15,656 stitches that I could only tell a few people about… now I can tell everyone! *does a BIG happy dance* Without further ado, I present one half of Sara Butcher’s Libra! (click left)

When I put the last stitch into the first half of her I wanted to pop her out of my stand and bolt across the street and give her to Kathie. Of course, I’d have wrapped her in something since she was a present… whatever I could reach on the way out the door… a dishtowel, one of the girls’ princess dressup dresses – heck, I’d have ripped the pillowcase off of one of the pillows on the sofa – that’s how excited I was. But, no… I was going to wait. Well, then the plans for her celebration changed and I decided that I just couldn’t wait. I may get some abuse from the others for giving it to her early, but I really couldn’t wait anymore!

Did she like it you ask? Um, well… she kind of sniffled a bit and stared at it lots… and has dashed off home with it. I’m sure she’ll be a’bringing it back being as she’ll want the other half of her angel stitched at some point. I did show her the floss box she’s seen many-a-time but didn’t notice… and she also got a kick out of the chart and said that I had to share the picture of it with with y’all. (click right)

I don’t see what’s so funny about each line being it’s own color since I park when I stitch and I like rainbows. *coughs* I will add that this is the chart where I created the term “confetti quagmire.” I define it as a block of 10 where over 50% of the stitches in the block are single stitches of a unique color. There are several said blocks of 10 in this chart. They give amazing detail to the piece but are quite the chore to stitch! But, it’s all worth it because the recipient knows the effort that went into it.

If you’d like to see the progression pictures, you can check them out here.

How did this end up being called the “Peanut Butter Project?” A bit over a month ago, we were up north in PA (Pennsylvania for anyone not familiar with US state abbreviations) visiting family and, of course, I was working on Libra. In the 30 seconds it took me to get up to go into Mom’s kitchen to refill my water glass, one of my nieces got up from the kitchen table and grabbed my stitching. I wiped off what I could, but she managed to get her lunch caked into the holes of the fabric really well. Fortunately it wasn’t on the stitching, but I was still really upset and when I managed to sneak upstairs, I did cry. Jenni assured me that Orvus would do the trick and she was right! One soak and all the peanut butter disappeared! I was doing a happy dance in the laundry room! Orvus reminds me of Iocaine Powder from The Princess Bride because it’s colorless, odorless and dissolves completely in liquids. *giggles*

It’s late and I need to get some sleep… I have gobs left on my RR to stitch!

Happy Birthday, Kathie! *HUGS!*

Really, I do! I stitched this week and it’s on something I can show everyone, even you, Kathie! *ducks* I participated in HAED’s QS Wednesday and worked on my favorite Nadia Tate work, Accidental Witch-Cat. I only work on her on QS Wednesdays because she is SO addictive and I think it’s because she’s got 90 of the brightest colors I have ever seen!

Here’s my progress for this week. (click right) I added 900 stitches and added some bright pinks to those amazing blues and greens. Sadly, I won’t be working on her this coming week as I have to finish stitching my RR and do all the paperwork that goes with her so I can bustle her off to Nic.

I miss you, Jenni!! I don’t want you to rush your awesome vacation in New Zealand or anything, but I really do miss you! *sulks*

Speaking of crossing that big blue puddle, I got a package this week and it was filled with fairy dust! Jeannie-Maree spoiled me with, well, LOOK! (click right)

Hmmm… darned cloudy days. Apologies for it being a bit fuzzy. Here’s a non-fuzzy closeup of her amazing stitching! (click left)

She also sent along an adorable calendar of Aussie critters for my girls and they love it. They’ve already hung it up even though it’s not 2007 yet. Thank you SO much, Jeannie-Maree! *insert lots and lots of hugs here*

December 1st is coming soon and if you’re interested, you should keep an eye on this spot! Why? Because on December 1st version 2.0 of our HAED RR is starting and you’re going to see some fantabulous stitching from Diane, Vicky, Nic, Nancy, Jan, Sharon, Jeannie-Maree and yours truly. The RRs won’t be heading home until April 2008 (yes, I said, 2008), but they will be well worth the wait I assure you!

And one final giddy dance from me… my fabric for A Pale Comparison is on it’s way!! *bounces around like a little kid* All the floss is bobbinated and I’m going to start her on the 18th at our stitching day! I can’t wait! *bounce bounce*

Oops! I fibbed! I have a happy dance that I can only talk about! The peanut butter project is done and soaking in Orvus at this very moment! Mirella saw it on Thursday and Kathie pouted quite the pout… I should have snapped a picture. *makes kissy faces at Kathie*

Remember, remember the 5th of November
The gunpowder treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

“V for Vendetta” is one of my favorite movies. Apologies to anyone who wigs out at the exploding of Parliament… but I very much agree with the philosophy of ideas being immortal. This, of course, has nothing to do with my title… so moving on!

Last week, I taught two classes at my girls’ school. Once a month, the local art society sponsors art education for elementary school students and it’s run by parent volunteers. This month, the two featured artists for us to choose from were (being as you’re smart and able to read, I know you know already the answer!) Paul Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh.

I decided to be clever… or masochistic and do a different artist for each class. These are classes of first graders who are ages six and seven. For my first daughter’s class, I did a still life using 1 inch by 1 inch squares of paper. The subject was a bowl of fruit that I had set up in the middle of the room. (click left)

For my other daughter’s class, we studied Vincent Van Gogh. And for the sake of having time to actually DO the project, I did not mention his ear! For this project, I modeled it after his “Vase With Twelve Sunflowers.” We glued birdseed in the middle of the flowers for added effect and mess! (click right)

Working with first graders is amazing. They throw themselves into the project. There was paper and glue on the tables, the chairs, the floors, the children, me… EVERYWHERE! They all had a great time and cheered when they went over their November schedules and heard that I was coming back for Grace Art this month. Just wait until they have to lay on their backs under their desks and color in parts of the Sistine Chapel – it’s Renaissance month! *grins* Maybe I’ll start off talking about the ultimate dudes bearing Renaissance names the kids can relate to, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Cowabunga!

Did you see what HAED did? Jasmine Beckett-Griffith draws these adorable wide-eyed girls. I find them cute, but there were only two of her pieces that I’d ever want to stitch. Well one of them was just released! *insert much mumbling and cheering and sighing and cooing here* So jam another new start into my 2007 list, that is IF I can wait that long… A Pale Comparison has been released and those huge red eyes are SOOOOOO hard for me to resist! Since the chart doesn’t have any sparkles on it, d’ya think I should stitch the cuties on an opalescent? I’m thinking Porcelain from Silkweaver… or maybe a non-sparkly Silver Mist… or maybe just some white I have laying around… *drools*

P.S. Happy Happy Happy Birthday, Jan!! *HUGS!*

I’ve got the new start bug! One of them is totally Kathie’s fault and I know she’s grinning from ear-to-ear about it! She is working on Michael Powell’s Wedding Sampler in silks and it’s looking beeee-YOOOO-tiful! When we were at CATS last month she bought all of his Handmade Houses and after only a little arm-twisting she decided to do them all in silks, too! When she starts her Handmade Village I’ll be starting Sara Butcher’s Guardian Angel in silks. *bounce* and I can’t wait! My fabric is here and while I’ve tried to bury it I know exactly where it is! I got the formula for the conversion from my DH today and I’m going to need to buy 296 skeins of silk for the project. DOH!

My next start will be my first Character Creations chart, and I’m excited! I got my first chart pack from Kerry and it’s amazing! It’s licensed just for little old me and it’s got the floss usage list already in the chart pack. Yeeehaw! Nevermind that I’ll need 22 skeins of 3042, the fact that the info came with the chart was such a nice consideration! Thank you, Kerry!

Oh… so you want to know what monster I’m stitching that needs 22 skeins of light purple, eh? In honor of my twin dragons, I will be stitching Stephanie Pui-Mun Law’s Year of the Dragon! I’ve decided to stitch it on Silkweaver’s 25 count opalescent Snow Storm and it’s going to take me a really long time to grid this thing – it’s got 48 pages! But it doesn’t matter… as long as I’m stitching, I’m happy! I had a really busy past two weeks and didn’t get many Xs made, so I’ve realized that it doesn’t matter what I stitch, just that I stitch! Well, ok… I guess it does matter since I have a gazillon pretty WIPs. *grin*

As for other new starts, I’m hoping that something from my short list of favorites from Nene Thomas will make it to Heaven and Earth Designs and I’ll get to stitch a piece by my favorite fantasy artist of all time. However my list is very short and I don’t have my hopes up.

Blackstone Gardens is a *must* start for 2007 thanks to some delightfully wicked enabling by Fudgey who will, of course, be stitching it with me and all the others she’s got drooling over the piece. (You deserve lots of *HUGS* for that enabling!! It’s SOOOOO pretty!)

My final hope for a new start next year is almost entirely Nicki’s fault and I thank you very much! Tomboy by Selina Fenech will have to be started sometime in 2007. It only has 22 colors and will more than satisfy my need to stitch a sketch chart. I started the quickstitch and it just didn’t feel right. I’m a full-chart kinda girl.

So there you have it… my new start plans for 2007. There will, of course, be other QSes I will do once I finish my current Wednesday QS SAL of Nadia Tate’s Accidental Witch-Kitty (isn’t she adoreable?), but I’ll figure that one out when the time comes.

Now I just need to get back to my rotation!

I’ve been working on my piece for the HAED RR 2.0 (that’s Heaven and Earth Designs Round Robin version 2.0 for those not hip to stitchy lingo) and I’m very pleased with how it’s turning out. I wanted to do something bright to give everyone lots of colors to work with and decided on Linda Ravenscroft’s Mask of Colors. However as I didn’t have the heart to just do part of the chart, I decided to make the whole chart a stained glass window. So, I spent a month researching layouts and then twice that segmenting the chart. Here is the result minus the annoying one piece of arch that I’ve frogged twice and including part of my section already stitched. I’ve got to finish stitching that up over the next few weeks before I send her off to Nic! Please pardon the QSnap wrinkles and feel free to click on the picture for a closer look.

So this has been taking up my time for the last hmmm, two months… maybe even three… there are at least three cards of petite treasure braid in “leading” there. And my other project is a secret to anyone not in the know. For those of you in the know, it’s only a few more weeks before I’ll be able to post pictures and no, I’ve still not been able to get anywhere near peanut butter! *sobs*

And now back to my whining… or sooking as Fudgey would call it… I miss my rotation. I have all these lovely projects that were so lovingly being stitched once every four to five weeks with my fifth week being the week where I stitch any one project not officially in my rotation.

So now that I’m sorely missing my rotation I’m thinking about 2007 and the trouble I’ll be getting into which is, of course, the worst possible time for me to make plans for my rotation… but I’ll do it anyway. Aside from getting back into my rotation of Chatelaine’s Misty Morning Vineyard, (oooo have *I* been a slack… I’ve not taken pictures the last two times I’ve stitched on it! Bad Sue, BAD!), Sacred Hour and Touched by Magic from HAED and Lavender & Lace’s Celtic Summer (for Mom…) and of course my HAED Wednesday SAL of Accidental Witch-Kitty, and then there are my whimsical stitchy things I do that fifth week of Michael Powell’s Secret Garden, blackwork and other yummy things like that… the trouble I’ve got on deck for 2007 so far is Sara Butcher’s Guardian Angel (see my last entry for her lovely art) done in all silks. I’m going to need someone to keep telling me that I don’t need to stitch Josephine Wall’s Dreams of Atlantis because it’s really really pretty. I do have Passione Ricamo’s Winter Fairy Spirit (my first PR! *bounce*) that I wish to start, but she will be going into the Celtic Summer spot whenever I dredge up the endurance to finish that. (Sorry Mom!) There is also this nagging itch I’ve had ever since I found HAED to do a sketch chart… I have the one I love best and yes, it’s kitted and it’s ALL Nicki’s fault because her WIP is SO gorgeous. *sigh* But I don’t need any more projects… nope nope nope…

Have I sufficiently sooked? Well, just to end the evening on a happy giggle of a note, I have to share with you some humor from my DH’s point of view. As I’ve mentioned, he’s decided that he wants to be an astrophysicist when he grows up. So here, for your listening and viewing pleasure is everything you will ever need to know about the universe in The Galaxy Song!