Scissors and books and excuses, oh my!

Yes, I've been scarce.  Many good excuses I won't bore you with.  But, new scissors and books found a home with me! And they are all so different.  Bunching them together like this really shows the diversity in the needlework world that can be found if you care to look.

New Gingher Alicia!

I love the blues so couldn't resist.  You can't really see it in this photo, but the design on the blue background appears to be tiny little peacock feathers.  The Alicias are resting on the completed half of a new piece I'm working of my kids' hands.  If I ever finish the second half (and I must, before my son's hand grows much more) I will do a real post showing off both.  Someday!

And pretty little dovo gold handle scallops. 

Aren't they sweet?  They are resting on one of my new book acquisitions, Scandinavian Needlecraft by Claire Young. 

I love the simple elegance of the Scandinavian folk art-inspired projects in this book!  Some of the embroidered felt swedish horses may make in onto the Christmas tree this year.  Or these charming stockings onto the mantel:

My other two new books, Makoto's Cross-Stitch Super Collection and Drawn to Stitch could not be more different.  Probably the only thing they have in common is that cotton fibers are frequently used.

Makoto's Cross-stitch Super Collection by Makoto Oozu is chock-full of quick little cross stitch motifs.  Many are very non-traditional and quirky, like insects, robots, space creatures, electronic gadgets, and other fun stuff like that.  My daughter quickly declared it one of her favorites and wants some of the brightly colored little dinosaurs and monsters stitched on everything, she says.

Drawn to Stitch: Line, Drawing and Mark-Making in Textile Art by Gwen Hedley is 180 degrees in the opposite direction.  It is full of ideas for the experimental and artistic end of the stitching landscape, using a variety of techniques including resists, transfers, and printing in addition to stiches to explore "innovative uses of line".  Now, I am not a trained artist, nor do I have the resources to explore many of these techniques, but reading this type of book does help get my creative juices flowing.  This page alone, I think may have blown my mind a little:

Those beige squiggles, were stitched using padding and wrapping techniques with fibers of different weights, to imitate worm casts in a rock.  Amazing!  Many of the pieces shown in this book were inspired by rocks or landscapes or even things like eroded walls, so this was a title I had to have.  Gorgeous.  Now if I could only find a little more time for the inspiration to carry through into execution.

Frogging

Just back from B.C.  Ask my daughter what her favorite part was, and she'll say, "catching frogs!"  As many of you know, "frogging" is also a euphemism for tearing out needlework mistakes--"rip it, rip it" but I was fortunate that kind of frog did not visit on this trip. 

One of the few sunny afternoons we went to a lake, which had piles and piles of frogs the size of a quarter.  I say piles, because they piled themselves in sunny areas into masses that looked like clods of mud (or cow pies) if you didn't look to close.  But then when you stepped close, they all hopped away to the safety of tall grass. 

The kids went crazy catching them, but bored of it quickly when they realized there were tadpoles in the lake!  Our tadpoles here are tiny little things, hard to find, in swampy areas we don't often go.  These were big fat long things. 

I am glad we hadn't cleaned out the car recently and could find buckets and bottles. 

And that I never go anywhere without my trusty hand lens (magnifying glass to the layman). 

And, that I could stitch in the sun for a few minutes while the kids played naturalist. 

More frogs next time!

Child's-eye view

The adjustment to homeschooling has been not too difficult, because it has been very much like a return to the way we lived before the public school experiment started.

As all the other kids get excited for new classrooms and bus routes and what-all, and I've heard some other mothers express relief their kids will be away during the day again soon, I'm finding I'm glad I get to keep them with me this fall.

Seeing the world through their eyes is one of the best parts.

One of the other best parts is that we don't have to stick to someone else's calendar.  Leaving this morning on another road trip, destination Northern British Columbia and DH's family ranch.  The kids have never been there.  I can't wait to see how they see it.

Next time: Actual stitching content!  And/or pictures of beautiful British Columbia, haha.

Scenes from a summer

So this is where we've been for the last little while.  Here:

Long Dog Samplers' "Do Bears" in the early morning.
25 Mile Creek campground on Lake Chelan.

And here...

Port Orchard foot ferry on a Sunday afternoon.

Can't forget when we tried this...

Trying out a spokeshave at Pioneer Farm Museum in Eatonville.

And we've been here a lot:

Cool forests behind our house.  Often.

But it still might be a little premature to do a summer-wrap up post, because summer isn't quite over yet.  Still a few weeks...let's go see what else we can find.

Catch ya on the flip side.

Home from paradise

Back now from our 10 days away.   The Moab area and Arches and Canyonlands National Parks are stunning.  I could have stayed several more weeks and still not felt like we saw everything.  Between the geology...

The 4WD roads...

The wildlife...

And the history, both ancient...

and "modern"...

I was in heaven.  Of course, while the kids liked all that stuff too, they liked the pool best. 

Even a little stitching was accomplished.  Mostly while waiting for the mountain-goat members of the family to rejoin the group.

I do not think this will be our last trip to southeast Utah.  More, please.

Pheasant in the desert

We rolled in last night.  View out our back patio at the edge of a golf course this morning.  My CHS Frederick matches Moab.  Now to dress the kids and go get the hubs hot on the 4x4!

Off we go!

First of several days of our road trip.  Here is to beginnings!