A finish and another page

 I have a finish!!

Summer Crewel

designed by Sara Rickards

Online Class from Well Embroidered

There are things I would do over, but I think I'll leave them. This was a learning experience, after all.

And I have another page of RST 1779 stitched. This one was a lot easier and a little faster to stitch because there were repeated patterns and fewer color changes.

That weird squiggle on the right side is the beginning of the leaf on a big flower that will continue on page 3 of the charts. I believe I'll start working on that while watching Miracle on 34th Street. This is the week that I spend time with Christmas movies and Christmas music and let the sights and sounds of the season flow over me.

While I stitch, of course!

Page One--Done!!!

 When last I wrote--good grief, was it almost two weeks ago?--I was planning to do some ornament assembling.

I didn't.

The linen for a model I'm stitching for my friend Cissy arrived and I started stitching that instead.

This is Page 1 of 1779 RST. All Queen stitches, all the time, reproduced from a sampler in Cissy's amazing collection. Absolutely amazing motifs on this one--beautiful, soft pastels--this is going to be like an ice cream shop when it's finished!

I would have thought I'd have more done, but we had our family Thanksgiving/Christmas combo celebration last weekend so there was much cooking and cleaning to be done before I could host The Saint. Actually the cooking was the big thing. No, I may retract that statement. It was probably cleaning off the guest room bed and finding places to put the stuff that had accumulated on it. (Of course, now I have to find the portal to the dimension in which those things landed--that fabled "safe place" which means it will take forever to locate my stuff again.) And then we had to make a day trip back to our old stomping grounds--and then it took a day to recover from the day trip.

At least with company coming, the halls got decked as well as dusted, and the tree is ornamentified, except for the new ornaments I have stitched but not assembled.

Maybe I can squeeze out a few minutes (or hours, if I'm honest) to put them together. But I also have just a wee bit more to do to finish Summer Crewel, the class I've been taking from Sara Rickards.

Because I'd really like to have this sampler stitched before I start the three--yes, you heard it here first--three online classes that begin in January. Plus the EGA correspondence course. And then the Kate Barlow class in February. And there is likely something else that I'm signed up to do that I've forgotten about. 

At least I don't have time to get bored. 

Finishing . . . SO much finishing!

Tomorrow I am going to put Christmas ornaments together.

I've been trying to get to that for the last three days and something has interfered every time, so this is it. Tomorrow I am going to finish, finish, FINISH!!!

And I've added another ornament to the stack of ornaments that need to be done:

 Barbara Jackson't 2024 ornament through Shining Needle Society--no, the class hasn't officially started yet but I think this will be something like the 23rd or 24th of her ornaments I've stitched over the years. I believe I've figured out how to put them together by now.

And I need to finish decking the halls and clean the guest room (which means finding a home for all the stuff that is covering the bed) and make an extensive grocery list because The Saint is coming for a combination Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration on Saturday. As she has taken over Mother's job of critiquing everything we do, we need to be ready for the inspection.

And then I can sit back and enjoy the season.

Happy Black Friday!

 No, I am not out and about in the shopping madness and frenzy. I am sitting at home, wrapped in an afghan because it's cold and getting colder, and I've been watching Flosstubes and the Crewel Work Company Zoom demonstrations (all weekend! how cool is that!) and threading a needle or two.

And at the moment, I am avoiding looking at my worktable where the following can be seen:

I have finishing to do on Betsy Morgan's Christmas Treats and Alison Cole's Elizabethan Rose, and I need to embellish Tricia Nguyen's Christmas Garland and put it together.

And I still have the new Barbara Jackson ornament to stitch, plus a couple more on my list for this year.

AND today's mail is supposed to bring a model for me to stitch--all Queen stitch, which I love to do--from Cissy Bailey Smith of Gentle Pursuit Designs.

And the rest of the tree needs ornamentifying and the halls need to be decked.

I have plenty to do, so I'd best get to it.

(I have been asked where I've been for almost two weeks. The November Nasties got me this year but good. Not enough sun, too many gray days--some years it hits and this year it did. It doesn't usually last too long and I think I'm over it, but I may keep the Christmas lights on until March. Or April, Or maybe May.)

Still catching up on homework

I am still catching up on my homework on Summer Crewel.

 This is where I am after stitching through most of three Zoom meetings today (total of 5 hours).

This is where I was the last time I posted.  At least I can see some progress, although I still have a lot of fiddly, time-consuming elements to stitch. But I have two more days before class, so maybe I can get it all done.

Before I have more homework to do . . .

Fa-la-la-ing

My Christmas tree ornament is almost finished. I just have to do the embellishing--gold thread and beads--and then this will go into the finishing pile. 

And the results of my poll on what projects to do for this year are in. Sone of my readers sent private messages since Blogger is making commenting on posts a PITA in some instances, which may mean that there were other opinions that didn't get stated--but I went by the numbers I got.

Christmas Treats won, with Christmas in Virginia in second place.

And then, for third place, there is a three-way tie: Poinsettia Heart, Elizabethan Christmas, and Christmas Rose are all vying for a spot on the tree (if I have time).

But then there is the last place ornament, that may push its way to the top of the heap. Joyful Pome didn't get many votes, but one of them is Dearly Beloved's. There's a family joke about pomegranates, and he thinks that this ornament deserves a place on the tree because of that. 

I am taking his opinion under advisement.

Doing my homework

 We had a mid-term break in the online crewel class I'm taking. We also had a LOT of homework to do before we resume classes this coming Tuesday.

And of course I procrastinated.

So today I've been stabbing linen with a sharp needle, and I'm about halfway through the assignment.

My eyes and hands are getting tired, and I'm starting to make mistakes, so I think I better set this aside tonight. This leads to a dilemma. Tomorrow is Sampler Sunday. Monday we are going back to see our "old" dentist since Dearly Beloved needs a root canal--this will be a day-long trip since we also want to get there early enough to have lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant. I don't think I'd have enough time Tuesday morning to finish everything. I think I'm going to have to sacrifice Sampler Sunday to get this done. Phooey!

Meanwhile, thanks to the readers who are voting on my Christmas ornament decision. I'm going to wait a couple of days to tabulate the results to give anyone else who might be interested a chance to weigh in. So far, from what I can tell, the numbers are very close.