In my part of the world we say you are a fool if your passion for a pursuit overcomes all practical sense. I am a stitching fool, and I stitch foolishness.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Bless her heart . . .

The more I work on this sampler, the more convinced I am that Sarah Williams stitched the entire border first.

It is perfectly spaced and everything meets.

Then she started filling in the middle stuff, and the things on the right side keep running into the border or getting smushed into each other.


There is a leaf or part of a flower or some sort of floral appendage that is jammed against a strawberry on the right. There is not a corresponding situation on the left of the sampler. And we already have the problem with the spacing of the motifs at the very top.

Bless her heart. She did her best, and at least she finished her sampler!

Speaking of finishing samplers, I realized the other day that I haven't had a sampler finish in two years. Two years!!!

I'd been trying to decide what I wanted to work on for the long Fourth week-end. The last few years I've worked on finishing smalls. However, with the deplorable state of sampler completion in my record book, I believe I will see just how far I can get with Sarah Williams over the week-end.


Monday, June 27, 2016

A little revolution

July Fourth is a week away, but I'm rebelling just a little.

Last night, I started the third panel of the prework for the workshop coming up in less than two weeks.  In fact, I started a little bit of the fourth panel as well.


On the way home from work today,  I decided I could not face cross stitch over one tonight. I decided I could face cross stitch over two, so Sarah Williams is coming out to play for awhile.

It has occurred to me that I've spent most of the first half of this year doing prework. Don't get me wrong--I love the projects and  sign up for every workshop with the teachers who have created them that I can. However, if you've read this blog for any length of time, you will remember that I have severe Stitcher's ADD and tend to bounce around my projects like a BB in a boxcar.

I can only stand so much Diligence and Dedication before I snap.

I think I've snapped.

I am proud of myself in that I didn't snap before the fifth and final prework project, and I did get the minimum done that I need to do before it happened.

But if you notice that I'm stitching on something different every day for the next week or so--until I head to the workshops for which I've been preworking--don't be surprised.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Sooooooo many letters . . .

The second band of Behold Thy Beauty is stitched:


There are still almost two weeks before the workshop, so I could potentially get another band stitched.  I am not going to stress. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

You realize that this is quite a departure for a slightly OCD, perfectionistic, first born girl-child, who, as we who suffer from this positioning know all too well, is responsible for the turning of the world on its axis.  What can I say? With age, maybe I'm getting more relaxed.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

The Big 4-0

This is not my age (sadly).

Today is Dearly Beloved's and my 40th wedding anniversary.

Dearly Beloved found a statistic that says that only 20% of all marriages last 40 years. I cannot decide if this means that we are super compatible or just too lazy to fight about anything important. Dearly Beloved says it's inertia, which may mean the same thing.

At any rate, we've made it this far, so we're going to try for another ten years.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

One Down

The first band is finally, finally, finally finished.


I would have gotten more done but I went down memory lane for awhile. I found a tote bag with several unfinished projects.  They were started in 1977. My gracious, how time flies when you're having fun.

Actually, I discovered that I did quite a good job with crewel embroidery back in the day, if I do say so myself. And I still like the projects in the bag. I believe I'm going to have to add them to the sooner-rather-than-later basket.

Besides, they're probably ready for prime time after aging for almost forty years.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Slow Stitching

I had hoped that, by the time I was able to post again, I would have this band completed.


Not so much.

It takes a long, long time to cross stitch over one. A long, long time.

I had thought I would have enough time before the workshop to have all five bands filled in. I still have about three weeks, so I could potentially do that. If I give up sleeping.  And all social activities. And what little housekeeping I do to avoid a visit from the health department. And quit my job, which would then mean I couldn't afford to go to the workshop in the first place.

Once again, I have to accept that I don't stitch nearly as fast as I think I can--or maybe I'm just slowing down with my increasing age and decrepitude.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Wandering off

I couldn't face another little purple flower Friday night.

So I added three strawberries to Sarah Williams instead.


On Saturday, I had agreed to go to Baby Girl's to help her pack for an upcoming move and to bring home a table that she wasn't using. Aside from enjoying Baby Girl's company, I have plans for that table, so I was glad to go.

I didn't want to take anything large to work on in the few minutes I knew I would have to stitch, so I grabbed the bag with Hands to Work, Hearts to God and threw it in my suitcase. This is the class I took from Jackie earlier this year and haven't been able to get back to.

When I say I would only have a few minutes to stitch, I was not kidding.  This is all I got accomplished.


Instead of stitching, I helped Baby Girl pack shoes. I am passing no judgements, really I'm not, but she lives way too close to a DSW.

And now I'm home and ready to stitch more little purple flowers.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Pretty Purple Posies

It's a really good thing that I like stitching these pretty flower motifs.


If I calculated correctly, and I'm pretty sure I did, I will have a total of 240 of these little flowers on the three floral bands for Behold Thy Beauty.

There will be 114 other floral motifs between them.

And there are two bands with words, lots of words, yet to be stitched.

I have done all the nun stitch that outlines each band. I'm not quite sure how that happened, other than  apparently I got into a rhythm and just kept going until they were done. I had quite a sense of accomplishment. Only at that point did I realize that all those bands then had to be filled.

And that's when my head exploded.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

The Big Kid

We are suspending our regularly scheduled stitching blog because The Big Kid turned 35 today.

Obviously I was only seven when he was born. That is beside the point.

I have adored this kid all of my maternal life, into which we were both delivered at 10:17 on a hot summer morning. He was a sweet and cuddly little kid, prone to flinging his arms around ones neck and squeezing tightly to express his love. He grew into a witty, articulate, and frequently snarky adult who masks the fact that he has a marshmallow interior.

He is a caregiver. He is sympathetic and empathic. He's a good husband and an excellent father.

He's a witty story-teller, so spending time with him is always entertaining. Like all mothers whose children live hours away, I wish our homes were closer to each other, but that makes the time we spend together all the more precious.

I'm glad he was my firstborn and experimental model. I'm thrilled he survived that role and has grown into the man he is today. And I wish him many, many more birthdays and a long and happy life.