A little of this, a little of that

 I have been puttering among my needlework projects.

I've done a little of this, a little of that, but hardly enough to talk about.

I did finish my homework for my Elizabethan Rose class. Not only have I finished it, I finished it two weeks before the next class. That is not typical behavior so don't expect it to continue.

I did a tiny bit more on Carmen. It felt like I did a lot more but I have realized that getting anything done on Carmen is going to take time.

I rolled the scrolls on Ann Kemp and started working on the bottom half. Actually, I'm going to try to finish the borders and do the attribution along the bottom. This requires stitching letters again. I would rather get the letters out of the way and then work on the fun stuff.

And I figured out where the directions for filling in the little tree motifs were in the instructions for the Queen Sampler and got a start on doing that.

As usual, I am bouncing from one project to another like a BB in a boxcar. And if you know what a BB and a boxcar are, you may just be dating yourself. I realized I must be amongst the elderly when I saw a question on FB--the stitcher was getting ready to put a drum together and the directions said you could use BBs as weights. She had no idea what they were. 

Like I said in an earlier post, I've become an elder.

Aged and Decrepit

 I finally feel really, really old.

I rolled over in bed Monday night and threw my back out.

How ridiculous is that?

Anyway, I have been foggy and out of it for a good bit of the last few days--muscle relaxers will do that to you--but at least I should have been doing something like flipping a mattress or changing a tire to cause my suffering. But rolling over? Good grief!!

Obviously, there has been very little stitching going on in this part of the world.

I got part of the endless border on Carmen stitched:

There are wings on the bug and the Elizabethan version of rosebuds on the Elizabethan Rose:

And, finally, I pulled Catherine Theron's No Place Like Home project out of the basket and did a few stitches on the needlebook  that will go inside the sewing case:

Not much to show for a week. 

However, I did get my annual mammogram and all is well. And that is a good thing.

Sampler Weekend

 September might have been the month to work on samplers, but I'm oozing over into October with my stitching. And this weekend was the perfect time, since I have three different sampler guilds that meet online, all on one weekend.

Yesterday was the Mayflower group. It's a delightful group, and the program highlighted the stitching journey of one of the members. While it was going on, I was filling in buds and blooms on Ann Kemp.

You may have to look really closely to see all the blooms and buds--the shade of white is all but ghosting in the photo. It's a little more obvious in the actual piece.

However, it is October, so I suppose ghostly threads are appropriate.

Today, I just left the Kindred Spirits Guild, and will soon enter the Sampler Guild of the Rockies meeting. I started a new band on Darlene O'Steen's Queen Sampler, and this is how far I got during Kindred Spirits.

I'm a little ahead of the assignment for this month, but since I can't fill in the spiral trellis grapes until I take the sampler off the scroll rods, I figure that's OK.

And, yes, I do belong to a fair number of sampler guilds. When we moved, I had to leave my beloved Carolina Sampler Guild behind. There isn't a sampler guild in this area, so I may have overcompensated by joining as many as I could find online. However, each group offers something different--and it's all needlework so I'm getting my fix. Sometimes several times over in the course of a few days.

I'm not going to mention the EGA chapters I have also joined since we moved . . . let's just say that I can now get inspiration from three different EGA regions and leave it at that.

Dearly Beloved mutters about addictions. I have no idea what he's talking about.

Twigs and Vines

Today was gray and gloomy. My hands wanted to stitch, but my brain didn't want to have to think too hard, so I spent the day cross-stitching the rest of the vines and twigs and branches.

I say I didn't want to think too hard, but getting all the twigs and branches in the right place may have taken more brain power than I had. There was some reverse stitching. I know Jean Lea said never backward, always forward, but on occasion you have to go backward to go forward.

 Now I have to fill in all the little flowers and buds that bloom on all the vines and twigs.

This may take awhile.

Fa-la-la and Tra-la-la!

 I have a finish!!

Christmas Sparkles

2025 Christmas Ornament

Tricia Nguyễn, Thistle Threads

I spent the day finishing this.

There was angst.

There are little foil doodads that the beads are mounted on. You have to punch a hole with an awl--it also requires a mallet so you can get enough pressure on the awl to make a hole. (I was using my wooden meat tenderizer hammer because Dearly Beloved was out hunting and gathering. I didn't want to rummage in his tools without supervision because I don't want him rummaging in my tools with supervision.) The hole was tiny, so I was trying to just slightly enlarge it with my stiletto.

And I broke off the tip of my stiletto.  Which I use a lot, so I had to find a source for a replacement and order the replacement.

So, the hole was going to be tiny. It was so tiny that my size 28 tapestry needle would not fit through it.. I decided maybe a beading needle should work.

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll remember that beads and I are not compatible, so I have a limited number of beading-related items.

That means the only beading needles I could find are a size 13.

Have you ever seen the size of the eye on a size 13 beading needle? I have the needle. I have magnification. I still don't think I've actually seen the eye--it's that small. So I had to thread the needle by feel rather than sight.

OK, beads and trims added, and I needed to press the fabric I wanted to use for the back of the ornament.

My iron decided it didn't want to heat above "barely warm enough to notice."

I now have a new iron.

Finally, fabric pressed, back and front sewn together, really neat metallic trim attached around the ornament. . . 

And I have to stow away all the leftover stuff from stitching the design and assembling the ornament.

Maybe it's the clean-up after completing a project that keeps me from having more finishes.

I did stay in bed

I had a bad headache on Monday, so my poor pitiful self just went back to bed. Then I didn't sleep much Monday night, so I dragged most of the day Tuesday. However, today I am all but back to normal--whatever normal is for me--and there has been some stitching.

If you look closely, you'll see a little pink blob. Look quick, because it is going to come back out in short order.

I don't like the way it looks. It is tight and cramped and awkward. So I will remove it, probably first thing tomorrow morning since I don't trust myself with sharp, pointy scissors at the moment.

I am, however, very happy with all the shiny gold stuff.

I am also happy with Ann Kemp.

More sprigs and vines, but I'm getting close to having a page done in short order. I stitched most of the new stuff last night during the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild meeting. It's a delightful group of people and they offer some phenomenal programs. I'm always delighted when the first Tuesday of the month rolls around.

Actually, since Ann Kemp is currently so satisfying, I believe I will work on this for the rest of the day.
 

Maybe I should have stayed in bed

 This is all I have to show for today's stitching. There would have been more if I could have read the chart accurately!!!! 

I ripped more than I stitched.  I am just slightly aggravated with myself.

I had also planned to trace the project for a Stitch Along and get a layer of padding stitched down for the goldwork involved in the design. However, after my experience with stitching, I decided maybe I should do something else that did not involve needlework--so I read a murder mystery.

Tomorrow will be a better day.

Icky-Poo

 This has not been the most productive stitching day I've ever had.

I did not sleep well last night, so I woke up achey and cranky this morning. My arthritic joints were united in their unhappiness so I took a pill and went back to bed for a bit--which meant I got a very late start to the day. Don't even ask how late the start was--let's just say I could barely say "Good Morning" legally.

Anyway, I decided that perhaps I shouldn't work on anything complicated or challenging, so good ole Ann Kemp came out to play.

There is a bird on each side now, and I filled in more of the flowers.  I need to add more greenery and flowers on the right side so I can turn the scroll bars and move down a bit.

And then I went rummaging in the stash, looking for something else entirely, and I ran across this:

From the 1998 session of Christmas in Williamsburg, Merry Cox's Americana Sewing Case floated to the top of its bin.

Well, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the United States, and, as worried as I am about the state of the country, I do believe that there are enough people of good will to help it survive. Therefore, I plan to celebrate. So this is now going into my 2026 plans.

And, yes, I'm already planning what I'll stitch in 2026.

I should probably get what I plan to stitch the rest of 2025 out of the way first.

A tisket, a tasket

 I have a tree

and a basket.

The tree is this year's ornament from Tricia Nguyen. The pattern is a freebie on the Thistle Threads website, and you can also find the first two years' trees there as well.

This one started out looking like a bunch of spiders, but now that the other stitches have filled in, it looks lacy--mainly because the tree is all stitched in eyelets. I still have to work the pot the tree sits in, my initials, and the date. Then it's embellished with beads and a trim called gilt folien.

You have to punch a hole in each of the trims. I have a terrible feeling about punching holes in anything because I am a well-known klutz. If I'm successful, it will look really neat. If I'm not--well, I probably have some other kind of shiny bits I can use.

And then there is the second hanging basket on Ann Kemp. I need to stitch the bird heading towards the basket for this side, then work more on the random vines and branches and leaves and flowers.

I could, though, get the prework for the Monday night SAL done ahead of time. This will require pulling out the Lightbox and tracing the design and wrapping the hoop and sewing on the first bits of padding.

I think I'll do that tomorrow morning and just cross stitch some more on Ann Kemp tonight. That's about what I'm capable of at the moment--last night was a short night and today has been a very long day.

Dearly Beloved is watching Bonnie & Clyde on TCM for the 487th time. Maybe I'll go upstairs and get away from the gunfire and listening to Estelle Parsons screech. No wonder the real Blanche Barrow was irritated by her portrayal in the movie!

I finished my homework

 Well, I finished the mandatory part--although we aren't getting graded and can't fail, at least I'm keeping up.

We can move on to do the other side of the frame if we have time. I'm going to try to make time over the weekend.

But this afternoon I think I will sing a fa-la-la or two and work on a Christmas ornament. Somebody said Christmas is less than ninety days away, which means it will get here faster than we think it will.

But this year has passed much faster than I thought it would, so Christmas will be here day after tomorrow.

And now it's October

 I decided to make a list of goals for October. Then I decided I should make a list of reasonably attainable goals and a list of pie-in-the-sky goals.

The reasonably attainable goals:

• It appears that I am going to spend some of October reading serious books instead of murder mysteries. EGA offers a number of lectures through the national organization, various regions, and individual chapters. Two of the lecturers I listened to in the last several weeks have also written books. I had to buy the books because both lecturers were so very fascinating. So now I'm going to read and learn more. 
• I want to stay current with the class I'm taking from Zina Kazban, the Elizabethan Rose.
• I'd like to get two pages of Carmen's charts completely stitched.
• I want to finish-finish at least one of the projects in one of the finishing baskets
• I want to finish the border on the Cherished Lettercase--Good Grief, that is ALL I have to do!
• I want to stay current with the two SALs I have going, The Queen Sampler (actually, I'm already a little ahead) and the goldwork piece that the Dayton EGA chapter is doing in the goldwork  Special Interest Group (SIG)
• And I want to stitch and finish-finish Tricia Nguyen's 2025 ornament

And now for the pie-in-the-sky goals, in addition to the ones above:

• I'd like to get a total of four pages of Carmen done
• I would REALLY like to get another two projects in the finishing basket assembled.
• I want to get a page of Ann Kemp stitched
• I'd like to get another couple of ornaments stitched.
• I'd like to finish the Hummingbird in silk and gold.
• And I'd really, really, REALLY like to start and catch up with Tricia's Nuremberg pincushions

I told you it was a pie-in-the-sky list of things to do.

And, actually, what it means is that "SQUIRREL!!!" and I'll dive down another rabbit hole.