Sore Fingers!

Well, I pulled a two day stitching marathon and finished the bookmarks I was working on. Gave one away this morning and the recipient was delighted with it. Gunvor is an avid reader of romances, so the roses were the perfect thing for her.

The other friend I want to surprise is a reader of mysteries and I found two designs that I liked and couldn't choose between them, so I stitched them both and I'll let her choose the one she likes the best.

And I'm just going to read for a couple of days until my fingers and wrist don't ache quite so much, then I have to get busy on an Easter cross stitch for an exchange. It needs to be ready to mail on the 14th of March, so I don't want to wait - or it'll be another marathon as the time runs out!

Plus I have to keep working on a square for a quilt. I belong to an egroup of Canadian cross stitchers and one of our members passed away late last year so a group of us are each stitching a square in her memory and the squares will be made into a quilt and sent to her husband.

Deadlines

I've been busy stitching over the last couple of weeks or so - I have some bookmarks that have to be finished by this coming Wednesday night so I can give them away on Thursday. I've completed one - the one in the picture - and sent it off but I have 3 more to go. There are going to be some late nights this week. After all these years that I've been stitching, you would think I would have a better grasp of the time I need for different items, but I'm always pushing it!

This one I created from an alphabet found in a British cross-stitch magazine called The World of Cross Stitching. Sherry loves penguins so it was an easy match up.

Found another poem by W.B. Yeats that caught my eye. Apparently it's based on an ancient Irish story, but I haven't found the original yet to see what it is all about.

The Song of Wandering Aengus

I went out to the hazel wood,

Because a fire was in my head,

And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

And hooked a berry to a thread;

And when white moths were on the wing,

And moth-like stars were flickering out,

I dropped the berry in a stream

And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor

I went to blow the fire aflame,

But something rustled on the floor,

And some one called me by my name:

It had become a glimmering girl

With apple blossoms in her hair

Who called me by my name and ran

And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering

Through hollow lands and hilly lands,

I will find out where she has gone,

And kiss her lips and take her hands;

And walk among long dappled grass,

And pluck till time and times are done

The silver apples of the moon,

The golden apples of the sun.

Just a Quiet Day

Well, our rain day has turned into another snow day, so more reading is definitely in the works. Found a poem by William Butler Yeats that caught my eye.

No Second Troy

Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great,
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple like a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?

Wonder who the woman was that got under his skin?

There was another reason for reading today - I had to pull out 2 day's worth of stitching on my latest project because I had miscounted and I was off by too much to work around. AAARRRGGG! That's what I get for starting a new project immediately after finishing an old one and I'm tired. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Passing Time

Well, it was a winter weekend - wind, snow, below zero temperatures. Great weather for snuggling with the cat, homemade soup & stew and, of course, stitching. Finished a bookmark and got started on a second one. I really like these bookmark blanks, but I'm getting low on my supply and haven't seen them in any of the on-line LNS's I've been looking at. Oh well, I'm going to try a new finishing technique with the next one and see what it looks like.

Also a good time for reading, so I've started on a book of short stories called "Murderer's Row" - all the stories have some connection to baseball.