Arrival! Finally!

The parcel finally arrived on Monday. It appeared in our community mailbox. No signature was needed after all. It spent one month in the US Postal Service and 3 weeks in Canada Customs and Canada Post; April 3 to May 25. Sheesh! Teresa and I are both very relieved.

The fabric, floss and chart were in it - it's the model I'm stitching for Teresa. The colours are very prim(itive).

Also in the parcel were 4 of her cross stitch patterns.

The star snowman was the one Vonna Pfeiffer finished as a tutorial in the 2019 Christmas - Winter Mega Issue of Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher magazine. 

I also ordered 4 of her punch needle patterns.

One of her most popular samplers is Newcastle Bouquet which I just had to have. 

I also got her commemmorative book of 15 patterns that is in its 4th or 5th printing (400 each printing). It was released at Market in early March. I'm itching to start one of the Christmas pieces in it.

In Command is lovely. It can be stitched on this mottled fabric (Picture This Plus 32ct Mystic linen) or a more purple/blue blend PTP Gothic. The flowers on the dress are beautiful. It is not a huge piece but there are a lot of confetti stitches.

I have started the model for Teresa. It is called 'Above All' and she hopes to release it in the fall. I hope to have it done by the end of June. Hopefully mail service will have improved and I can mail it back to her. If not, I'll send it by courier. If things have opened up a bit, I could even drive to the US border and mail it to her.

So I have dropped all other stitching projects for now.

Days are all a jumble. Last weekend, the weather was beautiful so on Saturday afternoon Skip and I took a drive up to visit some donkeys. Skip got to line up outside at the store where we purchased carrots to take to the donkeys. He now understands what I go through every week to get our groceries.

There are 20 donkeys on this farm. We spotted a baby nursing from its mother when we got there. According to the farmer who came out to talk to us, it had been born the day before.

Speaking of the Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher magazine, the current issue has several patterns I've put on my 'to do' list.

I saw someone's version of this on Facebook and really liked the colours. She had omitted the text at the bottom.

This designer lives in the Rio Grande Valley. I also like the colours of this pattern.

I was intrigued by this one because of the different directions the 'grass' stitches at the bottom are stitched with half crosses and an extra strand of floss.

I seem to have developed a preference for aqua coloured pieces. 

The summer edition should be out soon. 

The digital subscription is reasonably priced. They do not offer print issue subscriptions out of the US so that suits me fine. 

Maybe If I Start Another Project...

I have been getting updates from Canada Post about the status of my parcel I’ve been waiting for since April 3. It could arrive today or possibly Monday. I will need to sign for it and am wondering how I’ll do that with proper social distancing. Maybe it’ll be dropped off at the postal substation at the nearby pharmacy. My hope is that they’ll just deliver it to my community mailbox and skip the signature. I’ll keep you posted.

So I’m doing the stitcher’s equivalent of reverse psychology. I’ve started another project in hopes that will make the parcel arrive sooner. Remember when we all used to smoke at restaurants? The food would always arrive as soon as I’d light a cigarette. (I quit smoking almost 30 years ago after 20 years of heavy smoking. Quitting is one of my proudest accomplishments.)

I’ve had this chart in my stash since last summer when I purchased it on our epic road trip to upstate NY at The Stitcher’s Garden. I had completely forgotten about it and only discovered it after having a look through my vast stash of patterns.

 I really love Drawn Thread patterns, especially the smattering of specialty stitches.

This is a suggested modification to the pattern which appears as a little logo on the back of the chart.

I substituted 4 of the 7 threads. I’m using Weeks Dye Works equivalents: Seaweed for GAST Cucumber, Deep Sea for GAST Freedom, Red Rocks for WDW Old Red Paint and DMC 711 for WDW Oatmeal. I’m using what I think is 36ct linen fabric. It should fit into a 4 x 6 frame once it’s finished.

 I’m all set up in my ‘outdoor office’

just outside my kitchen door.

It is our third beautiful, sunny day in a row. I have my audiobook from the library on and Skip is working nearby in the garden. Life is good.

One snag, though. Skip found a dead hermit thrush that had clearly been killed by a neighbourhood cat. This is so upsetting. Cats are the biggest predator of wild birds. There is no good reason for cats to be outside. They can get lost, hit by cars, injured, stolen, and they piss off neighbours who are trying to attract and feed wild birds. The neighbours also don’t appreciate the urine smell and feces that get left behind.  (End of rant)

Now I must figure out what I’m going to have for lunch.

A Very Busy Day

We finally had a warm, sunny day today. It was a great day to have laundry drying outside so I did three loads, including our sheets AND the mattress pad. They are all going to smell so good when we crawl into bed tonight.

Then I went shopping for some plumbing supplies that we've needed for weeks but couldn't shop because of the pandemic restrictions. The store had lines on the sidewalk 2m apart for lining up to go in. I was surprised that I and another woman were the only two with masks on. I found the needed items and got out of there quickly.

I've been craving fried shrimp lately so stopped into Popeye's for a deep fried shrimp biscuit box with a side of coleslaw.

Skip and I got the deck umbrella and chairs up from the basement and out on the deck.

Then I got set up for the videochat with my stitching peeps at 1:30. It was so nice sitting out on the deck; a bit chilly at times under the umbrella but  delightful all the same.

After that I tackled the toilet and got its new innards (Korky) installed. It hadn't flushed properly since we got back from TX in mid-May and we'd be flushing it by tossing a pail of water down it since then. Thank goodness my laundry room and wash tubs are only steps away. The old innards were over 20 years old from when we had the low-flush toilets put in shortly after we moved into this house. The Korky came with great instructions and is very easy to install and adjust. The upstairs toilet had been filling erratically so I put a new Korky in there, too, and that seemed to fix it.

I then had to install new pop up hardware for the powder room sink. After a lot of heaving and grunting, I got the job done. In the middle of the job I watched a couple of YouTube videos on the subject which helped me finish the job and adjust the pop up stem to the right height. I figure I saved us a couple of hundred dollars in plumbing fees.

After that I was pooped.

I have finished most of the stitching on the 'K is for Knitter' piece.

There's still a key charm to attach above the knitter and I need to check it over for any other bits I might have missed. The pattern has hem stitching finishing instructions which, I'm sure, would be lovely but now I'm thinking of framing it somehow. I think Michaels will be open to shoppers soon so will see what appropriate frame or background I can find for this.

I'm STILL waiting for the parcel from Teresa. From what I have seen and heard on the news, Canada Post is overwhelmed with parcels. They're stacked high at sorting centres and very few are getting moved out of there. They're dealing with Christmas volume and half the staff as sorting facilities are not set up for 2m distancing. I really don't want to start a big project as I will want to start Teresa's piece as soon as it arrives. I'm going to take a quick look through my pattern stash and see if there is a smallish project I could start in the meantime.

I also have started a linen stitch scarf USING MY HANDSPUN!! I know, right? I was inspired by the Shuttlebugs who discussed it on some emails that have been circulating amongst us. I had a bit of FOMO and wanted to start another scarf. I couldn't find my favourite linen stitch scarf last winter and the other one I've finished knitting needs the fringes twirled. I have about 1" done on the new one. One of my balls of handspun was quite loosely plied so I hauled out my spinning wheel (for the first time in MONTHS) and re-plyed it.

I then gave it a nice bath to set the twist and thwacked it several times to relax some of the overspinning and hung it to dry outside in the late afternoon son. It is now a much better twist and better matches the twist in the other ball of handspun.

My spinning isn't the most consistent so the linen stitch isn't going to look as good as the scarf I knit with Koigu yarn but it is a good, mindless knitting project and will make a nice, soft scarf.

Substitution

My 'K is for Knitter' sampler is coming right along.

I have very much enjoyed the specialty stitches. I did, however, substitute #12 Perle Cotton Blanc for the cream silk threads that were called for. I'm happy with that.

I have little bits to finish on what I have done and the top part to complete.

Finally today we have a lovely, sunny day. I washed the windows using this recipe with Jet Dry - a dishwasher spot-free rinsing agent. Actually I got a cheap version from the dollar store. In the past I have squeegeed the water off but using this recipe avoids that - mostly.

I was quite pleased with the results but there were still a couple of spots. Some I could reach to wipe off with a microfibre cloth and I just left the others. I need to get something that will let me wipe off high areas with a cloth. I think I need to use a bit more rinsing agent next time.

We have had some visitors to the garden. This morning an oriole ate from a piece of orange I had flung on the ground. (The lawn was mowed shortly after I took this photo).

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A pair of American golfinches stopped by.

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Last Mother's Day (2019), Skip and I ate at a local bacon and eggery. On the way out I was handed a little pot of pansies/viola by the server. We stuck them in the ground and basically ignored them.

Today they are about 4x the size.

Our early lilac bush is budding. It will be nice to have the fragrant blooms on our kitchen table in a couple of weeks.

The spurge plant is small this year. This is it in bloom. After this the entire plant is green and stays about the same size. We've had it almost the entire time we've lived in this house - 24 years this summer.

Blogger has changed the format of the templates - I'm not really happy about this but I guess I will adapt. It's just taking me longer to do posts as I try to find the formatting features I'm used to.

We hope everyone is being sensible and paying attention to the advice we've been given about living during the pandemic. As Skip and I are in the 65+ demographic we have been staying home except for when I go shopping, and always wear our masks when we have to go out among people. I really miss Japanese food but think I have found a local restaurant that will do take-out bento boxes. I also miss a good feed of Mexican food. One of our trips within Ontario this summer will be to Aylmer ON for a Mexican food run. There is a Mexican Mennonite group there operating a couple of stores and eateries.

Tonight we're having chicken souvlaki on the barbecue while it's still nice out. The rest of the weekend could be crappy so will have to cook inside. 

¡Más Tacos, Por Favor!

I made some more taco thread catchers today.

I really love the randomness of them.

I practiced some quilting patterns. This 30 degree one is my favourite straight-line pattern.

This started out as an 'x' and I went out from the centre.

Artfully arranged.

I did quilt onto batting and added additional fusible batting on top before attaching the bias tape. My bias tape sewing wasn't the best so I'm going to use glue on the parts that look like they may come apart.

It is a very gloomy, rainy day today with coolish temperatures and the beginning of our May long weekend commemorating the birthdate of Queen Victoria 201 years ago on May 24. Customarily, cottagers would have opened their cottages prior to this weekend and would have friends and family up for the long weekend. However, medical services, food,  and household supplies are limited in the smaller communities in 'cottage country' and people have been urged to either stay home or take everything they need to their cottage and isolate themselves without having people visit them. There are arguments for both sides which I won't get into here. I just hope that if people do travel to their cottages this weekend that they don't do anything stupid and set our curve-flattening soaring upwards again. The weather is supposed to be really nice tomorrow and rainy on Sunday and Monday. I hope that keeps things relatively calm.

Skip and I have no big plans. Every day is pretty much the same. We have been more or less isolated together since we left for TX on January 27 - 110 days ago (but who's counting?). We are very fortunate that we really like each other and have not minded being safe at home all this time. We will have been together 25 years next month. So lucky are we in so many ways.

Another Week Has Gone By...

I have been stitching and sewing this past week. I finished the "My Soul is Fed" piece and at some point will FFO it onto the big spool I purchased last summer at The Old Tattered Flag, outside of Watertown NY when we were on our road trip.

Both the stitching and the spool are 4 1/2" in diameter so with padding, it should make a cool pin cushion.

I modified the pattern a bit by doing satin stitch on the 'bobbins' rather than the called-for cross stitches

I did substitute a couple of colours from my vast stash of DMC floss. The fabric is 28ct MCG linen. It is quite irregular but very soft in hand to work with. I wish I had done one blue spool. I may pick out the dark purple spool and do and substitute a nice shade of blue.

I've been wanting to make myself a new thread catcher. The idea was inspired by Priscilla and Chelsea - The Real Housewives of Cross Stitch - and the small design boards they have been using to hold their flosses while stitching. I made a couple of them for Christmas gifts last year using this tutorial.

I raided my scrap bin 

and sewed some strips together randomly.

I zigzagged together a couple of scrap pieces of batting and put it on the wrong side of my little scrappy bit. Then I drew and then cut a circle out of the two pieces, using a circular container lid as my template.

I bound the pieces together with narrow bias tape and added a snap on opposing sides.

The place where I double-cut and zigzagged the scrap batting pieces together is easily seen but is not unsightly at all. On future ones I make, I will spray-baste the batting to the wrong side of the fabric.

It sits on the arm of my sofa and the batting easily grabs and holds the random floss ends (orts).

Then it folds up. And easily tucked into a stitching bag.

It looks like a taco so I'm calling it a 'thread-catcher taco'. I took only a few minutes to make from start to finish. Hand-sewn dome fasteners could also be used or even magnets glued into place between the two layers.

There was great excitement at my kitchen table this morning. The oriole Skip had seen last week actually fed from the 1/4 piece of orange I had just sat in the ant moat on top of my hummingbird feeder.

After he flew off, I grabbed another orange from the fridge, cut it in half, ran out, and rammed it onto the tip of the bird feeder crook. He came back a few minutes later and gustily fed for quite a while.

He is very handsome. I'm hoping he tells his Baltimore oriole friends about my feeder. I'd love to see lots of them there.

"I love to eat food that matches me!"

Google tells me they also like grape jelly and the best commercial one for them is the kind without high fructose corn syrup. Organic Smuckers and Welsh's apparently are HFCS-free. Of course, when I was doing my senior-hour grocery shopping this morning, I forgot to check for it on the shelves and pick some up. 

Finished Pillow

I wasn’t sure all the random colours and yarns in my Quarantine Knitting blocks would go together. I alternated dark and light backgrounds when I assembled the blocks. I used mattress stitch on the sides of the blocks and Arne’s technique for joining the tops to the bottoms.

I then decided to do a ‘faux piping’ using I-cord and this tutorial to join the back to the front.

I then firmly stuffed the pillow with half a cheap an inexpensive WalMart bed pillow.

I’m so pleased with how it turned out.

Side view.

It measures 17.5" x 14" and is my new favourite lumbar pillow on the sofa.

Skip and I got up at the crack of dawn this morning to go to WalMart during the 'senior hour'. I got a couple of the zippers that I wanted so tomorrow I will be able to finish another project bag. Skip did purchase foodstuffs.

 I made more progress on my 'K is for Knitter' sampler.

I need to even out the knotted stitches between the knitter and the koala and finish the koala. I only pick it up sporadically - my attention span still isn't that great and I seem to do a lot of napping - especially when I get up so early to go shopping and avoid crowds,

I do try and create something every day. It makes me feel good.

I'm even toying with the idea of knitting another bunch of blocks and making another pillow. This time, I want to have a colour palette so it is more matchy-matchy. I'm sure I have enough yarn in my stash to do so, and will make sure it's all wool as the acrylic blends behaved quite differently once knit up. They stretched out more as is visible in the strawberry block above.