Understood Betsy pattern

Well, it's another book cover pattern for sale in my Etsy shop! This one for one of my very favorite old children's books. Understood Betsy is an AMAZINGLY perfect work of children's fiction. It should be just as well-known as the Little House on the Prairie books, yet it's not and this saddens me.

You can read Understood Betsy for free, since it's in the public domain. I think it's also still a common title to find in libraries. I really highly recommend it. I didn't read it for the first time until I was an adult, and I don't have or want children, but it was so much fun and appealed to me so much. A good book is good at any age (that does not mean that any book you liked as a kid, or as an adult, is a good, well-written book).

Anyway, here's a sneak peak at my newest project. I'll give you a hint and tell you that there is a third word coming and it is predictable. When the pattern is for sale though I'll also be offering 'clean' versions.

Little House on the Prairie

This is a pattern I designed for an Etsy customer who is now my super e-mail friend! This is her finished work and her picture. 

It's the original cover to Little House on the Prairie, illustrated by Helen Sewell. You can buy in the pattern in my shop!

I've also completed my cover of Understood Betsy and the pattern will be in the shop in the next couple of days.

In Euro Cup news, SO glad England won their game today. I had a bad morning and definitely needed the cheering up. It was a brilliant game and I hope it enthuses the team enough so they play well against Ukraine. Actually I'm torn on that, as I enjoy the Ukrainian teams and was hoping for more from them. I want Croatia to advance from Group C, and my money is on Germany to win it all. I feel guilty for having missed all of Group A's games!

Also, I'm already feeling homicidal towards Adrian Healey and Ian Darke. I think the commentating should be left to former footballers. I love Steve McManaman (hadn't heard him commentate before), and I like Twellman pretty well. Both know it's okay NOT to talk sometimes, that fans don't want to hear inane drivel and pointless statistics. I'd also like them to team up with comedians, which would liven up the boring games. It is my dream to hear Sean Lock commentate a game (along with a 'proper' commentator, since you've got to have a straight man).

If you give a man a fire...

My break from Pogo was well-used, and helped me work a little more steadily on the monotony of black stitches. Pogo is actually almost done now, I just forgot to post about the quote piece yesterday.

This pattern is now for sale in my Etsy shop!

Choosing to stitch this on Monaco (an all-cotton even-wave) was a great choice. Blackwork is always harder to photograph though, so I must assure everyone that it looks SO much better in person. I'm really pleased with the combination of italic text and the wind-blown look of the flames.

When I designed the pattern I tried filling in the spaces between the second and the third flame colors but nothing really looked right. I have a new idea of how to do it so I might work on that a bit if I ever find the time.

This quote is from the Terry Pratchett book Jingo. It seems it's no longer in print in the US which is a crime! In my benevolent dictatorship I will be the one controlling what goes in and out of print.

Asterix!

Obelix was one of the first patterns I created, and it's certainly taken me a long time to finish Asterix, mostly because he has more small details. Now of course I need to make a new Obelix pattern that's to the same scale as Asterix so they can be stitched together. 

Asterix is also for sale in my Etsy shop.

That may take some time though. I really want to get my next Pratchett quote started and of course there's also the wisteria piece and the chintz napkin to finish. Sigh!

On the plus side, I should be able to get a lot done in the next few days. I'm listening to a really fabulous book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President. It's about President Garfield and is absolutely amazing so far. Also, Garfield was awesome! I'm not sure why there's no modern motion picture about him (him in general, not just the assassination). I'm sure a tiny bit of my new-found love is that he spoke Latin and Greek (well enough to teach them) and of course it makes me think of The West Wing and President Barlet. Can't recommend the book highly enough though!

Five Little Peppers... Finished!

I am finally done with the Five Little Peppers piece! It was an uphill battle. There was a flaw early on and, being lazy, I decided to just alter the pattern a bit instead of unpicking hours of stitching. 

Of course then later on I didn't think to allow for that and had to unpick a ton of shit. It could have been worse, but christ... I nearly abandoned the piece at one point. Glad I didn't though. All in all, I think it's a lovely piece. I definitely want to do a few more book covers.

Now I've got one more Christmas present piece to work on. The pattern was giving me trouble so I'd half decided to skip it. It would be a really fun piece to give though so I think I'll try to make it work.

my adorable nephew!

Let me tell you, there are some days when I despair of making my own patterns. I've only ever stitched one thing that's entirely someone else's pattern. I've taken some pieces of borders from the Repertoire des Motifs and various quite old patterns but they've always taken a lot of tinkering and extra work. I think the effort is worth it, but sometimes it does keep me from stitching since the thought of having to the make the pattern will put me off. C'est la vie, I suppose.

In contrast to all that frustration I had the most wonderful visit with my nephew, Benjamin. He came over to my apartment for an hour or so while his mama did some errands and he was the most well-behaved little thing imaginable. Did everything the first time I asked him, didn't mess with my stuff, and was generally adorable. He carried those mice around during the whole visit (they're my mice, not his). Now I'm in the dilemma of "should I give him and his sister the mice for Christmas..." but he doesn't really like soft toys at the moment and I think it's probably better to keep the few toys I have over here. 

Yes, I am justifying keeping my adorable stuffed mice all to myself. They're named Nourishing and Dark Tan after two of the rats in Terry Pratchett's marvelous book, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. I quite want to go back to Ikea and get a dozen more since they're so cute (and only 99 cents each).

Pepper Progress

Here's a picture of the progress of Five Little Peppers. Hoping to get more of that thread on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I have been beyond lazy this weekend but also quite beyond tired and sore. There's so much to do and lots of time, but no energy at all.

Also posted my pattern for the Ambrose Bierce quote in my Etsy shop.

If anyone has a lovely old book cover that's a favorite, please link me to it! I'm look for other pretty covers to make patterns of.

Five Little Peppers - first look

Well here's the first look at Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. It's quite a large piece, being about 12 1/2 inches tall and even for the size still feels woefully simplified.

I'm enjoying the way it's coming together though and I'd like to do more similar pieces. What lovely decor it would be for a children's room or library to just have embroidered book covers on the walls. 

Though for myself I wouldn't want to have all my books in one separate room in my house. Part of my enjoyment is looking at them. Staring at the shelves and just... remembering. Remembering where I got the book, when I first read it, who read it to me, etc... Every book is a time capsule of some point in my life.

new project

Started a new project the other day. It could be finished but I think I'll add another row of the moth pattern before the top one, but with slightly different colors. 

I do like how they've turned out, and it makes the frustration that comes with satin thread almost worth it. I hate satin thread. Hate it to death! Sometimes you need the effect though.

Might I recommend to all a book and a sequel to that book? The books are Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy by Lisa See. They are absolutely wonderful. She's most known, I think, for her book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan which is quite good, but the two I just mentioned are a lot better (and that's saying something). Shanghai Girls follows two sisters sold in marriage to strangers in California. They're going to avoid going but then the Japanese come and their tickets to the US seem like the only escape. That's just the very beginning of the book but you can read longer descriptions elsewhere. Trust me when I say it's a wonderful, worthwhile read and the sequel, Dreams of Joy, is even better.

old books, old thoughts

There was once a time when books were happy and sweet, when romances were conveyed with a mere clasping of hands, when you knew exactly who the heroine would marry. This was a fun time.

See, I love old books. I just finished Dear Enemy by Jean Webster, which was a sequel to her bestselling novel Daddy-Long-Legs, about an orphan being sent to college by an anonymous patron. It is generally shelved in the young adult section these days but it was written for and enjoyed by adults (and does include a romance between a 21 year old girl and a 35 year old man). Theodore Roosevelt was excited to meet her and Daddy-Long-Legs has never been out of print.

Both of these books can be read for free on Project Gutenberg and there's a free audio version of Daddy-Long-Legs on Librivox.

It's not that I dislike modern books, though contemporary fiction gets fairly ridiculous at times, but I love old books. I don't mind that they're predictable, most books are, after all, they're just so sweet and fun and uplifting.

Pogo stitching progresses. I'm sore and tired and just want to lose myself in something. Women's World Cup semi-finals tomorrow at least. Should be good!

Soccer and Tequila

Yesterday was a great soccer day! There was a West Virginia men's soccer tournament and Madre and I went to one game. I haven't seen a soccer game in person in about seven years, since I was at college. This happened to be a pretty good game, though one team was lazy and scattered and only had a few players who seemed to really love the game. They also had a couple players who were fouling really badly and I hate seeing that.

Then at 9 pm we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant to watch the Gold Cup final. This is the tournament for the teams in north and central America and the Caribbean. Last Gold Cup, 2009, Mexico beat us 5-0 which is really embarrassing. Last night was absolutely brilliant though. First off, we got to watch with other fans who were just as loud as me, and second I got a bit drunk which I haven't done for about a year. I haven't even just had one drink is a few months. 

So Mexico came out pushing really hard, had three shots on goal really soon and then the US came out of nowhere and scored off a corner. Then they scored again! It was insane! They also subbed someone in around like minute 10, which is just another example of Bob Bradley being a twat (there are many such examples). Mexico tied it up before the half with some great goals. Then after the half the US came back disorganized and not pushing nearly hard enough. Mexico scored twice more, one of  which was just one of the more beautiful goals I've seen in a long time. It was literally a perfect game. Very few fouls, great goals, good offensive playing. Fabulous.

Started a new blackwork project using a quote from the Terry Pratchett book Maskerade (which is about opera). I happen to love opera, so it's one of my favorite Pratchett books. The quote is long so I'm doing it in a very small font which is one square wide and a maximum of four high. I'm about halfway done with the text and it's turning out better than I'd hoped.