Stash, Part 1

As I told you, I went on a stash buying spree last week. Here's part one. The threads are all hand dyed cotton from French dyers. I hadn't seen them before. There are three heart charts from Bleu de Chine in this picture and a sampler tree from them too. I didn't buy a single thing I could get in the States. It seemed pointless to. There are two Bleu de Soie sampler type charts and two from Lili Soleil. The red one and the blue background one are from the same designer. This was bought at two shops - Broderie Passion in Houlme, outside Rouen, and Travaux d'Aiguille in Rouen, which closed on Saturday.

Bird on the Wing

I got a bit more done on one bird this week. Maybe I'll just push through this week and get it done so it's off my plate. It has to be mailed by the tenth, anyway. I think I'll do that. This and my other round robin project remind me why I dislike working on Aida. On top of the near impossible quarter stitches, the hand is so stiff and uninviting. The hedgehog's still cute, though.

Purse, c'est fini

The beads came last week, so I finished the purse for my daughter. I hope she likes it. I think it came out good - so good, in fact, that I've bought ribbons for my purse. I learned a lot doing this and I'd recommend a project like this for others who want to explore beadwork without a lot of hassle. I learned a lot about purse construction, too.

Unfortunately (or fortunately if you look at it the other way), I bought a lot of stash this past week and fell off my 25 project challenge. That means I have to start over and this is the first finish of the do over.

Alencon

We went to Alencon last Sunday to visit the Fine Arts and Lace Museum. The town was deserted. There were very few people on the streets and maybe two restaurants open. This is definitely not a tourist town. The top picture is one of the church. Evidently the front panel is rather rare on it as it shows the Transfiguration. The church is rather pretty.

This is the front entrance to the lace museum. It's also the municipal fine arts museum. No photography allowed inside. The paintings are mainly pre-Impressionist and some are ones I recognized. There's one of Phillip of Orleans that really looked familiar. Another one with night fishing was beautiful. The lace - it was mainly Point d'Alencon and Point d'Argentan. There is an excellent video about lacemaking and several Paco Rabban wedding dresses made with lace from Alencon's lace school.

I believe this is the city hall for Alencon. It's just a really beautiful building.

This is the entrance courtyard to the fine arts museum.

Third Band Takes Shape

The third band is almost done, as this picture shows. It's a rather large one, considering. I think the next one is smaller. I''m definitely not going to have this done in time to turn in for evaluation, so I'm afraid I've lapsed slightly and let the back of the piece get a little less perfect. My husband will be framing it so the back doesn't show anyway. I do like my color choices and will probably add one or two more colors in blue or green as I go.

Seahorse Swimming

This poor thing gets the least progress because it's not really in the rota, but it's coming along all the same. Maybe I'll finish it in a month or so. I'll be returning home before my husband in two weeks to do a favor for a friend and this will make a good thing to stitch on the cramped and crowded plane.

Around the Bend

Still going around the curve of the first corner on this one. Not much progress, but some. I'll get it done eventually.