Gosh, could it be? Could we actually have a spring this year? I hope so - I switched the wardrobe out, so I'm committed :) Today is my oldest's 16th birthday - I cannot believe he's 16 already! Seems like just a few days ago he was banging his head on all the doorknobs in the house and "accidentally" riding his trike down the hill, crashing and coming up with a mouthful of dirt, not quite sure if he's ready to go again :) Sadly (and thankfully for my heart), he's not driving yet - it's not in the budget right now, and he's not really pushing, so I can put that heartache off a bit longer. And my old cat's 20th birthday, unofficially, is one day this week - we'll say the 25th, as we also have a nephew's birthday on the 27th. The old cat, I think, is about to take that last trip to the vet; he's so unsteady on his feet, and his fur is all matted, and I can't help him as it hurts. I think it's time :( I've had him longer than I've had my family - he's my first kid....
On to the stitching. This week, my main focus was English Garden Sampler. We had soccer on Tuesday & Friday, and as the weather was decent and the games were home, I went to both, so no progress either of those nights. During the week, all I did was backstitching - I did the gold cord tacking of the net on the top right half of the border, then did the inside & outside of that edge and the right medallion. I did a bunch of the 8-sided eyelets, but I got tired of bs before I could get to the fan-shaped ones that I haven't already done - enough was enough Saturday evening :) So I started the satin stitch leaf border of the fountain scene. I got it about 2/3 done Saturday night - and had to frog the 4 around the top right corner one Sunday; I knew I should have stopped sooner and gone to bed Saturday. But I got that fixed and finished, except the last one, which I'll wait until I have the peacock's tail stitched. I also got a start on the first column and the plants festooning it. Here's where I left it last night as I was putting it up:
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/17/Teresa_Wentzler_WIPs#38
As always, not the progress I was hoping for, since you can't really see all of the bs I put in. And I have to remember to go finish up that top border bs the next time I have it out. Maybe I'll even work down that right side a bit more while I'm there, as I plan to complete this in thirds, as that conveniently fits in my Qsnap's working space, as well as fitting the way the design is divided. My greatest regard goes out to those that can stitch the complete border of something like this first, though I can imagine having that done is such a huge accomplishment in itself - I just can't bring myself to do it! I gotta move around!
Over the past week, during lunch and at games, I worked on both Lyne's Santa RR piece and my D is for Dog. I got the modified dog that looks like Lucy done, though I think I'm going to have to dig out one shade darker for her eyes, or add a couple of dark beads :) I'm hoping, now that the light is better at games, not that golden fall sun that makes it impossible to work on this outside, I'll get this done in the coming weeks at games, if it doesn't rain at all of them. Here it is now:
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/55/Travel_Projects#15
And Lyne's Santa now has a left arm, and I hope to get to the backstitching this week; this old hand-drawn chart is a little confusing to follow the bs guide, so I need to be alert when I'm reading it, or I could entirely make up stuff as I go - and that could be bad. Here he is so far:
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/59/2009_RR#9
Sorry for the shortened photo - I didn't take the time to pull him out of the snaps, as he's perfectly positioned for where I want to keep working :) I think we have another week or two before we shuffle again, so we'll see what I can accomplish on it.
This week, Knotgarden comes back out. I want to work on getting the right side top & bottom hooked together, maybe even manage a gate with those little blackbirds, if I'm lucky. Every one of my WIPs is yelling at me - Tanglewood, World Tree, and that Anagram 4 Saisons really, really wants me to restart it on a piece of Vikki Clayton linen that I don't have, yet. I read on her forum that she's not going to continue the linen (WHAT????), so I better get it soon, before it's gone :( I wanted to use a piece of that for Dutch Beast, too, so the two of them would need a yard, and likely the same color... So, to sum up, who knows what will get worked on this week besides Knotgarden??? Check back next week to find out - your guess is as good as mine at this point :)
Happy stitching this week to everyone!!
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