As Ye Sew, So Shall Ye Rip

Well, so much for blogging every day in November. I think I've ripped out more than I've stitched.

And I've only worked on two projects for the last two days. Maybe it has something to do with being able to count . . . 

This is where I am on Carmen at the moment. I wish I had more--you'd think I would--but ripping, oh, the ripping!

And here is Ann Kemp. I am off somewhere on the border, which is throwing off the spacing for some of the motifs at the bottom.

I have not looked for the error because I know it's probably back at the top. I also know that if I find it, I'll feel the need to rip everything out to fix it. I also know that means I would be likely to put this in time-out. Possibly forever. Therefore I am following the Great Jean Lea's advice, "Always forward, never backward" and making it work. Hopefully.

I blame the trees.

What do trees have to do with my stitching, you ask.

In the spring, I am allergic to tree pollen.

In the fall, I am allergic to leaf mold.

I went for a walk several days ago for my stupid mental and physical health and the wind was blowing and the leaves already on the ground were being blown about and then I stayed outside for awhile enjoying the beautiful fall day

and then I came inside with a runny nose and a stopped up head. My sinuses were so congested that my throat was sore from drainage. One ear was completely stopped up and the other was making weird popping noises. I had to take an antihistamine to dry things out.

And that's when I started making counting errors. Dearly Beloved says I should blame the drugs, not the trees, but I wouldn't have to take the drugs if it weren't for the trees. 

I should probably have taken the meds and a nap. I will remember this for the next time.

 

Raw Materials

This rather boring looking box with little envelopes and tissue wrapped objects came in the mail a week or so ago.

If you look closely, you'll see a bit of a new goldwork project that I'll be working on for the next few months. Actually, the first lesson was posted today.

Am I ready to dive in?

Not quite.

I'm really in the mood to work on Carmen today, so that's what I'm going to do. Basically, strike while the iron is hot--but seeing me working on the interminable border is not going to be the most interesting thing you've ever seen.

So this is just a tease of things to come.

Looks Like Spring

 Yeah, I know what the calendar says, but my flowering shrub looks like spring!

I think I need to move on to part of Carmen's never-ending border next, as much as I'd like to work on a few more motifs. I remember that Jackie said she had left the border for last, and thought she would never, ever get it done--so I'm trying to get bits of it finished as I work along the side.

I used to be a do-the-whole-border-first kind of person--eat the broccoli before you get to the creme brûlée--but I'm finding my stitching is more accurate if I do a little at a time. I will never enjoy doing borders, but they're more likely to match up if I work them as I work the insides.

Now if I could just figure out a way to enjoy stitching letters and numbers . . . 

Flowering shrub

 I decided to poke at Carmen for awhile today.

I think this is supposed to be some kind of flowering shrub. Obviously I don't have too many flowers on it--yet--but I hope I can finish it tomorrow. Actually, I may stick with Carmen until I get the two pages I wanted to finish in October completed. We'll see how that goes. Apparently, along with epic fails with rotations, I also don't do well with setting goals when it comes to needlework.

And, on another topic completely, I do want to let the readers who comment on my blogs know that I read and appreciate every message I receive. For some reason I haven't been able to respond to them for over a month.  It probably has something to do with metrics, or the algorithm, or whatever odd and peculiar computer/media thing operates blogger. Please just know that I love and appreciate you all.

A special day?

Not special because of the quantity of stitching . . . 

 I have totally lost the name of this piece--however, it's the focus project for the goldwork special interest group sponsored by the Dayton Chapter of EGA.  I am not happy--I crunched the gold purl when I was sewing the beads around the center. As I don't have any additional purl in this size, I couldn't replace it. I am going on the "if it can't be seen from the back of a galloping horse, don't worry" philosophy and moving on.

And I moved on to the border for the attribution at the bottom of Ann Kemp. I decided that I wanted to get all the borders and letters out of the way, and then go back to the fun stuff.

And why has there been so little stitching to show for a Sunday with an extra hour?

Today is Dearly Beloved's natal anniversary. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you will remember that Dearly Beloved does not like birthday celebrations. He does not like being reminded that he is a year older. He wants no fuss.

So there has been no fuss but we have been doing what he wanted to do today, which means I have been holding things and handing him tools and being a general go-fer for one of his projects. We will have Chinese take-out later.

After all, you should do something special when a person makes it to three-quarters of a century.

(I think that was one of the things I'm not supposed to mention. OOOPS!)

Finally! A Finish!!

 Last stitch has been placed in the Cherished Letter Case, an adaptation of a French embroidery from the late 1700's. This came from an online class offered by Zina Kazban at the beginning of the year.

It is very sparkly, which the camera didn't pick up, and I'm quite pleased with it. And it checked off one of my October goals, even though it was checked off in November.

Actually, most of my October goals are going to move into November. I had a week in which I did not thread a needle. I did have a good excuse for last weekend--Best Daughter Ever and I went to Williamsburg. Colonial Williamsburg was offering special Fall Getaway rates at their hotels, BDE wanted to have a break, I wanted to go to DeWitt Wallace (the art museum) and so we went.

I did take stitching with me (of course) but I never took it out of the tote bag. However, the textile gallery at the museum had some gorgeous, gobsmacking, amazing 17th century English embroideries (including a casket) so I did look at embroidery.

And then we came home, and the skies turned gray and the temps dropped and the rain fell, and I went into one of my winter funks. Aside from Christmas, I do not care for winter. I don't do cold well, I was built for spring and summer. So I was grumpy and cranky for a few days and binged on TV and ate chocolate.

Of course, it was a very good mail week, with lots of needlework goodies showing up in my mailbox. And you may see them during the coming few days. This is November, when traditionally bloggers blog everyday. I am likely the last of a dying breed, but I'm going to make a valiant effort to keep up the tradition this year, and I need content!!

So we'll see how it goes.

A little of this, a little of that

 I have been puttering among my needlework projects.

I've done a little of this, a little of that, but hardly enough to talk about.

I did finish my homework for my Elizabethan Rose class. Not only have I finished it, I finished it two weeks before the next class. That is not typical behavior so don't expect it to continue.

I did a tiny bit more on Carmen. It felt like I did a lot more but I have realized that getting anything done on Carmen is going to take time.

I rolled the scrolls on Ann Kemp and started working on the bottom half. Actually, I'm going to try to finish the borders and do the attribution along the bottom. This requires stitching letters again. I would rather get the letters out of the way and then work on the fun stuff.

And I figured out where the directions for filling in the little tree motifs were in the instructions for the Queen Sampler and got a start on doing that.

As usual, I am bouncing from one project to another like a BB in a boxcar. And if you know what a BB and a boxcar are, you may just be dating yourself. I realized I must be amongst the elderly when I saw a question on FB--the stitcher was getting ready to put a drum together and the directions said you could use BBs as weights. She had no idea what they were. 

Like I said in an earlier post, I've become an elder.