Gifted

Florine, a great friend and former temari student, gave me this temari when we went to see her a week ago.  It's beautiful, and she's even better than me at making temari now.  She's a natural.  Thanks, Florine!

Another In Progress Photo

I'm done with the basics on this, but since it's for an exchange, I want to bling it out a bit.  It looks a bit plain at the moment even though the pattern is spiffy.

Slooowwww

Being on holiday really slows down the stitching.  Here's a week's progress on Sweet Flowers.

More From Knots 'n' Needles

Truthfully, I went to the shop for some Kreinik silk serica that they didn't have.  I bought other stuff.  After all, how often do you find baseball cross stitch stuff?

Nautical Charms

I have plans for these...

Butterfly Fill

I rarely show one of the crazy quilt round robin blocks in progress, but, being on vacation, I wasn't able to finish it in time for a picture.  The butterfly on the upper left is the one I'm working on.

Charmed

Dark as this picture is, you can see a lot of charms.  They're going to go on the temari I'm making for an exchange.

Corny

If your town was named Good Corn (Porumbene in Romanian), what would you put at the city limits?

Beachies

I saw this pattern in Bossier City, Louisiana, at Knots 'n' Needles, and they had the right fabric cut too.... so I bought it.  I know who I'm going to send it to when it's done, too.

Dark Picture

The picture's bad because it was not taken with the usual camera and processed in the usual way.  It happens on vacation!  As you can see, I'm now working on the bottom scrolls.

All Stitched Up

I finished the stitching and started putting together the scissors fob.  It's going to get done on time!

Done With The Second Band

Evidently, I went ahead of where I was supposed to be and made spiderweb roses in the diamonds.  The symbols were there!  Instead of using all floss, though, I used silk ribbon for the weaving.  Despite the lack of quality of the picture, it looks neat in person.

A note on picture quality and lack of daily posts: I have been traveling for the past week and a half, and will be for the rest of the month.  It'll take a bit to get back on track once I land back in Molova on the second.

Back To Berlin

I am back to the Berlinwork sampler.  It's been a while because I had to put it aside to finish the Mighty Oak sampler.  Feeling good about getting back to it.

Beflowered

The flowers on this middle square are about done.  It's time to work on getting the scrolls all squared up.

One More Midnight Fantasy

Kathy's block came to me a little bit low on flowers for a garden block, so I added some broderie anglaise ones; big, bold roses.

Montecastro Restaurant

This place is located on the two lane "highway" between Chisinau and Orhei.  It's a red brick building on the outside and this lovely place inside.  The fish tanks separate the booths, and it's a lovely idea.  Each booth is also separated from the main dining area by a curtain and looks out onto the back countryside.  Like practically all Moldovan restaurants, the price is reasonable.  Montecastro serves traditional Moldovan fare.

On The Frontside

Most of the case is done; it's time to stitch the front part.  The design has been hard to work with because the designer did it digitally, but didn't put the resolution at a high enough quality to print it out on a single full page or to blow it up onscreen to see properly.  Some guesswork has been involved.

Racing, Moldovan Style

They racing association closed off the major street behind us and set up a karting track.  We went and looked a couple of Sundays ago, and this is what we saw.  It was kind of neat, but sad that they don't have any racing above this level in the country.  There -might- be a road rally race at some point this summer.

Second Parted

Second part is well-started.  It's coming along pretty easily.

Uzbek Food In Moldova

I'm a bit behind on food pictures.  This set is from Caravan, where we went with the Larsons last month.  Caravan is an Uzbek restaurant in downtown Moldova.  The food is delicious, and the atmosphere is unique.  Rice pilaf is evidently Uzbek, and it was good, but the real treats were the appetizers.  The next time we went, I only had those.   Desserts were okay.  The baklava was a disappointment, especially in a country where you can get it all over and made well.