Whackadoodle Wednesday

Sorry, I'm all a dither today. Quite all over the place. So my post today will be a bit of everything that's swimming by in my brain.

I'd like to mark two passages and pay tribute.

First, to Sheila Lukins, co-author of the must have cookbook of the 80's (as soon as I heard about it, I ran out and got it!), "The Silver Palate Cookbook". Ms. Lukins passed away from brain cancer this past weekend.

New York Times article



Secondly, to the wonderful needlework artist and designer, Jean Hilton. I had the very good fortune of taking a class with Jean in the 80's. It was based on her charted design booklet, Gleneagle. Instead of the twelve blocks in her booklet, we did five of the blocks in a row, with a border around them.

I just happened to stumble upon a comment on a needlework blog yesterday, saying that Jean had passed away in May of this year. I found her kind and dear and very unassuming and I learned so much about needlepoint in those few weeks. Thank you Jean!

Blog article about Jean's passing



Ay yi yi! I'm trying (!) to begin one of the designs in the Blackbird Design booklet of Halloween stockings I bought. Even after years of not stitching anything, I had all but three of the colors of floss that I needed for my first project. Yippie! I had a hard time finding a tiny needle for the 30 count linen I'm using but Eureka!, I found one. I had the color required for a large portion of the design, so I started stitching anyway.

I decided to go to a needlepoint store for the three I didn't have, after my dentist appointment on Monday. There was one nearby I'd read of and I'd never been there before and was very excited. They seemed (or at least it appeared to me) to have an active website, so it never occurred to me to call them up and see if their bricks and mortar store still existed. Can you feel what's coming next?!

Yup. I get there and the shop is closed. At two thirty in the afternoon. Windows all covered in brown paper and closed sign in the window.

WAH!

So Tuesday, I drive to a store I used to go to - I had checked, they're still listed in the yellow pages. I drive to the little shopping village-thing and they're not there anymore. What the hooha is going on?! I ask a clerk in one of the shops if the embroidery shop had moved to another spot in the complex and she directed me towards a staircase, she thought they had moved across the way from where they used to be.

Nope. Not there.

WAH!

You're going to laugh at me now (if you aren't already)!

I couldn't call them on my cell phone right then and there because I had left my cell phone at home. I couldn't call them from the pay phone because I had used up all of my quarters in the parking meter. I couldn't use my phone card in the pay phone because I had removed it from my wallet, since I thought I didn't need it anymore.

WAH!

So ... I call them when I get home and find out that they are indeed still there but they are around the back side and a block north from their old store. Moral of the story, don't be a twit, always call!!!

What a dodo head I feel like. I had seen their ad in the yellow pages but it never rang a bell about it being on Place instead of Court. D'oh.

Wait a minute, it's not over yet ... after all that ... they only had one of the three colors of floss I needed and they didn't carry needles small enough for 30 count linen. I'm not joking. It's this gorgeous store and they didn't have the full line of thread or more than three needle sizes. I was so surprised. I guess no one does petit point anymore? Are small needles one more thing you can only buy online???

Anyway, here's my humble beginnings of the darling Blackbird design, "Haunted House", next to their finished model.