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we listened to the first six Ranger's Apprentice books 

and on April 28 i stopped stitching on the Letter From Hogwarts Stitch Your Own Adventure...

to wait for Chapter 3 to be released on May 1 

 i was gonna finish the parchment edges, but we both ran outta DMC 746 (the lightest cream) 

and we're STILL waiting for our order to be delivered...

in the top border 

Hedwig the Owl came from here 

and Fawkes the Phoenix was smooshed together from two other phoenix charts that i saw somewhere on line... 

trying to chart cross stitch on graph paper is driving me cuh-razy 

 the Hogwarts castle and the eagle in the Ravenclaw banner sent me over the edge 

 so we ordered cross stitch design software from Amazon, not realizing that the software we ordered is no longer supported...

sigh...

where'd i put that graph paper?!?

anywho...

Chapter 3 is Elective classes - with a choice between Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, or Ancient Runes 

and i wanted to stitch them all 

 of course they won't all fit, so both of us have decided to design our own Chapter 3

i'm thinking that it would be waaaay cool to have a stack of books for ALL of the classes and not just electives 

cuz who doesn't love a stack of awesome books?!?

Melissa wants ALL of the magical creatures on the bottom of the stitchery instead of in Chapter 3's space, along with Hagrid's Hut and the Forbidden Forest 

cuz why settle for a tiny corner of the stitchery when she can fill up the whole thing?!?

yeah, maybe we should wait to see what the other 3 chapters will be...

anywho...

in the meantime 

i started working on this stack of quilts that are waiting for binding...

and when my hands got tired of pushing a sharp needle through lottsa layers of fabric 

which didn't take very long, lemmetellya

 i traded it for a ballpoint needle and one layer of linen...

and finally finished filling in the centers of those gazillion sunflowers

that little bird cracks me up 

and now i'm gonna go slog through some more binding 

cuz that pile has been sitting there for weeks and it's getting ridiculous...

"Riddikulus!"

Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

phoenix rising

seeker keeper

ruffled feathers

swish and flick

this is my wand for the Letters From Hogwarts Stitch-Your-Own-Adventure...

the wood that i was trying to emulate is beetle kill pine
when i looked for examples of beetle kill pine
 i found this 
and lottsa pictures of furniture that has been made from the lumber that has been harvested from our mountain forests
 which used to be gorgeous greens, but are now stained with hundreds of thousands of the red skeletons of pines the killing beetles have left behind...

anywho...
the current governor of our great state gives a COVID-19 update almost daily
and sometimes i listen to him 
if the tv happens to be on and i happen to be in the same room
which i was the other day
he stands behind a lectern and presents a PowerPoint slideshow
that shows the numbers of those infected
which is misleading, since testing is by doctor-authorized prescription and performed only on those who are presenting symptoms because, big surprise, there aren't enough tests
or the capacity to process the tests that there are - just sayin'
and those hospitalized
and those in ICU
and those who have died...
it's disturbing and i try to not listen
especially when he says, "Next slide, please"
because it sounds like he's saying, "Next lie, please"
it's true - try saying those words quickly and see if you don't hear the same thing
sometimes we hear what we hear, even if we don't want to hear it...

anywho...
the other day when he was saying
we're all in this together
 we will get through this if we stay home
 and practice social distancing
 and wear our masks
i looked up and saw this...

screen grab from Channel 7 news

and then focused in on this...

the lectern has beetle kill pine panels!!!

yep, that was my take away - which is pretty doggone cool, innit?!?

and that's the look that i was going for when i stitched my wand

the floss is DMC 4065 morning meadow and it is backstitched with DMC 898 very dark coffee brown

and i really, really like it!!!


What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does.
Hagrid in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

i solemnly swear

that i am up to no good...

we've listened to all seven of the Harry Potter and the Fill In The Blank books 

and this is how much i've stitched...

in 117 hours and four minutes, give or take a minute or two...

liberties have been taken with the original design, lemmetellya

i've changed the castle

 and the wand

 and Chapter One's banner

and i'm gonna change the top border's owls 

and Chapter Two's quidditch 

and the bottom border's letters

and that's okay cuz this IS a Stitch Your Own Adventure

so far the stitching has been a lotta fun!!!

I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed', my ol' dad used ter say, 'There's some who'll hold it against you, but they're not worth botherin' with.'

Hagrid in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

necessary evils

outward bound

for NoJo

outward

i've wanted to try my hand at a convex quilt since Molly's visit to this quilt show... 

so i bought a pattern

and promptly forgot about it...

last year i started a purge of the Great Pile of Stuff

 with the thought in mind that i would no longer just go through stuff...

 i would put up or shut up...

no more shuffling patterns and fabric and project boxes from one pizza box to another 

or from one shelf to the closet to under the ironing station

  if i put my hands upon it 

it was either going to become something or it was going out...

before you ask 

and how's THAT going for you?!?

the answer is slowly...

one of the first patterns that i picked up from the GPS was Convex Illusions 

and, having placed my hands upon it, knew that it was then or never...

so i grabbed two big enough pieces of fabric from the batiks and put this together...

and it wasn't as difficult as i was afraid it would be

 lots and lots of seams 

and lots and lots of corners to match

but kinda fun...

but then i was at a loss of what to do with it cuz it took all but a few inches of those two fabrics and there wasn't anymore to work with...

so i went back to purging...

and two months later 

as i said, it is going slowly 

i found a piece of fabric taking up space on the shelf next to Sven the Viking that looked like it was made just for the purpose of surrounding the center...

cool, huh?!?

i added strips of the center's brown for an inner border

and more of the trees for an outer border...

and used leftovers from the stash for the backing...

the binding is ready to go

 cuz that's another thought i've had - no sending off a quilt top and backing for quilting unless there is a binding waiting for it when it gets back home 

when this comes back after Liz the Most Auspicious Longarm Quilter works her magick...

so ... YAY!!!

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

Marcus Aurelius

H is for Hogwarts

we've stitched and listened long enough to save Sirius Black!!!

and now, on to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...

and

 at last 

something Harry Potterish is stitched...

woo hootie hoo!!!

What's got your wand in a knot?

Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

aw, come on!!!

still listening to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban...

and still no sign of Harry Potter...

Melissa's stitching already has an owl and most of Hogwarts...

That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger. Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all.

Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

slogging along

more listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 

and moving on to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban...

it's gonna be a banner...

You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog.

Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

outlines

we've finished listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and moved on to 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets...

yeah, you don't have to tell me that this in no way resembles anything to do with Harry Potter...

Honestly, if you were any slower, you'd be going backward.

Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

more parchment

another five hours of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

and this is what i have to show for it...

hey - i turned a corner or three!!!

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

parchment

Melissa is working on the top border and 

i decided to start with Chapter 1... 

we listened to five hours of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and this is what i have to show for it...

this is gonna take a loooong time...

Swish and flick.

Professor Flitwick in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

rabbit holes

one of my mom's favorite phrases when i was a kid was

  look it up

if i asked her how to spell a word 

look it up

or what is the capital of Chile

look it up

 or how many feet are there in a mile

look it up

 whatever i needed to know 
for whatever reason 
she almost always said

look it up

back then the looking up was in Webster's or our set of encyclopedias 

that a door to door salesmen talked a poor working family into buying when it was something they could really not afford ... but i digress 

anywho, she almost never let the answers roll off her tongue

 she said

look it up

 i dunno know if she realized that looking it up meant that for the next hour (or two or three) i would be in my own little world, reading the dictionary or the encyclopedia because, invariably, i would see something that led me to something else

 and then to something else 

and on and on...

anywho...

it's the same thing now ... i will wonder how to make a deliciously gooey lava cake 

or what the color name is for DMC Floss #319 (it's Very Dark Pistachio Green) 

or where to find a paper pieced pattern for a snowflake (not for the faint of heart)

and a couple of hours later i will realize that yes, indeed, there are forty-three gazillion possible ways to make lava cakes 

but now there is no time to bake one, so i dunno if it would be a deliciously gooey lava cake cuz i fell down a rabbit hole...

oh, those rabbit holes...

and that is how i stumbled across  Stitch Your Own Adventure - Letters From Hogwarts

(not a secure site, so if you don't go to not secured sites, don't follow the link)

the Stitch A Long started back in september of 2019, but i didn't discover it till late december
 and then lost the link a few times before i figured out how to bookmark it so i could show it to Melissa...

 i told her that i wanted to start it and asked if she was interested in stitching, too, 
she said yes, she was interested, very much so

and, even though we were hopelessly behind everyone else, we came up with a plan - we would stitch our own adventures and not worry about catching up with everyone else - it would be just Melissa and me competing stitching side by side...

so we set about getting everything ready to start our stitching...

we ordered fabric...

we needed a memory stick to take to kinko's in order to print the introduction and the floss list and the charts...

 we waited till there was a 40% off your entire regular priced purchase coupon for Joann's so we could buy two sets of floss and needles 
and then i typed up the floss labels whilst Melissa punched holes into snack bags, reinforced those holes, and put the snack bags on two big rings...

we found small backpacks shaped like owls...

 and Melissa made zipper pulls...

and scissor fobs...

we needed notebooks to hold our charts...

and journals for notes...

and totes for each of us...

and a big black basket to hold the totes...

and fabric for snippets and microwave-a-bowls...

we used seven of our Audible credits to buy all of the Harry Potter books to listen to whilst we stitch away...
and now that we have everything that we think we're gonna need
 it's time to stitch our adventures...

Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.
Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

buffalo wings

sometimes i shop for myself and give whatever it is that i think i can't live without to Melissa

 to give back to me for whatever holiday is next...

a couple of christmases ago

Melissa gave me a buffalo panel

i wanted it cuz of the buffalo

for the White Buffalo quilt that i'm supposed to be making but hasn't seen the light of day for a gazillion three years

but when i got a good look at it 

i fell in lurve with the bluebirds...

do bluebirds actually hang out with buffalo?

i dunno - but i'd like to think that they do

anywho...

my mom lurved bluebirds, too

i was really missing her 

and i thought

why not surround that big old buffalo with a bunch more bluebirds?!?

so i bought the Feathers pattern from The Pattern Basket

and, since it was spring, tested it with robins...

and after tweaking it a bit, drafted it for paper-piecing

then did a mirror image so the birds could be facing each other

and went shopping for blues and oranges and creams

and started piecing birds

boy birds and girl birds with prairie point beaks

that surrounded that big old buffalo...

it was getting a bit larger than planned and i was running outta background fabric

and even though there were more birds in the flock 

a decision was made to STOP with the front

 and add the other birds to the back...

along with another buffalo panel 

that was also purchased for the White Buffalo quilt  - twice - so there was a spare

cuz i can't ever remember what i have and what i think i have in the Great Pile of Stuff

and then sent off to Liz the World's Most Awesome Longarm Quilter in Michigan 

to be quilted with buffalo...

stomp

after Liz worked her magick 

it was trimmed and bound...

the girl birds are facing right 

and the boy birds are facing not right for a reason, y'all

too bad i used all that leftover fabric from the front cuz i was gonna need more of those blues a couple of months later when i started the piecing for Serenity!!!

 and named Buffalo Wings!!!

cuz, seriously, with buffalo and wings 

what else could it be named?!?

Left wing, chicken wing, it don't make no difference to me.

Woody Guthrie

ta done

the last time that i wrote about Mother Earth Father Sky was march 16, 2017

sheesh - that's almost three years ago!!!

i'd managed to piece two rays

with four to go...

fast forward to whenever this fabric:

Hoffman Digital Out Of This World Earth Panel 

arrived on the scene 

and i knew without even seeing it in Real Life that 

even if i had no idea where else to go with the front

i'd found the backing for Mother Earth Father Sky

so i ordered the panel and some coordinating space fabric...

appliqued (shudder) a moon for the name...

and put the backing together...

and i gave myself a deadline 

by embroidering an end date on the moon...

which, of course, meant that it was past time to work on those rays...

so i finished the final four and added some black fabric around them...

and found myself stuck again...

it looked more like a Black Hole swallowing up Mother Earth

than like Father Sky...

so i paper-pieced a full moon...

which was a bit better...

but not enough...

maybe the Solar System? 

but how was i gonna manage to show Mercury and Venus in that little space between the Sun and Mother Earth without using the dreaded A word?!? 

(that's Applique, not the other dreaded A word)

what to do?!? what to do?!? what to do?!?

BUTTONS!!!

so Melissa helped me find buttons for the other eight planets 

cuz in THIS home, Pluto is still a planet

using USPS stamps as a reference...

we laid them out where they oughta go and 

i marked the different places with the names for each planet

 and embroidered those names

so that i would know where to sew on the buttons after it came back from Liz (the most wonderful of all longarm quilters EVER) ...

and then decided that it was still gonna need more of sumpin'...

what to do?!? what to do?!? what to do?!?

CONSTELLATIONS!!! COMETS!!!

which meant RESEARCH!!!

and more embroidery...

and lots and lots of shopping at all the local Joann stores to find enough tiny white star buttons to add after quilting 

the white stars were in packages with red stars and blue stars 

and now i have a whole lotta red and blue star buttons taking up space in the Great Pile of Stuff

till i had this...

there is no up in Space

and i spread it out so everyone could see how wonderful it was

only to hear

What ARE those?!?

and 

Are those SUPPOSED to be TEEPEES?!?

sigh

what to do?!? what to do?!? what to do?!?

hearths? yeah, hearths would leave no doubt that those are teepees...

so i searched and searched and searched for affordable campfire buttons

and came up empty-handed... 

back to the embroidery hoop...

hearth fires - that's gotta be teepees, right?!?

and then i decided that enough is enough
and sent it off to Liz to be quilted...

which she did, awesomely!!!

when Mother Earth Father Sky came back from its journey to Michigan 

it was time to trim and bind...

and sew on a gazillion buttons...

and become...

Ta Da!!!

Ta Done!!!

a quilt with so many sharp little star buttons that no one will ever be able to snuggle under it without looking like they've been chased through the briar patch...

and maybe it's okay for some quilts to be just for lookin' at
and not for sleepin' under...

Good design is like a refrigerator—when it works, no one notices, but when it doesn’t, it sure stinks. 
Irene Au