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Monday, June 28, 2010

Jane retaliates, enlists frogs, triumphs in the end

Well, Jane won her point.  She got all time dedicated to her this past week -- which was considerable with Wimbledon having started.  She did make life interesting though.  Those flowers on either end on the bottom border -- I just wasn't satisfied with that awful new color.  I tried a substitute color on the bottom right flower, but still wasn't happy.  Then I took a look at the model picture and decided to go with a slightly darker color that had been used but sparingly up at the top of the sampler.

Which of course meant -- Jane got her revenge.  I spent hours frogging those fill in colors on the flowers.  But I think it was worth it.  What do you think?

Yes!  Jane is finished!!!! Here are the two flowers in question, along with the beautiful middle flower.   Number one, And number two. I like this color a lot better than the skin tone color.  The absolutely gorgeous middle flower will forever be remembered by me as the flower that took forever to stitch while watching the forever longest tennis match ever.  Won by American John Isner at Wimbledon, court 18, 70 to 68 in the fifth set over Nicolas Mahut.  Absolutely amazing!  I think there were 109 aces for Isner, 105 for Mahut?  Or something like that.  Geez!  The fifth set was longer than the former longest match in history!

Anyway, here's the rest of the sampler.  I love it so much!  But be forewarned -- the colors were marked incorrectly in more than one place, especially at the bottom border. Isn't Jane wonderful?  She deserved to retaliate.  :D

Here's the list of colors that went into a second skein.  I used AVAS with 40ct linen.  4136 (marked as such in the chart), 3724, 2636, 2216, 2235, 526, 2611.  I came close to needing another skein with a few other colors as well.

As I'm typing this, poor Andy Roddick has lost in the round of 16 at Wimbledon to a surprise Chinese player.  I feel so badly for him.  I wanted him to win Wimbledon!  I wouldn't mind Murray winning either.  Or Federer or Nadal.  :D   But it would be fun to have a new winner for a change.  Oh how unfaithful of me to say that!  Wimbledon has been so amazing this time around.  So many surprises and great matches.  The women's side too.  Of course, I love Wimbledon no matter what.  It's my favorite grand slam event.

Big time summer mode going on around here now.  Don't know how that happened.  I feel like it should still be the middle of the school year.  Ah well.

Thanks again for stopping by and saying hi.  It's fun to see what everyone is up to!  Have a great week!
Posted by Margaret at 12:10 PM 71 comments: Labels: Jane Atkinson, tennis


Lucy and Betsy beat up on Jane......

Poor Jane.  Not only is she losing time because of summer and the kids being home, but now Lucy and Betsy are elbowing in on the action.  Only a bit done on poor Jane this week. Oh, and I take it back.  Two of the colors, not just one, in the new skeins are horrible matches.  See the flower in the bottom left?  That's supposed to be the same color as the skin tone on Adam and Eve. (The above pic is also the piddling amount I got done this week.)  I'm so glad this wasn't the color of the skein I used for A&E and the rest of the sampler.  It's sooo yellow!  Not sure if I should just try to replace the fill in color on the flower to a different color or just tolerate the glaring new color.  Opinions?

Here's one of the reasons why poor Jane has been neglected this week.  The Lucy Bag, from Attic 24. I may have created a monster here.  I made the bottom much larger than called for.  We'll see if it's ridiculously so!  The color from about the second beige and light blue rings out are the sides of the bag instead of the bottom.  Boy, does it take a while to go all the way round!

The other thing that's taken away from poor Jane was a class my friend Kathy (no blog) and I took in NJ with Betsy Morgan, the Toy Chest Etui.  It was a two day class, Friday and Saturday.  The first day was dedicated to finishing our pre-stitched piece and the second day to going over the rest of the project.  Here's the class project. (There are two more "toys" to the piece now than in the picture, one being included with the class and another being an optional kit to buy.  I bought it of course!)  Betsy was a fantastic teacher!  I don't know if you're like me, but whenever I go to a class where there's finishing, I get stressed out and feel like I have to keep up with the teacher and work quickly and and and....   you get the picture.  Well, with Betsy, it was easy -- or at least a lot easier -- to keep up with her than with other teachers.  Her instructions were wonderful, both spoken and written.  By the end of the first day, both Kathy and I had finished our pre-stitched pieces into little thimble holders -- a finished product!  We were both thrilled! Isn't it cute?  And it's a little thing, just the perfect size to hold a thimble!  All of the smalls that go in the chest are supposed to be toys.  This is a ball and cup -- although there's no ball in reality.

The second day was going over instructions, doing some practice doodling; making a sampler Jacob's Ladder from skirtex, paper and tape; and making the little drumsticks that go on the waxer holder/drum.  And at the end of the day, Betsy showed us how she makes cording and tassels.  I'm so glad she did.  I've made cording before, but her method is sooooo much better!   And I've never made tassels, but now I feel like maybe I can do it!

All I can say is, if you have a chance to take a class from Betsy Morgan, go for it.  She's a great teacher, very laid back and relaxed, and is so clever with her finishing methods too!  And her class pieces are gorgeous!  Well worth it!  Thanks for a wonderful class, Betsy!  And thanks to Diane and the ladies who sponsored it!

Current plan is to get back to Jane and finish her up, throw in some rows of crochet on the bag once in a while, maybe a bit of quilting?  Maybe.  And once Jane is done, hopefully tackle the Toy Chest Etui!  I hope!  We'll see what happens.  lol!

In other news, just one more exam for the boy child to go, tomorrow.  Then he will be done for the year.  He's already gone into summer mode, which isn't a good thing.  Too bad this exam wasn't closer to the rest of the exams.  But today will be his last day of study, tomorrow he'll take the exam, and finis!   The girl child is busy with her friends and boyfriend and her internship.  Which is a good thing!

Thanks again for stopping by and saying hi!  I love to read your comments and visit with you all.  Have a great week!
Posted by Margaret at 6:44 AM 42 comments: Labels: Jane Atkinson, Lucy bag, Toy Chest Etui


Poor Jane.....

Poor Jane.  Summer has started -- at least sort of started.  Enough to make the hours dedicated to fun stuff much more limited.  So poor Jane has suffered.  She has progressed, but not as much as in the past.  Ah well. At least now I know where her bottom limits are and how big she will be when finished. Oh, and something you should know if you're planning to stitch Jane.  You will definitely need more than one skein of more than just one color.  Only one color is listed as needing two skeins.  I would say it's much more like 4 or more.  When I finish Jane, I will post which colors I went into for a 2nd skein. Since I didn't know I would need more than one skein, I'm going to have dye lot issues with two colors.  One isn't that much of a difference, just slight.   But the other color!  Whoa Nelly!  Huge difference!  Luckily no one but me will know that certain leaves and stems were supposed to be the same color but aren't.

Another reason why poor Jane didn't get as much attention as usual.  I've caught the Attic 24 crochet bug.   I'd been wanting to try my hand at crochet anyway.  But when I saw Lucy's blog, well, I was bowled over to say the least.  So this past weekend, I ventured out to a yarn store that I hadn't known existed, bought a few balls of yarn, plopped myself in front of Youtube, and taught myself to crochet.  By the end of the weekend, I had the beginnings of my Lucy bag to show for it. Please keep in mind that I've never crocheted before, and then just ignore the flaws.  :D   I'm hoping to make this bag, and then move on to the big goal of learning to make granny squares so I can make beautiful throws and pillows like Lucy has on her blog.

Poor Jane will also have to suffer this week because I need to do some pre-stitching for a class I'm taking this coming weekend.  I'm hoping my friend Kathy (no blog) is right and that it will be a quick stitch since I haven't even started yet!

Becky surprised me by gifting me one of her wonderful pin pillows!  Just out of the blue, for no reason!  I was so thrilled to receive her Hoppity pin pillow. It is just so amazing!  So perfect in every way!  Becky, thank you soooo much!  I am just so touched by your thoughtfulness and generosity!  I will treasure this forever!

In other news, the boy child just has 4 final exams left and then he will be done with school for the year.  He only goes into school for the exam, so he went in earlier today for his first final and he's home already.  He'll have one a day each day this week except Friday, and then the last exam is next Tuesday.  I know he's looking forward to the end of school.  The girl child is into her second full week of her internship.  Seems like she's enjoying it, which is great!

Thanks to all of you for stopping by and saying hi.  I love hearing from you and visiting with you all!  Hope you have a great week!
Posted by Margaret at 7:01 AM 42 comments: Labels: crochet, gift, Jane Atkinson, Lucy bag

Monday, June 7, 2010

Sorry, Jane.....

Jane, I couldn't take those white faces.  In fact, I couldn't take a lot of how you stitched Adam and Eve, but I felt the only thing I could really change was the face color.  I would have liked to get rid of the backstitching, but you foiled me, Jane.  You stitched Adam's arms with backstitch.  So I went ahead and followed your lead and did the backstitch.  I hate backstitching.  Not backstitching itself, but the look of it.  Sigh.  Oh well.  So Jane, I hope you don't mind.  But here is my version of your Adam and Eve. I think they look at least a bit more normal with faces that match their body skin tones. But I tell you.  I find Adam and Eve to be so disappointing next to the rest of the design.  What happened, Jane?  I mean, primitive is good.  But this??   Ah well.  I will try to ignore the poor twosome -- they're going to be kicked out of Paradise soon anyway.

I still have part of the right border to go, plus all of the flowers on the bottom border.  PLUS the verse, which is ongoing, as you can see.  So no end in sight yet.  Plus which it's summer -- or at least it's half summer (boy child is still in school, girl child isn't).  Which means less stitching time.  Sigh.....

I got a lovely prize from Barbara of Mainely Stitching the other day.   Just for answering a question on her blog! It's all kitted up too!  I was so happy to get this in the mail!  Thank you so much, Barbara!  You're a sweetie!  You all should check out Barbara's blog -- she's been designing some wonderful pieces that are being featured in the Gift of Stitching Magazine.  I love them all so far!

In other news, the girl child started her internship at a NYC publisher last week, and she's off to work today as well.  All I can say is -- there's no way I'd want to do that commute every day!  Drive to the station (that's my part), take train to city, subway to work, then reverse the whole thing for the ride home (father type does picking up).  Bleagh!

The weather was typically summerish last week, hot and humid.  But some storms blew through Sunday and brought in some lovely, cool weather with no humidity.  Ah!  So refreshing!  I wish it would stay this way!

Did anybody watch the French Open?  All psyched for Wimbledon?  Wimbledon is my favorite slam of the year.  And we finally took the plunge and got the Tennis Channel on TV, so I'll be able to watch the Queens Club tournament before that!  Cool stuff!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I always love to read your comments and visit with you.  Have a great week!
Posted by Margaret at 7:10 AM 39 comments: Labels: Jane Atkinson


Jane continued

Jane is definitely a long term project.  But I'm so loving her! I'm falling behind on the lines of over one verse, but at least I did get one done this week.  And I love the little animals! I do wonder what that last critter is.  I would say it was a capybara, but I doubt if Jane lived anywhere where she would know what a capybara was.  Also, I don't think capybaras have a tail like that.  lol!  A beaver maybe?  :D

In other news, the kids have been busy with friends.  I think the girl child has been home for dinner maybe once all week.  The boy child went on his annual Memorial Day trip with his school orchestra this past weekend.  I think he had a good time.

Been watching the French Open.  Pretty exciting and interesting this year.  I do think Rafa will win.  It seems inevitable.

Thanks again for stopping by and saying hi.  It's so much fun to read your comments and visit with you!  Have a great week!
Posted by Margaret at 6:36 AM 51 comments: