Two New in the Rotation

I added two more things to my rotation this week. One is something that was in before the Christmas blitz - Tiramisu. The other is yet another calendar round robin. Both of these pictures were taken before I did any new work on them. The calendar round robin should go more quickly than the last couple of them, and Tiramisu is going to take quite a while longer, but I think it'll be worth the effort. Since these pictures last Friday, both have been worked on. A good start, I think.

Striping in Blue

I added more blue this week and finished the upward edge of the darkest blue of that side. The next darkest blue made some progress, too. This is probably the most enjoyable piece, to me, that I'm currently working on. It makes me smile every time.

Arching Up

I finished the inner arch of the right side now. All I have to do is fill in the flowers and the pots with the gold scrollwork and the third part's cross stitching will be done. It's coming along pretty quickly and I hope to have that done in a couple more weeks. Wishful thinking, probably.

Dazzle Done

I finished it yesterday and my husban took a picture last night. We're planning on making a box for it, one of poplar, possibly with a whitewash, and setting it in the top. Overall, I like how this came out. The Flair gave me some issues coming out of the holes and squeezing itself into a tube in a few places. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get it to lay flat right out of those holes. I can tell where I didn't use the laying tool - which means I need to always use it on projects like this. I learned a lot about working with one. The project is designed by Margaret Bendig for the San Diego chapter of the American Needlepoint Guild. It counts as part of my project challenge because I bought it as a kit, and ergo was completely from the kit stash. This brings me to 22 of 25 done toward my challenge.

Browning Out

This week I aded brows to the right side, expanding the area of stitching. Nothing spectacular, but good solid progress. This becomes is third in line to become my daily project at the moment - behind Crewel Confidence, which just became daily, and Celtic Knot.

Filled with Stars

All the stars on this are done, and I should have a picture of this all complete by the end of the week. All that's left is satin stitch to fill in the areas between the stars and a border. Since this picture, I've done everything but finish the edge on it. Laying the threads really makes a difference in the look of the finished project. It looks so much more sleek. When I've worked on it, the stitching's been very quick.

Balancing Leaves

I got the second leaf done this week. For some reason, this one took a bit longer than the first Both of them look a bit more ragged than I hoped. I'm not sure if it's because of the stitch she had us use as outline to make it look ragged-edged, or if it's just overall me not doing a good job. Ah, well. It's only my second or third crewel project in years and I've been doing this part in hand as she says to.