As it was in the beginning......

DSCN2427[1]
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

This summer as I was going thru all the stuff during the attic move, I found what I think is my first (printed)cross stitch (I had believed it long gone). It was done around the time of the cat, and my mom and i disagree as to which was my first, but at the least this was the first to be mounted (on foam sticky board oh the HORROR) and framed. I was somewhere in the 10-12 age range, and It was shortly after this that I switched to counted cross stitch which I deemed much more sophisticated...you had to count!

with this, the near destruction of one of my first counted cross stitch, and an article in the latest Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly about women journaling their needlework, I have decided to put together a stitching journal. I am going to print up all the photos I have of stitched and crafty stuff i have done over the years and what its history has been. Does anyone out there in bloggity land have one like this... if so, is it fancy? or just a binder?

In stitching news I am working on Anna's stitching challenge...its is stitched but not finished...

Is it Live? or Memorex?

Ned Kelly Kitty front
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I am so proud of this scissor fob, I got it to look just like the model (which I loved). I used the called for silks and sacrificed the rest of the skein for the tassle (honestly it would just sit around for months later). My skillz are finally showin themselves.
And the back

Ned Kelly kitty back
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

Margaret Sherry's N

Margaret Sherry's N
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

A bit of stitching? yep. this is a small piece I did for a friends birthday before I left on my trip. Th true colors called for the N to be the hot orange color you see on the lizards scales, but I adjusted it to blues instead. this was inserted in a coaster I had sitting around.

I tried to photograph it, but then tried my NEW scanner that i got for my birthday, and it came out great! Yay! (so good in fact it helped me catch the missing backstitching, which i then promptly fixed).

As for the work my husband did while I was gone, he actually did less than planned cause his furlough got called off...so less time at home but...yes he painted and ripped up carpet and polyed the hardwood floor, we are now moving stuff back in and I need to purchase rugs. I will post a pic when it looks done.

I'mmmmm Backkkkkk

Purchase at Cvered Bridge Needlearts
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

From Pittsburgh! I went up with just my daughter to stay at my mom's house for 2 weeks and I had a really good time. I was able to see old friends, hang with my sister and bro inlaw, and visit old haunts. It was unseasonably cold and rainy so not as much swimming as planned, but A got to hang outside alot with out getting bit by insects like she does down here.

I am heading into work next week, my contract has been renewed but they haven't told me my classes yet (it is always last minute), so I figure I better show up and clean up. and with the beginning of the school year that usually means more stitching and blogging too...so good news for you dear reader!

I never stitch much on vacation but I did get to go to Covered Bridge Needlearts in Bridgeton, PA. They have moved next store in to roomier space since i was there 2 years ago. I did not buy much but it was the most i have ever spent in one LNS. (I got alot of fabric)).
I did buy 2 patterns, Ned Kelly Kitty by the Cat's Whiskers (wouldn't you know they have a whole series!) and Maidens of the Sea by With My Needle. I know I have not progressed alot on the Quaker Turtles but this one was on my list. Add in some $7 silks (ugh) and you have a pricy purchase.

Oh I also got a clear ruler for a stitched insert. I was thinking of doing the "ABC Stitch with me" pattern found in the JCS mag last year, but am thinking their may be something better to do for it ...any one have any ruler patterns they really like?

Is it another blog post??? Already?

Book Stack I
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

Yes folks, when it rains it pours. Seriously, In about 4 days I am heading up to PA to visit family with A. and I may not get time to blog soo I am getting it all out now.

Ian is not heading up with us cause he has to work, if there is work, and has plans to redo our center room which we call the Drunken Library, and the hallway. Including pulling up the nasty ancient carpet and redoing the wood floors. It would be difficult to do this room with the family at home cause it is the room everyone goes thru to access the rest of the house. So before I leave I have been helping clear the room, Here are most of the books we own, stacked in another room of the house (I say most cause there is a contingent in the craft/guest room, bins full of paperbacks in the attic, and a horde of kids books in A. room.) we are book people.

In baby news Annabeth has begun standing and walking on her own with no assistance, she still will not go far, but we see small progress everyday. In addition she is starting to say words we can't understand..for example today she kept saying "amno" which we could not understand, animal? Then tonight when she pointed a picture of Elmo and said this again...OHHH. Why do you as the parent feel like the idiot?

Keeping with the theme...

Front wall---Before
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

Of old projects finally done....

We painted the front/living room of the house about 5 years ago, it is a long room and instead of a large TV my husband bought and installed a projector , so we watch movies at about full size (ok not that big but bigger than your largest TV screen ). The cost of a screen, or projector screen paint ( yes they make that stuff) was prohibitive...so we just left one of the smaller walls white, The other 3 are dark green. Yes we had a home theatre before it was the IN thing to do. At that point I had the idea of putting a fabric "curtain" up on that wall so it would not be so stark...and having it run on a rail like a hospital curtian so it could easily be pulled aside.

I found the sheer fabric I wanted at Joann's fairly quickly, but life got in the way and I didn't actually buy it for another 2 years (it was about $50-60). Then came the search for the right rail...millions of hospitals use them...but good luck finding a source for them if you're a civilian. I finally found something acceptable at IKEA. it was a strung wire with hanging clips. (got that in '07) but when Ian put it up, It mounted low and the hangers would mean the top 2-3 inches of wall exposed. I finally figured done was better than perfect...and I finished stitching up the curtain a few days ago and just strung it on the wire. I liked it laying flat but then my seams were very obvious, so I wrinkled it up and I think it looks ok for 5 years in the making:

Front wall--After
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

old dress

old dress
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

OK before you go any further on this post....no derogatory comments about my frumpiness.
This dress was once a bridesmaid dress that i wore for a friends wedding in august of 96. It is a full length pepto pink color that is more like tapestry/upholstery fabric and originally had this weird backward bolero jacket thing that buttoned up the back...that piece is long gone. This dress has been in my closet lo these last 13 years...I have always intended on dying it black and hemming it up to cocktail length or something...so i finally did:

Finiahed dress
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

The black dye turned the dress an interesting mulberry/purple color. An it was my first hem attempt (which is difficult by yourself...that's why i look a bit frazzled..I had tried the thing on like 10 times that day) I still need to change out the zipper which did not dye but with a nice black sweater (and some makeup) I think it will look pretty good.

Heaven and nature sing

Heaven and nature sing
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I told you I needed to stitch something new....Heaven and Nature sing by Stitched from the Heartland

New Desk

New Desk
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I have a few crafts I have been doing lately to tell you all about,..the first is this desk. Ian's parents brought down a disassembled toddler desk (and a chair that was already redone). So we had to strip, sand, poly, and assemble it. As you can see here A. took right to it when we put it in her room. She went to go get each book that you see and brought it back to the desk to read.

More tomorrow...

I'll be honest...

DSCN2330[1]
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I have not been crafting AT ALL these past couple of weeks.

There has been this house project... Our house is very non-circulatory. Often it is cooler than the daytime temperature, but then in the evening our house is very warm and the outside air is cooled off and we waste AC cause we cannot get the outside air in...Well we decided we need a whole house fan. one of those in the ceiling jobbers that sucks all the air into the attic . So the project involved creating a new attic above the garage and moving the attic stairs and moving EVERYTHING in the attic across the entire house and into the new attic. This involved alot of sorting, reorganizing etc. which took up all my time...and now i am finding it difficult to get back into stitching.
Currently in progress is a series of Alphabet blocks (pictured above) that I was working on for A, but I haven't put a stitch in in 2 weeks. BUT tomorrow (my birthday by the way) I am cleaning my craft room and may find a new profect to stitch on...that always gets me going again....

Hobbies come and hobbies go..

I am one of those folks that gets obsessed with something for a week or two and then my interest quickly fizzles out or into a very slow burn. It can be books, usually a series like Twilight...(yes they are pretty shallow but damned if I wasn't at that bookstore for 4 nights in a row buying them mybrain screaming *MUST READ NOW!*). It can be a movie or a TV show, most recently Star Trek-I saw it 3 times in just a few weeks. It can be something new on the internet, like Facebook or a new game from Bigfish. And of course the hobbies. I always save the goods for when the need (flare up) to jewelry/knit/make candles/scrapbook comes around again. These last few weeks it has been quilting, so much so that i have not had a sec to blog about it till it was done:

I have dabbled a bit in this before, but not for long and something always frustrated me. For this story we must go back to about a year ago in NH......( insert ripply time effect here). I went to Keepsake Needlearts (disappointing) and next store to it is the Holy Grail of Quilt stores: Keepsake Quilting. There I had purchased a nice little pile of fat eights that were in shades of my my favorite color: purple. I also saw some fabulous Trip Around the World quilts...those looked very simple.... just squares right?.

So around the 3rd week of May this year I decide just to fiddle with these a bit, cut out the max # of little squares from each fabric and laid them out:



DSCN2319[1]
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

It wasn't very big, but I didn't care at that point a big quilt was not going to happen for me any way. I went and bought a special 1/4 foot for my sewing machine (I cannot drop the feed dogs on the old thing and it pulls to the left) I sewed each square to the next in little strips then stitched the strips together. (of course as soon as I was done i found a way to strip piece one...next one sigh) had to run out and find a border/backgound fabric...once I did that someone crawled right over to sit on it and decided it was definitely made for her.


DSCN2320[1]
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

One assembled I attempted to quilt it (by hand...my machine can't handle that yet) and that definitely needs work/practice. but i quilted (in the ditch) for a week straight till it was done...now though I think i am burned out on quilting...off to find my next fire.

It is about the size of a wall hanging for a wall that does not exist for it, or a doll blanket for the child that does not yet like dolls, or a table topper for a table that also does not exist. But I saw it though till the end, so it is my first, and I'll consider it practice...for the next quilting binge (in about 4 years)


DSCN2328[1]
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

TaaaDaaaa!

Observe the first steps of our 2 year old!


This was wednesday, and it is honestly some of the first unassisted steps A has taken...Can you not tell by my reaction? Priceless.

2 years old

2 years old
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

Hard to believe that almost 2 years ago today I gave birth to a squishy faced baraccuda...and now she is the cutest thing ever.

Her little quirks are numerous and fun to note but what I find astounding everday is how much she feels like an extension of me, I am requently shocked at how looking at her is like looking back in time at myself as I never knew me. Hmm that makes little sense. But I bet the parents out there understand it.

She is still not walking independantly and after a couple of PT visits and another Neurologist visit the consensus is....she can/could walk...she just doesn't want to/is scared to try. Basically the current consensus and hypothesis is that her cognitive awareness of the world and herself as a person who could fall and hurt occured before she could physically walk...now she is all but terrified to fall and clings to you for dear life. Let go and she drops to a crawl. So what we need is an injection of bravery...I know some of you with little boys probably have some to spare.

Before I left the neurologist i wanted to ask him when he thought she would walk...but instead I asked when I should start to worry..."call me in 3 months if she isn't walking " was his reply.

The other little quirks include calling everything "ba" (we have a definitive vocab of only about 10-15 words...which worries me ...me alone apparently) AND we are going through huge amounts of stranger anxiety (not seperation anxiety though interestingly enough). So much so that her visiting grand parents (my parents last week, Ians this week) have had to reintroduce themselves for 10 minutes after every sleep including naps. It makes me very anxious to try to have her pictures taken for this year...It could end in disaster.

that is the update

Funny thing happened on the way to the craft room.....

Heart in Hand -Birds
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

So I am stitching along on Quaker turtles one color over one Right? and my mind keeps wandering to a pattern I bought about a year ago, nothing special about it, not on my yearly list so I push it out of my head. But it would not go away kept butting its head in mine saying "I'm small" "Won't take long, I bet im cute when all finished", "I'm colorful, stitch me!". So after 2 days of harrassment I yell " Fine! I'll stitch you already!" much to the dismay of my husband who-already-knows-I-am-crazy-but-is-wondering-how-long-till-he-has-to-check-me-in-to-a mental-hospital-and-raise-a-non-walking-toddler-all-by-himself.

So I go get the pattern and thread (DMC of course, cause I did not have all the called for overdyed and this thing was not waiting!) and stitch it up in 2 nights.
Heart in Hand 's Wee one Birds...I made the worm crawl up the B...not sure what it is doing in the model.

But all done, cute? yes, easy ? yes, now....it will sit in a drawer untill a suitable frame can be found . I hope it is happy.

Quaker turtles 2 of 8

Quaker turtles 2 of 8
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

Here is the back of the scissor fob, I am about halfway through the next one, (pinkeep top?) but I haven't really been stitching lately. So therefore I haven't been blogging much.

School is slowing down, Ian and I are busy in the evenings doing house projects (finished painting the doors in the kitchen, building borders in the yard, installing a new set of attic stairs. OK the last two are mostly him, but i do assist and hand ou my opinion liberally.
I got a pay cut from the state for the rest of the fiscal year (read 2 months) and my lecture class that I was scheduled to teach has been cancelled. Not really that big a deal (I still have a job) it just will not be as challenging only teaching labs i have taught a lot.

In Annabeth news, I called the neurologist last week to confirm that I was being a ninny about her not walking yet...an lo and behold the doctor was NOT happy about that news...and wants to see her as soon as possible. This being the modern medical world that will be the 22nd of May, and you all know this means i have confirmed my daughters walking date as MAY 21st. Meanwhile he signed off on physical therapy for her, but i have yet to hear about scheduling that.

Pigtails!

Yes, I know it has been a while, and no, I have not been stitching.

Ok maybe a little bit in the past few days...I will post some of those WIPS soon.
But for a change of pace here are a few hotos of A for your enjoyment. Hmm really....does anyone want to see these? Oh well tough, I am posting them anyway.

Pigtails!
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

First up we have our first attempt at pigtails. this takes some yelling and squirming (she does not seem to understand that she is the one pulling her hair when she struggles) and it does not last very long, but it is very cute.

>
Easter 2009
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

a second photo of her on Easter inspecting a jellybean filled egg. ( which we like!). As you may of gleaned when you noticed she is not wearing pants, we don't do anything big for Easter...Ian works and we have no family close by. (no fancy easter dresses or posed portraits here!) So we did a mini egg hunt after daddy got home from work. Next year if she is walking it will be a bit more fun.

Yes I said IF she is walking. I think Ian and I have given up on having a normal walking child any time soon. We have 1 1/2 months till the neurologists predicted date for walking. and while there is progress it is torturously slow. She will walk well if you hold both her hands. But she seems to have an aversion to using the walls or furniture to hold on to (in parentese: she does not cruise alot) and of course she would rather walk than crawl so that means you have to be at her beck and call if you want her to go anywhere.
It is particularly challenging cause the weather is so nice now...now is when you want to take her to a park and let her run around. I am predicting she will take her first independant steps on the first day it is over 95 degrees and the mosquitos come out

(Thank you to all who suggested a 2nd opinion on this issue, but she is progressing and doing as predicted...it is just so tiring I have to vent)

I think her version of the terrible 2s has begun this month let me know what you think:

1. acute aversion to anything new...swimming, photos taken, extremely shy around strangers. etc. all of which brings on screaming, crying jags that last until the next meal.

2. screeching at crystal shattering levels when you do not read her mind.
ie walking in the right direction, not bringing her food quickly enough.

All of it makes me want to smack the next person who asks me " So when are you having another?"

Go, Dog,Go

Home of a Needleworker
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

I know ...boring photo...this is Home of a Needleworker by LHN, I actually ripped out the brown roof you see here and restitched it with 3 threads cause all the white showing thru was just irritating.

So yesterday I took Annabeth to go see her first play. My school was puting on an hour production/adaptation of P.D.Eastman's Go, Dog, Go (appropriate for ages 3 to 12). I know she is only 22 months old but I did it for 1 main reason...SHE LOVES Go, Dog, Go. and I mean we read it 2-3 times a day every page.... and She can sit thru an hour of engaging TV (Elmo, Baby einstein, Signing Time, Buscuit Brothers) with out moving, so I figured I'll give it a try.

I took my husband ( the book we read was his. It is so cute on the front page where it says This Book Belongs To: after his name it says " I LIKE THIS" in the big caps of a first grader) We got there right at 2 when the play was to start. they were still selling tickets so we waited a bit and sat down right before they began. Now our seats were right in the middle of a row (giant rows of 50 folks or so)and right in the middle of the theater front to back). She was good right untill the lights go off --not fade to black mind you--and bam she begins screaming at the top of her lungs...like you stabbed her, I knew I could not calm her there in the theater, so I stepped on a few toes running out of there and into the lobby where I got her calmed down in under a minute or so. At this point I am thinking they are going to kick me out for bringing a not quite 2 year old to a play....but I decided to try it once, I was able to get just inside the doors with her quiet so she could see the 1 "dog" on the stage. she jumped a couple of times when the audience laughed...but did not make a peep. There was NO way I was heading back to my seat but standing for 50 minutes was not my ideal. I snuck a look around the corner, and right there back row the last seat was open. She sat in complete rapture for the entiire show UNTIL the lights went out at the end..then the screaming started again...I think A. is afraid of the dark.
Poor Ian was stuck in the middle of the theater wondering what we were doing.

QT: 1 of 8

Quaker Turtles
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

Thank you all for your comments on Miss Mack, the button border took FOREVER to finish, so yess I have been stitching, but that one has been worked on maybe twice a week while I did other stuff .....LIKE.....Quaker Turtles by WIth my Needle. I got this as a full kit and have started it, but it is going take me forever cause 1) over one is not my favorite technique (unlike Sara who LOVES it) and 2) all one color is going to be a bit boring. This is one of the smallest circles to do of the 8 for the set.

Miss mary final cut!

Miss mary final cut!
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

Completed 3/24/09 on rose linen with black DMC
Thinking of finishing as a pillow

Can you blog in 15 minutes with 1 fuzzy photo?....Go-

DSCN2238[1]
Originally uploaded by Stitching scientist

So I have been stitching, I swear. I had Spring Break last week but didn't get alot done cause, well lots of reasons but truly they are all boring. My mom came to visit, and Ian and I went to a B and B for a day and a night to enjoy ourselves for maybe the last time for a long time cause his job is not looking up, but mine is now and I think i will be renewed for at least another year...but there are changes coming in my department (read- bigger classes and less lecturers needed). What I really want is like 2 days to just shop for clothes and things for me, but i never have 1)time and when I have time i am out of 2)money.

Annabeth is walking with more confidence but not without holding on for dear life to mom or dad, Her day care is starting to ask if we need physical therapy and making me question if the doctor is right about PT, that it will not help speed things up. His prediction of 21-24 months for walking is here and we wait with bated breath (usually from luging around her 25? pound body)

Oh the stitching..it is something not on my list but a quicky...Lizzie Kate "Cross stitcher in residence", on 28 count Navy Bean by Lakeside linens, with most of the threads called for WW and GAST and some scavenged.

gotta go teach cat anatomy...