One blossom short

 I thought I would get the big pot on Sarah Ann Purdy stitched today, but I'm one bloom short of a bouquet.

I may rest my eyes (and hands) for a few and make a valiant effort to get the other one done before I go to bed tonight, but I'm making no promises. 

I'd love to do it because then I have only the two doggies and the two urns and this will go in the Finish Pile and I can pull All That Glitters out again.

But meanwhile . . . 

Last night I was enjoying the conversation and enabling during a Zoom stitch-in, when one of the participants reported that a neighbor in her condo development was worried about her because all she did was "sit on her a** and stitch all day."

Excuse me?

And what's wrong with that?

Quite frankly, I spent decades of my work life sitting on my a** and staring at a computer screen and no one commented on that. I remember longing for the days when I could sit on my a** and stitch all day. I found the neighbor's comment quite offensive. 

Harrumph!!!

Twin Pines

It took all day to get two simple motifs stitched.

Actually, it probably didn't take all day, but they were so boring to stitch that I had to stop and do other things to avoid nodding off.

These same trees show up on a lot of schoolgirl samplers. It occurred to me to try to find out if there was a particular area or school that used them, so I spent some time gazing at the Wall of Needlework Books in the stash room. I thought I had a book on sampler motifs, but I couldn't find it. Actually, this is not the first needlework book that has gone missing since we moved. I know I packed all my needlework books. It is possible that either one box never made it onto the truck, or didn't make it off.

But the search continues.

A Leaf and a Letter (or two)

I took a wonderful class from Kate Barlow this past weekend.

As usual, I didn't get much stitching done in class. Actually, I got the prep work finished and half a leaf, then I finished the leaf yesterday.

 Kate said that it would be possible to finish the whole design in a week.

Not for me.

The older I get the slower I stitch, and most of this is worked with a couple of strands of filament silk that are each about the size of a hair.  If you have very fine hair . . . so you may be seeing this on the blog for awhile.

However, in the evenings, I did a little more on Sarah Ann Purdy. Her border is finished and I've stitched part of the attribution.

As soon as I get the rest of the lettering done, I can go back to the fun stuff in the middle. I have a couple of trees, two more urns, a big flower arrangement in the middle, and a pair of dogs.

There may be more to do than I thought. Hmmmmmm . . . .

It Matched!

The border connected and it matched! 

It took me way longer to stitch this last bit of the border than I anticipated, but it met up and I didn't have to do any compensation. So now I can do the strawberries without fear of the Frog.

But it's going to have to wait for the next several days since I am taking a class online from Kate Barlow. It starts at 9 tomorrow morning, which means I have to be out of bed, dressed, and ready to thread a needle at the time I'm usually staggering out of bed.

Obviously, my whole schedule shifted later when I retired.

Taking sides

 I stitched the border down both sides of Sarah Ann Purdy yesterday.

I have a dreadful feeling that I am one stitch off on one side or the other.

At this point, I have determined the best course of action is to add or subtract a stitch to make it work somehow because I am absolutely not going to frog a border for one stitch.

And because the alternative is to have a bonfire.

Catching Up

 I have had difficulty wresting the laptop from Dearly Beloved this week, plus I have been unusually busy, so today is catch-up day.

First of all, I've had my last class on needlelace this past Wednesday. I have two big problems--my tension, as mentioned earlier, and my spacing, because I cannot estimate what 3 millimeters actually looks like. So, after another series of drunken spiderwebs, I have set up another piece of fabric, stitched more little blocks, and drawn lines within each one that are exactly 3 millimeters apart. And I'm going to work the stitches on those to see if there is improvement.

With my failings admitted, I do want to say that Amy Burt is an excellent teacher, very patient and encouraging. I do wish the class had been longer--maybe three hours instead of two--since, as I have mentioned many times before, I don't stitch well in class, and have a hard time listening to instructions, watching the instructor's demonstrations, and stitching myself simultaneously.

But, in the evenings, I've been enjoying some downtime with Sarah Ann Purdy.

I am almost to the halfway point, and I am still enjoying her tremendously, to the point that I think I should keep a schoolgirl sampler going in the background all the time. Or, rather, a schoolgirl sampler when the girl has learned her alphabet and likes stitching pretty designs.

I'm thinking I may try to extend the borders to the bottom today--maybe even finish the whole border before I go back to motifs. Or I may get attracted to something else--All That Glitters is also calling my name as is This One's for Betty.

Now on to the mundane:

This week's Domestic Disaster: the heating element in the oven died last Sunday. I think I mentioned that we are renting the condo where we live, so we have to deal with a property management company to have repairs done. It's taken a week for them to assign the job to an outside contractor, but hopefully we'll have a functioning oven by Monday evening of next week. I did not realize how much I use the oven until I couldn't. Oh, I have peaches that are getting very ripe so I should bake a cobbler! NOPE! Oh, wouldn't some baked apples be lovely with those pork chops?  NOPE! I'd like to have a summer squash casserole with the baked chicken. NOPE to BOTH!!!

It's put a crimp in my style.

I have also had steroid shots in both knees this week, and I can walk comfortably for the first time in months. And the sports medicine guy I saw is referring me for physical therapy to help continue improving the mobility issues, which had gotten really bad. When I say I was tottering, I mean tottering.

BDE also mentioned that the steroids have made me talk faster than usual. This may be why Dearly Beloved has had the headphones on while watching something on the laptop.

It's all making sense now.

Tension!!!!

I finished the first three samples for my needlelace class, and AGHHHHHH!!! the TENSION!!!!

That is my downfall when it comes to needlelace.

The corded Brussels (which we call "detached buttonhole with return" on this side of the pond) is ok.

The double Brussels is mostly ok--this is the one where I switched from one thread to another and then another as I went.

The triple Brussels looks like a drunk spider on a bender did it.

I didn't even try to work on the next three samples.

I think I'm going to make another little box and try the triple Brussels again. If it's not any better, I'll say that third time's the charm and give my fingers one more chance to get it. If that one looks as bad if not worse, I will look for projects that do not involve triple Brussels and call it a day.