Football and Stitching

I just love bowl games and playoff season! I get so much stitching done, especially while watching games in which I have no personal interest. Now some of you may ask, 'Why watch them?'. Well, I love football. I spent many Sunday afternoons as a child watching football games on TV with my dad. I knew more about the NFL than any other kid in elementary school. Daddy played football in high school and at NC State after his stint in the Navy during WWII. He even played in the Gator bowl way back when! Anyway, it was something we enjoyed doing together. The first fall after he passed away, I found myself picking up the phone to call him to talk about a game I'd been watching before I realized I didn't need the phone to talk to him.

Now I use the TV as a radio while I stitch. I still get excited about big plays and sometimes I have to frog because of it, but thatt's okay. So this week, I've made significant progress on The Cranberry Sampler.

It may not look like a lot, but that vine is a killer. It's done in Montenegrin stitch, which is not a problem when stitched in a straight line, but the diagonal portions require a lot of concentration. And for some reason, the sequence was not intuitive for me. It is slightly different with every directional change and I didn't really get into the flow until I was almost done. Then the base of the flowers (which aren't stitch yet) is filled with Trellis Stitch, another one low on my list of personal favorites. It similar to detached buttonhole, but harder to make consistent and not nearly as much fun. The fun part was the queen stitches in the leaves on the vince, but I ran out of them too soon. But all those stitches are what make these antique style band samplers attractive to me and I love the process. So I persevere!

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