

The original site had over 100 buildings which included  the “Great Stone Dwelling”. The largest ever Shaker building and now housing the Museum.  Due to declining membership they were force to sell  property in 1927.   Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, an order of Catholic priests, bought property and build a Chapel.    The La Salette continued the tradition of spiritual, communal life and agricultural.   They established a seminary and high school.  The property was sold again in 1985 by a private group of investors.  In 1997, the Museum was able to purchase the Chapel as well as other Enfield buildings.  

Still a beautiful building with an equally beautiful interior and stained glass windows, sits empty now.

The Museum tour offered some great finds.   Original “Dorothy” cloaks.  Typical construction with hood and cape.   These cloaks have “The Dorothy” labels inside the neckline.  One of a couple different cloak patterns they used.

Using this photo, the scene was re-created in the museum.

This 1839 hymnal contains songs, sight reading and singing drills. 

Shaker furniture 

In the Dining Hall there was several examples of perforated paper stitched pieces.

 

Walls of built in cabinetry.  Not a bit of wasted space!

 

Storage closet for dinner ware.

Their tables were set in sets of four so everything was in reach of each diner.  Shakers ate in 15 minutes and there was no talking at the table.   With everything within reach it wasn’t necessary to ask to have something passed to you.

Thick walls and their shutter ‘storage’ built in to the window casing.

The built ins found in the bedrooms.

Some smalls including a beautiful sewing baskets.

 

Looking out the window directly behind my ‘retreat seat’, beautiful sunset sky on our last full day in Enfield. 

Next up, our ride home and another great stop along the way.