Barnabee’s Quest – April 13, 2008

Here’s this weekend’s progress on Barnabee’s Quest. I finished the big band with the ducks and their goldfish friends and started the even bigger band below it with a knot garden and the sparkly Kreinik gazing ball.





My apologies to Michelle for continuing to blast ahead on this piece when we’re supposed to be SAL’ing together. But, as I explained to her, I need to get this piece finished and off of the stand so that I can concentrate on other pieces that desperately need my attention. Like Pretty Posies.

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It’s a Lovely Day!

For outside work, that is. The temperature reached over 70 degrees and the sun was out for part of the time, at least. Enough to make it actually feel hot with sweatpants and a t-shirt on.

I managed to get a good bit done. I started some garden seeds indoors, then went outside, dug up some weeds, planted two new clematis plants to replace two that didn’t come back, then planted 10 lily rhisomes and 18 freesia bulbs. After that, I planted the violas and miniature daffodils that were in the basket that my dad gave me for Easter.

After that, I was hot and sweaty, but feel accomplished, so now maybe I can sit down and stitch a little bit. Or take a nap. 😉

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Dreamscapes

Sorry I haven’t posted much this week, but I really don’t have much to say. 🙂

Today’s post is for Dr. Steve, who asked that I write down my dreams whenever I remember them. I’ve been having these long dreams that flow together and pretty much run all night. It’s like a movie, but I’m tired afterwards. Not sure how much actual sleep I’m getting if I’m dreaming that much. Anyway, here’s last night’s saga:

I walked into my college dorm room after having been away for years. My roommate was Sandra, my roommate from my sophomore year and I knew that she would be hurt that I was gone so long without talking to her. The room was painted in a deep shade of purple and I had trouble turning on a light at first. Sandra had left all of my things in the room, as they were when I left.

Everyone on the hall was getting ready for some sort of formal dance and were in the shared showers. I had an aversion to using the shared showers and didn’t have any friends to go with or anything to wear, so I just stayed in the room and cried.

Sandra came back from wherever she had been and we had a long talk that night, with me explaining where I had been and what I had been doing (i.e. I got married, etc.), how my absence had nothing to do with her, etc. We ended up falling asleep feeling better about our relationship in general.

It was nearly graduation time and Sandra was due to graduate with a 10.0. While this doesn’t exist in reality, she did actually graduate with a 4.0 and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, which is really tough to do.

Anyway, at this point, the focus of the dream shifted. My friend Mary was in my dorm, as well. And this creepy older guy kept showing up in the dorm and in my room one time. My friend Albert and I think Terry were in the room with me at the time and we kept wondering if we had closed the door or it was open and he just came in. He was a very odd guy and something was just not quite right about him. Mary had her daughter Lori and her best male friend Elie with her, except her daughter was quite young (in reality, she’s a senior in high school). The creepy guy came up to me, commented on what a cute little girl Lori was and asked where they were parked. I told Mary this and then the guy grabbed Lori’s arm. There was a struggle and building security showed up. We knew this would do no good, though, as we had found out that he had a “gateway key card” which allowed him into any room in any building on campus. This meant that he essentially had carte blanche and would be let go by security to go on his merry way.

Flyers were sent to everyone in the dorm, except there was no mug shot of the guy and I was angry about this because the only picture on the flyer wasn’t a very good one, whereas I knew that the photo on his badge was a perfect likeness. It turned out not to matter anyway, as he knew that everyone was on the lookout for him, so he started wearing disguises and we never knew if someone was him or not. He was angry with me for getting involved and reporting him, so I was afraid he was going to try to kill me. The problem was, I would never know who was trying to kill me because of the disguises he was wearing. Sometimes we thought someone was him and were wrong. I was extremely paranoid.

Mary and I went to her room and it turned out to be this gigantic room with 8 to 10 other girls in there. They yelled “Surprise!” when we walked in and turned out to be celebrating Mary’s birthday. There were several different cakes around the room and the conversation ended up turning to the creepy guy.

At this point, the dream shifted again. One of the girls in the dorm showed me these really pretty embroidery scissors that she purchased from a bazaar downstairs. So, I took Mary and Lori (who was now back to being a teenager) down to investigate. Mary sat outside so that she didn’t get winded from walking around and Lori came in with me. We found the scissors shop right away, but Lori was told that she wasn’t allowed to buy scissors. I got the feeling that they thought she was too young. So, I went on alone. It turned out that it was a build-your-own-scissors place, where you could pick each component of your scissors, the finish, the color, etc. The blades were separate from the handles and the place was huge, so you could come up with any number of combinations. I chose a pair of blades that resembled a fountain pen at the tips and remember looking for the right pair with good craftsmanship that cut to the tip and had a smooth working to them. The girl who suddenly appeared as my guide assured me that the blades would be worked on by this woman sitting beside the hangers of blades until they worked just right. She had polishing compound and a polishing wheel that she was using to refine the blades.

Next, we moved on to the handles. I wanted something lacy and found this sample pair of handles that were an intricate version of the Eiffel Tower, except there were none available at the time. I asked my guide when there would be some more and she said that there would be no more made that day by the artisan. Next thing I knew, it was the next day and the handles were available. I went up to a male guide because mine had disappeared and we tried to find my blades so that my scissors could be assembled and then I could choose the color and finish.

And that’s about when I had to get up. If you stuck with me this far, I hope it was interesting to you. Otherwise, this will just be printed out for my next visit to Dr. Steve in two weeks.

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Barnabee’s Quest – April 6, 2008

Two bands into Part III and I just love the little caterpillars! There’s nothing like backstitching over one to capture a sense of detail. Now working my way through the third band, with four over-one ducks and a lot of other stitching. This is a big band. Sorry for the poor lighting, but it’s cloudy here today. Or did I take it last night?





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Barnabee’s Quest – April 03, 2008

Part II is done!





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Thank You To Melanie!

This hearty thank you goes out to Melanie in Australia. I won her 1000th comment giveaway on her blog in November. Poor gal has been totally swamped since then and was fretting about what to send me. Well, she totally outdid herself, folks. I received the most marvelous package from her at the beginning of March and am still over the moon with what she sent.

First off, you have to see what I saw when I opened the package. I was so tickled by the fact that Mel took the time to wrap everything up so nicely!





The most notable gifts in the package are two sets of stationery, one in shades of purple and the other in shades of blue, packed into lovely matching organza bags. I don’t know how Mel printed these babies out, but many of them were printed in silver that catches the light nicely. She put together a design for the stationery of stars with the words “thoughts from a creative mind” at the bottom. Very appropriate, considering my penchant for stars and the subtitle of my blog (random thoughts from a creative mind). Such a clever gal!

She also included some goodies, as if the stationery wasn’t enough. A generously sized piece of purple Silkweaver fabric named Magic, several spools of ribbon, a marker duo and some yummy hand cream! Thanks for spoiling me rotten, Mel!





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SBQ – Stitching Essentials

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Terri and is:

What items do you consider essential to your needlework that you keep in your stitching bag?

Well, first of all, I don’t really keep anything in my stitching bag full time, except for some little projects that I can work on in an emergency. It also depends on which stitching bag you’re talking about, as I have two. My favorite is the Tinkerbell bag I bought at WalMart to try to fit my mid-sized projects better. It’s less tapered at the bottom than my previous stitching bag, so it’s better suited to stretcher bars, though I think I have yet to take a project on bars anywhere to require the bag…

The other is one of the DMC needlework bags. Not suited to bringing many projects anywhere, but I do keep a spare pair of scissors and a spare needle or two in there, though I barely use it at all anymore, except to transport finished projects so that they stay nice and flat.

I keep nothing full-time in my Tinkerbell bag, instead opting to throw my everyday scissors and an Altoids tin (a VSCyberStitchers July exchange gift from a couple of years back), with a needleroll, dololly and marking pins contained within, in whenever I need to take the bag somewhere. Again, it doesn’t go much of anywhere lately, unless we travel somewhere, which also hasn’t been very often.

Geez, I think that this all points to the fact that I need a life? I need to get out of the house more, that’s for sure. I hope to get out and plant some bulbs soon, if the weather stays warm and the ground warms up. I’m concerned about planting them too soon, with the nights still getting cold – below freezing at times. But I may just say, screw it, I’m planting them while I feel like it. 😉

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Thank You to Coral!

Today’s post features a parcel of goodies from Coral. While Coral sent the package sometime in early December, it took until late February to reach my house. Hey, it had to come halfway around the world, give the poor thing a break! 😉

Inside, Coral had a card with a beautiful bird on it and two South African fabrics. I love them both and foresee a two sided pillow being made out of them. I appreciate you thinking of me, Coral, even if it didn’t make it by Christmas like your sister’s package did. 🙂 Thank you!





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Thank You to Dawn!

I received a thoughtful package from Dawn unexpectedly in the middle of February. Inside was the sweetest heart-shaped box finished expertly by Dawn. The top features a Quaker heart sampler design, stitched in a red overdyed thread. (I think red is becoming one of my new favorite colors.) There is even a series of Quaker motifs in a heart shape finished into the inside of the box, which had to have been hard to do. I am impressed! I still have it sitting out on display in my dining room. Thank you, Dawn!





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Thank You to Myrna!

I received an email message out of the blue the other day from Myrna, asking me for my mailing address, as she had a little something that she wanted to send me. I’m not sure if she reads my blog and saw what I was going through or what, but I’m touched that she thought of me.

Well, I should have known that a “little something” would be more than just a little something. 😉 Myrna knitted me the most beautiful piece with hearts in it. I’m so impressed at her knitting skills, partially because I have precious few myself and can appreciate what she made. I’m going to use it as a hot pad, though not for anything that might get it dirty. Probably just for formal meals where I need something to rest a hot dish on.

The star of the party, though, is a beautiful heart design scissors fob. As I told Myrna, I had forgotten how impeccable her finishing skills are. So, in typical fashion, this fob is perfection itself. She also included a cute stitch counter that I will probably employ when I finally start that HAED bookmark. Not only was everything heart-themed, but it was all this luscious color of burgundy, as well. Unfortunately, my picture doesn’t do everything justice.

Thanks Myrna; you’re a peach!





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