A finish and another page

 I have a finish!!

Summer Crewel

designed by Sara Rickards

Online Class from Well Embroidered

There are things I would do over, but I think I'll leave them. This was a learning experience, after all.

And I have another page of RST 1779 stitched. This one was a lot easier and a little faster to stitch because there were repeated patterns and fewer color changes.

That weird squiggle on the right side is the beginning of the leaf on a big flower that will continue on page 3 of the charts. I believe I'll start working on that while watching Miracle on 34th Street. This is the week that I spend time with Christmas movies and Christmas music and let the sights and sounds of the season flow over me.

While I stitch, of course!

Page One--Done!!!

 When last I wrote--good grief, was it almost two weeks ago?--I was planning to do some ornament assembling.

I didn't.

The linen for a model I'm stitching for my friend Cissy arrived and I started stitching that instead.

This is Page 1 of 1779 RST. All Queen stitches, all the time, reproduced from a sampler in Cissy's amazing collection. Absolutely amazing motifs on this one--beautiful, soft pastels--this is going to be like an ice cream shop when it's finished!

I would have thought I'd have more done, but we had our family Thanksgiving/Christmas combo celebration last weekend so there was much cooking and cleaning to be done before I could host The Saint. Actually the cooking was the big thing. No, I may retract that statement. It was probably cleaning off the guest room bed and finding places to put the stuff that had accumulated on it. (Of course, now I have to find the portal to the dimension in which those things landed--that fabled "safe place" which means it will take forever to locate my stuff again.) And then we had to make a day trip back to our old stomping grounds--and then it took a day to recover from the day trip.

At least with company coming, the halls got decked as well as dusted, and the tree is ornamentified, except for the new ornaments I have stitched but not assembled.

Maybe I can squeeze out a few minutes (or hours, if I'm honest) to put them together. But I also have just a wee bit more to do to finish Summer Crewel, the class I've been taking from Sara Rickards.

Because I'd really like to have this sampler stitched before I start the three--yes, you heard it here first--three online classes that begin in January. Plus the EGA correspondence course. And then the Kate Barlow class in February. And there is likely something else that I'm signed up to do that I've forgotten about. 

At least I don't have time to get bored. 

Finishing . . . SO much finishing!

Tomorrow I am going to put Christmas ornaments together.

I've been trying to get to that for the last three days and something has interfered every time, so this is it. Tomorrow I am going to finish, finish, FINISH!!!

And I've added another ornament to the stack of ornaments that need to be done:

 Barbara Jackson't 2024 ornament through Shining Needle Society--no, the class hasn't officially started yet but I think this will be something like the 23rd or 24th of her ornaments I've stitched over the years. I believe I've figured out how to put them together by now.

And I need to finish decking the halls and clean the guest room (which means finding a home for all the stuff that is covering the bed) and make an extensive grocery list because The Saint is coming for a combination Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration on Saturday. As she has taken over Mother's job of critiquing everything we do, we need to be ready for the inspection.

And then I can sit back and enjoy the season.

Happy Black Friday!

 No, I am not out and about in the shopping madness and frenzy. I am sitting at home, wrapped in an afghan because it's cold and getting colder, and I've been watching Flosstubes and the Crewel Work Company Zoom demonstrations (all weekend! how cool is that!) and threading a needle or two.

And at the moment, I am avoiding looking at my worktable where the following can be seen:

I have finishing to do on Betsy Morgan's Christmas Treats and Alison Cole's Elizabethan Rose, and I need to embellish Tricia Nguyen's Christmas Garland and put it together.

And I still have the new Barbara Jackson ornament to stitch, plus a couple more on my list for this year.

AND today's mail is supposed to bring a model for me to stitch--all Queen stitch, which I love to do--from Cissy Bailey Smith of Gentle Pursuit Designs.

And the rest of the tree needs ornamentifying and the halls need to be decked.

I have plenty to do, so I'd best get to it.

(I have been asked where I've been for almost two weeks. The November Nasties got me this year but good. Not enough sun, too many gray days--some years it hits and this year it did. It doesn't usually last too long and I think I'm over it, but I may keep the Christmas lights on until March. Or April, Or maybe May.)

Still catching up on homework

I am still catching up on my homework on Summer Crewel.

 This is where I am after stitching through most of three Zoom meetings today (total of 5 hours).

This is where I was the last time I posted.  At least I can see some progress, although I still have a lot of fiddly, time-consuming elements to stitch. But I have two more days before class, so maybe I can get it all done.

Before I have more homework to do . . .

Fa-la-la-ing

My Christmas tree ornament is almost finished. I just have to do the embellishing--gold thread and beads--and then this will go into the finishing pile. 

And the results of my poll on what projects to do for this year are in. Sone of my readers sent private messages since Blogger is making commenting on posts a PITA in some instances, which may mean that there were other opinions that didn't get stated--but I went by the numbers I got.

Christmas Treats won, with Christmas in Virginia in second place.

And then, for third place, there is a three-way tie: Poinsettia Heart, Elizabethan Christmas, and Christmas Rose are all vying for a spot on the tree (if I have time).

But then there is the last place ornament, that may push its way to the top of the heap. Joyful Pome didn't get many votes, but one of them is Dearly Beloved's. There's a family joke about pomegranates, and he thinks that this ornament deserves a place on the tree because of that. 

I am taking his opinion under advisement.

Doing my homework

 We had a mid-term break in the online crewel class I'm taking. We also had a LOT of homework to do before we resume classes this coming Tuesday.

And of course I procrastinated.

So today I've been stabbing linen with a sharp needle, and I'm about halfway through the assignment.

My eyes and hands are getting tired, and I'm starting to make mistakes, so I think I better set this aside tonight. This leads to a dilemma. Tomorrow is Sampler Sunday. Monday we are going back to see our "old" dentist since Dearly Beloved needs a root canal--this will be a day-long trip since we also want to get there early enough to have lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant. I don't think I'd have enough time Tuesday morning to finish everything. I think I'm going to have to sacrifice Sampler Sunday to get this done. Phooey!

Meanwhile, thanks to the readers who are voting on my Christmas ornament decision. I'm going to wait a couple of days to tabulate the results to give anyone else who might be interested a chance to weigh in. So far, from what I can tell, the numbers are very close.

Help Me Decide

I had to have a biopsy done on what's left of my thyroid this morning. While I was lying on the table getting stabbed in the throat multiple times, I was doing my best to distract myself. And how do I generally distract myself? I think of needlework. Of course.

Anyway, I was thinking that I could probably do another four or five ornaments before Christmas. Two of them will be Tricia Nguyen's 2024 ornament (free pattern available from Thistle Threads) and Barbara Jackson's 2024 ornament through the Shining Needle Society.

That leaves spots for two or three more ornaments.

And I can't decide which ones to do.

So, please help me decide by voting in the comments. The choices are:

Poinsettia Heart

Christmas Treats

Elizabethan Christmas

Joyful Pome

Christmas in Virginia

Christmas Rose

Please pick up to three and let me know what you think. The three with the most votes will go in the basket by the chair, and the rest will wait 'til later.

Thank you in advance!

Planting Trees

I needed something mindless to work on, so I'm stitching tree trunks. Rows and rows and rows of stem stitch--so mindless!

The striped Seuss tree on the right is done. I need to stitch a big bird to sit on top of one of the clump of leaves. The tree on the left has the rest of this branch plus one more--then I can add the leaves. Actually, I'm not sure what they're called--fronds?--because this is a weeping willow tree. I suppose I could google it but I do not feel that strongly about finding out. If anyone out there is an arborist and knows, please inform the rest of us.

I ran across an article the other day written by a scientist who studies creativity. She suggests that any creative person should have multiple projects going at one time--she suggests something like five to a dozen. This way, if you hit a snag on one thing, it's easy to move to something else. It also maintains the "creative flow."

Well, as a total failure at even partial project monogamy, which I have been trying this year, her ideas fit the way I usually work. I have a whole basket of WIPs sitting by my chair so it's easy to move from one thing to another as the mood strikes. I would like to keep Sampler Sunday going, but it's nice to have actual scientific research to back up the fact that I generally bounce from one thing to another like a BB in a boxcar.

Elizabethan Rose

 The stitching for the Elizabethan Rose Christmas ornament is complete.

I just realized the image is turned sideways, much like I feel after the election results.

So very, very close

I am so very close to finishing the stitching for the Elizabethan Rose Christmas Ornament, designed by Alison Cole.

So very, very close.

 I was going to spend today getting my homework done for the Summer Crewel online class I'm taking from Sara Rickards, but now I'm leaning towards working on this instead. I mean, I am SO close.

Of course, I can always work on both of them in the course of the day. That sounds like a legitimate compromise. 

Oh, Christmas Tree . . .

 The tree is still sitting right in front of me. And, yesterday, after I finished House on the Hill, I was rummaging around in the stash room, and stumbled across one of the bins where I stashed things I planned to stitch in retirement.

It happened to be the Christmas bin.

And Christmas is coming. And there is a tree sitting in front of me, calling for new ornaments.

So I pulled out one of Alison Cole's ornament kits and started it this morning.

I have now learned a new stitch, which Alison calls The Elizabethan Double Twisted Chain. It's a chain stitch that is slightly raised, so it has more texture than a regular chain or broad chain. This has me ridiculously excited.

It is quite possible that there will be Christmas music playing as I stitch this afternoon. Dearly Beloved (aka Santa's Evil Twin Skippy, aka Ebenezer Scrooge) is already muttering. After all these decades of marriage, he should know better.

Totally Finished!

 House on the Hill Shaker Carrier by Merry Cox has all its goodies assembled!!!!

I have also attended a lecture this afternoon so I have had my mental stimulation for the week, which obviously I needed because I had totally forgotten about going until I got a reminder.

Now I think I'll put the ironing board away and clean up my worktable.

What about Sampler Sunday, you ask?

It may be Sampler A-Different-Day-This-Week. No excuses, just not feeling it today. Actually, I would like to just sit here and bask in the glow of finishing something all the way. It happens so rarely, I think I deserve to bask. So, I just decided, I'm going to bask.

Out of Chaos

 This is what my worktable looked like earlier this afternoon:

This is what it looks like now:

House on the Hill

designed by Merry Cox

I think I mentioned before that I started this at Christmas in Williamsburg in 1999.  I think a quarter of a century is long enough for anything to age in the stash.

However, I am not through yet. I still have all the goodies that fit into the pockets to assemble.

I think I know what I'm going to be doing with the extra hour this weekend.

P.S. Several people have asked for photos of the tree in the middle of the living room. I will take a picture once we get it in its assigned place and get the branches fluffed out and get an ornament or two on it. At the moment, it is not fit for photography.

Oh, Tannenbaum

 There is a tree in the middle of my living room.

A Christmas tree.

You are probably saying that we're rushing the season, but let me explain.

The lights on our old tree started dying last Christmas, so we had decided to replace the tree this year. We found one we liked, but the store was out, so we had to order. The box came yesterday. It was damaged, so Dearly Beloved felt we needed to unpack and assemble the tree to make sure we had all the parts and that everything works.

We have all the parts and everything works.

So I assumed that he was going to take it apart and stash it until after Thanksgiving. I was wrong in my assumption. Having gone through the hassle of assembly, he is disinclined to go through the process again in the same calendar year.

So I have a tree in my living room.

Meanwhile, I had planned to show some of the stash enhancement I have indulged in lately, and today's installment comes from Sassy Jack's. I decided to sign up for a couple of Kim's regular clubs.

First off, this month's installment in the Week's Dye Works linen club.

Cappuccino, 40 count, plus a skein of Weeks floss. Both are much darker, richer colors than the flash on my camera allows. I'm not really a seasonal stitcher (other than Christmas), but I can see something fall-ish on this. It will go in the linen stash until the right thing comes along.

Then, Jack's Stash, which comes out quarterly. Loads of goodies! A couple of Plum Street Sampler charts, stickers to go on the back of samplers, a lovely selection of threads (including a full skein of Floche, which I love), ribbons, a Jack-o-Lantern pin, and another piece of Weeks linen, just the right size for an ornament or small.

Stash enhancement is so much fun! I'm thinking maybe I should have wrapped all this up and put under the tree.

Which we have in the middle of the living room.

Woolgathering

 I forgot to mention the online class I'm taking when I talked about the projects I've been stitching.

As of today, I have caught up with my assignments. Whew!!

I think we're going to work on leaves tomorrow, which will need to be stitched before the next class. Luckily we'll have a mid-term break--I think it's going to take me that much time.

And a confession. I have been spoiled, totally spoiled, by stitching with silk. Silk glides through linen. Wool doesn't glide.  I'm not sure what exactly it does, but it isn't gliding. It doesn't exactly fight, but it is not as pleasant as silk.

But it does go much faster than silk. If I were working this design, at this size, in silk, I'd still be working on the first week's assignment.

Everything is a trade-off.

Sampler Sunday

 No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth, 

I hit the wall so hard with Carmen that I seriously thought about retiring from stitching and letting my brain get sucked out by playing games on my phone.

I regained my sanity. I really love Carmen and I want to finish her, but I think I was putting too much pressure on myself to stitch her before the end of the year. I mean, really, other than having Carmen on my MAGIC list for the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild, I have no compelling reason to absolutely have to get 'er done. And I can just roll her over until next year's list, as far as that goes. 

(MAGIC stands for My Annual Good Intentions Contract. It's a way to get things done, and you can put up to five things on the list. I put four. I've done one. Pitiful, just pitiful.)

The last time I ht the wall this hard, I was working on Martha Edlin. I got over that wall by just working on Martha on Sundays until I got so close to a finish that I couldn't put her down. So, Carmen is now my Sampler Sunday project.

I have been working on some other things in the last couple of weeks.

The embroidery for the stitching roll for the Artisan's Workbox is done.

Now it's on to the finishing part--and I'm afraid I'm playing a little bit of thread chicken. Keep your fingers crossed that I have enough of the dark red silk to put this sucker together.

I've finished both panels of the Hapsburg Lace needle book. We're going to assemble this for our January EGA meeting, so it can go on the back burner for a bit.

And if you look very closely, you may see the beginning of a tree trunk on the front cover of No Place Like Home.

It has not escaped my notice that even my smalls are complicated and fiddly. That may account for how long it takes to get anything done.

There has also been some stash enhancement, but that can wait for another day.

Fuss and Bother

I am one horizontal thread off.

 I cannot find it.

And I spent hours looking for it. 

I've decided two things:

• I can compensate, and I think I will.
• I don't think anyone will ever notice it once the sampler is done--including me--since there is a LOT going on with this sampler
• 45 count linen is the limit of my comfort level.

My other stitching has gone a little better.

I have turned the corner on one side of the sewing roll for the Artisan's Workbox.

Now, should I do the vine and leaves on the other side, or add the flowers to the side I've stitched? If this is the most major decision I make today, it will be a good day.

And I've started on the next motif in my online crewel class:

It will not take long to finish this, and I really hope that isn't one of those "famous last words" situations. However, I am putting this aside for today so I can continue with Carmen.

Even if she is causing me some aggravation.

Getting back into a routine

I was thinking the other day--the last few years, I have not been as productive as I thought I would be. Actually, I thought I would spend the majority of every day with a needle in my hand--and I did, the first year I retired.

But then I had some health issues that sapped my energy, then there was the Big Move, and, to put the cherry on top, I lost a big chunk of this year with my wrist in a brace.

And I got out of the habit of stitching. I was still going to classes, I was still enhancing the stash--instead of stitching, though, I was puttering and scrolling through my phone and playing online games. And, at the same time, I want all this stuff stitched!

So, I'm going to try to limit my time playing on my phone (OMG, it is addictive, and I don't want to be that person who is physically attached to my phone 24/7), and I'm going to start the day out stitching, and I'm going to work on what I want to do when I want to do it.

This is what I've been poking a needle into for the last couple of days:

I'm taking an online class from Sara Rickards, the same tutor who's been teaching the deep dive classes I've been taking. It's an advanced crewel class. I'm already a little behind, but I've got a rhythm going now and I think I may be ready for class on Tuesday.

Carmen still has my heart, and she's going to actually get some love this week. After all, her boring border is done, and I almost have the framework for the middle of the design finished, so I can see some progress happening.

One side of the Hapsburg Lace needle book is stitched. I have the framework for the other side done, but I'm going to save the filling stitches until our EGA meeting so I can demonstrate them there if anyone needs to see how to work them. I haven't loved working on this because the canvas is really stiff and harsh--possibly because it has metallic threads running through it. I love the design, but I am really going to be thrilled beyond belief to have this finished.

And I think I need to get back in the habit of more frequent blogging. If I blog, I stitch, and vice-versa. Therefore, I will continue to babble away about what's on my frame , , , er . . . frames.

Well, that happened . . .

I have been a busy stitcher.

And, OMG, I have the borders for this section of Carmen done! This is the part that I've moaned and groaned and whined and whinged about ever since I started this beautiful sampler--and it is a beautiful sampler despite my weeping and wailing.

I think the last time I wrote, I said I was probably just going to work evenly across the piece, the way I generally do borders on school girl samplers--just working the part of the border that meets the fun part of the design. Not that borders can't be fun in small doses--I just find it boring to do the same pattern over and over and over again.

So I am basically delighted with what I've done on Carmen the last few days.

And then . . . well, I am either the luckiest stitcher alive or it's true that God looks out for dim bulbs.

I was going to do my homework for the advanced crewel class I'm taking online, but I woke up earlier than I wanted to and couldn't get back to sleep. I had stayed up way past my bedtime reading a murder mystery--I got to the point I had to find out whodunnit and couldn't put the book down--so I was a bit too weary to think about what I was stitching.

Apparently I did something similar when I started the embroidered panel for the Artisan's Workbox. I started the design lower than I should have on the linen. 

Now, I picked this up today because I figured it would be an easy stitch--just counting and remembering when to do Smyrna crosses and when to do long arm crosses and when to do rice stitches or straight stitches. But as I stitched down one side, I started thinking that I was getting awfully close to the bottom of the linen. SO close, so very close to the bottom of the linen.

I nearly had a sinking spell.

I counted the number of stitches needed to get to the bottom of the design. I counted the number of threads I had left on the linen.

I have about four or five threads more than I absolutely have to have.

If I counted everything correctly.

I can't decide whether I want to continue with this to see if I do have enough space to finish or if I want to to scrub a floor and not think about it at all.

Adulting is HARD!

I got up an at unearthly hour and had my annual mammogram this morning.

The Marquis de Sade would have loved the mammogram machine. Quite frankly, if men had to have their dangly bits mashed between two plates on a yearly basis, there would be a much less uncomfortable option.

Then, just as painful in another way, I came home, balanced the checkbook, and paid bills.

I think I've been a grown-up for quite long enough today. 

So, I'm going to stitch.

Here's where I am currently on the Stitcher's Workbox project. I think the purple flowers might be clover.

And I'm jumping from one area to another on Carmen, which may be the best way to tackle this very large band.

I think Carmen will get some love this afternoon, then more twining leaves and blooms tonight. Or I may do something else entirely.

Whatever it is, it will not involve mature, responsible behavior.

The Stitching Slump

I fell into a stitching slump a couple of weeks ago and I'm just now recovering.

I think I had too many things going on at the same time, and I kept hitting the wall on all of them. Why? Who knows--maybe I had been stitching so much (is that possible?) that I burned out a bit.  Anyway, I pretty much stopped stitching for a few days. I read three books, and then, last week, I went to Salty Yarns for classes with Jackie.

And all three classes are amazing and enticing and extremely doable.

 Cleopatra's Needle is one of those deceptively simple designs that don't show up well in a photo. Let me tell you--there is very subtle stitching that looks almost like hieroglyphics on the obelisk itself, and an interior structure that serves to store needles and three spools while sitting on a stack of pin cushions.  I still think Jackie would be an engineer in another life.

Oh, and the white blob on the right of the picture is my slightly smushed, definitely askew paper mock-up. Some things don't travel well.

Just look at that luscious purple silk! This is an amazing storage pouch for all sorts of silk spools and thread winders and whatever you need to store. To be perfectly honest, I was totally intimidated when I first saw it opened--like, how in the world does this thing go together? It was too much to take in. Then we went over the directions, and it's going to be a breeze. I mean, a breeze to assemble.

And, OMG, look at the colors in this one. The original name was All That Glitters--you can't see it in the photo but there is gold metallic along with the silk colors. The stitching is going to take a minute, but I think it will be perfect to work on during a long winter's night with something good on TV. That gorgeous silk makes pockets for the interior as well as lining the back of the embroidery. It's just yummy.

Have I started working on any of these yet? Nope, I decided once I was home I need to simplify my stitching life and clear a few things out of the way. So, I put a couple of the headache pieces in time-out temporarily. I set Carmen back up, and I decided to pull the Artisan's Workbox out from the last trip to Salty Yarns.

This will be the stitched exterior of the sewing roll. I was hoping to audit this at Sassy Jack's in November.

And that leads me to the weather. I live in North Carolina, where part of the state has been decimated by Helene's rain, winds, and flooding. Where I live, we had torrential rains, flash floods, and tornado warnings but nothing like the destruction in the western part of the state. The area around Asheville, where Sassy Jack's is located, is one of the hardest hit--the flood waters rose to a point that hasn't been seen in over 100 years. There is no cell service at the moment. The roads are cut off--I have a very dear friend who lives in the area, and there are no roads open in or out of her town. 

It's going to take a long time for the area to recover, so there's no guarantee that we'll have classes in just six weeks. Actually, I'll be surprised if we do. I'm hoping and praying that Kim is fine, that the shop isn't damaged by flood waters, and that the whole area will be back to normal sooner rather than later. And so I'm going to continue to work on Carmen and the Artisan's Workbox so I can take them to class, whenever and wherever that may be.

Back and forth

 I needed something relatively mindless to stitch today, so I'm filling in areas on No Place Like Home.

All the grass at the bottom of each piece has been planted, but you'll have to take my word for that since I've rolled the bars. And those things that look like green clouds will become the leaves on a tree once it grows. There will be another tree growing on the back cover, and then I have to build a house and plant some flowers. 

Which may or may not happen today since I have fallen into a book and I'm having a hard time digging myself out of it. I was just going to read a few pages, but the next thing I knew I was 100 pages in. I also missed the MidAtlantic region's virtual stitch-in this afternoon because I totally lost track of time.

Maybe I should have set a timer.

Adding to the List

I think I forgot to mention a goody that arrived in the mail a week or so ago.

The Crewel Work Company offered The Peach Tree from the Feller Mirror. Kate Barlow designed a metal thread and silk motif inspired by one in the mirror.

I really want to pull this out and put a stitch in it, but I have so many WIPs at the moment, I can't start another one. As it is, I'm beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. I think I need to have something finished.

There is that basket filled with things that need to be assembled sitting there, staring at me . . . Maybe this is the impetus I need to put some things together.

Too, Too Boring

 I am too boring for words because not much has been going on. I have been unwell and decided maybe I shouldn't do anything that required more than about three brain cells.

My stitching this week has consisted of working the frameworks in double crosses (similar to Smyrna crosses except the vertical stitch is worked over the horizontal stitch, which was not the way I usually cross, so I had to reverse stitch more than once). There are about forty bazillion of them.

I'm doing this project because I volunteered to teach it to the local EGA chapter. It's the Hapsburg Lace needle book from Tanja Berlin. The teaching, such as it will be, is going to take up two meetings. Then we'll do the finishing in January. Luckily I don't have to do that--actually BDE is going to do the finishing part of the project.

And what has happened to the hummingbird, you ask? He has flown off into time-out for a bit, along with Term 3 of my deep dive into goldwork class. I've been wanting to get back to Carmen for awhile, so today  she is back on the frame stand. 

And, since I don't have enough to do (please note sarcasm), I have three online classes--one that started this past week and two that start next week, plus a trip to Salty Yarns for three more classes with Jackie next weekend, which will be followed in November by three more classes with Jackie (assuming I got my registration in quickly enough before the classes filled up) at Sassy Jack's.

And then I have at least three more online classes that start in January--I seem to think there may be another one that I've forgotten about.

I may be boring but I should never be bored.

Fighting with a Hummingbird

 Not a real one. A stitched one.

I've spent far too many hours over the last few days trying to get this damn bird to look like it has feathers. I have finally decided that I'm done. Done, done, done. I've also decided that if I look at it from across the room, it's okay, and that once all the bling is added, maybe the feathers won't be as important.

As usual, the problem is that I can't stitch random. There were about two hours of videos on this part of the design that literally showed where each stitch should be placed, but when I started, my brain and my hands said nope, they don't work that way, random bothers them.

This is not my first rodeo with silk shading/thread painting--and I haven't been happy with any of the previous attempts either.

Today I think I'll try to get the wings stitched--they're satin stitch and I like doing satin--and then I'll start the metal threads.

And just accept the fact that random isn't my thing.

My fine feathered friend

 Finally! All the padding for the silk and metal threads is sewn down--stitches are supposed to be about 1 mm long, and about 1 mm apart. That is tiny! 

The plan is to start the silk embroidery on the body and head tomorrow. 

But we all know where plans lead me . . . 

Not a Canary

This is going to be a hummingbird, but right now, it looks like a peculiar canary.

 I've started the Hummingbird in Silk and Metal, an online class EGA offered earlier this year.

Earlier this year, my hand was in a brace and I was not stitching. Luckily for me, the access to the class materials was extended to September 29.

Wait a minute. This is September. I do believe I need to get cracking and get 'er done. Basically, I have printed out all the lessons, but there are the most spectacular videos that show just about every single stitch as it's worked. Talk about a major help!

Today I started the felt padding that both silk and metal threads will be worked over. It's fiddly and finicky but gives everything dimension.

So this is what I will focus on for the next couple of weeks--and let's hope I can continue to focus on one project for that long.

September Stitches

 There were very few stitches added to anything last week.

I did plant all the grass on one side of the stitching book, and started on the other.

I also had the wonderful experience of attending my "old" EGA chapter's summer social. Seeing my buddies again--well, there are no words for how lovely it all was. I miss every single one of them, and need to figure out a way to get back more often.

And I have decided to work on some other projects for a bit. After all, after years and years of school, September always feels like a new, fresh start. So I'm starting some new, fresh pieces.

So tonight I'm going to set up stretcher bars and an embroidery hoop, and will spend Labor Day stitching.