A little of this, a little of that

 Currently, I'm bouncing around like a BB in a boxcar.

Elizabethan Rose has been sitting in time-out because I am chicken. I needed to do the cutwork, which means you cut pieces of gold into short lengths and sew them down like bugle beads. Trying to get them the correct length is not the easiest thing in the world, especially for me. Due to Fear of Screwing Up, I set it aside until I finally decided perfection is the enemy of good enough and started working on it today.

One side is done but my hands started cramping and I thought maybe I should quit before I really screwed up.

I did make some progress on All That Glitters yesterday:

I though I'd go from one motif to the other but now I'm wondering if it wouldn't make just as much sense to fill one motif in completely and then do the other. A decision on that will wait for a few days

because I found this buried deep in the stash:

I took this class at Christmas in Williamsburg in 1998. We are talking about almost 30 years ago.  It's more than time to pull it out and work on it for that reason alone--but since we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this year, I think it's time to finish it.

Actually, I am finding that I can work on something for about three days and then I'm ready for something else. In the past, I've pulled out a half dozen or so things I want to stitch and moved among them until I have some finishes. That has worked really well, and why I haven't consistently done that, I have no idea. It's probably because something shiny pops up and I can't stand to wait. 

At my advanced age, I should be able to exercise some self-restraint.

I should be.

I'm probably not, but I may try it again.

Seeing Red

I had a Zoom stitch-in yesterday and an EGA chapter meeting online this morning and I wanted to watch the tape for May's Mayflower Sampler Guild meeting--so I had time to stitch on All That Glitters, which is now my stitch-in/lecture/meeting project.

I really wanted to get to the red motif on the design--and I did, just barely.

 I could go to something else at this point--no more Zooming for me today--but I'd kinda like to see what the next shades of red will look like in person. So, I am forging on with this for the moment.

Subject to change and wherever whimsy takes me.

I am the boss of me

 I know that I said the Spot Sampler was going to be my Sampler Sunday project and would be worked on only on Sunday.

So far I've broken that declaration twice. Today was the second time.

I planned to work on something else today, but I started thinking about how long each one of these motifs takes to stitch. I finally figured out that at the present rate, it could take me as long as four years to complete the sampler. I really don't want to spend every Sunday for four years on the same sampler, so I decided that I can spend another day or two a week on it if the mood prevails.

After all, when it comes to my stitching, I am actually the boss of me and can do what I want!

Plus, I'm retired and I don't have to meet arbitrary deadlines or performance metrics. After working for so long, I have a problem remembering that sometimes.

SO much green!

 And I'm filling in leaves on this Sampler Sunday:

I just realized when I looked at the photo--it looks like this flower has little cacti erupting all over it.

Hopefully, by the time I get the petals of the flower filled in, the cacti will look like leaves and not cacti. I'm not sure that an embroiderer in the 1600's would have had access to a cactus to know what one would look like.

I could start working on the petals, but I know that I need to take care of my greens before I get to the sweet stuff.  

See what I did there?

Obviously, I need to take a break.

And . . . a Start

 I've been making lists of older projects that I want to work on.

It's a very long list and definitely needs to be winnowed down. After all, I'd like to have some finishes instead of just moving forty-leven projects along.

And I was looking at the list last night and realized I didn't have anything that would be conducive to working on during guild meetings/lectures/stitch-ins.  And I have a lot of guild meetings and lectures and potential stitch-ins coming up.

So, short of digging out a needlepoint piece that just needs the background worked (and I'm sure there are a few of those in the stash), I pulled out one of the projects from a class I took from Jackie du Plessis a year or so ago. It's a stitcher's pocket, aka "All That Glitters."

And I have a good start. The design has a series of interlocking motifs that are easy to count and fill in, and it uses an elongated cross stitch so it has a beautiful texture, and it's complicated enough to keep me interested but easy to do while otherwise engaged.

Tomorrow is Sampler Sunday--that's going to stay the same--and then on Monday I'll start working on one of the multitude of projects on my list.

We'll see which one wins out.

New Stuff

 It's been a good mail week.

Tania Cohen's Knot Garden Bouquet is the focus piece for the Special Interest Group sponsored by the Dayton Chapter of EGA for the rest of the year. The kit has arrived! Unfortunately, Dearly Beloved and I had to be out of town for a few days, and I didn't get to participate in the first meeting covering the project.

And then, when we arrived home today, this was waiting for me:

Ann Beck is a new designer to me, but her bio is fascinating. She designed and embroidered the costumes worn by some of the greats in figure skating and also had a costuming business for a number of years. She has turned her attention to teaching embroidery now, and I just found out about her recently. And of course I fell in love with this design and ordered the kit.

Open the box and it's like Christmas:

You almost don't want to untie the ribbon . . . but you do . . . 

Silks and metals and trims, oh, my! And a quick scan of the instructions look like they are more than complete, with extra notes talking about various facets of the design.

And am I going to leap right in?

I want to.

I really want to.

However, while I was out of town, especially during the long drives to and fro, I have been thinking about all the WIPs and UFOs and amazing projects in my stash, particularly two big and long-term projects. I also found a list of projects I wanted to do as soon as I retired.

I retired five years ago.

Have I touched any of those projects on that list?

Nope.

So I'm going to focus on some stash pieces that have been started and add the new stuff once I get some of the old stuff completed. Some of the old stuff really only needs a few days to become finished stuff. and finished stuff is the best stuff!

This does not mean that there will be no further stash enhancement. I mean, do you know me? It just means that maybe the things you'll see me work on are mostly older projects. for awhile, with a new thing or two thrown in because I just can't stand it.

Another finish!

 The skirt just about did me in--there are a LOT more stitches than I expected--story of my life--but Clare is done!

She is supposed to be a shaped pillow like the Animal Crackers are, but I wasn't crazy about the shape in the template.  Then I thought about doing a stand-up, but I didn't feel like doing the math. I felt like just getting her done--so she's a little pillow.

Actually, she isn't quite done. I have asked BDE to make a crocheted lace edging to trim the pillow and she is agreeable. Best Daughter Ever for sure!

Now, my question is this: Why is embroidery so enjoyable and sewing such a pain in the patoot?

A Finish and an Almost Finish

I hitched up the granny panties and finish-finished the ornament I stitched earlier this week!

The photo on the chart showed an octagonal shape. I toyed with that for a little bit and decided that life was too short to deal with all those angles, so I did my typical round finish with twisted cording. Looking at the photo, I believe we need to have another good pressing before putting it in the ornament box for this year.

And then, I felt it appropriate to work on something patriotic on Memorial Day while we were watching Band of Brothers, so Clare 1876 climbed out of her project bag. This is where I was when I stopped last night:

If you decide to stitch her, I have a hint for dealing with the skirt. Do all the white stitches first--that gives you the framework for counting out all the shading. 

I have to admit that I had to dig out the colored pencils to mark off the rows in the white sections. I haven't had to do that in a long time, but it simplified my life and actually saved time in the long run. I'm always pleased when something simplifies my life and saves time, so win-win!

I am going to plop myself down and see if I can get the rest of her stitched today.  Lofty goal, but Dearly Beloved has gone to tour the grocery store and I will have a couple of hours to myself before he gets home.

I do love him, but there is a LOT of togetherness in retirement!

So close . . .

 Today I stitched the Scottish Sampler Ornament, designed by Serpentine Stitchery from many, many years ago.

You find all kinds of things when you go stash-diving. This was one of the exclusive designs offered by one of the first online shops, Accomplishments in Ohio--gotta be over twenty years ago.

I was in the mood to work on an ornament and this was on the top of the stack.

You wouldn't think this little ornament could cause angst. First of all, it's on 25 count linen with Soie Perlee. And this meant I had to find a 24 tapestry needle because Soie Perlee won't go through the eye of a 26 or 28. Well, it will, but it doesn't want to. It's been a minute since I used a 24 needle, so it was a little like picking up a telephone pole.

And it's been a looooong time since I used 25 count linen, so it was like sticking that telephone pole through a highway.

Which meant the center motif went really fast.

Maybe I should do something besides 36 or 40 count linen with one strand of Soie de Paris or AVAS on occasion.

Now, that braided pattern around the outside was not quite so easy. I've done variations of this motif on other projects and it always makes my brain hurt when I try to do it in double running. I started double running and ended up ripping more than completing. After three false starts, I made the executive decision to do plain old backstitch. After all, this piece is for enjoyment. If you have to rip and rip and rip again, it loses that enjoyment factor.

And I have decided perfectionism is vastly overrated. Especially when the back of the work will never be seen. 

Sampler Week?

That floral motif I was working on last Sunday ended up taking a good bit of my stitching time this week.

I didn't think it would take more than a day or two, but I forgot about that 1,225 stitches per square inch thing that happens when you're working over one on 35 count linen. Apparently it takes me awhile to do 1, 225 stitches per square inch, and I believe there was more than one square inch in the part I was doing.

But that motif is finished and I started the outlining on the next flower.

There would be more outlining but I got off by one thread and really needed to fix it because if would take way too much fudging to leave it alone. I know Jean Lea always said always forward, never backwards--but this is one time I will have to agree to disagree, even with Jean.

Actually, I just told a story. The blue motif isn't quite finished. The center of the flower is supposed to have a multitude of tiny bullion stitches. However, I'm working on a scroll frame and I don't want the bullions to either be smushed or to stretch out later sections of the linen as the scroll frame is turned. I have tried using a pad of batting to cushion highly textured stitches but that hasn't always been successful.

Consequently, I have a little notebook in which I am recording which motifs will need extra work after their bases are done. There are a number of motifs that have raised petals, and I definitely do not want them smushed. I'll be happy if I can do a decent job on the needlelace so I really don't want create my own problems.

Other than that, I have been organizing and reorganizing the stash. I have a pile of projects I want to touch and another pile that I want to finish--they've been hanging around way too long.

And then there's always the new stuff that tempts and teases. . . Tricia Nguyen has been showing the beginning of a new casket design . . . and Betsy Morgan has a new book coming out that is a stitched casket with loads of goodies that will live inside it . . . and there are new online classes coming up which make me want to finish some of the old online classes that I've taken but haven't quite completed.

And I'm not even going to talk about the books I want to read and the recipes I want to try. 

How did I ever find time to work? Retirement is busy!

Monday rolls around again

 I know when you're retired that every day is Saturday, but this weekend seemed to zoom past me faster than the speed of light. And that's probably because I had one stitch-in, two EGA Special Interest Group meetings, and a lecture from Relics in Situ to attend, all from the comfort of my armchair.

It also meant that I was able to get a lot of stitching done.

During the SIG for surface embroidery, I stitched leaves and managed to get all the ones in the medium shade of green finished. In case you missed it, this is the vintage Elsa Williams kit of Paul Revere's ride. I've decided that it will be my travel piece since I don't need extra light or magnification, perfect for hotel room stitching.

And then there's my Sampler Sunday project:

It took a minute to fill in those humongous green leaves. I will not lie, it was boring, SO boring. I was glad to have the online conversations while I stitched. However, I am sorely tempted to go ahead and finish the flower today, and then I'll be ready to go to the next motif next Sunday.

And why not? I am the boss of me.

And I'm retired, so every day can be Sampler Sunday if I want it to be.

Finished, Done, All Over!

 Liberty for All is finally finished!!!

I kept thinking that just one more day of stitching and I'd have it done. 

I was wrong.

For a little bitty sampler with only a few colors, there are a lot of stitches.

But now it is done, done, DONE!

Now I have to figure out which of my WIPs will be the next to do--but right now, I am enjoying having a finish.

Architecture and a Rabbit Hole

 The house in the middle of the Liberty sampler has been built. It just needs to have the front door hung and the landscaping finished, and I'll be ready to stitch the bottom third.

I was stitching merrily along, thinking I just have a bit more of this to stitch and then Clara's skirt and I would have my planned Fourth of July projects done . . . until, that is, I remembered something buried deep in the stash. And then I fell down the rabbit hole.

A vintage Elsa Williams kit--I wonder if it was originally designed for the Becentennial fifty years ago. I can't remember if I found this at an estate sale or a stash destash or what, but if there was ever an appropriate time to stitch it, I guess this is it.

Plus, assembling the stool part and painting it will give Dearly Beloved something to do. Lately he's really needed something to do.

And if you've been married a certain amount of time and are retired, you'll know exactly what I mean by that.

Can't Put It Down

 If you've followed me for any length of time, you may have noticed I don't tend to be a monogamous stitcher.

But I can't seem to put Liberty for All down so I can work on what I'd originally planned to stitch this week.

I have passed the halfway mark as of tonight, and something tells me that one of two things will happen:

• I will continue to work on this and this alone until it's done, or . . .
• Tomorrow morning I will hop out of bed and decide I can't stand to do another stitch on it.

I guess we'll both find out what the answer is tomorrow morning.

A Tisket, A Tasket, a Patriotic Basket

The first motif for the center part of Liberty for All is now complete!

I have to admit, it was the berry border that drew me to the design, but I do love this basket.

 Just a little more and I'll be to the center of the project. This may actually be a finish before the Fourth.

(And just to let my nerd flag fly, I did watch part of Star Wars today so I can say "May the Fourth be with you" and move on. )

Robin was kind enough to fill me in on what people are currently doing for Maynia now. (See the comments on yesterday's post.) If I get five projects finished, I could finally say that I have participated. However, as I have once again decided that I am not going to work to a deadline on anything and stitch on whatever strikes my fancy, I am not going to declare any goals.

Although, after the way the first third of the year has gone, I'll be happy if I manage to thread a needle on a daily basis.

Stems and Veins

 I got a very late start on Sampler Sunday today, and this is all I have to show thus far.

I had hoped that I would get all the outlined areas filled in today but, unless I stay up all night--and that would run into Sampler Monday, which isn't a thing (yet)--I don't think that will happen.

However, I did spend a delightful hour with a lecture sponsored by the Great Lakes Region of EGA. The people behind Relics in Situ talked about raised or dimensional embroidery of the 16th and 17th centuries. OMG, the close-up pictures they showed were phenomenal! The things the embroiderers of that time could accomplish--simply amazing! And, yes, I know there are people who do the same sort of work now, but what really amazes me is the tiny scale of some of the artifacts. It all makes me want to get back to that sort of work, if only to see if I can get my arthritic fingers to produce something resembling it.

Stay tuned for that.

That may have been written with tongue in cheek.

And on to another topic that rose to the top of my brain in the middle of the night:

What has happened to Maynia?

Do you remember when people started a new project on every day in May? Is anybody still doing that?

Or is that the reason there are now so many WIPGO programs to help people finish their started projects?

Inquiring minds want to know. I'd love to hear what you have to say.

The Merry Month of May

Whew! April is over! It was a very tiring month for me, but I am feeling more like myself and think my stitching mojo is coming back.

(However, in the Aging-is-NOT-for-Sissies category, I rolled over last night and threw out my back. These times do try us. Icy Hot patches actually do help, although the aroma can also clear out ones sinuses.)

Anyway, I have done a little on Stacy Nash's Liberty for All sampler.

 Not quite to the halfway point, but close.

I also started assembling Jackie du Plessis' Carmen Etui yesterday, but at the moment there isn't enough put together to make sense.

And tomorrow is Sampler Sunday, and I'd like to get the leaves on the second motif filled in with tent.

I should probably mention that this is more stitching in three days than I have done in the last three weeks.  Let's hope I can keep the momentum going!

Poorly and Puny

 When my elderly relatives felt a little under the weather, they would say they were "feeling poorly" or "a little puny."

I was under the weather last week, thus there was virtually no stitching. There was a lot of gazing off into the distance and napping. I felt poorly and I was a little puny.

It just occurred to me that I am now the elderly relative. 

Anyway, I feel much better now, and yesterday I did the backstitch for the second motif on The Essamplaire's Spot Sampler.

Today I am going to reorganize the work table so I can start doing some final finishing on a project or two.  And if finishing doesn't do me in, I'm definitely on the mend.

One Down, Forty-One to Go

 Sampler Sunday resulted in one finished motif today.

Other than the straight stitches for the veins in the leaves, this is all worked in tent stitch or backstitch. And I made a major mistake--I decided to see how many stitches it takes to do a square inch.

1, 225.

That's a lot.

And there are forty-one more motifs on this sampler.

I'm glad I decided that this would take a couple of years to stitch if I work on it only on Sundays. It may take three years, but I'm trying to be optimistic.

I also worked on one of my Fourth projects, Clara 1876, during the past week:

I had several Zoom meetings this past week, and Clara was perfect stitching--lots of fill-in. I just wish she didn't look quite so confused.

Fingers are crossed that I can make some headway on Peony this week. I didn't have the bandwidth this week to focus on goldwork after the long, long trip home. I read somewhere that travel is tiring because you're constantly making micro-movements as you ride, whether in plane, train, or automobile. I must have been making some macro-movements as well as all the micro-movements. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

There and Back Again

BDE and I went to Salty Yarns last week for classes with Jackie du Plessis.

And this is what I took:

 I've loved all of these Case Studies, and this one may be the most dramatic of them all. And it opens up and there are some really unique pockets inside. This is on the top of my list to start.

Unless this one comes to the top of the list:

This one is so cool! It has a drawer that pulls out for storing treasures. Maybe it's on the top of the list.

And here's the third class I took:

Bedazzled fruit (actually glittered cotton forms) in their own embroidered basket--actually, this is not on the top of my list at the moment. I painted the cotton forms in class but didn't want to glitter until I got home. And I think, rather than a basket of fruit, I may turn these into Christmas tree ornaments. Any glittering, however, is going to happen when I have on old clothes and can set myself up a workstation on the deck. That way I can sweep the excess glitter through the boards of the deck and not have it all over the house.

Glitter can take over the world.

We drove back yesterday--it was a beautiful day for a long drive--but we got in too late for me to work on my Sunday Sampler. Today I'm unpacking and unloading and reorganizing and deciding on a stitching schedule of sorts because I have so many pretties that I want to do right now!!!

And on to another topic which has been irritating me: Once again, I can't respond to comments on my own blog. Please know that I read and appreciate every single one of you who takes the time to read and react to my babbling.

Spring Green

 It's getting green outside my door, and it's pretty green in my stitching corner at the moment.

Yesterday I filled in the leaves and stems on the Spot Sampler:

Most of the motifs on this sampler are worked in tent stitch over one--and that's why it's probably gonna take me a couple of years to stitch. That doesn't include the detached elements for some of the motifs. 

Can we say labor-intensive?

Today I finished the outline for the twining vine on the Queen Sampler:

The inner sections of the vine will be filled in, but I think I'm going to work the big flowers on either side of the center first.

They're worked in Queen stitch. I do not believe I have worked a Queen stitch since I finished RST last year.

Hopefully I have recovered from that trauma by now!

Happy Easter on Sampler Sunday

 Happy Easter! Everything here is blooming and pollinating--and another cold front is moving in. 

But on to happier topics.

My Sampler Sunday project is going to be the Spot Sampler, reproduced by Margriet Hogue of The Essamplaire.

It's got to be almost 20 years ago (YIKES!) that I took this class from Margriet when Jeannine held her sampler workshops in Williamsburg. At the time, I was doing a lot of proof stitching and model stitching with deadlines and so I put it aside--and then I got distracted by something else--and it sank into the stash.

But just because it was out of sight didn't mean it was out of mind. I kept thinking about it, time and time again over the years, but something else always seemed to take precedence.

I've been taking stock lately. I realized that I have been spending way too much time doomscrolling on my phone. I've also realized that I have way more to stitch than could be attained in five lifetimes. I have four online classes that began at the beginning of this year that I have yet to start, plus half a dozen from last year and the year before that I should finish. And I am not getting any younger. If anything, time seems to be speeding up.

So, I have made a bucket list of stitching projects that should take priority. I've also decided to set my phone on the other side of the room from me so I'm not tempted to pick it up. I'm keeping several stitching projects close at hand so I'll be tempted to thread a needle instead.

I should probably not mention that I'm heading to Salty Yarns on Wednesday to take three more classes from Jackie du Plessis. I can only stand so much discipline, and then I crack, so I'm giving myself permission to take advantage of things that will be available only for a limited time.

But, back to this sampler. I figure it's going to take me a couple of years of Sundays to complete it, so I'd best get started.

Another Finish and Circling Back

I'm a little behind on my Ornament-of-the-Month idea, but I finally assembled my choice for February. Betsy Morgan design Christmas Treats for Inspirations magazine. I stitched the design last year, and finally put them together today.

Since I finished Elizabeth Hall 1771, I needed another evening project. So Darlene O'Steen's Queen Sampler came out of her pillowcase.

I've started the double running for the Queen's band. 

Peony is not completely out of the picture, I will probably go back to that project Monday. Meanwhile, I believe I may work on a different sampler on Sundays. I just have to decide which one. I was sort of saving Carmen for summer stitching, and I'm tempted by another project entirely for Sundays.

We'll see what happens when I sit down to stitch tomorrow.

And a Finish!

 Nope, not the Peony, which is in time-out after being totally uncooperative. Instead, Elizabeth Hall 1771 is done!!

She's a tiny little sampler, only about 6" x 7".  I think I may have a frame that would fit somewhere in the stash. I've pressed her once, but it looks like she needs another go with the iron.

Meanwhile, I think I'm going to work on getting a few more things out of the finishing basket and I may dig into the WIP basket while Peony is considering her misbehavior. 

But first, I need to make a grocery list so Dearly Beloved can do his hunting and gathering thing. As I have mentioned before, he loves to tour the grocery store. And it gets him out of the house!

Gilding the Peony, Part One

I've started putting the gold threads on the Peony. This is colored couching:

 Colored couching is exactly what it says--you hold down pairs of metal threads with colored thread.

And I have discovered I can only do a limited number of hours focusing on shiny metal thread before my eyes cross. So, I'm planning to work on this slowly and deliberately and do a little every day.

Which means I have more time to work on Elizabeth, who isn't shiny at all. I've started working on the lettering:

This is the adaptation part of the sampler--cross stitch instead of eyelets and tent stitch instead of over-one crosses--and I don't think Elizabeth Hall would object at all.

It may be a long week

I think I'm going to need a root canal, but can't see my dentist for another week. I'm  a wee bit uncomfortable and my sleep is disturbed. However, I am armed with Ambesol and Aleeve and hoping better living through chemistry will get me through.

This also means that my stitching has been affected, especially the goldwork that requires focus and concentration. I'm trying mind over matter. It would be wonderful if my mind would cooperate with this.

There has been some small progress on both projects, despite the aggravation.

Gilt leather has been applied. No blood was shed, but the air turned a little blue.

The big center motif and all the little bits and pieces are complete on Elizabeth Hall. The verse is the next step--and there is yet another adaptation.

The capital letters in the verse and the attribution are supposed to be worked in eyelet stitches. Over one thread in each direction. 

Have you ever tried to cram 8 stitches into the middle of a fairly tightly woven 40 count linen? I crammed four in and the linen was already bulging--so those were carefully and very slowly frogged. I thought about doing Smyrna crosses, then decided that a plain old cross over two would do just as well. So, second adaptation. I won't tell--well, actually I already have--but as it can't be seen from the back of a galloping horse, I don't care.

I am going wild and crazy in my old age.

All Tied Up

 I really, really, really don't like doing soft string padding.

I still have one section to do. I am procrastinating. If it weren't for the fact that I get to start working with the shiny stuff once I get the stem padded, I might continue to procrastinate.

As it is, I thought I wouldn't be able to do it until I got some more beeswax, which is used to help the soft strings to stay together. Luckily, BDE had a massive block and was willing to bring it to me after work Friday. As she is not interested in doing goldwork (apparently one crazy person in a family is enough--not my words), she didn't think she'd ever use it, so it's now mine.

Elizabeth Hall, however, has seen some progress:

I think I can get another chunk of this done tonight.

After I spend the afternoon stitching sticky string down.

A day off

Best laid plans . . . 

Yesterday I was going to finish the felt padding on Peony. That didn't happen.

I stayed up way too late because I fell into a book and couldn't make myself climb out. Not a problem, I'm retired, I set my own hours, but I was planning to get up after sleeping a decent 8 hours. Meanwhile, Dearly Beloved had a very early doctor appointment, so he was setting his alarm clock and planning to get up about three hours before me.

Dearly Beloved is deaf as a post without his hearing aids. He has to recharge them every night, so he can't hear much, if anything, from the time he goes to bed until he gets up. This includes most alarm clocks.

So, we found an alarm clock with an incredibly loud alarm. Incredibly loud. I mean LOUD.  Luckily, Dearly Beloved is also one of those people who can usually wake himself up right before the clock goes off. 

Usually.

Unfortunately, he didn't do that yesterday. The alarm went off. I think I completely levitated off the bed and landed with an adrenaline rush that can only be equated with being chased by a dinosaur. However, he got up, turned off the clock, and tottered off to take a shower.

However, he didn't actually turn off the alarm. He punched the snooze alarm instead of the off button.

I had just managed to get myself situated again and was dozing off when the damn clock went off again.

I levitated again. I was trying to crawl across the bed to turn the clock off when it vibrated itself off the dresser and onto the floor, where it continue to motivate itself halfway under the big chest of drawers. Meanwhile, I was lurching out of bed, trying to capture it before it went completely under the chest. 

I succeeded, and turned off the alarm.

Dearly Beloved, of course, was in the shower and heard nothing of all this. He was surprised to find me wide awake and vibrating.

I was determined to get enough sleep to function, so I eventually went back to sleep but never slept well. I woke up with a headache, and decided that fiddly little stitches were beyond my capabilities. So I finished the book I had been reading.

That meant that today I finished the felt padding on Peony:

 And I managed to finish the alphabets on Elizabeth Hall:

Tonight I get to start a flower or a leaf or something, but NOT a letter or number.

I have made an executive decision, too. There's a lot of cross stitch over one thread in the verse on this sampler, as well as the attribution and date, but I am working on 40 count linen. If I try to do cross over one, I'm going to distort the linen--so I'm doing tent stitch instead. It's an adaptation. I seem to do that a lot.

Now if I could just adapt to Dearly Beloved's alarm clock . . .

Padding and More Padding

I've been sewing down padding for Peony today.

Some of it is really ugly stuff.

Believe it or not, that ugly stuff that looks like it's in bondage is wool carpet padding. On a goldwork project instead of the floor, you ask?

To get a really raised surface, you need really thick padding. I suppose you could get it with layers upon layers of felt, but that would likely take ages to stitch down, one little layer after another, so some bright stitcher figured out that carpet padding would work quite well.

It won't stay like this. Tomorrow, if all goes well, I'll cover that with more of the yellow felt and it won't be quite so hideous. And, if all continues to go well, I'll spend the next day after that stitching down gold string for yet another method of padding goldwork.

And then, finally, I can start doing some of the really pretty stuff.

Meanwhile, there has been progress on Elizabeth Hill as well.

And this leads to another mystery. Whose initials are set off with a dark background? I'm thinking they might be the parents' initials since the second of each is also an "H". I suppose we'll never know for sure.

In between the sets of initials will be a set of numbers from 1 to 11.  I guess she had to stop the numbers because she ran out of room.

Just another little mystery.

 

A Tale of Two Projects

 Last week during the Dayton EGA meeting, a discussion arose about why we put a project aside.

I can tell you the answer to that as far as I'm concerned: I get bored, I get frustrated, or I find something shinier that I really want to work on. I also have the attention span of a fruit fly. And I'm having some problems with my wrist and its inflamed tendon, so I have to be careful.

So, I decided to try an experiment. I decided to try to focus on two projects and see what happens

 I have an intense goldwork project that I want to do, and hopefully would like to have it done by April 4 when the videos are removed from EGA's site.

Meet Lizzie Pye's Peony in progress:

I'm working on the padding at the moment. This is one of those fiddly prep things in goldwork--the foundation garments for the glitter--and I have to work slowly and carefully. Very slowly and carefully. And I have to focus.

Remember the attention of a fruit fly thing I have going?

So I needed another project that will give my fingers something to do but let my mind wander. I finished the bargello panel for the Flame Pouch--at last!!!--and I found I'm going to have to do some planning to get the rest of the bits for the set stitched on the linen I have left. (There's that frustration thing operating, so it's in time-out for a bit.)

Country Sampler has a stitch club called Threads Through History. I joined it last year.  Ann Kemp was one of the samplers in last year's offerings, and I finished it in almost no time.  Elizabeth Hall 1771 from Needlework Press was another project in the program. It also has a big, wild basket, and I like the saying, so I sewed the linen to the scroll frame and set to work.

And I immediately realized that I had overlooked the four bands of letters and numbers in focusing on the big, wild basket.

Normally, that would be a deal breaker. However, this is a small sampler--like maybe 9" or so wide--and that means I can get a row done in an evening. And it's really easy to stitch after working on teeny, tiny stitches needed to do the padding on Peony.

To make it a little more interesting, there is a mystery word at the end of the second row. Do you see "SHIHER" sitting to the far right? Is this the name of Elizabeth's teacher? Does this have something to do with where she lives? I googled, and got nothing.

Then I thought, what if little Elizabeth wasn't the best speller--well, actually, spelling wasn't really standardized in 1771. What if she was trying to write "Shire" to indicate where she lived?

And my Lord of the Rings fangirl clicked in. This is now my Hobbit sampler.

Going Walkabout

 This all started with a bad case of FOMO.

Inspirations magazine, the Crewel Work Company, and the Online Studio classes from EGA cause me the biggest problems when it comes to fear of missing out. All of them offer amazing classes and projects that aren't just the everyday stuff. And, generally, there is a window of opportunity that may close faster than I would like.

Of course, I would like that window to stay open indefinitely.

Anyway, a recent Friday newsletter from Inspirations mentioned that they had already restocked Betsy Morgan's Stuart Reticule kit from the most recent issue twice, and weren't sure how many more times they would continue to make kits. And they were down to two remaining kits for Heartfelt.

We all know that I do love me some Betsy Morgan designs. And I've been looking at Heartfelt for a solid year.

We know what happened next.

So then, there was the wait for my goodies to arrive.

All was well at first. Shipment was sent from Australia, landed in California, got through Customs. Ended up in Memphis, which seems to be the place most things that come to me from Australia go before making the final trek.

After all, it's pretty much a straight shot from Memphis to my part of North Carolina. And, let's face it, Tennessee and North Carolina are right next to each other. We share a border and part of the Appalachians.

However, the kits seems to have had another idea.

The next stop that tracking showed was Jacksonville. The one in Florida, not the one in North Carolina. Okay, the box hopped on the wrong truck. Generally, things are put back on another truck heading north and it's no biggie.

Nope, my package decided it liked Florida and hung around Jacksonville for a bit. Then it went to Tampa. Then back to Jacksonville. Twice.

Finally, finally, it arrived in the parcel delivery box at my home address.

Am I digging right in? Well, I would, but I started two new projects yesterday.

And that's a story for another day.