1843 Catherine Eleanor Blain

Not the clearest of pictures this time. I finally lept into the 21st century and updated my phone to a Motorola Grasp complete with QWERTY keyboard and camera. I took these with the camera - the 1.3MP is obviously not as good as my usual camera, but I wanted to try it out and was too lazy to retake them.

I finished another name on Mother's Tree and started St. Basil's Cathedral. Katie really, really wanted me to start on "her castle" so I caved and started it for her.

I'm planning to change some of the backstitching on the cathedral to make it stand out better against the white opalescent fabric.

Angel of Summer Finish! :)

Here she is all done! I'm not especially happy with the photos, but too lazy to retake them. She will likely be a present for my mom's birthday in November. I started this at her request back in 2004 or 5 I think. Probably mom has forgotten all about her. Just need to get her framed sometime before November I guess.

The first name done!

It took me forever and a half to decide what to do for the names threadwise. Mostly because the threads I picked when I started are silk Dinky Dyes and I was now questioning whether I'd have enough of it to finish and have some left for future names - without running into dye lot issues.

I finally ordered a bunch more of the color I wanted to use for the lowercase letters and good thing I did - the color that Mother's Tree is stitched in and the color that is the lowercase letters are really the same color - just two different dye lots. I love the Dinky Dyes threads, but it is something you really have to have all of the color on hand before you start (which I knew, but I misjudged how much I'd need). Anyway, I think I have plenty of threads in matching dyelot to finish now and I think I'll leave Mother's Tree in the different dyelot as it is still in the same color family and I think it looks good being a little different than the rest of the lettering. I have 8 more names to stitch (provided I finish before Katie starts having kids!).

2 for the price of 1

Some time ago I promised an updated picture of Angel of Summer, this is progress as of last week or so... I haven't picked it back up yet, so it is still current. Just took me forever and a half to get around to uploading the picture to the blog.

As long as I'm at it, I'll also show a picture of my recent progress on Stone Roses, here she is as of today - I actually got several hours of uninterrupted stitching time over the Mother's Day weekend. :)

Endless Pink Dress...

Well, not really, but it sort of feels endless. Probably because it is sort of boring and all I can think about stitching right now is my Alhambra Garden. Sooo guess what I'm going to work on next? :)

Last time I posted a progress pic of her, someone asked about the fabric. She is actually on that MCG Textiles fabric (Twilight Blue) so loathed by many. Yes, the fabric weave is uneven, and yes it is very slubby. I really don't mind though and I think she is coming along beautitfully inspite of these imperfections. I knew about the problems with the fabric before I began and chose this fabric anyway because I liked the color and because I had done another piece on it before and was happy with my beautiful, but slightly different (from everyone else's) Fairy Idyll. Gives the piece a uniqueness because the lady is proportioned a little differently, but not so badly as to notice any real issue. It wouldn't work on a geometric piece of course, but I might use MCG Textiles again on another figure like this one.

Angel of Summer progress

Meet my new focus piece. I started it for my mom a few years back and I think it is time to finish her up. This time I worked on the greenery hanging down from her hand to that yellow sash - also finished the sash. That greenery is a real pain! I'm going to stitch some on Rosewood Manor's Inspiration next, but then I'll be back to this. I'm going to alternate it between my other pieces until she is finally finished. :)

I finished the tree! :)

I think I will now just mark where I will start the names and call it quits for now on this one. When I began stitching this piece I had decided to use the dark green you see and a lighter green for the non-dark green lettering. I've decided I really do want to keep the shading as it was designed and therefore I need two shades of lighter green for the lettering. Lucky for me, it just means ordering a third color of Dinky Dyes silk, which is what I am already stitching with: 052, 051, 050 for the curious. 52 is this color you already see, and I needed to order 50, as I had originally planned to just use 51. Anyway, it is going to take a bit for the silk to arive and I am ready to move onto something else for a bit now anyway.

I think I will stitch on my Angel of Summer next as she is the closest to a finish in the WIP pile.

It's a Tree!

At least I've made enough progress that now you can tell what it is! I can actually begin using a different color any time I'm ready now too because I can do the letters "Mother's Tree". :) Looking forward to when I can start on the names!

I've decided I'm going to work on my Alhambra Garden during the GTG tomorrow! :)

New Year's Mish Mash

The Good - cause we should always start with the good right? :)

My family is all well, DH and I both still have good jobs, the kids are healthy, well-adjusted and doing well in school. We have enough money to pay all our bills and even some extra for savings and fun.

Showings on the house have continued to pick up - we have had multiple showings every week for the past 4 weeks.

Also, I got in some good progress on Angel of Summer, I actually even enjoyed working on her as she goes pretty fast. I'm toying with the idea of making her a focus piece to finish her more quickly as she is easily the closest thing to a finish in the WIP pile.

I did decide to start Stone Roses, so I'm working on her today and will continue on her until I feel ready to move on. I'll post a progress pic when I do.

The Bad - because there is always something, right?

I got a letter in the mail yesterday from my consulting firm. They are cutting my salary by 6%. I know times are tough all over, so I'll try not to whine about it too much, I know in this economy not everyone is lucky enough to still have a job.

I can survive the 6% just fine, so it isn't really the money that is bothering me - it is knowing that the company is in enough trouble that they had to do it. Makes me wonder if the other shoe is gonna drop, ya know? Still I cannot imagine they would fire me while I have a placement that is actually brining in money, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe - for now. If I get benched - I'll be worrying though.

The Ugly

The above now has me questioning whether we should really go through with selling our house and buying another. DH has a pretty recession-proof job so we're good financially if we stay here if I loose my job. On the other hand we can still afford a bigger house now even with the salary cut and even if I had to take a lesser paying job should I be laid off. It would be a lot more stressful though. A big part of me believes that buying now is a big financial opportunity if you can do it - but it feels a little like a gamble right now - and I don't like gambles.

Mother's Tree muffin top

I know this isn't much to show, but I feel like after about a week and many many hours of stitching nothing but one color I ought to be entitled to show a progress pic, no? I think it is looking good, and maybe next time it'll be more fun to work on cause I'll move down the trunk of the tree instead of just filling in stitch after stitch in a huge block of color. That tree is just never-ending it seems.

Now I think I'll try to get in a bit of progress on Angel of Summer also by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum. I confess it isn't one of my favorite projects, but it is for my mom, who really does appreciate my stitching, so I feel compelled to continue on with it. I'm going to work on it until New Year's day. I haven't decided for sure, yet, but I'm toying with the idea of starting "Stone Roses" on Jan. 1. I didn't start anything last year, and haven't had a new start in a long time, since before I finished Silkwood Manor anyway. I think I'm due a new start, but I have a tendency to feel overwhelmed if I have too many things going at once, so we'll see what I decide.

As for Christmas, it was a good but unremarkable year. We are fortunate and thankful, and really that is about all I can think to say about it. Hope your Christmas was merry too! :)

Angel of Summer progress

Here is my progress on Angel of Summer. She is coming along, but not as quickly as I'd like. I worked on the yellow sashes this time.

I decided to take Melissa's advice and stitch the last section on my RR myself and sign it Nora. I'm about half way through stitching the other mermaid from Mermaids of the Deep Blue in the empty section. (Enchanted Mermaid is not really proportionate to the other mermaids, that is why I left her off.) I have an order in for all the beads too - so we'll see how long it takes me to get all those beads on! :)

A few WIP pics

I finished a rotation on Mother's Tree, and unfortunately I'm not really feeling like it was a lot of progress. The tree just seems endless right now. I worked on filling in the left side. I thought about trying to work on some of the names for a bit to break up the monotony, but I was too afraid to try to count out that far. I just know I'd mess it up. Maybe next time I'll at least do the trunk of the tree so that I'm closer to where the names will go and I can start them before finishing all of that dang ole tree. :)

Since I had the camera out to take the pic of Mother's Tree, I went ahead and took a quick progress pic of Silkwood Manor too. Mother's Tree is on 36ct Peaceful Waters Endinbourgh from Silkweaver, stitched with Dinky Dyes Evergreen? silk floss. Silkwood Manor is on 28ct Joblean, I forget the color name, but it is a light blue if you cannot tell from the pic.

Mother's Tree Progress

Just thought I'd post a progress pic for Mother's Tree - it still isn't much, but at least I have the outline of the upper part of the tree done - just endless fill in work to do before moving onto the trunk. I enjoy stitching on it for one night a week though - it's a good piece for stitching during movies since there aren't any color changes and all the difficult counting is already done.

Right now I'm stitching on another Mira section for the Round Robin, so that will probably be the next post. I also got word recently that the last piece for the Sweetheart Tree RR is now on its way to me, so I'll finish that up once I'm done with the Mira RR section before going back to the rotation.

Weekend Stitching Progress

So far the new rotation plan is coming along great. Friday was my free night, so I decided to get a jump on Alhambra Garden and worked on that both Friday night and on Saturday. I was able to finish filling in all the browns and greens, and now I think I have a clear direction where I'm going next with the piece (up to the left diagonal corner, I think).

I have to say I did not really enjoy stitching on Angel of Summer so much, but knowing I only had to work on it one day helped me buckle down and get some good progress in. I put off working on more of the greenery this time and did the browns that will become the bow under her wings. Will probably finish that next time and maybe do some more (blech!) greenery.

Since the next Mira RR piece still has not arrived (expecting it any day now), I will work on my Hardanger runner tonight, which is done in pinks and white. A nice break from all the brown and yellow tones I've been working on in these two pieces.