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!

 

A little out of proportion

 I don't think there's any way to change this, . . but . . . 

It took about 8 hours to do the prework to set up the motif that would be embellished.

And less than two hours, during class, to embellish.

The embellishment is the fun part.

Isn't that always the way? It takes forever to get ready for the fun stuff, and the fun stuff lasts no time at all.

Another piece down

 The second piece for House on the Hill is completely stitched.

It helped that the Kindred Spirits Sampler Guild had a stitch-in yesterday, so I knew I had a good two-plus hours I could devote to stitching as well as socializing, even if it's through a computer screen. Actually, two of the members just returned from what sounds like an amazing trip to Europe, getting to see samplers in many venues. That was fascinating, and the time flew.

And then I had some momentum with my stitching, and just kept going until  finished. 

You may notice that there are two dates on the piece. I've committed to getting this done in 2024, so that date is with my name. And the project was started at Christmas in Williamsburg in 1999, so to give a nod to that timeline, I had to include that year as well.

Now it's on to the side bands--this all fits in a Shaker basket, which I may have forgotten to mention, and there are side bands that need to be stitched.

But today I need to do the homework for my whitework class so I'll be ready to do that tomorrow. I have a feeling the homework will take a good chunk of the afternoon.

I am not complaining. Getting my homework done is my excuse for avoiding the dust rhinos.

Change of Plans

I know I said I was going to work on the Hardanger course.

I changed my mind.

I decided to work on the lettering for the poem for Merry Cox's House on the Hill. I may have mentioned a time or a thousand that I don't particularly care for stitching letters. I would be thrilled if someone gave me a Bristol sampler and I would treasure it, but I will never, ever stitch one. However, although the letters are worked over one, they're done in tent stitch so it's going fairly quickly.

And I do love the flowers, which will be mirrored on the other side.

I think I may spend the rest of the day on this. I was up early and walked before it got hot and humid so I feel very virtuous and worthy of a reward.

That's my rationalization and I'm sticking to it!