Ladders Done

The ladders on each side are done now; I'm not sure if they're supposed to be vines or leaves or what. There are leaves in mosaic stitch coming in off them. I started them yesterday and really wasn't pleased with the look. I might go ahead and frog that then just cross stitch them. Will decide later this morning.

Starting the Huge Center Medallion

This medallion in the center is really, really big. I started it this week with a little bit of string art. I need to move faster on this because it's so close to finishing, but other things have higher priority. I'll get to it. Anyway, so far this medallion's gone okay. Only one counting mistake that I caught early. Wish me luck!

Mattie Update

The other night someone asked me why I hadn't posted more about Mattie the Kosovo wonderdog. So I got my husband to take some pictures of her yesterday. She's grown. At four months, she's forty pounds. She's also developed the taste for and the ability to get cookies off the dining room table. Today, she tried for chicken quesadilla. She was -not- successful. Anyway, she's a really happy and enthusiastic puppy and she's growing cute again with the mange clearing up.

Here she is with her sister, the full grown basset Emma. It gives you kind of a perspective on her size.

The Blob Revealed

Finally that bit in the middle that looked like a crab to me is beginning to look like something more in keeping with the sampler. A leaf! I see a leaf! The four parts for this section are all in the bottom half of the sampler for some reason. I should get it done in plenty of time.

Flower Power

I decided to do something different with a seam treatment this time - I'm making a flower pot with vines growing up the seams. They'll get flowers and such on them. So far, the pot and vines are made in this picture. I'm almost done with what I'm going to do before mailing.

Twelve Sides

So Poirot has twelve sides now, even if four of them are really short. That whitish line is all smyrna crosses. I'll be doing string art in the middle next and see how it goes.

Light Colors

This week's progress is a bit harder to see because the colors I mainly used were light. You can see some against the flagpole and farther to the left on the skirt.