Did I Wake You?

Did you hear it? ...last night...the Hallelujah Chorus? I finished the satin stitch band from Hell about 11 pm Friday night! I would have done the Happy Dance, but I was too tired.  Actually, it got easier the more I stitched, but I'm still glad to be done.

I did manage to start the next dividing band in the right place and with the correct color. So let's see if the knot garden will be as much fun!

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Get Thee Behind Me, Satin Stitch!

I can see a light at the end of this tunnel of satin stitch over three threads!!  Four whole days of not stitching on it slowed me down, but I'm back on a roll now.  This one requires a lot of concentration, so when I only work on it at home. Besides, the lighting is just not conducive to stitching over three on 40 count at my mom's house!  Not many places are. LOL

The plan is to finish this band and move on to the knot garden by the weekend.  Cross your fingers.

I've seen some baby frogs, but not enough to make me put it away and never look at it again. Besides, I'm still waiting on some linen for "Virtue Outshines the Stars". So, as long as I'm still sane, I'll keep working on MG.  Because as soon as that linen shows up, MG goes on the back burner.  Just sayin'...

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Teeny Weeny Progress Report

I'm a little farther along on Margret Gatis, but it's really slow.  Normally, I love satin stitch, but once again, the over three thing is kicking my butt.  The instructions say to outline all the areas in the appropriate color and then fill them in with satin stitch. I tried it. It's BUTT UGLY! So I frogged it and am meticulously counting now.

And even though I showed you the finished Starlight Sampler, It's so pretty in this frame I had to post it again.

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Busy As a Little Bee

I was under the mistaken impression that things would calm down after the holidays were over. WRONG! I feel like I'm spinning head over heels in the dryer.  We're almost two weeks into the new year and it's already flying by.  The good new is I've been a stitchin' fool.

I finished the Starlight Sampler by Little House Needlework for my friend, Nancy, who is moving away in less than two weeks. Boohoo. Our stitching group will just not be the same without her.

The piece is pinned and ready to go in the frame on Monday.  Next Wednesday will be our last stitch group with her, but you can be sure we'll be calling her and keeping track of all her fabulous stitching.

I also subscribed to the Ornament of the Month from Stitching The Night Away.  January's chart is a snowflake.  The fabric and floss are the stitcher's choice. I stitched mine with Treasure Braid PB10 from Rainbow Gallery on 36 count Phantom linen from Picture this Plus.  I had a nice little piece left over from when I stitched Cotillion from Papillon Creations.

Then, in an optimistic effort to finish Margret Gatis by Scarlet Letter, I joined Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year.  If you search my blog you will find that the last time I posted a picture of MG was a year ago. That's pitiful.  The over three stitching is driving me nuts, but I will persevere. I'm too stubborn not to.  So I picked it up last night and suffered through some more satin stitch in some really annoying shapes.

Now you may ask why I'm posting about all this when I just told you that I was going to stitch Virtue Outshines the Stars. Well, I must admit that the only reason I picked up MG is because I'm waiting on fabric for VOtS.  Believe me, I'd be on it like ants at a picnic if that fabric was in my bag!  So who knows what I'll post next! Stay tuned.

But right now I must go work on a custom order scissor fob!  I love doing custom work.

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Two Questions

I have two questions. Does your floss box look like this?

or this?

If you answered yes to the second picture, does it bother you?  If not, carry on and stitch away! I envy you.  If you answered yes to the second picture and it bothers you, well now is the time to get organized before you end up with ten tubs looking like that and give up stitching forever! 

First, allocate a couple of hours for the first step. If you're in a hurry, it will never work.  Find a large clean area where the kids and the dogs and cats won't bother you.  I know...there is no such place. Do your best. Try the bed in the guest room, assuming no one is coming to visit until Easter.  Dump the mess of floss on the bed and pull out all the 'clean' skeins.  By 'clean', I mean, still usable with the identifying brand and number and/or color name attached. Doing this first will give you a sense of accomplishment and will stave off waves of despair that might drown you if you started with the tangled messy ones. Sort them by brand and then by number/name. Now treat yourself to a couple of Oreos and a glass of milk. If one of your resolutions was some form of healthy nutrition, treat yourself to 15 minutes of stitching.

Second, tackle the messy ones that still have labels with identifiers on them.  If the tangles are easily untangled, do so, if you are feeling frugal. But don't do more than ten at a time. It's too depressing.  If you don't care about wasting thread or the tangles are worse than a teased mess of a 1950's hair-do, cut out the tangled, knotted pieces and save what you can.  

Now this may takes days or even weeks depending on how long you've been stuffing leftover floss in the tub.  Just allocate an hour a day to it.  At some point you will want to decide how to store your neatly organized threads. Some people used little cards like the top picture. Others like zip-lock bags. Whatever you choose, have lots of them available! You don't want to lose momentum in the middle of the task.  And don't forget to label them. As you go along, keep an inventory list of the various brands of floss and the numbers/names.  When you find a color in the mess that you're sure you've seen before, you can check the list and add the new one to the existing one.  (Make note of dye lot differences.) 

If you win the lottery while suffering through this self imposed torture, toss the whole mess in the garbage and buy all new!  Just try to stay organized when you start fresh!

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Progress

Despite the nagging in my head that I need to get on the computer and promote my Etsy shop or head to the bead cave and create something new, I've stuck to my guns.  So far, I have made time to stitch every day...well, not exactly during the day, but every evening I spend two or three hours stitching. Of course, it helps to have a project that you enjoy. This "Starlight Sampler" is easy, but soooo adorable. I'm actually a little farther along that this, but I didn't take an updated picture today.

The daylight hours are eaten up with things like laundry, walking Lester and Otis, cooking, exercise, and Etsy stuff. I did manage to make fifty needle threaders today. I hate being caught short when a wholesale order comes in. There are several new fobs in the works and about a dozen sets of stitch markers just waiting to be photographed. (I hate that part!) Someday, I'll let myself stitch during the day.

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First Start of 2013

Did you start the new year off right with a brand new stitching project?  I enjoyed the Dick Clark New Year's Eve retrospective with needle in hand.  The "Starlight Sampler" by Little House Needlework will be my going away gift to my friend, Nancy.  And I don't have to worry that she'll see this post because she doesn't have a computer! 

I was going to incorporate an overdyed floss or two, but decided to stick with the colors as charted.  I'm not really in the mood for a mental challenge on this one since I'm converting the cotton floss to silks on my next project.  Yes, I'm already thinking ahead.

And now that my Christmas decorations are put away, I can spend the rest of today stitching!  Good thing too, because when I visited the Little House web site earlier I found the new Little Sheep Virtues series! Holy Moly, 12 new projects for this year!

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