A BB in a Boxcar

 After finishing the Little Pilgrim Hornbook, I was planning to put more things together. Actually, I had visions of getting to the bottom of one of the finishing baskets, which somehow rose to the top of the stash boxes.

What didn't rise with it was the box with my fiberfill and batting.

I need fiberfill and batting to complete most of the projects in the finishing basket. I have a practically full bag of fiberfill, and I bought a queen-size batting years ago so that it would take care of all my batting needs for the rest of my life. So, I don't want to buy more.

When I couldn't find the box, I started bouncing from one thing to another, like a BB in a boxcar.

I started working on the first of the projects for the online stumpwork class I was taking when the Big Move loomed over me.

The berries are made by wrapping wee tiny wooden beads with either ribbon or a single strand of embroidery floss. This was fiddly, but sort of satisfying in a Zen kind of way.

The head and legs for the bee weren't a problem, just a little bit of surface stitching with a strand of floss.

Then there is the body.

The cursed body.

It's done in turkey work--so you make loops of thread on the surface and later on, when you've filled the area with loops, you cut them open and then shape the area. It's supposed to give you a very fuzzy surface that looks like fur. 

I do not enjoy this stitch.

Actually, I hate it.

It's great if you want to give a squirrel a big, fuzzy, fluffy tail, or adorn Santa's coat with fir. You may notice that I have yet to stitch either a squirrel with a big, fuzzy, fluffy tail or a Santa's coat with fur. 

I did as much as I could stand, then moved on to something else.

I have several projects from workshops I've done in the last year or so, and I pulled out the Flame Stitch Huswif that I took from Jackie at Salty Yarns last year.

This is as far as I got with that:

There was a minor counting error in the original chart. I had forgotten about that. When did I remember? After I had stitched this much, of course, Luckily, I was able to find the email with the pdf for the correction. I just haven't gotten up the energy to rip out and restitch.

So, then I moved on to one of Amy Mitten's new Casket Keepsakes. I was working on the ground for the caterpillar  earlier this year when I realized my brain, addled by the problems I was having with my thyroid at the time, could not handle the chart.

Apparently my brain is still addled, so I figured out a way to sort of cheat at the changes in the colors of the ground, and almost got it stitched before I went to bed last night.

So, what do I do today?

Not a clue. I may work on one of these, or I may look for the fiberfill/batting box, or I may grab something else.

Or maybe I'll take a nap.