MY FIRST GIVEAWAY WINNER

Sorry to be so late in posting the winner to my first giveaway for the 3 balls of lace weight yarn from Australia - I did have a family member draw the winning name on Labor day as promised but I've been extremely busy catching up at work since my return.

Ta Da - it's Jean from Baa Baa Knit Stitch - congratulations ! Hope you make something purdy with your new yarn.

I've already been in touch with Jean and will send her prize to her ASAP.

Thanks for everyone who entered my first giveaway - I'll be doing another one soon - it was fun.

I'll post something more later

TAIYO IN THE SMOKIES

Noro Taiyo that is - gorgeous stuff - I found a great shop on the way to Tennessee in Franklin NC - I have been traveling thru Franklin since I was a small child - I have fond memories of going there with my grandmother and great aunt as a child - my great aunt bought fabric remnants from a mill over that way for braided rugs. I don't think she did the braided rugs but apparently someone did - we used to have a large round one in my grandmothers house but I let it go years ago before I knew the value of hand crafted rugs. Sentimentally speaking - it should have been kept and taken care of - for that I am very ashamed. OK - so that is my connection with Franklin - a quaint little town on the edge of the Smokies near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I found Silver Threads and Golden Needles when searching for needlework shops in the area where we were going which is actually a yarn wasteland. Silver Threads is a darling shop with GREAT yarns - they were having knit night when we stopped by there on Thursday evening. Had I known it was such a great shop - I would have arranged to spend the night so I could have enjoyed the evening knitting with Virgina's group. AHHHH - on to the yarn purchase - She had lots of neat stuff but we were tired and the men were pacing the sidewalk in front of the shop - I knew I had about 15 minutes before tantrums would occur. She had Spud and Chloe another new yarn venture for Blue Sky Alpaca - could not find a pattern and I did not care for their pattern support - I was looking for something different - something I had not seen before or could not get locally. HUMMMM - A whole section of Noro was spotted and books too - I started thumbing thru a nice new looking book - Flowers I think it is called. Found a cute jacket that could be made into a large size - OH OH OH - she had the yarn - Taiyo - gorgeous stuff - cotton/silk/wool/nylon - AND the owner graciously pointed out a shop model in the exact jacket I was considering. OK - that was it - I was sunk - I busily found a beautiful colorway and even snagged some coveted Lantern Moon Destiny circulars so I could cast on right away. Here's a better picture without the view from our 4th floor balcony.

We have had a fairly relaxing vacation - It has been much cooler which was a pleasant break from the oppressive summer heat in NE FL.

I thought I would get so much done while here - silly me - I did get a small start on the Brenda Keyes design - Sailors Wife - but I mostly worked on another BK sampler - Plymouth - Here is a WIP photo of that one. It has a lot of fill work so it is easy to work on when distracted.

Well - it's Labor Day- Happy Labor Day everyone - I hope you all had a wonderful 3 day weekend and enjoyed BBQ's, picnics, and days filled with happy stitches. We'll be traveling home tomorrow - I'll be drawing for the 3 skeins of lace weight yarn later tonight. Gotta run now - I'm late for dinner.

COULD IT BE TRUE?

I guess fall is truly here when I taste my first sip of Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks! There is a SB about 2 blocks from my office and sometimes I have to really fight the urge to pop in there - At one time I was spending about $50 a month on SB and when we moved last year and things got so tight financially - I had to put a stop to that addiction and limit myself to once a week or maybe twice. Here is their new cup

I also bought a cool new tumbler with the brown backround and the lovely mermaid logo. I'm the only person I know that can go on a shopping spree in a Starbucks LOL

I have quite a few people signed up the for lace weight yarn I'm giving away on Labor Day. Thanks for your interest and comments on my last rambling post. Glad lots of you stuck with me even though you are not wool addicts or knitters. Still time to enter - I'm drawing on Labor Day.

Stitching progress - I picked up my Where the Hart Lives again and made great progress on it - I promise to show another WIP photo soon. I'm falling farther and farther behind on the Sail Away SAL - they're sailing away without me - humpf - my own fault - I just need to pick it up more often. I'm dying to start something new - I joined the plantation sampler SAL and have the chart and linen but I gave the DMC I bought to a friend since I decided I'd use silk - - oh oh oh - Sailors Wife - by Brenda Keyes - that is the one I really want start that I keep putting out of sight - but just not out of the mind - maybe I'll dig that out tonight. Anything to avoid that over 1 lettering on Sail Away.

I've been knitting a lot lately - I am doing very well on the VK hat - the green alpaca yarn in the last post. Hope to have it finished this month.

I was going to make this short - won't be posting till after Labor Day so I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend and gets to take many happy stitches.

FALL KNITTING FEVER

*****WARNING******** - if you are not a knitter or lover of wool - you will probably find this post extremely boring.

Must have jinxed myself in the previous post when I said I was sure the fall knitting frenzy would hit me soon as it does every year about this time. Of course I had loads of bad influence from DF Karen who innocently came up to visit me and attend a quilt lecture by Bonnie Blue Quilts Paula Barnes at the Olde Green Cupboard on Saturday night. Karen is going to talk more about the lecture and show some better photos she took of the awesome trunk show Paula brought along with her. I was a very good girl there at the cupboard but I did buy one quilt pattern that Karen said could easily be hand pieced. Yes - I do intend to take a hand piecing class later this year at the OGC by Jo Morton. NO NO NO - I am not going to get into quilting - I AM NOT going to get into quilting - you did hear that didn't you ? I have not paid for that class yet either and I was pretty sure I was going to dismiss the thought of taking that class but of course Karen said it would just further my repertoire/skill level/knowledge and I should take it whether it goes any farther or not. So - I'm back to saying yes I will take the hand piecing class on the Ohio Star later this fall.

OK - on to the yarny stuff - One of the not so LYS is about to start a KAL on a gorgeous new cape pattern in the fall issue of Vogue Knitting. She carries every color of the exact yarn called for in this pattern. It is Highlander by Alpaca with a Twist and in the photo below - it is in the upper left corner - a beautiful color called Tartan Red - WHOOOOO - I was so excited with my choice - the KAL begins on 9/19 - I also purchased a ball of Alpaca Sox by Classic Elite to make a hat also out of the new VK issue - see seperate photo of that project and hat photo. Never tried that yarn before so that will be fun - it was not fun however starting that hat with 12 stitches on size 3 DP needles and starting over 5 times - had DF Karen not been present at the time and I had to restraint myself - I'm sure that project would have gone flying across the room never to be seen again. Looks like I'm on my way now as evidenced below.

Saturday we made a pilgrimage to JoAnn's in the rain and horrendous traffic to get there. I think I would have rather stayed home and beat myself with a stick LOL - There are only 2 JoAnn's locations now in the humongous metropolis that is Jacksonville and one is within a few miles of my house - however because of the obnoxious traffic in the area - I have not gone to that location in probably 10 years or more. I got two nice knitting books - one on sale with the 40% coupon and spent WAY more money than I expected to because again DF Karen HAD to show me some Bethany Lowe Halloween book that had this really cool wreath made out of zillions of cut ribbons - So I bought like 20 spools of various ribbons to make this blasted wreath. Karen sat and cut about 5 spools into the correct length to give me a jump start on that project. We stayed up WAY too late starting new knitting projects - her a great scarf and me - the hat shown above.

Sat evening was the quilt lecture at the OGC - we met DF Kerrie at Bonefish Grill next door to OGC for a delicious dinner before the lecture. We are all into samplers so it was non-stop sampler talk thru the course of the wait and the dinner. Here is a photo of the only quilt pattern I bought from the Bonnie Blue trunk show. She said it was inspired by an antique quilt obviously using scrap fabric - I thought this might work for me and give me some justification to pick up little fat quarters of beautiful fabric that I have absolutely no use for except to stash. Its fairly small in quilt terms anyway - that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it !

Now as it we did not get into enough trouble Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night - we decided that we would make another drive on sunday to Hanks in Gainesville - another great but "not so LYS" - I've have had some Fisherman's wool on order with them since MAY (yes friends - a previous visit to this shop with DF BI(bad influence) Karen) I bought 2 lovely 500yrd skeins of Lorna's Lace hand dyed Fisherman's wool in Butterscotch in May and after perusing all my knitting books and patterns for a Fisherman's Gansey - I realized that 1000 yrds was not nearly enough - AAACCCKKKK - hence the 3 month wait for more yarn to be ordered, dyed and shipped to Hanks. Of course I could have had them mail the yarn to me for all of about $5 but OOOOOHHHHH NOOOOO - Why not just drive down there and pick up the yarn and see what they had new since May - Well - you will also see in this photo - the other purchases that could not escape my lust for the wool - you see - I don't talk about it much but yarn is my real weakness, my addiction, my crack - - I have more yarn than anything else in my vast stash and more than a lot of shops I have seen - so much so that I am actually going to have to have a big sale in the near future to reduce my stash so I can finish cleaning out my old house which has been for the past year simply a warehouse for my vast yarn and stitching stash.

Again in the upper left is the Highlander Tweed from the Local Needle - upper right is the Butterscotch LL Fisherman's wool, lower left is some lovely Silky Alpaca Lace by Classic Elite and lower right Maron Malibrigo - Malibrigo is Karen's crack - she loves it and is such a BI - I am making a lovely shawl for my mom out of Malibrigo I purchased on the May adventure to Hanks - it is turning out nice so I thought I'd better have some on hand just in case I wanted one too. For those of you who know knitting - Jared Flood is a blogger from NYC -he has done some great design work - I don't actively read his blog (there is not enough hours in the day to read all the blogs of interest) but his patterns have been picked up by Classic Elite Yarns and his new book is extremely hard to come by right now - Hanks had one copy of this book left and I snagged it posthaste. He has a lovely shawl in there called Bridgewater and it uses the gorgeous Silky Alpaca Lace pictured above. Here is my meager start on that project.
OK - is anyone still with me??? I'm doubting it but just in case you are here - you might have a chance to win 3 balls of beautiful lace weight wool from Australia - just mention in your post that you'd like to be entered in the drawing for the lace weight wool and if you mention my crazy post on your blog - I'll enter your name twice - I am finally done rambling about my excellent awesome yarn adventure weekend. The drawing will be held on Labor Day - good luck!

A TOKEN OF FRIENDSHIP

This past weekend - DF Carol came to stay with me so she could attend the Fall Festival at the Olde Green Cupboard. She brought this darling BBD pin pillow for me. I was thrilled and soooo impressed with Carol's finishing skills -She said it was a breeze - yeah right - that she followed the directions from the book and it came out perfectly - don't you think so too? It is filled with lavender and rosemary and wool and is just so pretty - and look at the lovely delicate fabric on the back. I love how the dyeing came out - just perfect Carol.

Needless to say - we had a wonderful time with our sampler guild friends. There were lots of people coming thru - mostly quilters but we did try to convert every one we met to stitchers and er - Yep Hookers! I was demo-ing rug hooking for the cupboard instead of stitching.

The following day was rug guild so I had a full weekend of pulling loops and got a lot done on the backround of Merrie. I'm getting so much hooking done lately that I have not been getting much forward progress on my stitching projects.

As soon as it gets 10 degrees cooler - I know the "oh fall is coming" knitting bug will be hitting me. It always does this time of year - when all the fall knitting yarns and magazines come out - WATCH OUT - I'll be heading to the LYS to peruse all the wonderful new wools. I already have joined a SAL for a wonderful challenging cape out of the fall Vogue Knitting mag. It is using a wonderful Alpaca/wool blend which I have been dying to try.

So friends - please drop me a note and let me know you stopped by for a visit. I enjoy every one of you so much.

A IS FOR ANCHOR

I finally have a finish ! I found this little Prairie Schooler piece when I was looking for something else. I bought the PS alphabet series several years ago when it came out. I had high aspirations of stitching them all and displaying them in some type of grouping - what a joke! I had this A about 2/3 finished and had just abandoned it. Feeling the need for a finish - any finish would do so I started working on this last week. WHOOOHOOOO - easy finish and I was able to go with my mom to the framers and picked out a perfect distressed frame - very simple for this little piece. Don't know where I'll put it yet but who cares ! I have a finish albeit a very small one - I'll take anything I can get at this point. I tend to work on medium to large samplers and my finishes are few and FAR between - so this is a little lift for me and now I can get started on the Sail Away SAL I am participating in with Terri, Loraine and some other blogger friends. I'm already a week late getting started so I have to get with it.

No rug hooking progress to report - I have not pulled a loop since the retreat. However I am demo-ing rug hooking at the Olde Green Cupboard on Saturday for their Fall Festival - that should be fun - the store should be packed and our sampler guild will be meeting there that day and also demo-ing stitching for the shop. DF Carol is coming up from central florida to spend the night so she can participate in this event. Mom will be in town for a change so she can come too. Should be a really fun day. Our rug guild meets on sunday so if I get to go on sunday - I will have a full weekend of hooking progress to report on next week.

knitting progress is little to none - I started the hat on the cover of the fall Vogue Knitting mag for a friends birthday - An August birthday no doubt - I don't know why I always set myself up for failure - of course I don't realize at the time I am setting myself up for failure - I always think - oh - I'll work on this for a hour or two every night and more on the weekends and I'll get it done - humpf ! yeah right - so that's how I rationalize and end up starting more new projects. OK - I'm going to quit beating myself up about it - I always say it's the journey that counts and the process of enjoying my one or two hours of sitting with my handwork at night before bed. Whatever I can accomplish is forward progress. I am just thankful I have a comfortable home and eyesight and a healthy mind to continue on my journey to needlework fulfillment.

Summer is still in full swing here in the deep south - I'm sure parents are glad their kids are heading back to school soon - for me it just means that my commute is longer because there is more traffic on the road when school get back in session. Fall is a favorite time of the year but I am trying hard to enjoy each season and not wish my life away - I wish summer was over - I wish fall was here - etc etc - We will still be able to go in the pool for another month or two and I have a little vacation planned to the Smokies in Tenn. over Labor Day. We are really looking forward to that - we've vacationed in that area for 30 years - actually all my life - we much prefer to head north than head south - I have actually not ever been to Key West and have not been to Miami for over 20 years.

I wanted to thank everyone for visiting my blog and commenting. Without your comments - it isn't too interesting to read the blog. Hope you all continue to enjoy the dog days of summer and take many happy stitches.

RETREAT UPDATE

This past weekend was a 3 day rug hooking retreat at the Olde Green Cupboard - a great local quilt and prim shop. A lot the gals that work there and the owner is becoming enthralled with hooking - yes it's easy to get hooked on hooking - We started Friday afternoon and ended Sunday afternoon and it was practically non-stop hooking, eating, laughing, hooking, eating - you get my drift.

I was undecided on my previous post whether I would concentrate on one WIP or work on several - I was a good girl and got right down to work on my Merrie Halloween. I knew friend Jill was working on her Pumpkin Thyme which is the boyfriend of Merrie so it was fun to be at approximately the same spot on both pieces. The same teacher color planned both canvases so while they are both colorful they are different.

Sorry about the duplication of photos but I could not figure out how to get rid of the extra one I did not need - URGHHH

I was running out of the "moldy green" used on her skirt so that was somewhat nerve racking to deal with but I made it with just a few skimpy strands to spare. Here is two photos of my progress. I got a good start on the backround but I'm in the unfortunate predicament of having 4 rugs - 2 of them are large - one is huge and one is a runner that all need backrounds done. URGGHHH - To get this much backround done - I must hook at home - must hook at home - must hook at home - No reason I can't hook some every day at home - I have a wonderful new chair in my wool room - need to show you a photo of my new chair - actually not new but from a consignment shop where I also got my stitching chair in my sun room. Next time I'll try to show you a photo of the chair in my hooking corner.

I think my next focus rug to finish will be my pomgrante runner - It is a do-able finish for this year and I'm not sure Merrie Halloween is - I don't think I could finish her for Halloween - if I hooked exclusively and did not stitch and knit I might could do it. We'll see - I try not to get caught up in a race to the finish line - I like to do things in my own sweet time - I figured out a long time ago - I could not compete with people who crank out projects in a week or a month so I'm real pleased with my retreat progress on Merrie.

Not much to report on with my stitching progress. I actually have done a bit but not enough to show a photo. My knitting progress is even more pitiful - just a few rows here and there of some mindless knitting. All the fall knitting mags will be coming out soon and that will get me going I'm sure.

Oh - one exciting thing - August 5th is the start for the Sail Away SAL - Loraine and Terri have set up a special blog just for this darling SB design. I'm excited and ready to go on that one - I'll have to see how they plan to run the SAL - I'll just have to fit into rotation - I can't work exclusively on anything - so much to stitch - so little time. Cheers!

Little French Sampler

I'm so excited for my mom - last night she finished her Marguerite Dumas french sampler. Our sampler guild had Lorraine Mootz do a lecture several years ago on french schoolgirl samplers and she repro'd this sampler from her personal collection. Marguerite is darling. Mom doesn't stitch on linen any more so she used aida lambswool with GAST Mulberry. We can't wait to get her framed - I am especially excited because Mom said she *might* could come and live with me when the framing is complete. YIPPEE - we already set up a date to go and have her framed and also mom's other recent completion CHS Scarlet Berries.

Wow - between my mom and my dad - they are putting me to complete shame with the completions this year. My dad just finished another Mirabilia - one of the older Santas and he is about 1/2 finished with my next mermaid - Blackbeard's princess I believe it is called - ooh la la - she is soooooo gorgeous and that will be on my coin to frame. One day soon I'll have to show photos of my other two gorgeous mermaid pieces he has completed for me.

I keep promising to show some WIP photos since of course I have no finishes - not yet - anyway but one day there will be something finished on my list.

This is the A&E by Primitive Needle - it is stitched on the called for PTP Mello but in 32ct instead of 40ct and with the called for NPI but I am doing the tree of life in Belle Soie. I thought I would give up before I could get thru the lettering - I don't know why I hated doing it so much and I'm sooooo glad it's done and I am able to start the tree. This was supposed to be incentive stitching on one of the yuku boards I frequent but I am obviously not going to make the deadline in August. However I love it and it will go beautifully with my A&E rug - I know I know - I have been promising a WIP on that one too but I keep hoping I'll get more done on it and have something more to show -

Hooking news is slim to none - I am still working mostly on the pomgranate runner - it will look great on my new dining room table so there is some motivation to get it done. We have a hooking retreat starting next friday at the Olde Green Cupboard - WHHEEEEE - I'm soooo excited about that - there will be some friends there and we'll have food and lots of hooking time on anything you want but no teacher - well what to take - I am torn whether to devote my whole 3 days to hooking on one project so I can really show progress or caving in to my ADD tendencies and work on 2 projects - heck - I could work on a different project each day and show some progress on all 3. I know I want to take Merrie Halloween - she has not seen daylight in quite a while and I also am feeling the pull of the A&E rug - what with all this bragging about how good my A&E sampler will go with my A&E rug - need to keep both of them in rotation. OK - I promise to show progress photos of rugs after my retreat.

Several people have asked about our possessions that were taken in the burglary - well they caught the scum that robbed at least 26 homes in our county but supposedly did not recover any of my stuff. I still don't have a penny from the insurance company. Oh well - it is getting easier to realize it is just stuff and stuff don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. I do miss certain pieces of my jewelry very much and my favorite purses of course but thankfully they did not take our TV's or laptop which would have been very annoying to say the least. We always can be thankful that it prompted us to get an alarm system and that no one was hurt in our home.

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!

I know I'm early on this one but lots of people are taking off tomorrow and heading off for a 3 day weekend away from home and their computers. I hope many of you are planning a fun holiday weekend with some time for stitching, family, friends and great food.

Actually I have to work tomorrow and poor Jody has to work on Saturday - it is the first time that the natural food market where he works is open on major holidays. They were also open on Memorial day and will likely be open on Labor Day too. How sad that our economy has driven business owners and employers to do things that would have never been considered in previous years.

We will be going to the lake on Saturday afternoon. My mom and I have planned a great meal for Saturday night. She'll do part and I'll do part and we'll be done eating and cleaning up before the awesome fire works display over their lake. I expect to have time to do a little stitching over the weekend.

This weekend also marks the one year anniversary of our moving into the new (old) house. So in honor of that I thought I'd show you a photo of our favorite summer time spot.

here is our pool and garden taken a few weeks ago when the hydrangeas were looking so wonderful - they are about gone now and I need to spend some time deadheading them.

Still not much progress on anything I am stitching and I am feeling the lure of new projects since I just joined the Plantation Sampler SAL - WHOOOO - I am so excited that my DF Henrietta helped me out with the chart since I could not locate one anywhere. Henri has this framed and hanging - she does exquisite work. I will go to the LNS next week or I may go to JoAnn's on Saturday if they are open and pull the DMC colors for it but I am considering adding some overdyes in logical places. I love the colors on the sampler so I would not want to detract from the original charting but just maybe slightly enhance (in my opinion) by adding a few overdyes.

The other thing I am revisiting this week in my quest to "stitch in the season" is Betsy by Sheepish Designs. I knew I had the chart because I had my friend Katie draw off a rug canvas from it a number of years ago but never started hooking it. I love doing things "in the season" so I'm in the patriotic mode now so I was lucky enough to find the chart and even found a piece of 35ct R&R sheeps straw - I knew I had a big piece - another WHOOOOOOO - This design is already charted for silk but I decided to again put some overdyes in this one - I have a pretty complete collection of Belle Soie silk so I am able to add some BS in places that I feel enhance the design. Old Glory needs to be bright and new since Betsy is just stitching it so some things in the design I will leave in NPI. I'm excited about this one as I have wanted to stitch it for years. I'm just so impressed with myself for being able to find the chart and even the called for "sheeps straw" in about 2 minutes time.

Well - nothing much going on in the knitting world - For those knitters out there who follow my blog - I was led down the garden path by my friend Jackie (who should remain nameless but NOT) who was led by friend Teresa who should also remain nameless - Teresa and I were sorely tempted some months ago when we visited the Atanta crew ( you shall remain nameless LOL)and found out they were all knitting Jared Floods Noro scarf - WHHHEEEEEE - it was soooo beautiful and mindlessly easy. Well - I was able to supress my *need* for this scarf after coming home from Atlanta but poor Teresa was not. So friend Jackie saw Teresa's and found she must have - so Friday at Knit Night - I saw Jackies and found *I MUST HAVE* and so I have started the Jared Noro scarf in Yuzen - it is not as dramatic as Jackies but it is very pretty.

Hooking - I must show a photo soon of my Pomgranate runner by Searsport Rugs - it is coming along nicely and if I actually worked on it more - I would be able to use it on my new dining room set. We have a retreat coming up at the Olde Green Cupboard the end of July which is just to bunk in - stay cool - eat lots of food and hook hook hook. No teacher - just focus on WIP's - I could probably finish that rug in this retreat however I feel a strong tug from the lovely Miss Merrie Halloween - so we'll see who wins!

Wishing you blissful days full of big bowls of ice cream, giant hamburgers, ice cold belly washers ( a southern expression for sure)a hammock in the cool breeze or a lounge chair under a shady tree - many happy stitches and a safe and colorful 4th of July - Be thankful and celebrate our Independance Day!

THE DOOR

Well - we finally have a door after over 2 weeks with plywood standing between us and the elements. It is certainly not as pretty as our old door which had 9 panes of glass in the upper section of the door. It will just have to do. Apparently the more glass you have the more expensive the door so I had to opt for just a little glass. Doesn't really make a whole lot of difference as there is a whole glass wall right next to the front door. This craftsman house we live in has a lot of glass and wood which I love however when something like this happens - it does make you feel somewhat vulnerable.

Another blogger friend posted about losing their stitching mojo - I think I have lost all the wind in my sails too. I have done very little stitching and June is slipping away just like all my valued possessions did. I think maybe I have been sorta depressed - you just keep going as you do with any trauma in your life. This is not as serious as a death or accident, illness or other tragedy but to me it was a loss and a blow to my sense of security in my new home. We moved from a very bad area to an area that we thought was very safe. I had lived in the home my grandparents built since I was born - never in all those years - even in the recent years of decline in that area were we ever broken into. Of course there is always a first time and I am still glad we left that area.

Oh I've stitched a little this month but not enough to show WIP photos - I am almost finished with the wording on the A&E by Primitive Needle, am working on the fill in on the top border of Where the Hart Lives by SL and have hardly touched Shores of HRH. I did start the quaker SAL Mary Wigham but barely enough to say I started.

Hooking progress is even worse - nothing to talk about there - it's been dreadfully hot here in NE Florida - I mean record highs HOT - it was 100+ over the weekend with a heat index of about 110+ - I'm sure my Arizona friends will scoff and laugh but that is hot for June in NE FL. So sitting under a wool rug doesn't seem too appealing at the present time. I do have rug guild this coming weekend so I will find a "not so big" rug to work on there.

Knitting WIP;s are in about the same sad state - I have some mindless knitting next to my chair and I may do a few rows on one of the shawls that don't require a pattern to keep track of but that is about it.

Thanks for all the kind words on my last post. It really helps to know that you have friends out there who do care what you are going thru. So - I'm going to close my new door on the feelings of resentment and anger and go and hunt for my stitching mojo - be back with you soon and some WIP photos - I promise!

WE WERE ROBBED!

One week ago today I got a frantic phone call from Jody saying our house had been broken into and ransacked. I was in St Augustine at the time with my folks about to go out and have a nice dinner . I was twice as far away from the house as if I had been at the office so it was a very long ride home.

Once I arrived there - it was shocking to see what they had done to my beautiful front door. We live in a craftman home with lots of glass and wood and the front entry way was completely demolished. I had 9 panes of glass in the upper portion of the door - apparently they first broke that and tried to reach in and open the door but our dead bolt opens with a key so then they started trying to pry open the dead bolt which never did give away so apparently they started kicking or ramming the bottom section of the door until it gave away and they were able to crawl in thru the bottom of the door.

Every drawer in my house was turned out into the floor - the master was a complete wreck - they took all my gold jewelry, lots of silver jewelry, my sony cyber shot, 2 handguns, 5 expensive purses (coach, dooney Brahmin) and loaded it all into my Samsonite pull piece of luggage and took off out the kitchen door. I live in an area where I am surrounded by retirees - no one said they saw or heard anything at all. According to the detective - it is a ring of thieves that has been hitting that area and doing this smash and grab.

We now have an alarm system in the house which give some slight peace of mind.

It is a really creepy feeling to know that someone was watching your house, watching when you were home, what you drove, when you came and went and so forth. I'm just thankful they did not do any malicious destruction like overrun toliets, squirt ketchup on the walls or worse yet my hooked rugs. Funny thing - they did not take any electronics other than the camera - I think they must have been scared off. I am so extremely thankful Jody did not walk in on them and possibly get shot with our own gun.

So - that is why I've been out of touch for the past week. To have your space invaded like this is very disconcerting - I did start Mary Wigham last night while my folks were there spending the night. I guess my subconscious was relaxed enough about being protected by my dad's 357 that I could focus on stitching a little bit. Other than that - I have not gotten much accomplished in the past week.

Not sure when I'll be able to show photos again - I have a new IPhone and maybe I can do some photos from that and download to my webshots.

Just wanted to update my friends on the details of the break in. Be safe everyone !

THREE GIFTS

I have been remiss in showing the lovely Rachel Hyde sampler that my dad stitched for me. It has been framed for at least 2 months. It is stitched on a 32ct Wichelt fabric that is dyed. I don't know the name of it - just something I pulled off the shelf at our LNS and he used the called for DMCs. Last post I showed his beautiful Lady of the Flag and explained that typically he stitches pieces with lots of glitz, beads and so forth. Mostly Mirabilias however he did an awesome job on Rachel Hyde. I love the frame I chose. I did a close of up how he signs his pieces with a little cypher of his own creation - a W (for Wiley) inside a heart(for Hart) and the year. I will treasure it forever.





The second lovely piece is a birthday gift from a dear friend Carol who I have taken many memorable sampler related trips with and who is also a member of our sampler guild. She stitched this beautiful Quaker swan pin keep and did all the finishing herself. She also found an awesome tiny little thread winder to keep tucked in the hidden pocket inside. She personalized it with a large M and the year. It is for the time being going to live in my Liberty Hill scissor box which sits on my antique sewing table. There I can see it every day and remember my special friend Carol every time I see it.









Last but not least is a lovely housewarming gift stitched by dear friend Henrietta fondly known as "Henri" - also a member of my sampler guild and rug hooking guild and cherished friend. She did Susannah Goose from the JCS Halloween issue for me - I remarked that I loved that piece but just could not start anything else on 40ct linen - since that is her favorite count to stitch on - she offered to stitch it for me. The last photo is a close up shot to see her tiny initials. Our good friend Jill at the Azalea House ordered the frame shown in the JCS issue for me and then our other dear friend Karen G (Spinning Monkey fame) did the pinning and framing for me. So it was a labor of love from three dear friends -

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY!

come again another day - I thought I'd better check in and just say we are treading water here. Any of you that might have seen Mike Siedel from the Weather Channel broadcasting from Jacksonville Beach might have a clue that we've had more than our fair share of rain this week. It started raining Sunday afternoon before we left sampler guild and it has rained almost non stop thru this afternoon. At my house we've had 12+ inches of rain and we've had to drain off the excess water so the pool didn't overflow every afternoon - poor Jody - out there in the pouring rain tending to that stupid pool.

No I don't have any pretty photos to show this post. I have been having terrible headaches - sinus or what I don't know - but every morning this week I've had to get up and creep around struggling to get ready for work with an annoying headache. Low pressure/high pressure - I feel it is somehow related to the weather - not to mention feeling like a mushroom. I know I am just whinning here but I am just tired of this and ready to see some sunshine. I could even deal with no sun but NO MORE RAIN. Yes I know we were in a deficit condition but now we have plenty of rain on the books to carry us thru May. Sad thing is that there is a pretty large chance of rain for the next week.

Wish I had some photos to show you from our annual rug guild hook in - we had 37 women from all over north east florida and even one from GA. It was a great time - I did not get much hooking done but it was sure fun. Sunday was sampler guild and we took a roundabout route thru Gainesville to visit Hanks a great yarn shop - so I had plenty of stash to look thru this week. One saving grace about the rain - I could just sit and plunder thru stash not feeling too guilty as there was nothing else to do.

Oh - I do have one pretty photo I can show you all - some of you know that both my parents stitch - My dad does big pieces from Mirabilia, L&L and so forth - Here is his Lady of the Flag which hangs in my office. Yesterday was his 71st b-day and he is so much more productive a stitcher than I. Mom and I just put in our order and he gets it done - he is currently stitching the newest Mirabilia mermaid for moi' and Mom is in line with the 100th Mirabilia design - the Santa -



I am sorry to be in such a sour mood but I am starting to mildew I guess! Be back soon when I am dried out.

MERRIE HALLOWEEN

This is Merrie Halloween by Notforgotten Farm. She is one of my favorite WIP's - Again you will have to just bear with my sad photography - there must be a way to take better quality photos - I'll have to ask my camera savvy friend how to adjust the quality/closeness/sharpness or whatever I am missing.



The other is Hare Easter by Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers - she offered this freebie design for Easter and I asked her permission to have translated to a rug canvas. My dear friend Katie who is an awesome rug teacher/designer/dyer in her own right - copied it to canvas for me and added the darling carrot border and gave it to me for my b-day last month. Don't know if you can see the Happy Birthday Mel on the bottom.








I hope to have Merrie finished for use this October - lofty goal I'm sure LOL since I never work on her at home. She is small enough to be a good project to take to guild meetings and hook in's - She will get lots of attention at our local rug guilds annual hook in which is coming up in mid May. It's a wonderful day of visiting with friends from all around the state and even some from Georgia will come. We have wonderful food provided by the guild members and we take up a donation from all the participants to defray the cost of the meat and drinks. A small informal display of finished rugs will be put down.

In the stitching world I am doing pretty good on my rotation of Shores of HRH, SL "where the hart lives" and Primitive Needle's A&E however I have stash on the way one of which is a SAL on one of my favorite internet boards so that will have to be worked in somehow. I was going to show a photo of my A&E but the progress is so meager - I've worked and worked (or so it seems) and I only have the top border, part of each side border and the top line of wording done. I really am not that crazy about stitching wording so it is usually the kiss of death for me and a design when it starts off with a bunch of wording. AAACCKKKK - I will persist because I love the design.

My knitting accomplishments have almost slowed to nil - Of course that is not unusual for this time of the year. I don't care much for knitting with cottons or lighter weight yarns - hence the name "woolwoman" - I LOVE WOOL - so when it starts to swelter way down south - I usually only knit in silk and maybe some lightweight wools or wool blends. I have a lovely laceweight wool shawl that I work on when I am just too tired to stitch or if it gets late and my brain has turned to mush - I can still knit.

Better shove off for now - hope everyone is finally enjoying spring like conditions.

WOOL ROOM

Since so many of you are spring cleaning, reorganizing, sprucing up your nest - I thought I would show you my *wool room* - Since my yarn stash takes up the majority of this room followed closely by my rug hooking stash - it is deemed "the wool room" - My organizing is on-going because I am STILL bringing stuff over from my old house. I am trying to come up with a plan for the large closet to house most of my yarn and I have a huge primitive cabinet that contains most of the rug hooking stuff. I have some photos of my "corner" which I am enjoying very much since deciding last week I would never get that big rug finished if I did not put it up on the frame and work on it. I'm trying the "strand a day" mantra and it is working - I am filling in a lot of spaces on the backround of this rug and I'm lovin' it! I end up doing more than a strand so my progress is amazing. I snapped a shot of the rug on the frame but I will show you a complete WIP photo one day soon.

I tried to get a WIP shot of Scarlet Letters "Where the Hart Lives" - it was crummy - I am all the way across the top - I mentioned somewhere that I was terribly afraid I was going to fall short on the right margin as I miscounted and started too far to the right on the left corner - EEECCCKKK - but I made it with only about 1 1/4 inches to spare but I'm rocking on otherwise this project would have hit the scrap pile and I really do like it and it will be perfect for my folks anniversary in 2010.
There is a LOT of solid stitching on this piece so I'm trying to get a jump on the deadline which is over a year away but I can't be dedicated to one project or even one needle art so I m being proactive with this deadline.

I'll try to do better with my photos - it's new to me - I just admire so much all the beautiful artfully presented photos so many of you share on your blogs - maybe I'll get there one day - for now this is it - Enjoy!

IS APRIL OVER YET???

I usually enjoy April - my birthday is in April - Easter is usually in April - the weather is usually still great in NE FL in April - My mom and I usually take a little trip to our ancestral home in GA in April - WELL - this April has been NOTHING like it usually is.

Tuesday was my birthday - we had plans for dinner and our owners always take each person out for their birthday so I was looking forward to Tuesday. There had been storms in the area on Monday and they predicted additional storms on Tues morning - they did NOT predict 60mph winds and tornadic conditions. I work in a historic home on the river near downtown Jacksonville - lovely location on a great day - scarey stuff in storms - Hurricane force winds hit our front door at 9:35am Tuesday morning with no warning at all - It looked like the perfect storm out on the river - waves crashing over the seawall and splashing into the street, wind howling thru the fireplace - it was almost as bad a being here in a hurricane which I have done before. Anyway - little did I know that one of the huge oaks in my back yard had come down on our back neighbors house - EGADS - fortunately it was braced by two large magnolias and they did not get the full force of the weight of that tree hitting their roof - once the tree guy got it out of there - it looked like they had very little damage to the roof. So thankful for that.

Next thing that happened this week is that I started getting a sore place on my upper inner thigh - got worse and worse and finally had to go to the dr today - abcess - EEEECCCKKKK - it was disgusting and hurt like hell - good thing I went as it was badly infected and I am on 2 antibotics - must be serious as I have to go back for follow up on monday.

The week was not totally a bummer - I had my mom staying with me this week while my dad went on a fishing trip - she is a big help around the house especially since I was not feeling well and was completely stressed out about the fallen tree. We had several nice meals and she drove me to the dr today - just what a girl needs is her mommy on a day like today.

I'm hosting our local ANG chapter for a luncheon/meeting/stitch in tomorrow - About the last thing I feel like doing right now is standing on my feet all day. I'm SOOO glad I had our favorite caterer do all the food for me - God must have been looking ahead as to the week I was going to have and said "hummm Mel I think you'd better order all the food" that's the little subliminal message I got last week.

Just needed to vent a little about my month so far - hope to show some photos next time. Until then - I hope your April is lovely and full of spring flowers and many happy stitches.

NO FOOLING !

Well it's April Fools Day and I have not played any tricks but I'm not fooling around when I say I actually have a photo to show that *I* took with my new Cyber Shot camera - it's not perfect mind you but it is a long awaited photo of my little miniature oriental rug that I finished in December. It is approximately 18" X 26" and for any hookers out there - it is in a 4cut with a little 3 for fine lines and veining.



I hope to start adding more photos as I become more proficient - it has only taken me about 2 hours to figure out how to unload the photo from the camera to the PC and then to my folders and webshots album. Too much like work I say!

My mom and I had a wonderful time at our rug hooking workshop downstate this past weekend. I got very little done on the rug I was working on which was a project I started 2 years ago at the same workshop with a different teacher. I thought it was a scroll rug but another teacher told me it was actually a rosemaling pattern that includes some scroll type motifs - the name of the rug is Telemark and she said that was a type of rosemaling - gees I need to do some research on rosemaling I guess - she said my colors were correct and my hooking to simulate brush strokes were correct - OK folks that was a total fluke because I wasn't trying to simulate anything but I just smiled proudly and said "oh thank you" ! So I got a whopping two motifs done in about 10 hours of hooking - a palm size bud and a fern frond thingy. WHOOPPEEE! I don't think this rug is going to be high on my priority list - I have WAY too many rugs that are calling my name. So this lovely telemark will be rolled back up and stuffed right back into the red rug hooking cupboard. * Make mental note to get photo of red rug hooking cupboard to show to friends*

On a more personal note - I got drug into a meeting at work on monday to be told that in an effort to keep our company from going bankrupt - we were all going to get a mandatory pay cut starting April 1st - no fooling on that one friends. I was not shocked as I see the financials every month - I know we are losing millions and can not keep up like this for long and so the bank reiterated to our owners last week - we have 3 mos to start showing a profit or they will pull our backing. I have been very depressed all week but trying to pull myself out of it and remind self how lucky I am - still more fortunate than those who are already out of a job. I just dread at my age being jobless and having to compete with thousands of younger people for what few jobs are out there - I have only had this job and one other job in over 30 years so to say I am out of practice is an understatement.

Well - enough of my depressing stuff - just need some prayers or good thoughts from those who can spare any to come our way. Our owners are lovely people and they don't deserve this bad hand they've been dealt. they are 3rd generation car people and are fair and honest and are wonderful to work for.

Hope you all have spring weather and wonderful plans for Easter and spring breaks and so forth.

RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS

you know the song - Rainy days and Monday's always get me down! Well that's not exactly true - I just wanted to curl up and go back to sleep this morning when the clock went off at 5am and I heard something that "sounded" like rain. - could it be rain? We have not had any rain in so long - the wildfire threat is coming into the media again and there was a big wildfire in the next county over from where I live over the weekend so I'm not complaining about a little rain. However it sure would have been great if it was not a day that I had to get up and get moving.

Had a nice time at our ANG chapter meeting on Saturday - it was a combined stitch in and meeting at DF Candy's house - Not to say that I got a lot of stitching done - what with looking at everyone's WIP's = talking - eating - talking some more - you get my drift - I finally did thread my needle and take a few stitches. I know I know - where are your WIP photos Mel ??? My blog is so boring compared to other friends who post all kinds of interesting photos for us to drool over. I keep saying I will do better and one of these days I will surprise you with photos on the blog and the boards I frequent.

This Friday my mom and I are heading down to south central florida for a rug hooking workshop. It is held at a lovely family owned inn on a big lake - very picturesque - very relaxing and their restaurant has awesome food. We sprung for a lakeside room with a small balcony overlooking the lake - Hey what a great photo opp - I promise I'll take my camera and try to get a some photos of the rug exhibit or at least my little oriental that will be in the exhibit.

I'm starting the new A&E sampler by Primitive Needle this weekend - incentive stitching on one of the Yuku needlework boards I frequent - I love this design - the deer and the little hedge hoggy critter is the same as the one on my A&E rug. I know you need to see a photo of that WIP too - it's way cool if I do say so myself.

Still raining - still wishing I was stitching or knitting in my chair at home but on the other hand I am very very thankful I have a wonderful job to go to every day.

IDES OF MARCH

I have begun to think blogging could be a full time job - I have good intentions of doing more blogging especially when I see and read what others are doing however I refuse to do a lot of computer work at home - I should be doing something else at home right? mainly stitching/knitting or hooking not to mention the never ending yard work, cooking cleaning etc. You get my drift - we all have the same challenges in trying to juggle all the balls and keep life in order and have a little fun along the way.

I was going to post months ago and it was going to be called The Journey of Sarah Marston. Sarah is a little sampler I did several years ago by Essamplaire - it is not even in her catalog any longer or I could not find it in the fall when I went looking for a photo to send to Jane Timmers for an exhibit that the Sampler Guild of Ga was doing this past fall. They were asking members to send smalls or samplers to display in a historic home in Mableton Ga. I have been a member of the guild for a number of years but don't get up there for meetings - I have attended a workshop with them and always hope to do more with them but I thought this was a way I could support the guild. So in October I asked a good friend in the Dixie Chapter EGA to transport little Sarah and also the primitive pocket I made for DF Nancy to Jane for this exhibit. Unfortunately I never did find anyone who had photos of the Mableton exhibit so if anyone reading this blog has photos of that exhibit - please send me some. Sarah and the pocket was on display for a month - I was hoping that I could make it up there but as most of my friends know I had just moved out of my life long home into a new home (new to me) so I was neck deep in projects and feeling financially oppressed which equals no travel in the fall of 08 LOL - anyway to continue Sarah's story - soon after the Mableton exhibit came down - the Magnolia Sampler Guild of which I am also a member was invited to decorate a room at Bulloch Hall which is the ancestral home of the Roosevelts. I was so pleased that little Sarah could continue on her journey and grace the mantle in the "warming room" at Bulloch Hall. I was also pleased to receive this photo from the woman who chaired and decorated this room Sharard Williams.

This piece is framed in one of Cathy Campbells grain painted frames although it's pretty hard to see detail in this photo.

I have more things to post but need to get photos - I got a nice Sony camera from DF Nancy who is a camera buff and had so many she needed to move one out so I bought this one from her in December but have I taken one single photo NOPE - I need to get house photos, WIP photos and even a rug finish photo. Mental note to get that done this weekend LOL

All for now - I'll be back much sooner - until then happy happy

END OF YEAR LOOMING !

I know I say this every year but HOW can the year be almost over ???

I am pleased to say I have finished ONE rug hooking project this year. It wasn't the biggest one in my WIP pile but it is a nice one. My Desert Rose miniature oriental is complete. What no photos you say? Not yet - I still can't find my camera - not even sure it got moved from the old house to the new house. If I can't locate it soon I will have to beg one of my friends to take a finish photo for me. It came out quite nice and I was very pleased. Next year I hope to have my big 3 X 5 rug finished and maybe a smaller rug too. Considering I got a ton done on Merrie Halloween at the Halloween Hooking workshop at the Azalea House with Diane Stoffel - I might can get that one finished in 09.

I'm not close enough with any stitching or knitting WIP's that I will have a photo finish before the EOY. AWWWWWW - If I only applied myself and stuck to one or two projects instead of 10 or 20 - I would probably not be having this EOY Woe is Me conversation with myself! But as I always say - it's the journey thru my needlework life that counts - not how many finishes I have in a year. However an occasional finish is certainly good for the soul !

Christmas is just a little over 3 weeks from now - We have decided not to do too much exchanging in my household this year. Having all the added expenses of moving in July - adjusting to new and bigger bills including keeping up a pool AND still having to support my old house until it sells (if it ever sells) is just about all I can handle right now. I participated in a couple of guild group exchanges and that is about it for exchanging with friends. Sadly - I just can't do it this year.

Hopefully I'll be back soon with a photo of the mini oriental - until then - happy stitching

GLORIOUS FALL!

I am so ready for fall! We actually had record lows last night which is very unusual for NE FL in October. I am usually knee deep in knitting projects in October but this year I am in a knitting slump - not to say that I have not added lovely fall yarns to my stash this month - the long awaited Rowan Colorscapes for the Fall VK Fassett jacket and also the luscious Cocoon - too gorgeous to escape my clutches. I swatched up the Coocoon but that was as far as it went - the VK design - AACCCKK - not even that much - oh I did get a nice start on a beautiful jacket from the new Debbie Bliss mag - the Drop Collar jacket done in a beautiful rustic gold chunky donegal tweed.

I am trying hard to finish a mini oriental hooked rug called Desert Rose - I am down to the final two borders and just can't seem to get over the hump. This coming weekend is our long awaited rug hooking workshop at the Azalea House with national teacher Diane Stoffel from Cape Cod. Diane did the color plan on my beloved mermaid and also is responsible for the reasonably decent job I did on Shakespeare the marmoset monkey! I am doing a cool folky type design by NotForgotten Farm called Merrie Halloween. I can't WAIT to see what gorgeous colors Diane has cooked up for that project. My dear mother and I are sharing a room and we are both looking forward to getting away from the guys for the weekend and having some fun with our friends who are coming from all over FL for this intimate workshop.

On the stitching report - EEEKKKKK - that is almost worse than the knitting report - what have I done - NOTHING - absolutely NOTHING - have not touched any of my WIP's in soooo long - have taken a few stitches on a little halloween ornament but that is the extent of my efforts. Now I have to admit - I have been doing a good bit of canvas work lately - I have been keeping up to date with a guild group project with my local ANG chapter and that has been fun so far. I also finished a Lee tote insert which I started a couple of years ago - Yeah I know -I know - it could have been finished in a few months but give me a break - at least it is done now and DF Nancy has already mounted it in the bag and made sure I was able to use it this weekend for the retreat to carry a small knitting project or maybe a small stitching project since a good many of the attendees at this workshop are also stitchers.

Hopefully I can put up some photos soon of the finished tote and the finished oriental.

Until then - Happy Halloween - don't eat too much chocolate and make good use of the coming LONG nights on the sofa!

DOG DAYS

WOW has it ever been hot here in NE FL - I was in Savannah last Friday and also again on Wednesday and they were having 100+ temps up there - EGADS - that is REALLY hot -

Tomorrow I am hosting a little party at my new house for my dear friends who have August birthdays. There are 5 of them and one of them is my dear mom - she is part of our stitching and hooking guilds so she will be there too. After relaxing with some snacks and stitching we will go to a high tea at a local establishment. Should be a memorable day for my friends. This is be my first attempt at entertaining in my new home. I don't have everything exactly like I want it since I have only been in the house for one month but things are at least presentable. The room I am going to use as my studio is a grand mess - there are bags and boxes everywhere but I do have my primitive cabinet set up with my rug hooking stash and projects. So at least one thing is complete in that disaster area. Maybe one of my friends will bring a camera and I can post some photos of the festivities.

Until then . . . . . happy stitches!

MORE NEW ENGLAND PHOTOS

Here are some more photos from our New England trip -

A replica of Carols ancestor who came over on the Mayflowers house in Plimoth Plantation - Frances Cook.

the interior of the Cook house

The Wilbur house - A quaker family in Little Compton Island, RI and a photo of an unbelievable wool penny rug or table covering which was in great shape.

Some awesome scrimshaw work boxes in the collection of the New Bedford Whaling Musuem

NEW ENGLAND IN JUNE

My long awaited trip to New England and the Needlework and the Sea symposium at the Whaling Musuem in New Bedford has come and gone.What a GREAT time we had. I met Carol in Boston - her flight was moved up and mine was moved back so Carol was kind enough to pick up the rental car and acquaint herself with the historic area of Boston. She picked up me right on the curb and whisked me off to the Freedom Trail - Bear in mind that this was the hottest day this area has seen in a long time - Bostonians were sweltering and while we Floridians are accustomed to extreme heat - I am NOT accustomed to tromping around in it! So we only walked around the historic area for a couple of hours - we saw the Old North Church where the famous "one if by land and two if by sea" scene was envisioned and immortalized in books, historical accounts and movies. We saw Paul Revere's house - and guess what - THERE WAS A SAMPLER! It was stitched by Paul's granddaughter - Carol thought for sure she had seen it repro'd by DMC or something jogged in her memory about this sampler. So after the tour - off we stalked in search of the gift shop - hummm - no gift shop - just a little tiny ticket booth - we skirted around the back side of the ticket booth to avoid hundreds of squirming yelling running school children and THERE - taped to the back side of the ticket booth was the chart of Paul Revere's GD's sampler - We tapped on the glass to get the kind young man's attention and asked for two copies - he said $8 each ma'am and I'm sorry but that doesn't include the thread - LOL - (snicker -giggle) we scoffed and scurried off with charts in hand and laughed all the way to the car about paying $8 for a chart! Our next quest in Boston was to find the Old Oyster House - purported to be the oldest restaurant in Boston - we FINALLY found it after walking all around - I was so hot and tired - eating just didn't seem so appealing so I opted for a cup of their famous clam chowder and some fried calamari - thus ensued the "great chowder quest" I became obsessed with clam chowder - I ordered a cup or bowl every single restaurant I went to on the whole trip - Even ordered one final bowl of Rhode Island Red Clam Chowder in the Boston airport on my way home! I'll have to say - I had some awesome clam chowder while in New England!

Boston traffic is world renown - we knew we were leaving at a precarious time - 5:30pm on a Tuesday! EGADS - How hard could it be to find I-93 south - apparently it was pretty hard because we ended up going north and ending up almost in NH - OK - I have to give a real big virtual hug to Carol - she was such a trooper and darted in and out of those angry honking Bostonians like a pro - she picked her way up and down the highway until we managed to get on the road to New Bedford. We ended up getting off the main highway and traveling thru a lot of little scenic new england villages. They are so quaint - I could have lived in any of them.

Finally - the sign for New Bedford - our hotel was actually across the river in Fairhaven. It was almost dark when we arrived but safe and sound and ready for new adventures we trudged up to our room with all luggage.

Wednesday morning - Carol was up early - hummm about 5:30am I think - for some reason the sun comes up earlier there in New England and our room faced east - so by 6 I was also up and at it. This pattern of early rising continued thru our entire trip -most unusual for me! We strolled down to the breakfast bar where we met up with our cohort Patsy - she was also attending the jacket lecture at Plimoth Plantation and she had also done some research into what else we should see while in the Plymouth area. We arrived at Plimoth Plantation about 30 min early so we perused around and watched a film before meeting up with the balance of the symposium participants who were interested in seeing the jacket project. What an undertaking - this is gorgeous - I would encourage everyone to visit the PP website and start monitoring the progress on the jacket. They are having the exhibit in the fall of 2009 - hope I can be there. After seeing 3 awesome samplers in the archives we walked down to the recreation of the original settlement of Plymouth. Here is a super photo that Patsy shot. Oh well - I can't figure out how to get the photo down here .

Next up was Plymouth Hall to visit Mercy Otis Warren's unbelievable game table and Loara Standish sampler. The museum was small but they had a large amount of pilgrim artifacts and it was enjoyable being there. We also happened upon the Sampler - a small needlework shop which was right across the street from Plymouth Hall. Then it was off to try and find a small historic home the Winslow House in Marshfield. We zipped along up country roads and here it was - what a neat house and there was samplers in several rooms - no a/c - probably no heat and here they were still hanging in pretty good condition after about 300 years - amazing! Ok - still in the wrong spot - I am probably not going to post any more photos :(

We tried to get in the Alden House but they were closing up - it is the oldest property in the US still owned by descendants of the original Mayflower settlers. Dinner was with a group of friends at a local seafood favorite spot - it was right on the river and very picturesque. Didn't we do a lot on our first day!

Thursday was Ellen Chester's Ditty box class at the Whaling Museum. We gathered in the breakfast room again and saw lots of friends from near and far. All were cackling excitedly about the upcoming events. We gathered our stitching bags and off we headed for downtown New Bedford. Ellen had prepared a wonderful slide show showing lots of scrimshaw works of art - apparently the NB Whaling Museum has the largest collection of scrimshaw in the world and an expert on the subject on staff - we were to hear his lecture later in the week. The pieces Ellen designed for the ditty box are really neat - we worked in class on the little fish scissor keep and needleminder. It was a most enjoyable day with Ellen and the other attendees. We ended up walking over to a nearby cafe for dinner - another test run of the local chowder for me - it was awesome. We had to attend the opening lecture on Thursday evening and while it ran pretty late we enjoyed being in the lovely auditorium with most all the event participants.

Friday morning lectures were scheduled - one on the lost art of sailmaking. The speaker was quite the expert and while it was interesting for a while - I think I heard more about sailmaking that I needed to know. I waited too long to write this trip journal because all the lectures and lecturers are running together now. After lunch Carol Patsy and I along with about 15 other participants boarded a bus heading for Little Compton Island in Rhode Island. It was a lovely ride thru more scenic little new england villages. The Wilbur House was our destination - built in the late 1600's by a quaker man I believe it was said that he and his wife bore 11 children. The house had been added onto several times but was in original condition for the most part and YEP - they had samplers - loads of them - most done by descendants of the Wilburs and other people in the local area. It was a lovely day and there was a gentle sea breeze - there was a lovely garden and I loved seeing the peonies. We don't have them or Florida or if we do - I am not aware of it. The bus trip back was quiet and uneventful. We had a Portuguese buffet at the museum - I am sad to say it was not memorable. Another lecture by a textile expert from the Peabody-Essex in Salem was after dinner. Another long but exciting day - I don't think I even remember falling into bed.

I must say sleeping thru the night and sleeping like a log on this trip was a real blessing.

Saturday there were more lectures scheduled in the morning - I skipped a couple of them and sat in the courtyard and stitched and chatted with other friends who ducked out of the lectures. I had grown tired of box lunches so after Carol got out of the lecture - we walked to some of the local shops and I found a nice antique carved piece of whale bone - it was probably an awl but it will be a nice accessory for my ditty box and I will probably use it as a laying tool. Carol wanted to walk and look and I wanted to get something for lunch so I hiked back to the cafe in the next block and had another bowl of clam chowder before heading back to the museum for my afternoon class with Kathleen Staples. Kathy reproduced the Lydia Ricketson sampler which is in the collection of the museum. It is lovely but has a lot of filled satin stitch flowers - Kathy was kind enough to draw the basket with flowers and spray of flowers at the top and bottom for us. It was sad news that this will be her last reproduction - I have enjoyed taking many classes with Kathy - she is one of the most knowledgable people I have met in the sampler world. Part of our class included a tour of samplers in the archived collection that did not make it into the exhibit - it was very interesting. After the class we sat in the open air courtyard and just took in the lovely sea air and waited for Patsy to come back from her Duxbury tour. Carol told us of her lovely walk thru the surrounding area and off we went to tour the area by car. Patsy was awesome at getting us around the area. We crossed the river and decided to explore the riverfront in Fairhaven. Lots of gorgeous homes lined the river and what views could be seen. We passed several interesting restaurants near the marina but kept driving - wanting to see all we could of the area before darkness fell. We ended up back at the hotel and decided to make a pit stop and freshen up a bit - we asked the clerk for dinner recommendations and he pointed us to Margaret's which is the quaint little cafe we had seen earlier. Driving up to Margarets we were dismayed at the number of cars and people waiting in line - it was a good sign however that a great meal was in our future. I am always looking for memorable meals - this was one - I started with their version of clam chowder which was decidedly different than anything I had experienced on this trip or any trip for that matter - after seeing my chowder both Pats and Carol ordered a bowl as well. I was dying for meat - after 5 days of seafood - I was dying for meat - I had a great steak and I think both my friends had fish. What an awesome final meal we had in the picturesque little village of Fairhaven. What a beautiful little town - I could live there - of course I would need a translater - they don't speak Southern or understand it either! However the owner I presume was cordial and mentioned that they opened the next morning for breakfast a 7am - Hummm- my mind was already processing how we could work in breakfast at Margarets and still get to Boston on time. Patsy wanted to sleep in so when we got back from dinner we bid farewell to our travel companion extraordinare - our friend and oh what a wonderful time we had with our dear Patsy! Carol and I felt if we got up on time - we could run over to margarets and have a nice breakfast to send us home to Florida. Needless to say it was enjoyable and I got to experience one more new england dish linguiuse or something like that - a portuguese sausage in my omelet oh and norwegian pancakes with lingonberry jam - WOW - I was determined to finish my trip with another food memory!

The weather all week was lovely - seems new england was crying that we were leaving - it started to rain just as we left Margarets and rained on us all the way to Boston - heavy at times but we arrived in plenty of time to turn in the rental car. Carol's flight was hours earlier than mine so it was sad saying good bye to my good friend and travel companion. I headed to the Delta gate area and proceeded to peruse Borders and buy a book I had seen reviewed on the B&N website - Garden Spells - I still have not finished it but it is a fun easy read. I found a quiet place to sit and I started the page for Carol's Ackworth friendship book. I was honored she asked me to do a page for her book and I eagerly started my favorite page while I sat and pondered the past week and tucked away all my memories in that secret place we hold so dear.