Threads, Books and Things

Oh no!

2012-02-06T21:08:00.000-06:00

In the midst of what is going to be a very busy week, temptation showed up in my mailbox today making me so excited but bummed at the same time.

After drooling over Nicole's Needlework and Days of a Sampler Lover blogs and agonizing between this kit and Ann Dale from Shakespeare's Peddler I finally ordered Sarah Elizabeth Brooke by The Scarlett Letter. I was actually hoping this would arrive later in the week so it wouldn't be a huge distraction but I guess the USPS decided to be super fast this week. I'm really excited to start this but I really have to practice some self control and do the things I have to do first... so unfair!

Anniversaries of the Heart by Blackbird Designs

I finished up this square and the colors were so soft and sweet I wanted to do 'dedicate' it to my little one. I also like the fact that this is kind of the center of the pattern and so my eye will often be drawn to it. I was happy to work on this for a bit and I think from here on out I will try to do one block a month so this will be wrapped up this year.

New England Sampler by The Sampler Company

36ct. Lentil by Lakeside Linens

Hand-dyed Fibers silk

I'm making really good progress on this sampler and my goal is to finish this one before starting another one and I think I can actually complete this in a week or so...well, maybe two.

All the people still need heads but to save time I'm just going to leave that for the last as I'm adding final touches - and I just noticed somebody needs feet as well.

If I happen to get my hands on Sarah this week, I'll never tell. Until next time...

Say Cheese...

2012-01-31T11:52:00.001-06:00

All right, admittedly that is a very ridiculous title. I am, however, super thrilled about my new hobby.

I made my first bit of cheese the other night! Recently I've become interested in doing things like this; canning/preserving, grinding my own flour, generally trying to pinpoint my food sources as much as possible and making my own (simple) cheeses. I was introduced to a blog/website called PunkDomestics that will guide you through all sorts of at-home adventures. Next blackberry crop is going to be wine!

In any event, I followed this recipe but substituted the cows milk with organic goats milk. I really love the tang of chèvre, and though my cheese did not get as much of a pungent flavor, it is pretty close and very creamy. It tasted great on pears and with dried pita chips. I cannot wait to experiment with adding flavors soon!

Until next time...

Minimal Progress

2012-01-27T12:27:00.000-06:00

This was the most snow that finally settled over us about the middle of last week and lingered until the rain inevitably came to wash it all away. It was pretty to look out of my crafting room and see the pristine white and enjoy that sense of peaceful stillness that seems to settle with the snow.

We were definitely home-bound for a few days and the kiddo was unable to get to daycare but at least dad had a few days off work where they were able to enjoy it. I only went out driving a few times to relieve the pent-up feeling and while there were some tense moments going up and down some of our hills, my little Volkswagen did a lovely job. It was pretty funny at times to see snow chains on Toyota Camrys and Honda Civics but as long as the people felt safer, I guess that's the most important thing.

New England Sampler by the Sampler Company

36ct. Lentil by Lakeside Linens

Hand-dyed Fibers Silk

I was unable to start another project this Sunday because of the demands of school but it let me get quite a bit of work done on my New England Sampler. The hand-dyed fiber silks are really working out, but I did have to cheat and pull that deep red of the woman's dress from my NPI stash. And I noticed when I started to work again on my Blackbird mystery sampler that that fabric was 40ct and what I was using for my NES was actually 36ct. My eyes were in for a bit of surprise there - they already thought the stitches were fine enough!

I'm eyeball deep in Greek civilization right now for school so it's always nice to come back to something a bit closer to home (well, I used to live close to the New England area). Did you know that we get the word 'laconic' from the Greek city-state of Sparta? It seems the Spartans were known throughout the Greek world for their brevity of speech and so the term was applied them and comes down to us today. Learning is FUNdamental, eh?

Anniversaries of the Heart by Blackbird Designs

40ct Pearled Barley (?) by Lakeside Linens

Comb. of WDW, GA and CC cotton

So instead of starting a totally new project, I pulled my old friend out of my stash and started working on Blackbird Design's Anniversary of the Heart from last year making it to the seventh block.

I decided to turn the 'Happy Birthday' block into a happy anniversary one instead and make it for me and DH. I moved onto block seven because I was too impatient to work out the new placement of the words 'happy anniversary'. That's for another day when I want to think more...

This guy took me a bit to complete. I find that very light threads show the slightest hiccup in your stitches and so I had to go back and remove some that were uglying up the swan. Sometimes the strangest things occur to me while I'm stitching - this time being that I should name my swans and so here we have Albert. Of course by naming him Albert I'll probably have to name the other one Victoria. I will have to see where my thoughts take me next time.

I have also realized there has been a lack of posting about books on here for a while. I'm doing very little reading for fun these days but I have been re-reading Sharon Kay Penman's Devil's Brood in preparation for Lionheart, which is next on my list of things to read. If you've never read anything by her please treat yourself. One of her best series (in my opinion) focuses on the ever-lasting conflict between Wales and England in the early 13th century and begins with Here Be Dragons. Truly great stuff!

Back to Greece for me, until next time...

Snow Day!

2012-01-17T13:54:00.000-06:00

So Mother Nature has been thinking about snowing us for a couple of days and while we did have some on the ground when we woke up yesterday, this morning had covered again what had melted and it's still coming down as I write. Usually I love snow, but we are now living a bit off the beaten path with winding, hilly roads and without 4-wheel drive, I'm a bit nervous to try and escape. The fear of cabin fever is bringing on the cabin fever!

I know to all you die-hard mid-Westerners and New Englanders will look at this and say 'pfffffft', but I'm not used to driving in this and so... well. Bring on the quilting and stitching!

Elizabeth Minnich Towel by Carriage House Samplings

worked on 40ct.

Splendor Silks

I made this picture a bit large so it could do the work justice. This is the Elizabeth Minnich Towel by Carriage House Samplings from quite a few years ago. I actually finished this when I was pregnant with C but stashed it away not knowing what I wanted to do for finishing.

I don't really do new year resolutions anymore because I never really took them seriously to being with; I've decided, rather, to set goals for myself and my biggest goal is graduate school but on the crafting front it is to DO something with all of my stitched pieces. I've marked many for pillows and wall-hangings and others for framing - Elizabeth Minnich's towel was my starting point because of all the time I put into it. It was also my first major project on 40ct linen.

The original pattern called for browns and a few reds and I remember agonizing for days over what I wanted to do. I knew the pattern called for A LOT of silk and Splendor silks have quite a bit on each spool, so it was really a needs must thing then. To be honest, I love the pallet of reds and pinks and I'm not always a fan of red.

So I'll shut up about this piece finally by ending with showing you the fabric I chose to back it. It was meant to be binding for another quilt but I thought (with some outside consulting) it would go well with this and I wouldn't need to worry about matching the reds - which as it turns out, can be very difficult!

New England Sampler by The Sampler Company

40ct Lentil by Lakeside Linens

Hand-dyed Fibers Silks

I've jumped on the bandwagon of some of the other bloggers (Laurie's idea, I think?) to start a new project every Sunday in January - except I cheated on started on Friday night while I was waiting for DH to come home from a night flight. I had a 'chance' to work until 1AM... just sayin'. Anyhow, I pulled out my collection of threads and fabric and got down to business. Once again I've converted the threads from DMC to Hand-dyed Fibers.

Mary Western 1820 by Samplers Revisited

40ct. Goldenrod by Zweigart

Hand-dyed Fibers Silks

This a bad picture but I'm no good at the minimal light thing. And just because I've started a newbie does not mean Mary Western will be neglected! I've just about finished all the wording and will pick up in a while, but for now, time to enjoy the snow a bit with C!

Until next time...

New Year

2012-01-04T23:02:00.003-06:00

Welcome to 2012! I cannot believe how quickly the holiday season flew by this year but with DH's homecoming and in-laws coming to visit before Christmas it was bound to happen. I'm always susceptible to post-holiday blues because I love the sense of togetherness and warmth in the air and to me it's the most romantic time of the year. Oh well, enough of maudlin sentiments - on with the gifts!

I made out like a bandit this year on the book front. Having my Kindle allows me to download all the novels I like, so this year I asked for some other types of books and the family really responded. This year I have a goal to really try and understand the fabrics, design and construction of clothing, so my husband bought me the lovely Fabric Sewing Guide by Claire Shaeffer which is a fantastic (from my limited knowledge) range of information.

I've been wanting an enameled Dutch Oven for years and don't understand why I've never put one on my wish list, but this year I finally remembered to add it and was thrilled to receive one from the Lodge line. Many soups have already been made in it. My next goal this year is to cook more unique foods at home and what is more 'unique' (as opposed to what's usually on Food Network, which I am still a fan of!) than Medieval recipes? I will keep you all posted on how many times I make us sick but tt will be a fun challenge to see how closely I can adhere to the ingredients and instructions.

Unlike years past I didn't ask for too many cross stitch patterns because I have a huge stack waiting for me that is starting to be more stressful than exciting. I have never worked one of The Sampler Company's patterns before but have admired those I have seen, so these will be a joy to start. On the left is the 'New England Sampler' and the right one is the 'Plymouth Sampler'.

I'm easing my way back into quilting after rushing to complete so many by Christmas and I am starting with a very easy pinwheel quilt for C's room. All I did was take a layer cake and mix and match to make these pinwheels. Each block is pretty large, but it was so easy and very little cutting - so easy even all my points lined up! For the life of me, I cannot remember this pattern, but I have to return to get backing so I will find the information if anyone would like.

'Mary Western 1820' by Samplers Revisited

40ct. Golden Rod (Zweigart)

Hand-dyed Fibers Silk

Mary is coming along nicely! I had an accident with the roof and the house, but I fudged things a little bit and made it so I didn't have to take out any stitches. I also made the roof brown where the pattern called for it to be the same color as the house.

My bird still needs his head feathers but as those satin stitches of mine tend to be a little loose I will wait to do those at the very end so they don't get smashed.

I hope you all had a great holiday season - until next time!

Christmas Cheer

2011-12-24T23:25:00.003-06:00

I am a bit later than I would have liked posting this as most of you will see this AFTER your festivities. Nonetheless, I wish all you a very happy holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope it's a season full of many blessings and good cheer.

My in-laws showed up the day after our tree was up and so my father-in-law was able to direct the stringing of lights but then left the rest to us. Husband gets quite giddy about the whole event, so it was actually a lot of fun once I stopped being such a Scrooge about where each ornament was supposed to go. Over the days the tree has been up I have really come to love its haphazard look.

Just a few of our favorites...

So while unpacking all the Christmas things we discovered my and the little one's stockings were missing and I really had a hard time liking any of the ones I would see in the stores which resulted in me making stockings about 5 days ago. I was able to find a very easy (and free) pattern and directions at PrudentBaby.com, which wasn't exactly necessary as I was pretty sure I could muddle my way through, but I'm still new enough to all things sewing I was more comfortable with a bit of guidance.

All of them are made from French General fabrics and though not perfect, they much better fit what I was originally looking for. We will see how long these guys are able to last in this family!

And as this is our first year celebrating as just the three of us we found ourselves slightly at loose ends. We worked to combine some of our own traditions and came up with a few different things to add and quite enjoyed our little Christmas Eve dinner. Our daughter is quite picky, but even she chowed down on this feast.

I hope you and yours have a lovely next few days! Until next time...

Homecoming

2011-12-15T23:17:00.002-06:00

First off, I have to gush about being able to welcome home DH from his first deployment! I was not always the most gracious and dignified of wives during his 6-7 months away, but I know this was a learning experience and maybe one day I'll be able to look back and laugh at my (sadly often) ridiculous behavior.

To welcome him home, I made this delicious cake using Ina Garten's recipe but skipped her mocha icing instead using the ever-delicious cream cheese frosting. I like the taste of the cream cheese (with one less cup of powdered sugar) against the richness of the chocolate.

I was also pretty thrilled about this showing up in the mail a few days before his homecoming giving me plenty of time to bind it. This was the first quilt I had sent out and I'm really happy with the results. There is a shop in the area where the owner will teach people to use her long-arm machine and it's something I'd really like to try, but for this time I thought the cost was well worth it. I hope he will enjoy it next year wherever he may go.

So I had all these great plans for the house and my crafting, decorating and cooking while he was gone but decided to wait until the last two weeks to complete everything - one of which was this Christmas quilt for our house. The holiday season is DH's absolute favorite time of year and since this will be the first not traveling back to our childhood homes so I am trying to make it warm and comforting.

In stitching news I have started work on 'Mary Western 1820' by Samplers Revisited as I needed to take a break from Ann Grant. Once again, I decided to go with Hand-dyed Fibers working on 36ct. Golden Rod. It's going to take almost a fat-half's worth of yardage to complete this project so I know it won't be a quick-finish, but I'm really enjoying the colors and working on something new.

I tried to be good and do the initial part of the border all the way around, but I definitely counted wrong in three places and it didn't line up. SO, after unpicking about 75% of the border I decided to not frustrate myself again and just went on to something else - when, oh when will the mistakes end? But if you have plans to do this pattern and would like the conversions, I'll be happy to share.

I forgot to mention last time that the owner of HDF has put together thread packs for some of the more popular patterns. For example, I think she has packs for almost all the Carriage House Samplers so she's done the work for us.

I hope all of you are enjoying a happy holiday season - until next time!

Thread Conversions for Ann Grant

2011-12-12T10:45:00.000-06:00

PATTERN HDF Silks

Schoolhouse Red G No Change

Pecan G 4105

AVAS 2635 1109

AVAS 3812 4127

AVAS 3431 5161

AVAS 3745 3469

AVAS 3815 3453

Baguette BS 5125

Chocolate BS No Change/5269

Camelot's Lady SNC 1323

Potter's Clay SNC 1305

993 NPS Black

222 NPS 1321

Someone recently requested for the conversions I made for Ann Grant to Hand-dyed Fibers, and here it is! Theresa at Shakespeare's Peddler was actually the person who clued me in to the HDF products a couple of years ago and I actually used them for my Village of Hawk Run Hollow!

Until next time!

Making Headway on Ann Grant

2011-11-29T17:56:00.001-06:00

Ann Grant 1829 by Shakespeare's Peddler

36ct. Vintage Sand Dune by Lakeside Linens

Silks by Hand-Dyed Fibers

I'm pretty excited to show you guys this bit of progress - I can't believe how simple over one CAN be once you get the hang of it. I've become so comfortable with it that I have decided to make full cross-stitches instead of just the half stitch and I've noticed how much of a difference that will make.

I have learned, however, that I have to limit myself to one line at a time or else a massive headache will be my reward.

I think one of my favorite things about doing these reproduction samplers is the small 'mistakes' the girls made when stitching the original. I love it that designers will work to keep these quirks in the pattern - it makes the process very special and makes a connection with the person who originally created the work of art.

Together by Brannock and Patek for Moda

I made another set of place mats for a Christmas gift who will remain nameless here. This time I went without personalizing them - not necessarily to save time, but because I don't think that kind of thing would appeal to this person. I also made a crazy decision to make 2" binding strips instead of 2.5" to make sure I had enough for all six mats. It was, for me, an extremely annoying experience and from now on, I will be doing 2.5" only!

Christmas is starting to appear in the house! My decoration stash is so sad compared to the hoard my mom has access to, so I feel like whatever I'm doing is pretty sparse. I've done just a bit here and there before my husband returns, but he insisted on being here for the Christmas tree-hunting-expedition so it will be just a bit before our house is fully ready for the season.

Well, back to making Christmas gifts and working on my stash to make way for new things. Until next time...

A quick finish

2011-11-14T16:26:00.001-06:00

Industrious is thy name. I think I was able to put this quilt top together in record time - so quickly in fact, I have had to take a bit of a break from quilting or else I run the risk of blowing my mind with my awesomeness. But, more seriously, I think for whatever reason this fabric really 'spoke' to me and I had a great desire to get it finished so I could see if my reality of the pattern + fabric was as good as my original idea.

Anchors Away by Dear Stella Fabrics

'Yellow Brick Road' by Atkinson Designs

I think it worked out great! I bought some more of this fabric to make a new design I've been wanting to do but could never find the right stuff until now. Hopefully I can crack into that design before Christmas!

I have decided to send this guy out to be finished on a long arm and I found a shop that has (or will have) an anchor and waves design, so I am really excited to get everything packed up and ready and though I wasn't anticipating giving this to him for Christmas necessarily, it might be a nice welcome home gift when that day rolls around... I hope he has stopped reading this blog.

To celebrate my fabulous quilting session, I've cross stitching again! Ann Grant has found her way out of the basket and while watching 'Mad Men' on Netflix (Jon Hamm - oh my) I made some steady progress. I seem to have slowed down quite a lot when stitching, but I'm attributing that to the long breaks I've been taking from it. Hopefully now that I'm getting familiar with the pattern and colors again I can pick up the pace.

Sorry for the creases! I get so excited when I finish a section that I think I must be making HUGE progress but when I open the whole piece up, I'm a little dismayed at how much more there is to do. This is mostly due to the fact that I'm really, really wanting the new pattern from Shakespeare's Peddler titled 'Ann Dale' (or part of Ann Dale) and don't want to start that one until I can finish here. But I have asked for it for Christmas and if I do end up getting it, well, poor Miss Grant might end up waiting around some more!

Until next time, happy doings!

Binding is Boring

2011-11-09T22:09:00.000-06:00

I have discovered the part of quilting I cannot stand - binding the thing just drives me nuts! But, it is clearly a necessary evil. The process of making all those strips is something I find very tedious and I can foresee many quilts piling up waiting and waiting for the final step. Fortunately for these quilts, they have a due date and so I don't have the 'luxury' of putting binding off.

I showed these guys to you a while back, the top one is made with fabric from Blackbird Designs 'Antique Fair' line and then there is 3 Sisters 'Martinique' on the bottom.

I have found I really like working with Warm and White natural cotton batting though it is a bit on the thin side. I think the quilt my sister-in-law made for me has something of similar weight and I find it provides sufficient warmth.

I'm still finding a way to quilt on my own machine and haven't had a moment of complete anger and frustration, yet, so I think I will continue on my happy way while it's working. I have a queen-sized quilt waiting for some attention, and that one might be the one I have to send out.

I'm going to be sad to see this quilt go, but it's been marked as a Christmas gift for someone and I hope/know it will get a lot of love in its next family!

Again, the background and binding don't come from the same line, but Melanie at Fabric Chicks in Coupeville, WA really encouraged me to move beyond the line and pull out colors using different fabrics. She had this quilt of soft reds and whites hanging in her shop for the longest time and it would always catch my eye - I realized it was the teal binding that made the other colors come out. Seeing this effect, I asked for her guidance and I'm so happy I listened to her advice.

If you ever find yourself all the way up here on Whidbey Island, I would highly recommend you visit Melanie. Her shop is quaint and adorable - she has a surprisingly large selection of fabric and is always willing to help you with your project or some ideas.

So, you cannot begin to imagine how excited I was to see this fabric line posted on the Fabricworm blog because of it's nautical theme that is also a bit masculine; and I've been keeping an eye out for such a thing for my husband's next deployment. It's a bit of a strange feeling planning for his NEXT one when I'm still waiting for him to come home from his FIRST.

I decided he really needed a quilt made by moi when I kept seeing the ugly issue blanket he was using - I could just look at it through the less-than-perfect computer video and see how completely unappealing the thing was - so next time he can take a bit of home and warmth with him. And hopefully his buddies won't make too much fun of him.

The Prairie Schooler

Old World Santas II

Mixed Silks on Scrap Linen

As far as cross stitching goes, once my daughter is asleep, I try to stitch a Santa a night so dear husband and I will have some home-made ornaments this year. The clock is tick, tick, ticking away on that goal, but hopefully I'll have a few of them. I really like idea of ornaments because it is a great way for me to use all those extra threads and bits of fabric as I am sure many of you seasoned stitchers are perfectly aware!

Back to the workshop!

Quilting Projects

2011-11-05T23:54:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd throw up a quick post about some recent projects I've managed to finish. My workshop is open pretty much all the time now as I'm trying to get out a bunch of quilts and other gifts for Christmas and now we're all definitely hitting crunch time!

Postage Stamp Quilt from P.S I Quilt (Quilt-a-Long)

Clarmont Farms

Minick & Simpson for Moda

I think this was the second quilt I started piecing together at the beginning of this year and had to stow it away for a bit as my distracted personality took me in a million other directions, but as I had promised it to a friend of mine, I put all my other projects in their proper order and pulled all the fabric out to finish this one.

Since the binding and the border were the same fabric, and the backing was also an off-white color, I wanted to give the edge a bit of 'umph' and so went with a bright red along the binding. I am still a bit wobbly when it comes to binding, but I don't think my friends will mind too much.

This quilt ended up being quite large and going for free-motion quilting on my small machine was a bit of a challenge, but I'm pretty impressed I was able to get it all done there. I really love the effect of more professional quilting, but at the same time I like giving my friends and family something that definitely looks like I did it from start to finish. Maybe I'll be shipping all my quilts off after I finish this year's Christmas batch...

Personalized Place Mats

inspired by Moda Bakeshop

Panier De Fleurs by French General

These place mats are very easy and quick to do, once you get past the appliqued lettering. Unfortunately I cannot blanket stitch using my machine to save my life and had to applique these suckers by hand, which took a few hours to say the least, but once that task was complete it was so quick! I really should have started making these things first because it was a great way for me to practice the free-motion quilting. Oh well, live and learn.

The instructions tell you to stitch around the outside of your letter block, but the next set I do, I think I will just stitch close to the letters - I think the effect will be nicer. But these place mats are great, because as I was sewing on the letters, I kept thinking of great designs I could do instead. With my husband being a pilot, I think a next set I will do will have the outline of his plane and in our squadron's colors - one of these days...

Until next time!

Trip to France!

2011-10-31T23:00:00.002-05:00

I had the great opportunity to visit a dear friend of mine, whom I had the pleasure of meeting when our husbands' career paths crossed, in France at the end of September and wanted to share some of the beautiful photos with you - I think I took about 500, so I will try to pick just a few!

Our trip started in Paris, and only one mishap occurred while I was navigating by myself to our hotel. I had all these lovely plans to get me from CDG Airport to our hotel by the Pantheon, but as the saying sometimes goes, even my best laid plans do (and did) go wrong. No matter, I finally made it and we headed forth into the vibrant and fabulous city.

We spent quite a bit of time using a pass my friend had found that allowed us to do a sort of hop-on, hop-off boat and bus tour of Paris, which I highly recommend as a way to see the sights. She also found us a pass for three days that would allow us into a multitude of the museums inside Paris and even some outside places such as the Palace of Versailles. I highly suggest if you ever travel to Paris, you check this out.

So a lot of these pictures are taken from inside of the boat. But these are nice because on nice days like ours, they can remove some of the roof of the boat so we have clear air above us but if we had been unlucky enough to confront a bit of rain, we still would have been able to use our passes.

Ta-da! We meandered our way down the Seine from our pick up at Notre Dame and hopped off at the Eiffel Tower. If you've never been to Paris, let me gush about this one a bit. It is something that some travelers (I swear I've heard it said) might think is a bit silly and too touristy - but I am so glad we went to see it because once you are up in the Tower, the views of the city are amazing and the pictures detailing the building of it, the history of Gustave Eiffel and some of his other projects around the world.

The golden-domed building in the distance is the Pantheon, and if it wouldn't mess up the picture, I'd be able to draw a big red arrow to where our hotel was. We were running a bit late, and there is a pretty distinct schedule for eating in the restaurant but my friend was able to get us a table where we enjoyed a bit of a rest after the long climb.

I was pretty impressed with myself being able to climb up there because at this level, I was VERY high up and the tower shifts, as any tall building will, with the wind. This is from a person who had a fell-fledged panic attack in the bell tower of York Minster and was a gnat's behind from elbowing children out of the way... so, congratulations... to me.

That evening, my friend had booked us reservations on a dinner cruise of the Seine, which was so much fun and the food was very good. I had my first taste of 'real' foie-gras, a chilled broccoli soup, an amazing piece of beef and a very yummy creme-brulee all accompanied by delicious French wine. As a die-hard white wine drinker, I was dubious about the red they were serving, but my friend would under no circumstances allow me to have white wine with red meat!

The next day we made our way to the famous Louvre museum, and as you can see we had a lovely morning - it seems France was enjoying a bit of an Indian Summer and I certainly was not going to complain.

I had to keep reminding myself that the Louvre was once-upon-a-time a residence because it was truly one of the most impressive sites I have seen. Personally, I do not care for the glass triangle thing growing out of the ground in the middle of the grounds, but to each his own.

All right, full disclosure here - we had a bit of a difficult time getting from Paris to Versailles and a travelers tip would be to really try and study the Paris RER (their metro) routes very well before you start on your journey. I was with someone who is from France and has spent considerable time in Paris, and we still found ourselves confused!

Very long story short, we ended up being very late to the grounds of Versailles and literally sprinted our way across the grounds (we entered kind of from the, well there's no other way to put this, wrong side) to be able to make it into the main palace before they closed their doors. They were very nice about letting us in with (no hyperbole) three minutes to spare.

In any event, here is the entrance to the famous and fabulous, marvelous, wonderful, amazing Hall of Mirrors. I think we were blessed on this evening with beautiful lighting, which lit the hall to its peak.

I won't bore you with all of the pictures I took in this place because there are much better ones on the main website, but we truly had a bit of luck with the setting sun casting an amazing glow into the rooms.

I think I could deal with a view like this every day...

However, having to go to sleep here might be a bit much. Maybe I could do it for a night... we'll see.

I'm also now considering purchasing a set of gates for my driveway. In all seriousness, though, these gates were truly a sight. I have a bit of a thing for doorways and gates and have so much fun taking pictures from all angles.

We ended this very long but fabulous day with a dinner on the Champs-Elysees and then using our same museum passes, we went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe to shoot some pictures of Paris at night. Even though we found ourselves a bit lost on the way to Versailles and missed spending longer there, I think the adventure and memories from that experience are worth so much more. Plus it gives me a good excuse to absolutely return.

I'll be back with another post showing off pictures from our northern jaunt through Brittany to Mont St Michel and our trip to some famous WWII sites in Normandy.

Until next time!

I am so embarrassed!

2011-10-20T21:51:00.001-05:00

Well, time to dust of the ye olde blogge here and get back to some sharing! I'm just going to work around the fact that it's mid-October and I haven't posted anything since June 12 - so we'll just ignore that elephant in the room.

I have been busy with going back to school, which made me use parts of my brain that have been in repose for quite some time, working on projects (I finally finished my first quilt - quilting and binding and everything, expect photos...), being mom and something else... oh, yes! I went to France!! I will definitely share those pictures with you all here soon!

First, though, I finally made my way to a local framing shop and had a few items framed for the house. I was so thrilled to pick this one up and the girl at the shop said she really enjoyed having it to look at while she waited for me to come claim it.

I like how the frame looks weathered a bit - it matches the tone of the piece well and goes with the rest of my kitchen - always important.

This one here is my very own piece and I so happy to bring it home to display proudly. I am a bit like a school girl over this one, but I guess it is because it's my work from start to finish!

This first bit of framing I selected for this had real gold foil on it and would have cost me around $250 to frame! Now, I was excited about this work, but that was a little much. Thankfully the woman pointed this out to me - my husband is indulgent, but that might have pushed him over the edge.

I would say the hardest part about this was the decision-making process, especially with the threads. There are just so many choices out there! Once everything was completed, I still wasn't very excited about it until I put it away for a while and when I came across it looking for another project, I decided it needed a frame to get the full effect. Now I happy I completed it all!

This is one of the pieces I was working on in between writing for school. It is a quilt pattern from the book Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lintott. The fabric is by the wonderful French General and is her Fa La La La La line. I am thinking about buying some of the French General's linen backing for this one - have any of you ever used linen as a backing?

This one is another from the same book and is using a fabric line that I cannot recall the name of right now...huge brain bubble! All the quilt patterns from this book are easy to follow and are made easier by the fact most of the cutting is already done for you!

This is fabric from the new 3 Sisters line titled Etchings. It is super adorable and I am working on some place mats for my friend in France who hosted me at her home. The fabric, I think, will go very well with her new kitchen design. It will be a bit of a 'thank you' present - but if they turn out badly I'll just tell her someone else made them...

But don't you just love this old map of Paris? I like to look very close and get so excited to recognize streets I was just walking on! I'm such a nerd like that.

Well, Blogger was being temperamental and wouldn't let me add the photo in the direction I wanted it, but here is the fabric I picked for my set of place mats! It's the new French General Panier de Fleurs line. I just love it and even though there is a quilt on the machine in the process of quilting, I cannot wait to start work on this.

Hopefully this is a new beginning for me and this semester has taught me a bit about balancing things. When I start next semester, I hope to be better prepared to juggle all of the little things AND do the things I enjoy.

Until next time!

Long Absence...

2011-06-12T16:03:00.000-05:00

Gracious, I had really no idea how long it had been since I posted and as the days kept ticking by, I was so afraid to even look! Sadly, I haven't been doing too much crafting mostly due to skull-splitting headaches almost every day. Those make it quite hard to focus on anything, much less fabric patterns and linen! Further, my little one is teetering on the edge of two, but has bull-dozed her way into the 'terrible twos' and every day is a battle of wills. I'm practicing my 'because I said so' voice and look though, so things should be on the mend. Right? Right?!

I was able to finish this bright and cheerful quilt top quite some time ago. It's now waiting patiently in the to-be-quilted pile, but I really hope to have this particular one done before July 4th because I think it'd be such a nice quilt to have with us for the firework show.

'Charlevoix' by Minnick & Simpson for Moda

'Scrappy Trails Quilt' by Charlene Westberg Designs

This next quilt has been taking me quite a bit of time and is by very far my most challenging one to date. About half way through piecing the squares together I had a sinking feeling that I had bitten off more than I could chew, but I just couldn't abandon it because I just love the fabric!

Martinique by 3 Sisters for Moda

The pattern is called 'Damask Rose' and it comes from a book of patterns titled Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott. Those ladies are very talented and the book is written and laid out very well which gave me the courage to begin this quilt, but I'm struggling a bit lining up all the points. Oh well, practice, practice! I look forward to finishing the top and showing that to you guys!

As far as cross stitching goes, I've been making very slow progress on this design from Refelts de Soie.

Doceur et Harmonie by Reflets de Soie

Combination of silks

40 ct Linen by Picture This Plus

I so love the unusual combination of colors in this pattern and think it will go very well in our bedroom, which happens to have a peculiar, but not terrible, shade of green on the walls.

I had pretty high ambitions for all of my projects this year but these headaches have really put a ding in my ability to work for very long if at all. Hopefully a trip to the eye doc and a new prescription will have that fixed right up!

In further bragging news, I will be starting graduate school here soon. It's an all online program and I will be working towards an M.A in Classic and Ancient History, which will start with the Greeks and take me through the Renaissance. So very excited! Sadly, that might also nip some of my play time away from me, but where there's a will, there's a way!

Until next time...

New Blog

2011-05-01T15:02:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention in the last post that I have started a new blog in which some of you might be interested. It's called Crawford of Lymond and is a catch-all discussion place for things related to Dorothy Dunnett's fantastic series The Lymond Chronicles.

I'm starting the series over again with The Game of Kings, and I hope that any of you who have either read it or have yet to do so, will join me in what I hope will be an enlightening and fun experience! I will be highlighting characters, scenes, one-liners and so on that I find interesting and welcome constructive input. I delight in her stories and have come to learn that the world Dorothy Dunnett 'created' in her stories is one which I love to visit over and again.

Come on over...

Welcome to the Northwest

2011-04-28T12:54:00.000-05:00

This beautiful picture was taken last weekend when we woke up with plans to travel to Bellingham, Washington to visit their popular farmer's market. As we were crossing the Deception Pass (how cool is that name - so sinister and foreboding) bridge on our way to the mainland we were floored by the amazing views afforded by the pristine blue skies. The bridge spans the little land masses that dot the Puget Sound and is almost daily lined with hikers and travelers trying to catch a glimpse of the azure waters juxtaposed with the snow-capped Cascades in the background. Everyone who made it to the area that day was extremely lucky!

The walk across the bridge is a bit hair-raising for me, especially as the wind rushes past and sort of steals your breath - but the view of the water and the little caves dotting the bottom of the cliffs is gorgeous and well worth the fluttering nerves.

And this, my friends, is the view out the back of our living room window! On a clear day such as the one we had last weekend we can see the tip top of Mt Baker, which stands at 10,778 ft and is actually an active, glaciated volcano and part of the Pacific Rim Ring of Fire. If I really think about it, it can be creepy living within eyesight of such a monster, but for right now it looks all quiet and peaceful and quite pretty on a sunny day so I choose not to think about it. We've actually done a bit of reading on this thing and the activity inside the volcano has shown to be on the decline, but there was a plume of steam seen for miles around in 1999... bum bum bum.

As far as cross stitch and quilting go, I've been moving forward and backward. Let me explain...

Remember how Ann Rayner used to look? Well due to the general ugliness of the stitch work and the fact that I had miscounted one too many times I had to do a bit of surgery and remove everything to get a clean start.

Ann Rayner 1839

Threads Through Time

35 ct Zweigart Linen

Silk by Soie d'Alger

I accidentally started stitching using two threads over two on 35 count linen and despite how clunky the first stitches looked, I kept persevering, promising myself that it would look all right. Finally, I reached a point and realized how terrible it was looking. Some people do stitch using two threads on linen counts higher than 30/32, but I was just really unhappy with the way it was turning out and have decided that I am just not one of those who can manage.

Even though I spent about a day's worth of time pulling out all the other stitches (because I refused to throw away the fabric) I know I'm going to be more satisfied in the end. The stitches are looking much better and the overall look of the piece is much-improved and it will be something I'll actually want to hang on my wall.

Before, my gentleman's coat was looking all lumpy and as if he had put on something he had simply plucked off the floor. Now he has a well-groomed, well-tailored appearance and we're all much happier. As I'm sure all of you know, if you spend all the money and you're going to invest your time in something of this nature it is also something you want to do correctly and well.

Ann Grant 1829

Shakespeare's Peddler

32ct Vintage Sand Dune by Lakeside Linens

Silk by Hand Dyed Fibers

Another Ann has been receiving some attention and turning out very well, if I do say so myself.

I love how this peacock or chicken (?) is colored. I mean, I would be thrilled to see a pink and tan chicken/peacock running around. How fun would that be? I'm sure we could even apply a bit of Dr. Seuss to the issue and come up with a new, fantastic name for them.

I've been cutting and piecing another quilt top together, so hopefully I will have those pictures to show you soon.

Until next time!

Would Someone Clean Up This Mess?

2011-04-20T12:26:00.000-05:00

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves...

Hello, my name is Elizabeth and I have a book addiction. I really had no idea how bad it was until I kept unpacking box after box thinking, 'surely, this must be the last one'. And as the piles kept getting higher and more extensive, I started trying to think of how I could fit a new bookshelf in my little VW so maybe DH wouldn't notice. See, I have a problem.

My book piles even spilled over into the future guest room! I've been able to sift through most of this and find nice homes for them, but I've had to do the unfortunate thing of stacking books in front of the others, which is just painful because it obscures all those lovely jackets and book ends.

In other parts of the house, things are going better. The kitchen is mostly together and decorated but I'm only going to show this side because of the massive pile of dishes in the sink. I'm no good at this staging-for-pictures thing.

In stitching news, I have finished the house on Ann Grant. Whenever I say or thinking something about this sampler, I find myself hearing Barbara Leigh-Hunt's voice (Lady Catherine de Bourgh from the 1995 version of Pride & Prejudice) saying how Ann would have been a fine musician, 'if only she had learnt'. The mind works in mysterious ways.

After taking a little break from the border to work on other things, I returned to finish the little details and fill in the big pink flowers. Sometimes I just can't work on one thing and have to amuse myself with other areas.

And I have noticed how it's been so long since I've posted anything about a book, but I'm so sad to say I haven't read much new lately. I amused myself on the move using DH's Kindle to download free classics, so I've only been reading stuff such as Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Austen and Ann Radcliffe. Always enjoyable, but hardly current! If any of you have read something wonderful lately, please let me know.

Until next time!

Dare I Post Something About Progress?

2011-04-15T00:04:00.000-05:00

I am greeting you all from our brand new home in very nearly the most north-western point in the continental United States and couldn't be happier! Today I was able to cook a real dinner for the first time in over a month. I love cooking (and sometimes baking), and so being able to do this made me feel as though we are finally moved in even though there is so much unpacking to be finished.

As it's still quite cold up here, I was ever so thrilled to pull out the crock pot and make one of our favorites - beef roast. It's such a simple, wholesome dish and one of the best things to have on a chilly, rainy night such as we're having now.

I love the delicious smell of the herbs as they meld with the broth and wine - a very mouthwatering combination for me. My recipe is generally like most beef roasts with celery, carrots, onions, broth, Worcestershire sauce, red wine, tomatoes with one minor adjustment...

After I'm done searing the meat, I like to toss the onions into the pan and lightly caramelize them and using a bit more of the same wine I de-glaze the pan to make sure I get all those yummy pieces off the bottom. I can't put my finger on the exact difference in overall taste, but this step tends to pump up the flavor a bit more. And I just love caramelized onions - if there is a sandwich shop that offers sauteed mushrooms and onions, I'm asking for extra. So I just combined these two loves and have so far enjoyed the results.

In any event, I have finally allowed myself to pull Ann Grant 1829 by Shakespeare's Peddler out of my kit and put in a few more stitches.

She's turning out to be a bit of a counting challenge up and down the borders. I'm going pretty slow through here to make sure I get it just right. I think one of the things I love about this pattern is the relatively few colors used - at least for the size of the project. Miss Grant used a lovely combination of reds, pinks, greens and browns to create this beautiful piece and it is coming together so nicely.

I'm stitching this on 32ct Vintage Sand Dune by Lakeside Linens and using silks from Hand-Dyed Fibers and so far, so good!

Sadly, those are the only two pictures I have to share with you. Hopefully I will 'allow' myself more stitching and quilting time in order to have more to share with you!

Until then...

Blog From the Road

2011-04-08T18:36:00.000-05:00

Where to begin? When I said my last goodbye ( for about the third time, I think) I was in Maryland with my husband's family, anxiously awaiting the day my husband would return from training and for our packing to begin. There's something about knowing you have to move eventually, but until the day actually arrives you find yourself suspended in this kind of half-step-forward-limbo that is extremely annoying to me.

In any event, the big moving day arrived and we found ourselves quickly moving across the country and made it all the way to Albuquerque, NM in only three days! Unfortunately that didn't leave much time for visiting in the towns where we stopped, but we made quite a nice stay-over in Albuquerque with my husband's sister and her family. Our dogs were so happy to have a big back yard to stretch their little legs and I think they quite enjoyed the high, crisp mountain air.

This stop in New Mexico was a bit of a beginning of our vacation-as-we-move, so we planned our next stay over in Moab, Utah.

This is a bit of an adventurer's mecca. Located near so many amazing parks, the Colorado river, the La Sal Mountains that offer all sorts of recreation, makes Moab an outdoor-lover's paradise.We treated ourselves to a lovely dinner at the Moab Brewery and sampled some of their wonderful offerings and had a nice stroll through the town center back to our hotel.

Right in our 'backyard', we had a breathtaking view of the La Sal mountains, still covered in quite a bit of snow. We had a beautiful evening down at our level and I truly enjoyed having the red rock on one side of us and these gorgeous blue mountains behind.

The next morning, we made our way out of Moab-proper to the entrance of Arches National Park. I will just start this by saying that my husband has been trying to convince me for years, years, about how wonderful this part of the country is and for the same about of time, I've been denying any sort of interest in seeing these sights. I was complete, utterly, foolishly, hopelessly wrong. WRONG. It hurts me to say it, but it is so.

The whole time we were in the park, I kept saying I felt like I was in a picture because over and over again I was astounded by the magnificent and immensely beautiful sights that nature had created over thousands of years. People who have been here before will say that words cannot truly describe the sights before them, and they are so right. Every angle provided me with breath-taking views and vistas that I was constantly turning my head this way and that to capture as much as I could.

We were also in the park early in the morning, allowing for the silence and peacefulness to surround us so we could better enjoy what our eyes were seeing.

I was finally able to see famous sights such as Balanced Rock, when as you get up close to it, your heart starts to pound a bit thinking that that moment just might be the one when Balanced Rock becomes Not-So-Balanced Rock, or Fallen Rock. Nonetheless, I was so excited as we drove closer to finally have a chance to see it for myself.

As you climb higher on the roads you are able to pull over and admire the view below and into the canyons littered throughout the park. I could fill about twenty blog posts with pictures from our visit to Arches, but I won't submit you to that!

We've continued north and today we made our way through the western portion of Yellowstone. We had great hopes of going into the park, but we learned that the roads won't open until April 15, which we then learned was for a very good reason!

Those awe-inspiring mountains you see off in the distance are the Grand Tetons and as you might also notice are the clouds covering the bottom and reaching to the top. I said to my husband, in my sweetest voice, "Dear, I don't think we should head that way because that looks a lot like snow!"

"PFFFFFT!" said he, and that way we went...

As we crept closer to the Tetons, the beauty of them surrounded by the snow-covered fields was truly a wonderful sight for me, even if I was getting more and more worried about the ominous looking clouds overhead. And sure enough, along our way over another mountain pass headed towards Jackson, Wyoming the snow started falling and we hit traffic because a tractor trailer had turned over and was blocking the road. You can just imagine how I reacted to all of this...

...Back down the mountain we went to find another route to our final destination passing through many more wonderful parks all blanketed with a fresh dusting of snow. Winter definitely has his grip on this part of the country!

So during this journey I have been learning quite a bit about this vast country of mine and enjoying every (just about) minute of it. We have seen the swamps of Florida and Louisiana, the dusty prairie land of Texas, the deserts of the Southwest with all their amazing vistas and now the mountainous beauty of the mid/northwest of the United States. Throughout it all, I've marveled at some of the places where people manage to eek out a living and have wondered at how the simple fact of being an American has bound us all together. It's an awesome feeling to have a kind of ownership in all of these places simply because I can say it's 'my country'. I feel there is quite a spirit in all of us yet to push forward and make the best of what God gave us, and I hope one day we can recognize all we are truly blessed to call our home.

Until the next time!

I Spy

2011-03-22T10:42:00.000-05:00

My vacation here at my in-laws is almost up and what little stitching I've managed to get done! Oh well, I've been able to see quite a few people and do some things I've always wanted to do and never managed to get done. I've also eaten SO MUCH food!

So my mother-in-law and I were out for a walk with the three dogs and Caroline (who, unfortunately, was not contained by a leash) when we both noticed some birds circling and making a general racket. Suddenly, MIL gasped and said 'that's a huge bird!' and pointed in the general direction of these trees...

You can just imagine the dumb look on my face as I'm scanning all the trees for the huge bird and the intelligent 'huh?' that follows. We continued to walk a bit closer, with me tripping over the dogs and Caroline, hoping to catch a glimpse of this creature. I was ready to dismiss it as an ugly vulture, but my efforts were rewarded when I finally caught sight of 'him'.

Still searching? Well, we weren't quite sure just as yet what 'he' was, then it struck me like a lightning bolt and my heart did a little jump, because this is what we were seeing...

A beautiful bald eagle! I have never, ever seen a bald eagle, much less one in the wild. My mother-in-law and I stood there for several minutes staring in wonder that this beautiful animal was perched in a tree in her yard but had to continue our dog walk. Luckily he was still there when we returned from our walk so I could snap these pictures. I tried to be bold and quiet and climb closer, but I guess I annoyed him one too many times and off he flew! That was also a sight to behold, but I couldn't gather my wits and camera fast enough to share that beautiful sight with you.

One of my aunts, who counts bird-watching as one of her hobbies, later told me that it's nesting season and if the house was close to water (which it is), the eagle might be looking for a good place to raise the next generation. Yesterday was a very blessed day!

Vacation Bliss

2011-03-14T20:12:00.001-05:00

I know in this country, most people take a vacation to Florida, whereas for these two-three weeks, I've come north where it's still chilly in the mornings, Spring is not yet in full swing and I'm without my better half (insert pout here) to get some rest and relaxation within the loving environment of my very big family.

My mom and I really enjoy whatever local history we can find, and for this trip we decided on revisiting (I have been here before, but I think I was all of 7) Agecroft Hall in Richmond, Virginia. This delightful house built on the banks of the James River (one of the main industrial thoroughfares in Virginia since its 'discovery' by the Europeans) is a bit of a Tudor and Jacobean time capsule literally plucked from the English countryside.

The website is a bit sparse on details and I will do my best from memory, but Agecroft gets its name from Ace-croft, meaning at the 'edge of the acre' and is first mentioned in records sometime in the late 1400s. The landholding family of Robert Langley was a ward of the powerful and rich John of Gaunt and continually tried to stay on the winning side of politics during the ensuing politically tumultuous years, eventually receiving a pardon from Elizabeth I. It is during this generation that the current Langley and his wife had no male heirs for the property and one of his daughters married a wealthy merchant's son by the name of William Dauntesey. From my memory, it stayed within this family for quite some time until the estate became too much of a financial burden (as was sadly the case with many) and in 1925 was auctioned to wealthy Virginia businessman T.C. Williams of a great tobacco fortune.

What could be salvaged from some of the ruin was dismantled piece by piece and crated across the Atlantic by ship and up the mighty James (not so mighty when compared to the Mississippi) to this idyllic plot of land. Lovingly reconstructed into a home for Williams and his wife, the new master was only able to enjoy the house for a short time before his death in 1929 and left the grounds in trust to Richmond, allowing his wife to remain in the house until her own passing some years later.

It is now a wonderful museum and contains an amazing collection of beds, tapestries, embroidered coverlets (gasp!) and furniture to showcase what an English manor home would contain throughout the Tudor and Jacobean periods. There is also a great collection of artwork adorning the walls and is a true treasure for Virginia to have.

We had a bit of a grey day while we were there, but the gardens held the promise of spring glory and were wonderful to visit. I hope if any of you are ever in the area, you will visit Agecroft Hall and its neighbor the Virignia House, which was part of the planned community that was T.C. Williams's dream. It is a reconstruction from even older materials that were once part of a priory.

Interestingly enough, once Virginia House left the shores of England, Winston Churchill put a stop to the American export of manor homes. I understand the action, but it is now a great way for us to learn a bit about European history without having to take the long journey!

On the creative side, I've made so many starts lately and when I arrived at my in-laws, I had a bit more waiting for me.

Sill Waters

Plum Street Samplers

40 ct. Sand Dune by Lakeside Linens

Hand-dyed Fibers

I've made some pretty good headway on Still Waters from Plum Street Samplers, which will go with Paradise Lost when completed.

I just know when this little guy's face is completed, he's going to be just wonderful!

Here is Ann Rayner again with the shepherd almost complete. He's missing something quite important, but I just can't think of what it is!

Anniversaries of the Heart

Blackbird Designs

40ct Exemplar by Lakeside Linens

Suggested Threads

I finally finished this block but I still cannot think of who to put where, so for right now, they will all remain empty (for the most part, as you will see in a bit).

I decided to put a cross in the corner here, because I do have someone very special in mind for this block and religion was always a part of her life and, consequently, a part of mine. I know I'm probably over-thinking this a bit, but as this will be framed under glass one day, I'd like to make good decisions!

For this block, I actually chose my mom. The colors reminded me so much of her because lilacs are one of her favorite flowers and with the predominant colors being green and purple, this was just something that just made sense. What can I say about my mom? A whole lot and yet not enough. So I will just leave it by saying there is bond and love there that has been tested and tested, and has stood strong against whatever life has thrown at us. Being a mother myself now, I look forward to building such a lasting bond with my own daughter and I know, without a doubt, my mom will always be in my corner.

On a lighter note, these two sweets were waiting for me here in Maryland and I just can't decide. Ann Grant looks so wonderful, but the colors of the Reflets de Soie pattern are just so soft and inviting. I think I will have to start both! Thank goodness there was also a pile of fabric waiting for me :) Trust me, March's allowance is burned, burned, burned...

Goodnight, everyone!

The Moving Shuffle

2011-03-06T19:57:00.000-06:00

Just dropping in to say hello (I know I've sort of said good-bye twice now) and do a sort of 'kick-off' to the moving journal I'll be keeping this trip. We are scurrying around getting things organized for Husband to leave for training soon (I will be holidaying with my in-laws at their house = holiday for me, Bedlam for them) and then THE BIG MOVE!

Most of what is in those boxes are my pretty, precious, lovely, fabulous books all packed with care. We have learned that it's just better if I pack my books my way so I don't turn colors and start screeching at the movers when I find pages bent, or Heaven forbid, torn.

My husband and I are both pilers and labelers. Our house is quickly filling up with stacks of this going there and that going over here. For now, these are the things I consider essential to my comfort (minus the suitcases) and sanity. We do have several boxes of irreplaceable items that we just feel better taking with us. If they break, we have only ourselves to blame, but our stuff in the hands of movers doesn't have the best track record. A safe was broken on a move... a safe.

Here is our new living room furniture - obviously we will be using this on the other end of our journey for things other than more stacking.

And always sure signs of our imminent departure are the books all packed and my little hutch cleared of the teacups, so the clock is just ticking, ticking...

As I said earlier, I will be with Jeff's family for a while and I'm definitely bringing my quilting and stitching stuff along, so hopefully I'll be able to do a few more drop-ins just to say hi and show off some work.

Until then, have a good week!

Call for Help (Nothing so Drastic)

2011-02-21T20:32:00.000-06:00

All right, so I've debated about this for a while now, hemming and hawing, starting to write this and then deleting it, but finally decided that I would like to take the plunge and try my hand at designing and selling patterns. I have also realized I am a bit lazy and now that my creative juices are running, the ideal situation would be for me to just keep on cranking out those designs. So through this, that and the other I have come to the conclusion that I will just ask, very timidly, if any of you - my lovely readers - would like to do some model stitching?

If anyone is interested in this, I am willing to offer payment in 'regular form' or in stash. So far, I only have a couple that are ready to go and I will most definitely supply you with all materials. Well, if anyone is interested, please leave a comment and I will get in contact with you.

Thanks so much for any consideration you all might put into this!

Good Evening

Quilts and More

2011-02-19T12:52:00.001-06:00

Well our official pack-up date is set and soon the moving company will be here to assess how much ~~junk~~ furniture and decorations we have for them to load and haul across the country. I have already packed the books (I might have mentioned this already) and done an inventory for them, just in case they might lose them. I tend to be a bit of a pessimist about movers with my things, so I go with the 'luck favors the prepared' with items so precious to me.

On to other, fun things. I have managed to finish a couple of other quilt tops and work on Anniversaries of the Heart a bit.

First up is a lovely and relatively easy quilt (this coming from a newbie, so for a more experienced quilter, it might be really easy) made using one jelly roll and one charm pack. It's 'Scrappy Trails Quilt' by Carlene Westberg Designs. I was able to cut all the pieces in a day and it took two days to quilt. Now it's just waiting on some borders and backing. For this one I used the Antique Fair line from Blackbird Designs.

And speaking of Blackbird Designs, I've been able to overcome my fear of over-one stitches to finish this 4th block. I love the checkered pattern on the house, even though it took quite a while to complete. For some reason, I have the intense feeling that I just want to get so many projects done, I race myself to finish these things and then wonder why I'm more tense than relaxed. I should always remember to breathe deeply and chill out! In any event, after I made the quick decision to use my grandmother's name for the first block, I've decided to stitch the whole piece and then see who belongs where just so everyone has a special place.

I took the advice of others and decided to just use a half-stitch to complete the words. It definitely looks a lot neater and less of a garbled mess. I applaud those who can do it all!

Block 5 is almost complete, and with all of these pinks I think it would do very well for a sweet little girl I know. I can say how sweet she is right now, because she's snoozing away and not terrorizing the dogs, me, Jeff, the furniture, her stuffed animals, the walls...

I so love birds in samplers, and these plump guys are no different. They remind me of very full finches that would then sing sweetly to me as a stitched and stitched. I sometimes like to imagine myself in a fine house (think Pemberly or Netherfield) with a cup of tea in my nice china and all that is required of me is to dress nicely, smile sweetly and plan the evening's meal. I do dream.

And last but not least, my postage stamp quilt that I did following P.S. I Quilt's QAL. For this big guy, I used 2 jellyrolls of Clermont Farms by Minick and Simpson for Moda. Once I add the border it will almost be big enough for a twin bed! This one will definitely be a challenge to quilt, but I think I will save that part of it for Washington.

Here are the two fabrics I picked for the border and backing. They are from the same line and can be seen peeking here and there. Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me share my work with you! I really hope I will be able to post again (which means I'll have been able to do some more work) before we move, but if not, you'll hear from me on the road.

Happy Saturday!

Book Review: 'Queen of Last Hopes' by Susan Higginbotham

2011-02-14T14:32:00.001-06:00

In Susan Higginbotham's latest novel we are given a 'new' introduction to Margaret of Anjou - wife to Henry VI of England, mother to a prince who would never be king, and vilified during her lifetime and forever thereafter as a 'she-wolf', whore and schemer. The young Margaret arrived in England as a symbol of peace between the ever-feuding countries of France and England - not a move supported by all - but quickly gains the enmity and suspicion of powerful factions when Henry returns Maine to the French crown. Himself a politically and militarily weak king, Henry is satisfied with allowing his nobles to make the heavier decisions for him and as his mental health declines, Margaret realizes she must do more to ensure the safety of her husband's throne and eventually that of their son's. Higginbotham gives readers an opportunity to see the Wars of the Roses through the eyes of a woman who, in the very least, has been grossly mistreated by history. Diligent research and emotional writing proves to be an excellent argument on the side of the Lancastrians; but even without aligning oneself, the reader will be compelled to think this English queen more hero than villain.

Susan Higginbotham has an enormous talent for taking a relatively obscure historical figure and building such a complete and fascinating picture of them that it is a wonder they were ever lost to time. In an age dominated by over-ambitious nobles filled with their own ideas of grandeur, Margaret of Anjou certainly could have accepted the unfortunate cards dealt to her and stayed out of the way. Instead, showing she was no shrinking violet and rallying her loyal supporters she waged a war many would have abandoned time and again. But due to the all-consuming love a mother has for its child, she was determined to take a stand against the mighty House of York making an enduring mark on England's history. It seems unfortunate that her story has been marred so much she is remembered mostly as a greedy, vicious termagant hell-bent on keeping the throne of England away from the Yorkists for sinister reasons - when in reality, she was only a strong woman with every intention of not being bullied and keeping the crown of England in her family's possession. She made quite a few mistakes, some with dire consequences, but she absolutely refused to go quietly and that is certainly something to admire in anyone. And by the end of this novel, I had a high level of respect for this woman and was so saddened that she died and was buried apart from those she loved most, away from the world and living in relative poverty. It is a truly entertaining and enjoyable story, full of so many small details that bring Margaret of Anjou out of her shadowy past. Surprisingly, when surrounded by other the ambitious and spirited women of that time (Cecily 'Proud Cis' Neville, Margaret Beaufort, Anne Neville Countess of Warwick, to name a few), Margaret is seen as an embodiment of evil for these same characteristics. Hopefully through this novel and other biographies concerning Margaret, we will begin to reassess her role in history. But as a stand-alone novel, I was treated to what is, in my opinion, Higginbotham's best and most moving story since The Traitor's Wife. Bravo!

There is still some creativity left.

2011-02-11T08:44:00.000-06:00

Well I'm glad that I've been able to work on some crafting before the real packing and organizing starts, but I think I'm spending more time doing one to avoid the other - I know there's some benign proverb out there about procrastination, so I'm not too worried!

A few weeks ago and in preparation for the inevitable, my husband and I went out into the garage and decided that after almost four years of some of our stuff living in boxes, they deserved plastic containers. And the after-Christmas sales for that sort of thing tend to be pretty awesome. So we're out digging and digging when we come across a box I've only ever peeked into before...

It is a piece from my grandparent's collection they have passed onto us because of downsizing, and due to our being in almost constant motion, it hasn't ever been unpacked to be displayed.

Well... I was shocked when I pulled out all the packing and this was waiting for me inside. Shame on me for leaving it packed all these years! Having this beautiful piece is very exciting, but when I started breaking down the box to go to recycling, the labels caught my eye and I realized that this was the very same box the bowl had been shipped in when it left the silversmiths in Connecticut on its way to Virginia.

The label on the far right has the address for the company that sold the set to my great-grandmother, but the two most interesting ones were the railway tag and then the company's with my great-grandmother's home address!

I made sure we kept this piece of the box and will make every effort to keep all of it together for future generations to enjoy and wonder 'what's a railway'? I spent a little time searching on the internet for background information on the two companies and though Wallace Silver is still up and running - thriving, actually - the Phillips Brothers, Inc company in Lynchburg has since closed its doors. It is so neat to have a physical piece of my family and home to carry around with us on our travels!

I'm so happy that I was able to put this quilt on the machine this week and spending 15-20 minutes at a time 'stitching in the ditch' as those in the know would say. I was really nervous about doing it unobserved, but after watching so many web videos on basting, quilting and binding, I figured that if I never tried, I would never learn. Hopefully my mom won't look too closely on the back, but I'm happy to say it's ready for binding!

Here is my newest project (sorry, the lighting is terrible): I'd like to introduce Miss 'Ann Rayner' by Threads Through Time. I kept seeing this lovely sampler here and there in the blog world and slowly fell in love. I was so thrilled to finally get the sampler in the mail that I had to run out to the local stitching shop for threads (I wanted to do this in silk) and was shocked when they didn't sell NPI silk! So I did a little bit of footwork and came home with Soie d'Alger threads and if you'd like the conversions I made, I'd be happy to let you know. I brightened things just a bit, but so far I'm pretty happy with it. I'm using 36ct Wichelt linen that went through had a bit of a coffee bath.

In the mean time, happy crafting!

Super Short Show-Off Post

2011-01-30T11:44:00.000-06:00

Well you guys, I've finally finished the quilt top! I was really excited to see the 'final' product with the borders added and now I really have an idea of what it will look like once it's actually quilted together.

When I bought the fabric for that large outside border, I really had no idea how it would turn out, but I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with it!

So I don't know if anyone has noticed that I seem to be writing a lot more, but I have to admit that I'm front-loading this blog a bit because there will a hiatus or two that I will be making soon.

As you can tell by the happy faces, we're moving cross country. All.the.way.across.the.country. The official, written orders are in and we are set to move to Washington State by the end of March. And while I'm doing a bit of nail biting and teeth gnashing worrying about all the finer points of moving, I'm actually very, very excited to be going on this adventure with my little family. Not only will the trip out there be an opportunity to see parts of the country I have yet to, but to live in what by all accounts is one of the most beautiful areas in the world is a hugely exciting prospect. Needless to say, though, that as we get closer to the big event my crafting and reading will be diminishing leading to the sad state of having nothing to share with you!

But we haven't reached that point yet, so until next time, happy doings!

Book Review: 'The Winter Sea' by Susanna Kearsley

2011-01-27T11:39:00.001-06:00

I had yet to read anything by Susanna Kearsley until my husband bought me her latest novel for Christmas, and to be honest, I wasn't quite sure if I would like to book because I find that novels dealing with time-travel or past lives kind of become a bit too odd for me to stay interested for long. With The Winter Sea I was so amazed at how well Kearsley was able to unfold her heroines' stories that I found myself staying up late into the night just to read a few more lines.

Carrie McClelland finds herself in France and struggling to write her next best-seller about Jacobite hero Nathaniel Hooke when she takes a trip to Scotland's eastern coast to pay a visit to her friend-publicist and finds herself taking a slight detour to Cruden Bay, where now stands the majestic and slightly tragic ruins of Slains Castle. As with many castles and keeps in Scotland, the ruins now have the appearance of clinging desperately to the ragged cliffs, but Carrie begins to feel as if she has been here before and had once upon a time visited the castle when it served as a secure home to the Earls of Erroll and secret meeting point for the Jacobites. As she begins 'setting up shop' to write, the characters in her novel lead her in decided directions with an eerie realty surrounding all of their conversations and actions. The more Carrie writes, the more she learns about a dark and mysterious secret that shadows Slains Castle and the lines between reality and fiction become remarkably blurred. In the end, is Carrie writing just a novel, or exposing a new secret that has the ability to change someone's history?

As I said, I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed this book - and naturally delighted. The division between the past and the present is done so well and without me having that ugly jarred feeling, as if the author could not decide which part of the story held precedent. Though, there were enough cliff hangers to have me gritting my teeth in a kind of fond yet annoyed way, which kept me calculating how much time was left for sleep. Kearsley has a very great talent for describing even her minor characters to the n'th degree, without being too wordy, that made this novel very full and if you can say it about a book, robust. It's a romantic story based in a dangerous time and located in what, by all means, should have been a remote part of the world but played center stage to the beginning of a great rebellion. I was sad to see the story come to an end because I was so charmed by both the heroines that I wanted to see more of their lives, but that is not to say Kearsley left her story incomplete. If, like me, you tend to be a skeptic of the more unorthodox story-lines, then I can safely say it will not confound or disappoint. And I think most readers will find something in this novel to enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!

Rainy Days Lead to Productivity

2011-01-25T12:42:00.000-06:00

When we were preparing to move from Texas to Florida, our long-time military friends already living here assured us that due to some quirk of Mother Nature's this area was blessed with rain almost every day - at least in the summer. This excited me because I love rainy afternoons. It gives me a great excuse to do all of my indoor activities without the slightest bit of guilt that I might be missing one of those glorious sunny days. Well, arrive we did and it was as if by our coming the rain decided to go away...for a long time. Not anymore! North Florida is once again being graced by cloudy skies full and full again of rain - which means I'm 'stuck' inside, guilt free and armed with many things to do and read.

Here is the quilt top almost finished. It was so much fun learning how to put together a quilt top and surprisingly low-stress. Being in a class setting was extremely beneficial to me even if I wasn't asking a thousand inane question - just having the benign gaze of our instructor for two hours was enough to keep me calm and happy. Not a swear word was uttered.

Not all of my blocks lined up perfectly, but nothing was obvious enough to the point of having to redo some of my stitching. I am so grateful for my 1/4" seam foot, which makes my life so much easier than making sure my fabric follows a line of tape,

This week I'll be learning how to apply boarders and prepare my binding then I will be all done with the quilt top! These two fabrics are from the same designer as the fat quarters, but I wanted to bring in some more blues and greens. I think for the backing I will go for a very bright pink, but that's a little ways away.

My enthusiasm for quilting has taken off quite a bit and so I decided to join in on a Quilt-a-Long being sponsored by Rachel at P.S. I Quilt. She is a very vivacious and talented blog-writer who also happens to be a designer. A big thank you to Siobhan from Blue Hen Hollow for suggesting this site! This will eventually be a postage stamp quilt made from two jelly rolls of Clermont Farms from Moda Fabrics.

As far as cross stitching goes, I've made my way through Block 2 and the Bonus Block this week. I haven't decided quite yet whose name will be here - it has nothing at all to do with my fear of you-know-what. I've been practicing those skills with some of my linen scraps.

As always, I love when birds are a part of the pattern - such a sweet touch.

Here is the first of the bonus patterns. I absolutely had to wait until this was published before I went anywhere because of my horrible counting skills, so it kind of worked out that I didn't start this project until now. There was just no way I was going to trust myself to leave the correct amount of room - some things in this world are just absolute...like my inability to count. I can say this without any fear living so far away from my mother...

I sometimes forget about the many color changes and detailed borders that seem to be hallmarks of Blackbird Designs, and while sometimes tedious when doing the work, the end result is always worth it.

There has also been quite a lot of reading going on here, but I'll post on that next time.

Until then, I hope you all enjoy your rainy, snowy, probably not icy, and even sunny days!

Another Hobby

2011-01-18T12:20:00.000-06:00

Though I'm certainly not trying to boast here, I do consider myself to be a pretty creative person. I think it's one of the beneficial traits that can come from being an only child. That, and both of my parents are creative people on a whole other level than me. I seem to have received an extremely dumbed-down version of theirs. In any event, I mention this because I think it's the curse of a creative person to always be looking for 'that new thing' to accomplish, or at least attempt. My new thing is quilting...

I was already thinking about quilting (for about two years, actually) and always told myself I didn't need a whole other set of tools and fabrics and whatnot, but after seeing the two beautiful quilts my sister-in-law made for us this past Christmas I was decided. I made a call to the closest quilt shop in Jacksonville, the Calico Station, and signed myself up for one of their beginner courses.

I taught myself needlepoint, cross stitch and embroidery at significant cost and huge levels of frustration, so I decided a formal class setting was my best route. These fabrics are 12 fat quarters from Amy Butlers' Bliss Soul Blossoms line, and though they're not my exact favorite colors, I decided to give it a go as these are the colors used in the class model. I'll exercise that above-mentioned creativity a bit later.

I'm really enjoying the class so far and by the third part, I should have a whole top part finished with borders and everything ready for the second series that will cover putting a quilt together.

In the mean time, I have also been busy working on 'Anniversaries of the Heart' by Blackbird Designs...

(Sorry again about the bad pictures - rainy days and poor indoor lighting are not conducive to close-ups!)

I finally finished the first block after quite a few stitches were pulled out due to, what else, counting issues. As I hate doing over-one on 40 count linen, I didn't put the smaller letters in as the pattern suggested but I did choose someone very special to me for the main initials.

My grandmother Doris was born in 1930 in a rural farming community sandwiched between Lynchburg and Charlottesville, Virginia on a bend in the James River, nestled in Blue Ridge Mountains. Her father was a farmer and raised beagle puppies as hunting dogs on the side. Her mother, while also helping with the farm was mainly busy at home raising their five daughters. As a middle sister, my grandmother developed an infectious sense of humor, tom-boy attitude and extremely sharp wits - quickly cementing a close and loving relationship with her father. When only 16 and in the city on a shopping trip, she happened to walk into a furniture store where my grandfather was working (he was only 14) and as they say, the rest is history.

She spent a short time as an Air Force pilot's wife before the family moved back to Virginia so my grandfather to could take over the family business and they were both a huge influence on me growing up. I have extremely fond memories of spending weeks during the summer at their house, many Christmas mornings and several 'just because' visits with them. For a short time, I even lived with my grandparents and every morning before school she would come to gently wake me up, would warm my towels and asked me every morning what I'd like for breakfast. Living with grandma was pure heaven! I consider myself so lucky and blessed to have the kind of relationship with her that I do. She turned 80 this past year, and though beset by a few health problems, I was heartened to see the humor and her incredible strength of will (sometimes just plain stubbornness) still lighting her eyes. It's a small token of my affection, but the first person I could think to include in this pattern was my very dear grandmother Doris.

I've already started on the second square and I've realized that this one is going to force me to stitch over one or work something else out...grrr. So we'll just have to see what happens when I get to that point. Anyone out there have any tips for over-one on 40ct? I'm all ears!

Until next time, happy stitches!

It's Finished!

2011-01-11T07:37:00.000-06:00

A short post today just to share with you my boundless joy in finally finishing 'Village of Hawk Run Hollow' - Hallelujah!

When I finally set the last stitch I could hardly believe my eyes! I kept scanning and scanning it looking for some area where I might have left a mistake to correct later, but, no! I had finally reached the end! Usually I would have started ump-teen different projects, thereby derailing this one for who knows how long, so I am just so proud of myself! (Sorry for the angle of the photo above, by the way. I was trying to be artsy but I think I missed that mark.)

I made a few changes in this block including making the horses a dark gray instead of black and keeping all their manes that butter color. I'm not sure if there is a horse out there with that color combination, but I like it. I also chose to use a lighter brown for the stall doors and put white crosses on them because it reminds me of the stables where I used to board my own horses.

Having finally finished the project, not only can I appreciate it for the effort that it took to stitch, but I am stunned by the level of creativity and patience that it must have taken to design this piece. Kathy Barrick from Carriage House Samplings is a truly talented woman! Every block had it's own whimsy in it that made them a joy to work on and see how the whole thing came together. I think this block has actually turned out to be one of my favorites because it is so reminiscent of when I was younger and basically lived at the stables - which I'm sure my mom was afraid I would do if she wouldn't get arrested for truancy.

Bum-bum-bummmm... here is the block that nagged and nagged at me while I proceeded with the rest of the project. I just planted myself on the couch in the morning and worked and worked. Anyhow, I can happily say that I just finished that largest project I have ever stitched and now I get to take it to the framers so I will be able to proudly display it.

Even in my impatience I still took the time to personalize it just a bit with the date and...

...our initials!

And over our Christmas vacation, I took some time out to pick up most of the threads needed for the first few patterns for 'Anniversaries of the Heart' by Blackbird designs. I hope to begin work on this one very soon! I noticed that quite a few of the threads needed for this project are new colors from Gentle Arts, Weeks Dye Works AND Crescent Colours, so unfortunately I can't use most of my left-over threads. No matter, it's always fun buying new threads.

Happy Stitches!

Book Review: "The King's Confidante" by Jean Plaidy

2011-01-10T11:35:00.001-06:00

Most of you interested in the field of historical fiction will undoubtedly recognize the name Jean Plaidy as being one of the most gifted and

prolific writer in that genre. She wrote under many aliases, but Jean Plaidy is mostly associated with biographical-type stories covering the lives of some of history's most fascinating people. Her writing has had a large impact on more modern writers and her novels about the Tudor court have enjoyed a particular resurgence lately due to the popularity of that subject and while the ones about Henry VIII and his many wives (how many was it?) seem to be the most popular, and if you're interested in the era I think The King's Confidante: The Story of the Daughter of Sir Thomas More should certainly be included.

Plaidy begins her story when Thomas More is a simple lawyer, struggling to find a middle path between the ideals of monastic life and the one to which he was raised: a successful business-man and lawyer with a wife who will certainly get more More attorneys to carry on the proud name. While he still yearns for some aspects of the life he left behind he watches proudly as his family expands. Most particularly, More finds himself attached to his eldest daughter, Margaret, who from an early age showed an extreme aptitude for learning. After introducing us to the beginning of More's life, Plaidy begins to cover the unique attachment More had for Margaret and how she is an ever-present source of pride and happiness as he is unwillingly drawn ever-closer to the powerful Thomas Wolsey. This novel covers the rapid rise and even faster fall of one of the most influential men in the court of Henry VIII and the touching relationship he had with his large family.

Though I thought the novel was a bit slow to get going it rapidly picked up pace as Thomas began his career at court. And Plaidy did a very good job portraying the tension and sense of danger that surrounded Henry as he tried to divorce his first wife to marry Anne Boleyn. I did end up wishing we had heard more on the subject of More's relationship with Catherine as he tried to stand up for her marriage to the king. He was never an official champion of the Queen's, but his ideals and beliefs certainly must have put the on her side. Overall, I enjoyed this book as I have enjoyed many of Plaidy's and the tragic end of More's life was very well written, but when I finished the story there was definitely something that fell a bit flat. Nonetheless, it is one to be included in your Tudor library.

Happy Reading!

Village of Hawk Run Hollow - I can see a light at the end of the tunnel!

2011-01-07T12:25:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures of the progress I made on the Village over the Christmas holidays I wanted to share with you guys. I'm getting that kind of excited yet impatient feeling I always do when I'm coming to the end of a big project. This being such a large project I think the impatience is outweighing just about everything at the moment, but I know when I've finally completed this piece, the feeling of satisfaction will be immense.

And of course, in my eagerness to get this done, I make silly mistakes like put the curtains facing the wrong direction! When this happens, I do try very hard to contain my rage and not scream incoherently at innocent passers-by and throw things across the room. I find it best in these situations to walk away for a bit...

The world of blogging has made me feel much more comfortable with not only using my own threads for projects, but I have seen so many stitchers find their unique ways of personalizing them with dates and their initials, so I thought I'd sneak mine in there where I could find a space or two. I took out some leaves and moved some branches a bit so I could squeeze an 'E' in there for moi. My eyes are alert for any other spaces where I might be able to fit the year and maybe my husband's initial - if we're friends that day.

This block was actually a lot of fun to stitch because of the detailing in all the flowers and the fact that it's divided up a bit differently than the other blocks. It definitely draws the eye to it.

And now for the big event: the FINAL BLOCK! That little butterfly feeling can hardly be contained at this point and I swear if I make one little mistake requiring me to remove any threads I might just...well, I'm not exactly sure. You get the idea. Unfortunately, I still have that other block, that block-we-don't-speak-of, taunting me from its little corner that will surely keep me from my ultimate triumph. Luckily, though, I have made enough sad faces at my husband that he has agreed once I finish this one, I can get it professionally framed - oh sweet, sweet, sweet man!

That lovely promise is keeping me plugging away at my little Village and I guess his initials will find their way into this piece after all. Hopefully the next time I post pictures I will be all finished and it will be on its way to the framers.

Wishing you all Happy Stitches!

Happy 2011

2011-01-03T16:35:00.000-06:00

The year 2011 sure arrived quickly and before I knew it, I found myself back in Florida with a whole pile of stuff (it has been called quite a few other things) sitting in what passes as our foyer. Every time I walk past the pile, I feel like it just keeps growing and growing. Like some amorphous blob that plans to take over my house...

Anyhow, I ended up flying home to Virginia to spend some time with my grandparents who unfortunately aren't doing so well this year. My grandma has been in and out of the hospital since summer and ended having to go spend some more time there over Thanksgiving and Christmas. Happily though, Jeff and I were able to pick her up on Christmas Day and take her back home much to her and my grandfather's delight.

And more bright news, we actually saw snow this year - already on the ground and a fresh coating over night! As compared to some parts of the East Coast, our area escaped with barely anything. But for two people who haven't seen snow on Christmas for quite a few years, it was a great Christmas surprise.

It only took one fall into the snow, however, for Caroline to come to the conclusion she doesn't really care for her hands to be wet and cold and since she wouldn't keep her gloves on, it was a short romp but enjoyable for us to see her in the snow.

Christmas morning was great fun for Jeff and I because Caroline is getting to the point where ripping paper is always an enjoyable event and apparently crawling into the dog kennel was just as fun. My poor grandfather simply couldn't understand why our child would want to do that and 'do you let her do this at home' was a question we were asked quite a few times before he was sure it was okay to let her return to Florida with us.

After our short visit in Virginia, we headed down the coast to North Carolina to spend some time with Jeff's parents where Caroline and our dogs were able to enjoy the beach almost entirely by themselves.

The days grew warmer as we stayed there, but this one day was positively frigid on the beach with the wind blowing so! I love going to the beach any time of year and love watching the seagulls and pelicans fishing and huddling down in the sand for warmth. Surprisingly enough, our dogs didn't torture the birds by running through them. Rocco very much enjoyed getting into the ocean despite the cold.

Maggie was perfectly content to stay dry with the rest of us - despite Rocco's attempts to drag her in with him.

As for Christmas gifts, I made off like a bandit this year! My husband is one of those who loves, loves, Christmas presents - both giving and receiving them. So every year he pushes me to add more ideas to my lists besides my usual books and stitching supplies and this year I made a huge leap and asked for some jewelry...

I'm pretty sure my face cracked when I opened the box and saw this sitting inside. And then these followed...

I can't wait to wear this set out to a nice dinner. Unfortunately, they're a bit lost on my usual t-shirt and jeans outfit, but I still enjoy looking at them in my jewelry box!

Jeff also gave me this beautiful Swarovski 2010 ornament that will look absolutely stunning on our tree next year! And along with all of these beautiful gifts from Jeff, his sister amazed me with two beautiful quilts she made for me and Caroline, which are going to be cherished for years and years by both of us.

Royal Jardin by The French General

Fandago by Kate Spain

I hope you and your family enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and 2011 has kicked off in a positive way! I have finally started on my last block of Hawk Run Hollow so I will have some pictures of the two blocks I finished over the holidays to share with you. In the mean time...

Happy stitching and Happy New Year!

Possibly Last Post of the Year

2010-12-20T08:32:00.000-06:00

I'm pretty pleased with myself that I'm managing to get this last post out before the monster, I mean, my child and I board a plane and head North for the holiday season. Between all the shopping, crafting, wrapping and visiting of friends I have only been able to do a tiny bit of cross stitching lately so I have very little to be showing...

I had really hoped to have this block of my Village completed before I went to bed last night, but I messed up a few of the leaves on top and my eyes started doing funky things (thank you, astigmatism) so I threw up my hands in frustration and called it a night.

Here is the not-so-tropical Tropical Quaker Sampler from Wal D'Champs about half-way completed. It's been pretty fun making this my own partial creation with selecting the colors.

This has always been a favorite motif of mine found in many Quaker-themed samplers. I think it's such a contrast to the geometric shapes so commonly used that the eye is drawn to the crooked trees and vines and it adds a bit of whimsy to the samplers.

We've been meaning to take pictures of our little tree since we put it up, but it's been one of those things that just kind of goes by the wayside in this house. So we decided to take pictures right before we started to dismantle it! Having a 15-month-old terror running around the house, getting into everything she can, we made the decision to get a small tree we could set up higher and work on teaching her to leave it alone. We were mostly successful and now I think it's just become a part of her scenery so she's at the point of ignoring it...until next year.

We have a really nice collection of ornaments from my husband's family and from mine and every year we pick up two or three new ones to add when the decoration frenzy begins in the stores. We've also had a tradition from when first started dating of giving each other an ornament every year, so eventually we're going to need one of those gigantic trees to fit all our ornaments! Worth it.

The executive decision was made last year that we would also include our daughter in this tradition - but Jeff keeps reminding me that the ornaments we buy for her will one day go with her as I troll through the internet imagining my tree one day being made up of all Wedgewood ornaments! Grinch.

My photographer-extraordinaire was in charge of tree pictures as he has a super fancy camera that can capture great images in all sorts of lighting. So I kindly asked him to get some pictures of my favorite ornaments but I think a few of his found their way in...

I managed to get a somewhat decent picture of one of my favorites with my own camera, though it's a bit washed out. An aunt of mine has been giving me the White House Ornaments for a few years now and I just love this one of President Grover Cleveland who was the only president to be married while serving in the White House. The collection goes back to 1988 and the older ornaments and new ones can still be purchased at the main website and they make a wonderful gift to give and get.

If I don't manage another post before the New Year, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year!

Recipe Time: Steak and Mushrooms with Polenta

2010-12-15T08:26:00.001-06:00

My husband and I recently discovered how delicious and filling polenta could be and have since been playing around with different vegetables and meat combinations to make these incredibly hearty dinners. Polenta was the staple of the Roman solider, as it could be eaten in cake form or as a porridge and it is a bit similar to the Southern US classic of grits. There are enough differences, however, that an Italian might not immediately identify with grits and vice versa. Both are without a doubt inexpensive and versatile and we plan on taking full advantage.

I will try to give you everything in recipe form, but as we kind of make these things up as we go along, it might not be too organized...

For the Beef:
1/2 - 1 pound of steak (either flank or little fillet mignon)
1 beer
1/4cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4cup soy sauce
liberal helping of minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

At least 4-6 hours ahead of time (particularly if using flank steak, which tends to go tough) salt and pepper steak and set aside. Add the beer (we used a Yeungling, but just about anything will work), Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and garlic to a large plastic bag. Once that is mixed well, add the steak and return to refrigerator to marinate.

About an hour before cook time, pull out of refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature. Using an oven-safe saute pan, heat a bit of butter and when very warm, add steak. Sear on both sides for 2-3 minutes and then put in a 350F oven for 8-10 minutes. This time will leave the steak medium-rare, so increase your time by 2 minutes for medium, 3 for well-done.

For the Polenta:
1/2cup of corn meal
1cup of milk
1cup of water
salt to taste
1/2cup shredded Parmesean or Asiago cheese (or a mix is just as nice)

Whisk together all four ingredients in a saucepan with a lid over medium to high heat. Once the mix has come to a boil, stir and reduce. Cover partially with lid so a little steam can escape and leave for 15 minutes.

Veggies:
pad of butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
1 lb mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup marsala cooking wine
1 can vegetable or chicken broth
1 bag of frozen green peas

In a saute pan, heat butter and olive oil. Saute the onion and mushrooms and when then liquid level in the pan starts to lower, add 1/2cup of marsala cooking wine and broth and allow to reduce until a nice amount of sauce is made.

Cook peas according to package instructions.

Time to plate! Mix in cheese with the polenta until incorporated nicely. At this point, I also mix in the green peas and then add to plate. Slice steak and add on top of polenta then poor the mushroom-onion sauce over dish. A red wine goes well with this, as well as beer and I've even enjoyed a white wine with this.

I hope I haven't left anything out!

Happy Eating (and find someone else to do the dishes!)

Baking and Stitching

2010-12-02T10:30:00.001-06:00

I think, I think, it has finally decided to turn towards cooler temperatures for a little while here. On Monday the temperatures reached a high of 84F and then last night the area supposedly hit 36F. There was frost on the ground when we let the dogs out this morning, so it did get chilly enough for that. One would think after three years of this kind of thing I'd be getting used to it, but I still bemoan the fact that it's just not cold enough for the holiday season! That's my bah-humbug (said in George C. Scott-fashion).

I've had a lot of fun trying out recipes using pumpkin this year and while getting ready to make another batch of banana muffins for Jeff I wondered how the combination of pumpkin and banana would work. Turns out, foodies all around have already thought of this and published some great recipes for it. All I had to do was bake and eat - easy enough.

They were delicious when warmed with bit of butter and a nice cup of hot coffee! I even used the fat-cutting measure of substituting applesauce in for vegetable oil and it worked pretty well.

And as far as the stitching goes I have realized I am still unable to stick to one task at a time: so along with Hawk Run Hollow and my own designs, I have started working on a piece that will end up being the front of a pillow.

It's a pattern titled Tropical Quaker Sampler by Wal D'Champs of WDL Design published in the online stitching magazine The Gift of Stitching. This was the cover design for Issue #53.

The pattern came out in the summer, so the colors we very bright and vivid coinciding with the tropical in its name. While I really loved all the motifs in the pattern, I couldn't really see myself ever using it due to the palette, so I dug through my collection of leftover silks and kind of went where the mood took me.

Turned out I was feeling a bit Jacobean...

A definite downside, however, of just 'going with the flow' is that sometimes things just don't look right and a significant chunk of time is spent picking out threads and agonizing over colors. I really like how this medallion came together in the end, but it went through a few growing pains first.

Speaking of color issues, I was moving along at quite a nice pace on my second design when I hit a major snag on the appearance of the house. Off to the cross stitch shop to stare at the huge wall of threads. I had to keep myself from buying every shade of red the store owned and felt lucky to escape with my bank account still intact. So far I still feel kind of 'meh' about it, but as I walk by it day by day, it's slowly growing on me.

Here's another little peak...

Happy stitching!

Book Review: "Mistress of Rome" by Kate Quinn

2010-11-30T11:07:00.001-06:00

New author Kate Quinn emerges successfully onto the scene with her novel Mistress of Rome, set in the turbulent reign (but when was Rome ever really at ease) of the emperor Domitian. Though he plays quite a role in the novel toward the end, Quinn begins telling the story of her young heroine Thea who is an unfortunate survivor of the Jewish massacre at Masada, sold several times over in slavery, eventually becoming the hand-maid of the vicious Lepida Pollia. Her new mistress is spoiled and vain with quite a vindictive streak, set on marrying her way into the patrician circles with her father's money.

Lepida is considered part of what is essentially the merchant class as her father is in charge of organizing the games, prolific throughout the Roman calendar. And it is through this connection both of the girls come into contact with the gladiator Arius the Barbarian: Lepida wants to possess and conquer him, Thea wants to love and be loved by him. He is the darling of the Colosseum as fight after fight his fans cringe and swoon in response to his talents, but as his love for Thea grows, they both know they're endangering their future together by tempting the fickle goddess of fate.

The story takes quite a turn as Lepida's spite intervenes and the readers are then transported from the edges of the Roman subura to the Imperial Palace. Here the two women struggle for control and ultimate power but nothing can quite prepare them for Domitian's wild behavior, nor the icy composure of his Empress Domitia Longina. Their efforts to survive become frantic as the the emperor descends into familial madness and eventually the only answer seems to be Domitian's assassination.

While I ended up thoroughly enjoying this book it did take a bit of effort for me to get past some of Thea's dark tendencies. Once I understood more about her character, however, she began to emerge as a true heroine. In the end I was so engaged by Thea I began wishing Quinn had shared more of her background with us, but even without that it was easy to understand her motivations. And it was quite refreshing for Quinn to set her novel in a period of Roman history not readily explored in novels: most will take place leading up to and during the reign of Augustus. Domitian and his fascinating Empress deserve an entire story of their own, but Quinn included them very well into her novel making it quite the political thriller. And while most of know of the emperor's ugly end, I enjoyed the author's take and how she made her characters a part of that history. The love story between Thea and Arius the Barbarian take a bit of a backseat, but it is an ever-present though unobtrusive part of the novel that I think many readers will enjoy.

Quinn tells a very good story, my only wish could be for a bit more dialog at times and a little more background on some of the characters, though is there no lack of wonderful tension and drama. When I finally finished this book, I thought to myself how I would enjoy another one written by Quinn and to my excitement, she will be releasing a second title in April also taking place in Rome concerning the lives of two women. I eagerly await this second novel and can readily recommend Mistress of Rome to any reader - I think it has appeal for a variety of interests.

This and That

2010-11-19T14:36:00.001-06:00

Well stuff is getting done here - something quite unusual, but I've reached my tolerance for lugging around unfinished projects always thinking that one day I'll get to it. So there. Jeff's pile of wood scraps is also going to find a function, if it kills both of us!

I've had this in my stack of stitched projects since, as you can see, 2008. Yikes. All I know is that it's a Blackbird Designs pattern that was already a year or so old when I bought it. I will dig through my stack of old patterns if anyone is interested in the title, though. This is actually my first Blackbird Designs piece - where the love affair started! I have always enjoyed their designs and so wish that I was a quilter because their quilt books and fabrics are fantastic.

This is just to show the pretty fabric I used to back it. And of course flaunt my pretty book collection... I can just hear your 'oohs' and 'aahs' now!

Getting some of my other projects finished and working on the ornaments really helped re-energize me for Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I had stopped half-way through Block #11 and was able to put the last stitches in earlier this week.

I had to change some of the thread colors for the dresses and overalls on the people in the block because with the original colors I couldn't even see the little boy! For this pattern I'm using Hand-Dyed Fibers and I think it just sometimes happens when colors don't always match up when using different threads. No biggie in my opinion, but something to think about for your own project.

And here's Block #1 completed! I am so excited to be on the last column of blocks that I continued on my way to #4 when it was already way past my bedtime.

And a very exciting step I've taken is starting on a second pattern of my own design! I've just started stitching the border and I'm working it on 40ct Lentil by Lakeside Linens - quickly becoming one of my favorite linens from them.

I had a really hard time deciding whether I wanted to use silks or over-dyed cottons and went with using a combination of Crescent Colours, Gentle Arts and Weeks Dye Works cotton threads. I really wanted the subtle color shifts that you get from over-dyed threads and really love the range of colors I get from those three collections.

I'm very excited to be sharing these with you and am seriously considering making this into a bit of a business. My super-creative and artistic mom is helping me with a company logo as we speak and I already have what I think is a great little name for the biz. I just have to decide to make that HUGE step, so we'll see how it all comes out. In the mean time, I can have fun tinkering with my own designs and seeing them come to life with thread and fabric.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Happy endeavors!

Ornament Time!

2010-11-16T19:25:00.000-06:00

For all the many years that I have been cross stitching, I've always said that 'one day I'll make some ornaments' and it was always one of those things that would sneak up on me and then pass me by...until now.

This is my first set of stitched AND finished (a major feat in this household) ornaments completed. In here we have designs from Shakespeare's Peddler, JBW Designs and Homespun Elegance. Side note: I kind of went my own way on the finishing of these ornaments, but for the most part I followed the tips and guidance found here, here and here.

This is JBW Designs' Christmas Motif Sampler stitched on 40ct Old Towne Blend by R&R Reproductions using left over Belle Soie silks.

These are the same pattern as above, but I made these guys into pillow ornaments and they are also stitched with Belle Soie silks on 36ct Light Exemplar linen from Lakeside Linens.

I love the Jenny Bean series from Shakespeare's Peddler, which counts this adorable 2010 ornament on the left. It was stitched on 40ct Old Towne Blend and the other one is another JBW Designs worked on 40ct Light Exemplar.

And last but not least is the littlest of the group and a particular favorite of mine - I think simply because it ended up being so tiny. It's Homespun Elegance's Snowmen A Gathering and it was also worked on 40ct Old Towne Blend using Belle Soie silks.

Making ornaments has been so much fun and a great way of breaking up the monotony of a large project. It's also been a fantastic way to use leftover threads and fabric. Very often, as I am sure many of you know, stitching shops make you buy over-dyed (i.e, the good stuff) in 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and whole cuts, so many times we have some extra stuff just hanging out. I always give a generous amount to the original work for framing, but I have cut many a piece down to size and saved, saved, saved these scraps for just this use. My hoarding has paid off, so no need to turn me in just yet.

In any event, I cannot wait to gift these out this year and then eventually make some for our own use - one of these days.

Happy Stitching!

Book Review: "The Forever Queen" by Helen Hollick

2010-11-14T08:55:00.001-06:00

The Forever Queen (a re-release of Helen Hollick's A Hollow Crown) centers around the story of Emma of Normandy and her turbulent life as reigning Queen of England during the last days of the Viking invasions. And not only does she hold this dubious honor once, but twice as she has the distinction of being married to two kings and crowned as their queen twice.

Hollick begins Emma's life on the day of her arrival to war-torn, ill-run but famously wealthy England to be the young bride of Aethelred (known to history as 'the unready'). This is yet another English attempt to buy some relief from Viking invasions by forming a pact with Normandy not to allow the marauders a landing point from which to attack Southern England. Emma is painfully young when she begins her marriage to Aethelred - who though perfectly intelligent (he is credited with creating the shires which divide England to streamline the tax collecting system) is incapable of effectively dealing with the Viking threat, which in turn continues to make him look weaker in the eyes of his nobles.

As she makes herself a place in England, with the birth of her children and the gathering around her of her own loyal bodyguard and friends,
Emma's frustration with Aethelred comes to a fever pitch as she watches with her own eyes as the Vikings march their way unmolested through England and back to Denmark. She then knows if she is to save anything she must begin to take control of her own destiny and that of England's. History tells us she married the invader, Cnut the Great, but was it all his design or did Emma have motivations of her own? Was her second marriage and crowning truly an empty endeavor?

Hollick illuminates this shadowy part of England's history wonderfully and is an expert in depicting all those who had such an impact on European politics and royalty. The great lengths she went to in researching the life and times of this indomitable queen are evident throughout, and with Hollick's own creative style of writing make this prodigious story of tragedy and triumph, doubt and certainty, love and hate a fantastic read.

Well I'll just start my review by saying that I love this book. I have been interested in the story of Emma since reading about her in Emma, The Twice-Crowned Queen by Isabella Strachan (another one I recommend) and this novel did a wonderful job of telling the story. Pretty violent at times, but what would a book including Vikings be without it, the pages are full of fascinating imagery. And I easily fell in love with Emma's spirit as portrayed by Hollick. She is loving and courageous, but at the same time she can be ill-tempered and spiteful making it seem that we now know Emma as she must have been over a thousand years ago. The reader grasps at relationships and friends just as Emma might have done in her uncertain beginning and mourn the losses just the same. Further, the relationship between Emma and Cnut take on a much different picture than the politically-expedient one commonly portrayed, which is extremely refreshing.

At times, the story is difficult to read but not because for any lack of writing skill, but in fact it is just the opposite. Hollick portrays tragedies such as the St Brice's Day massacre so vividly the sorrow and anger can easily be felt by the reader. And I think that is part of her great skill as a writer. I can recommend this book highly to those who know nothing about this part of English history and also to those who know everything. It is a wonderful illuminating story and makes a thousand years seem not that far away.

Green Darkness by Anya Seton

2010-10-27T20:11:00.000-05:00

Green Darkness, written by Anya Seton and published in 1972 has remained a highly popular novel among the historical fiction community and one I personally think should not be missed. In my opinion it goes beyond the categories of historical fiction and romance to that of mystery and thriller, an unusual course taken by Seton.

The novel begins with the marriage of young American Celia Mardson - heiress to a post-war textiles fortune - to English baronet, Sir Richard Mardson, who had quite the family history. In a kind of 'Clue'-like scenario, an odd gathering of family friends and acquaintances descends on the manor house for an innocuous weekend of frivolity when suddenly the hosts begin acting strange and a sinister presence begins to take hold of one of the guests, meshing her past with theirs.

Not entirely apparent to anyone but one Hindu doctor, the newly married Mardsons are coming under the influence of wrongs done long ago, and an unfortunate jaunt to nearby Ightham Mote lands Celia in the hospital where she struggles to survive in the present from something that happened to her in the past.

We are then transported to England during the political turmoil surrounding the reigns of Henry VIII's children to meet young and hauntingly beautiful Celia de Bohun as she falls head-long in love with a Benedictine monk, Brother Stephen Mardson. She is an erstwhile member of the notable de Bohun family who have by this point fallen on hard times and are forced to make way for the rising Browne family, namely Sir Anthony Browne. Not only has Seton expertly woven us a wonderful mystery and love story, but again she excels as an author of historical fiction with her portrayal of Tudor England and the Browne's family struggle to mesh their Catholic beliefs with the Protestant reforms sweeping the country.

I have not done this wonderful book justice by any means - it is a truly fantastic read. I like to imagine Alfred Hitchcock taking a crack at making this into a movie because it would be an unforgettable work of art, but I digress. When I first read this book as a teenager, I was a bit too young to understand all the strong emotions and passions of these people, but after the second and third readings more of the story has opened up to me and each time it was a thrilling experience. Definitely pick this one up!

As far as cross stitching goes, I am spending most of my time working on small ornaments for this holiday season. I feel a bit like a seamstress under pressure to get these things done (Jeff has been 'strongly hinting' for homemade ornaments since before we were married) for our very first tree as a family! I can't believe we've been married for three years now without having a Christmas tree: Jeff disdains fake trees and I have a terrible fear of a real tree igniting itself while we're away - so no tree. We've always traveled back to Virginia or Maryland for Christmas so we have been able to enjoy the labor of our parents instead. I will post pictures of the finished ornaments here soon.

In the meantime, happy reading and happy stitching!

For Shame!

2010-10-13T09:28:00.001-05:00

Well, I've gone and done it. I have put Village of Hawk Run Hollow to the side for the moment to finish working on some other projects that really were/are not too far from being completed in the first place, but I feel awful inside! Not really - but there is a bit of let down that I couldn't will myself to finish it before working on other things.

Firstly, I pulled Sarah Woodham back out and set myself to finishing this sampler. I thought all I had to do was fill in the words to the middle of the pattern, but upon closer inspection, my girls didn't have heads!

Being as this is not a Halloween sampler, I had to give them their heads and some pretty hair.

Now, when I last wrote about this sampler, I had mentioned that while I liked the saying originally in the design, I could in no way see myself stitching over one without many headaches - so I played around with different poems and favorite lines from books until I could find one that I thought could fit this pattern.

This is an excerpt from A Dialogue Between Melancholy and Mirth written by the lovely Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673) who was lauded and hated within her lifetime for her uncommon exhibition of her writing talents and scientific endeavors.

She is an extremely interesting woman to read about and her collection of poems are pretty easy to access over the internet, I just happen to have an old book of my grandfather's that had some of her work in it, including this one. The original text of the poem from where I extracted this part goes a little something like this:

I'll sing you songs and please you every day,

Invent new sports to pass the time away,

I'll keep your heart and guard it from that thief

Dull melancholy care, or sadder grief,

And make your eyes with mirth to overflow,

And full with springing blood your cheeks shall grow.

Your legs shall nimble be, your body light,

And all your spirits rise like birds in flight.

Mirth shall digest your meat and make you strong,

Shall give you health and your short days prolong.

Refuse me not but take me to your wife,

For I shall make you happy all your life.

It's actually quite a long piece and all of it very lovely. Here is a website with this and others and if you take a look around this whole site it's quite a wonderful gathering of works from poets, essayists and novelists throughout history.

In any event, back to my Sarah Woodham Sampler: I had attempted quite a few times to start the original piece in the center, as you can see by the dye staining the fabric in the corner if you look closely...

And so I decided to add these little trefoils to help conceal it and there's just something that I don't like about the outcome, but for now I'm going to set it aside and come back later with a 'clean' eye.

So that's Sarah Woodham completed for now and then I went and picked up Paradise Lost by Plum Street Samplers to complete and hopefully go pick up a frame for it this weekend.

I LOVE it! All the bright colors and wonderful birds with their plumage made this a really fun piece to stitch and I can't wait to hang in Caroline's room. Silver or gold, or even wood perhaps? And if a wood frame, should it be dark or light? Oh decisions, decisions!

This is the last section that needed finishing and it went pretty quickly once I finished the big ol' tree.

All in all, I am satisfied with taking a break from Hawk Run Hollow and completing these two patterns. Silly me for not seeing them through the first time...

And speaking of that, my hands are just itching to start working on Blackbird Designs' Anniversaries of the Heart sampler but for right now I think I'm safe because that yellow piece of paper is chock full of all the threads I need to purchase first. BAH! I think I will content myself with working on some ornaments for the holiday season quickly approaching.

I also read an interesting blog post from Laurie over at Corgis Cottage and her trip to England and Scotland to take a first-hand look at antique textiles. It sounded like a wonderful trip and made me green with envy.

Happy stitching to all of you!

Jacobite Reading

2010-10-05T18:11:00.001-05:00

I think when most people consider novels set before, during or after the last Jacobite rebellion, known colloquially as "The '45", we tend to think of the sweeping Outlander saga written by Diana Gabaldon - but there is a whole world of novels centering around the ideals, tragedies, romances and overall drama that was the struggle for the Stewart dynasty to regain the throne/s of England and Scotland that it should be its own sub-genre.

As always, there are some that border on the too ridiculous, and by that I mean little attention is ever paid to the actual events of the Jacobite rebellion with most being directed towards over-worked sex scenes, contrived speech and laughable (not in the good way) scenarios.

With this trilogy, in my opinion, I think there is a delicate line here that Marsha Canham succeeded in walking. After all, these books are considered to be in the 'historical romance' genre, so a bit of bodice-ripping is to be expected, but I think the meat of the stories is well worth reading if you're at all interested in the Jacobite rebellion and taking a glimpse inside the structure of a Scottish clan in the 18th century.

Pride of Lions starts in England with our heroine of the first two novels, Miss Catherine Ashbrooke and tells the story of how she winds up in the 'care' of Alexander Cameron (who as it turns out, was an actual - though obscure - brother of the Donald Cameron of Lochiel and rebel fame) and his journey back home to the Cameron fortress of Lochaber. True to a romance, young Catherine finds herself falling victim to the dark and dangerous good looks of Alexander and etc etc. Sigh... but if you take a step back from the flowery passions and whatnot, Canham has done a fair job of showing us the workings of clans and how serious Scotland took this situation, whether they were pro-Hanovarian or avowed Jacobites. Alexander's family welcomes his English bride with true Highland hospitality and before she knows it, she's in too deep...

Blood of Roses is even meatier than PoL due to the more political aspects of the novel. I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit as we are offered another view of Bonny Prince Charlie (Canham admits freely she was not a fan of him) and his interactions with the generals and clan leaders during his successes and consummate failure to regain at least the Scottish throne. It's a sad story whatever way you look at it and Canham does not shy away from the fact that the Battle of Culloden was in essence, a massacre perpetrated by King George II's son, still known throughout Scotland as Butcher Cumberland. I felt as though the romance in the novel takes a back seat to the events of the '45 and the horrible aftermath that followed. The reader is able to get a sense of what it was like to have a loved one fighting a war against what must have loomed as an implacable enemy...

Midnight Honor does a bit of overlapping with BoR, but tells the fascinating and incredible story of "Colonel" Anne, formally titled Lady Anne Farquharson-MacKintosh and the role she played in the Jacobite rebellion. The man she is married to is unfortunately on the opposing side of the situation and so it is up to her to dance the fine line of treason and supporting ones own country without bringing her husband down with her. The book only covers a very short time of her life, which is unfortunate because further reading about her indicates she lived an extremely full and colorful life even after her eventual release from prison. In this final book as well, I didn't feel bogged down with too much steaminess and sex and there was quite a bit of poignancy throughout all three novels.

Overall, I think Marsha Canham wrote three very good novels and tackled a difficult period of time well. Most importantly, though, she treated the subject with great respect, including her portrayal of all those who actually took part in the rebellion. I would recommend all three, but I would highly recommend Midnight Honor because it is a snapshot of one of history's fascinating and daring women.

A little bit of stitching...

2010-10-02T16:04:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday - and I also hope that everyone is enjoying some fantastic weather! The dregs of Tropical Storm Nicole finally made their way out of the area a couple of days ago, leaving behind lush green grass and crisply blue Autumn skies and delicious cooler temperatures!

(This is actually the House of Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts - but I love the setting with the beautiful trees turning.)

Growing up in the Appalachian region of Virginia, Spring was always my favorite time of year because it was a wonderful change from the grey skies and frozen grounds of winter; but, living down, down South for these last years has quickly made Fall my favorite season because of the break in heat and in our air conditioning bills! It's also college football season - the only time of year I enjoy watching ESPN on a regular basis!

Caroline is thinking she looks ridiculous in these overalls and how we better not think of showing this picture to any future boyfriends of hers! All we can think, however, is GO HOKIES!

I actually finished this last weekend, but had such a crazy week that I haven't had a chance to post until now. This is block #8 in the pattern and with its completion, I am more than half-way finished! (Not counting all that fill in on block #12, but we won't speak of such things).

The 'sign' along the top with 'Jacob's Gristmill' was supposed to be a background of black thread, but I opted to soften the overall look by using a dark brown thread that I also used for the wheel and windows in front of the house.

It is, of course, a personal decision, but I think the dark brown goes much better with the other muted colors in this block - to my eyes, black would have stood out a bit too much. But overall, I loved this block because it reminds me so much of the antique mills and covered bridges that dot the mountains in my old stomping grounds - apparently Fall also makes me homesick...

Since I was so neglectful about posting my last block, I just wanted to throw this up there to show that I haven't been slacking! Here is block #11 a little more than half completed. The school house and I had a bit of an argument, but we're all back in line now and ready to learn!

Until my next post, happy stitching and HAPPY FALL!

Progress update

2010-09-21T09:31:00.000-05:00

I'm still plugging my way through Village of Hawk Run Hollow and am fighting the urge to put it down and jump to another project, but so far I've been able to contain myself and I've almost finished Block 12...

Well, as you can see, I've finished the meat of this block, but now I have to do the gravy part - being ALL of that empty space filled with black. I think I will save it for a long road trip where I don't have to worry about counting stitches and just need something mindless. The 15+ hour drive north to Virginia for Christmas should do nicely.

I do like the overall look of this block and am thinking about taking the pattern and making some personalized Halloween ornaments for my friends - and I'll try to keep it as un-creepy as possible. No names on the tombstones or anything like that.

So this is Block 5 in the pattern and was pretty fast (comparatively). The array of greens used in this block was a little worrisome because they are different palattes, but the end product is very nice and looks like a true forest would in any event.

And as always, I love the wee birds scattered about patterns.

While I've been stitching, I've been enjoying a BBC/History Channel production titled A History of Britain that aired in 2001, but is nonetheless pretty up-to-date and very informative.

Narrated by Simon Schama, it's a 5-disc series that covers much of Britain's known history from around Alfred the Great and his stand against the Viking invaders on through Winston Churchill and his battles with the would-be invaders of Nazi Germany.

It is quite a monumental task to do so for anyone and without a doubt, some things must be glossed over, but at the same time Schama points out intriguing bits of history and gives yet another view point of the tumultuous history of this little island. A period of time I am most interested in right now was sadly lacking, with a bare mention of Henry VI and the players in the Wars of the Roses, but that would require it's own five discs - possibly more - to cover. Like the history compilations by David Starkey, we get to see inside castles and churches much more so than any tour will allow. It's a bit of an unemotional and stark look at history, but many historians will tell you that is the only way to approach it. Regardless of that, I still learned a lot and made connections that had never occurred to me before. Highly recommended.

Happy stitching/watching/reading!

Progress on Village of Hawk Run Hollow

2010-09-14T08:31:00.000-05:00

I sometimes feel like I'm not getting very far with my progress on this Village of mine, but while taking these pictures this morning, I was pretty pleased so far with what I've been able to accomplish...

This is technically the 9th block in the pattern, but I have a tendency to start at the top left corner of projects and then work my way over to avoid crumpling the work on the far right too much. So for me, this is block #3 completed - making it 1/4 of the way done (it's all about perception).

While I can't wait to see the finish project, I love all the small details that go into it and greatly admire the talent and patience required to design such a project. Even more, I admire the amount of patience I am exhibiting. A little bit of self praise never hurts, does it?

Ok, so I know I just talked about my habit of working left to right, but as those of you who are familiar with this pattern, the twelfth block is a dizzying array of 8464 stitches - that's right almost 8500 little x's! So daunting was that hill, I decided to take a bit of a detour on the pattern and move up to block #2, or my fourth adventure.

Again, the attention to detail is amazing - I think the stained glass windows are my favorite feature of this block. The back stitching required for the trees was not so enjoyable, but a necessary evil to get the desired effect. Luckily, I could (and did) make a few counting mistakes with them and it was really no big deal.

Ugh, so I decided to stop being a wimp and just go ahead with the twelfth block so I wouldn't be staring it down later. I have no idea how many stitches I am into the 8464 (that's 92 squared in case you find yourself in some odd math competition and they happen to ask) I will have to set, but I just have to keep telling myself how wonderful it will all eventually look - it's become my stitching mantra for the moment.

This one might take multiple progress postings.

In the meantime, I am also enjoying a book Amazon recommended to me after purchasing In a Dark Wood Wandering titled The World is Not Enough by Zoe Oldenbourg.

Hailed as one of the great writers of the Crusades and French history, the Russian-born author published several novels and non-fictions between 1946 and 1992. The World is Not Enough is centered principally around the lives of Ansiau of Linnieres and his bride Alis of Puiseaux. I am not very far into what I already can tell is going to be an epic tale and am greatly enjoying the minutiae of every day life that surrounded small castles in the 12th and 13th centuries. Many authors of today through editing or what not, are rarely seen to give reign to such detail, and it is astounding to think of all that went into the daily to yearly functioning of a castle and it's surrounding village. There is still a bit of a detached air about some of the authors descriptive detailing, but I feel that is more of a product of establishing mood than anything else. For the small chunk I have made it through, I could easily recommend it to anyone looking for an accurate novelization of Medieval lives in France and the Crusades.

Happy stitching and reading!

Too long...

2010-09-02T14:21:00.000-05:00

Once again, it's been much too long since I've posted anything, but I hope to remedy that this fall when the dust finally settles from our move and the bit of traveling I've done.

I traveled back to Virginia recently for my grandmother's 80th! birthday and for Caroline to get a chance to meet some of her relatives she had yet to. During the party, one of Caroline's little cousins had a long strand of pearls that became her number one object of desire. The next day, I visited my grandparents and in my grandmother's hand was this long strand of Caroline's very own pearls. Spoiled?

My mom and I also took a day to go and visit the campus of Virginia Tech as well as some friends and family in the area. Caroline enjoyed getting more presents from everyone. Actually, I think she enjoyed the wrapping that it came in a bit more - sign of things to come this Christmas.

Before heading back home, we took some time out to walk around the main parts of campus and let Caroline romp in the grass to burn off her multitude of energy. It was an absolutely beautiful day, as well as the beginning of the school year and there were hundreds of students out on the drill field soaking up the last of the summer rays and burning off their own...um...energy as well. Caroline very much wanted to join in the game of tag football, but I don't think the guys would have taken too kindly to her interruption.

In the midst of all of this, I have been able to get some stitching done and I'm ashamed to admit that I started a new project without having finished the five or however many unfinished ones scattered about the house. It's quickly becoming a problem!

This is 'Village of Hawk Run Hollow' by Carriage House Samplings that I received for my birthday. I'm stitching it on 36ct cream linen that went through two coffee dyes. I had the bit of linen in my stash and was too impatient (and cheap) to go buy a professionally-dyed piece. I'm pretty pleased with the result - I mostly just wanted to darken the color a tad to make it look a little less crisp.

This project is a bit of a mind game because instead of working in sections based on thread or moving about the piece of linen on passing whims, I move block by block, making it feel like little projects eventually merging into one large one. I am constantly gratified when I complete each block, so I think I will be able to actually finish it before moving onto another. Fingers crossed!

I loved stitching all the horses and as an avid horse enthusiast, this block is one of my favorites. I'm about half way done on the third block down, so hopefully I'll have some pictures for you this weekend. In the mean time, happy stitching!

Trip to St. Augustine

2010-08-16T18:24:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about bouncing around the country with the military is we get to travel to new and wonderful places we never imagined we would be able or inclined to do. This past weekend we were able to get out of town and took the short trip down the road to St. Augustine, Florida - hailed as America's oldest, continuously-occupied European establishment since Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed there in 1565. It was through his efforts that the Spanish were finally able to find a niche in the 'la Florida' colony - a year before the Huguenots had established themselves at Fort Caroline in present-day Jacksonville. De Aviles eventually went on to be appointed governor of Cuba and would pass away only 9 years after marking his place in American and European history.

It's a wonderful experience to pass through the more modern part of St. Augustine and then cross into the Historic District where we were immediately immersed in the history and French/Spanish culture that flourished in the Age of Exploration.

Interestingly, the history of the area goes back even further to the beginning of the 16th century with famous Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon, acting governor of Puerto Rico, claiming the territory for the Spanish, but for various reasons the first settlements failed. Even after de Aviles success, the settlers had to fight off major disease including malaria and severe bouts of yellow fever and dysentery. Not to mention the contentious relationship fomenting between Europeans and the Native American tribes in the surrounding areas.

All of the difficulties the settlers survived and surpassed are easy to forget, however, when walking around town (besides thinking that the heat they endured in their mostly-wool clothing must have been absolutely unbearable! as I was soaked through by the end of the afternoon there) and savoring the wonderful sites.

The innocuous-looking building that now holds a lawyer's practice was the Spanish garrison's barracks.

A lovely reminder of the enterprising (polite word for pirating) history of the area now adorns the gardens outside a local Liberal Arts college.

We found a wonderful English pub walking down Spanish street (irony?) where I inhaled a lip-smackin'-good plate of fish and chips and Jeff dined on some delicious corned beef stew. It probably wasn't the most refreshing food for the weather, but we were hungry and it sounded wonderful. By the time I realized I should have taken a picture of this fare, it was pretty much polished-off and I didn't think it would do the food justice. If you do ever find yourself in St. Augustine, FL be sure to check out the Prince of Wales English Pub on Spanish Street.

We didn't take advantage of the guided tours while we were there because we weren't quite sure how Caroline would do on such a ride, but we have plans to do so next time. I know they can be hokey, but sometimes the guides have quite a bit of information stored up and can be great resources. There is a wide array of cuisine from all over the world, wonderful wine bars and pubs/bars and fabulous B&Bs dotted throughout the town and I would highly recommend anyone and everyone make a trip here. There are beautiful beaches near by and Jacksonville is just up the road, so it would be a great vacation for just adults or for the whole family. Parking isn't too expensive, particularly if you're willing to walk a bit extra. Quaint bakeries abound, so if you have a sweet tooth you're sure to be delighted! We will definitely be making another (several) trip down there, so I will be sure to investigate as many restaurants, bars, and bakeries as I can.

Currently reading

2010-08-12T11:47:00.001-05:00

In a Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages by Hella S. Haasse has been on my wish list for years, but after so many shopping trips on line, it ended up buried under all the others that I found after it. After a recent spring cleaning of the wish-list, however, I decided that it was finally time I bought myself a copy before it went out of print and became too hard to find. Also, one of my favorite authors mentioned it on his blog, so I knew it was time to make my move.

I'm only about half way through and I have the strange sensation of knowing the places that surround the characters more than I know the characters themselves. This is not to say that Haasse doesn't do a good job of describing the lead players in this story, namely Louis Duke of Orleans, powerful brother to the failing King Charles VI of France, it is more of a case that no real hero or heroine has marched off the page and swept me into the story. Once the things move into the next 'phase' (the novel's two heroes, I think, are supposed to be Louis and then his surviving son Charles around which the story moves), I am hoping this feeling will go away and I will be able to 'chose sides', so to speak.

That being said, Haasse has done a great job evoking a feeling of darkness and doubt that must have surely plagued the French court as it struggled to find a balance of power with a king wavering between the world of lucidity and madness. Not only was France under the strain of having a mad monarch with rival factions being formed and dissolved on whims, but England under Edward III was an ominous threat, still flexing its military strength. And at home, the Duke of Orleans and John Duke of Burgundy (his paternal uncle) were staking out territories for control over the French throne that would eventually lead to the civil strife lasting between the two houses for the better part of a century. Obviously a very confusing time to write about, but Haasse has deftly worked into the story the high tensions of the time and the teeming world of intrigue that existed behind the throne.

So far, Haasse has provided wonderful scenery and is doing a good job of 'laying the groundwork', so I have very high hopes for the second half of this book. Having said earlier that no hero/heroine has come off the page, I do have to say that Isabeau of Bavaria, Charles' queen, is most certainly shaping up to be a Grade A villain in cahoots with Dear Uncle John. Whatever else I might think of this book, it has been enjoyable to read something from the 'other side' during the Hundred Years' War and get a glimpse of the internal politics that were in play during a tumultuous time in European History.

Happy reading!

I'm still stitching!

2010-07-28T14:51:00.000-05:00

Now that were are closer to being settled I've been able to sit in the evenings after the child has gone to bed and stitch in my husband's comfy recliner, which I have basically commandeered since Caroline arrived. I usually don't like recliners at all, but he had been begging for one for years, so I relented finally and now it turns out I have stolen it from him.

It's so comfortable but not very aesthetic. I hope one day to find a great love seat with matching ottoman that I can tuck away somewhere. Far, far away.

When I started working at Needle Delights in Pensacola, Florida I was completely naive about the wide-world of cross stitching and knew nothing about the variety of fabrics, fibers and patterns that are available. My meager knowledge of it consisted of the...limited selection found in major craft store chains. This pattern, I Thee Wed part of the Remember Me series from Blackbird Designs was the first pattern I chose to work on linen with hand-dyed variegated threads and I have YET to finish it. It is my oldest and original unfinished object. I decided to bring it out now because I needed a bit of a break from Paradise Lost.

I've finally made it all the way to the second to last tree and the apple tree and I didn't have too many fights over thread placement. The fluffy clouds and banner across the top are quite time-consuming, but well worth the effort.

I have decided that I really love the Adam and Eve theme I have seen in other projects, depicted in all different ways with many wonderful passages included. Hopefully I will have time to stitch more of them in this lifetime.

You can see my staggered work on the banner over the giraffe - almost done! I think as soon as I am able to put the finishing touches on it, my work on this pattern will shortly be over. Then it will be time to do some frame shopping! In the mean time, I also hope to finally, after all this time finish my very first project on linen.

Happy Stitching

Car reading

2010-07-23T21:58:00.000-05:00

While traveling from the way, way south of Texas to the east coast of Florida and then up to Maryland for a bit of vacation at the in-laws house (they have a pool) I spent many hours in the back seat of our truck either entertaining our daughter or reading a series of books Amazon.com suggested to me and I thought I'd give a go.

Set in prehistoric times, the series that eventually became known as 'Earth's Children' started of with the outstanding story of a young girl of the Others named Ayla who loses her family at a very tender age and eventually winds up being adopted by those known as the Clan. In this first book we follow Ayla as she struggles to assimilate into the Clan and find her niche as a kind of apprentice to the Clan's medicine woman. Unfortunately for the young girl, her abilities and differences mark her out repeatedly as being too different for some in the Clan to tolerate, and she is constantly battling to maintain her place in the only family she can really remember. At the end of the first novel, Ayla has matured to womanhood, which normally would be a great occasion, but for her only holds pain, humiliation and more difficulties ahead...

Jumping to the second in the series, our heroine has been cast out of the Clan and has wandered north on her own looking for those known as the Others, to whom she clearly belongs. Not knowing exactly where to travel and losing hope along the way, Ayla settles herself in an idyllic valley, home to the prehistoric breed of horse most similar to what we know as Przewalski's Horse and learns to tame one of the wild beasts and eventually becomes the savior to another creature of the plains above her home. While Ayla is finding her way to what will be her home for a few years, we meet Jondalar and his younger brother Thonolan on their passage across the Euroasian continent. Fate will eventually bring Jondalar and Ayla together, introducing her for the first time to one of her own kind.

In the third of the series we follow Jondalar and Ayla as they leave the valley she had made her home for the past few years as they travel north in search of those Jondalar knows at the mammoth hunters. Having struggled to learn a language for the first time in her life, other than the signals used by the Clan, Ayla is feeling more and more like one of her own people. But as she starts coming in contact more and more with the Others, she is unsure of her place in their close-knit societies. There are doubters and nay-sayers amongst those of the Mammoth Cave, but the majority of people there recognize the innate abilities Ayla possesses and so they end up taking a chance on her and adopting her into their community. During this time, the feelings Jondalar and Ayla have for each other become a bit of an unexpected trial, but Jondalar realizes Ayla must be the one to make the decision regarding their future.

Without being too much of spoiler, in the fourth novel we continue to follow Jondalar and Ayla as they now travel west, back to Jondalar's home where he began his journey five years ago. Along the way, they will encounter many trials due the their unusual travel companions as people of prehistoric times are not known to have tamed wild horses, much less wolves, though the friendships they find along the way will help them to their ultimate destination.

In the last installment to this long journey, Ayla has trusted Jondalar to make the best decision for them in settling with his original people. There are those who are disgruntled with his reappearance with a woman from so far away and with a dubious past, but they stand firm together and await the joyous occasion they have both been longing for since their early days secluded in Ayla's valley.

Overall, this is a great series if you are/were ever curious about what life might have been like 20,000-30,000 years ago. The author, Jean M Auel, did quite a bit of research in preparation for this series, which becomes very evident within the first novel and carries on throughout. The intensity of her descriptions and details becomes a bit tedious however, especially in the fourth novel, which I feel I could have gone without and not been completely clueless in the last. I was amazed at what scientists have hypothesized about the organized structure of life, the herb lore and the hunting abilities explored in these books, and while I know many of the events in her novels are based on conjecture, I don't think Auel was far off the mark. The love scenes get a bit repetitive and there was much eye-rolling by the ump-teenth encounter between our two main characters, but I appreciated the strong bond the two of them had forged that sustained them through what could have been an otherwise very bleak and dangerous existence. Auel's expressive writing style made it easy for me to imagine the sweeping tundras and high, intimidating glaciers that dominated the landscape at the time. I felt a deep appreciation for the awesome power of nature and how it dictated the lives of our ancestors thousands of years ago. I felt towards the end of the novel that if I had just taken a few notes, I could have survived for a little while with all the information packed inside - well, at least a day or two!

I would definitely suggest this series to anyone, but be willing to spend a bit of time on this series and if you find yourself slugging away through the fourth novel, go ahead and move onto the fifth.

Happy reading!

Bit of a slump.

2010-06-30T16:33:00.000-05:00

Well here it is, the end of June and I've barely posted anything and truth be told, it's because I've just been hitting a bit of a creative slump and progress on designing patterns has come to a screeching halt - even worse, my work on other patterns has been moving at a snail's pace. For my part, I blame it on the sweltering heat down here in Texas and the fact that we were waiting on orders to move yet again. I just could not make myself sit for more than a few minutes to stitch. However, I have managed to do an inordinate amount of reading - albeit very little of it is new reading, and take my daughter to the park to expend her huge energy supply.

In any event, I'm picking myself up by the boot straps and in between organizing the house for the movers, I've been getting back into the habit of designing, researching, stitching and reading and doing other such necessary things to keep Social Services from my doorstep...

...then again, maybe not.

Back around the New Year, I happily showed off the kits I received as gifts, one of them being new threads and canvas for my Galaxy piece designed by Kathy Rees at Needle Delights. I cannot explain the motivation to start such a project right before we move, but I think I've made pretty good progress on it so far.

These colors are those of my alma mater, Virginia Tech, and while upon hearing that our school colors are maroon and orange, most people often look a bit confused (I am sure its just an effort to cover up the horror they are surely feeling when they first imagine those colors together), I think it's turning out very well so far.

I have to send out a special thanks to Kathy for working hard to help me pick them out - the project is turning out so well that my husband has even expressed his excitement to see it completed. On my next trip to Virginia, I will start scouting the area for VT-themed fabrics that will go on the back of this and maybe make some accompanying pillows.

Paradise Lost from Plum Street Samplers has also received some much-needed attention and I have finally been able to move past the areas that gave me so much trouble on my last piece, so that was a huge sigh of relief from me!

On the book front, I have recently finished up reading several from my collection of Elizabeth Chadwick's publications and am eagerly awaiting her new release centered around Mahelt Marshal (a daughter of the great William the Marshal), titled To Defy a King. I unfortunately have to wait until we get into our new house to order all the books I'd like to. And boy howdy, that's gonna be a big ol' order!

I think Chadwick's The Greatest Knight is by far my favorite of hers, mostly because it was the first one that I read, but also it opened my eyes for the first time to the hardships a younger son in Medieval Europe could face. Also, one could argue that William Marshal's story appeals to the enterprising American spirit because of his struggles to rise from nothing to be a peer of the realm and confidante of kings as the great Earl of Pembroke. We follow William from his earliest days as a captive of King Stephen, to his trials as a hearth knight, a captive of the Lusignan brothers, as he discovers his abiding love for Queen Eleanor and his many successes on the tourney field that will bring him fame and fortune. It is a truly captivating story.

Another one of my favorite novels, Lords of the White Castle is kind of an extension of Shadows and Strongholds as it centers around the hero's son, Fulke FitzWarin and his constant battles with first the prince, and later king, John of England and infamy. In reality, Fulke FitzWarin has been pegged as a possibility for the basis of our modern tales of Robin Hood, and while reading this great story it is definitely possible to imagine him as such. He even has his Maid Marion, the (obviously) beautiful and courageous Maude le Vavasour who will become his wife and helpmate in his ongoing battles with King John. This is one of her richest and most-beautifully written novels and I have enjoyed reading it over and over.

One of her earlier novels, The Conquest takes place in 1066 with the invasion of William the Bastard and deals with the struggles that inevitably take place between the conquering and conquered. Rolf de Brieze is one of the many hundreds of young, strapping (can companions of conquerers be anything else?) swashbucklers that have accompanied the Norman duke across the sea to stake their claim in England and comes across the despairing Ailith, who has recently lost both her husband, brothers and her child in the turmoil. It is a great story of war, lust, jealousy and compassion set against one of the most pivotal points in European history and Chadwick does a great job of bringing it down to the everyday human level.

The movers are due to arrive any day (Hurricane Alex is throwing a huge wrench in our moving plans) but I will leave you for a while with the question: what are your favorite Elizabeth Chadwick novels? Hopefully I will be back early in July with some more progress on projects and new books.

Book Review: "A Little Folly" by Jude Morgan

2010-06-07T07:19:00.000-05:00

Synopsis: The Carnell siblings, Valentine and Lousia, have been brought up under the isolated rule of their domineering father, but when he dies rather suddenly, the two of them are left bereft (one supposes) of any real guidance at a rather young age. Assumptions that their seclusion from the world would have left them wholly unprepared for the heady lifestyle of Londoners prove to be not so unfounded, however with the guidance of their maternal cousins, they find their way into society and subsequently into many of its dangers. Valentine becomes enraptured by the beautiful, secretive Lady Eversholt, while Louisa is finally able to throw of the yoke of an assumed engagement with a man she thoroughly dislikes. With all the delights and vices of Regency London beckoning, will the vivacious Carnells be able to win free and become the sensible creatures their little-admired father once so demanded?

Jude Morgan, who counts Indiscretion, An Accomplished Woman and For the King's Pleasure (a novel about the illegitimate son of Charles II of England) among his great novels, sets his characters in Regency England and we have all the set pieces and structured social order reminiscent of Elizabeth Gaskell or the Bronte sisters, but what is decidedly missing (thank goodness) is the flimsy feeling we get from other attempts to emulate the writing style of say, Jane Austen. Morgan is truly adept at writing a wonderful, feel-good story that is even more of a joy to read because of the wit and humor with which he endows his main characters. A Little Folly is another hilarious view of what Regency England must have been like for anyone with an iota of sense, but at the same time he adeptly weaves in a love story leaving out all the over-bearing tones a love story inevitably carries with it. I laughed out loud within the first pages, knowing full well this would be another one of Morgan's triumphs and I don't think anyone who counts themselves a fan of the female writers of the late 18th and early 19th century will be disappointed.

"Born of the Sun" by Joan Wolf and "Barbarians" by Terry Jones and Alan Ereria

2010-05-30T20:06:00.002-05:00

Interestingly enough, these two books that by all appearances could not be more dissimilar actually share some common ground: invasions and the differences between civilized and barbarian. And even better, they're both good reads and would do very well for sitting on the beach while drinking a margarita - unfortunately I was doing neither of those at the time, but one can always dream.

Romance author Joan Wolf's second book in her trilogy - covering the legend of Arthur, the rise of the Kingdom of Wessex and the rule of Alfred the Great - is a wonderful look into the invasion and eventual occupation of the Saxons and their conversion from feared warriors and terrorists to law-givers and land-owners. The story centers around Caewlin, who appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a leader of the Kingdom of Wessex, and his wife Niniane. The story kicks off with Niniane's abduction by Caewlin's father Cynric, who is the powerful but ageing king of the West Saxons and her immersion into Saxon society at Winchester. From there, a series of events transpire that force Caewlin and Niniane to flee the city and marry in hopes that he will be able to seek succor and eventually build a war band with Niniane's brother, Coinmail. We follow the two of them through the tumultuous years of Caewlin's reign as he strives to push the boundaries of his kingdom into that of neighboring Saxon kingdoms and fights battles amongst his own warriors and class of eorls. Though it is described as a romance novel, much like Elizabeth Chadwick's writing, this trilogy has been somewhat enlightening of a time that is to this day, somewhat difficult to unravel. Much is still shrouded in mythology and at the time of Wolf writing this book (published early 1990s), historians and archeologists were still forming their conclusions of Anglo-Saxon society off such great finds as Sutton Hoo. Looking at it from purely an enjoyment perspective, however, I would definitely give this one a thumbs up. We are not bogged down by lengthy battle and sex scenes, the dialogue moves well and it is easy to picture a world where Roman remains are crumbling and a new order is striving for dominance among the scattered British tribes. I have also read her Road to Avalon - an admission I know exposes my secret love for Arthurian lore - and really enjoyed both.

I love Month Python. LOVE it! Imagine my surprise and delight when I recently learned that the members of this clever, humorous and trenchant comedy troupe went on to lead lives beyond the empire that they had created, foremost among my personal favorite being Terry Jones for his BBC production (book and DVD series) Medieval Lives where he explores the truth behind the lives of peasants on up through kings and bishops during the Middle Ages with his own humorous bent. In Barbarians: An Alternative History, Jones and documenter/producer Alan Ereira shine a brighter light onto the subject of Rome and the civilizations it conquered, or rather, squashed. It's easy to see by taking one look at the rather extensive bibliography that these guys did their homework. When you read this book (as I certainly hope everyone will) you get a sense of sadness for all that civilization surely lost under the leather sandal of Roman rule, but at the same time, I was thrilled and amazed by the greatness of these civilizations that were clearly thriving before the legions came knocking on their door. The book covers the Celts, Gauls, Germans, Dacians, Rhodesians, Huns, Armenians and many more to show the readers how outside the Roman walls, scientific thought, mechanical engineering, well-organized governments and artistic endeavors were thriving. I don't revile the Romans after reading this book, nor do I think that was the authors' intent - I simply have a better understanding of what great public relations masters the Romans were. Definitely pick this one up, because while this is a serious subject, Terry Jones certainly added his own punches where he could and that makes it so much fun!

Happy reading.

Catch Up

2010-05-20T12:58:00.000-05:00

I am finally finished with the sampler that is of my own designing, and to be perfectly honest, I have my doubts. Everyone else who has seen it has said they like it, but I look at it and I think something is missing. But then when I go back to add some stuff and it ends up looking cluttered. I blame this on the art teacher that told me no piece of artwork is ever truly finished. Well, I am truly done with tinkering with this one!

I think once it gets a good ironing and I put it in a pretty frame, I'll be much more satisfied. I still had a great time designing it and being able to have free reign with all the creative aspects.

In the mean time before I start working on my second one, I decided to take a little break and do a small pattern that I found in the e-magazine The Gift of Stitching. This is a very cool production and has a wide variety of stitching instructions and patterns to expand your talents and interests. It also scores major points with me because being an online magazine, I save some money (for 12 publications it's only $20) and I get to pick and choose what I print out, thereby saving in paper and ink. Also available is a way to by back-publications for a fair price, so check it out if you haven't yet.

This one is a pattern from The Sampler Girl titled "In the Meadow with Jane Austen" and I thought it was really sweet with the words reading, 'there is no charm equal to tenderness of heart'. I haven't ever done one of her designs before, but I think all of her patterns are really charming and being an enthusiast of Jane Austen as well I really appreciate the quotes she uses from Austen's books and notes.

Somewhere in the midst of the craziness that was the beginning of May, I had a birthday (and first mother's day combined) and my lovely family treated me to some new patterns and threads! They spoil me so...

For about three years now I've been hemming and hawing about buying one of these gigantic patterns from Carriage House Samplings and when the designer announced recently that she was shutting down her business I had to finally make a decision and pick one. I am a realist (most of the time) and know I would just be throwing money away if I bought more than one, so I chose "The Village at Hawk Run Hollow". Phew, that decision taken care of, I also asked for threads from Hand-Dyed Fibers, who happily provides and thread pack for this pattern (and many, many more) along with conversion instructions. I have used both their silk threads and NPI silk threads and find that I actually like HDF silks better. And on top of that, they are about half the cost of NPI silks, so they're a great deal as well.

I'd like to side-step here and congratulate my husband on getting his wings of gold (pilot in the US Navy) and making Commodore's List in the process! It has been about three years since he joined the military in the hunt for his wings and while I'm so glad we've completed this part of his career, I have had a wonderful time travelling and meeting great people along the way. Now we are off to Florida for final training in the P3 and then he gets his first duty station assignment. I'm so proud of you!

I'll be back in a couple of days to share with you some new books I purchased recently with my birthday stash. Happy stitching!

'The Warrior Queens' by Antonia Fraser

2010-05-20T10:17:00.000-05:00

I have just finished digesting The Warrior Queens by Antonia Fraser, which was a goody I chanced upon in our local used book store and was very excited to read as I really appreciate and enjoy the thorough research and usually unbiased writing style of Fraser. The first book of hers I ever read was The Weaker Vessel, which I picked up in another used book store while honeymooning in Scotland and I was hooked on her command of meticulous details and her dry wit that lightens what could otherwise be drudgery.

Fraser starts her reader with the legendary Queen Boadicea, trying to sift through the many myths that have sprouted up over the centuries and relying heavily on the few 'facts' we have available to us by way of Tacitus and Cassius Dio. We also hear of Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Matilda Lady of the English, Isabella of Spain to name the popular ones, and the not-so-famous Zenobia of Palmyra and Jinga of Angola. Ms. Fraser even brings her research into the twentieth century pointing out that though they were not anointed queens, or royalty of any kind, women like Indira Ghandi and Margaret Thatcher were empowered beyond the traditional role of females.

I say 'digesting' when I speak of this book because it is certainly not a light read. Had I known beforehand that the original title to this book was Boadicea's Chariot I would have been a little more prepared to the many references and comparisons to that indomitable spirit that reigned throughout this novel. Ms. Fraser's constant reminders to the reader that what we think of Boadicea today are mostly illusions created down the centuries to fit the mores of the prevailing society become a bit (yes, I shall say it) annoying by the fifth or sixth time. Furthermore, she uses a list of 'syndromes' to seemingly pigeonhole the queens of history that I found quite obnoxious from the beginning.
Though none of these points seem to recommend this book, I will do so in any case because she brings up many women who have simply faded into the background but are due recognition for their remarkable wills and spirit even though they might not have met with any lasting success.

One women, in particular, touched me deeply because of her desire to be a savior to her country, having to know with an utmost certainty that she would fail. Queen Louise of Prussia was born Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie on 10 March 1776 to Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg (later he would be titled Charles II, Grand Duke of Meklenburg) and Princess Friederike Caroline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt. Both her father's and mother's families had intertwining relationships with several ruling houses in Europe and so it is safe to say she was already destined for some ruling-consort role, at the very least. In 1793 while visiting with the other German nobles at Frankfurt, the Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia laid eyes upon this beauty and is said to have been smitten with her immediately. Later that year, they would be married and in four short years, her husband would take the reins of power as King Frederick William III. When the marauding Napoleon turned his eyes to this small but powerful country, Louise took up the stance of defense when her husband was unwilling to do so. It was recorded that Napoleon harbored a deep-seated hatred of this woman, though he could recognize in her a kindred spirit: when she turned to him in 1803 in supplication, he denied her any clemency, but did not trot her out and shame her for all to see. She died with her loving husband by her side after working so many years to keep Prussia whole for her son to assume the throne. Queen Louise was a woman of great beauty, kindness, compassion and most certainly, bravery. She beloved of her countrymen and women, looked up to as a Madonna-like figure by her soldiers and cherished by her husband and family. It is unfortunate she did not survive to see the defeat of her largest nemesis, Napoleon, and the eventual re-emergence of Prussia as a military power in Europe.

Please pick this book up and give it a go, even if it takes a few shots to get through all of it. I know I will be returning to it!

Happy reading.