Stitching Up a Storm in Alamo City

Almost Christmas...

I found a creche online from Bronner's in Michigan that I thought would be great for the Kelly Clark/Amy Bunger nativity set.  I think it will hold a couple additional figures, and then we'll start spreading out on either side.  I put it all in the living room.  The tree in there is slightly reconfigured this year, given some of the color changes we made in the room.  

We haven't finished decorating the room yet - I'm talking the ones that stay up year round - window treatments - and reupholstering a couple of chairs, etc.  The big toile chair and ottoman are already gone to be redone - and there's more to do later.  I got tired of making decisions - so we will crank that up again after the first of the year.

This is the Joan Thomasson nativity set that I did at least 15 years ago.  My dad built the creche for me.  I still like this set very much.  Oh, actually the holy family is not Joan Thomasson.  I don't know who did those canvases - I bought them in a shop on the east coast while on vacation YEARS ago.   Then I decided I liked Joan's pieces better, so I combined the two.  

I put this under the tree in the family room.

Remember my tale of woe that the mantle wasn't going to get here in time for Christmas?  I thought maybe they could pull it off, but it didn't happen.  So I put all the Santas on the baker's rack in the kitchen.  And threw a little fir garland on it.  It will have to work.

Maddie and I took them all down the other day and she had a fun time setting them up in trains and other arrangements.  Last year we bowled with them.   She's progressed.  I can see someone else has been having fun with them - two of them are facing sideways in the picture!!

So, we're ready, I think.   Family started arriving from out of town on Monday - we have more coming today and another 2 on Saturday. 

Hope you are able to gather with people you love, as well.

Merry Christmas.
Love, Jane

Another package on the doorstep

This is one of the Petei Santas I did in the last few months.  I sent it to Vicky at Needle Nook of LJ for finishing a while back.   The Santa, threads and stitch guide were part of The French Knot's series last year.   Diane Bosworth does a great job with thread selection --  every Santa had at least one thread I hadn't used before, and her stitch suggestions are very creative.   I love the way the wavy stitch worked out for the water and how she suggested not to stitch the bottom few rows of the boots in black, but to put the water stitch over so he really seems to be standing in the water. 

Very creative.   I just executed to her plan.

Happy Stitching,
Jane

Back in the saddle for a while, anyway

This is the guy that I took with me when the baby was being born. I thought I'd have all kinds of time to work on him, but didn't do a single stitch until I got on the plane to come home. Two days later, we left for a few days in Jackson Hole, and I finished him on the way back. This is another of the series from The French Knot. I really like the way she spec'ed the water. Not sure I did the stitch exactly right, but once I got going, I decided it would work whether it was perfect or not.

The baby is doing well -- she is 3 weeks old today. I'm going back to see them in about 10 days. I realized last night she'll be a month old when I see her again. Of course, she's changed a lot in the 10 days since I saw her. (Hearing that doesn't help me stay in Texas, of course.)

My sister in law got some great pictures of her at Christmas -- I'll post a picture of her soon.

Happy New Year and Happy Stitching!!

Originally posted December 29, 2007

Italian Santa is Finished

The Italian Santa is finished -- the Kelly Clark January Santa is already framed up and ready to make a trip east. I got this guy done this morning and quickly put the January Santa on a frame so I can spend some time on him in the next few days.

As I mentioned earlier, I got the stitch guide from Diana Bosworth, but didn't follow it to the letter. I used nearly the same color threads as she specified, but not the same thread. I think it's John Waddell who says Santas should never be floating in mid air, and while it doesn't always bother me, I agreed on this one, so I made the little steps at the bottom. My biggest concern was that the wallpaper effect (which was in the stitch guide) would be too busy(probably after reading in Carole Lake's How to Write a Stitch Guide that "the background should be in the back"). I think it's ok. I like the steps, too.

I think I'll probably cool it on the Petei Santas for a while. I'm realizing that we're pretty close to the Christmas deadline for finishing, so I might as well work on other things for now. The main thing I must finish by September 30 is a Goldwork Correspondence Course with Michele Roberts. I have put it off way too long, so that HAS to be my first priority once I'm back from Baltimore.

I was thinking last night about what to put on the blog while I'm doing the Goldwork -- on September 17, Janet Perry is going to guest blog about ribbon embroidery. Before and after that, I may blog a bit about cooking. I love to cook, and it might be fun (at least for me) to post about it. The downside is I'm not a food stylist or photographer. I've found that several of the best food blogs are done by people of that ilk -- I always say, "I'm not a stylist -- I'm a cook." It may not be picture beautiful, but it's usually pretty good to eat.

My latest foray was a few recipes from Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen Cookbook. That might be worthy of a post or two. This is Hatch (NM) Chile Pepper season -- all the grocery stores here are roasting them in big bins out in the parking lots (they look like extra giant lottery ticket bins). I bought 2-3 lbs of them last weekend, and we've had hatch chiles for nearly every meal that I've cooked at home since. I've been looking on the internet for recipes -- the market where I go is having a Hatch Chile Recipe Contest -- next year, after they publish the cookbook which I'm sure is planned, I won't have to look so hard. Tonight I'm making a rice dish with Hatch Chilies -- I'll let you know if it's any good.

In the meantime, I'm going to be distracted with the seminar in Baltimore and Labor Day weekend.

Happy Stitching. (Looks like the food blogging has already started.)

Originally posted August 24, 2007

Oh, No! Not Another One!!

I asked the ladies at The French Knot to send me the Evertites that I need for the Seminar in Baltimore. I told them if it was convenient, they could also send me the August Petei Santa. You're looking at the little extra that was in the package that arrived yesterday. I'll be overwhelmed soon, I think!!!!

My daughter is pregnant with our first grandchild and when we thought it might be a boy, we considered a pirate theme for the nursery. (Amanda just had "that" feeling, and the Draino test said it was a boy.) Until we heard for sure that she's a GIRL, I was pretty excited about this Santa.

I'm sure once I start on him, he'll be fun. Just not sure when that's going to happen.

Originally posted August 14, 2007