Thursday

It is Thursday.  It is wonderfully warm outside.  Walking was very nice this morning.  The park has greened up so much in the last week.  It used to be a bunch of dead sticks making it look like a haunted scary forest.  Now it is green with leaves and violets blooming with yellow finches flitting about.

I got 20 pentagons done for Friesland.

 All the small ones are finished.  Now to start on the larger ones today.  I think there are 12 larger pentagons. Then the stitching for Friesland will be done and I can start to put it together.  Whew!

I got a little bit done on the second side of Drawn Thread's Pastoral pocket.  I'd like to get that red house all done today.

We had one red tulip come into bloom and then we had rain that totally wiped out the tulip.

 It bloomed for one day.  That's all, just one.  I guess you just have to enjoy them as much as you can while they are here.  Luckily the daffodils blooms are lasting longer.

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Dead Piano

Wednesday.  Hump day.  What is going on today?  DH is taking apart our piano.  It is a shame, I know.  But we have tried to sell it.  We have tried to give it away.  We have tried to push it and move it.  Nothing.  So it came down to trying to get someone to haul it away.  Now it is being deconstructed.

 I saved all the piano key ivory (I think it is ivory).

 It would be fun to try some scrimshaw.  There are some good tutorials on the web.  This piano is very old and heavy and dirty.  At some time in it's life it was in a house heated with coal oil.  It was tuned about 30 years ago.  It is a dead piano.

I started on the second side of Drawn Thread's Pastoral pocket.

 It is hard to stitch upside down.  I just wanted to get it started in the right place and then I turned it so I can stitch the design right side up.  I decided not to stitch my last name but to go ahead with the design as it is, the alphabet.

I finally finished the Friesland flap.  Ta-dah!

Now there are a ton of pentagons to stitch.  Like forty-seven or something.  Some are for the little balls that are on the ends of the drawstrings and some are for the pinball.  I got two of the small ones done.

 Fingers crossed, they will go quickly.
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Rain, Rain Go Away

It is a rainy day so I walked at the Y.  It's a bit more boring to walk there but I'm glad to have a place to go when the weather is bad.  I voted  and went to two grocery stores.  It sure seems like I'm not getting very much done stitching-wise.  Maybe I goof off too much.  Yesterday I finished the flap on Drawn Thread's Pastoral pocket.

It was supposed to have "abc" on it but I made it into "Amy" instead.

 On the next side of the pocket I have to decide whether to put "vwxyz" or my last name.  We'll see.

I got a pitiful bit done on the flap of Friesland.

 Why is this taking me so long?  I don't know.  Deciding on color changes adds a little time.  My goal is to finish the flap today.

I bought a little basket kit.  It might be nice to just do something totally different.

I finally have the marbled paper to put on my casket.  I've even cut a piece for the bottom of the tray part.

 So I should glue it on my casket already!  Don't be scared.  Just put it on the bottom and see how it turns out.  It's just paper.  Duh.
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Reglued

I'm just back from the dentist.  He glued my crown back in but I have to have a new crown.  Of course.  They tried to schedule the new crown for the very day I go to A Stitchers' Gathering.  Then they put me in on the day before.  So it will be a few weeks before I can get this taken care of.  In the mean time I have to be careful.  I found out that my crown is 19 years old.  I've gotten a lot of good use out of it.  Today's walking is done, the bathrooms are clean and I can eat.  What more can I ask for?

I worked on Friesland's flap.  It is starting to take shape.  Maybe I can finish it today.

I worked on Drawn Thread's Pastoral pocket.  This will be the flap.  Maybe I can finish it today.

I'm wearing shorts.  I love it.  It's the start of a brand new week full of possibilities.  Super!
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Whole Lotta Shaking

As I was sitting in my happy chair stitching at about 12:30 yesterday things started rumbling.  DH and I thought it was a heavy truck going by.  But then I could see the corners of the room moving.  Boy this is weird I thought.  After about 10 seconds (it seemed much longer than that), it stopped.  Everything was quiet.  We had an earthquake!  There are never earthquakes here, what is going on?  Global warming?  Fracking?  It was a 4.2 quake.  We got a kick out of a post about someones plastic lawn chair being knocked over with the caption :  We will rebuild.  Pretty funny.  No damage but it was a very unusual experience.

I worked on the Friesland needle flap.  It seems to be going soooo slowly.  I'm liking my color changes.

I finished my book, The Goldfinch.  It was very philosophical at the end. I bought another one: All the Light We Cannot See.

I started The Drawn Thread Pastoral Pocket.

I like the butterfly.  It seems to be going faster than the flap or maybe I'm feeling restless.

It is supposed to be hot here today. 78 degrees.  Wow.  I may put on shorts for the first time this year.
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It's Always Something

Things were going swimmingly yesterday.  My cold is just about gone, I'm feeling more energetic and then all of a sudden a crown came off my tooth.

 Wouldn't you know it would happen on a Friday evening.  No chance of seeing my dentist until Monday.  So I have to behave myself until then.  I love crunchy stuff but none of that for a couple of days.  I went to Target and got my favorite smoothie mix, mango pineapple, like Dylan and I used to like to make at lunch.

  I'm thinking this is an opportunity to cut down on what I eat and lose some weight too.  It could happen.

I feel like I have been very lazy.  I only got the backstitching done around the Friesland pocket yesterday.

  That's because I was reading The Goldfinch so much.  I have less than 100 pages left to go.  Some of the book makes me very uncomfortable.  As in, using drugs is like throwing your life away.  But I digress.
Anyway the pocket is done and the next parts should go pretty quickly.  I'm going to work on the needlebook flap.  I want to change one of the colors.  It uses a lot of the scream green.  I want to use a much prettier potion green which is more of a blue-green.  We'll see how it all works out.  I can't believe that I will get to the putting together parts very soon.  This week maybe.

I was reading blogs this morning when I read that the next part of Shepherd's Fold is coming out next week!  I don't know what it is going to be and I haven't seen any pictures.  It will be fun to see what it turns out to be.  I'm also on the lookout for Amy Mitten's next Casket Keepsakes.  Can't wait.  You know, there's always something going on.
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May Day

I'm old enough to remember making May baskets.  Usually we put violets in them and a few pieces of candy.  We made the baskets out of construction paper.  It was usually an anonymous gift to a friend left at her front door.
I didn't get much done yesterday.  I am almost done with Friesland's pocket.  I'm working on the last motif.  I have to check and see if I am supposed to backstitch around this.

I'm sort of surprised that I am almost done.  But when you keep plugging away, sometimes you surprise yourself with what you get done.

I got several hundred pages read in The Goldfinch.  Only 400 of 2014 Ipad pages to go.   The plot is still surprising me.

I was busy with planning yesterday.  I'm going on an embroidery tour this October in Scotland and England.  I'm so excited!  This is a once in a lifetime trip.  My friend and I are deciding on dates to leave and return and if we need to book extra nights and what we want to do and where we want to shop.  This is going to be so fantastic.
It is a lovely day and I'm in a lovely mood!
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