Still stitching and reading

 I've been intending to update my blog for a long time, and now I'm finally actually doing it.  For the past year or so, I haven't done much stitching.  Lately, I've been working on a very long term UFO.  When it's done, I'll post a photo with the relevant information.

I'll also post about the next book I read, but I haven't chosen it yet.

Happy New Year!

Still Here

Still here, still reading and stitching, but letting time pass and not blogging.  I finished an old project last year, and I'm working on another old project this year.  Hopefully by Easter it will be done.

This year I'm revisiting one of my favorite mystery series, featuring Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux, written by James Lee Burke.  There are 22 novels in the series, and I'm on book 2, Heaven's Prisoners.  (This was also made into a movie starring Alec Baldwin.)

And now for something completely different

For Christmas, I received instructions and fabric to make a quilt wall hanging of a snowman.  I've got the snowman embroidered and have to start assembling the border.  I also have to get out my sewing machine and set it up.  It's a lovely project, & I'm enjoying working on it.

I'm also working on a ufo, a cyber class offered by The Embroiderers' Guild of America last year, called Time to be Happy.  It's a lovely band sampler stitched with silk threads on linen.  I've just finished the third of eight lessons. 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Like this deer, I'm hoping that the warmer weather will come back soon.  2017 was a busy year, but I can't say that I got very much stitching done.  I read a lot of books, however, from the last eight novels of the Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke, to two very good novels, The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry and The Glass Blower of Murano by Marina Fiorato, to  a biography of Galileo and his eldest daughter, Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel.

This year, I intend to finish up some UFO's and read more books I've been meaning to get to.  And, hopefully, blog a little more often.

A few things

A shelfie of some of my favorite books.

A future project.  Fabric books have intrigued me for a while.  This project has the added appeal of recycling old computer program manuals, or at least the binders they came in.

One of my latest reads, and a bookmark that combines hardanger and scrapbooking.

Recent purchases at a local library sale.  Libraries rule!

What's today's date?

So I have a real problem with procrastination and looking at the calendar.  Until the end of March, it still felt like December to me.  Then it snowed, and looked more like December than March.  But now it's summer and I really need to post something this year.

What have I been working on?  Sudoku - finished.  Hapsburg Lace - started.  This and that.  A lot of ideas, but not much action.

What am I reading?  Right now, a book of short stories about Rumpole of the Bailey, by John Mortimer.  Love his sense of humor.

Some photos:

Sudoku

Hapsburg Lace, designed by Tanja Berlin

TAST Challenge at Pintangle

A little year end accounting

Yesterday, I took photos off my cell phone and put all the stitching ones from 2016 into a separate folder.  This year we were busy with some major changes in our life, and I didn't always have the time or desire to stitch.  But while sorting these photos, I was surprised at how much I actually did this year.  Not many finishes, but some nice projects done.  The Sudoku and Tour de France Poster are still works in progress.  (It has been so long since I posted anything here, I forgot to look for all the designers of these pieces.  I'll add them later.)  As you can see, there is a variety of technique - sashiko, needlepoint, cross stitch, beading, and even sewing!

I didn't post any photos of these, but I'm also working on a sampler in the TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) Challenge from Pintangle, and I'm learning about painting on fabric.  So, although it didn't feel like a productive year, it has been a year of learning

For a while this year, I also thought that I was losing my taste for reading.  There were a few books started but not finished, and I started to wonder if I'd ever get my enjoyment of books back.  But around October, an article on facebook about the Dutch painter Carel Fabritius led me to The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.  Finally, a novel I couldn't put down!  It's a coming of age story, but also a thriller, with stolen artwork, forged antiques, a New York setting, and a cute little dog named Popchick.  Not to mention all the echoes of novels by Dickens - David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop, Great Expectations, and A Christmas Carol.  One of the characters even mentions Jack Wild's performance as the Artful Dodger in "Oliver!".   Definitely a book I can recommend.

Now that DH and I are settled in a new home, I'm hoping that I'll have more time to devote to this blog.  Next year is only a few hours away and I'm thinking ahead to what I hope to accomplish.

Happy New Year!

Dragonfly Sashiko.  The book was a Christmas present.

Left - "Jacob's Coat" by Peg Dunayer in Needle Pointers, November 2016
Right - "Persian Medallion" by Tony Minieri

Left - needlepoint Siamese cat design by Julia
Right - "Das Blaue Huhn" by Ingeburg Heil, Bahmann KG

Runaround Bag by Lazy Girl Designs

Beaded ornaments - learned technique in an EGA class

Mill Hill bead kit - Noah's Ark

Needlepoint Sudoku

Tour de France Poster, MB3Z