September 28, 2026 - Another Friend Gone Too Soon

 It's been less than two months since I posted about my friend, Denise, passing away. In this post, I mentioned my friend, Sheryl, who had been instrumental in Denise and I meeting and becoming friends. This morning I got the news that Sheryl had passed away last night. In the post about Denise's passing, I talked about Sheryl, who hosted an online quilting group, The Quilting Post. Sheryl and I met at the Houston Quilt Show one year - probably in the late 70's and became instant friends. She lived in south Louisiana and any time she would be passing through Lake Charles, we would try to meet for a meal together; several times I was in Baton Rouge and she would come there and spend time with me. 

There were four of us in that online quilting group who ended up becoming close friends - Denise, Sheryl, Susan and myself. Now I'm the only one left!  Today I was feeling really sad and then I thought . . Sheryl, Denise and Susan are probably having a grand reunion in heaven and feeling bad for me because I'm left behind!  :) 

One of the best things about my friendship with Sheryl is that I would never have met Vince except for her. She's the one who decided we could all join Delphi, which was an ancient internet . . I don't even know what you call it . . like AOL but smaller and you had to know at least some DOS to be able to use it. Sheryl somehow knew DOS and gave us a quick "class" and we all joined Delphi. I needed a screen name and Sheryl had preached to us about not using real names. I couldn't think of a name and my perfume bottle was sitting there by the computer - Cabotine - so I used that for my screen name. Vince was online one night and saw my name and thought maybe I was Italian and started talking to me. You see where that chance meeting got us!

So . . another day where the tears fall without warning  but I'm a much better person for having had Sheryl as one of my friends. I will miss her.

I went back to our last emails back and forth about a month ago and this is the last thing Sheryl wrote me:  "I think about Denise all the time.  It’s still such a shock that she’s gone."

Now, I have both of them to think about and miss!

September 28, 2026 - A New Stitching Plan

 This new stitching plan may be my best, easiest to follow, most likely to succeed plan yet (and you know there have been many plans!)

Tara Sullivan (again) was talking a month or so ago about her new stitching plan. If you're interested, Tara talks about it in this video.

I watched the video and thought it was kinda dorky and didn't even watch her Stitching Roulette videos #1 and #2 but then #3 came on and I was in the middle of something else and it was kinda just playing in the background and I thought . . that sounds interesting.

Then Saturday I was watching Brenda and the Serial Starter and they were talking about it and wanting to do something similar to what Tara is doing.

Then . . Vince was watching a very late night football game Saturday night (Georgia Tech playing on the west coast) and I start thinking about Tara's Stitching Roulette plan and that's when it hit me -- As I was cleaning to make room for the furniture guys to get through the sewing room, I came across a box of some of the first charts I had purchased back in 2020 and 2021. Then there was a drawer in a chest that had a bunch more. There are so many charts that I have that I want to stitch so my plan is going to be a bit less strenuous (not sure that's the right word) than Tara's plan but here's how I plan to do this.

1. I will pull 15 or 20 charts that I've had for a while (at least a year) and that I really want to stitch, kit them all up with floss and linen, place them in a bag or envelope.

2. The envelope will be closed and there will be no indication on the outside as to what's inside. 

3. Once they're all packed up, I will shuffle them up so I have no idea which one is which, then I'll stick number stickers on the envelopes and stack them in numerical order in a bin.

4. When I'm ready to start a new project, I will grab #1 and work on it until it's finished. Then I can work on a WIP - something else that needs to be finished. When I'm ready to start another new project, I will grab the #2 envelope and get it stitched. And that's how it will go.

5. Before I can buy a new chart, I have to have finished at least five projects. They can be older WIPs that are already in my bins, or they can be some of the numbered projects but . . five finishes before I buy a new chart. Honestly, when I have so many that I want to stitch and not as many years left to stitch as I would like . . why am I buying new charts anyway? 

Sound like a good plan?

Once I get all my charts pulled, I'll share photos of them. I'm only pulling charts that I really (REALLY!) want to stitch so that should help me get them done!

I'm pretty excited with this new plan. I think there are going to be quite a few stitches doing something similar to Tara's plan!

September 27, 2026 - A Grateful Heart Stitch Along

 I'm a sucker for a good Stitch Along, even though my record at sticking with it and finishing on time (or ever!) isn't very good, I jumped in on the stitch along hosted by Tara Sullivan and Nichol Spohr. The project is A Grateful Heart by The Scarlett House. I love everything produced by The Scarlett House! This project was one of the exclusives for the Homespun Needlework group on Facebook a year or so ago and I wanted to get it then but it was only available as a kit with linen, floss and the chart. I have enough floss and linen - didn't need that so I just waited until the chart was released to the public. 

The Stitch Along officially started Saturday, September 26. I got it all set up on Markup R-XP and was ready to start that day. Tara Sullivan created a "plan" and this is the assignment for the first week (and we can really stitch whatever we want): 

I would love to keep up with this project! 

Because I have no stitching frames that are empty but I have several that I loaded with linen for other projects that I never started, I grabbed one of those. I know it's a Picture This Plus linen and I'm pretty sure the color is Sand and I thought it was 36 count. When I started stitching, I got concerned that it might be 32 count and, if it is, it isn't going to be wide enough so I went ahead and stitched across the top row of the border to be sure I wasn't going to run out of linen and I'm not so it must be 36 count.

Here's my progress. I did a little more than the required amount for Week 1, which is ok.  The plan said to stitch two flowers on the left but I stitch right to left so I stitched the two flowers on the right. That's ok too - they don't have any serious rules.

When I was getting this one set up in Markup, I set my daily stitching goal to 450 stitches per day. I usually set it at 350 or 400 but with the Blackbird Academy going on, I need to get in a bit more stitching time each day.

You can see that I stitched 743 stitches on the 26th and 568 on the 27th. 

This project gets put away for a few days while I try my best to finish Come into my Garden before the end of September.

September 22, 2026 - Progress on Come Into My Garden

 Come into My Garden by Blackbird Designs is my September project for Blackbird Academy. For anyone not familiar with Blackbird Academy, it's a Facebook group by Leah Bloom (The Blooming Stitcher on Youtube) and Holly Jones (Mrs. Jones Stitches on Youtube). We have a different prompt every month. September's prompt was birds. I'm not done with it . . I may not finish it in September and if I don't, I will use this as my project again in January when the prompt is "House" or in March when the prompt is "Flowers". Or, I can finish it if I have time next month (or any other month). My plan was to stitch something different each month but my bigger plan is to finish the 10 months of Blackbird Academy with 10 finishes so . . we'll see. 

You can see why I was so happy to find this linen that I knew would be perfect for this piece. It's Sassenach by Fabrics by Steph. I only ordered enough for this piece and I feel like I may need a piece of this in my stash so I may order another piece of it. I really do love it so much. This is my memorial piece fo my grandmother, who was responsible for my love of sewing, quilting, canning and probably cross stitch even though she never did cross stitching but she taught me to do embroidery when I was about 5 years old. She probably desperately needed something to keep me out of trouble and, for the most part, my love of needlework has kept me busy and probably out of trouble (unless you count Vince's frustration with all the packages that arrive).

There's still 8 days left in September but two of those days are Wednesdays and I don't work on this piece on Wednesdays (that's my day to stitch with Debbie and I stitch on something with 32 count linen on those days), so, I basically have 6 days left to stitch on this. I could get it finished but it isn't likely.

The Furniture Shuffle

 We've probably just decided we're never moving again and if we do, it will not be by choice. Just moving things around to get rid of the old chairs and bring in the new chairs has been a huge chore - but mostly because of the "stuff". Normally when adding furniture downstairs, the delivery folks will want to come in through the basement and the easiest way is to come in through the sewing room and then into the family room or a bedroom. The sewing room has truly filled up to the brim with "stuff" that does not need to be in there.

Of course, there's a sewing machine, a cover stitch machine, a serger, a longarm that has never been fully set up in the six years we've lived here but the table is set up taking up 12' x 4 or 5 feet of space! Then there's a cutting table and an ironing table that I made years and years ago.

There are at least 6 of the shelf units with quilting fabric and linen on them. 

Then . . things that do not need to be in the sewing room - a love seat with a console in the middle, a recliner, a bed, two end tables, LOTS of jars of canned food . . and I somehow had to make a path big enough for two guys to bring recliners in and our. It's hard enough to walk through there without carrying anything.

So, I spent all day Saturday, most of Sunday and Monday morning cleaning, tossing stuff, filling bags for donation - making a path through the sewing room. There was so much that needed to be thrown out and so much that needed to be donated and there's still so much in there. 

Monday about noon, the furniture store called and wanted to know if they could bring the chairs Monday afternoon. Oh, YES!! The sooner those chairs are here, the sooner I can sit down and stop cleaning because there was no stopping point in that sewing room!

The chairs arrived and Vince and I are both seriously impressed. Vince can't believe the difference in these chairs and the ones we've been buying.

In the end, the delivery guys wanted to come through the front door and down the stairs so other than removing the recliner from the sewing room, they didn't even come through there. I did make good progress getting an area cleaned but the cutting table, the sewing table, the bed, the love seat -- everything is piled high with "stuff" so I still have to go through all that. Before I start that, I'm going to organize the quilting fabric, see what I want to keep to use for finishing cross stitched pillows and small things and donate the rest of it. Once I get some shelves cleaned off, I can organize the cross stitching supplies and the rest of what's needs to be put away.

We've only had them less than 24 hours but . . as of now, we're very pleased. It's a Zecliner by Flexsteel and there are several models. This chart provides a comparison among the various models. We got the Model 2 (Standard). The only things I see that Model 2-Advanced and Model 3 have that our model doesn't have are: (1) Cooling Pillow - These chairs are in the basement - everything stays plenty cool down here. (2) Nanobionic fabric - Our store didn't have this and we weren't willing to wait 5 - 7 months (or longer) to get a chair that wasn't in stock. (3) Heat - Don't need that. I have two dogs and a heated small blanket/throw that I use if it's cold. There are times Vince might like heat on his back but he will use a heating pad for that. (4) Air Massage - We might have liked that but, again, it wasn't in stock here. (5)  Lift - Nope, didn't need that . . at least not now. (6) Rocker - Definitely NOT! That's one thing I absolutely didn't want because dogs wiggle and that makes the chair moved when I'm trying to stitch!

Probably if a 2-Advanced had been available, we might have considered that but, for the extra $$, maybe not. We won't be missing what we didn't get.

The literature says this chair is for people 5'6" to 6'. I am not 5'6" and it seems fine to me.  

One more thing - the specs say the chair is 40". I have not measured it but it is probably at least 5" wider than the chairs we had, which caused a bit more furniture shuffle once the chairs arrived but the chairs really are SO comfortable.

I'll try to post again after a month of using it.

September 18, 2026 - Another Stitching Chair

 I just had to look at my phone to make sure the date was right! How on earth is the first half of September (plus a few days) already gone? Time truly flies.

There has to be a point where I find the perfect stitching chair. Heck, I don't even mind if it isn't perfect . . halfway perfect would make me happy.

In the past five years, I've tried an electric recliner that I didn't like because I got it before we got Oscar and it swiveled and rocked so any move he made while sitting with me caused the chair to wiggle and you know that's not good for stitching.

Next I got a love seat with an ottoman thinking that might work. I don't even remember why I didn't like that one but I didn't.

By then, we had Cooper so I got an oversized recliner and it wasn't comfortable at all for stitching.

Then I got a love seat that had recliners on each end but to put the legs down, you have to use your feet so once I hurt my knee, that didn't work.

I've been using one of the old recliners that the people we bought this house from left (after asking us if we wanted them and we said yes). Now, they're really old and I thought it had gotten terribly uncomfortable so a couple of weeks ago, I moved the love seat over to my stitching spot - the one you have to use your feet to put down, and put the ottoman in front of it so I can rest my legs on the ottoman. Cooper has decided he wants to sleep right at the edge of the chair, half on the ottoman and half on the chair but it doesn't take long until the ottoman has moved just a small amount and Cooper is falling through. I have to put my stitching frame to the side, move the stand that holds the tablet, gently hold on to Cooper while I push the ottoman way with my feet. I know - there are plenty of people in this world who wish their troubles were so small.

Last night I was sitting and thinking . . maybe the problem is that both the reclining love seats and all the recliners kinda lean back a bit when in the reclining position so I'm having to stay hunched over a bit to stitch plus, I keep sliding towards the end of the chair and probably my feet are pushing the ottoman away and that's what's causing Cooper to fall.

I decided what I need is a recliner that the back doesn't lean back when I put the foot/leg rest out. I was thinking even a chaise lounger type chair might work. We were going to town anyway so I asked Vince if he minded going by a furniture store or two. He didn't mind going by a furniture store but he was NOT happy that I wanted yet another chair!

It isn't like I buy new furniture often or just for the sake of having new furniture. Our sofa was 30 years old when we got rid of that. Our breakfast room table is 20+ years old. Pretty much everything we have in this house is 20+ years old and most of our other furniture is even older. If I could find a comfy chair, we'll probably never buy any more furniture.

So, we went to the first furniture store and the lady there showed me the chaise loungers. None of those were what I wanted. I explained about wanting something where the back didn't recline and she went straight to a sofa, love seat and recliner that were all electric, had one button for the feet/legs; one for the back to change the reclining position; one for the lumbar area. It was so comfy and I loved it but there isn't room for the loveseat (it has a console in the middle with a place to stash floss, needles and scissors and it has two cup holders. I liked that idea but it wouldn't fit in the space where I want to put it. In the family room downstairs, there's one area where I can put my chair. The other wall has the TV; the other wall has a fireplace and the other wall . . if I put it there, the magnifying light bothers Vince when he's watching TV so . . the love seat was too long for the spot I have. The recliner was fairly narrow and it would be tight for me to stitch in it with two dogs. We said we would talk about it . . and we did . . but we decided to go to the furniture store closer to our house. It has free delivery (the place in town wanted $150 to deliver) and the place closer to us isn't in the city so there are no city taxes so that saves about 5%.

We got there and they took us to two recliners. The first one had an open space between the two sections of the feet/leg rest. That won't work with the dogs. They will either fall asleep and fall through or be running and jumping and land in the open space and potentially cause a back injury. 

The other recliner seemed perfect!! I went on to look at others because I was hoping to pay less than what they wanted for this one.

We checked out a few others and they weren't great. Vince sat in it and loved it. He talked me into getting this one. Then he was talking about how bad his chair is. Yes, it's as old as the one I was using. It is worn out too. They said they had two still in boxes. Hmm .. we'd have to think about it.

We keep slipcovers on our furniture so I'm not worried about the color or the fabric. It is electric. It has the lumbar support so I can be sitting with my legs propped up AND have the back straight up with extra support.

On both sides, it has the horizontal pocket on both sides - probably for the remove but I can also put TV remotes in there; then there's also a regular pocket just below the horizontal pocket . . on both sides! I can stash my project bag for whatever I'm working on in there so the dogs don't bother it.

It's scheduled to be delivered Tuesday. I'm so hoping this will be the perfect recliner! Really hoping . . because Vince decided he needed on too so we got both of the ones still in boxes. When he paid for them, he said "I just spent more for two chairs than I spent on my first new car!" Yes, that's what I say every time I go to the grocery store!  :)

So hoping we both love these chairs . . and love them for a very long time.

Fire Cider, Salves and Tinctures

 It's that time of year when I make fire cider to get us through winter and harvest the things I need for tinctures and salves. Most anything within reason can be used in fire cider. Today I used oranges, lemons, garlic, horseradish, turmeric, rosemary, ginger, onion, dried elderberries and jalapeno peppers. Everything except the oranges and lemons came from our garden.

Left side is rosemary in vodka which will sit for at least two months, probably three or four because I still have plenty of this tincture left. I made it today because the rosemary needed trimming.  The center jar is the fire cider. The jar on the right is a jar of olive oil with dried American Beauty Berry leaves which will steep for about six months before I make that into a salve. Also, there's another jar that was upstairs and didn't get into the picture that has American Beauty Berry leaves that are infusing into witch hazel and that will be our bug spray for next year.

I will make another jar of fire cider. One will not be enough if both of us it daily but, I'm out of half gallon jars. I have more on my next Azure Standard order but I'm sure I'll empty one soon and can use it to make more cider. 

It's been a fun day in the kitchen!