Women's Shelter Ornament

One of the reasons not much was done on other pieces last week was that I had an ornament due for the tree my EGA chapter does for the local women's shelter. The design comes from the latest issue of New Stitches, and it took me a couple of days to do it on white 18 count aida. Our chapter made over eighty ornaments for the tree and donated them, some lights, and a six foot fake tree. We don't know where it will be, exactly, but we all hope it brings some cheer to their lives.

The Chatelaines

As you can see, not much progress has been made on either of these in the last week. Every time I think my days are going to get less complicated, something else gets thrown into the mix to make them too busy to stitch again. There was SOME progress, though. I now have two of the corners on the Medieval Town Mandala done and the arches on the Midi mystery are coming along. Maybe Thanksgiving week I'll get time ... after all, everything else is closed and I hate shopping, right?

Elegant Diamond Nears Completion

I completed the side Rhodes stitches on this this week and got the little silver accents done. In fact, when this picture was taken, all that was needed was two woven spiderweb stitches and some backstitch and whipped backstitch. I managed to do all of that at the Pocono Mountain EGA meeting last night, so it's done! The green of the fabric doesn't show through well, but the overall effect is very very green. I'll probably do more of these -they're relatively fast. The finished photo will be up as part of next week's updates. I'm just happy to get something done off my list - which means I added back in the Ribbons and Roses purse that got bumped off.

Fabrics I Dyed

Yesterday, I dyed five yards of fabric for a friend to use in a project. These are pictures of the results. I really like the green and purple - it reminds me of a field of morning glories. I will probably reproduce that one for a complex cloth wall hanging. The dark blue "fake shibori" came out pretty well, too. Actually, all of them did, with the exception of the green spots that migrated onto the orange piece somehow. I'll probably dye some more later, but I thought you might want to see something different! All fabrics were 100% Kona cotton and dyes were Procion.

Panda and Goldwork

I put these two together because I didn't make much progress on them this week. I had a meeting over in Pennsylvania, a friend came over to visit, and so on. Lots of stuff got in the way of stitching. Anyway, today I've been able to get back into the groove and also managed to dye five yards of fabric for a friend. When they're all done and set and ironed, I'll take pictures before sending them off. The panda is still going, not much to report. On the goldwork, I laid the ground for doing a dimensional area on the sampler. I've put everything close together because I have the idea I'll do something with the sampler once I'm done - perhaps make a small pillow or something. The piece I'm about to do over the string requires me to plunge the ends every single row. When I do that, I'm always afraid I'm going to damage the fabric. Lots of practice will teach me I'm not, I hope.

A Panda Half

This picture was taken just before I completed half, but it's official! I'm halfway through this piece. I've run out of a full skein of black and am starting on another, but the biggest black blocks are done. Now to get the other half done by the end of the month.

Medieval Town Mandala - Some Progress

I'm almost done with a second corner and am pretty well started on a third. I'm not making much progress this week, though. I've had to stop everything to make an ornament for my EGA meeting next Monday night. It's the second one for my requirement for the tree we're donating to the local women's shelter. I really love the colors on this, though. They make me smile every time I work on it.