Summer has officially started in Salty Yarns....

Events are a thing of the past until September, the heat is turned on and we are, Thank God!, through senior month...  Our last round of classes went well.  As always Betsy Morgan is a treat and the stitchers were a good group with no drama and Paola was here from Luxenburg and brought her friend Molly from Indiana to join her so we had a good time.  Paola, as always, delighted our stitch group on Tuesday night with her show and tell.  Exquisite, both front and back.  Honestly you had to get up close and personal to see which side was which, she takes such care to finish her stitching on the back so no color runs into another color when ending her threads.  And her pieces this time were big pieces, as opposed to her smalls....unbelievable.  It is such inspiration for all of us...something to strive for...perfect stitching...and of course she worked on counts which defy the eyes...45, 48 and I believe a 52 might have snuck in.  While she didn't have smalls to show the group, I still had my beautiful box, a gift from Paola, to show and of course, it was gorgeous.  The Ohio Girls were down Monday and reminded me I hadn't blogged in a while so I thought I'd dash a message off just to let you know I'm still alive and breathing and stitching as much as I can.  Damn that IPad though...as much as I hate the time suck machine, there are times I just can't force myself off.  I now keep it in the bathroom to limit my time on it, only now that has taken the place of my reading...that's not a good thing.  But for now it is a necessity, until I learn to control my IPad urges.  On the stitching front I've stitched 3 of the Hands on Design "To the Beach Series" which I had a specific plan for and cut the material based on that plan, but when we got a new framer that plan went out the window.  Instead we decided to frame them in what we call "Boardwalk Frames" which come in green, grey, and blue.  The colors are muted just like the colors in the series, as if this series was made for this frame...so I had no choice, but it did create problems for framing.  While my finished version is framed right up to the design, I'm now doing the rest of the series on larger cuts so there will be a border between the design and the frame.  I still love the series and these three even if a border would perhaps look nicer.  "  As Sara loves to say, "it is what it is."

 

"Scatter Freedom" was actually stitched many years ago and sat on the cutting table at home in the Hinzeit frame since then, never really finished.  (Don't Ask!) But with the framer here I decided to redo the framing and here it is.  I've always loved the scatter series and have done a few of them.  But I can't take credit for getting this stitched in 2017...I can take credit for once again starting the clean up of my stitching room, a job which will never be completed I fear.

"There's No Place Like Home" was stitched by our Judy Brunclik for her grandson, Jason, who is currently laid up with a broken bone and now can't play.  So...cute, and perfect fabric for finishing.  It is a Sue Hillis design and Judy stitched it on 16 ct. linen.  There are other designs so far in this series, "Shoot the goal,"  "Play Football," and "Play Soccer!"

And finally I added this to the finished list last night after struggling with the finishing a little.  The long side goes together beautifully, but for some reason, after doing several drums with no problem, I'm experiencing difficulty in getting it done to my satisfaction.  But after redoing it a couple of times, I couldn't be happier.  This is "Lady Liberty" by Blackbird Designs.  I can't say enough about the design.  I love a design which is chuck full of stitching and this certainly fits the bill.  Stitched on 36 ct. Ligonier Latte linen and finished with Weeks wool on the bottom.  I filled it half way with lizard litter, which makes it really heavy and then topped it off with polyfill.  Blackbird filled theirs with sawdust which is also a good idea if you happen to have a boatload sitting around.  Love the colors, love the design, and now love the finish.

And the final picture is actually the key fob to the Lizzie Kate summer tote I showed before.  I had stitched the bee but screwed up the tassel, had to redo and then forgot to bring it back...well I carried it around in my tote before I realized it was still there last night.  So now the Summer Tote is officially finished....although I was going to do a scissor spool so perhaps it's not finished yet.  

 Normally I don't work on items for a specific season or day after the day or season has passed, but this year I'm still stitching Patriotic....love it!  I did a Brenda Gervais from last year or the year before that I was dying to stitch, but I'm having difficulties with the lack of additions on my part.  I love   dimensional add-ons...and while this design has wool flowers added I wasn't  happy with just that so I'm still figuring this out, although I had a great idea but am afraid when I try to execute it I'll run into trouble..but what the heck I'm going for it anyway.  After my "Lady Liberty" finishing struggle I wanted a fast stitch so I stitched "Land of Liberty" by Shepherds Bush and handed it over to West End Frames this morning.  He's quick so I should have it in this week.  In my bag right now are 3 projects....Stacy Nash's "Clementine" cat (which I have stitched the head at this point), Shepherd's Bush, "Liberty Notes", and "Little Blue House, " and of course I've got 10 of the Hands on Design's "To The Beach Series."  I'm ready to stitch 24/7, the only problem is I can't stay up like that anymore.  I find myself, after a day of stitching, getting tired around 11 p.m. and going to bed, but of course that means I'm up at 3:30 to visit my IPad and then I figure what the hell and pick up my stitching, turn on Acorn T.V., PBS, or Netflix and ready to go for another several hours.  I have given some thought to cleaning up the apartment, but after hanging a couple of items in the closet I take an endless break.  So I'm not getting far with that chore.  I did drive Solomon to skateboard camp in Pennsylvania so that was 12 hours of  driving up and back and 6 days later did the drive again to pick him up.  But we do for grandchildren that I'm not sure I'd do for my own...oh, wait a minute Sara went to computer camp when she was around 10 in Connecticut.  I take back my previous statement.  I finally learned how to use the GPS in the car so that was a wonderful surprise and on the way up my Sirius went out (and yes I paid the bill) which was a pain and when I got home and went online I had to be in the car to reboot it which meant I forgot it until the return trip.  Of course I was on the road before I remembered, but once I stopped I took care of it and may I say how easy that was.  I'm actually becoming proficient with this on line stuff....not that you could tell by my banking experience.  For the last couple of years I've done mobile banking with no problem.  This year they updated and you had to change your password,etc, and I have to call them once a week because I keep getting locked out so I've said the hell with that and I'm back to taking the deposit to the bank, which isn't really that much of a chore since I give it to Mary to take when she does the hotel banking, but it's the principle here that is driving me crazy.  (I'm not sure what principle I'm speaking of but I'll find one somewhere.)  Anyway, I've actually got to get to work since I have to work on the card rack (UGH!!! I'm in Sea Trader and no one else will do it.  Since I only work in here once or twice a month it means the rack is a red hot mess when I return.  An all day job and I hate it-along with all the other things I hate about working.)  But I need to get to it and get it done so have a great weekend.  I'll post again next week hopefully.