Back from the conference

and almost ready to take off again, to visit Best Friends in Williamsburg. But I've gotten some time to work on Youngest Daughter's pillowcase, as I'd like to have that finished before she leaves on the 28th. Here is Fan #2; I have almost all the green leaves completed since I took this photo, and the Greek key on the bottom is done up to the edge of the hoop. Tomorrow I will do the outline of the fan before I tackle the branch and the insides of the blossoms.

I am resisting the urge to start yet another project as I have four ongoing--the pillowcase, the Tudor pincushion, the goldwork sampler, and the pansy fan, which has been languishing in the sewing center for months and months. The pincushion and sampler (and the smaller pincushion I have not started yet) are from the goldwork class I am taking. I have the Secret Project to finish up (needs to be sewn together). Other unstarted projects: I have two Needlework Nibbles from Thistle Threads to do, the snail and the tulip slip. Youngest Daughter wants a nyan cat purse. I have a set of napkins to monogram for Eldest Daughter, and a shell paperweight for Son. Then there's the medallion and Indian dancing girl and another Secret Project. That's a list that will take me years, I think!

The best course of action, I suppose, is to finish the pillowcase, then the pansy fan. The goldwork class has another three months to run, so maybe by the time I have the fan done I will have all the goldwork lessons to do. I've been busy on the home front, too. I cleaned up the dining room and packed away the ceramics, pictures, etc. The cats are entranced with all the bare horizontal surfaces. Also bought new drapes for the dining room and kitchen, although the kitchen ones are not up yet. When I get back from all my travels, I'll do the same clean-and-declutter in the living room. Getting ready for someday moving, figured I'd better start now.

My online class is going fairly well so far but man, I really would rather not have to do it. Just pay me the money, let someone else do the teaching! Kind of think that would not go over too terribly well. Sigh.

Mall madness

At the end of this month, Youngest Daughter is heading to Cambridge for two months of study abroad. We are gradually getting her ready to go--this week was the allergist visit and preparation for having her allergy shots in England, and the requisite visit to the mall for clothes shopping.

We picked up my sister-in-law and made our way to the Big Fancy Mall in our area. Started off well, as YD found a pair of shoes she liked, a couple of pretty dresses, and a lacy white sweater. Since it was lunchtime, we headed over to a nice restaurant for lunch. No sooner had our appetizer arrived then my phone went off--it was the sponsored research officer at Uni with an urgent request. The grant proposal we were handing in had an error in one of the tables, and guess who was the only person with the original file? The only person who could fix it? Sigh. We gobbled our lunches, threw the leftovers in a doggie bag, and ran back to the house so I could take care of the offending table.

Then we headed back to the mall and spent a few more hours shopping (with a welcome break for liquid nitrogen ice cream, which made YD and me really lonesome for Son--his chemistry frat at Uni would do liquid nitrogen ice cream fundraisers each term, and we loved helping him with those). YD did pretty good! She got dresses, a couple skirts, sandals, and a shirt. One skirt needs some repair (50% off!) so I need to pick up some thread to match it, which is today's errand, along with getting new foam for our sofa cushions.

All three of us were footsore and weary by the time we were done but she did a great job finding sales, so this trip was a huge success AND we got the grant proposal sent off with correct information in it. Yay!

Silver stuff!

Before I tackled the dining room today, I spend an hour or so doing the silver guilloche on the Tudor pincushion. It turned out okay. Surprisingly, the first one I did looks the best! Can you tell which one it is?
I'm going to live with the other three for a day or two and then decide if I'm going to yank them out and re-do them.

It took me three hours to clean up the dining room--well, all but one corner of it. I dusted, swept, wiped down, discarded, wrapped up and packed stuff away. I still need to wash the chandelier and finish that one corner where the tools are from working on the kitchen (and a few other things, like CD towers). The goal is no clutter. We'll see how well that goes.

Today was the first day of the summer session. So far, 11 posts in the "introduction" discussion. I sure hope this class goes smoothly because teaching is just about the last thing I want to be doing this summer. Cleaning is too, for that matter. Well, cleaning is ALWAYS down low on my list.

Saturday after the craft show (where I bought my mother a present) we made plans to go see the new Jane Eyre movie. Tonight's the night! Time to go get ready--I'm glad it's still at the movie theater.

Kitty Son usually keeps me company in the sunporch while I'm embroidering. We have a couple boxes of books in there ready to go to the used bookstore, and he fell asleep like this today--a new kind of headboard, I guess! Eldest Daughter said her kitty did the same thing the other day. Weird.

Fanning

I finished one of the three fans on Youngest Daughter's pillowcase. Yay!


Yesterday my SIL, YD, A, and N accompanied me to the big artsy craft fair in the town where I grew up. Usually every year there is a "theme"--or seems to be--where one type of craft appears to dominate. This year it was scarves. Handpainted silk scarves, handwoven scarves, scarves of all types. We stopped at one booth to watch the vendor making a two-ply yarn of wool and silk/wool blend, using a small portable spinning wheel. She gave us a short lesson on spinning wheels in general, which was really interesting.

One booth had these handmade dolls that were, well, creepy. I wasn't the only one who thought so. Little wizened faces with tiny beady black eyes...shudder. I guess I've never gotten over that Twilight Zone episode with the homicidal doll.