A tisket, a tasket

 I have a tree

and a basket.

The tree is this year's ornament from Tricia Nguyen. The pattern is a freebie on the Thistle Threads website, and you can also find the first two years' trees there as well.

This one started out looking like a bunch of spiders, but now that the other stitches have filled in, it looks lacy--mainly because the tree is all stitched in eyelets. I still have to work the pot the tree sits in, my initials, and the date. Then it's embellished with beads and a trim called gilt folien.

You have to punch a hole in each of the trims. I have a terrible feeling about punching holes in anything because I am a well-known klutz. If I'm successful, it will look really neat. If I'm not--well, I probably have some other kind of shiny bits I can use.

And then there is the second hanging basket on Ann Kemp. I need to stitch the bird heading towards the basket for this side, then work more on the random vines and branches and leaves and flowers.

I could, though, get the prework for the Monday night SAL done ahead of time. This will require pulling out the Lightbox and tracing the design and wrapping the hoop and sewing on the first bits of padding.

I think I'll do that tomorrow morning and just cross stitch some more on Ann Kemp tonight. That's about what I'm capable of at the moment--last night was a short night and today has been a very long day.

Dearly Beloved is watching Bonnie & Clyde on TCM for the 487th time. Maybe I'll go upstairs and get away from the gunfire and listening to Estelle Parsons screech. No wonder the real Blanche Barrow was irritated by her portrayal in the movie!

I finished my homework

 Well, I finished the mandatory part--although we aren't getting graded and can't fail, at least I'm keeping up.

We can move on to do the other side of the frame if we have time. I'm going to try to make time over the weekend.

But this afternoon I think I will sing a fa-la-la or two and work on a Christmas ornament. Somebody said Christmas is less than ninety days away, which means it will get here faster than we think it will.

But this year has passed much faster than I thought it would, so Christmas will be here day after tomorrow.

And now it's October

 I decided to make a list of goals for October. Then I decided I should make a list of reasonably attainable goals and a list of pie-in-the-sky goals.

The reasonably attainable goals:

• It appears that I am going to spend some of October reading serious books instead of murder mysteries. EGA offers a number of lectures through the national organization, various regions, and individual chapters. Two of the lecturers I listened to in the last several weeks have also written books. I had to buy the books because both lecturers were so very fascinating. So now I'm going to read and learn more. 
• I want to stay current with the class I'm taking from Zina Kazban, the Elizabethan Rose.
• I'd like to get two pages of Carmen's charts completely stitched.
• I want to finish-finish at least one of the projects in one of the finishing baskets
• I want to finish the border on the Cherished Lettercase--Good Grief, that is ALL I have to do!
• I want to stay current with the two SALs I have going, The Queen Sampler (actually, I'm already a little ahead) and the goldwork piece that the Dayton EGA chapter is doing in the goldwork  Special Interest Group (SIG)
• And I want to stitch and finish-finish Tricia Nguyen's 2025 ornament

And now for the pie-in-the-sky goals, in addition to the ones above:

• I'd like to get a total of four pages of Carmen done
• I would REALLY like to get another two projects in the finishing basket assembled.
• I want to get a page of Ann Kemp stitched
• I'd like to get another couple of ornaments stitched.
• I'd like to finish the Hummingbird in silk and gold.
• And I'd really, really, REALLY like to start and catch up with Tricia's Nuremberg pincushions

I told you it was a pie-in-the-sky list of things to do.

And, actually, what it means is that "SQUIRREL!!!" and I'll dive down another rabbit hole.

September is over????

I had grand plans at the beginning of September, a whole list of things I wanted to work on and a couple of projects I hoped to finish.

As usual, my plans were more expansive than apparently my abilities are. Actually, if I could stop puttering and start stitching, I might be able to be more productive. Please do not ask me what I'm doing while I'm puttering--there are days when I'm busy with something all day but cannot tell you what those things are. It appears that I move things from one pile to another and call it reorganizing.

I was talking to someone over the weekend and she said her mother used to stitch from 4 a.m. - 10 a.m. Then she would do whatever she needed to do that day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and then stitch again from 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. 8 p.m. was her bedtime.

I do not get up at 4 a.m. voluntarily for anything other than going on a trip, but maybe making stitching a priority would help.  I may experiment with a schedule--that horrid word I swore I would not follow once I retired--in October.

Meanwhile, this is what I've been able to get done:

Part of my homework on Elizabethan Rose:

 

I need to add some more layers to the stem and do more gold on the other side of the frame.

I replaced what I messed up on Ann Kemp and added some more:

I had the thought that if I got a good bit of the basket stitched, it might give me a good reference point for all the twines and vines.

And I started the 2025 Christmas ornament from Tricia Nguyen of Thistle Threads:

At the moment, it looks like ranks of spiders marching in a Christmas tree formation. I hope that will change when I get the other stitches filled in, but it's a little creepy right now--more Halloween than Christmas.

I'm not a big Halloween stitcher anyway--I deck the halls for Christmas to a fare-thee-well, but other than avoiding those big bags of candy, I sorta forget about Halloween. It may be because orange is one of my least favorite colors, so why stitch with it? Christmas, however, is all sparkly and bright, and I do like my sparkles.

Wouldn't it be boring if we all did the same stuff?

One step forward, two steps back

 I had a class today on the Elizabethan Rose, and we worked on couching gold threads on the frame, and started attaching silk gimp to the stem of the flower.

There will be a lot more gold stitched on the frame before our next class, and we'll add more rows to the stem.

And here is Ann Kemp.

I have not mixed up before-and-after pictures. This is how Ann looked after I discovered that I had miscounted the first stem I stitched. The very first stem. The one that all the other stems were counted from. 

When I mentioned that I have a black thumb when it comes to gardening, I really didn't mean my stitched gardening as well.

Foliage

 I've been stitching foliage the last couple of days. This is the only way I will have foliage since I have a black thumb. I would love to grow flowers and have a vegetable garden, but apparently I do not have the gift. Dearly Beloved does, so he gets that activity in the division of labor.

However, I now have stripey leaves on the Elizabethan Rose project I'm taking from Zina Kazban.

They will have all sorts of embellishment before it's all over, but this is the start.

And there is foliage on Ann Kemp's sampler:

So now I'm adding flowers to those branches and leaves. 

I really wish I knew more about Ann Kemp. She has some motifs on her sampler that are textbook perfect, like her pinkes and the apple baskets. But then she has a wild group of vines and leaves and flowers that twine and twist and flourish all around the handle of the basket. I'd love to know what her embroidery teacher thought about this--did she encourage her or did she shake her head and sigh? I guess we'll never know.

I am enjoying stitching after a couple of days of feeling like a zombie. I never felt ill--but I really was sleepy, as in sitting up straight with a needle in my hand, sound asleep. This is my usual reaction to the Covid shot, but I think having the flu shot on top of it multiplied the effects. Anyway, now I can sit up straight with a needle in my hand and actually stitch. 

Progress Report

 Well, I got one more band on The Queen Sampler all but stitched. The grapes are supposed to be filled with spiral trellis stitch. I have to work spiral trellis in hand so I can keep tension on the knot--mainly because I haven't figured out quite how to do that when I have the fabric on a scroll frame. So, I guess when the rest of the sampler is stitched, I'll take it off the scroll frame and fill in those stitches.

Actually, I kind of like the lacy look of this band . . . 

Hmmm . . . 

Not much else has happened in the last few days.

I spent half an hour one morning earlier this week looking for my clip-on magnifiers so I could stitch. They were clipped to my glasses. I was wearing my glasses.

I decided that wasn't going to be a good stitching day.

Then I got both flu and Covid shots yesterday. As my father used to say when he didn't feel quite right,  I was about half a bubble off plumb the rest of the day.

Today I'm up and I've taken my walk, and you would think I would be mostly alert--but I'm seriously thinking about going back to bed. I am retired, after all. I can do what I want when I want to do it, within reason.

Another hmmmmm . . . . .