A Touch of Spring

I got the top row of tulips on this band done this week and started the torches. It's going pretty well, I think, and more quickly than it had been when I put it away before Christmas. There are still seven or eight bands to go on this, though, so I won't be finishing it soon.

Take it Further - Stand Your Ground

This is my response to Sharon B's Take It Further Challenge for this month. It was to express something about a person you admire. I chose my husband. I admire him greatly, and the tree symbolizes one of his central traits. He hews to his principles and doesn't waver, ergo he stands his ground. The tree's roots are deep. At the same time, when the wind blows hard and change is being forced, he doesn't lose those principles, but bends to fit the circumstances at the edges, just as a tree's branches sway and bend in the wind. In the end, the tree doesn't change what or where it is, just like my husband doesn't. He's seen the tree and loves it. Now he's trying to figure out how to frame it. I think he's putting it in his office.
This is the very first design I've ever taken from my mind to completion in embroidery. I'd done it in crochet before, but never in this. I like it. The goldwork with the brown floss worked well. The lazy daisy stitches aren't very uniform, but I think they shouldn't be. The design's only about four inches square, but the way it looks gives me confidence to try something else. On top of that, it applies to my project challenge because it was completely stitched from stash. I wonder what next month's will be.

Flowers Done

I got the flowers done on the right side this week and even managed, barely, to start some of the stitching on part four - directly below part three. At this rate I'm certain I'll get this done this year. It's going along more quickly than it was last year. I think part two was just soooo big it was hard to get past. There are still a lot of specialty stitches to add to this part once the cross stitches are done, though.

Edging Around

I got more than usual done on this last week. The outer edge on the inside, some gold, and some blue. I doubt I'll finish this corner before the end of the month, but I'll definitely finish it in February. My goal is still to finish this whole piece by the end of the year. I was looking through the thread kit the other day and there are several colors I have yet to use at all so far. Maybe they'll be in the houses around the edges.

An Unexpected Finish

I ended up finishing this today because I couldn't really work on anything else for several reasons. I needed something easy and mindless and this was it. Sagittarius is done and the piece will be mailed out tomorrow. Now I'm down to one cross stitch round robin piece and one crazy quilt round robin block in my possession. It doesn't count for a finish because all the supplies were included. So I'm still stuck on 22 of 25 projects done for my challenge.

Light Gold Skirt

This week was filling in more skirt, the lighter area almost ad the edge. This piece is just big and it's hard to see progress sometimes because the piece I've done in the past week is so much smaller than the overall bit. This one is in my daily queue after the Celtic Knot. Then I'll show a lot more progress every week! For now, it's getting worked on and it is getting bigger, at least. The blocks of color make it much easier to work on.

Flowers and Leaves

I've made a lot of progress on this this week. I even learned how to make bullion roses. For a novice, I think they came out pretty well. Now I'm down to the big flowers and leaves. Since I'm working on this every day now, I hope to finish them by the end of the week, so I can send it to evaluation at the beginning of the month.

I think some of it would translate better to silk, especially the smaller flowers. Maybe next project I'll mix fibers.