Sinister Craftiness

2010 humbug series:  Summer Wings and Autumn Glory by Just Nan
Blue Whisper and Golden Sand Cashel linen (28 ct)
Stitched with DMC

These two humbugs finish out the year’s series.  For fun, the humbugs are posing in Thing Two’s pumpkin vine.  He is hoping to grow his own pumpkin for Halloween.

In keeping with the cute bee beads on the summer humbug, here’s one of our neighbor’s honeybees collecting pollen in a pumpkin blossom.

How many humbugs can a pumpkin leaf support?  All of them!
(If you take the picture fast enough.)

It has been both a busy and mellow summer.  Thing One’s summer has been busy:  first, a return trip to Philmont for NAYLE, then three weeks away from home for the BSA National Jamboree in Virginia, followed by a week of scout camp, and he’s currently finishing up the summer by staffing a NYLT session.  Here’s Thing One at the airport, just home from the Jamboree.  He’s not quite taller than his parents yet, but he’s working on it.

All those adventures exhausted the family travel budget (and then some!) so the rest of us have stayed home.  Thing Two wanted a vegetable garden, and we’ve enjoyed tending it and watching his little crops grow.

Morning Glory by The Drawn Thread
Cafe Au Lait Legacy Linen (34 count)
Stitched with Silk ‘N Colors, Waterlilies, Soie d’Alger

Stitching this pretty sampler has been more exciting than I could have ever predicted, or would want it to be.  Nanaimo has had a rough week but seems to be feeling much better today; he’s trotting, rather than hobbling, around the house and the upper respiratory infection he picked up at the vet’s office is clearing up.  Next week his stitches come out.

I love the curving vines, and the beads surrounded by round Jessica stitches.

(Cross-posted on our family blog, GimletBlog.)

As you know, my Ragdoll cat Nanaimo loves to spend time with me in the craft room.  He can be a rascal, but most of the time he is happy to take a nap or have his fluffy tummy rubbed.  Monday morning I was getting ready to do some stitching, but left the room “just for a moment” (okay, maybe for more than a moment).   I heard a crash, ran back to the room and found Nanaimo had knocked my scissors and other things off the table … and the needle and thread I had set down were missing.

Nanaimo’s fondness for thread has been previously documented on the blog, but I spent over an hour crawling through all the downstairs rooms on hands and knees, hoping the needle would turn up, before admitting my suspicion and calling the veterinarian.  The X-rays confirmed what I feared:

Click to enlarge. That's his microchip on his shoulder.

A variety of options for removing the needle were presented but none seemed to be as effective as surgery.  With a heavy heart and light wallet we left Nanaimo at the veterinarian’s office to be operated on later that afternoon.

The veterinarian called us after the surgery to let us know that it went very well.  The silk thread which had tempted Nanaimo in the first place  (Caron Waterlilies; he couldn’t eat the cheap stuff, of course) had wrapped itself around the needle like a cocoon, preventing the needle from doing any damage to his insides, but also causing it to lodge tightly in his stomach, so surgery really was the only option after all.  The next day, Kitty Grandma (my mom) and I visited the patient and collected the souvenir needle.

The needle’s eye snapped when I was trying to clean the “mass” (medical term for gross clump of goo and thread) off of it.  It was a petite tapestry needle, size 28.  I can also report that the “Pine Forest” shade of Waterlilies stays colorfast in liquid, at least in bodily fluids, but I don’t think you want to see the proof.

Nanaimo came home this morning with a row of stitches on his shaved tummy (which should help him stay cool this summer) and wearing a “cone of shame” to protect his stitches.

I’m so thankful that my dear kitty is going to be okay.  It was a very fortunate chance that I immediately realized what had happened and acted on my instincts to take him to the vet, just in case. (Instead of wondering what was wrong several days later, when Nanaimo would have been in agony.)  It’s also very fortunate that the thread wrapped so tightly around the needle, protecting him until the needle could be removed.  But it was a stupid, and expensive, lesson to leave the craft room open and unsupervised when I should have known that Nanaimo might be tempted by the thread.

A long overdue peek at the ort jar, where one can find the soft pastels from Shepherd’s Bush and The Drawn Thread, cheery brights from Just Nan, creamy white silk from Victoria Sampler and rich silks and metallics from Châtelaine Designs.

Speaking of Châtelaine, all the Japanese Octagon Box pieces are stitched!  Here’s the box lid piece.

Now I need to finish the box … deep breaths … I can do this, I think …

I’ve also started Morning Glory by The Drawn Thread.  The silks are so pretty, and all the backstitched vines will keep me busy for some time.

This is what the morning glories look like in my yard:  definitely not tidy little blue Jessica stitches.

After one of the darkest, coldest Junes on record, we are finally starting to see a little sunshine, and we’ve even had a couple of days above 70°F.  No sweltering summer days here, at least not yet!

2010 humbug series:  Spring Frills by Just Nan
Lavender Whisper Cashel linen (28 ct)
Stitched with DMC and GAST

Will it take a dash, a pinch or a smidgen of beads to finish this humbug?

The second installment in Just Nan’s humbug series took a little longer than expected to arrive, as the linen shipment was delayed from Zweigart due to the volcanic eruptions in Iceland.  But now it’s here, marking a pretty end to spring.  The special pin is a jeweled tulip.

I’m happy to report that I have my own camera again!  After the burglary I tried out several different point-and-shoot models, but couldn’t find anything I liked as well as the camera I had owned (which was no longer available in stores).  Finally one turned up on eBay for the right price and new in the box!  It is the black lens model (my original camera was the silver lens model) which led the Gimlet to remark that my camera is now wearing guyliner.  Nevertheless, it’s like welcoming back an old friend.

This lovely needlework case project (Three Friends by The Drawn Thread) had drifted down to the bottom of my WIP basket since I started it in January.  Last week I found it while tidying up the stitching room.  Two of the pockets are finished, and I’m working on the third.

Even the bare branches and flower bases are poetry in progress.  Such a pretty design, and so fun to rediscover it.  What’s hiding in your WIP basket?