Minnesota Daydreams

Well I have been MIA but it is with a fairly decent excuse.  My hands have been extremely swollen and painful.  It has only been within the past day or two that I have been able to grasp and hold a sewing needle.  I have not been able to even think of holding and manipulating a tapestry needle to do counted stitching of any kind.  I was able to back a banner for a baptism at church tomorrow but not without much difficulty.  I am able to do more things each day but still not the things I dearly want to do.  So- - -bear with me. 
Yes, Christine, we commonly see eagles within the city limits; we see many more eagles today than even a couple years ago.  The eagles like to be around the rivers that flow through this area, the Mississippi and the St. Croix before it flows into the Mississippi.  They like to soar on the thermals above the river bluffs to the south of where I live.  Wabasha, Minnesota which is right on the Mississippi River just below Lake Peppin has become well known for having eagles and their Eagle Center.  We stopped off a week ago to see what we could see.  We did not see any flying outside but we saw three inside the center.  They had all been injured but could not be released into the wild after their injuries healed.  Below are pictures of all three. 
Just look at their claws; they are huge and very strong.  It is difficult to see their legs but they are very strong and much more muscle bound than any song bird legs.  I would not want to tangle with even these handicapped eagles.  

















The next picture is the Mississippi just outside the Eagle Center.  The bridge goes across to Wisconsin.  The hills on the other side of the river are in Wisconsin.  The wide area in the river just beyond the bridge is Lake Peppin.  The "lake" is a riverine lake and not a true lake.  The current of the river flows through it from north to south. 

Recipes 
This is the pear chutney that I made a couple weeks ago.  It really is extremely good.  I used bosc pears but you could use any good cooking pear. 

This chocolate cake became my go to recipe after I made it the first time.  The title of the recipe does not do the cake justice.  I do not have a picture of my cake for you so you will have to use your imagination.  Just picture a very dark, dense chocolate cake. 


Now on to stash
This weekend we had one of our semi-annual rummage sales at church.  It is a chance to clear out at least some of your accumulated schmuck and benefit the church outreach programs at the same time.  The women who set up the rummage sale pulled these things out of the sale and thought they might cheer me up while my hands heal. 
There is an assortment of DMC flosses and other metallic threads plus the box that most of the threads are in.  There are four placemats and eight napkins.  I think I might like to stitch them with a blue and white design to complement my Blue Willow dishes.  There are also several charts, a couple of which I think are very cute.  There is a bread basket cover to embroider and a fairly large piece of ivory Aida.  I have not decided what to do with it yet.  I will be integrating these things into my stash as the week progresses. 

This past week I was able to make some progress on the anniversary sampler.  You can take a look. 
Since I took this picture, I finished the chevron on the right and cut the threads in the center chevron.  I am definitely making progress. 

At last it appears that my friendly little hummingbird has finally begun its migration.  I hope it makes its trip.  This morning I saw a pair of eagles soaring over the freeway.  They look so magnificent. 

It seems like there has been little going on around the house and yard.  We are putting the gardens to bed for the winter but feel reluctant to cut back blooming and green plants. 

We are doing a little special cooking and baking.  The weather has cooled a bit and cooking and baking have become fun again.  This afternoon, I made a pear chutney.  It will nicely complement the chicken we will roast on Sunday. 

I very much appreciate all of your kind compliments about my special tablecloth.  

First things first - Some of you wanted to see this colossal crocheted tablecloth I washed two weeks ago. 
I did not take everything off the dining room table to stretch it out to is full extend and I did not count the number of squares in it.  But I did take pictures of something.  There are three different square patterns in the tablecloth. 
I did not unfold the entire tablecloth but this gives you a good idea of how it looks on the table. 














There are three different pattern squares.  They are all shown in this picture.  
1.  Border Corner Grape Vine
2.  Border Straight Grape Vine
3.  Center fill

I have shown you a set of four of the center fill so you can see how the enter pattern develops. 








I have been sewing.  This week I made a  pair of little baby shoes for our nephew and his wife.  They are expecting their first child in less than a month.  This coming weekend we are having a baby shower for them.  I decided to make a pair of little shoes to add to my gift.  Cute aren't they? 






I finished stitching the Dog House Sampler.  The boy's name and birthdate are at the bottom but I clone brushed it out for the privacy of the family.  It is on the fabrics that I will use to make the pillow.  It is a little difficult to see the white features, the oversized bone on the right side and the fence on the felt side. 



Last week I forgot to tell you about the local birds.  My little hummingbird was still here this week.  It came out to visit my little red flowers on Tuesday when I hung out my sheets to dry.  My friend who lives down the street about four visiting her feeder.  They are extremely territorial and spend a lot of time chasing each other away.  This year for the first time ever she head one of the chirping too.  Maybe our hummingbirds are becoming little chatterboxes. 

Last Thursday, one of our pair of  resident pileated woodpeckers was at my eye height on a tree trunk up the street from our house.  It was walking around and up and down the trunk.  Then it flew to a tree on the other side of the street and did the same thing there.  They look positive prehistoric and are quite large, about 16 inches long.   It served to remind me that I have to get their suet feeder out again now that the weather is cooling. 

As I was thinking about the title of this post, I was reminded of "It's been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone."  It has been far from quiet here.  First of all, I know it is Friday,  but it is still the week after my last posting so I made it for another consecutive week.  I have some friends and relatives who what to know that I am alive and kicking; I am trying to be a faithful blogger to do that.  If I bore you, you always know you can skip reading the blog. 
Well, it has been a strange week.  It started last Saturday when I decided that like it or not, I had to wash the huge, heavy hand crocheted tablecloth that we have been using in the family for weddings.  Both Saturday and Sunday were supposed to be a little warmer than average and sunny.  If I washed the tablecloth now, I could spread it outside on towels and a large piece of unbleached muslin to dry.  My grandmother crocheted the tablecloth; I have been its guardian after both of my sisters were married.  It is time now to pass it on so someone else can be its guardian.  But and this is the clinker, it needs to be washed first.  I liberally dumped Oxi-clean in a bathtub half full of cool water.  In went the tablecloth.  I let it soak for the afternoon.  I think my grandmother would have been horrified to know what I did to it. But honestly, I do not have any other tub large enough to do the job the way that she could.  She never had Oxi-clean so I do not know if the idea of using it would have curled her naturally straight hair or not.  I did the best I could with it.  I used the hand shower to rinse the tablecloth.  I squeezed as much water out of it but it still had a lot and was so heavy I was afraid I would stretch it if I carelessly lifted it.  I put lots and lots of towels on the floor and carefully laid it out folded in half the long way.  It is more than a yard wide and almost 100 inches long.  I put lots more towels on top of it and rolled it up.  I rolled back and forth over this humungous sausage type roll to squeeze as much moisture out of it as possible; let's face it at this point it was water not moisture.  When I unrolled and folded it to put it in my Rubbermaid tub overnight, it was unbelievably light.  Sunday I did put out the towels and unbleached muslin on the grass and spread out the tablecloth.  It was surprising how much moisture evaporated from it during the rest of the day.  I brought it inside for the night and laid it out on the dining room floor the way it was outside.  It was almost dry Monday morning so I left it on the floor to finish drying. 

I desperately need to feel a finish so I am pushing ahead with The Dog House sampler.  I talked with my friend to get the spelling of her grandson's name and birthdate to add to it.  It is going to fit perfectly. 

Oh yeah, the other strange thing.  Saturday my model came from my editor.  I promptly started to work on it but was surprised.  The design is x rows high; the width of the banding that was included will become the height of the design.  The banding is x-8 or so rows narrower than the height of the design.  Immediate plea for help went out even though I knew my assistant editor would not see it until Monday.  I could stitch the design without the lettering or I could stitch it over one but it would become minuscule, 1 3/8 inches by almost 3 inches.  The decision:  the person who selected the design and ordered the banding was out of the office for the week.  My assistant editor did not feel comfortable making that decision herself so would I please send it all back. 

That's why I desperately feel the need to have a finish. 

The anniversary sampler is more or less on hold.  I did the repair work, to the right of the partially finished central cartouches, one of which is done.  It still feels like it is stitched in a foreign language that I do not understand.  It is not mine and it is difficult to get in to the swing of things with it. 

During the odd moment or two, I am knitting.  I have some odd lot yarn that I knit into two scarves for the free clothing store that my church maintains with two other churches in the area.  I still have enough yarn to make two more scarves. 


One last picture.  Cosmo has become my constant companion.  He follows me around the house.  When I do the laundry, he comes downstairs with me and sits outside the laundry room until I finish and go upstairs.  We are catching our breath in the middle of the day. 

I was all set to take pictures yesterday and make up a post for you.  A little before 9:00 a.m. we received a call asking if we could travel to a critical appointment 75 miles away and be there within three hours. Needless to say all of my plans for the day went beside the way.  We did not get back home until 7:00 p.m. and all the gorgeous sunshine was gone. Today is not so good and the pictures show it. 

First of all there was a question about whether or not we have baby blessing cards for boys.  We have lots.  It is just the little girl card we ran out of. 

Here you have it.  I finished the needleweaving in the three triangles.  I cut and pulled the fabric threads in the three central cartouches.  Then a very dear friend and stitching mentor was able  to describe and make me understand where the miscount is.  I have cut it all out and will be able to restitch it quickly.  You can see the shadow of the holes where it was on the right side.   





Here is Dog House sampler.  It is coming along nicely. 

There is going to be a change up in my stitching routine.  I will be getting a new model from Just Cross Stitch magazine.  It is a little cutie and I hope you can see it when it is published. 
I will be setting Dog House Sampler aside and working more slowly on the wedding sampler. 

That's all for now because I have to take care of some laundry.  Why does household business have to get in the way of stitching? 

Blogging got away from me.  I do not know if this entry is late for this past week or early for the coming week.  Let's say early for the coming week and forget about the past week. 

This morning was magical.  I was standing with my back to the sun admiring  the vine with little red trumpet shaped flowers that I grow for hummingbirds.  As I was looking I heard a buzzing sound coming closer and closer to me and then I heard cute little chipping chips.  It was a hummingbird checking each one of the tiny hummingbird sized flowers.  When it was done, it came down right in front of me at eye level and hovered long enough for me to talk to it.  Life is wonderful.  

I go back to school this coming Monday.  School actually began Tuesday.  The past week was Welcome Week for the kindergarteners.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, they came with their parents and had special activities to do.  One of the activities was pictures.  Today I saw a composite picture of my new kindergarteners.  They are a cute bunch.  I tutor in kindergarten.  Please do not laugh.  We have all-day kindergarten.  The kids have some definite educational goals to reach by the end of school in June and they have a short attention span.   They need a little help to reach their academic (and please do not laugh at the use of academic) goals.  We work hard but still it is a struggle for some.  We will see what this new school year brings. 

The wedding sampler has been a struggle for me this week and there is little progress to show you. 

I struggled with the idea of needleweaving and making the picots on the stretcher bars and rollers.  I could just barely pinch and pull the thread through to make the picots in the two small triangles.  There was no way I could reach the larger triangle to pinch and pull the thread through to make picots.  I finally gave in and took the fabric off the stitching frame.  I just may end up taking out what I have already done to redo it off the frame. 










During the Labor Day weekend, I made baby blessing cards for little girls.  We have a program at the local hospital meeting and welcoming new parents.  It is a PR thing for the hospital but we also offer a blessing to the new babies if the parents wish it.  I cannot tell you how joyful it is.  After we do the blessing, we give the parents a card with the blessing to bring home.  It truly is an act of love. 

 I am working on Dog House Sampler again.  I have desperately needed to do some non-mentally taxing work for relaxation and to occupy myself.  It will become a tooth fairy pillow for the grandson of a friend. 
Last but not least, get yourself over to Nancy's blog to register for another of her give aways.  
 Go to see what I mean; her give aways are fabulous. 

Well, I have been busy during the past week.  I did back the two hangings for baptism in time for last Sunday.  I was so intent on finishing them on time that I forgot to take pictures of them when they were finished.  But please believe me that they were in church on time together with the baptismal certificates that I printed.  There was a third certificate that I brought in too.  We had two baptisms on 9 August; I printed them together with the one baptism on 23 August.  I forgot to change the date on the one for 23 August so I had to print it over.  Am I loosing my mind or what? 

I have been doing some knitting. 
It has been so long since I got this yarn that I no longer have the coat that it was to go with.  I think I may give it away. 
The scarf is over 72 inches long.  The ends are turned up and stitched together along the sides to form a pocket at each end. 
You can put your hands or things in the pockets.
Or you can just have them as a decorative feature. 
Neat huh?  I thought so.  That is why I wanted to make the set. 




I continue to work on the wedding sampler.  This week I had to do a little repair work so you cannot see that.  I did stitch in all the Algerian eyelets in all the chevron sections between the kloster blocks. They are stitched in Kreinik braid but you cannot really see the glitz it is so subtle.  You may see a little at the bottom of the middle chevron but because the field of focus is a little narrow, that area is a little blurred. 
I will go on to stitch a line of twining vine on each side of the three rectangles.  Then I will begin cutting the linen and needleweaving.  Please hold me in your thoughts as I cut the fabric.  That is always a slightly scary time. 
I am not going to do much stitching tonight because we are going out to pick up a 12" square canopy.  It is for one of our sons; he is a telephone lineman.  It will keep the sun off him when he is working.  If he does not want it, we will use it to give us a little shade when working in the garden.  It is a win-win no matter what the final outcome. 

Now for a little shameless advertising.  I want you to go over to Nancy's blog, Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.  She has another give away and you can state your choice for what you what your give away to be.  her things are a delight to have and to work with.