New Discoveries

Happy 2008! All right. I know we are 18 days into it, but come on. I'm here now....that should count for something; right? Hope your year is going great so far. I am going to really try to discover something new every day...all right....every week....well, once in a while. A girl has to be realistic!

This lovely season piece was a round robin that I participated in last summer/fall with my good friends Colleen, Sheila, and Jane from France. They are the best ladies to be in a RR with as they stitch beautifully and you never have to worry that you won't see your piece again. I love stitching with these ladies; in fact, they are the only ladies I would want to stitch with. Thanks, all you guys, for such a lovely piece! Oh, I stitched "Spring" if I didn't mention that before.

Now, this post is entitled "New Discoveries" so I do have one about the above design/designer. This is a Hinzeit chart and it's the last one I will ever stitch. I did not like the graph one bit because it's not gridded out in boxes of 10. You know what I mean? I had this problem once before with Hinzeit and that turned into a UFO and I didn't think it would bother me so much this time around, but it did. Is it so hard these days to produce a nice graph? Sheesh.


OMG! This is my latest discovery! A lighted magnifier! Holy cow. This is the best thing since sliced bread. My mother had given me her Ott-type light for Christmas...well, I sort of whined and told her that I was always complaining to Mercy about not having a light and shamed her into giving it to me. So, I had my light, my recliner, my Stitchmate.....and a piece that I had to stitch over 1 on 28 count. Penny from CSF had given me a plastic pink magnifier that I was using to stitch this over 1 on 28 and it worked fine except my hand would cramp up. Then the light bulb went off....no pun intended, of course. I printed out an AC Moore coupon and schlepped over there and got me the above magnifier. Did I say "Holy Cow" yet? Man, oh, Man. I feel like a new person. Stitching is brand-new to me with all these tools of the trade and I wonder how I ever stitched without these tools. I'll be honest though and say that, when I put that RR piece under the magnifier, I couldn't believe the amount of ecru stitches I missed. I wonder if I was even stitching with my eyes open. LOL I highly suggest you get one!!!!!!

Tomorrow my mother is coming up for the weekend. I am going to see if she will humor me and try again to figure out the sewing machine. I'm sure she will as she's a sport like that. I also plan on letting her use my recliner while I go through some more boxes and throw stuff out. I know she wants to go into Scranton to go to Boscovs so we will do that too, in spite of the fact it's supposed to be 11 degrees outside all weekend and that's only if we're lucky.

Oh, yeah...another new discovery....my brother. Yes, I am making an effort with him now. My whole family is on the Rob bandwagon, including my sisters, so I am hopping on also. I called him last week and he actually called me back to say hi. It's going to take a while, but I am willing to make the effort for as long as it's reciprocated. Wanna hear something odd? I had to ask him when I spoke to him on the phone if he liked the cold weather. How would I know? He told me he didn't. Now I know.

Well, I'm sure you are like "All right already. Get the hook!" I can take a hint. Thanks for hanging in this long. You're a pal!

~B.