Day Two, Two Projects

So, here I am for my second day of stitching and nothing but stitching . . .

Last year I was doing prework for a class, so I worked on one project for most of the week. This year, I decided to bring a different project for each day--I may have mentioned this--and I did--but today, I worked on two different things.

This may look like medieval torture.

It's not.

This is one of the prep steps for last year's Florentine Ornament from the Ladye's Repository (aka Rachael Kinnison, who also created this year's memento for the event--you saw that yesterday).

I will admit when I first read the directions for this project, the set-up was not like anything I'd ever done. I will admit I was intimidated. I will admit I put everything away in its elegantly packaged box.  I will admit that I mentioned to Baby Girl I had just bought a project that she would most definitely inherit because it was beyond me.

Then, when this year's plans were announced, a support group to work on the ornament was also announced--and I announced that I was in.

The embroidery is worked through card stock which is pasted to the back of the silk ground. This will avoid bubbling when the embroidery is mounted. In fact, it will create the mounting. 

OK, I had to get past the idea of pasting. I had to get past the idea of working through the card stock. But then, one of our Fearless Leaders who also organizes this annual get-together, worked through those steps and it is definitely do-able.

You do have to be willing to take your time. There are no short cuts. If you're a stitcher who just wants to get things done, this is not a project for you. However, if you appreciate fine needlework and are willing to invest the time it takes to create it, you'll put your head down and focus.

And the directions for doing all this are in the instructions. 

So, I spent most of last Saturday afternoon mounting the silk so I could bring it with me. I spent this morning tracing the design, and then pasting the silk to the card--and I don't think I could have accomplished that without Fearless Leader and a couple of stitching buddies cheering me on. I have to say, though, that when I got everything pasted and mounted and ready to weight so the paste could set, I felt like I was on my way to something I'll treasure--and that is going to get its own ornament stand under a glass dome when it's done.

Should I mention that I went ahead and put in 2017 as the year of the finish?

Now, if you've managed to stay with me this long, you might be wondering about the other project.

I got the purl purl attached to Key to My Heart this afternoon.

Today was my bling day. Obviously. I'm really tempted to work on this again tomorrow, but I'm going to have to cut metal into small bits. That may work better at home where I have a stitching tray to catch all the pieces that tend to fling themselves about the room if I'm not very careful.

I think tomorrow will be a little bit of work on the Florentine Ornament, then I'm going to pull out one of the other samplers that traveled with me.

I've been asked what retreat, where and when. This is a group of friends who originally came to take classes in Williamsburg about this time every year. When the coordinator of that event decided to retire, we were all used to coming to Williamsburg in late winter to stitch, so a couple of brave, brave souls decided to continue with our own meeting. Our Fearless Leaders have created an event that I love to attend, whether I work on one project or seven!