After the Party

Well, that little hospital get-together was quite a bash. I'm pretty sure they pushed a stick up my nose and then punched me, but their version differs quite a bit from mine. The doc left me with a swollen nose and pharmaceuticals. At this point I've left behind my friend Vicodin, but I'm still enjoying the nighttime hours with my buddy Ambien, which makes me forget I even have a nose. There's no way I could ever use that stuff on a school night ... the hangover is a little too long-lasting. Anyway, all went well, so thanks loads for the kind thoughts and cards.

And now for the really great consequence of enduring all that hospital crap. Stitching time! What else can you do when you're stuck at home? Here you can see my progress (all of you speedy stitchers, be kind to this slowpoke) on dear ATS. Yesterday I did all of the fence-type border under the men (Who are those men, anyway?), which is a lot for me. Today I finished the leafy border (my own OCD version) and the flowers, which I'm gonna go completely finish after this post. She's looking pretty nice, huh?

OK, it's back to the pretty purple chair for me, where my needle and thread await my return. I have only one large complaint ... it's gonna be in the 60's here on Monday, a school holiday, and I'm gonna be not quite up to playing golf. Bummer. There's nothing like a golf day in January.

A Break in the Action

I meant to have a little pic to post showing my progress on ATS, but it's too dark to get a good one. Maybe in a couple of days there'll be a progress post to view. I worked quite a bit on it the last several days (which doesn't mean I've made stunning progress) to make up for the little break that's starting tomorrow. I'm gonna go have my nose fixed and my sinuses roto-rootered early tomorrow morning. Sounds so attractive, doesn't it? My nose won't look any better from the outside, it'll just work better on the inside. It's sort of like having the gutters on your house replaced when you'd really rather redo the kitchen. From what people have told me, I'm gonna feel great after a couple of crappy days. Then, when things are a little better but not great ... time to sit around and stitch!! Imposed stitching time ... what more could I want?

Just a few positive thoughts before the fun begins.

Nuclear Blast from the Past

In what feels like my former life, I was the working-but-stay-at-home mother of three children who, in early 1995, were 13, 10 and 3. I had given up my teaching job and started charting for designers, working at Ewe & Eye & Friends and doing data entry at home (I pulled lots of all-nighters). I was a busy girl and was all about stitching. I was an EGA member for several years, and I loved to take classes from designers and EGA teachers.

Way back in those olden days there was a needlework design company called Samplers of Sylke. Marianne and Lillian designed beautiful and complex works of art, as well as some smaller, simpler works. If you don't know about them, you can see some of their work here and here. Anyway, Marianne Rohrer designed a sampler (maybe a commissioned piece) for Dr. Eleanor Sinton, the Sinton Sampler. Dr. Sinton, who died in 2004, then gave months-long seminars on the sampler, complete with a 44-page instruction booklet, for what was a lot of money at the time. So here's a poor picture of a picture of the completed project and my notebook.Now this sampler seminar wasn't like any other I've ever heard of. We met once or twice a month (it's been so long that I can't remember) and received only parts of the instructions and close-up pictures of sections. I think I'm kinda cranky about the whole thing because I felt so manipulated at the time. I remember having to rework my schedule and arrange for kids to be watched to show up for a hastily rescheduled meeting, just to stand at the door and ring the bell for 20 minutes (Dr S did call later to tell me that no one heard me ringing the bell). It was after that incident that I snippily quit the group and stopped working on the sampler. I know! I was silly, huh? But I was feeling controlled, and that's not a happy situation for me. I also remember that Marianne was unhappy about the way things had turned out between her and Dr S, and I felt that maybe Dr S had taken advantage of her and treated her badly.

The point of this rambling account is that, because of all the WIP talk that goes on around here, I've remembered all of the things I started and never went back to. All of a sudden, I remembered this beautiful sampler and how I had wanted to stitch it from the first time I saw it. I think I'm gonna concentrate on it as being a sampler Marianne designed rather than its given name. That feels better.

Below you'll see my progress which, considering all that was happening at the time, isn't too bad. There's no telling when I'll actually work on it ... maybe after I finish ATS. But now I've brought it out of its cute little rabbit box, along with all the memories that accompany it, and I like the idea of working on it again.