Octobre

This is the only thing I've been working on all week. I finished it today and will be mailing it out on Monday. It's the last of the French round robin, Yveline's. She had each of us do a month and a flower. Calendula was really hard to find. I finally got the pattern from a birthday mug leaflet. There was a lot of backstitching in the design, but I left it all out because none of the other months have backstitching on them on the piece. My husband will be taking a picture of the finished piece before I ship it off.

My Front Yard

These are more of the pictures my husband took Thursday night. They're of the front yard. The top is the front door to the chateau. The second is down the line of trees to one side of the front yard. There's a matching line of trees on the other side. The last picture is from the top of the steps at the front door. It's gorgeous and everything is coming into bloom.

My French Backyard

My husband's company rented a chateau for us for the duration of the time we're in France. It's less expensive than getting a dozen different hotel rooms. The pictures here are taken after the hail storm we had yesterday and after dinner, which places it about 8:30 in the evening. Sunset isn't until after ten.

These are three views from just outside the back door on the terrace. We have a formal garden and the fountain gets turned on on Sundays. The garden is also open to the public on weekends. The house in the background of the top picture is rented out for wedding parties and such. We're having dinner in there Tuesday night. A business dinner.

Behind the hedges in the second picture is a bocce court surrounded by pergolas with stone tables and chairs in them. Nice place to be outside if the weather cooperates...

Another Leaf

I got the leaf done before I left for France. The goldwork survived the trip in my suitcase, but all my Blogger instructions are in French. It's weird. Anyway, I haven't been stitching much at all because of all the people coming in and having to be shown around and having to make dinner for loads of people in an unfamiliar kitchen and going to unfamiliar grocery stores and so on. Finally NOT cooking tomorrow, so I plan on doing some needlework. My husband took pictures of progress since the last set today, so ... you get blogged!

Progress?

I think there's some progress in this picture. I know I've worked on it ... pictures will be taken in France, probably not until Monday or Tuesday. I'm taking every project I've been working on that's not finished and a few more. If you think I won't have time for it, well... I'll be alone LeMans weekend and I'll have to be around the chateau to help my son with his schoolwork. There will be time!

Added Color

So you can see I added some green to the third band. It's soy silk, same as the other solid color. I think it's looking good. Of course, I'm getting all stressed about traveling tonight, and haven't done much stitching at all this past week.

It Looks Like a Purse

My husband decided to take a different kind of picture for this this week. It really looks like it's coming together. The edging on the purse itself is over halfway done on the first pass. The strap's 37 inches long. If I weren't going to France today, this would be done because it's so close. Instead, I'll be finishing it (soon) in France and mailing it home to my daughter.