Sunday, March 30, 2014

Frog Fest

I'm not even going to apologize for taking the month off.  Just accept it.  I'm an inconsistent blogger. 

I have found some time to stitch even though I lost about 4 days while visiting my mom.  Things were just too chaotic.  Between creating, photographing and listing over thirty new items to my Etsy shop, I managed to make significant progress on Le Jardin de PLaisir and Janet Carsels. 
Hard to believe that any one of these little sections could be more trouble than another since they're all basically the same, just in a different orientation.  But I stitched one of them three times!  I frogged the first time, but didn't go back far enough. Geez, how dumb.  So I had to rip it out a second time.   But, as they say, the third time's the charm.
JC has also presented some difficulties on what should have been a simple vine.  The flat part of the vine is eight stitches and the angled parts are nine stitches.  How hard is that to remember?  Well, apparently, I'm easily distracted.  Of course, it is NCAA basketball tourney time and I tend to get emotionally involved.  But I can't watch without doing something.  So, stitch and frog it is.
I love stitching reproductions because of the stories behind them.  Even if I just make them up, they feel real to me.  This is the first one I've done where the personalization is at the top of the sampler.  I didn't even notice until I started stitching what I thought would be the alphabet.  And I said to myself, "Hey Self, that's not an 'A'."  Maybe Janet had a little ego thing going on.  Maybe she was worried one of her sisters (and I don't even know if she had any) would steal it and try to take credit for stitching it.  But it's an interesting change to the norm. 

Saturday, March 15, 2014

The Counted Wishes Cross Stitch Festival - Spring 2014 is now OPEN!!

A long winter of stitching has probably used up your stash. Well then we have just what you need to lay in a supply of great projects, and the fabric and accessories to go with them.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Going to the Dark Side

Well, I'm going to give it another shot.  I'm going to try to work on two projects at once, in some sort of rotation.  Whether my brain can handle it or not remains to be seen.

I started Le Jardin de Plaisir for a Long Dog Sampler SAL.  But I ordered several Scarlet Letter charts about a month ago and the silks just arrived this week.  So I'm torn!  Not really.  After a couple of hours of LJdP, it has become abundantly clear that I will need something a little less geometric for some balance.



So I've chosen Janet Carsels from The Scarlet Letter. 

I also have some more Sweetheart Tree needlerolls kitted up and ready to go, should a stitching emergency arise.