Gold, Stems and Leaves

I'm getting so close on having the cross stitches done on part three. The gold is much more stitched now, and the plants all have their leaves and stems. All that's left is completing the pots and the scrollwork. Maybe I'll do it this week. Like most Chatelaines, this one's fussy about where you put the stitches and there aren't a lot of blocks of color. That's what makes it so lovely to look at, though! I'll be happy when part three is done.

Getting My Gold On

The gold is around the corner now and working on the bottom edge. I'll be starting on the small corner this week and hopefully getting more of the bottom side done. The work goes fast when I work on it and I'm still in love with this piece after nearly two years of working on it.

Blue Grows Bigger

The column for the blue part of the flag got bigger this week. It's one of the harder areas to stitch because it's not just big blocks of the same color. This week I'll be working more on the flag and hopefully the progress will be visible.

Buckling Down to a Series

This is the first of a series of twelve belt buckles from Chaparral in Houston. They reminded me of home and I was homesick. I have four of them now and started this one, as it's the first in the series. I really loved the look of them. The stitch guides and the line drawings - I'm not a big fan. The guides are in a hard to read for long periods font, disorganized, and have very little in the way of guidance - not even a picture of the whole thing pointing to the parts they're talking about. I'll get the series done, but in a lot of ways, it'll be in spite of the stitch guide instead of because of it. As you can see, the canvas line drawings are just - pudgy. It looks like they outlined the various pieces and gave a very wiiiide margin for them. This is my first time doing a series like this, so I don't know if it's me or the guides. Maybe they'll get better as I progress. I hope so.

Fairy Done

Decided that this wasn't much stitching, so when it came up in the rotation today, I just finished it. It'll be going out in the mail tomorrow. The piece was really easy and wasn't nearly as weird as some of the ones in this round robin I've stitched. It looks, though, like this group is going to disband before the end - three of the twelve people have pulled out. I -hope- I get my Lizzie Kate piece. I'm beginning to think that I just can't do round robins in English and cross stitch and expect to get them worked all the way through.

A New Course, Kind Of

On Wednesday, I started stitching the 17th Century English Sampler by Ilse Altherr. It's one of EGA's group correspondence courses, and I'm doing it with a group from my local chapter - Pocono Mountain. We're meeting monthly and stitching it together. I had to leave early to pick my son up from work, so I didn't get much done. On the other hand, it's now on my rotation ... so it will get some work this week. As usual, I changed up lots of colors.

Took Myself on a Guilt Trip

After posting the lack of progress on this block this morning, I spent most of the afternoon and evening embellishing it. I hope the person I made these embellishments for likes it. The fan is a combination of free embroidery, goldwork, and beading. The seam treatments are pretty easy, but after all the work on the fan, I didn't want to glitz -everything- out. Three more people work on it before it gets back to its owner. In fact, I'll be popping it in the mail to Europe in the morning. The next one for me to work on, a tea cosy, came in the mail yesterday.