Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Peaceful Rain

Although the weather forecasters are warning us about floods, I can only find peacefulness in all this rain. A chance to just sit and stitch for a while. It is moderately warm ( 46 degrees F) so I don't have to keep putting wood in the stove. Joe is home too, so it's kind of an "us" day. I am making some Easter treats. I made two pizza rustica pies last night. They were an Easter tradition in my house growing up. A pastry crust filled with ricotta cheese, ham and pepperoni filling....sort of like a cheese quiche, but a bit denser. Not a bit of nutritional value in any of it, but they sure taste good. One is already being eaten and the other goes to Brenda at work. Then maybe a chocolate cake for the gymasts. Speaking of work, it looks like this week will finish out in a peaceful way too. Not many kids at the gym as we gear up towards Spring Break for the local schools. Next week will be even more quiet. It's a good chance to work more individually with the gymnasts and to perfect new skills. My weekends are now all mine. The competition season is over for the Level 4 group so I am home on both Saturday and Sunday, unless I choose to go in and do some private lessons on Saturday. This all hinges on Jill fulfilling her obligations with the Level 5 group. They have the Zone/Regional Championships on the weekend of April 5th and 6th. I think my exact words to my boss were "I don't care if Jill catches on fire, she's still going to the Zones Meet". So I've made my point very clear on that one. Somehow, in the back of my mind, I know she will find a way to weasel out of it. She didn't come in on Wednesday, knowing that the new Level 4 coach , Alisha, would step up and cover for her. I felt bad for Alisha, but good for me. I love working with Alisha and I'm so glad to have a coaching partner who shares a lot of my goals and also a rather interesting sense of humor.


As for stitching, "Heart and Hand" is nearly complete. I loved stitching with the Needle Necessities floss. It is a shame that they have gone out of business. I should have bought up more of the colors when I had the chance. An eBay seller used to sell them in groups of 25 for a really good price. Now I can hardly find any of them anywhere. Does anyone know of a good source for Needle Necessities floss? There is a shop about 30 miles from here that specializes in needlepoint and interesting fibers. I bought my first NN there to fill in for a Weeks Die Works that ran out in the middle of a project. That is the main reason I like NN too.......the skeins are huge and the price is reasonable for all the floss you get. This works perfectly for single-color designs, like Quaker themes. I am debating whether to drive down to that shop and break my resolution if I can stock up on some rare NNs.

Here's the mandatory pet photo. Coal being the perpetual copy-cat again...trying to muscle in on Sammy's favorite spot on top of the fabric bins.

5 comments:

  1. I love NN for the same reasons you do! I have a lot of them that I’ve collected the past few years. However, they went out of business about 6 months or so ago! I heard that another company has picked up where they left off though. I am not sure who it is, but I’ve read about it on other people’s blogs. I wish you luck in finding them :)

    Your progress on Heart in Hand is great, you are so close to being done! I love the thread you are using on it.

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  2. That's some great stitching!!

    It's Threadworx (I think that's the spelling they use) that took over from NN when they went out of business, by the way.

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  3. There's a conversion chart from NN to Threadworx floss here: http://www.firesidestitchery.com/fireside/threads/index.cfm?fuseaction=getColorList&iUniqueProductId=675

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  4. Jennifer, that is a seriously gorgeous sampler you're stitching there! I had no idea NN were no more. I have never used it, but I might give it a try now. Hm, perhaps not. What if I get hooked?

    I'm like you: I love rainy days. Which is good, seeing as I live in what must be the wettest country on the planet.

    Hope you have a lovely Easter!

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  5. I love NN too. I stocked up on some of my favorite colors when I heard they had gone out of business. My LNS has a few skeins and colors left. Let me know what you might be interested in.

    The new company is Threadworx. They have a web site and the owner used to be the head dyer for NN. Needle in a Haystack shop near San Fransisco has up on their web site the number of the new thread that is supposed to be the replacement of the NN color. I have printed off for my records. Have not seen any of the new thread yet.

    NN was a dream to stitch with.

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