Thread a Needle Day

 Apparently this is National Thread a Needle Day.

I have threaded up several needles, because I have finished the first wing of my butterfly and plunged all the metal threads to the back. It's not quite what I envisioned, but it's close.

I want to go back and look at the original version to see exactly how the couching on the upper wing is supposed to be done before I start it. I am not sure if I'll tackle that today--my fingers are sore from pulling all those metal ends back. Some of them really wanted to stay on the surface and required persuasion to move.

Last night I added more spiral trellis stitches to No Place Like Home.

Once the rest of the spiral trellis stitches for this side are done, I'd really love to put this on a frame and do the back of the book--but spiral trellis is the only stitch I can't do in a frame comfortably.  I have to do it in hand. I do not want to spend the time to frame up only to take the piece off to do the trellises on the front piece. So, I shall persevere.

However, I'm also thinking about working on the next dividing band on Carmen.

Lots of needles threaded today . . . 

Achy and breakey

 I threw my back out again. All of my arthritic joints joined in to sympathize.

A flotilla of mosquitos somehow got into the house and feasted. On me.

My stitching mojo went somewhere else for a few days, probably to get away from me.

Things are beginning to look back up.

Looking like Quasimodo, I lurched into the doctor's office for my annual physical. We discussed possible treatment plans for my back (surgery--last resort; shot in my back--after my wrist, would prefer not; physical therapy--let's go that route, so we're seeing what the insurance will cover, of course) and the staff vampire drew blood (my numbers are all, surprisingly, really good, so I was happy with that) and it turns out that my blood pressure is that of someone 20 years younger. I am very surprised by the last.

Anyway, I have a clean bill of health at least for the next few months. 

And my mojo came back a little.

I finally finished the second big band and the first of the next three small dividing bands on Carmen.

And I pulled out the materials for Term 3 of the Deep Dive into Goldwork class from last year. We were in the middle of packing and moving when Term 3 started, and I wasn't sure I had sufficient functioning brain cells until recently to dive back into it.

This mess is the beginning of a butterfly, worked in Italian shading. All those raw ends will be plunged to the back of the work and sewn down.  It's fiddly but I hope that what I'm doing will result in a quite lovely motif. Maybe. Fingers crossed.

But at the moment, I have to go with Dearly Beloved to buy another bookcase. I believe the assembly of the first bookcase is what led to my back problems.

Sigh . . . 

Domestic Affairs

 I had hoped to have this band on Carmen finished by now.

Dearly Beloved has had other plans.

At the moment, he is planning to assemble two bookcases, which requires me to stand nearby, ready to hand things to him as needed. We have also taken my car in for inspection and servicing, which I could have done on my own--I would have enjoyed some peace and quiet in the waiting room for a couple of hours. Then there is the trip to the grocery store tomorrow. I like to make a list and grab what I need and go home. He likes to sightsee, up one aisle and down the next. (As there are no babies in our lives, I'm not sure why that includes the baby supply aisle, but apparently you never know when you might see something you need there.)

Anyway, I have my annual physical on Friday. I do not want to see what my blood pressure is unless I get some time to stitch between now and then.

Counting to Three

I had hoped to finish this band on Carmen today, but I stayed up way later than usual last night, then slept way later than usual this morning. Apparently this resulted in the inability to count to three because I spent as much time frogging as I did stitching today. There was some forward progress and here it is:

The day was not a total loss, stitching-wise. I had a meeting of the Kindred Spirits Sampler Guild this afternoon, and Christy and Erin of Relics in Situ presented a program on embroidered book covers from the 16th and 17th centuries.

You may have picked up that Tudor and Stuart embroidery is my jam, and I was gobsmacked by some of the photos they showed in their talk. I mean, goldwork and silk shading and raised embroidery and just amazing designs. I didn't drool on the computer but it was close. 

If you ever get a chance to hear one of their lectures, take it. They have access to stuff a lot of us will never see, and it's well worth the time.

Saturday Stitches

 Actually, there haven't been many stitches today. There were other things going on today, so I stitched early this morning, then a little more this evening, and spent the rest of the day in other pursuits.

Here's the little bit on Carmen:

And this is my evening project, now that the stitching for House on the Hill is complete:

Catherine Theron's No Place Like Home Stitching Book

I seem to have started a "home" collection in my evening stitching.

This project was started at Jeannine's Sampler Symposium twelve years ago, so it's another project that's been aging in my stash for awhile. I know why I didn't work on it right after the workshop; I was stitching a pilot for one of the guilds that had a strict deadline. Then I had a project I was leading for my local EGA chapter that had to be done. And at that point, it had vanished into the stash.

I imagine it will take awhile--I may have Carmen finished before this--and it has about umpty-leven spiral trellis stitches in the borders for front and back, and probably more for the bits that will live inside the book. It's a very good thing I don't mind doing spiral trellis stitches since Catherine loves including them in her designs. However, they're the only stitches I absolutely have to work in hand, simply because I need to have my left thumb holding the thread down as I pull it through. I will be much happier to have this on a scroll frame or stretcher bars once the trellises are all done.

Rain and more rain

We have had rain and more rain, along with thunder, lightning, and flash flood warnings today. I am actually not complaining--we've had hardly a drop of rain in over a month, and everything is baking.

Besides, I like storms, as long as I don't have to go anywhere. When I was a wee tiny child, I used to sit with my grandfather on his front porch, watching it rain. We would sit out there as long as it lasted--or until my grandmother would screech through the screen door that we were going to be struck by lightning and die. 

Amazing how long it would take us to meander in.

Anyway, since I had nowhere I had to be, and could watch the downpour through the sliding glass doors, I stitched all day.

And I have the second border for this section of  Carmen completed.

Now I can go back to the fun stuff. I'm already looking forward to starting the next band.

A Better Day

Carmen decided to behave herself today--well, the leaves and stems still don't have any rhyme or reason for their placement, but I reconciled myself to that--and one side of the border for this section is done.

 Luckily the flowers are easy to do--the stitching has an almost Zen quality--and I have most of the vine (which doesn't vine or twine or wind about, thank goodness!) for the other border stitched.

So, we'll see what happens tomorrow!