Back in the RGV

Day 4 was a fairly short day of driving. We made it to Costco north of Houston and arrived at our destination by 3pm.

Last night were hosted by Skip’s niece, Jennifer, and her husband, Chris, and two kids, Robin and Zachary, in Houston. They moved there from Calgary a year and a half ago and are enjoying the lifestyle with only a few reservations. The kids are at a very exclusive private school and seem to have really settled in.

The six of us enjoyed their hot tub after a delicious meal of tacos prepared by Chris. Chris also made us margaritas from scratch (no margarita mix for him). Chris was also the preparer of the first mojito I ever had back in 2007 when we visited them in Calgary on one of our trips out west.

As our drive to the RGV was only going to be about 5.5 hours, we slept in a little bit. After breakfast, prepared and served by Chris, we packed up and headed into the post-rush-hour Houston traffic. Skip guided us skillfully through the multiple lanes of traffic. Finally we exited the other side of Houston, making our way in a southwesterly direction.

At one of our comfort stops, I took some pics of some roller grill items. The little flags indicate which items were hot enough (at the front) and which are ‘Still Cooking - behind the line’. One machine sported sausages and hotdogs,

the other, a selection of taquitos.

One fun thing I noted at the hotel breakfast area a couple of days ago was the waffle iron that made waffles in the shape of Texas.

Since we don’t get the condo until tomorrow afternoon, we are spending the night at yet another La Quinta hotel in Pharr TX. I booked it on my phone app at our lunch break. It was selected because a JoAnn Fabrics is fairly close by, the hotel got 4 1/2 out of 5 rating on TripAdvisor, and it is fairly close to a well-known tamale restaurant, Delia’s.  We shared 6 tamales with salsa and salad for $5.08US.

Now we’re back in our cozy lodgings looking forward to some shopping tomorrow and a visit to the National Butterfly Center in Mission TX. The butterfly centre barely escaped being bulldozed by the US president’s desire to continue constructing a border wall. It is a very sensitive area ecologically and supporters won a court injunction to block the wall. However, I believe appeals have been lodged and the NBC may only be on life-support for a while.

After that, we’ll drive the 125km down the valley and get settled into the condo. I look forward to a couple of days of total sloth which will include sleeping in, listening to audiobooks, watching YouTube videos and the SuperBowl, and doing a lot of stitching.

Day 3 - 787Km

We made good time today. The driving conditions were pretty good. Some drizzle but nothing very messy. At our gas stop today we saw a sign for a food item I’d never seen.

We’re not sure what the options for ‘sides’ were. Dill pickles? Fried onions? Cole slaw? It does make one wonder. As some of you know, I’m not a big fan of ‘gas station food’ at the best of times...

At our lunch break we booked a La Quinta Inn & Suites in Longview TX that had 4 1/2 stars on TripAdvisor (built into the Wyndham app). It was a a bit longer than we normally drive but it was worth it.

The hotel is pristine, reasonably priced, and dinner (enchiladas, Mexican rice, salad, peanut butter cookies) and drinks (pop or a choice of 3 different brands of beer) were FREE!  Needless to say we stayed in for the free dinner and beers. We aren’t sure if free dinner is a nightly occurrence or if it’s just on Wednesdays. Regardless, it was a wonderful benefit.

Tomorrow we have a shorter drive to Spring TX, a suburb of NW Houston. We plan to do some shopping en route at JoAnn Fabrics (I’m still trying to find the case for my Halo Go) light, and Costco - which is always interesting to peruse, especially the attached liquor store.

Yesterday, Skip got a free coffee at a McDonald’s in Illinois. He gave the server his order. She handed him a coffee with the extra cream he asked for, claiming she was having a déjà vu and didn’t charge him for it. She spoke in a very affected manner and was dressed very peculiarly. If we didn’t know better, we would have assumed she was some kind of substance abuser. Earlier that day, at a different Illinois McDs (we like their coffee and quickly-connecting Wifi), the young server handed him a large coffee even though Skip had ordered a small.

We don’t have to get up quite as early tomorrow. Yay! Although we are enjoying our drive down here, I will be glad to finally get ensconced into our lodgings on South Padre Island and begin our recovery from the long days of driving. All will be better when the temperatures are in the 20C range.

I did a bit of stitching tonight but stopped so I could get this blog post done. Skip is watching the Australian Open (tennis) and has been dozing off periodically. It’s time for me to get horizontal and finish listening to the short story I’ve been listening to.

Hasta mañana.

Monday Morning Departure

We organized and packed most of the day on Sunday with a few breaks. I took care of my own stuff and packed a big suitcase with my summer clothes and essentials, a small suitcase for in and out of the car on the 5-day drive down, a second small suitcase with my craft things, a large duffel bag with our favourite kitchen utensils, a craft bag, and a knitting/stitching bag for in the car. There were also a couple of other bags for last minute things we tossed in. Skip looked after his own big bag with his clothes, our birding scope and tripod, his ‘In and out’ bag, and a bunch of other stuff that wasn’t on my list. When we went to bed, we were in really good shape to get up, turn off laundry taps, lower the hot water heater to ‘vacation’, lower the thermostat to 15C, set timers on the lights, unplug some things, load the car, and get on the road. We were pleased to get away by 9:45.

Driving conditions were fine. There was a bit of snow in the air in the usual ‘streamer’ area between London and Sarnia (actually Strathroy and Wyoming) and the rest of the drive to Marshall MI was smooth.

This is our 10th time driving down to TX for the winter so we know the route pretty well and know our favourite places to stay and eat en route.

We switch drivers every couple of hours. During our mid-afternoon switch, we find a wifi place (usually McDonalds) and book our desired hotel another couple of hours down the road using the hotel app on my phone. As we generally spend 8 - 10 nights in hotels on the way down and back, we accumulate points with our hotel loyalty cards through the app. Also, because we’re registered with our loyalty membership number, booking a hotel involves tapping a couple of times on the screen and that’s it. We never have to worry about arriving at a hotel and finding it all sold out. Our favourite chains on our route are Choice Hotels (Quality Inn, Comfort Inn, Sleep Inn, etc. Etc.) and Drury Inns (free snacks between 5:30 and 7pm and 3 free drinks (wine or beer) per person.

Today we got away just before 8am. The second day is always a 4-state day: MI IN IL and MO. When we cross into Illinois, we enter the Central time zone and gain an hour. We definitely take advantage of that and cover 870km on day 2. We’re almost halfway there!

Compared to driving in the GTA, the interstate driving is a breeze. Yes, it’s busier in the bigger cities (Flint, Lansing, and Indianapolis) but there are many more lanes proportionately so it is still pretty smooth sailing.

Skip gave me a nifty new GPS last birthday (Garmin DriveSmart) that I can talk into while driving. For Christmas we purchased the extra cable that enables traffic warnings, accidents, and other tie-ups and suggests alternate routes. It has done very well for us so far. It took a little bit of getting used to after being Tom Tom users for the past 10+ years but we continue finding new features on the Garmin. For example, this afternoon after I had been driving a couple of hours, a message came up suggesting places we should stop en route to take a break.

Anyway, we got to our desired destination by about 4:30 local time and got signed into our lodgings which, conveniently is next to ‘El Nopalito’ - a Mexican restaurant. After dinner we picked up our free drinks (wine) and are now comfortably ensconced in our room for the night.

Our goal tomorrow is to traverse Arkansas and make it into northern TX.

The weather today was great. No precipitation to speak of, a bit of fog, and once into IL, the roads were bone dry. Tomorrow it may be rainy but it won’t be freezing.

I did a bit of stitching last night but tonight I may just shower, get ready for bed, and relax. I have about 1/4 of the new Teresa Kogut project done. I finished knitting a cotton dishcloth in the car today and just need to sew it together.

It’s ‘The Cotton Dishcloth (Once Removed or Dressed Up!)’ by Marion Torgerson - free on Ravelry. It’s easy short rows and I use 5.5mm needles to get a loose, drapey fabric. I traditionally knit one in the car on the way down to use in the condo. It’s become a tradition. I will pick up stitches on the cast on and Kitchener the two edges together for a seamless finish. In the past, I have found scented dishcloth cotton that I’ve used to knit a dishcloth. I’ve never seen scented yarn at home. Hopefully I’ll find another ball of it down here and make a second one.

It’s hard to stitch 2 over 2 on 35ct fabric in a moving car so I haven’t even bothered to try.

Thursday we will be visiting Skip’s niece and her family in a suburb of Houston. Then on Friday, we’ll make our way down to the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) and spend the night in McAllen so I can shop at the JoAnn Fabrics there. Saturday we’ll visit the National Butterfly Centre (that the US President is trying to bisect with a border wall) and then we’ll drive down the valley to South Padre Island for a late afternoon check-in at the condo.

10 minutes later ...

Taking A Break from Packing

Skip and I have been working hard amassing our most coveted belongings to take south with us. When staying longer than a couple of weeks and having a condo, it's more than a vacation, so we like to take items to make our stay more comfortable and home-like.

We can still get everything into Skip's car without obstructing any windows.

This morning, while packing some things to take, I had occasion to sort through a bunch of clothes I hadn't worn in a while and made a big donation pile. I also have been hunting for some items I haven't seen in a while and would like to take. So far I haven't found my white crochet cotton but I did find a cross-stitch kit that was given to me years ago by a dear stitching friend. It includes the Victoria Sampler pattern, fabric, and threads - many of which are specialty threads (hand dyed silk).

I've been hunting for it off and on for quite a while so I'm really glad I found it. I also now possess the skills to finish it properly as a bell pull, folding back the edges and doing the hemming stitches.

I also unearthed this crewelwork pillow kit that I remember starting a couple of years ago at our Elim retreat.

It has several stitches that we'll be using on our alphabet sampler. I love the wool that I'm using for it.

I had a heck of a time sorting the yarn colours so I contacted the designer. About a year later I received her colour samples in the mail. By this time I had mislaid the pillow kit.

I have now united the colour card and the kit.

This is how far I got.

Let's see how much more I get done while I'm away.

There's more packing to do. Gotta go.

Barb's Birthday Road Trip

My band of merry (stitching/quilting) women seem to have established a pattern of going on road trips for various reasons. Today, to celebrate Barb's birthday, we ventured to the Kawarthas to explore quilting shops and one knitting shop.

These days involve some planning - first to pick a day when most of us can attend. Then the itinerary must be determined. Jen1 has become quite skilled at getting feedback from us about where we want to go. She drew up a comprehensive list of relevant shops, knowing we'd only be able to cover a few of them in our day. She also had goodie bags for each of us.

First we went to The Quilter's Bolt in Millbrook. It was a new shop for all of us, except for Shelley who met up with us for coffee and a snack afterwards. Then we drove west to Bethany and From The Heart Quilt Shop.  Then up to Lindsay for lunch

Marilyn, Jeanette, Shelley, Barb (birthday girl), Jen1, Poppy, Geri (me)

and a visit to Appleseed Quiltworks and Aberdeen's Wool Company. We then headed to Bolts and Bobbins in the greater Woodville area.

Some of my haul included:

a wool felt mat pattern,

Valdani perle cotton #12,

'The Gang's All Here' Peanuts fabric,

Valais sheep batik fabric and its companion fabric,

a woven fabric basket kit. I really only wanted the pattern but the whole kit was drastically reduced in price and cost only a bit more than the individual pattern would have.

I can see making a bunch of these with some of my jelly rolls or fat quarters from my stash.

Fabrics that came with the kit.

All in all, it was a very fun trip. We had mixed weather - snow flurries, rain, and fog but Jen1 was a very capable driver. We were glad to be in a vehicle with snow tires.

I've decided not to take my sewing machine to Texas but will be making lists of all the stuff I'll want to sew when I get home. Instead, I'm taking stuff to knit and most stuff to stitch. And besides, if I run out of things to do, the stitchery shop in Harlingen is only 45 minutes away.

I'm going to miss my stitching peeps so much while I'm away but hopefully we can keep in touch and Facetime or Skype a few times during my absence. Thanks, Jen1, for all your organizing and Happy Birthday, Barb! Next time I see these wonderful women will be MY birthday on the first day of our guild's spring stitching retreat.

Getting Ready to Go

Skip and I are heading out on Monday to our southern home - South Padre Island, TX. We don't own property - we rent - but because we spend almost 1/4 of a year there or travelling to or from there (it's 5 days in the car each way) it feels like we live there during our winter holiday. We settle into the condo (not always the same one) with many of our possessions and just live. The condos are outfitted with almost everything one would need but we do take our favourite kitchen tools, towels, placemats, etc. etc. for our 2+months there.

Our life there is pretty relaxed. When one is away from home, one can't be doing home repairs or maintenance - cleaning out closets, etc. etc (not that I do a lot of that when I'm home). We don't have to shovel snow. We don't have to put on scarves, mittens, boots, coats, and hats just to run down to the store for provisions. We eat out fairly frequently as we enjoy many offerings in that area (tacos de barbacoa, tamales, enchiladas, etc.). We go birding with a local group once a week - organized by a retired school teacher who is used to 'herding cats' (picking the locale, keeping us together and looking in the right direction). Birding with lots of folks is great because there are so many more pairs of eyes and ears for spotting and many of our companions are much more knowledgeable than we are.

We've been preparing to pack up the car. I usually take one craft suitcase containing knitting and stitching projects, a big suitcase with my warm weather clothes and a small suitcase for our various hotel stays en route. We have laundry facilities in our unit down there so we can wash the few clothes we take as we need to.

I've cancelled our papers and have made my travel advisory with my credit card company. Many companies don't require this any more but mine still does. Do you have high internet/home phone/television bills? Did you know you can suspend service while you're away and save money? We pay a $49 fee to suspend our account with our provider and have a net saving of over $500 during our absence of 2+ months. As we have gmail and yahoo email accounts, we don't rely on our Internet provider go check our email.

One thing I traditionally do is knit a dishcloth for use during our stay.

I usually knit it in the car on the way down on the shift that I'm not driving. I started it today

and will probably finish it en route. I have lots of stitching to do on the latest piece I'm doing for Teresa. I'm loving the colours. I've set myself a deadline of Feb. 15 to have it done so I can mail it back to her in time for her to FFO it for display at Market in Nashville the first weekend of March.

She has sent 'Heaven and Nature' out to be framed in time for Market. I am looking forward to seeing it in its splendour.

So I'm hoping to get stitching done in the car over the next week. I'm fortunate I don't get motion sickness and can knit or stitch in a moving vehicle.

This afternoon I hope to get most of my craft suitcase packed.

Tomorrow a bunch of us are going on a birthday road trip to celebrate Barb's birthday. Jen1 is great at planning these events. We will be hitting a quilting shop that we've never visited before plus a few others in the area as well as a couple of knit shops. Most of us don't need to augment our fabric stashes but one never knows what one will see on these outings. And it's so fun to spend time with my like-minded friends. I will really miss them while I'm gone. I do plan to Skype or Facetime some of them.

I have lists all over the house and on my phone. I need to get off the computer and get some packing done.

My Next Assignment

In today's mail, I received my next assignment from Teresa. She is debuting a 15-chart booklet at the Nashville Needlework Market from March 6 - 8, 2020. It's a big trade show for wholesalers featuring over 130 cross stitch and needlework vendors. My assignment is to stitch one of the new patterns from the booklet.

All I can show you are the threads and fabric she sent.

The threads should show up very nicely on the 32 count fabric - stitching 2 over 2.

Also in the package was 'Black and Jack', one of her Teeny patterns,

and an official copy of 'Bee Kind'.

It is so exciting to see my stitching on the cover and my name on the back.

This and her other patterns are available for order at your Local Needlework Shop (LNS) and soon will be available from her Etsy shop.

What a wonderful ride this has been!

Last Monday Stitching for a While

We met at Sharon's this morning for our weekly stitching group. I got more done on my Hello Fall piece.

Not too much longer before I have it finished.

I'm trying to kit up some projects to take south with me - both stitching and knitting. Knitting is great for the car. I have a sock on the needles using Kaffe Fassett Regia Line Design yarn. I can finish it in the car on the way down and start the second one.

This one has the Fish Lips Kiss (FLK) heel which is a type of short-row heel that doesn't leave any holes or gaps. The ribbing is 3 x 1.

If I run out of projects, I'll just bomb over to Judy's Stitchery Nook and pick something up to work on there.

Lots Going On

I've been cramming in a lot of stitching with my stitching peeps since the new year started. I regularly stitch on Monday mornings. Last Sunday we spent the day beginning our guild's alphabet sampler.

We had already selected our fabric and threads and stitched our guidelines with sewing thread. The sewing thread doesn't shred and is easily pulled out after all the stitching is done.

We are stitching from the top downwards. This pic shows Algerian eyelets in the centre of the blue flowers. We also stitched guidelines before stitching the Coral stitch for the stems.

B is the bullion stitch which will be at the ends of the stems. C also is the Cretan stitch which we used for the green leaves. The letters are stitched with Sulky thread. It's very nice to work with and a bit thinner than #12 perle cotton. Beads will go in the centres of the empty crosses on the letters but I will do them after so they don't interfere with my Q-snaps.

We will get the stitches for D - H at the February meeting. I'll participate remotely while I'm in Texas as I'll miss the February, March, and April meetings.

We continued stitching at our guild meeting on Wednesday.

For Show and Share, Bernie brought in the ornament she received at our Christmas ornament exchange. It had been created by Jeanette.

Carol brought in the Alphabet Sampler she had stitched years ago with the Monday morning group. She did it in off-white tones.

I've also been working on my Hello Fall piece, using the tent stitch with two threads over one. It's like doing needlepoint or petit point. (It's upside down - have tried to rotate it 180 degrees to no avail).

I also started this My Soul is Fed piece. I bought the pattern on one of my stitching road trips.

I'm using 28ct linen. It's very soft and nice to work with. The pattern calls for 'fancy floss' but I'm just using DMC.

I have the perfect spool for it when I'm done. I had purchased it last summer at The Old Tattered Flag on our summer stitching road trip.

I've started planning projects to take with me on my winter holiday. I'm taking this bee sampler. I bought a couple of the Classic Colorworks skeins. I'll use others from my stash and fill in any colours with DMC floss.

I found Gingerbread and Hazelnut to be very close in colour. I will probably select a different colour for one of them.

Poppy gave me some wonderful Christmas gifts.

A donkey apron!

OMG, it's so cute! It would be perfect to wear when I'm spinning as the fabric is a smooth twill.

She also gave me two quilt patterns and several fat quarters for the Leafy one.

I think I need to take my sewing machine with me when I go on vacation.

I have been toying with the idea of trading in my car for a newer model. I thought I'd be able to get a decent trade-in value for it as it has been well-maintained and has low 'kilometrage' considering it is 6 years old. I spent a week or so looking at various models and brands. I wasn't offered enough for my car that I wanted nor found a car that had all the features that I wanted (without extra ones I don't want nor want to pay for like a moonroof or leather upholstery). I've decided to keep my car and drive it for 6 more years and replace it then. Although it doesn't have a couple of new features I would like (power liftgate, backup camera), it has lots of others I like and is still very comfortable and is running well.

It looks like we will be taking Skip's car south again to try and even out the kilometrage between it (a year newer) and mine.

So now I'm busy with making the arrangements to be away on vacation. However, Barb is hosting a stitching day tomorrow while her husband is away on a golfing trip down south. Monday morning will be my usual stitching group and next Saturday, Jen1 is organizing a quilting road trip for Barb's birthday.

While in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) I'll be spending some time shopping at Judy's Stitchery Nook, and plan to attend meetings of the Embroiderers' Guild of America - Tip of Texas. With birding, stitching, and possibly some sewing/quilting, I should be able to keep myself productively occupied whilst in the sunny south.

All Can Be Revealed

For those who don't know, I have been doing some model stitching for artist and designer, Teresa Kogut.

Back in the fall I stitched her first sampler, "Bee Kind" and the pattern was released to LNSs (Local Needlework Shops) today so I can finally show it and the way she finished it.

Here's my closeup before I backstitched around the wings. All these threads were Weeks Dye Works hand-dyed threads. See the variegation in the wings?

This closeup is of Teresa's finish. Photos of this will appear on the front of the pattern. See how the backstitching makes the wings 'pop'? I sent the above version to Teresa when I finished it and suggested the backstitching. She mailed it back to me and I mailed it back to her with the backstitching done.

I really enjoyed stitching it. It wasn't that big a project (6 1/2" x 6 1/2") - especially compared to 'Heaven and Nature' that I just finished (visible in the background to Teresa's right about 3 1/2 minutes into the video and in the last photo of this blog post).

An arty shot before mailing it the first time.

Isn't that honey stick cute?

I've been waiting since early fall for this to be made public. So exciting!

I then stitched two small pieces for her which were then sent to Vonna Pfeiffer - The Twisted Stitcher - for finishing. Vonna has several excellent finishing tutorials on YouTube called "Floss Tube Finishing School".

The pattern for these two pieces was also released today. They're called 'Two Homes" and both come in the one pattern.

Vonna finished them onto candle stands which Teresa had purchased at a big box craft store.

See Heaven and Nature? This will be released in March in Nashville at Market. Only 2 more months left to wait for that.

These patterns and her other newly-released ones can be ordered now from your LNS. In two weeks they can be purchased from Teresa's Etsy Shop.

This has been such a fun experience for me. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to do this stitching.

I hope to receive a new project to stitch in the very near future.