Getting back into a routine

I was thinking the other day--the last few years, I have not been as productive as I thought I would be. Actually, I thought I would spend the majority of every day with a needle in my hand--and I did, the first year I retired.

But then I had some health issues that sapped my energy, then there was the Big Move, and, to put the cherry on top, I lost a big chunk of this year with my wrist in a brace.

And I got out of the habit of stitching. I was still going to classes, I was still enhancing the stash--instead of stitching, though, I was puttering and scrolling through my phone and playing online games. And, at the same time, I want all this stuff stitched!

So, I'm going to try to limit my time playing on my phone (OMG, it is addictive, and I don't want to be that person who is physically attached to my phone 24/7), and I'm going to start the day out stitching, and I'm going to work on what I want to do when I want to do it.

This is what I've been poking a needle into for the last couple of days:

I'm taking an online class from Sara Rickards, the same tutor who's been teaching the deep dive classes I've been taking. It's an advanced crewel class. I'm already a little behind, but I've got a rhythm going now and I think I may be ready for class on Tuesday.

Carmen still has my heart, and she's going to actually get some love this week. After all, her boring border is done, and I almost have the framework for the middle of the design finished, so I can see some progress happening.

One side of the Hapsburg Lace needle book is stitched. I have the framework for the other side done, but I'm going to save the filling stitches until our EGA meeting so I can demonstrate them there if anyone needs to see how to work them. I haven't loved working on this because the canvas is really stiff and harsh--possibly because it has metallic threads running through it. I love the design, but I am really going to be thrilled beyond belief to have this finished.

And I think I need to get back in the habit of more frequent blogging. If I blog, I stitch, and vice-versa. Therefore, I will continue to babble away about what's on my frame , , , er . . . frames.

Well, that happened . . .

I have been a busy stitcher.

And, OMG, I have the borders for this section of Carmen done! This is the part that I've moaned and groaned and whined and whinged about ever since I started this beautiful sampler--and it is a beautiful sampler despite my weeping and wailing.

I think the last time I wrote, I said I was probably just going to work evenly across the piece, the way I generally do borders on school girl samplers--just working the part of the border that meets the fun part of the design. Not that borders can't be fun in small doses--I just find it boring to do the same pattern over and over and over again.

So I am basically delighted with what I've done on Carmen the last few days.

And then . . . well, I am either the luckiest stitcher alive or it's true that God looks out for dim bulbs.

I was going to do my homework for the advanced crewel class I'm taking online, but I woke up earlier than I wanted to and couldn't get back to sleep. I had stayed up way past my bedtime reading a murder mystery--I got to the point I had to find out whodunnit and couldn't put the book down--so I was a bit too weary to think about what I was stitching.

Apparently I did something similar when I started the embroidered panel for the Artisan's Workbox. I started the design lower than I should have on the linen. 

Now, I picked this up today because I figured it would be an easy stitch--just counting and remembering when to do Smyrna crosses and when to do long arm crosses and when to do rice stitches or straight stitches. But as I stitched down one side, I started thinking that I was getting awfully close to the bottom of the linen. SO close, so very close to the bottom of the linen.

I nearly had a sinking spell.

I counted the number of stitches needed to get to the bottom of the design. I counted the number of threads I had left on the linen.

I have about four or five threads more than I absolutely have to have.

If I counted everything correctly.

I can't decide whether I want to continue with this to see if I do have enough space to finish or if I want to to scrub a floor and not think about it at all.

Adulting is HARD!

I got up an at unearthly hour and had my annual mammogram this morning.

The Marquis de Sade would have loved the mammogram machine. Quite frankly, if men had to have their dangly bits mashed between two plates on a yearly basis, there would be a much less uncomfortable option.

Then, just as painful in another way, I came home, balanced the checkbook, and paid bills.

I think I've been a grown-up for quite long enough today. 

So, I'm going to stitch.

Here's where I am currently on the Stitcher's Workbox project. I think the purple flowers might be clover.

And I'm jumping from one area to another on Carmen, which may be the best way to tackle this very large band.

I think Carmen will get some love this afternoon, then more twining leaves and blooms tonight. Or I may do something else entirely.

Whatever it is, it will not involve mature, responsible behavior.

The Stitching Slump

I fell into a stitching slump a couple of weeks ago and I'm just now recovering.

I think I had too many things going on at the same time, and I kept hitting the wall on all of them. Why? Who knows--maybe I had been stitching so much (is that possible?) that I burned out a bit.  Anyway, I pretty much stopped stitching for a few days. I read three books, and then, last week, I went to Salty Yarns for classes with Jackie.

And all three classes are amazing and enticing and extremely doable.

 Cleopatra's Needle is one of those deceptively simple designs that don't show up well in a photo. Let me tell you--there is very subtle stitching that looks almost like hieroglyphics on the obelisk itself, and an interior structure that serves to store needles and three spools while sitting on a stack of pin cushions.  I still think Jackie would be an engineer in another life.

Oh, and the white blob on the right of the picture is my slightly smushed, definitely askew paper mock-up. Some things don't travel well.

Just look at that luscious purple silk! This is an amazing storage pouch for all sorts of silk spools and thread winders and whatever you need to store. To be perfectly honest, I was totally intimidated when I first saw it opened--like, how in the world does this thing go together? It was too much to take in. Then we went over the directions, and it's going to be a breeze. I mean, a breeze to assemble.

And, OMG, look at the colors in this one. The original name was All That Glitters--you can't see it in the photo but there is gold metallic along with the silk colors. The stitching is going to take a minute, but I think it will be perfect to work on during a long winter's night with something good on TV. That gorgeous silk makes pockets for the interior as well as lining the back of the embroidery. It's just yummy.

Have I started working on any of these yet? Nope, I decided once I was home I need to simplify my stitching life and clear a few things out of the way. So, I put a couple of the headache pieces in time-out temporarily. I set Carmen back up, and I decided to pull the Artisan's Workbox out from the last trip to Salty Yarns.

This will be the stitched exterior of the sewing roll. I was hoping to audit this at Sassy Jack's in November.

And that leads me to the weather. I live in North Carolina, where part of the state has been decimated by Helene's rain, winds, and flooding. Where I live, we had torrential rains, flash floods, and tornado warnings but nothing like the destruction in the western part of the state. The area around Asheville, where Sassy Jack's is located, is one of the hardest hit--the flood waters rose to a point that hasn't been seen in over 100 years. There is no cell service at the moment. The roads are cut off--I have a very dear friend who lives in the area, and there are no roads open in or out of her town. 

It's going to take a long time for the area to recover, so there's no guarantee that we'll have classes in just six weeks. Actually, I'll be surprised if we do. I'm hoping and praying that Kim is fine, that the shop isn't damaged by flood waters, and that the whole area will be back to normal sooner rather than later. And so I'm going to continue to work on Carmen and the Artisan's Workbox so I can take them to class, whenever and wherever that may be.

Back and forth

 I needed something relatively mindless to stitch today, so I'm filling in areas on No Place Like Home.

All the grass at the bottom of each piece has been planted, but you'll have to take my word for that since I've rolled the bars. And those things that look like green clouds will become the leaves on a tree once it grows. There will be another tree growing on the back cover, and then I have to build a house and plant some flowers. 

Which may or may not happen today since I have fallen into a book and I'm having a hard time digging myself out of it. I was just going to read a few pages, but the next thing I knew I was 100 pages in. I also missed the MidAtlantic region's virtual stitch-in this afternoon because I totally lost track of time.

Maybe I should have set a timer.

Adding to the List

I think I forgot to mention a goody that arrived in the mail a week or so ago.

The Crewel Work Company offered The Peach Tree from the Feller Mirror. Kate Barlow designed a metal thread and silk motif inspired by one in the mirror.

I really want to pull this out and put a stitch in it, but I have so many WIPs at the moment, I can't start another one. As it is, I'm beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. I think I need to have something finished.

There is that basket filled with things that need to be assembled sitting there, staring at me . . . Maybe this is the impetus I need to put some things together.

Too, Too Boring

 I am too boring for words because not much has been going on. I have been unwell and decided maybe I shouldn't do anything that required more than about three brain cells.

My stitching this week has consisted of working the frameworks in double crosses (similar to Smyrna crosses except the vertical stitch is worked over the horizontal stitch, which was not the way I usually cross, so I had to reverse stitch more than once). There are about forty bazillion of them.

I'm doing this project because I volunteered to teach it to the local EGA chapter. It's the Hapsburg Lace needle book from Tanja Berlin. The teaching, such as it will be, is going to take up two meetings. Then we'll do the finishing in January. Luckily I don't have to do that--actually BDE is going to do the finishing part of the project.

And what has happened to the hummingbird, you ask? He has flown off into time-out for a bit, along with Term 3 of my deep dive into goldwork class. I've been wanting to get back to Carmen for awhile, so today  she is back on the frame stand. 

And, since I don't have enough to do (please note sarcasm), I have three online classes--one that started this past week and two that start next week, plus a trip to Salty Yarns for three more classes with Jackie next weekend, which will be followed in November by three more classes with Jackie (assuming I got my registration in quickly enough before the classes filled up) at Sassy Jack's.

And then I have at least three more online classes that start in January--I seem to think there may be another one that I've forgotten about.

I may be boring but I should never be bored.