Oh Say Can You...

see the star? This is the first part of a design from my Marquoir German language stitching group. I changed up the colors somewhat, as usual, and used Vikki Clayton's silks. There was a lot of blackwork in this first section. We're being given 24 sections over a year to finish. Before you get a new section, you have to show them you've finished the previous. It keeps me motivated to keep up and not let it linger as a UFO.

Guess Who? Jessica

Yes, even more Jessicas this week. I told you there were more coming. Once you get the beginning done, they go quickly at least - especially the big ones.

Gardening Along

I completed the February portion of the stitchalong for Cyberpointers this week and found out something really valuable - never, ever snag your thread or let your dog jostle your elbow when you're doing those swirlies under the purple. It pulls and you never get them to lay flat again. That's my story as to why some of them look distinctly - odd. I'm having fun with this. It doesn't have a lot of repetition, so there's no boredom.

A Little Red

It doesn't look like much, but I added some red to the flag and some more filling out of the sashing on the side.

Little Cherries

So I'm still working on this over one, and it's going okay. The big thing is clipping ends and stopping and starting so the colors don't show through the back. It's especially important with the red and dark green. A lesson in being careful!

Handy

Bibendum has a hand! This is almost mindlessly easy to do when stitching the white, as it's just filling in the outlines. It's going fairly quickly, though, and he gets more and more personality with each stitch, so he's fun.

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.