Snowmaggedon

Did you see my previous post about our house?

Well, here's how it looked on Friday morning after the blizzard passed through:

Can you believe the size of that tree? We're told she's a white oak (or at least she was, until she went through the chipper today). She fell on the power lines connected to our house, and was so massive that she pulled down this utility pole, pretty much snapping it like a toothpick:

I really wish that the storm had afforded me the chance to curl up inside to stitch away the weekend. But between the endless snow shoveling, the power outage, and dealing with insurance and tree removal stuff, I barely crossed a stitch in the last three days! I'll be back to my commute tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have something to share sometime soon. I hope you're warm and tree-free where you are!

WIPs gadget

It was another hectic day around here, so I have no freshly finished projects to show. But I thought I'd at least mention a new gadget that I added to the blog, which is my list of WIPs, or Works In Progress. You can have a look at this over on the right-hand side. Notice how many things have been stitched and are just awaiting framing or finishing? I'm hoping this feature will shame me into tackling that last step so that I can delete them and move onto some of the other ideas that are brewing in my mind. Wish me luck!

Snowy footprints

The trouble with working on bigger cross-stitch designs is that I can go days and days without any finished project to show, even though I'm busily stitching away on every commute. And I won't get any meaningful stitching done this evening, because I'm wiped out from a long day and the snow shoveling that was waiting for us when we got home.

But if I had time to cross-stitch something, I might try to whip up some little critter footprints, like the ones that were hopping across our driveway before we shoveled it tonight:

Aren't they cute? I wonder which of our neighborhood friends came by to visit? Maybe I'll have to get a reference book to figure this out. Perhaps that would help me decode the scene of the apparent animal convention that took place in our backyard a few weeks back:

I'll be back with more actual cross-stitch soon. Subjects to come include a chihuahua named Taco, a Charley Harper-inspired cardinal, and the blue-footed booby. Stay tuned.

Red pileated woodpecker

Over the weekend, I was happy to spot a red pileated woodpecker up in one of the trees near our house. These guys are especially easy to find in the winter-time, as their pecking can be quite loud, and once you're looking for him, his big red head is pretty hard to miss. I thought he'd be an excellent subject to portray with a little free-hand embroidery. I came up with a design on the train this afternoon, and stitched him together after I got home. Here's the result:

Did you know that Woody Woodpecker was modeled after the red pileated woodpecker? Ha ha ha HA ha!

Celtic bookmark

We had some really lovely sunlight in our backyard yesterday, so I thought it would be a perfect day to shoot some photos of a celtic design that I stitched a few years back. Here's the book that I worked from, Mike Vickery's Celtic Cross-Stitch:

Here's the pattern I chose:

A close-up of some of the text on the pattern:

The piece, finished as a bookmark:

A little detail:

He's holding my spot in Embroidered Effects right now!

Palm Pre

My commute this past week didn't afford me as much cross-stitching time as I would have liked; I was too busy pfaffing around with my stupid new Palm Pre. I've been a Palm devotee from the very beginning, and have owned the original Palm Pilot, the Palm III, the Tungsten, and most recently, my beloved workhorse, the Treo:

To my surprise and enormous disappointment, the Pre has turned out to be a colossal bucket of fail in every respect, from the initial data transfer, to the sluggish performance, and the pathetic battery life. I was wooed by its sexy appearance, and thought that I'd be zipping along on the Metronorth each day, happily writing blog posts:

...but I'm pretty sure now that this is not in the cards for me and the Pre. I'm thinking about defecting from Palm to the Droid -- comments?

Owl prowl

The wonderful folks from the Rockland Audubon Society have posted the trip report for the Owl Prowl that we went to last Friday night!

We saw Eastern Screech Owls, and we learned that these owls can have gray coloring (called "gray phase") like this handsome guy:

...or red coloring ("red phase") like this one:

(Photos by Alan Wells)

Have you ever heard the call of the Eastern Screech Owl? It's like a spooky whinny. I'm going to have to figure out how to spell it if I'm going to make an Eastern Screech Owl cross-stitch tribute!

Céad míle fáilte

I've always loved the Irish greeting Céad míle fáilte, which means a hundred thousand welcomes. I stitched this up a few years ago, and thought that it was a fitting sentiment for the bedside table in our guest room:

And here's the close-up view:

So when are you coming to visit?

magnets

Word of my obsession with cross-stitch is getting around, and my fabulous friend BP surprised me with some of Julie Jackson's subversive cross-stitch magnets:

This is my favorite one:

Thanks, B!

Floss run

I was able to make a quick run for embroidery supplies over the long weekend. I tried out a new craft store -- which shall remain nameless, because I thought it was rubbish and I don't want to be nasty, or you know, get sued -- and I picked up a few floss colors that I needed to replenish:

I really enjoyed experimenting with some twisty floss at the embroidery class I took on Saturday, so I grabbed some bold red and a rich dark brown to play with:

I'm really psyched to try out my new disappearing ink pen.

I can sketch an embroidery design on fabric and it will either disappear all on its own in 48-72 hours (if I use the purple ink), or I can erase it with water (the blue ink). You didn't think I'd just start doing willy-nilly free-hand stitching without some kind of safety net, did you?

chickadeedee.

Last Spring when we moved to Beacon, we were astonished by all the fantastic bird-watching right in our own back yard. The black-capped chickadee made an immediate impression on us. Sitting on our back deck, we kept hearing a birdsong that, to our ears, sounded just like the "ha ha" laugh of Nelson Muntz from the Simpsons. We thought it was hilarious when we learned that we weren't the first to think of this little guy as "the Nelson bird."

Of course this guy showed up in my stocking on Christmas morning:

So today I decided to pay homage to the black-capped chickadee. Steven helped out with the sketch:

And here he is in his stitchy glory:

I hope I'm sitting on my deck listening to his springtime chirping again soon. HA ha!

Embroidery book

I've had a Borders gift card burning a hole in my pocket for a couple of weeks, and today I finally decided what to buy:

I decided to treat myself to Jenny Hart's Embroidered Effects because it strikes a really great balance between reference info and inspirational projects. I think this will be a nice companion to the embroidery class I took yesterday. I can't wait for it to arrive!

Home sweet home

Happy Valentine's Day!

February 14th is a big day in our house, as it's also my birthday! It was my mom's birthday too, so I thought I'd post one of the cross-stitches she made about a million years ago. Here's a detail from the piece:

And here's the whole thing. I have been meaning to frame this forever. It doesn't really match our decorating style, but we might find a place to put it up anyway.

Here's a closer look at the stitching. I just noticed that she forgot to finish crossing one of the squares in the letter T! I inherited a very bad case of perfectionism from my mom so I think this is pretty amusing.

Have a lovely Valentine's Day! xoxo

Embroidery class

I went to embroidery class at Clay, Wood and Cotton this morning taught by the very talented Cal Patch. I was hoping that I could learn a few new stitches to spice up my cross-stitch-- and I was not disappointed! We each made a little sampler of stitches. We started with the running stitch:

Then we practiced the backstitch:

Then we learned the outline stitch. It was a bit of work, but I love the way it looks.

Cross-stitch was next. I picked that up pretty quick. :)

Then blanket stitch:

Chain stitch:

Daisy chain:

French knot:

Bullion stitch. This was a hard one, and I'm a little grossed out by its resemblance to an inch worm:

Satin stitch. This is a really handy filler stitch.

Applique using blanket stitch. I heart this one.

And here they are all together!

whoo.

Steven and I have developed a bit of an owl obsession lately. I think it started when he gave me this darling little guy for Christmas last year.

And tonight, we're heading out to the Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site for an "Owl Prowl," where we'll hopefully get a look at some Great Horned Owls and Eastern Screech Owls. In preparation for this evening, I decided to whip up a little owl cross-stitch. I looked to this owl softie that my dear friend Mike gave me for inspiration.

Here are my sketches.

And here he is!

Did you know that a group of owls is called "a parliament?" This makes me picture a bunch of owls sitting around passing laws. Here's hoping we spot one this evening!

Free-hand embroidery

Don't get me wrong; I am not a cheater.

I *love* my cross-stitch, but I keep finding myself day-dreaming about other needlecrafts. I've decided to try my hand at some other forms of embroidery, and see how I like them. Any new skills that I learn can only make me a better cross-stitcher, right?

I'll be checking out an embroidery class this weekend at our town's amazing local craft shop, Clay, Wood and Cotton. I'll be sure to post about the class afterwards!

And if I really like it, maybe I'll treat myself to a book about embroidery. Doodle Stitching has caught my eye and has gotten some great reviews:

Maybe my valentine will see this post and hook me up. :)