Stitchin' on a Rainy Day

Yesterday MaryK, Judy, and I met at Farm Girl Quilting near Beaverton for a Hand Stitching Day. We only decided to attend the day before and fortunately got three of the last four spots available.

The vendors were Kimat Designs, Pansy Patch Quilting and Stitchery, and Blueberry Ridge Design.

The venue is a large out-building on Laura and her husband's dairy farm. It's perfectly set up for events such as this. At the far end is the ever important snack table, microwave oven, and fridge, with the bathroom beyond that. Laura also manages the Farmer's Wife Retreat House just down the road.

I carpooled up with Judy

and MaryK met us up there and saved our seats.

It became a blustery, rainy day so we couldn't think of a better way to spend it.

Of course, Thomas and Ernest came to check things out and supervise.

We had a bit of a photo shoot amid the Pansy Patch and Blueberry Ridge displays. This greenhouse piece 'Over the Garden Gate' really appealed to me so I had to have it.

Thomas posed before the Pansy Patch 'Autumn Quilt Barn'.

The guys posed in front of 'The Postmouse's Christmas Delivery' by Blueberry Ridge. This was a VERY popular design last fall.

The guys prefer designs with animals in them. This Blueberry Ridge design is called, "The Postbunny's Easter Delivery".

From Kimat Designs, I purchased 'Tomato, Tomahto' from Needle & Moss. The chart for the sampler in the background is also included.

I have stitched Annie Beez' 'Christmas Pears' and Stacy Nash' 'Ginger' on a piece of Aztec Red linen and have just enough left to do the 6 sides of the Tomato-Tomahto. I also have some appropriate silk floss for the project, left over from the Christmas Pears.

The day seemed to really go fast. 

It was still pretty blustery when I got home so I thought a nice fire would cozy things up.

I spent the rest of the evening, knitting Charlotte and Roger's tubes and watching ER episodes on Netflix.

Tomorrow a bunch of us will join the Scarborough Needlearts Guild for their 50th Anniversary celebration. It involves a stitch day and a catered lunch; two of my favourite things!

I remembered to sign Judy and myself up for next Saturday's Peel Stitch-In and got in just under the wire. Barb didn't get in right away but was first on the waiting list. Shortly thereafter she texted me to say someone had registered twice so she got their second spot. 

I may have to kit up one of my new projects to take to all these stitch days.

I'm so pleased to have so many fun activities to do with such fun people. 

Summer is just around the corner.

Thomas' Debut

 Barb sent me a photo of some kitty cats in the style very similar to Ernest and his friends. 

The designer is Japanese and doesn't share her pattern but I thought I'd check the catalogue of Esther Braithwaite's knitted animal dolls on Ravelry and see if she had a kitty cat pattern. Woo  Hoo! I found one - 'Kitty Friends'.

I quickly paid the $3CAD and downloaded the pattern. It's even easier than Ernest's bear pattern as there are no decreases for shaping the head.

I found some heather grey DK yarn in my stash and set to work - shirking all the housework and gardening I should have done that day. I modified the pattern by duplicate stitching a sunflower on the sweater and added a 5-stitch i-cord tail.

I present, Thomas.

His whiskers are 2 strands of DMC floss.

The tail was knit later and grafted into place.

I took Thomas and Ernest outside for a little photoshoot amid the violas.

Yesterday, we joined my former retired colleagues for our semi-annual luncheon at Mandarin.

We then headed to Indigo Book Store at the Oshawa Centre and had another little photo shoot among their much larger animal friends - none of whom wore any spiffy clothing.

I've now been commissioned to knit kitties matching the basic features of Barb's two cats, Charlotte and Roger, and have been given strict instructions about sweater style and colour, facial features, and the bushiness of the tails. I've been too busy these past couple of days to get much done on them.

Tomorrow Judy, MaryK, and I are heading up to Beaverton for the Farm Girl Quilting Hand Stitching Day. It will be my second early wakeup in two days in order to get us there for 10am. 

This morning I also had to get up early to greet a sales rep from a window/door replacement company to get the ball rolling on a couple of $$$ things $$$ that have been on my to do list for quite a while. 

Monday a bunch of us from guild are joining the Scarborough Needlearts Guild for their 50th Anniversary celebration. It involves a stitch day and a catered lunch. All the car pooling from Durham Region has been arranged. Then next Saturday, being the first Saturday of June, will be our guild stitch day at our meeting place.

And finally... this afternoon, I transplanted some small, low-lying hostas into the front of the bed at the front of the house. The new plants had popped up all over the bed so I thought I'd collect and organize them a bit. Once the daffodils are trimmed back, I'll plant larger leaf hostas behind them in that bare area in front of the low shrub under the window. 

That garden hardly gets any light in the summer so shade plants are the only ones that will do well there. The big hostas will come from some of the garden beds in the back yard.

Going Under the Knife - Dental Diatribes

Last Wednesday, I ventured to The Big City for my dental implant surgery. My very kind neighbour who is also a nurse accompanied me so she could drive me home.

First, dental impressions were made - both the squishy type,

Waiting to have impressions made.

and then the digital type. 

Then a CT scan of my head was done. This newfangled equipment was the reason my dentist referred me to this clinic outside of my home area.

I opted for 'conscious sedation' (midazolam) administered by IV, hence the need to have a driver take me back home. I am very glad I eschewed stoicism and chose sedation for the procedure. I was somewhat awake but really have no recollection of what went on in my mouth during the procedure. I still was given a local anaesthetic at the site with a needle but under sedation I had no memory of that.

I was given a lovely, warm blanket,

then drifted off to La La Land.

After the surgery, Ernest was given my broken and now extracted tooth. (The 2-5)

My nurse (whose name I don't remember) posed with us afterwards.

Susan skillfully got us home. Using the $$407$$ made it a very quick, traffic-free ride.

Once home, we climbed into bed to take it easy for the rest of the day. Scooter was home to monitor me post-op.

As recommended, I iced my cheek 30 min on 30 min off for the rest of the day. When the freezing came out I only felt some throbbing and an extra-strength acetaminophen tablet took care of that. There was no swelling, bruising, or pain after that. 

I had a follow-up call two days later and will have another call with the clinic next week. I'll go back in 4 months for the final checkup, then the new tooth will be installed. No chewing on the left side of my mouth 'til then.

I'm submitting the dental claim to my insurer by mail so it will be interesting to see what parts of the procedure will be covered (by 80%). 

The week before my surgery, another tooth broke on the other side (the 4-5 - what is with my second bicuspids???). It is not on the lingual side so I don't feel it and the broken edge isn't sharp enough to lacerate my cheek. I'll visit my regular dentist next week to begin the process of getting a crown on that tooth. My dental plan allows for one crown per year and my last one was April of 2025 (I forget which tooth) so they should cover half of this one.

As an FYI, Canadian dentists number teeth within quadrants of the mouth from top right around to bottom right and from front to back. You will impress your dentist, hygienist, and receptionist if you refer to the correct tooth when booking an appointment. 

The aforementioned teeth in question are circled and the purple indicates their absence or damage. Sorry if this is TMI. The numbering system is not difficult. I don't know why dentists don't explain it to their patients more frequently.

Aside from this interruption in my usual goings-on, we're doing fine.

Finishing Something I Recently Started

I worked quite a bit at Stitch North on Jan Hicks' 'Love Birds' from her Birds of Color [sic] series. and got this far by the end of the weekend.

I used Markup R-XP with the black and white chart, which made distinguishing the different colour symbols very easy to isolate. Back home, I worked on it some more and today I finished all the stitching. This photo more accurately shows the colour of the fabric.

I used one strand of DMC Blanc Étoile to give the white stitches a bit of sparkle. My fabric wasn't as dark as the called-for fabric.

I've done a wee bit of yardwork this week, pulling dandelions, setting up and filling the birdbath, clearing away some vegetation from last fall. I bought a couple of packs of anemone corms yesterday. 8 come in a pack and the directions said to plant them in clusters of 10 - 15, hence the second pack. They, like everything else, will get planted at the beginning of June. I started some sunflowers under my grow lights in the kitchen. Three of the ones that will grow to 3m high (9-ish feet) are already 8" tall and are quite spindly in spite of the lights being on 16 hours a day. I also started some dwarf sunflowers, zinnias, and cilantro. They got too tall for the clear cover of the seed tray in the first few days. My challenge is to remember to keep watering them.

Several years ago Lorna gave me some of the very early-blooming, dark red peonies from her garden. They grow so fast you can really see the change from day to day.

There are lots of buds which should bloom in the next week or two. I ran out after it rained to get some shots.

They've gotten quite bushy so will split them in the fall.

I have a ton of weeding/hoeing to do. It's hard in some areas because in some cases I can't tell what is a weed and what is an emerging perennial. I need to remember to mark the perennials with stakes in the fall. I also set up and filled my birdbath. I saw a white-crowned sparrow drinking from it this morning.

We had a lovely sunny day yesterday and I washed all my bedding: mattress pad, bottom sheet, duvet, duvet cover, and pillowcase and hung them out on the line to dry. Did it ever smell good crawling into bed last night.

And finally, Jen1 and I registered for music camp this evening when registrations opened. Most of the classes I selected don't have size limits but one does so I hope I get into it seeing as I registered as soon as registration opened (thanks to the reminder from Jen1). She's going to be attending as well and we hope to get adjoining rooms in the dorm where we'll share the bathroom between them.

I attended last year after a 15+year hiatus from playing my oboe at all and really enjoyed it. 

All Caught Up

I totally forgot about doing yesterday's Day 6 of the Why Not Stitching Academy stitchalong until this afternoon.

This is the Wheatear stitch - a combination of a fly stitch and a beaded chain stitch,

It looks complicated but it really isn't. It called for 4 strands of the floss but to get a needle thin enough to go through the beads, I just used a #28 needle and two strands doubled. I also anchored the bead a few threads away from where I came up at the point of the chain stitch. It lay flatter that way.

Then I used 4 strands again for the final buttonhole stitch. It's bit wonky but perfection is not something I strive for, especially on a 'learning piece' like this.

Tomorrow will be the finishing video. I'm still not sure I'll turn it into a pincushion.

I washed all my bedding today: duvet, cover, pillowcases, pillow cover, fitted sheet, mattress pad, and hung them all out to dry in the sunshine. It's going to smell so good when I climb into bed tonight.

Registration for music camp opens tomorrow evening at 8pm. Jen1 and I have been texting back and forth about class selections, dorm information, stuff to pack, etc. I have picked out the classes I want to take. One of them is very low enrolment - only room for 10 - so I hope if I sign up as soon as registration opens, I'll get it as my first choice. None of the other classes have size limits. I'm REALLY bummed out Vocal Jazz isn't offered this year. I'll probably sign up for a madrigal class or a small woodwind ensemble instead as well as Choir for All, the ukulele singalong, and Concert Band.

Finally Framed

I finished this sampler in 2019, hauled it out for a Rhodes stitch program with my guild last November, and ordered a custom frame for it last month. The frame arrived in short order but the backing piece (foamcore) and matte (plexi)glass arrived a couple of weeks later after I sent an email wondering where it was.

I finally put it all together yesterday. 'Stars' by Drawn Thread.

I love Drawn Thread patterns with the cute motifs and interesting specialty stitches. In this case there were several sizes of stars, the leviathan stitch, and backstitching. There was also an alternate text. I chose the less religious one. 

I have done one other Drawn Thread sampler - 'Pastorale' - which I also really enjoyed stitching. It was completed and framed in 2017. (ignore glare - this is not matte-finish glass)

Not that I need any more samplers for my walls but I've had this pattern for quite a while and am intrigued by all the different motifs and specialty stitches. It's 'The Common Thread' by Jeannette Douglas Designs. 

The called-for threads are all silks so I would substitute DMC equivalents.

Pumpkin Biscornu

I finally finished putting together this project - Kim Beamish's 'Pumpkin Biscornu' from October 2022 'Just Cross Stitch Magazine'. I sewed an orange button on the bottom.

I stacked a bunch of buttons from my stash for the stem on the top.

All stuffed, it's much smaller than I thought it would be; only 7cm (2 5/8") in diameter.

I'm also caught up with the daily Why Not Stitching stitchalong- from the top: sheaf stitch, beaded chain stitch, tacked herringbone stitch, beaded fly stitch, and herringbone ladder. The black markings were made with a Frixion pen so will iron out when all the stitching is done.  I could make it up as a pincushion but it could also be the front of a zipper bag or a needlebook.

The fabric is 46ct linen - challenging for cross-stitching but great for embroidery.