Just like Christmas

 When the mail arrived yesterday, it was just like Christmas around here. I almost decided to pull out the tree so I could put the packages under it.

I got three--three!!!--sampler kits I had ordered. I'll show you the others later this week.

First of all,  A. Carter from The Scarlett House. I saw this on a shop site in the last week or so. I told myself I absolutely was not going to add another sampler kit to the stash. I was not, no way, not gonna happen.

I did. I couldn't remember where I had seen the sampler, but when you dream about stitching something, you just about have to order it. 123 Stitch had it, and they ship very quickly.

And then I sewed the linen to scroll bars and started it last night. What can I say? I am weak in the face of temptation.

It is possible that I need an intervention.

Dilemma

I finished the flower on Spot that I've been laboring over on Labor Day.

So then it was time to work on something else.

And herein lies the dilemma.

I want to do All the Things. And I want to Finish All the Things. And therefore, I spent most of the day picking things up and putting them down and moving things from one stack to another and back again.

Schedules and plans and rotations don't work for me. Neither does the carrot-and-the-stick method, like if I finish two projects, I can start a new one.

I may just write down the names of this pile of projects on little slips of paper, put them in a basket, and get Dearly Beloved to pull one, and I'll just work on that for today. At least I'll be making progress on something!

The Wall

 That's what I hit at about 8 p.m. last night.

I could not force myself to put a single, solitary stitch in this flower at that point.

Granted, I had been working on it all day. And there are 1,296 stitches per square inch.

Just writing that made me weak in the knees.

Anyway, I was planning to work on Heartsease today and maybe later do a few more stitches in the stem, but Lucy Worsley's "Queens and Kings" book arrived on the doorstep and I may have to fall into British history instead.

Striped Flower

 I was so close to getting this flower bud(?) stitched before I went to bed, but eyes and hands decided to stop working at about the same time. So, I'll finish that part today.

I'd like to say I would get the leaves and stems finished as well, but that's a lot of teeny tent stitches over one, and I think I would be overly optimistic.

And, speaking of being overly optimistic, I saw this project finished on Cathy's blog and knew I had to have it. Pdf from Lucy Beam was in my hot little hands before you could say "Lucy Beam."

I should probably substitute "Needlework" for Cross Stitch since I fall down a lot of stitching rabbit holes, but this may suffice.

Sampler September

It has occurred to me that this is Sampler September and I have yet to stitch on a sampler. I have also been remiss in keeping up with Sampler Sundays. This must be corrected!

So yesterday I pulled Spot out of her pillowcase and started a new motif:

 Because I had green in my needle after doing all the outlining, I just kept on stitching some of the sections that also use that shade. I think, though, that I may work on the flower today and save the green fill-in for the counted thread Special Interest Group (aka SIG) that EGA sponsors on Sunday.

Or maybe I'll work on Heartsease today.

Or maybe I'll go back to bed for awhile. I woke up after about five hours of sleep and couldn't get settled again, so I just got up. I'm drowsy now, so maybe I can get the rest of a good night's sleep accomplished. On only five hours, I'm not safe to be around.

Spoiler!

 If you order the Frostings boxes from Tricia Nguyen at Thistle Threads and want to be surprised, go no further.

If you want to see what's in there, here it is:

The new colors in the range were introduced in the last Frostings box. This one has those colors in other types of thread.

And there are metal threads and trims of all sorts and tiny little metal bits and pieces that can be added to your embroidery--some were used on the last Christmas Tree ornament project that is a free download on the Thistle Threads site.

So, I'm going to play with threads today.

Over one?

 Remember when I said I didn't want to start either of the projects I pulled out of the stash because of all the over-one stitching?

I think that may have been just yesterday.

And this is what I ended up doing:

These are the bits that will make up the waxer pocket on Betsy Morgan's This Ones for Betty. Do you see the motif on the right? 

That pretty, delicate, little design with the hearts and leaves?

Over one.

And I stayed up hours past my bedtime to finish it, so today I feel like I have been hit by a truck which then backed up and ran over me again.

I don't think I will work on Heartsease today. Actually, I may go back to bed. 

From the Vault

 I decided to rummage around in the stash for a bit. That always seems to jump start a recovery from a stitching slump. It also meant that I could rearrange a couple of bins so I would have all my linen in one place instead of stowed into whatever bin had room. That way lies madness when you want to kit something up.

So anyway, I found a small pile of projects that sort of tickled my fancy.

Well, this has been aging quite nicely for decades. I don't remember how or when or where I acquired this kit--it may have been in the boutique for Christmas in Williamsburg in the classic days when the Hoffmans were still running things.

So, I pulled it out. And I decided to glance at the directions. 

It's beautiful and I want to stitch it, but all those intricate details are worked in cross stitch over one.

Maybe later.

Then I found this:

Again, aging for decades but one of those projects that makes my heart sing.

Also cross stitch over one with fully filled in backgrounds. Not what I'm in the mood for.

And, close to my heart, a couple of Barbara Jackson projects:

Usually I jump right on Barbara's designs, but these arrived in the months after I finished RST 1779. It was totally Queen stitch, and I swore I would not touch a project with Queen stitch in it until I recovered. I think I've recovered and can manage the few Queens in either of these projects. I also have Barbara's scissors stand to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the country, so any or all of these projects could go on the stand.

However, in the middle of the night, I thought about Heartsease, and I thought about Betsy Morgan's "This One's for Betty" and I decided to stick a needle in one or both of those when I sit down to stitch later today.

I've also decided I need to pay attention to my Three-Day Rule. I have found that my attention starts to lag after three days of focused work on any project. At one time, I thought I should just move to something else after three days. Eventually, I do go back to everything I start (even though it may take years to do so), so that may be the best way forward.

So, All That Glitters is going to wait a bit for a finish.

I think we'll all be much happier.

September Slump

 I've hit a stitching slump.

This is the extent of my stitching since last I wrote.

Phooey.

I've made lists of things I want to stitch and things I need to stitch and rearranged some of my storage bins (mainly to get all my linen bits and pieces in one place so I can find them when I want to kit something), and nothing has helped. Even the thought of starting a new sampler for Sampler September hasn't shaken me out of the malaise.

It will pass, it always does.

And I know the cure.

It's to stitch on something--anything--and that will jump start the mojo.

So I will.

The Blues

 I'm back to the blue motifs on All That Glitters.

I got this much stitched during the Tudor Rose stitch-in last night. It was a lovely groups--lots of enabling and eye candy as we saw what everyone was working on.

There was some discussion of Sampler September. People were talking about whether they planned to start something new or work on something old. One of the participants said she was planning to pull out all her started samplers and put at least a thread or two in one of them every day in September--or decide if they no longer appeal and can be set aside permanently.

Meanwhile, I've wasted spent a lot of time thinking about scheduling my stitching projects and getting some older UFOs into WIP status, and some WIPs into FFOs. I even set up a calendar with each prospective project assigned specific days.

We all know that's not how I roll.

So . . . I'm still going to try to get a couple of UFOs into WIP status, and a couple of WIPs FFO'd but I'm not going to schedule them. I'm just going to stitch. And avoid wasting time doom scrolling and playing games on my phone. That alone should add literally hours to my stitching time!

Does this look familiar?

 I haven't had much brain this week, so I have poked at All That Glitters since it practically stitches itself without a lot of counting or thinking. 

The thinking will come when it's time to assemble it. As always.

Anyway, here it is at the moment:

I think I'm about at the halfway point, maybe a little further. I still love the way it looks, and I'm enjoying the stitch. There are times when repetition is soothing and needful.

***

I have to say something about the passing of Miss Dolly. There are some people in this world who just make it better by their existence. I miss knowing that she's here. I miss her wit and her wisdom, and the fact that she was proud of where she came from. People tend to underestimate the Appalachians and the South in general and stereotype us as ignorant, narrow-minded, Confederate-flag-waving jackasses. Miss Dolly, like Jimmy Carter, showed the world our empathy and generosity.

And then Tim Curry, whose acting range was so vast and, many times, under appreciated. I wish I had seen his portrayal of Mozart in Amadeus on Broadway. And his two-episode arc on Criminal Minds creeped me out so much that I had to stop watching the show for awhile.

***

And now for the petty aggravations of the week, also known as being nibbled to death by ducks. For the second time this month, USPS says they delivered a package which they had not. The first time the missing package appeared. This second time, it has not. I am more than aggravated.

Then the TV remote went kaput. I did everything YouTube and google said to do to revive it to no avail. Amazon came through and we received a new remote overnight. Dearly Beloved said it works. I've been afraid to try it.

And, finally, remind me that two elderly people should not eat dinner later than usual and include Brussels sprouts in the menu. No further comments are necessary.

May I Present

 Miss Sarah Ann Purdy 1844 is finished!

I really enjoyed stitching this one, loved the little motifs and wasn't driven completely crazy doing the border. Borders are generally where I bog down in schoolgirl samplers.

Now I need to decide what to focus on next. 

 I think I'm going to pick up Heartsease, the online class I took last weekend, or finally finish the Elizabethan Rose project from Zina Kazban. And I think I'm going to pull All That Glitters out of the pillowcase.

I've also been thinking about working on the more complicated or challenging things in the morning when both hands and eyes are fresher. My counted thread pieces could be my late afternoon and evening projects. Hopefully I won't burn out on my projects as quickly as I generally do if I alternate.

I had a friend who was an incredibly prolific stitcher.  She assigned each of her current projects to one day a week and that was it. She always made sure to set up for the next day's stitching before she stopped for the evening. I tried her method for a couple of weeks, but I felt too scattered--just when I got in the groove, it was time to stop and set up for the next day.

I still think I work best when I have a bunch of things going. It's just trying to decide which bunch of things to do that's the problem.

If this is the worst problem I have, I'm doing well.

One blossom short

 I thought I would get the big pot on Sarah Ann Purdy stitched today, but I'm one bloom short of a bouquet.

I may rest my eyes (and hands) for a few and make a valiant effort to get the other one done before I go to bed tonight, but I'm making no promises. 

I'd love to do it because then I have only the two doggies and the two urns and this will go in the Finish Pile and I can pull All That Glitters out again.

But meanwhile . . . 

Last night I was enjoying the conversation and enabling during a Zoom stitch-in, when one of the participants reported that a neighbor in her condo development was worried about her because all she did was "sit on her a** and stitch all day."

Excuse me?

And what's wrong with that?

Quite frankly, I spent decades of my work life sitting on my a** and staring at a computer screen and no one commented on that. I remember longing for the days when I could sit on my a** and stitch all day. I found the neighbor's comment quite offensive. 

Harrumph!!!

Twin Pines

It took all day to get two simple motifs stitched.

Actually, it probably didn't take all day, but they were so boring to stitch that I had to stop and do other things to avoid nodding off.

These same trees show up on a lot of schoolgirl samplers. It occurred to me to try to find out if there was a particular area or school that used them, so I spent some time gazing at the Wall of Needlework Books in the stash room. I thought I had a book on sampler motifs, but I couldn't find it. Actually, this is not the first needlework book that has gone missing since we moved. I know I packed all my needlework books. It is possible that either one box never made it onto the truck, or didn't make it off.

But the search continues.

A Leaf and a Letter (or two)

I took a wonderful class from Kate Barlow this past weekend.

As usual, I didn't get much stitching done in class. Actually, I got the prep work finished and half a leaf, then I finished the leaf yesterday.

 Kate said that it would be possible to finish the whole design in a week.

Not for me.

The older I get the slower I stitch, and most of this is worked with a couple of strands of filament silk that are each about the size of a hair.  If you have very fine hair . . . so you may be seeing this on the blog for awhile.

However, in the evenings, I did a little more on Sarah Ann Purdy. Her border is finished and I've stitched part of the attribution.

As soon as I get the rest of the lettering done, I can go back to the fun stuff in the middle. I have a couple of trees, two more urns, a big flower arrangement in the middle, and a pair of dogs.

There may be more to do than I thought. Hmmmmmm . . . .

It Matched!

The border connected and it matched! 

It took me way longer to stitch this last bit of the border than I anticipated, but it met up and I didn't have to do any compensation. So now I can do the strawberries without fear of the Frog.

But it's going to have to wait for the next several days since I am taking a class online from Kate Barlow. It starts at 9 tomorrow morning, which means I have to be out of bed, dressed, and ready to thread a needle at the time I'm usually staggering out of bed.

Obviously, my whole schedule shifted later when I retired.

Taking sides

 I stitched the border down both sides of Sarah Ann Purdy yesterday.

I have a dreadful feeling that I am one stitch off on one side or the other.

At this point, I have determined the best course of action is to add or subtract a stitch to make it work somehow because I am absolutely not going to frog a border for one stitch.

And because the alternative is to have a bonfire.

Catching Up

 I have had difficulty wresting the laptop from Dearly Beloved this week, plus I have been unusually busy, so today is catch-up day.

First of all, I've had my last class on needlelace this past Wednesday. I have two big problems--my tension, as mentioned earlier, and my spacing, because I cannot estimate what 3 millimeters actually looks like. So, after another series of drunken spiderwebs, I have set up another piece of fabric, stitched more little blocks, and drawn lines within each one that are exactly 3 millimeters apart. And I'm going to work the stitches on those to see if there is improvement.

With my failings admitted, I do want to say that Amy Burt is an excellent teacher, very patient and encouraging. I do wish the class had been longer--maybe three hours instead of two--since, as I have mentioned many times before, I don't stitch well in class, and have a hard time listening to instructions, watching the instructor's demonstrations, and stitching myself simultaneously.

But, in the evenings, I've been enjoying some downtime with Sarah Ann Purdy.

I am almost to the halfway point, and I am still enjoying her tremendously, to the point that I think I should keep a schoolgirl sampler going in the background all the time. Or, rather, a schoolgirl sampler when the girl has learned her alphabet and likes stitching pretty designs.

I'm thinking I may try to extend the borders to the bottom today--maybe even finish the whole border before I go back to motifs. Or I may get attracted to something else--All That Glitters is also calling my name as is This One's for Betty.

Now on to the mundane:

This week's Domestic Disaster: the heating element in the oven died last Sunday. I think I mentioned that we are renting the condo where we live, so we have to deal with a property management company to have repairs done. It's taken a week for them to assign the job to an outside contractor, but hopefully we'll have a functioning oven by Monday evening of next week. I did not realize how much I use the oven until I couldn't. Oh, I have peaches that are getting very ripe so I should bake a cobbler! NOPE! Oh, wouldn't some baked apples be lovely with those pork chops?  NOPE! I'd like to have a summer squash casserole with the baked chicken. NOPE to BOTH!!!

It's put a crimp in my style.

I have also had steroid shots in both knees this week, and I can walk comfortably for the first time in months. And the sports medicine guy I saw is referring me for physical therapy to help continue improving the mobility issues, which had gotten really bad. When I say I was tottering, I mean tottering.

BDE also mentioned that the steroids have made me talk faster than usual. This may be why Dearly Beloved has had the headphones on while watching something on the laptop.

It's all making sense now.

Tension!!!!

I finished the first three samples for my needlelace class, and AGHHHHHH!!! the TENSION!!!!

That is my downfall when it comes to needlelace.

The corded Brussels (which we call "detached buttonhole with return" on this side of the pond) is ok.

The double Brussels is mostly ok--this is the one where I switched from one thread to another and then another as I went.

The triple Brussels looks like a drunk spider on a bender did it.

I didn't even try to work on the next three samples.

I think I'm going to make another little box and try the triple Brussels again. If it's not any better, I'll say that third time's the charm and give my fingers one more chance to get it. If that one looks as bad if not worse, I will look for projects that do not involve triple Brussels and call it a day.

Already August

How did it get to be August already?

Suddenly I have a lot to talk about, so this may run long. You have been warned.

First of all, obligatory stitching photo:

 Here's the bottom? Base? Whatever, of the waxer carrier for Betsy Morgan's "This One's for Betty." Lots of specialty stitches (which I like), pretty colors, I am enjoying this.

However, this was done Friday and a needle was not threaded at all yesterday. Best Daughter Ever and I went on a road trip.

Williamsburg isn't all that far away, and America's Tapestry is on display at the Muscarelle Museum at William & Mary. I've wanted to see all the panels together since I had a feeling you couldn't see the details from the photographs online. I was right. It is an amazing body of work, the result of thousands of hours of stitching from talented fingers. We were both amazed and impressed at the variety of needlework skills embodied in each panel--everything from lacemaking to goldwork and in between.

The exhibit will be in Williamsburg until September 6, and if you're anywhere in the area--or want to make a road trip--I highly recommend the experience.

The additional allure of the trip was a chance for brunch at Le Yaca. Just check their website and take a look at the brunch menu, available on Saturdays and Sundays. The food is amazing, the service is impeccable, it's a lovely way to spend a relaxed hour or so. 

And, no, I didn't need supper when I got home.

Now, on to August and stitching plans.

I've been following the Snitch Stitcher on Instagram for awhile. She announced something she called "Annihilation August" a week or so ago. Basically, we all have projects that are very close to a finish, those things that will just require a little more work and they will be done. So, she suggests we "annihilate" them in August, just pull them out of their hiding places and finish them off.

I think I'm going to get my class samples for the needlelace class I'm taking finished, and then get the needlelace petals attached to Elizabethan Rose done.

There seems to be a needlelace thing going on.

And then, what would I like to see done?

I'd really love to significantly lower the level in one of the finishing baskets. I don't know how far I'll get, but I'd like to try to see some FFO's instead of UFO's in my life. 

Then maybe I wouldn't feel so guilty when I start yet another new project.