I Think I Can - So Close!

I've got a leaf and a half to go and I'm done! I'll be so happy. My goal is to finish this in a week. I've learned some things about crewel and am less afraid of doing surface stitching now, but it will never be my favorite kind of stitching. It does, however, rank above the hated knitting. The flower turned out better than I thought it would. It smoothed out a lot and the wool poofed out to fill in the less covered spaces. Of course, it'll go to be critiqued and I'm sure that will turn out badly, but I don't care. It was new to me.

Less Than I Wanted

I didn't get as much stitching done this week as I wanted. Life intervened in a very hard, sad way for me. Anyway, the next few posts will be of my updates. This is Sweetheart Tree's Potpourri Heart from the kit. I finished it into an ornament. My daughter won't let me give it away. I did the finishing this week is why it's here. The second picture is of a pulled thread design we did at the May meeting of Pocono Mountain EGA. I did the mounting this week and need to put the gold cord around it. The copper colored silk behind it is from Plumridge Silks. They have a good bargain lot where you get lots of silk in lots of colors for cheap. I'll probably make a few more of these because I like the way it turned out.

Bargello Progress

This is probably my easiest and quickest project. I'm almost done with the second section now (two days after the picture) and it's coming out well. My daughter is loving the way it looks, which is a very good thing. Anyway, what it shows is that you can change up everything about a design except its bones and still get a good result. Nothing on this outside of the way the stitches go is like the pattern.

Medieval Town Mandala and Midimystery

I decided to combine these two, since they're by the same designer. I'm having fun with these - on the MTM, I've managed to finish two of the butterflies and get halfway done on two more. My husband really likes the way they look and the fine detail. He's an observer. It's part of what makes him such a good scientist. The Midi Mystery 2 is coming along, slowly. I finished the two columns and am finally! starting the bottom flourishes. When I'm done with those, it's on to finally doing the Rhodes stitches! I'll get there. Eventually. My husband agreed that I should order the Japanese Garden design before it goes out of circulation next month. So, another project! I'm not going to start anything else until I get at least one of these four done, though.

First Finish

So, my first finish after starting this blog is here. It's okay. I didn't really like the brown too much. I'm doing the same thing again over two on colors my husband picked - baby blue linen with Needle Necessities color 134. I've got the tree, one apple and part of the Calvados bottle done. The good thing about picking these for ornaments is they go fast. Of course, finishing them's going to be a challenge. I haven't quite decided how yet. Ideas?

It's so Crewel

As promised, my husband took pictures last night. Here's the progress on my Crewel Confidence GCC. As you can see, I got the little flowers at the bottom left done. They were a fun whipped spiderweb stitch. Now I'm working on the flower at the bottom - long and short stitch with color blending in four colors. I've completed two and, to me, it looks horrible so far. You'd think they'd give us a simpler shape than this three lobed flower with all the direction changes to do first. Oh well - it's getting closer to done! Maybe in the next couple of weeks I'll have it out of my rotation altogether.

One of Those Days

It's one of those days where, try as I might, I haven't been able to get any of my stitching done. I've been working on the newsletter for my local Embroiderers' Guild chapter and taking my daughter to and from her first day of the semester. Not usually a big deal except this is my first issue of the newsletter and the last editor had everything saved in a program I've never heard of despite being a Mac owner for twenty years. Oh well. Several ad scans later and some judicious use of MS word and it's done. It's at the copy center now being printed. My daughter, on the other hand, is on a schedule where it's just too short to drop her off and pick her up and just too long to sit in the parking log and wait. At least it's only Tuesdays and Thursdays this way. The other three days are long and I can go home between. I'll be so happy when she finally gets her license and saves up enough for a car.

On a bright note, I finished Normandie over one yesterday. Most likely tonight I'll have new pictures to put up of my WIP's. They're actually progressing pretty well.