One Garden Done

I'm sorry this post's so late in the day - I had a busy, nonstitching one.

One full garden motif is done and a second one on its way to completion. The Rhodes stitches take a lot of floss because they're huge and fat - two strands of floss in every intersection. It's good to have a part of it truly done, at least. I could, I guess, do this one quarter at a time and get to other parts more quickly, but then I'd have to go back and do it four more times. Better, in my mind, to do it all and get it over with.

The Road is Cobbled

Yay, another finish! I got it done on Tuesday. Not even two weeks into the year and two finishes. Not bad. This, if you remember, is Cobblefield Road by Jean Hilton, taught by Ro Pace as a cyberclass oh ... a year and a half ago? The major thing I did wrong with it - and no, I'm not going to change it - is misplace the upper/lower border. It's off by one thread. I'm not going to let it cause me anxiety and redo the whole border, though. I think it looks fine. This piece stretched me with a few of the stitches, and the Edmar threads were awful to work with. They kink and twist no matter how careful you are. They did add some shine to the finished product, though.

A Couple of Colors

I'm still not to the fun part (the specialty stitches) yet, but the outline is coming along, if slowly. One day, maybe, I'll start finishing things more quickly when I get fewer than ten pieces in my rotation. On a bright spot, that's -all- the pieces in my rotation at the moment. I've let it balloon up to as many as fifteen before. Talk about feeling like you've made no progress!

Circles in a Line

This week I started the first of a whole bunch of Jessica stitches. The two lines didn't take long to do, and they have smyrna stitches in their centers. A lot of what's left is little Jessica stitches, so it'll look like I'm making comparatively less progress than I have been recently for a while.

Stitching Along

I'm leading a stitchalong for CyberPointers, and I chose this piece to stitch for it. Orna Willis graciously gave us permission and is even taking part in the Yahoo group! I'm so grateful for that, and everyone in the group is benefitting from her expertise. The design is up on the Caron site as a promotion for their Waterlilies line. I like the way it's looking so far. Others are trying different color combinations. I'm interested in seeing how they turn out.

Midi Framed

I believe this is the fastest framing job my husband has ever done. He got it done on Monday. The frame was one he'd ordered for a different project that didn't fit. It looks perfect with this, though.

Adding Some Windows

This week I added some windows to the upper left. They add a lot of character to the area, and I've started filling in the rest of the building. It feels good to see actual progress on this.