Slowly and Carefully (and some enabling)

I'd hoped I'd be able to photograph this in natural light, but the clouds have moved in. Again.

I have spent the whole afternoon just getting the Nun's Stitch border worked in. NOT because I can't do Nun Stitch--I have stitched miles and miles of it--but because overdyed cotton threads do not take well to being tugged and pulled. Dyeing can weaken cotton fiber and overdyeing can weaken it more. To avoid shredding the thread, I've had to work very slowly and carefully. Since I'd rather work slowly and carefully than weave in broken ends and start new threads, slowly and carefully it's been.

All afternoon.

At this point, I had hoped to have the two thimble holders and the page holder for the needlecase stitched, and I had thought I would be able to start the needlecase itself. It appears, though, that I will be stitching slowly and carefully for another few hours.

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Enabling Alert!

If you are not interested in enabling, just skip this and go to another blog.

You may have realized that I am a major fan of Barbara Jackson, who designs under the Tristan Brooks logo. She has just announced a new online class, her Sylvan Scenes Basket, through Shining Needle Society.

OK, there are some caveats: she had only a very limited supply of the baskets for which the band was originally designed. When the class was announced, it was with the provision that once the baskets were all spoken for, the other options would be instructions and materials with no basket, or instructions only. Apparently the basket option sold out in something like 20 minutes.

However, the design will fit around other baskets, so if you have a basket you'd like to adorn, this is a possible class for you. The design is a series of vignettes in early Americana style, much like the ornaments she has been teaching for SNS for the last three years, and the color palette is Barbara's usual  lovely series of blues, roses, and greens.

I'm very happy that I have the kit in the stash and I even know exactly where it is, so I'm auditing the class. Actually, when I was destroying my stash room looking for stretcher bars the other day, this was one of the projects I ran across and set aside as a project of interest for stitching sooner rather than later.

Now I just have to dive back in and find stretcher bars that will fit the linen for this project.

Dearly Beloved has suggested tying a line to my jeans so if I don't come out in a reasonable amount of time, he can reel me in.