Another April Monday...

Well, here we are, mid-April. Pollen is bad, everyone in my house has sinus crap to some degree - Little Kid is the worst, as is he is this time every year, even with the Claritin, Benedryl, and Flonase all working. A 12-hour soccer day Saturday did not help his case at all, and added a little sunburn to it - if he gets his hair cut anytime in the next couple of months, his forhead & ears are going to have quite a shock :) The pines haven't popped yet - when they do, we'll have the 1/4" coating on everything. The oaks got me a day or two last week, but not too bad. It's the storms rolling through that are killing me - the old barometer head likes the drought :) The boys are down to their last 5 weeks of school - and damn grumpy about it, too, let me tell you. Hmmm, I don't seem to have much sympathy for them :)

Onto the stitching update. Well, I started another project last week, TW's Medieval Miniature. This is my "other" lunch project, for days when D is for Dog is too hard (headache days, usually). And it ought to be fairly quick, with the majority of it being over-1. I managed to get the brown frame stitched over 2 lunches last week:
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/17/Teresa_Wentzler_WIPs#39
Again, using my good old 28ct evenweave, and all the DMC, Kreinik, & MH beads called for - I think this will look cute hung next to Triptych, if I ever get it framed.

I also got Paula's piece for our Round Robin, one of the Lizzie Kate Flip Its series, and I did a bit on it yesterday, before I decided I needed to close my eyes for a bit (to keep them inside my head, it felt like), so nothing picture-worthy. I love the banding she picked for this design, and she also converted it to Vikki's silks - one of the colors is a Woad blue, one of my favorite series of Vikki's colors, so I may have to do a block that uses it, just so I can play with that color :) Maybe I'll have a picture next week :)

My main piece this week was MTM; I have to say that this really is my very favorite project that I have ever worked on - to date :) It's sparkly, silky, and so colorful and detailed - and I'm not even to the buildings yet! But I did get Part 4 completed, including beads, and a small start on Part 5, which looks like it's going to be pretty big, by the time I repeat it 4 times. Part 4 is the last one I will bead until I am done - I think, in my 17x17 Qs, I will have plenty of room to reposition the fabric to work on the buildings without needing to clamp any beads down, though if I work in my 11x17s, the clamps are considerably looser, so not that much of an issue. I don't know, I'll just have to see what works best when I get it out next time, as those 17x17s are so big, especially trying to reach that top left corner when needed - my arms aren't that long! I took a few pics of this last progress, an overall and a couple of bead detail shots. I am still very pleased with my fabric choice - I think Days Gone By really sets off the colors in the silks and the beads, though the light green flowers in Part 4 (Meadow Grass?) do get a little lost on it, but I do like the overall effect:
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/65/Chatelaines_Medieval_Town_Mandala#9 - overall
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/65/Chatelaines_Medieval_Town_Mandala#10 - bead detail top
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/65/Chatelaines_Medieval_Town_Mandala#11 - bead detail right side (shows the fabric better than the other one)
I really, really could keep working on this - if the other stuff wasn't hollering at me. Chat Noir didn't even make an appearance this week, though I wanted to work on it, too. And I was hoping to have a sunny day for my day off last Monday, in the hopes that I could work on MMM03 during the day, but it was too overcast and rainy, so I didn't bother getting it out. Next time I have a sunny day all to myself, though, it's coming out - gotta get those green vines done, and then the rest will be easy!

This week, back to the beginning of the rotation with English Garden Sampler. I am hell-bent on that fountain scene - check back next week to see how far I got, and/or what else jumped out needing to be worked on! Happy Stitching & Happy Spring everyone!!