Whew!

 I finally got all the highlighting and missing stitches worked into the third motif on the Spot Sampler.

This is the point at which my eyes said they had had enough and weren't stitching any longer. So, after a week, I talked them into getting this done. And done it is. I think that, so far, this flower had the most aggravating shading. I know it doesn't look like it, but it was the most aggravating for me.

There is one more flower for this row and the top of the sampler will be stitched.

For some reason, it feels as if I can get the top two rows done, the rest of the sampler will be easier. 

Obviously, I am deluded, since the more complicated techniques start after the top two rows. Maybe I'm just tired of tent stitch over one.

That makes more sense.

Potted Plants

I thought I was going to get a lot stitched today. After all, I had two lectures on needlework to listen to as I stitched, and that usually means a lot gets done.

Nope, the lectures were fascinating and the photos of the work were engrossing, and I just put down my needle and made no attempt to stitch. The first was with Theresa Baird, who designs the samplers for the original 13 colonies--she just published the one for North Carolina and it is nothing short of amazing. It was interesting to hear about the inspirations for each sampler she's done so far and how she got started in designing.

The second was offered through EGA's lecture series and featured Isabella Rossner, who talked about needlework in times of crisis and chaos. The lecture covered a thousand years of history, starting with the 1066 Norman invasion of England and ending with Covid, including stories about the English revolution and the Great Plague as well as the sorrowful situations arising from incarceration.

So I got my intellectual stimulation for the week, which I decided I really needed after trying to remember if I had applied shampoo once or twice while showering.  Have you ever noticed that some things are so automatic that you don't quite notice whether you did them or not? Or am I showing my age and decrepitude?

I finally got a couple of pots stitched on Sarah Ann Purdy:

I used to be a stitch-the-whole-border-first sampler maker--you know, eat your veggies and then you can have dessert. However, I finally figured out that it was less boring and more interesting to work sections of the border while I was doing the insides. That way I could check the placement of both border and interior against each other. And hopefully have less frogging to do.

And, yes, I'm still frogging Carmen. I will be frogging Carmen until the next millennium.

Meanwhile, in other news, I realized that today is the 15th anniversary of Stitching Foolishness. I never planned to be blogging for 15 years but here we are.

And I plan to continue blithering on.

and now for something completely different . . .

Stitching a sweet little strawberry border can be very soothing.

 Sarah Ann Purdy 1844

The Scarlett House

Country Sampler's Threads of History Club project

Slow Start on Another Good Mail Day

I have done today's ripping.

Sigh . . . it has definitely taken the wind out of my stitching sails.

However, today was another good mail day. I got my fabric order from Hoop & Frame:

 I love 37/38 count Legacy Linen, and Hoop & Frame has a nice selection. They also ship quickly, which is always nice. Anyway, I invested in a yard each of Cloudburst, which is a pale bluish-gray, and Lady Baltimore Cake, which is a creamy off-white. 

Now I just have to get over the funk that Carmen threw me into and decide what I want to stitch today.

( I think I may try stitching first tomorrow, then put in my hour on frogging Carmen, and see if that helps my stitching mojo.)

Disaster Strikes

 I came downstairs with a song in my heart. Little did I know that song was going to turn into a dirge.

The plan was to work on Carmen today.

Until I realized that the cartouche in the center with all the letters and numbers was in the wrong place. It is not centered. It took me three days to stitch all those numbers and letters. I do not enjoy stitching numbers and letters. It also meant that the sideways bird was in the wrong place, and there wasn't room to stitch the next motif.

I did not throw things. I did not say dirty words. I ripped out most of the bird. And I decided on a plan of action.

I am going to spend an hour a day ripping out and restitching until I'm back to where I was when I realized the error of my ways. 

Just an hour.

Then I can stitch on something else.

Today wasn't a total disaster. There was good mail, Barbara Jackson's George & Martha scissors rest arrived.

This was a project offered by the Shining Needle Society. I wish they just had an automatic sign-up for Barbara's online classes because I always want to do them.

And I finished the blue and gold motif on All That Glitters and started the framework for the next set of red and gold motifs.

This puts me almost to the halfway part of the stitching for this project.

And it's stitched in the correct spot.

Adding to the Pile

 I woke up grouchy and grumpy and head-achey this morning. I decided almost immediately that threading a needle would not be a good idea. Dearly Beloved decided that maybe he would go ahead and get the car inspected this morning rather than waiting until Friday so he would be out of the line of fire. That was a wise decision.

Generally, a bad mood can be cured by a regimen of stitching, but today having a sharp, pointy object in my hands was not the remedy I needed.

So I rummaged through the stash--the fallback when I'm in a Mood.

I pulled a couple of kits out of the stash that have been calling to me.

Betsy Morgan's "This One's for Betty" has been aging in the stash for 20 years. I think it was offered by the long-lamented Swan Sampler Guild. This is one of the Betsy projects that's been jumping up and down and waving at me. The other is the Sweet Bag that Inspirations published a couple of issues ago. I decided that Betty had been waiting long enough, so the kit is in the pile by my chair.

Sarah Ann Purdy 1844 was one of the 2025 Country Sampler Threads Through History projects. It's my favorite kind of schoolgirl samplers--mostly little motifs, very few letters, no big honkin' house. It's in the pile, too.

I believe that I may work on All That Glitters in a little while since my mood is gradually improving.

Or I may iron the linen for both new projects and sew them to scroll bars.

Or I may just sit in the corner and growl.

It's a Bird!

 After dealing with a bad case of the blahs this morning, I finally (with the help of Dearly Beloved) got a table-top frame holder set up and Carmen saw some love.

And, yes, the bird is flying sideways.  The design is worked around the center cartouche. Literally around it.

I have been asked how I'm going to hang it. Actually, I think I may hem stitch it and use it for a runner.

If I get over the blahs and get to stitching. (I think it's the heat.)