1. Please introduce yourself – name, where you are from, family, pets etc.
My name is Vickie Hartwell. I live in Bella Vista, AR. which is in the northwest corner of the state. I have a wonderful husband who I met on the yahoo dating site over 14 years ago. We have 4 furbabies, Brigen a 12 year old yellow lab, Gibbs my 7 year old lab, Bert, 6 year old cat and finally Tiger Lily, 1 year old. I am a high school special education math teacher and I just started my 20th year of teaching. I have always taught special education and I love it. I love Disney! Cinderella's castle is my happy place!!
Inspirations
2. How long have you been stitching and
how did you start?
I started stitching when I was 12. My
grandmother had a set of the Days of the Week tea towels that I
started embroidering. We stayed at her house every other
weekend so I worked on them while I was visiting. We went to
Wal-mart one day and I found a cross stitch goose pattern that she
bought me. My love of stitching started with a goose.
3. How long have you been blogging and
what inspired you to start?
Is there a story behind your blog
title? I first started blogging when Yahoo had their Yahoo
360...then in 2007 I moved over to blogspot. My blog title
“Reading and Stitching” is a combined title of my two
favorite hobbies. You will always find me with a book. I
love to listen to audiobooks in my car as I drive to work. My
go-to genres are Historical Romance and Murder Mysteries.
4. How would you describe your stitching
style? Are you a serial starter, a rotator, a OAAT (one at a
time), highly organised, random and eclectic, etc.?
Right now I
am attempting the “Year o Starts” from the Stitch Maynia group on
Facebook. I am starting one new project a day for the entire
year. So far I am doing well on the goal. I am however,
focusing on one project, my HAED Faery Tales. I work for 30
minutes on my new start then move to my HAED. I guess I
am organized due to the year of starts but you couldn’t tell it by
my sewing room!!
Mill Hill Christmas Village
5. Do you have a favourite designer or
style of design you are drawn to?
I am drawn to Disney designs,
and as I call them “Fancy Lady” patterns. I love to stitch
people in period dress - the Victorian dresses are so pretty.
Happiest Celebration
6. Which piece are you most proud of in
your collection?
My favorite piece is my “Eye of the Tiger”
piece by Cross my Heart. I actually had this hanging in my
classroom, until I was moved to a smaller room. My second
favorite piece is my “Summerball” by Sandy Littlejohn. I
just feel like I am at a ball with Jane Austen’s characters.
Eye of the Tiger
7. What has been your worst stitching
disaster?
I was working on the HUGE Sistine Chapel design. I
followed the pattern for over 30 pages when I found some areas were
not matching up. I counted, recounted and there was no mistake.
When I contacted the designer about the possible error….I was told
to keep going it would eventually match up. Ummm...No….so I
tossed the whole project. I loved that project!!!
8. Which new technique would you like to
try, either stitching, finishing or another craft?
I am a
terrible finisher. I would love to learn to finish something
that looks great instead of like a two year old finished it!
9. Do you have a box of
finished-but-not-fully-finished pieces? Or is everything FFO'd?
What's your favourite way to fully finish a project and what do
you do with them?
I have a HUGE box finished but not FFO’d projects.
I want to finish them but they all just go in
the box! My favorite way to finish is a project is to frame it.
Boring, I know...but I like things framed. When I finally
frame them, they go up on my wall.
Augusta 12th Hole
10. Which of your projects most represents
"you"?
I think the one project that represents me is
my “Cinderella’s Castle” I have always loved that story,
and my favorite place to be is sitting on main street, staring at the
castle.
Mirabilia Cinderella
11. Tell us a secret about yourself. Or
a joke. About anything!
My husband and I lost our
marriage license after the wedding. He thought I had it and I thought
he did when we checked out of the hotel. Neither of us had it
so we had to drive an hour back to the town we got married, get
another copy of our licenses, FedEx it to the preacher, and have them FedEx back to county courthouse! We still laugh about this!!!!
Amazing Grace
12. Anything you would like to add?
Thank
you so much for allowing me to share my stitching story.
