Going for the Gold

 Except for the body and the antennae, my butterfly is stitched.

Most of it was done while I was watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics this afternoon. I had a brief and fleeting thought that perhaps I should try to stitch a motif for each day of the Olympics, but I stomped that idea flat. 

Stitching plans never work for me, as we all know.

Anyway, I had four threaded needles going, plus all the strands of gold passing thread which then had to be plunged to the back and sewn down. By the time I finished doing all that, I felt like I had competed in the Olympics.

I may look for something really simple to stitch tonight, something definitely non-Olympic.

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!

Bad Words

The air has turned blue around my frame stand today.

Quite frankly, if I could get my hands on dear, sweet, little Carmen, I would wring her dear, sweet, little neck.

I worked on part of the border today, just to get it out of the way. Carmen seemed to work the border randomly--there's no rhyme or reason to the spacing or placement of the stems and leaves--every single one has a different number of threads between them. 

And I did something I rarely, if ever do. I dragged the thread from one to another instead of weaving through the back of the stem, just to make some of the counting easier.

Carmen has been placed in time-out for the rest of the day. Hopefully she will behave better tomorrow.

One band after another

Apparently I needed to have a tired and cranky day, but then I actually slept fairly well last night (exhaustion finally kicked in) so today has been much better.

Or it's Tuesday rather than Monday.

Anyway, today I have stitched. I stitched while listening to a couple of flosstubes and I stitched while attending our EGA Region's virtual stitch-in. And this is what I've done so far today:

 Carmen has another motif almost finished, which started me thinking. I'm enjoying these filling motifs, but I'm also going to have to tackle the borders along the sides before I go much further. Maybe I should work on the outer borders for a bit--get them out of the way--then work on the center band again. Sort of like eating your carrots before you can have dessert. I will think on it a little more, but I believe that's what I'll do.

And I only have to fill in three more flowers for the second band for House on the Hill and then it will be ready for assembly. Having an easy project to do during stitch-ins and Zoom meetings seems to be working out really well. I do have to admit I was hoping this one would last a little longer, but it just means that I need to see what's in my pile of projects that I can move to before the next Zoom thing.

I think I will go back to Carmen for a little longer today. BDE is coming over for tacos tonight, which Dearly Beloved is going to fix, so I can stitch the rest of the day.

MUCH better than Monday!

Monday, Monday

 Is it possible to have a Monday when you're retired?

I've been spinning my wheels all day, with nothing to show for it. No, I'll take that back. I rearranged a cabinet so I could finally unpack a set of china that has been boxed up since the Big Move. (I have a lovely Limoges luncheon set that I treasure, even though it's rarely used. I'm not sure Dearly Beloved and I quite live up to it when we're eating PB&Js and carrot sticks.)

Anyway, I've picked things up and put them down and moved things around and misplaced my magnifiers and found them again and thought about balancing my checkbook and deciding against that since it's a Monday.

I would have just given up and  been a lump, but this lovely thing arrived in today's mail.

Nope, not going to start it right away, but I am going to read over the directions and stroke the silk and think about it for awhile.

And hope Monday turns out to be a fairly short day.

Stitching In

BDE and I went to our local chapter's once-a-month Sunday stitch-in today, and this is what I did.

I'm filling in the flowers on one of the bands for House on the Hill.

This is perfect stitch-in stitching. It's an easy satin stitch fill-in that I can do while participating in wide-ranging conversations about needlework (of course), and coyotes (why not?) and which people are morning people and which are not.

It has occurred to me that I need to keep a piece like this going at all times for things like stitch-ins and evenings when my hands need to stitch but my brain needs to take a mini-vacation. 

That would be pretty much every evening, come to think of it.

Falling

 No stitching today. at least, not exactly. I fell into a book.

I ordered this some time ago, and it's taken awhile to arrive, so it was a lovely surprise to find it on my doorstep this afternoon.

It doesn't just cover filling stitches, but also includes a great section on everything you ever need to know about stitching hardanger. It has directions for both right and left handed stitchers, and even provides pictures of how things are supposed to look--as well as how they shouldn't, which helps when you're trying to get your tension right. I expect it will help me with the online hardanger class I'm taking.

And I also discovered when I was catching up with the class questions and answers for the Hummingbird class that the deadline has been extended to the end of September. I also unearthed the materials for the online goldwork class I couldn't finish last year because of the Big Move.

This is turning into a very busy summer!

Dragging

I had intentions, big intentions. I was going to rise and shine yesterday and today and stitch all day.

Had I been able to stitch all day for two days, I would have had more accomplished than this.

However, for the last two nights, I have slept only five or so hours. Wednesday night I stared at the ceiling for a couple of hours, only to have Dearly Beloved's extra-loud alarm clock nearly give me a heart attack just as I dozed off again. Adrenaline will make you rise, although the shining is another matter entirely.

Last night, same thing, five hours of sleep, then wide awake. This time I decided to get up and stitch or read or do something. I read and I stitched and I stared into space, all in slow motion. I was planning to take a nap, but BDE called to see if she could get a ride to pick up her car after a repair job. So I took her to the car place and then home, and now I'm sort of awake again. Awake, but not necessarily functioning on all six cylinders.

We'll see how tonight goes. This is getting old.

Happy Fourth of July!

 May we continue to have the independence our ancestors fought for!

(I don't do a lot of seasonal stitching, but I did remember this little pillow, designed by Barbara Rakosnik of Periwinkle Promises. She did several series of small pillows based on the months of the year. I miss her designs, although Lord knows I stitched a bunch of them when she was active.)

Filling in

I started filling in the empty spaces on this band of Carmen.

 That blue really makes everything pop!

Right now, I think I'm going to stick with Carmen for my Fourth of July stitching.  Quite frankly, it's going to be too hot to do much of anything else!

Happy Day

 Carmen has been sitting on the stand for weeks and weeks. Yesterday, I whipped off the fancy dishtowel that keeps the dust off, threaded up a needle, and stitched on her for awhile.

I restitched the leaves that I had to rip out and finished the rest of the leaves. It may not look like much, but it's filament silk on 45 count linen, so it takes me a wee bit longer to make visible progress.

But it made me so happy to work on this again!! Who knew a few stitches could do so much for ones attitude?

Happy Half Year!

 I am in a state of disbelief because the year is half over. And I have very little to show for it.

I'm not going to beat myself up over that. Who would have thought I would develop killer tendonitis and a possible hairline fracture in my wrist? I suppose I should build in a contingency plan for injury or decrepitude.

Better yet, maybe I should stop making plans. Have you heard this before? Like every couple of months?

Maybe my plan is to work on whatever pleases me at the moment, whether I meet any arbitrary goals or not. I really do need to recover from years of dealing with deadlines and schedules.

Meanwhile, I have added the outlines of flowers to the basket bands for House on the Hill.

I also read over the directions for the first class of an EGA online course that came out while I couldn't stitch. I have a month before the video classes for Hummingbird in Silk and Gold go kaput, so I believe I may want to at least watch them before they leave.

I frogged the mistake on Carmen--did I mention that I found the two threads that I was off when I had to stop working on her?

I cut out more little squares of linen for the online Hardanger class I'm taking through EGA's Cyberstitchers.

I decided I would definitely go with the practice netting for the online whitework class. Maybe. Of course, the Dazor is in position so I could work on the conservation netting. And I don't have a deadline when it absolutely has to be done. I think I'll continue to debate with myself over this.

I've cleaned off my work table again.

And the new issue of Inspirations has arrived.

I have choices for the Half Year. I need to be an octopus.

So close

 So, I'm doing the fun stuff on the basket bands.

I had planned to do everything for the first band, then move on to the second--but by the time I finished the first band, I had the leaf and stem pattern memorized and it just seemed easier to keep going. I really wanted to have the second one finished before I went to bed, but it was getting toward midnight and my eyes were beginning to cross. Rather than make a mistake that I'd have to frog, I went to bed.

I was going to work on my whitework class today, but I need to make a decision as to whether to use the practice netting for the finished piece or to use the teeny-tiny-wee-little conservation netting that requires me to use the Dazor as well as my usual magnifiers to see it. I think I'm going to rationalize that this is a learning piece so it's mainly to get a feel for the technique.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Deadly Dull and Boring

My poor blog has been sadly neglected of late, but I've been so deadly dull and boring that I hated to inflict myself on the world.

I have been stitching, but what I've been doing has not been particularly interesting to anyone but me.

I mean, this is going to turn into something lovely, but right now . . . meh.

These are the side bands for the Shaker carrier for Merry Cox's House on the Hill. I've been working on the nun stitch outlines, which involve 772 nun stitches total for the two bands.

772 nun stitches.

Think about that.

I'm trying not to. DBE said I should never have added them up because it would make me run screaming into the night. I didn't do that, but I became very tired of nun stitches, to the point I'm going to avoid them for as long as I possibly can.

I'm also working on my online whitework class, and, hallelujah, I am all but caught up with all the motifs.

Naturally the one I have left to do is close to the most intense and time-consuming one of the whole class. I may not be around much this weekend while I deal with it.

After that, I hope to be back to more colorful and interesting things to stitch and see. I don't think I can stand to be deadly dull and boring for much longer.

 

Seeing Double

 I decided I need to work on something with color today, so it's back to House on the Hill. I finished the pieces for the scissors fob and the pin keep.

Obviously, the sides of each are identical.

All I have left to do before assembly are the bands that go around the interior of the Shaker basket. They are also identical. I'm glad I like this flower motif because I have to do it a whole lot more times.

Aged and Decrepit

I didn't mean to let a week go by without a blog post. Age and decrepitude got in the way.

It's been a week of doctors' appointments and a trip back to my hometown to have a permanent crown installed. I had to take a couple of days to perform some very necessary Domestic Diva tasks, and I've been trying to catch up on my online whitework class with varying degrees of success.

And then, last night, I rolled over and threw my back out. If that isn't an example of being aged and decrepit, I don't know what is!

Plus, just to emphasize my age, today Dearly Beloved and I celebrate our forty-eighth wedding anniversary. Forty-eight years . . . first of all, I'm not sure how that happened, and even more, how did I get old enough to have a forty-eighth anniversary? (We have already planned to celebrate with take-out Chinese because we're just that exciting.)

But you come here for the stitching, and here is the little bit I've done that isn't whitework.

needle book, Merry Cox's House on the Hill

This is cause for celebration--it's the last bit of this set that has lettering.

Dearly Beloved just came in with another Icy Hot pad to apply to my back. Ah, romance in the golden years!

 

A little out of proportion

 I don't think there's any way to change this, . . but . . . 

It took about 8 hours to do the prework to set up the motif that would be embellished.

And less than two hours, during class, to embellish.

The embellishment is the fun part.

Isn't that always the way? It takes forever to get ready for the fun stuff, and the fun stuff lasts no time at all.

Another piece down

 The second piece for House on the Hill is completely stitched.

It helped that the Kindred Spirits Sampler Guild had a stitch-in yesterday, so I knew I had a good two-plus hours I could devote to stitching as well as socializing, even if it's through a computer screen. Actually, two of the members just returned from what sounds like an amazing trip to Europe, getting to see samplers in many venues. That was fascinating, and the time flew.

And then I had some momentum with my stitching, and just kept going until  finished. 

You may notice that there are two dates on the piece. I've committed to getting this done in 2024, so that date is with my name. And the project was started at Christmas in Williamsburg in 1999, so to give a nod to that timeline, I had to include that year as well.

Now it's on to the side bands--this all fits in a Shaker basket, which I may have forgotten to mention, and there are side bands that need to be stitched.

But today I need to do the homework for my whitework class so I'll be ready to do that tomorrow. I have a feeling the homework will take a good chunk of the afternoon.

I am not complaining. Getting my homework done is my excuse for avoiding the dust rhinos.

Change of Plans

I know I said I was going to work on the Hardanger course.

I changed my mind.

I decided to work on the lettering for the poem for Merry Cox's House on the Hill. I may have mentioned a time or a thousand that I don't particularly care for stitching letters. I would be thrilled if someone gave me a Bristol sampler and I would treasure it, but I will never, ever stitch one. However, although the letters are worked over one, they're done in tent stitch so it's going fairly quickly.

And I do love the flowers, which will be mirrored on the other side.

I think I may spend the rest of the day on this. I was up early and walked before it got hot and humid so I feel very virtuous and worthy of a reward.

That's my rationalization and I'm sticking to it!

First Attempts

So I've done the first three motifs in the Hardanger Fillings class with Jane Ellen Balzuweit. I definitely have some tension issues, and I noticed some errors in the stitching, but I am not ripping out anything. I keep telling myself this is a learning experience, and it is a notebook course--so maybe leaving the mistakes makes sense. After all, sometimes it helps to see what you shouldn't do as well as what you should.

And looking at them here--this should keep me humble!

We had the second class this morning, so I'm going to spend the afternoon working on those motifs. Who knows, if I decide to ignore the dust rhinos and the laundry, I might be able to go ahead and get next week's homework done. 

Not quite Technicolor

 It isn't quite Technicolor, but it's much more colorful than white on white!

I'm working on the second pocket for House on the Hill, a Merry Cox design I started at Christmas in Williamsburg in 1999.

1999.

That is twenty-five years ago!!!

I do believe it's past time to get this one done. It has been aging in my stash quite long enough.

Anyway, I've decided I need to work on things that are more difficult first thing in the morning, and things that are simply fun to stitch in the evening. House on the Hill is most definitely fun.

Monogamy Not

 I've been trying to be a fairly monogamous stitcher so I can catch up with two of my online classes.

I decided that monogamy is not for me. 

Again.

Anyway, I finished the motif I was working on yesterday when I hit the wall.

This leaves one class motif and three homework assignments. I only have to have one of the homework assignments done before next Tuesday, so I am giving myself permission to take a couple of days off from this project.

I do need to watch the tape of last Saturday's Hardanger class and do the filling stitches on those samples. I'm going to do that tomorrow morning so I'll be ready for this coming Saturday.

Meanwhile, I'm going to rummage around in the basket by my chair and see what I have that isn't silk or metal.

Or involve white threads.

Snow Blindness

I hit a wall today. Too much white. SOOOOOO much white I was beginning to feel like I was suffering from snow blindness.

Since I live somewhere that hasn't seen an appreciable amount of snow in years and years, I have no idea what snow blindness would look or feel like, but, anyway, I had to stop tonight before I finished yesterday's last motif. I did get the other three done, and I did stitch one of the motifs from a class several weeks ago, so I suppose I have made progress.

 This is called beading, and it involves making more holes in perfectly good linen. Actually, it looks like a weird caterpillar to me.

And this is where I stopped for today. Actually, I kinda like doing this type of drawn thread, and there's a lot of it on Love That Red, the sampler from Jackie du Plessis I was doing before my wrist misbehaved. And, yes, it's in the pile of things that I want to get back to as soon as I catch up with this class.

If that day ever comes.

Hardanger Homework

 I have stitched the homework for the class I missed last Saturday, and for the class coming up this Saturday.

I need to watch the tape of last week's class to do the insides for the top three. Hopefully, I can get the bottom three finished in class this week.

Meanwhile, in my online whitework class, I now have to finish today's lesson, work the two motifs from previous classes, and do three homework assignments.

There's going to be a lot of white fabric with white threads in the next few weeks. I have a feeling that once I get caught up, it's going to be technicolor all the way.

Catching Up

I decided I had better spend my stitching time catching up on the online whitework class I've been taking. Today I finished the homework I needed to have done before tomorrow's class.

 I still have two motifs to stitch from previous classes, and I have two more homework assignments for future ones.

And I need to work on last week's Hardanger class samples and get the homework done before this Saturday.

I thought I had left deadlines and homework assignments far, far behind me. Maybe this is what's meant by second childhood?

Just a little early?

 I'm supposed to rest my wrist until tomorrow, but BDE and I went to our local EGA chapter's stitch-in this afternoon, and, well, I cheated a little.

I stitched.

It felt wonderful, even though I couldn't count to either four or five or apparently read a chart.

I persevered and have this to show for about 90 minutes of sloooooooooowly stitching.

This is the beginning of the first motif in the online class I'm taking in Hardanger filling stitches.

And I'm not going to do any more. I am going back to resting until tomorrow. Maybe.

Oh, it feels so good to stitch again!

Progress Report

 I finally got to see the hand specialist, who discovered that I may have had a hairline fracture that was about a millimeter long in my wrist--it had healed but may have precipitated or aggravated the tendonitis--and he then stuck a needle in my wrist.

That may not have been the most painful experience of my life, but it was right up there.

Now, in my ignorance, I thought I would get the shot and come home and stitch. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I am now in Brace #3, for those keeping track of my brace wardrobe, which I am to wear 24/7 until Monday. I really can't stitch with this one. On Monday, I can stitch for short periods interspersed with longer periods of rest when the brace goes back on, and I have to sleep with it. This will last for 2-3 weeks.

So basically, I will lose half a year of stitching time.  Blankety-blank-blank-blank!!!

And, of course, today I have two online classes. Yes, scheduled at the same time.

On the left are the supplies for a class that EGA's Cyberstitchers chapter is offering on Hardanger filling stitches. Jane-Ellen Balzuweit, who is one of my favorite teachers, is offering it over a six week period. It is being taped, so I can watch the tapes later.

On the right is the design for Tanya Bentham's underside couching class, one-day only and that day is today. I've done some underside couching in goldwork, and found it takes both hands sometimes to pull the couching thread through, so I don't even dare to cheat and do that. But since it's only today, I plan to watch the presentation and hope I remember how to do it.

And, of course, next week I have my online whitework class. I was planning to be all caught up before class on Tuesday.

As usual, I should never make stitching plans.

Making Holes

 I am continuing to deliberately make holes in perfectly good linen, otherwise known as eyelets.

Although I am still wearing the brace, awaiting a call from the specialist's office, I have found I can stitch with cotton threads without shredding them--so I'm trying to catch up with my online whitework class.

My tension is all over the place. I can't figure out if it's the lack of stitching for a couple of weeks, or if the brace is interfering, or if it's a combination of both of them.  I keep telling myself this is practice and a learning experience and at least I know what I'm supposed to do.

Whether I can actually do it or not is the question. Practice, practice, practice!

Hot off the Hoop

 When you have three Zoom stitch-ins in one weekend, plus an online lecture . . .

And when your relatively small project uses relatively thick threads and large stitches that cover a lot of ground . . .

And when you have two weeks of pent-up desire for a threaded needle percolating through your system . . . 

You have a finish.

This is one of Tanya Bentham's Bayeux Stitch dragons from a class taken with the Oatlands Chapter of EGA.

And all the stitch-ins this weekend were sponsored by EGA in one way or another. I had the Carolinas Region stitch-in on Saturday morning, the Surface Embroidery stitch-in offered nation-wide Saturday afternoon, and the Mid-Atlantic Region stitch-in on Sunday afternoon. As traumatic as the isolation caused by Covid was, meeting via Zoom created many opportunities to spend time with other stitchers.

Always a silver lining. Now if I could figure out what the silver lining for a damaged wrist could be . . . 

I'm Back. Maybe. Sorta.

 After two weeks of enforced idleness with no stitching, I still have pain in my wrist, so I'm going to see the specialist as soon as I can get an appointment.

I talked to my doctor and he said I could stitch if I'm careful and keep the brace on. (The fact that I was quite possibly visibly twitching may have influenced his decision.) However, the brace has practically every surface covered with velcro. Velcro is designed to catch on stuff. I quickly discovered that it will shred silk from six feet away, but it doesn't bother wool too much.

And, luckily enough, I took an online class from Tanya Bentham, who wrote the book, literally, on Bayeux Stitch. The thread is wool and it's on a fairly big scale for embroidery--no fine, fiddly stitches here--so I can tackle it wearing the brace.

And this is where I am:

It's basically a series of long stitches that are couched down. Then there are outlines worked over the top of the design to create the details.

I'm glad I took the class and that I've had the opportunity to learn how to do this. Am I going to do more? I kinda don't think so. Silk threads and fiddly little stitches are my jam. Let's just hope I get back to that ASAP!

Of course, I do have crewel kits in the stash . . . 

Two Weeks

 I have to wear the new brace around the clock for two weeks, other than showering or washing my hands.

And I can't stitch for two weeks.

Two weeks.

Dearly Beloved has threatened to move out for the duration, and the Big Kid has offered him refuge. I mentioned the whole "for better or for worse" thing and he said that this was worse than worse.

Anyway, the blog will likely be quiet for the duration.

(I did request a medically induced coma, but my doctor didn't understand why that might be a good thing.)

See you on the other side . . . 

Organ Recital

 Whenever my great-aunts were involved in a discussion of bodily ills, they referred to it as an organ recital.

So, here's the latest update on my wrist.

I am supposed to receive a new and different brace tomorrow intended to keep my thumb still, but allow more flexibility with the rest of my hand. There should be significant improvement in about two weeks. If not, I will get a referral to a sports medicine person who specializes in hand injuries.

I guess needlework has become a sport.

I am now waiting for it to be an Olympic event.

The lovely month of May

Awhile back, May not only signaled the real beginning of spring, it also set off Maynia in the blogging world.  Some people actually started a new project on every day in May. I didn't go down that primrose path because I already have enough UFO's and WIP's, but I do miss seeing what other people are up to.

And, since my wrist has decided to flare up again, just when I though it was improving, I am letting it rest today, which means I couldn't start anything new if I wanted to.

What I have been doing is printing out class info on three different online classes I signed up for.

There is the Hummingbird in Silk & Gold that I'm taking from Lizzie Pye through EGA.

There is Lady Anne's Pyn Pillow from Katie Strachan.

And there is Puffed Silkes, a class from Rachael Kinnison that teaches how to furnish and complete the interior of a box in 17th century fashion.

I am not actively working on any of the three at the moment, but if you don't grab the chance for projects with limited availability when they're offered, you may never have the opportunity. So, I am printing and watching accompanying videos and keeping my wrist braced and elevated and chilled so I can get back to using a threaded needle instead of gazing longingly at it.

A Hole in One

My plan today was to watch the videos for the last two classes in my online whitework class--I missed them because of the trip to Salty Yarns--and try to get the stitching done for at least one of them.

This class is on eyelets, and that little bitty one is the only thing I got done before my wrist started screaming and the brace went back on and that was the end of that for today. I picked something up with my hand in a position it no longer likes, and I think I re-injured myself.

I think I'll read a book this evening instead.

Phooey.

 

Adapting

I worked to catch up with my online whitework class for a bit this morning, then decided to stitch some more leaves on Carmen.

And that is when I discovered that I will have to adapt.

Somewhere along the line, I am two threads off.

Two threads.

 I have counted and recounted and it's not in the leafy garland. That means it must be somewhere in the border. As I am absolutely not going to rip out the border--I'd rather give up stitching entirely, and that's not about to happen--I will adapt.

Sigh . . . 

Back to the routine

 Re-entry is tough.

It took me a day to recuperate from the drive, then another day to unpack and rearrange and sort out stash and haul and figure out what I wanted to do next.

I wanted to do everything next.

As I am not an octopus, nor do I have any clones, I had to limit my plans. So I wrote down everything I wanted to do and everything I needed to do. The length of the list was terrifying--so I made some difficult decisions and winnowed the list down to something that I thought would be manageable this week. And, no, I'm not going to publish that list. The minute I state publicly that I have specific and certain goals, something gets in the way and none of it gets done. Maybe I should report on the progress of the list at the end of the week. We'll see . . . 

Anyway, I am working on Carmen again. When you have several hours of Zoom meetings spread over several days, it is amazing what you can accomplish if you stitch during the meetings.

I think I'll work on this for a bit longer tonight and see what I can accomplish before bedtime. 

Last class and home again

 I'm home again, after a very, very long day of travel. I am not sure why the trip home always seems to take so much longer than the trip to the destination, but I was beginning to think that road would never end.

But before we set out for the drive home, I had one last day of class.

The Artisan Workbox was not like any class I've taken before. There were no written directions, so we jumped right into actually working on the component pieces for the construction of the etui that will live in the box. 

This is a slit for a pocket. I also have a model pocket that will be attached to this piece and the beginnings of the internal structure of the etui and a pin cushion. I also have pages and pages of notes and loads of photographs, but I'm thinking it would be a very good idea to work on this one right away while I understand what my notes mean.

Don't remind me that I say that with every class I take.

Yet another class

Today I lined a box with a lovely silk for the sides and a rich velvet for the bottom.

I almost got the pin cushion that will live on the inside cover of the box stitched, and I learned how to make the pockets that will fit inside the needlework case. 

This was a very productive day, quite unlike my usual time in class where I rarely stitch and never get anything done. 

I could get used to this!

Morning, Glory!

It's cold and rainy here at Ocean City, but I actually stitched in class! Wonders will never cease.

I also ripped because I can't count and follow a chart at the same time in a class, but it's all fixed and everything is fine now.

And I indulged in a bit of retail therapy. Aside from replenishing my needle supply and replacing my broken clip & flip magnifiers and picking up a skein of AVAS I need for a sampler project, I found this:

I saw this design by Ellen Chester on Facebook the other day and thought it looked like it would be fun to stitch and a good travel project. And then I decided I would really rather stitch it in silk, and Salty Yarns has a nice supply of Gloriana, so BDE and I had a color consultation and I'm going to work it in this. It's a little more muted than the original colors, but I think it will be fine.

There are two more days of class and two more projects to add to the pile of things I want to do right this minute. (I need more minutes.)

And, interestingly, Dearly Beloved has been checking off items on his Honey-Do list while I've been gone. I am beginning to wonder if I should leave him alone more often. He seems to be much more industrious when I'm not around. Hmmmmmm . . . .

 

A very, very, very fine house

 At the moment, it doesn't look so very fine. Actually, it looks as if it barely survived a typhoon.

This is the paper mock-up for the etui from the class I've been taking with Jackie at Salty Yarns for the last couple of days.

I am assuming (and hoping) it will look more like the photo on the front of the instructions.

Both BDE and I have been coveting this project since I first saw the photo of it, and finally, it is within our grasp--plus, I have decided that the pattern for the pin cushion that goes with it would be absolutely adorable worked in gold metallic thread with green and red silk accents as a Christmas ornament.

So many stitches . . . so little time.

And I have three more classes during this trip. BDE may have been more realistic and is only taking one of them.

Or she has realized that she is going to get all my stitching stuff anyway, and has the patience to wait.