Pots Done

Yay! I am down to only doing the specialty stitches on part two! Real progress! It feels good to get all those cross stitches done.

Mercury Rising

To me, this looks like the moon rising on an autumn night. It's Mercury, though, and I'm still working on it. at least it's farther along than it was a week ago.

Huswif - Big Band

Still not waiting much for my kids, so not much done on this. The band I'm working on is rather big, and I did do some extra yesterday after this picture was taken. There's a big carnation in the middle in Hazelnut, and two on the sides in Burnished Gold. I'm still really enjoying the Vikki Clayton silks. They don't snag and they have a nice sheen.

Goldwork Part G Done

So, I was thinking. I don't believe I've ever told y'all how I manage to do goldwork without a frame stand. It works, it's really portable, and it's affordable. I stretch the silk on a frame as usual and leave it on the frame for the duration of the stitching. To have it accessible and both my hands free, I use clamps to attach it to the edge of my dining room table. These clamps are from the hardware store, yes, but they're special clamps. First off, no screws. They have a lever you depress to get them to tighten up. They also have nice cushy pads for the frame and you can make them tight. I've seen one of our cats get onto this (he was promptly shooed off) and the clamps held. I'm planning on taking the clamps with me on my trip.


As for the goldwork, I got another section done - the little blooms of the flower. They're not as round as they should be, but I think they came out all right. Next up - the big leaf in the middle.

Tiny Bargello Start

I started this piece to have something small that I could finish quickly. It's called "sugar Plum" and was designed by Patricia Hartman from Creative Reflections. It's going quickly. What you see here is less than half an hour's worth of work. I hope to finish it before I go to France three weeks from today.

Garden Rambling

Still filling in all these stitches on the garden. It's looking good and I got to use a color or two besides Honeydew this week. I like the feel of Waterlilies - it rarely snags or pills. Part five is already out and I'm still on Part two, but there's nothing new in me being behind. I'll get there.

Tiramisu Second Band Started

I don't know why, but this picture turned out really yellow compared to the original. As you see, the second band is almost half done, and is done in two threads - the soy silk, which I've found has a tendency to fuzz more than I like, and the Needle Necessities overdyed blue. The overdyed is much harder to do longer lengths of double running stitch over - the colors don't match up well. I'm learning something doing this, at least, and it's pretty.