Filling in

I started filling in the empty spaces on this band of Carmen.

 That blue really makes everything pop!

Right now, I think I'm going to stick with Carmen for my Fourth of July stitching.  Quite frankly, it's going to be too hot to do much of anything else!

Happy Day

 Carmen has been sitting on the stand for weeks and weeks. Yesterday, I whipped off the fancy dishtowel that keeps the dust off, threaded up a needle, and stitched on her for awhile.

I restitched the leaves that I had to rip out and finished the rest of the leaves. It may not look like much, but it's filament silk on 45 count linen, so it takes me a wee bit longer to make visible progress.

But it made me so happy to work on this again!! Who knew a few stitches could do so much for ones attitude?

Happy Half Year!

 I am in a state of disbelief because the year is half over. And I have very little to show for it.

I'm not going to beat myself up over that. Who would have thought I would develop killer tendonitis and a possible hairline fracture in my wrist? I suppose I should build in a contingency plan for injury or decrepitude.

Better yet, maybe I should stop making plans. Have you heard this before? Like every couple of months?

Maybe my plan is to work on whatever pleases me at the moment, whether I meet any arbitrary goals or not. I really do need to recover from years of dealing with deadlines and schedules.

Meanwhile, I have added the outlines of flowers to the basket bands for House on the Hill.

I also read over the directions for the first class of an EGA online course that came out while I couldn't stitch. I have a month before the video classes for Hummingbird in Silk and Gold go kaput, so I believe I may want to at least watch them before they leave.

I frogged the mistake on Carmen--did I mention that I found the two threads that I was off when I had to stop working on her?

I cut out more little squares of linen for the online Hardanger class I'm taking through EGA's Cyberstitchers.

I decided I would definitely go with the practice netting for the online whitework class. Maybe. Of course, the Dazor is in position so I could work on the conservation netting. And I don't have a deadline when it absolutely has to be done. I think I'll continue to debate with myself over this.

I've cleaned off my work table again.

And the new issue of Inspirations has arrived.

I have choices for the Half Year. I need to be an octopus.

So close

 So, I'm doing the fun stuff on the basket bands.

I had planned to do everything for the first band, then move on to the second--but by the time I finished the first band, I had the leaf and stem pattern memorized and it just seemed easier to keep going. I really wanted to have the second one finished before I went to bed, but it was getting toward midnight and my eyes were beginning to cross. Rather than make a mistake that I'd have to frog, I went to bed.

I was going to work on my whitework class today, but I need to make a decision as to whether to use the practice netting for the finished piece or to use the teeny-tiny-wee-little conservation netting that requires me to use the Dazor as well as my usual magnifiers to see it. I think I'm going to rationalize that this is a learning piece so it's mainly to get a feel for the technique.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Deadly Dull and Boring

My poor blog has been sadly neglected of late, but I've been so deadly dull and boring that I hated to inflict myself on the world.

I have been stitching, but what I've been doing has not been particularly interesting to anyone but me.

I mean, this is going to turn into something lovely, but right now . . . meh.

These are the side bands for the Shaker carrier for Merry Cox's House on the Hill. I've been working on the nun stitch outlines, which involve 772 nun stitches total for the two bands.

772 nun stitches.

Think about that.

I'm trying not to. DBE said I should never have added them up because it would make me run screaming into the night. I didn't do that, but I became very tired of nun stitches, to the point I'm going to avoid them for as long as I possibly can.

I'm also working on my online whitework class, and, hallelujah, I am all but caught up with all the motifs.

Naturally the one I have left to do is close to the most intense and time-consuming one of the whole class. I may not be around much this weekend while I deal with it.

After that, I hope to be back to more colorful and interesting things to stitch and see. I don't think I can stand to be deadly dull and boring for much longer.

 

Seeing Double

 I decided I need to work on something with color today, so it's back to House on the Hill. I finished the pieces for the scissors fob and the pin keep.

Obviously, the sides of each are identical.

All I have left to do before assembly are the bands that go around the interior of the Shaker basket. They are also identical. I'm glad I like this flower motif because I have to do it a whole lot more times.

Aged and Decrepit

I didn't mean to let a week go by without a blog post. Age and decrepitude got in the way.

It's been a week of doctors' appointments and a trip back to my hometown to have a permanent crown installed. I had to take a couple of days to perform some very necessary Domestic Diva tasks, and I've been trying to catch up on my online whitework class with varying degrees of success.

And then, last night, I rolled over and threw my back out. If that isn't an example of being aged and decrepit, I don't know what is!

Plus, just to emphasize my age, today Dearly Beloved and I celebrate our forty-eighth wedding anniversary. Forty-eight years . . . first of all, I'm not sure how that happened, and even more, how did I get old enough to have a forty-eighth anniversary? (We have already planned to celebrate with take-out Chinese because we're just that exciting.)

But you come here for the stitching, and here is the little bit I've done that isn't whitework.

needle book, Merry Cox's House on the Hill

This is cause for celebration--it's the last bit of this set that has lettering.

Dearly Beloved just came in with another Icy Hot pad to apply to my back. Ah, romance in the golden years!