SPRING IS COMING!!!!!

Out the back deck watching the swans!!!

It is now March.....actually the 2nd, our Jimmy B's 11th birthday.  I called Abby and reminded her of what we were up to 11 years ago.  I always called my mother on my birthday to ask her what she was doing.....years ago.  This year when i turned 70, I called Dad and asked him what he'd been doing that many years ago.  "Oh, I think I was holding a little girl and trying to get her to cry!"  Born at my grandparents home, it was different.  He has told me that my head was so pointed from pulling me out.....that he wasn't sure all was going to be so good.  Never fear, Dad!  JB had a challenging birth, but good to hit baseballs a "fer piece" and whack the window of the barn.  

DAFFODILS....no yellow blooms yet

SNOWDROPS

When I taught school.....in the early 60's...I had a bunch of 6 year olds, and as soon as the pussy willow began to pop...... I'd come in every year singing......

Spring is coming, spring is coming

How do you think I know?

I saw some pussywillow, 

I know it must be so. 

Sitting here at the computer I can see the birds at the feeder. If I were fast enough I'd get a picture of the cardinals, he and she, sitting on the fence rail waiting for the big red headed woodpecker to move on.  What a sight.  The swans on the lake, just the two, have kept the geese off the lake.  They are pretty to watch, the geese, and to see the babies come, but they like to eat and........in the yard.  Well, tried to get a picture....and guess what, they vamoosed.

Promise of Spring.....it's coming even tho we've hardly had winter!!!

I just finished a model called "Promise of Spring"  by Silver Creek Samplers.  Lise and I were both working on it and mine is ready to be framed.  It is stitched on 32ct. overdyed linen which you will have to find out about from Beth.....lost my plastic bag....enjoy.  Looks a little on the pink side here in the photo, but it is really a nice blue gray.

Here is where I am now having completed the border and the words

Next........Token of Love a Redwork Sampler Pillow by Pineberry Lane.  I'm stitching this on 32ct. lambswool and getting near completion.   Since I gave you that round of "compensating" in an earlier blog I will point out to you some compensating that I did on this piece.  I started in the center with the tip of the flower there, and then went up to the zigzag border and worked to the right corner, turned the work upside down (always work down and toward myself.......Danish schooling)....reached the top right corner and still upside down, worked left to right toward the center, completing each stitch along the way.  When I reached the top center point, I decided to check to make sure I wasn't "off".  With the tip of my needle, I went down along the thread of the "x" that was opposite the other side.......and whoa....I was off by one stitch.!!!!!!!  Now what should I do.

A bit of correction....Corner not to top line

Error at upper right ..6 not 5 stitches

 Interestingly, I decided to go to the bottom part of the border, working upside down and to the right  (or the lower left corner when straight up), and then still with my work upside down, working that left side to the corner.  Then I went back to the top center and completed the top border to the left corner and decided .....hey if it is for me .....a model....I think I'll leave it.  I don't like to pick out 32ct . linen .

Now seeing it like this,  I think I will take out the stitches in the upper left, make 6 instead of 5, add the second dot in the corner and then I won't have to rip all of those stitches out.  So when you see it finished and in the pillow, you can have your opinion.  I think Marianne, my Danish teacher , who pushed us to "compensate" would be pleased.

The catalog from years back

This is the left side of the finished design from the catalog

This is the right side of the finished design

Well I'm not getting the layout so nicely here, but will continue on.  This is a kit by Ida Winckler which I have been working on for years.  I will try to show you bits and pieces of it.....and I am getting to the end.  In cleaning stuff out, found some things that I believe Abby stitched after her trip there in 1984 with Beth and me. We had much exposure to DHG as we traveled there and also I was involved with Danish American Days for many years down at Pawleys Island, SC

Not sure what I've done....but can't seem to get the pic up at present.  I will go ahead and publish all of this and perhaps edit some things later...9:00 pm  I finally got my shot up.

Another one of Ida Winckler's designs

Abby's stitching above

The Danish Handcraft Guild and School in Copenhagen, Denmark, has so impacted my stitching and knowledge of counted cross stitch.  Thanks to Ginnie and Ken Thompson, my life will never be the same.  I treasure every week of classes there , traveling and visiting the Danes and really getting to know another culture.....not so different from us at all.  As mentioned my first Counted Cross Stitch was purchased in Dordrecht, in the Netherlands in 1971, but it was actually a Danish kit.....Eva Rosenstand...and is my treasured first piece, a bellpull hanging in the front hall.  This kit used 6 strand floss where the Danish Handcraft Guild  (DHG) kits used flower thread.....a single length of thread that equaled two of floss.  While "cleaning out" stuff recently, I found my DHG kits, few books, some things finished and some not and decided to take some shots of them and share.  Sadly, it is very difficult to get these any longer as the powers that be in Denmark have changed.....things are different.  The pictures I will share with you, are by the designer Ida Winckler.  She was a little old lady with a delightful smile, spoke no English or little , but had her own manner of design.  At the same time we met Gerda Bengsston, another wonderful designer of flowers and much more. I hope to share some of these with you.  Little was published in books or single charts, much to our dismay, so kits were the majority of purchases everytime I went to Copenhagen.  I was there many times.........and I have a wonderful collection of designs. Here are some.

I have been stitching.....and getting ready for an outpatient round of surgery this past Monday.  Several years ago....like 5 just before getting my knees replaced... I felt my child-bearing insides let loose and pull everything else down with it.  Having had a hysterectomy many years ago, I was stunned to learn that I had a "prolapse " of the pelvic area. which allowed it to turn inside out like an old sock.  I had a wonderful surgeon who explained that this was not an uncommon thing to happen, often genetic, but resulting from large babies and the hysterectomy.  That was in 2006.  My knees got replaced by October and the following year, I headed for surgery to put that "old sock" back in place......tacking it to my tail bone and creating a  bit of discomfort, but nothing like the bulge in the bottom.  Now you might ask, "Why in the world is she telling me/us/women and men  this?"  My doctor was adamant that I take the scenario to others as it is often "swept under the rug" as "Oh, I'm just falling apart and getting old!"  Not just older women have this.....others ages as well.  We have heard of tacking up the bladder....called bladder prolapse, but I'd never heard of Pelvic Prolapse.  When it occurs it grabs the works.......vaginal wall and along with it the bladder and the bowel.  AND IT CAN BE REPAIRED!!!! thank goodness.  So perhaps because I don't always act my age and lift and move stuff that I shouldn't, my bowel came unglued (untacked) and proceeded with gravity to give me some additional challenges.  Miralax, Senekot, Colace....and fiber became my routing friends.  Since Monday........If I can just remember that I can't run around like I was 25 fixing and doing this and that.....I feel great.  So don't hesitate and say "I'll just put up with the discomfort"......have it checked out and fixed.  My Doctor Babak Vakili in Wilmington is my good friend.....thanks to him you're getting this message.

Will close for now......eat some lunch and return after while......

Make a difference ......give others something to share

Our hands love to keep busy creating...right!

              Ruth Ellen