Welcome Vaecordia

Hi all! And thanks for the welcome. From what I have seen this has to be ond of the friendliest newsgroups around. A rare thing these days.

Lets see.. what can I say...

Like I mentioned in the other thread, I'm an intermittently obsessive stitcher. Cross stitch mostly. Although I do a bit of sewing when the mood hits. As much as my mother would dearly love it, I just don't have the interest in knitting or crochet at all. Used to do a lot of glass paint pieces too, but my wrist can't take the outlining anymore.

I'm east coast Canadian, a Newfie Girl. :) One significant other, one gigantic orange cat, and two black moor fishies. Work in health education.

Just to fill me in, perhaps everyone else could re-introduce themselves?

thanks, Vae.

Yea -- especially what flavour of QI do you have -- dog, cat, bird, ferret, etc.? Over at RCTQ, a QI is a quilt inspector. Here at RCTN, I like to think of them as QUALITY Inspectors -- LOL. CiaoMeoew >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^<

Glad to have you. I have some neighbors that are Newfies, always part of the hockey chat locally (I'm in a western DC suburb near Dulles Airport).

We'll be happy to see someone who actually does and finishes their big projects. Personally, I'm a bit of a flitter about - tend to have multiple projects going actively - a couple on 32 ct or higher, at least 1 on 28 ct, and a couple of canvas work pieces (18 ct) , and similarly something on Congress cloth - 24 ct.

I do all kinds of counted thread, and some crewel, - not too much that is just XS, but some - like the neverending Lynne Nicoletti "Poseidon" - which Donna did a few years ago, I started, and sadly rotated to the back of "semi-active" - though it comes out to play for one of my stitching groups. Tend to do things with multiple stitches, so samplers, charted canvaswork, some crewel. I also do garment sewing, and quilting - so plenty of stuff to rotate around.

Real life - am working on needlework teaching - so been deep into designing teaching pieces this year, and have a part-time job at a Caribou coffee (kind of like a Starbucks). In the other part of real-life - was a research engineer/scientist for a long time (grad school and beyond), and still do some consulting - contemplating going back to a big-girl job, and had been volunteer medic. Have husband (who refs a lot of hockey - we met playing..13 years ago) and English Springer Spaniel - Puckster - who inspects all needlework and quilts.... Also, note that I babble upon occasion, LOL, and have been put in place for such by some others who shall remain nameless.......

Ellice - glad the sun is shining, though it's colder than it looks

Welcome back, Marian!

My introduction: I'm in Baltimore, Maryland -- snow capitol of the US this winter, LOL! And spring is finally springing here - the snow recedes daily.

As mentioned, I do many projects simultaneously (well, not literally), in cross stitch, crochet, Hardanger, sewing. Tried canvaswork and it was okay, but not pleasing enough for me to put aside the others. The fact that each day is limited to 24 hours is an eternal challenge to me.

I'm jealous, Vaecordia - our big orange cat passed away in December, and DH has forbidden another kitty - and DD and I are humoring him, at least for the time being. But we miss our dear Taz! He was a feral kitty whom we adopted during the blizzard of 2003 - the last truly awful winter we had.

DH and I are editors of Dirty Linen - a magazine of folk and world music. We cover a lot of Canadian music. Two grown and off on their own kids, one remaining at home (college student). I love to read and also sing. DD went to an arts high school and sang beautifully, and when she was no longer taking voice lessons I decided it was MY turn!! So I signed up with her teacher two years ago, and it's finally now starting to really click.

Next?

sue

Hello from Pittsburgh. While not the snow "capitol" we came close this year. The snow is receeding here too but we're awaiting what is expected to be lots of flooding. We keep hoping for those below freezing nights and very little rain.

I stick mostly to counted cross stitch but in the past have done plain embroidery (in Girl Scouts), latch hook rugs, crewel and last year I did my first counted canvas work. A SAL with folks from RCTN. I think I've been doing xs about 30 years but got serious about it again about

6 years ago. Lots of "unfinished" finishes in the box.

I'm currently working on a factal "bookmark" but given as it's a lot of solid stiching I"ll probably pick up a smaller project in the next few days for a break.

I'm a retired computer programmer who made my way to Texas and SoCal and returned to my roots in Pittsburgh about 7 1/2 years ago. All the better to root for my Penguins.

Nancy

Excellent - lots of us 'northern' folks here.

MargW (in Picton, Ontario)

Please to meet you Marg:)

LOL - you bring to mind a clear memory of when I was invited up for a couple of days to interview with the groups in the Mech Eng dept at CMU (in Pgh) for grad school. I was in undergrad in Miami - of truly fine weather. This was IIRC March in Pgh - a bit grim, but not awful, awful. One of the guys, who would become my officemate the next year, and was the perfect lure (as in handsome, really smart, and a bit offbeat) said "yeah, well the good thing is the weather sucks so you'll get plenty of time to study." Needless to say, the next fall - in very early November there was a huge snowfall, and as I trudged across campus to my parking place I kept muttering - "so,

10 weeks ago - sandals, shorts, now hip deep, mutter,mutter......" And of course, in the spring, the week after I had the snow tires removed it snowed, a goodly amount - April 17th. Honestly, I loved living in Pgh, and would consider going back - except the weather really does stink.

Bah, humbug - fie on the Penguins (r,d,h)

Ellice - who used to be a Pens fan, but, well, life evolves

replying to my own message since I missed the part about identifying ourselves.

Retired, working a couple of days at a part-time volunteer job at the maritime archives, and when the weather is better, I'll get out in my garden.

I've been stitching off and on since about 1970, but really seriously since 1985 when friends introduced me to cross stitch. I have about

125+ pieces in my database of completed work - and there are a fair number that I've forgotten about. I do needlepoint, cross-stitch, pulled thread, pattern darning, and have just recently started to learn gold work (a EAC basic course).

When not stitching, I play trivia games on the computer, garden, ride my motorcycle, work on family history, cook, etc.

MargW

Where are you from in Newfoundland ? My favourite bridge partner had to return to St. Johns, her BIL died. She arrived back immediately ahead of the ice storm ugh.

I'm in Halifax, she's been living here about four years and can never understand why even a stranger says "You must be from Newfoundland" lol

Ah, I remember that November snowfall. It took me an hour to get down the hill from work (not even 1/4 mi) and probably another hour to get up the hill and home once I crossed the river from Harmarville. It's said Pgh has as many cloudy days as Seattle. Of course once snow season is over....pothole season rears its ugly head. And you never take off snow tires....till May.

I did see a crocus ready to bloom this morning.

Nancy, grateful to not be in a flood prone area as this looks like it could be a bad year. 3-4 feet of snow still in the mtns and temps in the 50s through the weekend with rain.

I'm in St. John's.

Is your favorite bridge partner still here and playing? If so she's probably run into DH. He's an avid bridge player.

V

Probably not, she left Thursday and would have been back for our game this morning except staying through until today halved her airfare lol I know she does, when on vacation, play at the St Johns club because we met the owner of the club at a tournament and she knew Elizabeth.

Again, LOL. I lived in Squirrel Hill, up a hill, then turn, up another hill

- all old brick/cobbled roads. There were definitely some times when the car was not going up those roads, so I'd park down on the main drag and hike up. Next year I moved from my attic apt to a renovated pre-WWII building that was only a block from Schenley park. With much snow, not worth trying to pull the car out. There were several of us from the same dept living within a block, and infamously we would cross country ski thru the park (just under 2 mi, IIRC) to get to our building on campus. Just easier, and more fun. PGH definitely has a big share of grey, icy days, but it is a pleasant city. After that April snow, I learned not to take off the tires til May - no one had warned me.

It's pretty sunny here, though cool - in the 50s - and we still have unmelted snow in parts of the yard. But, Cousin It, our very full dwarf weeping pussy willow is starting to show some buds. Argh. I'm thinking we may really have to get some professional help with the yard. Our lawn is very mucky right now, and doesn't smell right to me. But, we'll see.

Ellice

There's a reason it's called Squirrel Hill. :-)

=BDI'm thinking we

We actually made it over the 60 degree mark. I looked outside and our next door neighbor's pussy willow is showing buds too. And I think the forsythia too. We're going to hear lots of chain saws going this spring. The grass....well is kinda flattened after

30+ inches of snow. And the "shadier" areas and the places I "threw" the snow from the driveway still have anywhere from a inch to a couple feet of snow. Oh, and while I don't actually live "in the city" the mayor has already declared a state of emergency in anticipation of flooding.

Nancy

LOL - all the snow wasn't yellow - it's actually pretty white. I just think it did some weird mulch/muck thing. That said, in the back yard where it was quite solidly deep, as that has melted, there's a funny collection of Puckster lump deposits scattered about - well, not so scattered. It's the front, where he doesn't take his relief, so to speak, that is really mucky.

Oh, well.

Ellice

And my turn

I'm Cheryl in southern NH. I knit and do all sort of needlework - I'd love to learn to do more pulled and cut work, but there's still time. I'm also a hockey Mom and hockey fan. Married more years than I care to think about sometimes.

I collect floss, charts and ladybugs. I also garden.

My children are Dson - age 17, a goalie, HS senior and he just got his first college acceptance. Ddaughter is 11, hormonal and is in 6th grade. She's a hockey player and plays for two teams - her middle school team and with a U12 Girls team. (a side brag - her middle school team just won the division championship)

Cheryl