Monotony buster

My palm frond slides redo has about exhausted my patience.  So, rather than hide them from myself, I am putting them on the next couch cushion to stare at me while I stitch a 13mesh belt canvas in basketweave for a shop model.  I saw a different way of belt finishing while I was in Baltimore--it uses the military style of buckle where the belt has no grommets but slides through, making it very adjustable. And I hope that this interlude will allow me to then attack the palm fronds with renewed vigor next week

We had painted this geometric in red on the white canvas, but I decided I wanted to show people they could change the colors.

I'm using lime green and hot pink silk 'n ivory.  You will notice that I am doing it from the top down in terms of the design elements.  And what a change of pace from 18m! 

So much for culture....

I've been so proud of my enjoyment of opera via the Metropolitan Opera's Saturday HD transmissions in movie theaters.  This is my 5th year and I am really pleased when I look back at my mental lists of personal favorites and definite losers.  Sadly, the losers seem to all be modern operas whose conceptions have been aggressively encouraged by "the Met" and other opera companies.  They want American contemporary operas.  Well, I'm sorry, folks, but Ades and Adams ain't Verdi.  

I like melody and repetitive themes and music you can hum and remember.  Not cacophony and discord and really screechy voices and no rhythm pattern.  The Tempest as performed Saturday in HD was difficult to endure.  My hearing was tested last year when I had a persistent ear infection and so I know it is perfect.  Perhaps too much so.  I was in pain during Ariel's arias (?) in the first act of The Tempest.  And Simon Keenlyside has a marvelous voice, but his body (like mine) has suffered the ravages of time.  Put a leotard on, sweetie!  I lasted until the intermission when Deborah Voight was interviewing the singers of Ferdinand and Miranda.  When they said their favorite music was in the 2nd act (just concluded), I realized that the "best" was over.  Ta, ta.  

I lasted through "Nixon in China",  actually enjoyed the staging of huge puppets in "Gandhi"--but not the atonal chanting, and "Doctor Atomic" was at the bottom until this production of "The Tempest".  But this was the first time I actually quit mid-opus.  Ah, well!  I'll keep coming and exposing myself to different composers and singers and hopefully none will be as disappointing as this one.

Ideas for a small Christmas pillow

When I was at the Baltimore market in September, I couldn't resist picking up some smaller canvases for Christmas pillows.  I haven't been able to decide which one I would like to stitch as a shop model, but I'm sure I will eventually do one.

These are all designs from Raymond Crawford.  My favorite is "Fa, la, la, la" but I'm also intrigued by the two "Ho, ho, ho" canvases.  I think it's interesting to see variations on a theme and a good designer can take the idea to amazing levels.

EDIT:  Don Lynch of Associated Talents kindly corrected me--the last "HO, ho, ho" is an AT design.  Sorry for the misinformation.

Hope for the needlepoint world

Yesterday, Jane of Chilly Hollow (http://www.chillyhollow.blogspot.com) had an entry from a reader who is concerned about the survival of needlepoint.  It was such an apt topic for Needle Nicely.  In the afternoon, I was visited by a family from Roanoke, Virginia.  This time last year they came into the shop.  They had seen the needlepoint done by a friend of theirs in Roanoke who also has a winter home in Vero Beach.  The children were intrigued and wanted to know more.  The father decided that he would also learn so he could help his children.  I gave all 4 family members a "learner" kit (a 5x6 square of 10mesh canvas, 2 or 3 strands of Paternayan yarn, a #18 needle, and diagrams of both the continental and basketweave stitches).  They came back in a few days to find a "real" project.  The parents were wise.  They insisted the children select their project from my $5 sale basket and then choose their fibers from some of the sale fibers I had.  The father promised that if they finished the project, then this year when they came down they could select their next project and fibers from full-priced merchandise.  

Yesterday was their first visit for this year.  It was wonderful to see how proud they were of the progress they were making on their first projects.  (Though dad didn't show his--he wasn't happy with his lack of progress).  They took some time to select the next thing to work on.  I helped with the fiber selection and they left with promises to see me again next week.

Today dad came in to check on his progress--his basketweave was beautiful, but he needed one more ply of yarn.

I also had a woman in today who had purchased a Kaffe Fassett kit advertised in the New York Times.  After she opened it, she realized she couldn't remember how to start a strand and several other small details.  She called before she came in to be sure I would help her.  I know some shops won't help unless you purchase the item from them.  I feel that causes too much ill will.  The job of a lns is to encourage all stitchers, not alienate them.  I would rather teach the continental and basketweave stitches informally in the shop and encourage people to sign up for my pattern-stitch classes.  In these tough economic times, there is only so much money for extras like classes. 

70th birthday--whoopee!

I was born 70 years ago.  I am one of 9 children.  My mother and father had 7, my father remarried and had an additional 2.  No, we aren't Catholic.  One of my mother's brothers told me when I was about 22 that my parents were not sex fiends, they were merely inept.  Not what you want to hear about your parents.  Even today I really don't want to go there.

 I remember when I was in 10th grade world history class and we were listening to Edward R Morrow's recording (this was 1957 so it was a record) "Where were you.... on December 7, 1941".  The entire class broke up.  Our teacher was a single man from Tennessee (we were in Maryland).  He was brilliant, but couldn't figure out why we were convulsed.  Then one of the braver of us (probably mouthy me) told him that our mothers were probably pregnant with us at Pearl Harbor--or shortly thereafter.  He turned crimson.  Looking back, I'd love to hear those old programs again because they were so evocative of "the moment."

My next momentous moment was when there was a ruling in Maryland about school integration.  My father's family was from Virginia and were not open-minded about race.  Our county had a miniscule minority population and had a state-of-art-school for "the negroes" ( for 1958).  The school board announced that the schools would be unified.  My father told me that his children wouldn't be attending an integrated school.   I told my father that I intended to go to college and that I couldn't not go to school.  I needed my senior year.  Honestly, I don't remember there being any black students in the 7-12 high school my last year there.  The previous year I had been a candidate for the student body president ( and didn't win), so I was aware of the demographics.  We're talking a small school--the graduating class in 1960 was a massive 53 members!

When I arrived at Appalachian State Teachers College in Boone, NC, having been delivered by my father's driving down interstate 81 through the mountains of Virginia, I discovered that I was one of 5 students from Maryland.  One male was a music major, I was the sole female--a library science major--and three football players from the Maryland-side of the DC  area.  I had as much in common with them as I had with my Southern fellow students.  I remember the first placement test I took in the library, I couldn't understand anything the person administering the test said.  It was only when everyone else started writing that I realized the test had started.  I also remembered that I failed the speech test because "I spoke too rapidly".  Duh!

There were 900 students in my freshman class.  They did the usual thing of telling us to look to each side.  Only 1 in 3 would graduate and I think that was the final percentage, sad though that sounds.  Everyone knew everyone else on the campus which is a great insulating security.  And I think a plus for many of us from small towns.  

Boone was and still is (it's in the Northwestern mountains of North Carolina) in the back of the beyond in terms of transportation.  I used to have to take a Trailways bus from Boone to Washington, DC, where I had to change at about 2 am from one terminal  in the middle of the city to Greyhound to go into Maryland. Then I'd get off about 5:30am on the side of Interstate 40 outside my hometown of North East.

 One of my most startling memories is when I was going back to school from Md and we had stopped in Danville, VA, in 1962? at about 2 or 3 am. I stumbled off the bus to go to the lavatory in the bus station.  I headed for the nearest door and was stopped immediately inside by a loud voice telling me to leave and go next door.  I had entered the "colored" lounge.  I apologized and said I only wanted a bathroom--this was the day of freedom riders and the black inhabitants were terrified that I was trying to "free" them.  Out I went to find the "white" restrooms.    After yesterday's election results, these memories are even more meaningful. 

I'll have more about needlepoint tomorrow, I promise!

Palm frond slides, redesigned V

Hard to believe that it has been over a month since I showed my progress on the palm frond slides redesign.  I've been impatient about my lack of progress--and then I remembered that October was devoted to learning the basics of email newsletters with Constant Contact.  I succeeded, but there are only so many evening hours.  Part of those hours are necessarily spent preparing dinner.  I'm fortunate to have a husband who likes to cook, so he often grills or cooks the pasta.  And he is a fanatic about deciding on Saturday night what we will be eating each evening of the next week.  Sometimes too fanatic!  But it definitely simplifies life to know whether to defrost something--no frantically running to the grocery store at the last minute.  

I am stitching this sky upside down.  I like to stitch from the right side of the canvas to the left and from an area large enough to develop a stitch.  That's why I didn't start of the pattern at the top by the palm frond.  Too awkward to establish the pattern.  And the upper left-hand corner means I moving to the right--just not the way my mind sees stitches.  

I have managed to outline all the palm fronds (tedious, tedious) so now I can fill in.  

Nothing is coming to my mind for the palm fronds.  Shall just have to keep mulling over that problem.  Here's a shot of the two canvases.

Needle Nicely Newsletter

What wonderful alliteration!  And I have really done it.  Excuse me while I put my right arm out of joint by patting myself on the back.  Though my self-critic says my first edition was more indicative of my personality, my 2nd demonstrates that I am really serious about doing this as a monthly happening--I was only 4 days late!!!  Next month I'm aiming for doing a photograph and having the newsletter actually appear on the first of the month.  Pray for me.  That photograph seems to be the toughie.  But I think having my actual logo as a header has to be a real plus.  I worked hard on it.  Whew!

I look at newsletters from shops like Amy's in Tennessee and I think to myself, get over it.  You're small potatoes and a truly local needlepoint shop and don't think you can do a 17 page newsletter anytime in this life.  I'm thrilled that I am doing a blog and a newsletter and am communicating with my customers.  How great is life? 

I have lots of goals to be accomplished with the publication; the NN newsletter.  Learn how to have photographs.  Learn how to have a link to the newsletter archive on my blog/website.  I foresee many more early morning chats with the Constant Contact staff.   I also have goals that I want the newsletter to achieve.  Improve communication with customers.  Increase the NN customer base.  Spread the word about the many excellent services offered by NN.  All of those are also goals of the NN blog.  Marketing, marketing, marketing. 

If you'd like to be a recipient of the NN newsletter, just comment here with your name and email address.  Or email me at nnicely@gate.net  I'll be more than happy to add you to the mailings.  It's just like building followers to this blog; rather than a groundswell, it seems to be more like a ground pimple.  But it's a beginning!