Stitching Lessons

 

I mentioned last week that my niece Windy is in the hospital on bedrest. She's now 29 weeks along in her pregnancy, and fortunately labor has not progressed. Above you can see her on the evening I taught her how to embroider. She's enjoying her little project, and has also taken up felting while in there.

A few more photos:

 

 

Finally, a photo of our cat Inga enjoying the night air:

 

I love the markings on her back!

I haven't had the chance to stitch in almost two weeks now. Sigh. That's how it goes.

Inspiration Stitching- Rug

While browsing through various Flickr photos, I found this gorgeous rug depicted in EstherMokka's photo. It's a rug made out of various needlepoint pieces that EstherMokka (in the Netherlands) bought at thrift stores. I love the colors of all the rugs, and how they weave together. I'm sure it had to be quite a job putting all the pieces together and sewing them into one large piece. Isn't it amazing? The creativity some people have never ceases to amaze me! Esther also makes beautiful bags, and you can check them out here: Mokka .

Thanks for stopping by today.

Stuff to Add to the Sampler

Christmas 2007- This slacker here sure doesn't have any lights up yet!


First of all, thanks for your kind comments regarding my niece and her baby. She is still on bedrest, and has been stitching away for many hours while in bed at the hospital.

It's December, and I haven't done a thing for the holidays. Wait, that's not quite right! I did actually buy some much needed items after much searching and driving around. Those reindeer antlers I found will be part of my students' costume for next week's program. Does that count? In the past I've made them out of construction paper, but this year I didn't want to devote hours of my day to that task. It seemed easier to drive around and buy them. Okay, I did find out today that my colleagues found them for 1/4 of the price I paid, but I know the ones I bought are of a higher quality, and will last for years. After all, they're made of genuine synthetic fur.

Last weekend I bought these leaflets for use on the sampler I'm throwing together***:

***
(my idea of 'throwing together' is actually a bit more like this plan..., and yes it's still kind of haphazard...)

Now for the leaflets I bought:

I also bought these two leaflets:

I am excited about using some of these elements in the sampler, and I already added the bunny to my work. I'll also be adding some pumpkins, a black cat, and other elements from these patterns to the sampler.

Thanks for stopping by today!

What a Difference a Day Makes

On Thanksgiving we went to my niece Windy's house. It was a beautiful day. The food was delicious, and a lot of care went into making sure everything was great for the family. Here's some photos of the day:

The beautiful table at her home




Windy's daughter Hannah, almost 2


Windy, with baby due in February

Anyway just about a day and a half later Windy had to go into the hospital, and she will have to remain there until she has her baby. She's on bedrest, with hopes that the baby can get a bit larger before he's born. She is now around 28 weeks along.

This is where my thoughts are right now, and it seems trite and silly to talk about only stitching here when heavier things are on my mind. Some of the people who read this blog read Windy's blog too, so she especially wanted me to post about this so that those people who read both blogs will know what is going on right now. I wanted to post about it either way, but wanted her 'go ahead' before doing so.

When she called me with the upsetting news she asked me to pull together some things so that I could teach her how to stitch. We meant to have a lesson all summer, but the summer was full of other difficult events in our family and there simply wasn't time to get to it. I feel really bad we didn't find the time then.

Anyway, I taught her a few days ago with her in her hospital bed, and she's been working on a bunny tea towel. She even wound the threads I brought her all around the little thread cards, and stuck labels on them. I knew she'd like that part as she's very organized.

On a funny note, I called her from work yesterday morning to ask how she was doing. She said she'd almost called me with an 'emergency'. I said, "Please call anytime, but what is the emergency?" She told me, "Well, I didn't know what color 310 or 792 is...the labels came off the skeins!" I found it really funny that this was an 'emergency', but I can see she's turning into a true stitcher and is appropriately obsessed with proper floss color labeling.

When she laid the flosses on the towel before starting, I told her it was a nice 'floss toss'. She laughed so hard at our stitching terminology that I thought it was almost laughing TOO hard, considering her situation. I guess these stitching terms really do sound odd to people who are new to it, right? To me the term 'floss toss' sounds as common as 'flossing your teeth'. Well, almost.

It's hard to imagine being stuck in a hospital bed for weeks, and I hope this helps the time go a little bit faster. The other evening I took some pictures of her and her stitching, and I will share them here soon as that is something that she would like.

Not much more to say, but your thoughts and prayers are appreciated.