Happy Holidays!
We’re having a quiet, cuddly day here. shadowkatt is with my family enjoying a big, loud, exuberant Christmas. sambear is puttering in the kitchen at the moment. I’m going to go back to stitching after I post this. The only thing missing is a blaze of aromatic woods in a fireplace.
I tried using Oxy Clean to get some old stains off a piece of stitching last night. It worked quite well, so I’ll be able to iron the piece and get a picture of it with the webcam in a bit. (I do wish we had a better camera.) Next, I’m going to clean a couple of small smudges off the baby sampler that was originally intended to be in Katie’s nursery. I also have the first piece Katie did, in QuickPoint. It’s rather sooty from all the candles we burned in the bedroom of our previous residence. I haven’t been able to get it clean before, so I’m hoping Oxy Clean will do the trick.
My parents have an even older piece (high school vintage) that was framed using the sticky mounting board. Its glass got broken at some point, and sometime after that, it started showing a few rusty spots. I’ve never figured out why that happened, but I’m going to reclaim the piece from Mom and try Oxy Clean on it, too. It was hanging in the family room in my parents’ old house, which was largely used by Daddy as an office after we kids moved out, so it’s been around a LOT of cigarette smoke. I’ll see how much it’s discolored when I get it from them. It’s hardly fit to display anywhere as is, so I figure the Oxy Clean can’t possibly hurt it.
I’ve made a fair amount of progress on the birth announcement, too. I’ve got most of the fiddly bits in the sunburst done, as well as a comet that’s above it. I had avoided that part because it involves constant color changes – one stitch here, another over there, etc. There are still some stars to add, then the columns to finish (long rows of solid colors, good to do while gaming). After that, there’s just the backstitching of Zodiac symbols along the sides and putting the baby’s birth info in the center. I’m not sure her first and middle names are going to fit, so I may just do the first name.
I’ve done a little stitching on the lighthouse lately, but since I didn’t think it would really tickle anyone in my life, it’s not been much of a priority. sambear just walked past my PC, though, and said, “Oooh, that’s pretty.” So I guess someone will like it 😉
I’ve asked my family to send me pictures of the pieces I’ve given them over the years, and pictures of the quilts Grandmother made. I want to make albums of both. Many of my earlier stitching endeavors are owned by people who aren’t in my life now, such as my first in-laws. Would it be terribly tacky to write to them to ask for photos?
