Carolyn's Quaker Sampler

The Quaker Sampler is one of Carolyn’s most lovely stitched pieces. She explains here why she chose this pattern.

(Oh, and she wrote this post a couple months ago but never published it. I nagged her so much that she finally just sent it to me to publish.)

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I’m obsessed!  At least for now I am.  I’m off school for the summer, so I have a little more time, and I am obsessed with cross stitching.  I cross stitch all year long, but during the school year, so many other things take precedence.  I have kids, so their activities have always come first.  There is always homework.  They always want to eat, so there is supper to fix.  And I teach.  So there are papers to grade and lessons to plan.  So during the school year, stitch time is at a premium.  But right now, it’s summer!  And I’m obsessed.  I have been stitching like a mad woman.  And I love it!

One aspect of stitching that doesn’t get finished all the time, however, is the finishing.  I completely stitch the piece, but then what?  It needs to be finished into an ornament, a box, or it needs to be framed.  Framing can be very expensive, so the big pieces get rolled up and put away sometimes.  Actually, they get put away most of the time.  But the other day, I pulled out the box and decided it was time to get something framed.  And there it was.  The piece.  I knew which one I needed to get framed.

I stitched the Quaker Sampler several years ago.  I had just started cross stitching again.  I had been introduced to stitching on linen.  I had only stitched on Aida cloth before.  Linen was beautiful!  When I chose the Quaker Sampler, I had to choose which size linen to use, and I chose the 40 count linen because of the size of the pattern.  It’s a large pattern, so I wanted to use a count that would make it smaller.  You see, 40 count means there are 40 squares per inch.  That’s tiny!  I already have progressive lenses.  I had to use magnifiers clipped to my glasses to stitch this piece.  (Boy, was that attractive!)  But I wanted that pattern and the challenge of 40 count linen.  You see, it was a challenge.  It was linen, and it was tiny.  I love a challenge.

There was something else about that pattern, too.  It was the words:  Harmony, Honesty, Peace, Truth, Unity, Integrity, Simplicity.  I love those words.  I want those words in my life.  I want to live those words.  Speaking of challenges….   Did I mention I have a family and I teach school?  Plus I have friends in my life, and I go to church, and I interact with the public on a daily basis.  Those words….  How can I live those?  How can I speak those every day?  It’s a challenge.  With all the negative in the world, how can these words work?  They have to!  They have to work in MY world.  I have to rise to the challenge of living these words.  If I give up on this challenge then evil wins.  I have to challenge others to live these words!  If I don’t evil wins.

Maybe I’ve found a new obsession….

The Blue Pill vs. The Rolling Stones

Packing for my trip to Amarillo this summer, I tossed a sleeping pill into the container with my vitamins. I don’t use a sleeping pill very often, but if I am too keyed up when I go to bed (which I thought could happen after hours of laughing and talking with a friend I haven’t seen in six years) or am anxious, sometimes either I can’t go to sleep at all or I wake up at 3:00 a.m. and cannot go back to sleep. My doctor prescribed a very low-dose sleeping aid; it helps me fall asleep but its effects wear off after a couple hours.

Although Laura and I stayed up too late on Saturday night, talking and laughing into the wee hours, I had no trouble sleeping. (The two bottles of wine we drank while staying up so late may have helped with that.) Before we went down to breakfast, I knocked back all my morning vitamins, including a blue capsule that I took to be an acid reducer.

After breakfast, as we were packing up to head out, I thought about the blue capsule I had tossed in with the vitamins. I looked in my vitamin bottle. Yup, I definitely took the blue capsule before breakfast. Then came this conversation:

Me: Bummer.

Laura: What?

Me: I took a sleeping pill before breakfast.

Laura: WHAT?!

Me: My acid reducer and my sleeping pill are both blue capsules. I didn’t bring an acid reducer because they are an every-other-day pill and I took one yesterday. I brought the sleeping pill in case I got too keyed up and couldn’t sleep. I just took the sleeping pill.

Laura: Are you sure?

Me: (Yawn) Yeah. I’m sure.

It wasn’t that big a deal. Laura wanted additional knitting practice and I needed caffeine, so we went to a nearby Starbucks where she learned to purl and to cast off and then practiced everything she’d learned. I answered her knitting questions, drank some espresso beverages, and yawned a lot.

We stayed at Starbucks three hours. By the time Laura was feeling comfortable with her new knitting skills, I was wide awake. We hit the road.

By the time I was halfway home it had begun to rain, giving me a barometric headache. I was surrounded by 18-wheelers, half of whom were crawling along I-40 doing 50 while the other half were rushing by at 75. I was jittery from all that caffeine and not enough protein, I was low on gas, and a bathroom break sounded really good. I stopped in the next town.

Before I re-hit the road, I checked my phone and discovered a text from my sister. I decided to prolong my break and called her back. We discussed our respective exciting weekend activities. When I told her how I had mistaken my sleeping pill for an acid reducer and then spent some time at the coffee shop in Amarillo to sure I stayed awake on the way home, she told me a story of her own.

When Susan was a freshman in college in Wichita Falls, her boyfriend in Austin asked her to meet him in Dallas for the weekend because he had tickets to see The Rolling Stones. Woo hoo!!!!! They saw the concert, stayed out pretty much all night, partied up a storm, and had the most fabulous weekend possible!

Dallas is a only couple hours from Wichita Falls, but there’s not much to see along the way. Typically that’s no biggie, but after a party-filled, no-sleep weekend, Susan was exhausted. About halfway to the dorm, she realized she needed to take a nap before she fell asleep at the wheel. She turned onto a farm road and drove far enough that no one could see her car from the highway and she could just barely see the roof of the farmhouse in the distance. She then drove into the empty pasture, leaned her seat back, and went to sleep.

She’s not sure how long she was asleep when she blearily awakened with the feeling something was wrong. She came wide awake when she realized her car was shaking. Bolting upright, she saw that she was surrounded and her car was being pushed back and forth by  . . . . . cows. They were all jostling for a better view of the girl in the car, pushing their noses up to the windows, and shoving each other around. The car was rocking pretty hard. Susan was afraid the car was going to tip over, and she was going to have to explain to the parents what she was doing somewhere between Dallas and Wichita Falls in a cow pasture on Sunday evening.

She fired up engine, eased her way (honking) through the cattle, and hauled butt back to the highway. The rest of her trip was uneventful. The parents never knew she spent the weekend in Dallas with her boyfriend.

Susan and I should probably not take any road trips together.

Stitching

I have started several posts, but can't seem to get any of them completed. So, to keep us all entertained between words, here are photos of some of the LOL's recently completed projects.

Snowflakes stitched by Carolyn. Isn't that a pretty design?

Becky put the finishing touches on her carrots:

The bunny is cute, but the little flower buttons! I will definitely stitch these carrots one day for myself. So cute!!

I think I mentioned a l-o-n-g time ago that I was working on the 12th of a series of Christmas ornaments. Here they are, all assembled and ready to hang. (Thank you, Lisa!! I could never have made these look so pretty without your help!!)

Here's another ami by Amy W. She crocheted this a while back, but I forgot about the photo. Adorable lion!!

After giving one away, I knitted an Orbiting Oddity to keep. I love it, but it's obvious I had relaxed a lot when making this one as it's way bigger than the first one I made and the stitches are a little sloppy at the top of the aliens. Oh, well. One of these days, I'm going to knit a much smaller one with fingering yarn and little needles. In the interim, this big one makes me laugh.

Craft on, everyone!

Man, I'm Tired!

It has been confirmed that I am, indeed, a Laughing Old(er) Lady, possibly with extra emphasis on “old”! A few weeks ago, I had a weekend houseguest. We had a lovely weekend, but oh, my! I could barely open my eyes Monday morning and even after a couple cups of coffee, I still felt like I had been run over by a truck. The reason I was so worn out (albeit happy and laughing) is pretty simple – my houseguest was a 16-year-old girl who arrived for supper on Friday, and left around 3:30 Sunday.

Now remember, I am a divorced, childless LOL who has lived alone for the last ten years. I have had a reclusive cat for the past two years, but Cashmere doesn’t talk much, doesn’t keep up with current events, and seldom shares her opinions with me unless we are discussing whether it’s time for me to feed her. I assure you, my guest was much less demanding regarding food and much more forthcoming regarding life!

We stayed up way past my bedtime on Friday night engaged in a quite lively, interesting conversation before we plotted our strategy for errands and thrift-store-shopping on Saturday. It was a delightful evening, but I was dog-tired when we finally staggered to our rooms.

Saturday was an outstanding day. Despite our well-laid plans, we slept right through breakfast-time. Not a pair to sweat the small stuff, we hit a neighborhood diner for lunch then we launched into overdrive. We did the critical errands but we never made it to any thrift stores. We headed that way, then started thinking of other things we needed to see and do. We never slowed down until we had hit a few antique stores, several boutiques, a plant store, and the Market Basket (which is kind of the Tuesday Morning of craft/hobby stores). Somewhere in there, we stopped by the local snowball shop to cool off and rest our weary feet. By the time we finished our whirlwind of activity, then cooked and ate supper, it was dark and I was feeling a little ramshackle as we engaged in our respective restful, arty activities (knitting for me and sketching for her) prior to heading for bed. I was happy to note that my guest was a little tired, too, and we went to bed at a reasonable time that night. (At my age, feeling worse for the wear after an active day is alleviated somewhat when a much younger person is also feeling used up. I believe I represented my generation quite well by not collapsing immediately following the dishes. HA!)

We went to 8:30 church on Sunday, then rested at home for a while before we set out for lunch in the Paseo district. We dined on the patio at Sauced. My companion ordered a Rice Krispy Treat that was still warm – and shockingly large – in addition to pizza. Here’s what we ate. The Rice Krispy Treat (in the back in the bottom photo) was about half eaten by the time we got our pizza, so you can see how enormous it was initially!

After the delicious pizza, we hit several of the cool shops in the area. We saw a lot of fun stuff, but seriously, I think this was my favorite display:

Seriously? Someone will pay $20 for a shirt from the ‘70s? 

We spent more time in Ulta on Sunday afternoon than I had cumulatively spent there since I first saw an Ulta in the ‘90s, and it was hilarious experience. We saw and tried out things I’d never before actively considered, including lime green lipstick. (It’s not for me.) We had a lovely chat with a young woman who demonstrated how my guest could fill in and darken her eyebrows, then showed me how to cover up the white in mine. (sigh)

From my point of view, the weekend was a smashing success. It was a hoot to find balled-up socks in the dining room on Saturday morning and a pair of shoes sprawled next to art supplies in the living room on Sunday. Parents doubtless grow weary of seeing teenage detritus strewn about the house, but the things I saw made me happy because it meant my guest felt at home in my home. She kept her bathroom spotlessly clean, helped with the cooking and the dishes, and even insisted on taking me out for lunch on Sunday. By about five minutes after she arrived, the guest bedroom looked like a bomb had gone off in there – in fact, I wondered where all the stuff had come from because she brought only a backpack with her – but everything was perfectly ship-shape when she left.

Based on our subsequent interactions, I say with confidence that my teenaged guest enjoyed our weekend together as much as I did. I hope she comes back soon!

A note about snowballs:

Aloha, our local shop, is located at the corner of Route 66 (aka 39^th Expressway) and Council Road in front of the Sears Homestore in Bethany, Oklahoma. Aloha is a year-round snowball / coffee shop. They have good food, too. I’ve tried quite a few menu items with no disappointments; the chicken salad is particularly delicious. I have visited Aloha for breakfast, lunch, and/or an iced coffee many times, but I had never tried a snowball. Big mistake!! Their snowballs are the best! Order a snowball “Hawaiian style” for a scoop of ice cream at the bottom; you will be happy you did. There are many tempting flavors, all so delicious you will swoon! I had German Chocolate Cake and my guest had Cappuccino. YUM!! All the employees are delightful – friendly and helpful. If you happen to be in the area, go there! You won’t regret it!  

Oh, and there's indoor seating, too, and shelves of games and books in case you need entertainment while you eat and drink. 

Amarillo at Lunchtime

Earlier this summer, my friend Laura, who lives in Santa Fe, and I decided to meet for the weekend. Amarillo is pretty close to halfway between us so we met there.

On arrival, it being too early to check into our hotel, we decided to grab lunch at the Fuddrucker’s we saw across the highway. We drove over (talking), hopped out of the car (still talking), zipped into Fuddrucker’s (still talking). There was a nice young woman standing just inside the door. We stopped talking when she said “hello” and she gave us a sheet of paper, explaining that the items listed on the paper were the only choices for lunch that day. That was unexpected, but we could see the place was brand-new, so we figured they were still getting things straightened out. As we placed our orders, we noticed there was an extra person by the cashiers who gave them assistance as needed. “Wow,” we said to each other, “this must be their first week to be open.”

After we ordered, the cashier told us there was no charge for lunch but that we could make a donation to the American Quarter Horse Association if we wished. She pointed to a flyer we had not seen on the counter next to a jar with money in it. We each dropped money into the jar and wandered off to find a table, talking about how cool it was that Fuddrucker’s was raising money for the AQHA.

Laura and I had not seen each other in six years. We have spoken on the phone often, but that’s not the same as face-to-face, so we had a lot to talk about. We talked and talked. A server came by to see if we needed anything. She was very friendly and we had quite a long three-way conversation. We told her how we had met in Santa Fe, hadn’t seen each other in six years, and were spending the weekend in Amarillo. She was very nice to listen to us. She even took our picture.

Just as we finished eating, another employee came by our table – the young woman who had been supporting the cashiers. She was quite friendly, also, and told us she is a trainer based in Albuquerque. She travels around helping train employees when new restaurants open in the southwest. Well, well! We told her the story of our meeting while I lived in Santa Fe, how much we both loved the Albuquerque Fuddrucker’s, our fabulous weekend plans for Amarillo, and more. She made us promise to look for her next time either of us went to Albuquerque’s Fuddrucker’s.

She asked how we had enjoyed our lunch and the service at the Amarillo store, and since (a) we had had very good service and the food was delicious, and (b) we knew she was a trainer and would judge her trainees by what we said, we raved on and on about how delightful everyone had been, how much we had enjoyed our meals, and how absolutely awesome it was that Fuddrucker’s was raising money for the American Quarter Horse Association. She expressed her delight with our excellent experience “especially since you weren’t invited,” and then immediately moved on to talk about how nice everyone in Amarillo had been to her and how much she had enjoyed being there for the past couple weeks, and so on. Eventually, she bade us farewell and went back to her duties.

When the trainer left our table, we looked at each other. Then I asked, “Did she say we weren’t invited? Is this a private party?”

Laura considered for a moment. “Well, there was a special menu.”

We looked at each other again. “Did you see a sign or anything anywhere?” Neither of us had.

Everyone we passed on our way to the door smiled, waved, and told us to have a great weekend. We responded in kind, and walked out the door saying to each other how lovely everyone at Fuddrucker’s had been. As we reached my car, I said, “Wait. I want to look at the door.” I jogged back to the restaurant’s main entrance, and, hmmm, yes. It seems we were so busy yakking when we arrived that we whipped the door open and entered without actually looking at the door. Taped below the handle was an 8-1/2 by 11 sheet of paper noting that the restaurant was not yet open for business but was hosting a Friends and Family lunch that day.

After we stopped laughing, we consoled ourselves that the AQHA was glad we had overlooked the sign because they made some extra money. One of us pointed out that even had we been paying better attention, we may still not have noticed the sign as it was written with a small font and posted in an odd location.

Laura and I are Party Crashers, but not very skilled ones. In lieu of paying for our $20 lunch, we gave the American Quarter Horse Association $40. We crashed the event by accident. We didn’t meet anyone famous (except perhaps our new friend, the trainer from Albuquerque). We didn’t get any free booze.

We are sorry for our faux pas.

We suspect we should probably be as embarrassed about our general ineptitude as we should be about our inadvertent event crashing.

We will try to stop laughing whenever we see a Fuddrucker’s.