National P-I-E Day . . .

. . . was yesterday. 

I made a lemon meringue pie for the day.  It was an extremely busy day; I took the pie out of the oven sometime after 5:00 p.m.  By that time, I was just too tired to write this post. 

March 14 is National P-I Day.  I wonder if I should make some p-i-e for that day too. 

Another Finish

Yesterday I finished this little ornament as a tongue in cheek gift to the husband of one of our pastors.  I actually decided to make it just prior to Christmas but had to put it aside.  We had a baptism scheduled on very short notice for the Sunday between Christmas and New Years Day.  Dad was home on leave. 

Through the years, we have frequently had a baptism scheduled on short notice on that particular Sunday and they are more likely to not be military families.  My theory is that the family is together for Christmas when they begin to talk about the fact that everyone or at least everyone who is important is in town so let's see if we can have the baptism right now. 

 This year I had to set the moose aside to prepare the baptism banner.  Our pastor's husband is a librarian and also does a reading program during the summer at our church.  It is an outreach to the community as a whole.  He calls it Moose on the Loose and uses a plush moose puppet to help him read the books to the children.  When I saw this design from Designs by Lisa in the 2012 Just Cross Stitch Ornaments Issue, I knew it would be perfect. 

All I had to do was change the wording just a little bit.  As you can see I used the DMC alternatives for the Gentle Art threads.  I also used a star charm that I just happened to have.  Yes, I dove into my stash and came up with everything I needed. 

Now the big question was would my off beat sense of humor be understood or just politely tolerated.  Today our pastor's laugh said that her husband would truly appreciate his new moose. 

 

Analysis of Light, Dark, and Color

Does that sound scholarly?  In reality, it is not quite so.
The Christmas tree is outside now and the decorations are back in the attic.  There are still a couple things left and a little more clean-up to do.

Tuesday I finished assembling the ornament on the left which I will call the first one.  The one on the right is the second one and was finished first and given away in December.

Son, Dan, designed this to go with a set of three based upon the New Testament Christmas story that were done by a very gifted professional designer.  The object here was to make a co-ordinating set of three based upon the Old Testament Savior prophesies.

Originally Dan planned to use the names of the Savior from Isiah and which feature in Handel's Messiah, Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, well you get the idea.  When I mentioned this to one of our pastors, she suggested working with the prophesies.  I was hesitant to suggest this to Dan because I did not want to stifle his creativity.  I did and he came up with the basic idea for a set of three.

He utilized the colors and basic design of the original set of three.  As the designer, Dan did the stitching with the exception of the row of yellow eyelets.  He does not like to stitch eyelets so I got to do them as well as all of the finishing.  He doesn't like to do that either.

Dan came to an impasse on the first ornament.  There was an error in the

wording which is stitched in cross stitches with one thread over one fabric thread.  To pick it out was a monumental task which he decided to put off since we still had a second ornament and he could work with some ideas on it.

I am going to upload the picture here a second time so that you do not have to scroll back up to see it.

If you look again at it, you will notice that the argyle like design in the upper right corner is different.  The light and dark shades of the coral are reversed.

The color progression of one is dark to light from the center of the diamond shape out and the other is light to dark moving outward.  The appearance of the first ornament is more like what would be produced by a soft focus lens while the second one is more sharply defined.  It resembles what would happen if you drew a picture and outlined the elements with black. Do you want a romantic soft focus or a clear, bright effect? 

In the picture, the light colors look darker than they actually are.  One thing we realized is that the mock blackwork needs to be done with a darker shade, particularly so with the row of snowflakes but it would also help the green shoot.  Blackwork is done with black thread for a reason - it shows up well.  We tried a medium blue with the dark blue in the scroll at the bottom of the second try and are much more pleased with it.
The flowers are poinsettias.  We know they are not mentioned in the Bible but we decided to use them because we have poinsettias at Christmas.  The eyelets and Smyrna cross stitches are suggestive of stars.  

The stitches used in this design are:
1.  Algerian Eyelet
2.  Smyrna Cross Stitch
3.  One over One Cross Stitch
4.  Over two Cross stitch
5.  Blackwork Technique

The extra special nice thing about this design is that the sermon series for Advent dealt with the family tree of Jesus. 

A Forgotten Christmas Gift

Yesterday I remembered that I had hidden away a Christmas gift from Tricia in England.  My cats were taking a very great interest in the package, so much so that I couldn't leave it under the Christmas tree.  Tricia and I think that my cats were smelling Charlie, her Jack Russell terrier. 

To save it from destruction, I put it in a box near the Christmas tree and then forgot about it until yesterday.  Knowing that I am very much into bees, particularly honey bees, Tricia sends me things with bee themes when she finds them. 

I look a little sour and we are just going to have to learn how to make slightly more appealing glamour shots.  Don't you just love the bees?  I wore it to church this morning. 

It had been my intent to post picture and directions to prepare an easy but elegant fruit dessert but that just did not happen.  I have to find some place to stage everything for the final picture.  My favorite place happens to be currently occupied by the Christmas tree.  It will be coming down soon. 

Just a Couple Finishes

My stitching was seriously interrupted but I did complete a couple small things among them are these two. 

They both were gifts.

 I needed to finish this one by Sunday to give it to its intended recipient.  Our son, Dan designed it to go with the set of three that we have stitched and assembled during the past three years.  He designed a set of three. 

When we stitched the first one of this design, we made valuable discoveries about the effects of color.  It has been an extremely interesting and educational process for us. 

This past Saturday I put in an all day stitching marathon to stitch the back with the year and one of the motifs from the front and then to assemble the ornament.  There is a second one waiting to be finished.  I knew I did not have time to work on it Monday because I was in a food prep mode preparing for Christmas. 

Monday I prepared the dough to make scones.  Yesterday morning all I had to do was cut the disks of dough and pop them in the oven.  I had six dozen, more than enough for the brunch I took to the Maternity Care staff, for the extended family Christmas dinner, and for us.  We brought leftover scones home from Christmas dinner and now we have lots at home.  Monday I also prepared the egg bake to take to the staff.  All I had to do was pop it into the oven when we finished baking the scones. 

While the egg bake was in the oven, I began to make pies for the extended family Christmas dinner.  I only had to make three this year because some of the family did not come. 

Merry Christmas

Best wishes to everyone who celebrates Christmas. 

Tuesday mornings are my time to do volunteer work in the Maternity Care Center of our local hospital.  I was not in today but I did stop by to bring in brunch for the maternity staff members who were in working.  By the time I arrived, we had already had a Christmas baby. 

Speaking of birthdays on 25 December, today is Amahl's birthday;  she is second on the left.

Merry Christmas from all of us to you. 

Still Here - Winter Solstice - Redemption

Gosh, that looks like it could be a deep theological discussion.  Hey, wait, don't leave; it just looks that way is all that I am saying. 

About two hours ago the time the world was supposed to end according to the Mayan calendar.  All that happened two hours ago was that we passed the winter solstice.  The good news is that the days will begin to get longer.  I need that; I really need that. 

As I understand it, we do not have the whole Mayan calendar.  The missing parts might be important for us to be able to understand it.  Anyway, the speculation is that if the Mayans survived, they would have made a new calendar.  We make new calendars every year..  The most fascinating thing about this is that the Mayans could so closely determine the winter solstice for so many years ahead of the time they made the calendar.  For how long have we had the tendency to dismiss the natives of the Western Hemisphere as ignorant savages?  The native cultures were very rich and complex.  We should never forget that.  If we do, it is to our own detriment.

No pictures of the snowfall are forthcoming.  It was not a very attractive one.  During the day yesterday, the temperature dropped and the wind picked up.  While there were blizzard warnings elsewhere, our winter misery was not severe enough to call one here.  The temperatures may be low enough to enable us to make a couple ice luminaria for Christmas.  We shall have to see how that develops. 

Redemption:  Yesterday was a day of redemption for me.  

1.  Someone who will remain unnamed because I cannot remember who it was spilled water on the sleeve I use to cover my rolling pin.  Needless to say that completely did the sleeve in.  Horror of horrors, I could not find rolling pin sleeves anywhere.  When I got mine more than forty years ago you could find them everywhere.  Without the sleeve, it was extremely difficult to roll out pie pastry..  I was dreading Christmas because we (that should really be I) are committed by the extended family to bring pie because no one lese in the extended family makes pie. 

2.  I have been having a lot of difficulty producing satisfactory baked goods.  Last weekend I made date nut bread.  It tasted okay but it did not look good.  I also made gingerbread; it tasted okay but it looked awful.  I thought long and hard about it and decided that it might be the presifted flour I was using.  It's texture was a little strange and not soft and silky like what I am used to. 

Yesterday I baked.  First was the gingerbread with the flour I am accustomed to using.  The results were perfect. 

The lesson I learned is that presifted flour does not absorb liquids the same way regular flour does.  That can have a significant effect on the finished product. 

Next was the pie crust.  Because I could not easily find a sleeve or sock for the rolling pin, I made my own with some white cotton ribbing.  I did a little experimenting and determined how big to cut the ribbing and how to seam it so it would not impede the process of rolling out the crust.  It works.  I used my trial crust to make this chiffon pie.