One Color At a Time

It's the beginning of 'The Season' so things are getting a little hectic around here.  Any of you who live in a vacation or resort area know what I mean.  Even though the weather is still a little spotty, folks seem determined to go to the beach.  I drove into town on Monday and noticed the difference immediately.  Traffic is way up.  Then I went to the grocery and wanted to pull my hair out!  Way too many people already. 

As usual, I didn't get any stitching done while visiting my mom this weekend.  But I'm learning.  I only took one project with me instead of my entire stitching bag.  So after four days of stitching celibacy and a stressful Monday, I was ready to park myself on the couch with my stitching. 

It's been a couple of weeks since I showed you any progress on the two pieces in my so-called rotation.  The plan was to work on each piece for a week and then switch, but I'm am somehow compelled to keep working until I come to, what I consider, a good stopping point.  Now give me some credit because normally that 'good stopping point' is when the project is done.  In this case, I finished the red portion of Le Jardin de Plaisir, so I decided it was time to switch projects. (Just to be contrary, I did a couple of tiny motifs in the black before I packed it away.)

I just love the center arrangement of flowers, even without the black parts done.Janet Carsels continues to be a fun stitch with a variety of alphabet styles and only a few colors involved.

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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. 

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New Starts, New Finishes, More New Starts

Wow! Time flies between projects.  Actually, I've fill the evenings with some little goodies from The Sweetheart Tree.  But I just don't think to post them because they only take two or three days each to stitch.  These little needlerolls have lots of specialty stitches and, except for the annoying little backstitch vines, they are fun to do.  Unfortunately, I didn't do a very good job photographing the white-on-white stuff, but you get the idea.

 

 

I'm starting a Long Dog Sampler SAL on March 1st.  My project is not a typical LD piece, but I find it very intriguing.  "Le Jardin de Plaisir" is more of a geometric/knot garden type design and I love the original colorway of red, black and gray.  I'm stitching it on 38 count Italian linen (thanks, Laura!) with Splendor silk.

And once again, I'm going to try to work on more than one project in rotation.  Otherwise, I'll finish the SAL piece in the first month.  I have some Scarlet Letter pieces almost kitted and I'll just have to close my eyes and pick one once all the silks arrive.  I ran in from waiting by the mailbox just to post this.  It's kind of cold out there at night, but I'm very anxious for this package to arrive.

Plus, I have been very busy in the 'bead cave'.  It's been a big month for scissor fobs.  Every time I think I'm catching up, I need to make more.  It's a great problem to have except my fingers are too cold to play with the beads for long periods of time.  I'll really be happy to see Spring!  From elegant...

to funky...

there's lots to choose from.  I just hope I don't need more counting pins for this Long Dog SAL piece.

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