St. Trinian's

Well, here she is, in all her finished glory. Actually this piece needs to be watched in an actual washing machine (in a mesh bag and on delicate, of course) to get all of the printable solvy off so the thread isn't stiff, but it will be a while before I get that done (do not trust my building's washers).

I am having a rough time of it lately, in terms of depression. I think it's probably an every summer thing, since I can get out of the house even less now. The next project I want to do, with the owl, can't be made until I have the right handwriting for it. I've thus far been after at asking my sister to do some samplers for me. 

There's a cross-stitch pattern idea I have too, so maybe I'll work on that a bit. Right now all I want to do is eat constantly, maintain a slight alcohol buzz all the time (impossible for monetary reasons), and watch humorous shows I've seen 5 times already.

Hockey Sticks and Balls of Steel

First, let me say that field hockey is the best sport. They give you a big wooden club which is weighted with lead at one end! There's nothing that can make a teenager happier. Just for fun, here's a picture of our more laid back spring hockey team from my sophomore year. I'm the one at the back holding her stick aloft (with dark hair).


Second, I grew up with St. Trinian's comics. We used to look at the books when going to work with my dad, starting when I was in second or third grade. Those nasty girls were part of my life before I went to boarding school and became the terror of the field hockey field (right forward, if you must know). There's never been any other sport which I've loved playing more. I liked playing soccer, but it was for a bit of fun, whereas I was actually competitive with field hockey.

So I am now stitching some fearsome field hockey lasses from St. Trinian's (by Ronald Searle) and wanting to rewatch the recent St. Trinian's movie remake with everyone.

It's a lot more solid stitching than I've done before. I used satin stitch on the right side there, because it seemed like it would work better on the narrow parts. I've used long and short stitch on the rest of it and it's honestly looking better than I'd predicted.

I go back to feeling very childish with non-counted embroidery. I just think back to being shown how to thread a needle and make a stitch and how frustrated I felt at not being able to make my stitching perfectly neat.

finished cats

The cats are in the bags and all finished up! I really like how it turned out and I used the same technique on a project I started today. Once I finish that project and post it I'll be selling the charts for the two fonts in my Etsy shop. That should be up in a few days.

The new project is fun and turning out very very art deco, which I enjoy. I felt better today for the first time in a week, which is a relief. The burn on my knuckle has also gotten a lot better, making every day things like dishes a bit easier. Those days scare me -- the times that are so bad I can't even go to the bathroom easily. Things are bad enough even when they're good, seeing the alternative makes me want to crawl inside myself and disappear.

Let me recommend a book to you. I do a whole lot of reading. Last year I read three to four books each week. I'm cutting back this year, as it's harder to find books I really enjoy. My dad's a librarian, I grew up spending eight hours at a time in libraries, so we all had to learn to love reading and learn to amuse ourselves (a skill this generation of kids with DVD players in their cars could stand to learn). So I know good books.

The book you should read is Don't Ask by Donald E. Westlake. It is a comic crime novel and one of the most hilarious books ever written. It's not a crime novel in any traditional sense, some people are biased against them and so am I, I hate all the normal 'crime' novels. There are numerous Dortmunder books, almost all are wonderful (the last three or four were weaker than earlier ones). The audio editions of the first nine are the best audio books I've ever heard, the reader perfectly captures each character. Most libraries have at least a few of the audio books.

This is the first sentence of Don't Ask:
Stuck in traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge out of lower Manhattan in a stolen frozen fish truck full of stolen frozen fish at 1:30 on a bright June afternoon with construction out ahead of them forever on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, with Stan Murch on Dortmunder's left complaining how there are no decent routes left from anywhere to anywhere in New York City--"If there ain't snow on the road there's construction crews"--and Andy Kelp on Dortmunder's right prattling on happily about global warming and how much nicer it will be when there isn't any winter, Dortmunder also had to contend with an air conditional dripping on his ankles.

Do yourself the best favor ever and read that book! 

Cat's in the bag...

So here's a work-in-progress picture of my controversial new piece. I saw controversial because I know there are always people who take umbrage at even fictional references to injuries to animals. I know a man who can't even bear to see cartoon cats in sadness. I personally think that's ridiculous.

I grew up with a lot of cats around. We lived in a tiny town and animals got dumped on the roadside all the time. We left cat food out and fed all the strays we could, most of them quite wild. The animal shelter was a mile or half-mile away and I'd walk up there with my dad and siblings to see the animals and sometimes feed a goat or deer with a bottle. Country animal shelters are the best because of the wild animals. 

So let me say now, that this is just a line that struck me as amusing. It's in one of the new St. Trinian's movies (I forget which one) and it just amuses me. A lot of people like to take random words with no ill-purpose more seriously than real things and events. So I don't care. I love cats, but this line is hilarious and the two things are not contradictory.

The font is one that I designed myself. I was unsure how it would look when actually strung together into words but I think it's generally a success. Let me know if you have any constructive criticism on it!

Roses are pink...

I've finished making the pattern for the second tea cup napkin. It will match the teacup shown, which is an easier design to match than the first effort was. I've basically finished picking out which tea cups to stitch and I'd like to get all the patterns made up before I start stitching more. 

There are more commercial pieces that I should really work on. I've been restless in general. My kitchen is in an awful state and I've been watching too much TV. Too many things I don't want to think about. On the plus side my lemons are slowly getting bigger and the new blossoms will start popping in five days or so (and there are a MILLION of them!).

I have a number of quotes I'm choosing from for my next piece, but I think I'll skip back to non-counted embroidery for long enough to do my St. Trinian's tribute piece. It will have one of the images of a field hockey player along with the words "With hockey sticks and balls of steel, we are St. Trinian's!" Love it! Otherwise I'm leaning toward some sort of snarky quote. Or something. And here's a picture of one of my first cross-stitch/blackwork projects! It's a phrase my sister and I came up with (and still use often).