An Unexpected New Start

Sometimes, life just gets in the way of stitching plans. In my case, I had thought I’d be continuing My Way and have it nearly done by now.

But it was not to be. Somehow I had neglected that this piece is just a bit too big to be carting to hospital waiting rooms.

Yes, E and I spent another night in the hospital two weeks ago after she underwent another surgery (as always, hopefully this is the last!) to fix her hips. (And yes, she’s back in a cast, but only for 6-8 weeks this time. Unfortunately, she’s much more aware of it at 18 months than she was at 5 months.)

So, being as I was still in the canvas mood, and since I didn’t have anything in progress small enough for stitching in the waiting room, I started something new. What else was I supposed to do? :-)

I was reading back over some old posts and reminded myself that one of my goals for the year was to start something by Jean Hilton. It just so happened that I had Jean’s Omega kitted up, so to the hospital it went.

By the end of the first day (after 4 hours of surgery + after she fell asleep at night), here’s how it ended up. My apologies for the blurriness!

Of course I changed the colors from Jean’s original. Why shouldn’t I? I also made the choice to stitch the center star in two colors rather than just one as in the original.

E came home the day after surgery, and no more progress was made that day. The rest of the week, however, was a different matter. Since she was sleeping a lot due to the pain meds, I managed quite a bit of stitching time.

A few days later, the rest of the borders were in:

 

Rainbow Gallery released this design in 1990, and a few of the threads have changed over the last 20 years. I decided to use two colors of RG’s FyreWerks for the center star and two of the borders and 1 strand of Trio (from brown paper packages) for the inner and outer borders.

Within the week, I did finish the piece, but you’ll just have to wait until Friday for the big reveal! :-)

Oh, and E is doing as well as might be expected, for a kid who was just starting to walk on her own and is now immobile. She’s figuring out how to drag herself around a bit, but isn’t too happy about it!

Is it done yet?

Here's where I stand on Catherine Theron's How Great the Blessing sampler. In the past week I've added the verse, and the numbers and personalization (with updated dates!) under the alphabet, along with four birds and another squirrel.

Is it done?

Early on in stitching this project, I deliberately didn't fill in the flowers in the large vase and left off the small berry bushes to the left of the large squirrel and the right of the bunny. Now I'm reconsidering.

The sampler doesn't have many blank spaces at the top, and the larger empty spaces by the bunny and squirrel seem to be screaming for something. Maybe those berry bushes would work after all.

What do you think?

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Erin update: Guess who had a birthday on Friday? Yes, already!

The best part about presents? The wrapping paper, of course!

My first decorated cake. Yes, that's supposed to be Elmo. I think I'll stick to stitching.

Erin's "personal" cake. Both cakes were applesauce cake, and they came out yummy.

The aftermath...

Somebody liked cake, but was clearly ready for bed!

First Christmas Ornaments

MIL's:

Beautifully stitched and finished, hanging on our tree.

Mine:

That's right. Not even up on stretcher bars yet. I didn't even order it until the week of Thanksgiving. What kind of mom am I?

Never mind that it's not even going to be the next one I start. That honor is for my EGA master craftsman piece that's due the end of March. (Didn't I say recently that I try not to stitch for deadlines? So much for that idea.)

Hopefully I can get the first Christmas ornament done before next Christmas!

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A long-overdue Erin update: When we first learned of the difficulty with Erin's hips, I had hoped she'd be crawling by Christmas. And she was - backwards. For almost a month, she'd get up on hands and knees, look at something she wanted, and move away from it! Finally, on Christmas, she figured out how to move forward!

I'd like to ask a favor. Our local newspaper has a "Meet the Babies" section every year. The cutest baby (partially determined by online votes) wins a prize! If you're so inclined, please vote for Erin. Her picture (a cropped version of the photo below) should be up tomorrow (12/31). I'll update this post with a direct link once it's available.

It's up! You can vote here.

You can vote via your facebook account (if you have one) or by entering your email address. I've been assured by the newspaper that the email addresses are not being saved for any other use than to keep only one vote for each address for any given child. (You can vote for up to nine babies, but unfortunately you can't use all nine votes for one baby!)

Thanks! And if I don't post tomorrow, Happy New Year!

We wish you a...

WIP: Green Ornament (from Kathy Schenkel)

I think I actually have fewer stitches in today's WIP than yesterday's, but I've got more of the piece completed.  This is a rare small project for me.  Today's featured WIP is a handpainted canvas ornament from Kathy Schenkel.

Technique/Materials:  Various (mostly yet undetermined) stitches on handpainted 18ct mono canvas. I've pulled a bunch of appropriate threads from my stash. So far, I'm using Felicity's Garden (a thread I've never used before, only have one skein of, and it happens to be a perfect dark green), Vineyard Silk, and Kreinik 1/16" ribbon.

Background:  I picked this canvas up last year when my LNS hosted a Kathy Schenkel trunk show. When contemplating what stitches to use, the scalloped area just cried out to be stitched in Bargello, so that's where I started! I'm not sure what I'm doing for the rest yet.

Why it's not done:  This is another "desk" project, and I don't often pull it out at lunch. If I do, it only gets about ten minutes of attention. Never mind this sat in my desk for four months while I was out on bedrest/maternity leave last winter.

What's left to do:  The rest of the Bargello, the center band, and the gold ornament top. Now that I've brought it home to photograph it, I may just spend a couple of evenings finishing it.

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A long-overdue Erin update:  On Halloween, I posted pictures of Erin in her jack o'lantern costume, but I neglected to mention that she decided to try to complete the outfit by cutting her first tooth that day. Now, that tooth is becoming visible in pictures.

Her new favorite pastime is pulling off her socks.

But like mommy, she can sometimes be distracted by fabric textures.

Happy Halloween!

Floating windows and door

(Note:  I actually started this blog post last Monday, and somehow never actually finished posting it.)

It was great. I was actually starting to post again on a regular basis, multiple times in a week. And that's how long it lasted. One. Week.

I really do plan to get back to posting frequently. Unfortunately, I timed my increase in productivity poorly. It just so happened that my favorite author, Diana Gabaldon, released the seventh main novel (as opposed to shorter sideline novels) in her Outlander series on September 22. My copy of An Echo in the Bone (which I preordered when I was in the hospital in January!) showed up last Monday.  Usually, I do most of my "reading" via audiobook, which has the distinct advantage in allowing me to stitch at the same time.  Echo is not yet available in audio, so it has definitely made a dent in my stitching time.  I'm on page 404 today.  Almost halfway through.  Give me another week and I'll be back to stitching and blogging more. 

The little bit of stitching I have accomplished in the past week has been on my Blessing sampler.  Here we have floating windows and a floating door above a brick walkway:

Despite the minimal time I've devoted to stitching this past week, this is actually working up fairly quickly.  Yes, it's over one thread of the linen, but fortunately it's just tent stitch, not full crosses.

(Update: I finished my book yesterday.  Let the blogging and stitching resume at whatever passes for a "normal" pace now.)

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Erin update:  Erin is doing fairly well out of the cast.  She's pretty wobbly from the waist down.  She has to wear her brace most of the time, so she doesn't have much time each day to rebuild muscle tone.  She's just starting to roll over again.

The brace is okay...

But free time is more fun!

Walking a tightrope

When playing with design, you have to keep the balance of the original (and perhaps improve upon it).  In the case of My Way, this means positioning similarly shaped motifs opposite each other.  It's difficult to describe, but pictures can help tell the story.

In the original design, the layout of the blocks is as follows:

Notice how some similar motifs are positioned relative to each other:

• Blocks B and E both have the rounded square inner area, with corner areas that emphasize a diagonal direction away from the center of the block.  These are in the two middle positions of the design.
• Located in two opposing corners of the design, blocks A and F have a distinct cross in the center with corners that remind me of a log cabin quilt.
• Blocks C and D are in the other two corners, and have a diamond-shaped center with corners that have an all-over, non-directional pattern.

When I started stitching my version, I started block A in the middle position, rather than in a corner, just to be different.   As a result, block B ended up in a corner, and I moved block E to the opposite corner so these two blocks again balanced each other.  Here's my design-in-progress.

Along the way, I decided to not stitch block D since (in my opinion) it draws the eye a bit too much.  I'm replacing it with block G.   Block G has a distinct cross in the center, so I'm using this block opposite A.  However, the original corners for G have an "X" or star shape emphasized.  To balance the log cabin look of the A corners, I'm stealing the corners from block F to use on my block G.

In one of the remaining two corners of the design, block C has been started.  Block F is planned for the opposite corner.  In stitching F, I'll need to select colors carefully to emphasize a diamond shape rather than a cross as in Carolyn's original.  Oh, and I need to use the corners from block D here to balance those of block C.

Confused yet?  Don't worry.  It is confusing, especially when it's not sitting right in front of you.  The point is that if you're going to make significant changes to the layout of a geometric design, sometimes you need to walk a tightrope (i.e. keep balancing!) while juggling (areas of the design, that is).

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Erin update:  Hooray!  The cast is off!  Erin did NOT enjoy the process of cutting it off.  Can you say terrified?  After a rough evening yesterday, she did fairly well today.  She does need to wear a brace most of the time, but it can be removed for some play times.  She really enjoyed being able to wiggle, and managed to roll from stomach to back (twice!), even though her legs are still pretty stiff and stick out to each side.

The unfortunate news is that Erin's left hip is still quite unstable.  She will need to undergo further surgery after her first birthday and then have another cast for six weeks.  :-(

For now, I'm enjoying having my squishy baby back.  :-)

Back to My Way

To scratch my itch for canvaswork, I've again picked up My Way, which was started almost a year ago.  To recap, the class with Carolyn Mitchell was in November 2008, but the borders were done as prework to the class.  Each stitcher picked her own colors to fill in this six-block pattern.  I chose mulberry and turquoise, with a "neutral" family of bluish-gray.  I was unsuccessful in finding all of the colors I needed in the threads called out in the instructions, so I'm winging it in some cases.

This week, I've been working on Block G.  How do we have block G if there are only six blocks?  Well, that was part of making the design "my way" for each stitcher.  We have seven blocks to choose from.

I'm not at all sold on keeping the center hearts as the lightest turquoise, mostly because it doesn't really pop.  This shade is too close to the blue-gray of the border.  I may replace this with a medium shade if it doesn't work with the rest of the design, but for now I'll leave it.

Here's the whole thing so far.  I'm deliberately leaving each block only partially done so I can make changes if the whole design doesn't balance.

Up next:  the corner of this block.  Stay tuned!

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Erin update:  CAST-OFF COUNTDOWN:  1 day, 3 hours.
Of course, she finally slept well last night.  Rather than waking every 3-4 hours like she has ever since being casted, she slept straight through from 11PM to 6:30AM.  Figures.  And now we're going to disrupt that by taking the cast off!

Flowers and berries and bees, oh my!

Catherine Theron's How Great the Blessing sampler continues to be the focus of my stitchy attention.  As you can see, I've added the bees (cross stitch and double-running), a few berries (satin stitch), the outer area of several flowers (queen stitch), and the grout of a brick walk for a house (tent stitch over one).  Only in stitching can you add grout before the bricks!

All of the flowers are "supposed" to be filled in like the one on the left, but I really like them just with the outside areas done.  I can't really pull out the central areas of the bottom left flower due to the fabric distortion caused by the queen stitches, though.  Right now I'm going to proceed with filling in the flowers off of the vines on each side, but leave the center plant as it is. 

There's also supposed to be some small vines in freehand surface embroidery in the empty areas next to the squirrel and the bunny, but I think I like the space there for now.  We'll see how this looks as I get more of the sampler done.  I can always add them later.

I really do want to finish this sampler this year (after all, I've already added the year), but I've got an itch to do some canvas work.  I'm going to pull out Carolyn Mitchell's My Way, which I started last year before my pregnancy eliminated my ability to work on large canvases mounted on stretcher bars!

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Erin update:  CAST-OFF COUNTDOWN:  6 days to go!

Decent progress

Wow!  It's been a bit over a week since I last posted, but I've been making good progress on my Blessing sampler.  Erin's been cooperating by going to sleep around 8PM each night, so I've had time to stitch! 

I finished the grass and the vases, then added the strawberries, the squirrel and bunny, the center plant, and one queen-stitched flower.  There are 14 more of these flowers (5 on the center plant, and 5 on each side), and they'll take some time. 

A few pieces in my stash are calling to me to start them, but I already have too many started, and really need to finish a few (ok, at least two) before starting anything else, hence the concentration on this piece.

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Erin update:  We have a date for cast removal!  Cast-off day is Monday, September 21.  Two weeks to go.  Erin is getting very impatient with the cast.  She's now seven months old, and wants to GO!  She's constantly getting frustrated that she can't reach something or she'll try to throw herself backward when she's sitting on someone's lap.  It's like she knows she should be able to move more, but can't quite figure out why she can't.

Here's a picture from a couple of weeks ago.  Somebody had given us this really pretty dress, and it was just hanging in her closet waiting for a special occasion.  I finally decided that any day could be a special occasion, or the dress wouldn't be worn at all!  When DH first saw this dress, he commented that it looked like she was wearing a tablecloth (though since then he's decided it's really cute on her). 

This past week, Erin's started to wrinkle her nose at times.  It's pretty funny.  Here she is (in a different pink gingham dress) when trying Cheerios for the first time yesterday.

Don't worry. Other pictures showed that maybe Cheerios were ok after all.  :-)

Sampler progress

No, not that sampler, the other one. Since Hannah Thornbush wasn't cooperating with me, I decided to pick up the How Great the Blessing sampler from my recent class with Catherine Theron. I've made some decent progress on it in the last week or so, getting in a little over an hour each night after Erin falls asleep.

The picture on the right is where my Blessing stood after the weekend class. Here's what I've been able to accomplish since then:

Wow! Looking at the older picture makes me realize just how much I've accomplished: the trees up top, the vines at the bottom and the sides (with lots of leaves on one of them), the blue parts of the vases, and an "A". Oh - and the personalization. Yes, I've dated it. I'm hoping that will keep me motivated to finish it this year! :-)

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Erin update: As of last Thursday, Erin is on cast #3. This was the scheduled cast change to allow for growth, and she did really well, now that we've figured out what medicines work for her in combination with the anesthesia.

I took a couple of pictures of cast #2 for posterity. In case any of you were wondering about it, here's one. Note the heart cut out of the tummy area. It helps with breathing and digestion, not to mention occasional belly pokes!
One week earlier, Erin came home from Grandma's in a great new outfit. Thanks, Aunt Sharon! It may just be due to Erin's cheering that the Yankees swept the Red Sox starting that day!

Good news and bad news

The good news is that I finished the first lesson (bands 1 & 2) of Hannah Thornbush. I'll share pictures sometime this weekend.

The bad news is that when the orthopedist looked at Erin's X-ray today, he found that her left hip had somehow slipped and is dislocated again. We're going back to the hospital tomorrow morning so they can fix it and recast her. Which means more anesthesia. Hopefully the anesthesiologist can do something different so she doesn't end up spending the night again.

Ugh. My poor baby doll. :-(

Beginning temari

In one of the odd coincidences of the needlework world, Mary of Needle 'N Thread posted about her purchase of a temari book today, and Jane of World Embroideries has been posting about temari lately, too. Allow me to contribute to the discussion!

In yet another online class through Shining Needle Society (can you tell I'm addicted to these classes?), I'm learning to make temari with Barb Suess. The class will have one main temari (Morning Glory) with two overlapping techniques, and two additional "challenge" temari, each with one of the two techniques, but with less instruction.

The first lesson came out this week. This week's lesson is all about making the thread-wrapped core and simple 8 division guidelines. Here you can see my three temari cores in different states. The far left is a part of a stocking filled with rice hulls. The middle ball is a little further along, having been wrapped with yarn. The ball on the right has the outer thread layer and the guidelines in metallic thread, waiting for next week's lesson.Mary, in case you were wondering, it took about 2-1/2 hours to make the core and put guidelines on it. I expect the next couple to be a little faster, now that I've done it once. I don't blame you for "cheating" by purchasing the mari already in this state, especially if you just want to try this technique out!

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Erin update: 1 week down, 11 to go in the cast. She's adjusting well, and is slowly getting back to sleeping as well as she was pre-cast.

Check out the hot-pink knees on the little girl who looks a bit tired!

Home again

Thanks again for all of the well wishes! Erin did fine overnight, and showed she was breathing well and eating well, so they let us go home. She's now laying on her play mat, enjoying being in a familiar place and playing with her familiar toys, without being hooked up to wires and tubes! The cast does not seem to be bothering her much, aside from when we have to do diaper changes and I need to clean near her incisions.

As for me, I hope to catch up on sleep and finish Floral Rondel over the next day or so.

An update...

Let me start by saying thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers sent our way today. We are grateful for all of the support.

Erin is fine, but she and I are not home as we'd hoped. I'm writing this entry on a cool internet/movies/TV setup in the cheldren's area of the hospital. Unfortunately,the screen in our room is VERY blurry, so I apologize for any missed key strokes!

When we went into the surgical center this morning, we'd been hoping that the doctor would be able to manipulate Erin's hips into position without surgery. It was not to be. The doctor found that there was too much muscle, etc. in the way, and he needed to operate.

The procedure went smoothly from that point, until they tried to bring her out of anesthesia. That didn't go so well.. It's a long story, but it ended up with oxygen blowing on her face, her finally waking up fully SIX hours after sergury, and staying in the hospital overnight for observation..

Right now she's sleeping, and aside from an occasional whimper, seems to not be in pain.. I'm going to try to get some sleep myself...

Tomorrow is the day

I can't believe it's here already. Erin goes in for her procedure tomorrow (Thursday), and then she'll be in a cast from chest to toes for 12 weeks. :-( She's NOT going to be happy, especially since she's just recently figured out how to roll over (although then she gets mad because she hates tummy time!). Oh well. I'll try to post tomorrow night to let you all know how things went.

On the stitching front, I've been making rather slow progress on Hannah Thornbush. I'm still on band 2, and I apologize for the lack of pictures. The lesson for bands 3 and 4 came out on Monday. Only the second lesson, and I'm behind already. Sheesh!

After several emails back and forth with Denise from Threadneedle Street in Washington state, the correct color of silk I needed for Floral Rondel showed up today. Thank you, Denise! Now I can finally finish this!

Floral Rondel on hold again

Last week I mentioned that I had received the extra silk sent to me by Judy Souliotis for Floral Rondel. I was concerned because it seemed a bit lighter. That was confirmed when I started stitching with it:The new spool starts at the downward pointing arrow and continues to the left. It was strange - this spool seemed a bit more peach than pink. I looked at the two spools - full and empty. They've got different numbers! Yup. No wonder they looked different! They're different colors entirely!

I went back to the instructions to see what color was called for. Aha! The original instructions called for color A, but the kits had B substituted. When Judy very kindly sent me the replacement, she sent A. Since she's already been so kind, I'm not hassling her for color B. (And if any of you know her, PLEASE do not do so, either.)

Instead, I'm trying to buy color B, but I'm hitting a bit of a roadblock. It's listed on the color list on Access Commodities website, but I can't find it on the lists at any online shop. I'm working with one shopowner who is trying to order it from Access for me. If this doesn't work, one blog reader has offered to trade her spool from the class kit with me. Thanks, Kate!

As for that little bit of stitching with the new color? I've taken it out. It just looked odd.

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Erin update: Our little girl has been having reading lessons at Grandma & Grandpa's. See?

And this picture just makes me laugh. It looks like she's terrified of her own feet!

Hannah Thornbush begins

Though the instructions for the first two bands for Hannah Thornbush were posted last Monday, I didn't actually put the first stitches in until Thursday.

Part of the delay was due to a dilemma about mounting this on my scroll rods. The rods don't have the old twill tape on them - just velcro, which means I needed to put the corresponding velcro hooks on my fabric. I'm going to need to cut off the first (and last) half-inch when I'm done to get rid of the adhesive from the velcro tape. I usually take this into account when I have my fabric cut, and allow for a 4" margin at top and bottom. This is one of the pitfalls of a kit. I can't predetermine the fabric margin.

Ok, so what do the instructions say? The first line says to start stitching 2-1/4" from the top of the fabric. If I used the velcro, I'd have less than a 2" margin at top and bottom!

I didn't like this scenario. So, I decided to make extensions on to my ground fabric. I found a piece of Aida cloth that I knew I wouldn't use for anything else. After tacking it to my linen with a line herringbone stitch in a sturdy linen thread, I had an extra 6" margin at the top and bottom. I put the velcro on the Aida, and when I'm done I'll just cut out the tacking stitches, so my linen will still have its full margin. This photo shows the join, as well as my start on band 1.

Some comments were posted to the class list about the difficulty of framing with such a small margin. The teacher/designer (Margriet Hogue of The Essamplaire) wrote back that she'll be providing instructions for hemstitching the border of the sampler. The hemstitched sampler can then be mounted for framing, and a large fabric border won't be needed. I'll decide when I get there if that's what I want to do.

Last week I promised a picture of the kit contents. The colors are lovely. The silks are all either loose Soie d'Alger or Soie de Paris spools. I've never used Soie de Paris before. It's a bit thinner and has much more shine than most other stranded silks. It almost feels like rayon, but it seems to handle a bit better.

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Erin update: Our 4-month pediatrics appointment was last week. She's up to 12.5 pounds, and 22.5" long. Relative to other (non-preemie) 4 month olds, she's in the 15th percentile for height, 30th for weight, and 50th (i.e. average) for head circumference. She's catching up! Just two months ago, she was at 5th, 10th, and 25th percentile for those same metrics.

Her hip procedure is scheduled for July 2, first thing in the morning. We're praying for a first-time fix!

Our most recent pictures are from her christening this past Sunday. You finally get to see what I look like!

Answering questions

Recent posts have generated a couple of questions from readers.

I'll address the stitching-related question first. A couple of readers have asked about Jean Hilton's ScottLee. I'm sorry to say that the instructions for this project are very hard to find. Jean taught it only twice: once for a national seminar, and once for a group of stitchers near Phoenix.

It is not available for retail sale (though perhaps her family might change that in the future - who knows?). I did not take either class, but I was lucky enough to be given the chart by somebody who took the class at seminar. I do not have my chart any longer, as I passed it on to another stitcher who admired it here on my blog. Right now, that's the only way it can be legally obtained - by gift or purchase from one of the stitchers who has the instructions from class.

Oh - and if you're one of those lucky few, I know of a couple of ladies looking for the chart!

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Erin Update: The second question was about Erin, and the next steps for her hip dysplasia. (Background: She was born with both hips dislocated as a result of pregnancy complications.)

We visited the orthopedist this past week. The X-ray only took two tries. The first try caught her in the middle of a wiggle and was blurry :-). After the second, non-wiggle attempt, succeeded, I managed to get a new diaper on with no accidents on the table!

The X-rays confirmed that both hips are still very much dislocated. Now I'm waiting for the doctor's secretary to call to set up the mid-June appointment for a "closed reduction" procedure. In this procedure, Erin will be anesthetized and the doctor will attempt to manipulate the hips into the correct position. There's a slight chance he may operate at that time if he thinks it will be a minor correction. If all goes well, she'll then be put in a cast from mid-chest to knees. If, for some reason, the hips won't cooperate, we'll wait 'til she's a bit bigger before going in for "open reduction", a.k.a. surgical reparation, before casting her.

As for the cast - don't ask about diaper logistics. It doesn't sound like fun. :-(

Update: In answer to Megan's question: the cast will be on 3-4 months (to let the muscles, tendons, etc. move into the correct position to support the hips), and yes, hopefully after that she'll be able to go on as a normal kid. The doctor says there's a chance she might need to have additional work done over the next several years, but we're praying this won't be necessary.

Thank you to Robbie and Jean for your support and sharing your stories about similar situations. I'm grateful for your caring notes!

Oh - and thank you to Carin for wishing me a happy birthday on Friday after reading through the archives! :-)