A stitch in time saves 9,817,643 (Part 3)

[Editor's note. This is the third post in a three-part series. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here. --RWP]

Okay, first of all, to let you know that I am no longer a complete idiot when it comes to technical things (why are you laughing?), I received some excellent tutelage via e-mail from one Adrian Ward of Somewhere, Scotland, and can now rotate photographs using my new operating system (Windows 10) just as expertly as I did using my old one (XP). Here's proof using the two photographs that faced west in the preceding post:

Footprints in the Sand:

...and Family Circle:

I know you will agree that they look much better facing south.

Moving right along with Part 3 of this series, here is a cross-stitch Mrs. RWP made in 1988 for our silver anniversary (for readers in Alabama, that means we had been married 25 years). It is displayed over our piano:

The next two hang in our master bathroom, and Mrs. RWP is especially proud of their borders. If your device allows zooming, zoom in for a closer look. A bird bath is on the left:

...and a clawfoot tub is on the right:

I wouldn't lie to you. Here they are together:

A fruit basket that contains 53 colors and took Mrs. RWP a year to complete hangs in our kitchen:

A small cornucopia that we had framed as a companion piece to the fruit basket hangs over our pantry door:

Finally, a second 53-color beauty that took Mrs. RWP another year to complete hangs in our entrance hall/vestibule/fwah-yay (pick one) along with the bluebird-adorned Psalm 100 that I showed you in the preceding post:

Thus ends my three-part series showing you Mrs. RWP's prowess and talent with a needle and thread.

P. S. -- Yorkshire Pudding asked in a comment on the previous post if I am rich. I used to be, but I spent my entire fortune getting these beautiful creations framed. To do less would be criminal.

A stitch in time saves 9,817,643 (Part 2)

This post is the second of three posts highlighting Mrs. RWP's cross-stitched creations. The first post is here.

But first, let us commemorate this past Sunday night's series finale on Downton Abbey (which Mrs. RWP has always called Abby Dalton). As Lady Mary's young son George said to Thomas Barrow, the under-butler, upon his departure, "Goodbye, Mr. Bawwow". If you click on that link you will find a brief recap of several relationships from the series, as well as an embedded video that contains several zingers uttered by Violet, the dowager countess, who was played by Dame Maggie Smith. However, you will see neither Lady Mary's young son George nor Thomas Barrow, the under-butler.

Now that that's behind us, let us move on to Part 2 of Mrs. RWP's stitchery.

Briefly stated, she continued to turn out beauty after beauty, masterpiece after masterpiece.

She made three of these, one for each of our children upon their marriage. Except for the names and dates, they were identical right down to the choice of frame and suede mat. Each one contains part of the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, commonly called "the love chapter."

This one, which unfortunately is sideways, is the poem "Footprints in the Sand" by Mary Stevenson. You will need to tilt your head 90 degrees to the right or your computer 90 degrees to the left, but not both, before attempting to read it. This one hangs in our master bedroom, but for purposes of photographing it I laid it on the dining room table:

Continue in that position to read the next creation as well. It is a quotation that begins "Our family is a circle of love..." and is by an unknown author. -- It usually hangs in the same guest bathroom where Psalm 23 from the previous post resides, but I laid it on the dining room table to photograph it:

Return your head or computer to its original position to enjoy Mrs. RWP's second go at Psalm 100, complete with bluebirds:

I will show you the rest of Mrs. RWP's handiwork in Part 3.

Until then, "Goodbye, Mr. Bawwow" indeed and "Good bye, Abby Dalton.

A stitch in time saves 9,817,643 (Part 1)

Coloring is not Mrs. RWP's only hobby. She also is an excellent cross-stitcher. In this post you will see what I am treated to every single day of my life.

Wikipedia says that cross stitching is the oldest form of embroidery and is found all over the world. There are two types, stamped cross stitch and counted cross stitch.

This first one, the Twenty-third Psalm, was a stamped pattern. It was the first project Mrs. RWP attempted when she took up cross-stitching back in the 1980s. This hangs on one wall of our guest bathroom:.

All of the remaining creations in this post and the next two posts were counted cross-stitch projects, which simply means the patterns were not stamped on the cloth but Mrs. RWP created the finished products by following a set of printed instructions. Here is some of her early work:

The Big Chicken actually exists in Marietta, Georgia, as a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. In real life its beak moves up and down and its eyes roll. The computer expert on the right is, of course, me. I took it to work and hung it in my office. My mouth also moves up and down and my eyes have been known to roll on occasion.

The small hallway that leads to what we call the grandchildren's bedroom is adorned with the following sampler that Mrs. RWP created in 1986. It was the most complex one Mrs. RWP had attempted so far:

We're just beginning and I don't want to overwhelm you. Parts 2 and 3 will follow shortly.

These grapes are sweet ones

So Lord Pudding of Pudding Towers, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom, finally met Katherine de Chevalle of Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, in the flesh. Face to face. They sat down over roast kiwi (I don’t think so) and green tomato chutney, some of which he left on her tablecloth.

Other than that one unfortunate detail, the encounter was reported by both parties to have been a smashing success. He likened the meeting to Dr. David Livingstone meeting Henry Stanley, or Paul McCartney meeting John Lennon. She called it a pleasant lunch and a super couple of hours and allowed as how she was quite sorry to see them (Lord and Lady P.) go.

I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous.

What helps make my jealousy easier to bear is the fact that Mrs. RWP and I are the recipients of a lovely painting of grapes by the aforementioned Ms. de Chevalle, who was kind enough to award them to me at the end of a competition on her blog celebrating her having had 20,000 visitors.

One minute they were in New Zealand and the next minute (actual elapsed time courtesy of the postal service: about three weeks) they were in my house. We had them framed:

...and they now share a breakfast room corner with this ceramic plaque...

...which Mrs. RWP won as an infant when her great-uncle entered her name in a church raffle as Baby [Surname] before he even knew what name she had been given.

Our breakfast room corner...

...will soon gain another resident, a counted cross-stitch of a basket of fruit that Mrs. RWP completed in 2008 but which we also only recently had framed:

...and now you know the rest of the story.

I want to mark this auspicious occasion by wishing General Robert E. Lee of Virginia a very happy 205th birthday today.