September is over????

I had grand plans at the beginning of September, a whole list of things I wanted to work on and a couple of projects I hoped to finish.

As usual, my plans were more expansive than apparently my abilities are. Actually, if I could stop puttering and start stitching, I might be able to be more productive. Please do not ask me what I'm doing while I'm puttering--there are days when I'm busy with something all day but cannot tell you what those things are. It appears that I move things from one pile to another and call it reorganizing.

I was talking to someone over the weekend and she said her mother used to stitch from 4 a.m. - 10 a.m. Then she would do whatever she needed to do that day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and then stitch again from 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. 8 p.m. was her bedtime.

I do not get up at 4 a.m. voluntarily for anything other than going on a trip, but maybe making stitching a priority would help.  I may experiment with a schedule--that horrid word I swore I would not follow once I retired--in October.

Meanwhile, this is what I've been able to get done:

Part of my homework on Elizabethan Rose:

 

I need to add some more layers to the stem and do more gold on the other side of the frame.

I replaced what I messed up on Ann Kemp and added some more:

I had the thought that if I got a good bit of the basket stitched, it might give me a good reference point for all the twines and vines.

And I started the 2025 Christmas ornament from Tricia Nguyen of Thistle Threads:

At the moment, it looks like ranks of spiders marching in a Christmas tree formation. I hope that will change when I get the other stitches filled in, but it's a little creepy right now--more Halloween than Christmas.

I'm not a big Halloween stitcher anyway--I deck the halls for Christmas to a fare-thee-well, but other than avoiding those big bags of candy, I sorta forget about Halloween. It may be because orange is one of my least favorite colors, so why stitch with it? Christmas, however, is all sparkly and bright, and I do like my sparkles.

Wouldn't it be boring if we all did the same stuff?