Doing Things I Don't Like To Do

 When asked about needlework, I always reply that I've never met a threaded needle I didn't like.

Apparently I've been lying through my teeth all these years.

I decided to do some finish-finishing this morning. Assembling isn't my favorite way to ply my needle, but I have a couple of ornaments that should be easy to put together. I'm to the last stage on the first one, which requires sewing loops of tape in a decorative pattern around the ornament.

So far, on this little section I've done, I've managed to stab myself twice, lost the needle (and found it) once, and tangled the thread with just about every stitch.

I thought it was time to do something else. No Place Like Home just needs its innards stitched and then it will be ready for the finishing basket.

But that requires a lot of Nun stitch.

Nun stitch may be the only stitch I despise. It's boring to do and it takes forever.

Question: Is it boring because it takes forever or does it take forever because it's boring?

The one positive thing I can think of is that it gives a flat finish that isn't bulky. However, as I discovered from a class with Marion Scoular a number of years ago, it isn't the most stable stitch. You can easily pull it away from the fabric, and it's pretty much impossible to fix once that happens.

And, of course, almost every single pocket and attachment for the sewing case requires Nun stitch as an edging.

And letters. I have to stitch letters. I don't like to stitch letters.

Maybe I'll read or take a nap this afternoon.

Classes, classes, classes

 Yes, I stalk Jackie du Plessis. Yes, I should take a year just to catch up on all the class pieces I've taken from her.

That is a thought . . . 

Anyway, Dearly Beloved and I hauled ourselves up the mountain to Weaverville, right outside Asheville, so I could take more classes from Jackie.

And I did.

The main attraction on this trip was Black Swans 2, and an absolutely gobsmacking Mexican sampler:

Just look at all those amazing colors. I wish you could see the sheen--the threads just glow. Most of it is Soie Ovale, which requires very careful handling because it is filament silk and it will snag on air--which means I'll likely have to sand off my fingerprints to make sure I don't have any rough spots on my fingers when I start to work on this.

And then we had the surprise class of the session before Black Swans.

On the left, you'll see the beautifully painted basket framework for Berry-licious. In the box, you'll see berries on sticks????!!???

We made glittery berries. It was fun, and it was messy, and it was not like any class I've taken in years and years. I did find that some of my berries had bald spots that need more glitter, so I am going to set up a work station on the deck at some point in the relatively near future, and fling glitter about.

I am not going to do that in the house because, well, glitter. I don't need to find it in every nook and cranny for the rest of my life, so it's going to be applied outside. And Dearly Beloved may meet me at the door and vacuum me off before I come back inside.

We had a classic class, The Gift:

I took this class umpty-bazillion years ago at the old Christmas in Williamsburg. I gave the finished piece to my mother. Somehow, it "vanished" when the family of one of her roommates packed up the roommate's possessions after her death in the extended care facility where Mother lives. I decided I wanted to do it again because it remains one of my very favorite designs from Jackie. Actually, it may have started my obsession with her designs. 

There was stash enhancement at Sassy Jack's. As I am trying desperately to work from stash, I basically added linen and threads for charts I have. And I found a prize for one of the projects that has been aging in my stash for decades.

The charts called for a Wichelt linen that has been discontinued for years and years. I was thinking about Aztec Red, but then I saw this PTP linen, Phoenix. And wow-ey, zow-ey, it is going to be amazing! I think that these strawberries would make adorable Christmas ornament, actually.

And somewhere in my stash, I have Tricia's charts for pears . . . 

In addition, I got a chance to visit with a dear friend who lives in the area--we talked stitching and stitching events--we still miss Callaway, which sadly ended years ago--and had some lovely meals out--a lot of the restaurants in the Asheville area have reopened so we helped that recovery. Best of all, I had a chance to see friends I've made over the years at Sassy Jack's and Salty Yarns.

Can't wait for the next event!

Construction Zone

It has been a very busy couple of weeks since I last posted. Basically, I got ready to go to Sassy Jack's for classes with Jackie, including Black Swans 2, then I went to Sassy Jack's, and now we're home again.

And while I was there, I actually finished a project!!!!!

I took an encore class for the Artisan's Workbox stitching roll. I took the class last year at Salty Yarns, but when I pulled it out to work on awhile back, I realized that my notes for the final step in the finishing (creating the rolled compartment) looked like I had written them in a foreign tongue. Actually, maybe not even a language found on Earth, and I had no idea what I was trying to tell myself to do.

So, the week before we left, I got everything finished to the point where I couldn't interpret my scribbles, and while I was in class, I got 'er done.

And it fits quite nicely in the lovely box Mr. Miller made for the project.

That wasn't the only construction project that happened.

The house on No Place Like Home has been built.

There are some flowers and flourishes that need to be added to this panel, and then I can start working on the innards of the sewing book. Which means that I may have something else in the finishing basket before long.

There's a lot for show & tell from my week at Sassy Jack's, and I do have some stash enhancement from the shop, but if I write about all that, it will take as long as War & Peace to read, so I will save it for another day. Meanwhile, there is laundry to do and a grocery list to compile.

Back to reality . . . 

A Mayflower finish

Since we moved, I've joined a bunch of sampler guilds that have Zoom meetings for distance members. There isn't a local sampler guild in this area, so it's been lovely to be able to connect with others who share this particular needlework passion.

Today was the Mayflower Sampler guild's meeting, and it was a tea party for Mother's Day. The program was designed to show us how to make pin cushions from tea cups.

We had a similar meeting a number of years ago with my hometown sampler guild, the Carolinas Sampler Guild, so I didn't think I needed another teacup pin cushion. However, I remembered that I had a kit for a little teacup ornament stitched with ribbon embroidery. I have to admit, silk ribbon embroidery really isn't in my wheelhouse--I've done a couple of small pieces, usually as part of EGA programs. It's pretty, but (gasp) it isn't something I've pursued.

It is quick, though. I was done with the whole thing in an hour.

Actually, considering that the saucer is only about 3" across, it probably shouldn't have taken that long to make. I begin to see the allure of silk ribbon embroidery.

I've also stitched a bit more on No Place Like Home. The side wall on the house has been erected, and we have the door and most of the windows constructed on the front.

And I added some overstitching in silk to the spangles that I sewed on a day or so ago on the letter case project.

Those little stems are so small that I'm not sure you can tell much difference between the last progress picture and this one.

Actually, I'm beginning to get just a wee bit restless, and I have a feeling that I'm going to add something else to my active projects--just to keep that creative flow flowing, you understand. It has nothing to do with the fact that I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to my needlework pursuits.

Yeah, right.

Sloooooooow Stitching

 I keep reading about the concept of slow stitching, and my reaction has always been, "when has stitching not been slow?" Yvette Stanton wrote a post about the very thing in the last week or so--all stitching is slow.

Only thing I can determine is that slow stitchers are perhaps doing hand stitching for the first time when they normally use sewing machines.

I've been thinking about it because I have been doing some very slow stitching.

Do you see that very thin green line around the outside of the design? That is stem stitch, using filament silk. Filament silk tends to be very thin anyway, plus the stitches are supposed to be only 3 mm long. 3mm isn't very long to begin with, but when you're working stem stitch, you're only moving half that length forward with each stitch. That means each stitch advances the line only 1.5 mm.

1.5 mm is about the width of a needle!! A little needle!!

So that took longer than I expected.

And then there are the spangles. I have about as much trouble with spangles as I do with beads. No more needs to be said.

I can only work with very tiny stuff for a few hours before I start twitching, so I pulled No Place Like Home out of time out and started working on the house again. This time it's in the correct place.

I haven't worked on 32 count linen very much in the last few years, so stitching with two strands of thread has reminded me why I moved to higher counts. At least this slow stitching moves a little faster on 32 count linen!

Christmas in May?

 I was planning to continue working on the Cherished Envelope today, but I need my mellor. (A mellor is a handy-dandy tool used in goldwork.) My mellor is missing.

I have cleaned off my worktable, dumped out all my tote bags in the area, looked in project bags and boxes, moved furniture around--in short, spent the morning and a chunk of the afternoon looking for one little piece of metal.

It's been awhile since I used it, and I can't remember the last time I did--so I have a terrible feeling that I may have misplaced it on one of my trips.

So, I'm going to order a replacement, which means that it will turn up n the most obvious place as soon as the new one arrives.

Meanwhile, I trimmed a tree.

This was the 2024 Thistle Threads ornament which was supposed to go on the tree last year. RST showed up instead, so I didn't get it finished by Christmas 2024. I'm leaving the date on it anyway, since it was designed for last year. That way, in case there's a 2025 ornament, I won't be confused by having two 2025 ornaments at some point in the future.

Apparently we're going to binge the new Reacher series this afternoon, so I need to find something idiot-proof to stitch. Maybe I'll knit a dishcloth instead of stitching today.

So small, so long to stitch

 I did a little work on the Cherished Letter Case this morning.

There are eight green leaves around the framework of the design, and O.M.G,  it took all morning to stitch them.

I admit, the electric needle has run out of juice, but I did not imagine it would take that long to wrangle filament silk and a laying tool.

I think this is the definition of REALLY slow stitching!

Maynia

In the middle of the night earlier this week, I started thinking about Maynia.

It had to be ten or fifteen years ago when I first heard of this particular form of needlework madness. At the time, people would pick out 31 new projects and start one each day in May. All I could think of was that I would go bugnutz crazy if I started that many projects and had that many WIPs  hanging over my head.

Then it evolved to working on a different project every day, new or old, or starting a new sampler every week in May and working on that particular sampler for that week, and then, in recent years, there have been other challenges--like doing 62 projects in a birthday year or fifty-two projects in a year, one a week, and so on.

And I thought to myself as I stared at the ceiling, I could easily work on the 18 projects I piled up after finishing RST plus the dozen Christmas ornaments I wanted to do this year and that would give me 30 projects for Maynia.

Then I rolled over and went back to sleep.

When I woke up, I realized that I would still go bugnutz crazy if I had that many WIPs going at one time, so I shelved that idea.

But Maynia was still circulating in my pointy little head. 

Last night I decided I would stitch every day in May instead of worrying about which projects or how many projects I would do. Since I try to stitch everyday anyway, this would not be a problem at all.

In fact, I decided I would go ahead and set up a project to work on today, and I pulled out one of the embroidered letter cases I took in an online class from Zina Kazban. I even pulled out the velvet board to corral sequins and metal bits, threaded the needle with the thread I was going to use, and was ready to go as soon as I tottered downstairs.

And when I tottered downstairs, I didn't feel the love.

I picked up No Place Like Home instead.

The willow tree is all leafed out and a bird has perched on a branch. That went fairly well, so I started the house that will grace the front cover.

You will notice there is no house on the front cover.

That is because I miscounted and started the house too high.

So I ripped it out and put everything in time-out for a bit.

I still plan to stitch every day in May. I hope I don't rip every day in May.