Planting flowers

I did get all the leaves stitched on this panel of Tsubaki:

And, as you can see, I've started filling in the flowers.

There are fifty-something flowers. Each flower requires three steps. I've done the first step on the ones you've seen.

This is going to take some time.

I did think about having three needles threaded and completely working each flower as I came to it, but then I decided it would be more efficient to do each step separately. However, I do not think I'm going to have the entire panel stitched by Thanksgiving morning--which was my goal.

This is what happens when I set goals in my stitching. I always think I can get more done in less time than I actually can. So . . . I have decided that I am not planning to get anything done for the rest of the year. That way, if I do, it will be like a Christmas present to me!

Along with this project, I decided to pick up the crewel piece I started a couple of years ago. It was going to be a gift for my mother, mainly to help out an ugly green chair she had in her apartment. Before I got it done, she had her first stroke and ended up in extended care, and the ugly chair moved to The Saint's house. The Saint had it reupholstered so it's no longer an ugly green chair. (Now it's an ugly gold chair, but don't tell The Saint I said that.) Anyway, I'm taking it to work with me to entertain myself on my lunch hour. Stitching in the middle of the day, even for 20-30 minutes, is making a tremendous difference in my mood.

And it's much more productive than playing games on my phone after I finish my sandwich!

little bit of stitching, lot of eating

I have been cooking and baking all week.

We had our office potluck on Wednesday. We should have just closed the office that afternoon--the entire group was in a carb coma after we ate.

Then we had our family Thanksgiving get-together yesterday. Baby Girl and The Saint arrived in the pouring rain, we ate more than we should have, and then there was another carb coma.

I am going to avoid carbs until Christmas.

With all the cooking and baking, there hasn't been much stitching. Here's this week's progress on Tsubaki:

I'd love to finish the leaves this afternoon, but we are also planning to put up the Christmas tree, so it will be toss-up between ornamentifying and stitching. With basically a week less between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, we've decided we absolutely have to get a head start!

Oops!

I've been really good about carving out my two hours in the evening to stitch.

I've been really bad about remembering to take a picture of what I've done.

So this is what's happened since I last posted:

I have one more big panel to stitch and I have to decide what to put in the middle of the open section in the piece above, chart it out, and stitch it.

And that means letters. Which I don't enjoy stitching. Or charting, for that matter. I'm trying not to think about it at the moment because, until I can decide what to say, it's all a moot point.

On a totally different topic, I wasn't quite ready to have January in November. I know there are other parts of the country with snow and ice--and we haven't had either--but I am already tired of shivering. So I'm going to put on another layer and thicker socks and stitch for the entire evening.

Need more Zenning

This week has lasted a long, long time, and I am looking forward to tonight's two hours of Zen stitching.

This is where I'm starting:

We'll see where I end up.

A wee tiny finish

I have a tiny Christmas ornament finished--but, hey, it's a finish!

This is an example of a couple of things that you should never take short cuts to do.

Like pressing everything flatter then flat. I skipped that step so there are a couple of little bulges in odd places.

And measuring for the hanger twice to make sure your threads for the twisted cording will make a long enough cord.

But it's done.

And when it's on the tree with lights and everything else, who is going to notice? (Aside from me, Baby Girl, and everyone who reads this blog.)

I repeat, it's done. And sometimes that is sufficient.

not much Zen-ning

Well, this was just about all the stitching I did over the week-end.

This part of the design has a sweet border around a wide open space for personalization. I know (I think) what I want to put there but I need to sit down with graph paper and chart it out. And hope it all fits.

Anyway, I planned to spend a good bit of the week-end working on the demo pieces for the program I'm supposed to present at my sampler guild meeting this coming Wednesday evening. I was busy cutting out the bits and pieces on my kitchen table when my back decided I had been leaning over in the worst possible position for too long. And it spasmed. The upshot is that I spend a good bit of time on Saturday evening and most of Sunday in la-la-land. Muscle relaxers are wonderful things when you need them--but they certainly do interfere with your real life.

So, now that everything has relaxed, I'm going to finish getting my program together tonight and go back to Zen tomorrow.  I will NOT be leaning over the table. I will be leaning over the dryer, which is higher than the table.

Best laid plans . . . 

Finally!

This is the picture I wanted to add last night. Blogger finally let it happen. I do not know what the problem was, but at least it's here now.

I love this stitch pattern.

I'm going to do some more of it today.