Thursday, November 25, 2010

Giving Thanks

I don't have to struggle too much to recognize how lucky I am. I'm extremely thankful for my family and friends, good jobs, good health, decent jobs, nice house. Knowing that I play a part in helping people make beautiful things is such a rewarding pleasure.  I realize that cross-stitching is definitely something that falls in the luxury category, rather than one of life's basic necessities, but it's the type of thing that makes life so much more enjoyable.

I'm thankful that I've been a part of your lives and lift my cup up to you today.  I hope the holiday weekend (for those in the US, anyway) brings you a little stitching time.

Tara, my friend in Portland, sent me this pictures of her Bramble and the Rose.  She used three colors of Gloriana silk on 40 count Navy Bean linen by Lakeside Linens.  This pattern is technically a monochromatic design but it lends itself well to adding additional colors for the flowery and leafy bits.  Tara maintains that she just likes "Green and Yellow" and that the Oregon Ducks had nothing to do with color choices.

So, a toast to Tara and to all of you on this day. Go Ducks!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

The Show Goes On

It's been a rough few weeks in the Ink Circles IT department.  My main computer suffered what was later diagnosed as a hard drive controller failure while it was repairing/recovering from a pesky virus. The tech I took it to thought the two issues were unrelated, which I hope is true, as hardware eating viruses would be a scary thing. So, I need to send it back to the mothership (Dell) for repair. I couldn't wait weeks to be back online, so I did the thing any other red-blooded American with a Costco card would do. :o)

It was more of a speedbump than a brick wall.  Most files and things were recovered from an external hard drive backup, but some things are M.I.A., like the emails in my inbox.  So... if any of you stitchers had sent photo finishes that I hadn't posted yet, please accept my apologies and shoot me another copy.

Meanwhile, the band played on.  And Cristin stitched.  She's sent me this photo of her Twisted Heart finish. She added some initials and a date to personalize it.  She used the recommended colors for thread, but worked in on a lovely shade of lilac Belfast linen.  Cristin has another version planned that promises to be even more creative and colorful, so I'm standing by!


Thanks again for everyone's patience during these past two weeks. Keep on Stitchin'