I had an initial decision to send Walk in the Woods (Cross-Eyed Cricket). Now that I see everyone else offering up their UFO’s, I’ll do the same and see if there’s any preferred piece folks would like to work on.

All photos pop larger.

Here’s Walk in the Woods:
It’s on 16 or 18 ct. Aida.

I have Apache Wedding Blessing (Kooler Designs), which is for a friend:
On 28 ct linen – a very slippery linen.

Floral Bellpull (TW), which went around on a previous robin:
On 28 ct evenweave

Smoky Mountain Cats (Pegasus Designs), which is a solid sea of blue. No. Not kidding.
On 14 ct blue Aida

Cats on a Staircase (Bucilla), which is a Christmas stocking and my longest UFO piece at this point. My one hesitation on this is that I have a blatant stitching error on it – somewhere along the way, I instinctively switched my stitching direction, so it’s a tad… messy.
On 14 ct Aida

Millennium (TW), which I got from a fellow stitcher who was looking to offload some UFOs. It’s sadly stalled with me, too.
On 28 ct Evenweave

Alternatively, I could send around my restart of Spring Queen (Mirabilia), which had a rather annoying color malfunction with the fabric. That one hasn’t been restarted, but I could put two weeks of work into the gown folds before sending. It would be on either 28 or 32 ct evenweave.

Ones I won’t send…

Egyptian Sampler – because I really do want to do that one myself
Noah’s Ark – most of the remaining stitching is over-one, which I don’t want to force anyone to do
Legends of the Dragons – I’m feeling an itch to work on this again myself
Fantasy Triptych – really big piece, really expensive postage.

Any thoughts?

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I started work on it this morning at about 10 am at our second Rhode Island Stitchers get-together at the library. Managed to get some decent work on it today while listening to a couple of new women who stopped by who really, really needed to talk. Topics were difficult and the timing wasn’t good for the topics for others in attendance, unfortunately, but still… we let them talk. It was a bit depressing, however – not the silly, cheery stitching group ideal.

Still – it’s what happens when groups are open to the public. And it was pretty clear both women who came were in some pretty desperate need to have someone to talk to. *shrug* As long as it’s not the permanent state of mind, it’s fine. I do feel sorry for these women – they both seemed so incredibly lonely.

The rest of the day was fairly quiet. Erich was running a Star Wars d20 game in the garage, and I spent most of the day stitching and watching my “true crime” TV. I admit the combination of cross-stitch (particularly flowery samplers) and watching Gangland episodes is a rather weird combination, but meh… I’m fascinated by these shows from a psychology standpoint, I suppose.

So it was a good day. A little odd, I suppose – but good. Now I’m off to bed to prep for probably the chores day of my vacation.

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Here’s how it looked when I received it in mid-July:

Here’s how it’s looking today as I send it off to Catherine:

My goal was to finish one orca. I believe I did that.

I’m on a six-day vacation week. After four days of rain, the sun is shining and I’m ready to go out and enjoy the weather. The day is on pause only because Erich had an eye appointment this morning and they dilated his eyes. It’s a bit bright out there for him today (ironic that he’d have been fine the last four!) We’re hoping to do some local Rhody food exploration today – the two locations we have in mind are Kenyon’s Grist Mill and Wright’s Dairy Farm which are nearly on opposite corners of the mainland here in Rhode Island. BUT… it’s such a small state that it doesn’t matter!

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I think we’re good on the tomato front!  I have a pot of homemade sauce on the stove right now.  I will be making fresh salsa tomorrow evening for our Dungeons & Dragons game this weekend, and there is some mozzarella cheese to make salads.

And we’re nowhere near done with the harvesting for the season, either.

We have nine different tomatoes growing in our garden – all are heirloom.  Three roma/paste tomatoes, three slicing, and three beefsteak.  Colors range literally from white to black.

Right now, it seems that the romas and the white beefsteaks (which interestingly start turning to blush… probably some cross-pollenation going on) are prolific.  I also have some lovely persimmon tomatoes in this batch (those would be the orange ones in the orange bowl on the left).

I think I need some more tomato recipes!  Anyone have some good ones to share?  I figure we’ll make some kebabs, too.  But I definitely need to use up a LOT.

Tonight’s sauce recipe:

Note:  I have exchanged the ground beef for italian sausage in the past – which is FANTASTIC.  Also great for adding green pepper or other “chunky” sauce items.  We added 3 small jalepeno peppers from the garden for this batch, and they worked great for some added spice. 

I keep this as the rough balance, but I tinker every time with it.  I don’t add sugar – I firmly believe in allowing natural tomato sweetness/tartness to dictate the sauce, but if you need it – feel free.

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Afterward, we headed a bit further down Route 1 to Quonochontaug Pond and wandered through the salt flats on the southern side of the pond for a couple hours. We saw several crabs, tons of minnows, jellyfish, and a horseshoe crab. The water was wonderful – I honestly wish I would have had my bathing suit so I could have gone deeper. At one point on our way back from a little rock shoal in the flats, we tried crossing through a cut path in the reeds – but I quickly sunk to mid-calf in some very stinky mud… so yeah, backed out of there and continued trudging through the water instead. On the mud trail, we did see lots of bubbles against the water – we’re thinking it was a well-populated clam bed. Several people were walking around with buckets and nylon bags, and I’m pretty sure I saw Quahogs in those bags (a local really, really big clam for those who are unfamiliar).

It’s a fantastic place – the water is brilliantly clear and a great temperature (not too warm, not too cold, with some neat swirling eddies of both temperatures). Great for little kids because there’s no real tide to worry about. There were plenty of people there, but it didn’t feel crowded or chaotic – just a bunch of very friendly people enjoying a gorgeous little nook of Rhode Island on a gorgeous summer afternoon. Can’t beat it!

Matt got very sunburned, and I’m a little toasty feeling – but I think both of us should be okay tomorrow. Erich is just fine – I’m envious of the native blood in him. He just tans.

***

I’m redoing some pictures for the Postcrossing of the Day cards – I wasn’t happy with how they photographed (they look very blurry to me). Once I get some done and cropped, I’ll start back up with the feature. Probably will get at least a few done this week.

***

Stitching, stitching… it’s been a wild week! On Sunday, I got together with a few fellow stitchers from Rhode Island for our first official Rhode Island Stitchers get together. We hit it off immediately and had a great time. The next meetup is scheduled for Saturday the 14th at the Warwick Public Library (open to all, so please come down… info is on the Facebook group).

I’ve been working on two projects this week – Spryntz‘s RR piece and Astrology Sampler.  I decided to restart Astrology Sampler on Thursday.  The original fabric I’d chosen just was NOT working as I’d hoped.  Even Erich looked at it and went “ugh… no, that looks bad.”  So rather than have fun with Silkweaver fabbies on this one, out came the Aida tubes.  I’ve restarted it on good old-fashioned 14 ct black Aida, which is what the sample piece is on, I think.  It already looks much better.

Spryntz’s piece is coming along slowly but steady.  I’d planned on getting some of it done tonight, but I’m too tired after being in the sun.  I’ll work on it tomorrow.

Speaking of Robins – there’s a new UFO Round Robin starting up soon, if anyone’s interested.  Go over here for the information.  Right now it’s in preliminary sign-ups.  The plan is to kick it off sometime in September (I’m guessing probably late-ish September).

That’s it for me… time for bed.  :)

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Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the ‘wrong kind of person’ for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.”

– Mildred Loving 1938-2008

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Today’s card was received this month as part of the July Alternative Round Robin #1 on the Postcrossing Forums. This card came from participant #19, Pro, from China. The caption on it reads “Wulingyuan Scenery – Warrior Training a Horse.” Pro also mentioned on the card that this is a UNESCO site in his country.

It’s absolutely breathtaking – although I imagine if there is a lookout point from where this photo was taken, I’d never manage to get close to it with my horrible fear of heights!  My husband commented that it looks like something out of the movie Avatar.  I think he’s pretty close!

From Wikipedia on the area:

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This is a postcard of Union Square in San Francisco. I received this card via a non-Postcrossing private swap back in 2002, presumably from a friendship book based on the text on it.

San Francisco is a special place to me. When I was 12 years old, my mom took me to SF for a “girls week out” shortly after she and my father separated. Just the two of us. It was the first time I met some of her friends who have become dear to me over the years as surrogate aunts. It was really the first time I saw my mom not just as my mom, but as as a friend that I could really enjoy spending time with. I saw the house I lived in for the first six months of my life. I saw where my parents lived when my dad was doing his residency. I played chicken with other riders on the trolleys going up and down those hills, high-fiving the people standing on the running boards on the inside of the cars. They roll close enough to each other that you could touch other people going the other way… while also holding on tight to the pole so you didn’t fall off.

And I got to fall in love with San Francisco. And yes, I left a huge piece of my heart there. I absolutely adore it, and I miss not going there.

A year after that trip with my Mom, she moved there. For the next eight years, the San Francisco Bay Area was a second home to me. And I was close to going out that way for college.

Sometimes postcards bring back a lot of good memories. This happens to be one of those cards.

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Since taking this photo the other day, I’ve finished bringing the vine border across the bottom and have started on the mini birdhouse that’s in the empty bottom section.  Once I’m done with the birdhouse, I’m going to go back and finish up all of the flowers.  I need to find another skein of DMC #935 to finish up the dark green under the light green squiggly.  I’ll probably focus on getting everything BUT the green done first, since I’ve been working nothing but green since last Friday.  I’m a bit tired of it.

This is someone else’s completed version, for reference.

So yeah, this one’s moving right along.  The best thing is that there’s virtually no backstitch, so once I have the crosses done, it’s essentially done.  :)  I have finish #5 of 2010 in my sights!

I dunno… maybe I’ll get another surge and actually push this one done.  There is a Rhody Stitcher group meetup on Sunday.  I imagine I’ll get some stitching energy from them.  :)

After that, I’ll be working on the UFO Round Robin for a week – I have Spryntz‘ piece now.  I keep joking with my husband that I’m going to be stitching the Celestial Orcas he never wants me to summon when we play Dungeons & Dragons.  (geek in-joke… don’t ask).  Her piece is called “Giants of the Sea” and is a Sunset-published piece.  It’s not one I’ve seen before.  It’s really been progressing since she sent it of.  I’m planning on working as much of the orca as possible that belongs to that disembodied tail.

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Today’s card is one of my favorites that I’ve received from Postcrossing since the very beginning. This is Postcrossing card #AU-3350 (Australia) received from Postcrossing user Angie back in June 2006.  I apologize for the slight blurry photo… I’m going to be trying to fix this over the weekend with my photos to date.

The title of the painting is “Autumn (Fish- Mussels – Pippies)” by Yirra-Kurl (aka Deborah Newenbam-Coertse), an Aboriginal artist.  I have a didgeridoo with the same dotted Aboriginal style art (my didg has turtles on it) in similar colors.

It’s one of the more colorful postcards in my collection.

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