Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Jellyfish Framed

We sent my finished Jelly Bellies to Knots n Needles in Bossier City, Louisiana (sorry, no website) to frame.  We picked them because they are a needlework shop that has a framer on site and they were close to my husband's parents.  They agreed to call the parents when the piece arrived, and they did!  They also worked with Betsy and Mike to frame this to their liking.  Here's the final result.  I think it looks great, and they even managed to have the three dimensionality show!  It's hanging now in my in-law's house.

Moldovan Sport...

Baseball came to the former Soviet Union in 1989.  By 1991, the Kvint team had won the CIS Champoinships.  It was the only year of the series; the CIS fell apart soon after.  It was not, however, the end of Kvint's sponsorship of baseball.  They sponsor teams from little league to senior men's teams, and do very well in competitions.  Their men's team went to the US for a tour last summer, and their pony league team won second in the European championships last year, too.

Supposedly, they have a 16 year old on the pony league team that regularly hurls an 85 mph fastball.  This is also, partially, your tax dollars at work.  Transnistria is the poorest part of the poorest country in Europe.  USAID and the US embassy have worked to help make real baseball diamonds (about the level of upkeep and upgrade of a regular little league field) in the city of Tiraspol for these athletes to practice and play on.

Kvint is very, very proud of its sponsorship of this American sport, despite having been a Soviet concern for fifty years.  It's nice to see reminders of home, and I hope to see them play this summer.









Lots of Arcs

I think I'm on a curve.  Lots of arcs here, and then to fill them in to ovals...

Dragon Charted

123stitch.com had a sale on dragon charts last month.  My husband went shopping.  He bought a total of nine charts.  Now to get more time to stitch.....

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Old Time Tools of Distilling

On President's Day, the embassy organized a trip to Transnistria for us.  Transnistria is a country-that-isn't.  This particular part of Moldova operates completely independently and has tried to be its own country or part of Russia.  Most people who live there are ethnically Russian, and the economy is still communist, although it is loosening some.

We went there to go shopping and to see where they make the local version of cognac.  The first room they showed us was their "sports room".  The sports will come tomorrow.  Today, the pictures are of the older machinery they kept - really old, hand cranked stuff.  I'm glad it's not so taxing to make these days.  The name of the distillery is Kvint, if you want to find more out about it.



Done With The Blues

I finished another challenge piece!  This one's even a twofer, since it's part of my crazy January challenge and was the petite project of the January CyberStitchers meeting.  All done now.  I feel smug!

Ten Done

The tenth part is done now; it was rather a smaller half band, and so didn't take all that long!

Monday, February 27, 2012

Quilted!

 I had this quilt top finished for quite a while, but never got around to doing anything with it.  I'd promised a friend that I'd make her a quilt for her baby, so... she looked through my pieced quilt tops and picked this one.  I didn't have time to hand quilt it last summer between moving and the shortness of time of a pregnancy, so I took it with me to the States and had a quilt shop in Shreveport quilt it for me.  She did a really good job and it was very inexpensive!  The only part of that I didn't like was that I had asked her not to bind it.  I wanted to put an ecru lace on the edges.  She bound it instead... these are the pictures my parents-in-law took of it before they shipped it off to Florine, who'd also moved in the meantime, for Alexandra.  It got there just before she  was born in October!

On To Seventeen

I am now officially on the seventeenth motif.  Only seven more to go after this!

Turning the Corner

I've begun to turn the inside corner on the bottom left.  I think I'm making faster progress on this one than I did the last two.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Back In The Rotation

This ended up out of rotation after my move.  Since I finished something else, I put it back in now.  There's not all that much left to do on it - just the rest of the gold and then outlining.  Another finish coming my way in the next couple months!

Delayed Temari

I offered to make temari for Christmas for people I knew - and told them to pick the colors.  Nate picked blue and orange.  I delayed makign it because, well, I'm not at all fond of orange.  Buckled down and made it a little bit ago, and it turned out bright but okay.  

Design is a C8 with triwings and kikus interwoven with squares.

TAST Week 6 - Chevron Stitch

I decided to couch down a piece of rickrack with chevron stitch.  As it came together, I was bemused by how complex and lacking in structure it looked versus how easy it was to do.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Reversi-Mitten Done

Another crazy January start finished!  This one was a bargello design from Janet Perry's club.  The picture's a bit shifted to the yellow- the cuff is a baby pink color in person.  Rather light coverage with the threads I used, but otherwise good.  No idea how I'm going to finish this into an ornament yet.

On The Stick

Bits of branch are taking shape.  Soon, I hope, I will be out of the brown slump.

Back And Forth

Just going back and forth with red.  Had a small break in that I was able to use darker colors on the left border area.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Filling In The Tree

Filling in the tree, filling in the tree - we will come rejoicing filling in the tree.  Okay, so that was silly.  I do feel better about this getting done lately.

Columned Down

Buildings, plural, are beginning to take shape on bottom, while the columns of the stables on top are done.  I have the feeling this bottom part will seem to go very slowly, without finishing buildings, until all of a sudden they all get done at the same time.

Starting To Wine

I've started another round robin.  This one is all about wine.  First up is Kathy's block.  She said anything wine related, so I decided to do some grape vines and a list of wines from around the world.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Floral Conga Line

Three small green flowers/leaves on the left done.  Progress!

A Window Or So

I got the top window done, and the middle one nearly so.  The bottom window still has quite a bit to stitch on it.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

More Painted Glass

Early this month the embassy had a glass painting artisan in.  She did a lot of kid stuff, but I was able to find these candle holders that fit my style.

Framing The Center

I've gotten three of four rectangles done to get the middle star framed.   More of the same stitch over and over again.

Fleured Up

I finished my shaded blackwork fleur-de-lis.  I ended up working the design, in total, from the cover picture instead of the instructions.  The instructions had a major flaw - they had each line over one thread instead of two, creating a much denser pattern than intended.  I changed the colors too.  Brown just does nothing for me, especially a flat, plain brown.  I have no idea of what to do with this, but now it's stitched and I have one more of my 2011 Crazy January starts done.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Number Nine, Number Nine

Part nine's done.  Yay!

Not Quite Fifteen

I still have back stitches to do on the fifteenth motif.  This particular motif puts me in a quandary, too.  Instead of a maximum of forty stitches square, this one was designed as fifty.  I now have to compensate with a skinny design to the right of it and a short one below it.  

Sideways

I apologize for this being sideways.  I didn't notice until I had already uploaded it.  Second color of part six started on the second corner, and the arch is almost done.  Houses are coming along, too.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Top Off

Done with the top row and on to starting to work down.  It's coming along pretty well, although I'm getting tired of brown on this.  It's a peacock! I want color!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Passiflora Finished!

I am slowly crossing off the 2011 Crazy January list.  This is one more done!  I got the kit from Stitch Direct; the pattern was originally in New Stitches.  I think the fabric on this really sets it off.  Now to make it into a cushion!

Tired

I am pretty tired of this piece at this point.  It could be that I'm in between focal points and just doing minor variations every row.

Roses Block Done

Yellow roses everywhere!  Thank you ladies for doing a great job on my block!  Now to finish it into a quilt and donate it for raising money for Texas firefighters.  I hope it earns them a nice little bit.