Victory!

I may have finally overcome my dread of Montenegrin Stitch.

 Montenegrin--especially diagonal Montenegrin stitch--has always been one of those stitches that I have to work in a quiet room, all alone. And then, afterwards, I have to lie down in a darkened room with a cold compress on my head to recover.

I think I was scarred in a long-ago class when the teacher tried to talk us through the transitions from linear Montenegrin to diagonal Montenegrin. She did not provide diagrams. Give me a picture and I can do just about anything. Talk at me and I go blank. Needless to say, I did not work on that section of the project in class, and the teacher was not pleased that I was doing my own thing in the corner of the room. She also didn't like the direction in which I cross my cross stitches or the way I do Queen stitches. In short, I was not a model student.

Finally, though, I was able to do Montenegrin stitches but it took sitting with Darlene O'Steen's "Proper Stitch" and Amy Mitten's "Autopsy of the Montenegrin Stitch" to get me through them.

But today, something clicked, and I just zipped along. My vine is outlined.

Of course, I still need to fill in the center of the vine with two rows of what Darlene calls double backstitch and diagonal double backstitch. 

I think I'll move on to something else for a bit.

Back in the Saddle Again

 I have been in a major stitching slump lately, in case you haven't noticed. I was trying to keep my wrist in the brace and elevated and rested because it has flared up again, then I started wondering what I would do with myself if I had to stop stitching entirely--and if that won't throw a stitching fool into a major funk, what will?

Then I realized that the few times I did stitch, my wrist actually felt better--less stiff, less sore unless I moved a certain way or tried to pick something up with my left hand.

But I was still in a slump.

It occurred to me that I was feeling a little overwhelmed by the projects in my current batch--notice I did not say rotation. Then again, I would likely be overwhelmed by any of my projects. I tend to be drawn to things that are large--or complicated to stitch--or big--or both. I mean, even my smalls aren't small in terms of complicated finishing or stitching or both.

I needed something smaller and simpler in my life.

As it happens, several weeks ago I ran across one of the samplers that Country Sampler was offering as part of its Threads of History sampler club.  Background: I don't usually fall in love with what seems to be considered the "traditional" schoolgirl sampler with rows and rows of alphabets and a big house. I like the quirky and different, and "A Fancy Basket: Ann Kemp 1815" is quirky. Rather than a house, it has a big honkin' basket smack dab in the middle. Little Ann did her best to get all her verse inside the border, but when it didn't fit, she just stitched her words right over the top of the edging. She did manage some symmetry but it's not the focal point.

Anyway, I ordered it. (I also signed up for the rest of the year in the Threads of History club but we're not going to discuss that at the moment.)

Sampler arrived. And it's relatively small. The colors aren't in the palette I generally gravitate to. It isn't complicated.

And I love it.

And I started working on it yesterday:

And now I'm ready to tackle some of the other things in the pile by my chair.

And don't hold me to this, but I may try an actual rotation again.

Hearts & Flowers

 I decided that maybe my mojo would come back if I mixed up the projects I work on for a bit.

So the Cherished Needlecase was set up on the stand, and I have been stitching palettes or spangles or whatever you want to call those little shiny disks to the silk:

Oh, how I wish the camera would pick up the glitter!

I have more metal to add to this section. I need to cut some little pieces of green smooth purl, which means I need to pull out my metal scissors and a metric ruler so I get them cut correctly.

And I discovered the story that the black dog pinged. It was a story written by Stephen Crane in the 1800's. I kept thinking it was something older than current fiction--thought it might be a mystery from the 1920's or '30's--maybe even something by Edgar Allan Poe from the 1800's--pulled an anthology of mysteries and ghost stories from the 1800's off the shelf (we have a very eclectic library in this household)--and there it was. The black dog was a harbinger of death in the Crane story, as apparently it was in many folk tales from a number of countries.

This still doesn't explain the spots on Carmen's dog.

Big Black Dog

 My stitching mojo wandered off this week, but I did get the big black dog on Carmen stitched.

There has been some discussion about the markings on the dog. I thought they might be the way the stitcher highlighted some areas, or gave the dogger some spots. Someone else who lives in this household has started calling the dog "that mangey mutt." I have no other comment to make about that.

I do want to mention whatever it is that is extending from the dog's mouth. His tongue or is he blowing a raspberry? Or is this a devil dog spitting flames into the universe? Inquiring minds want to know.

And while I'm asking questions, does anyone remember a mystery/suspense book that involves a black dog? It's not the Hound of the Baskervilles--I looked that up and it describes the dog as being "luminous" but not black. Maybe an Agatha Christie? BDE says there's a legend in Irish lore that describes a black dog as showing up either as a portent of death or a minion of Satan, but that's not it. At least, I don't think it is.

Something else to wonder about in the middle of the night, along with wondering why in the world I have lost all desire to stitch for awhile. I have plenty of projects, have even added more to the stash, but at the moment, I don't feel like doing any of them.

Let's hope it's just the Dog Days of Summer.

Maybe that's why I only worked on a black dog for the past week.

Shiny, oh so shiny!

 I decided to work on Carmen again--she hasn't seen any love in several weeks. And, oh, how I wish the sheen of the filament silk came through online!

I've started working on the big center section of the sampler. I think I'll work across the top part, then start the lettering that fits in the middle of the center section. I'll work the borders as I go

I used to be one of those stitchers who did all the border before I got to the insides, then I realized I had a lot of samplers that had about half a border done and nothing else. Obviously that order of work didn't result in a lovely finished project--so now I do borders as I go.

But now I believe I will rest my eyes--46 count linen is very different from the 36 count linen I'm using for the Queen Sampler and I'm having to adjust.