Halloween Stitching

This year I decided to set up my Halloween tree in my entryway at home rather than in my office. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had a dozen ornaments ... counting the four I have made in the past few weeks. It'll soon be the very appropriate thirteen since the ribbon I needed to make Monsterbubbles Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon from Stitchery Row. I'll probably stitch Ghouls next week.

I haven't been doing as much stitching recently as I usually do. Now that the school year has started I have less leisure time. I find I am working through my lunch & dinner hours as well ... I usually manage to stitch for at least half an hour during my lunch and dinner breaks but at certain peak times [like Parent Orientation/Meet the Catechist, Mid Termss and Finals as well as Sacrament celebrations] I lose that luxury. I also find myself going into work earlier, working 11 or 12 hour days at this time of year, so I lose some early morning stitching time as well. That being said I have been working on Brightneedle's Esmeralda's House: I have completed the outline and the foundation and am currently working on the exteriors. When I purchased this chart [two years ago, I think] I was pleased by how "open" the design looked and assumed it would be a very quick and easy stitch. Now that I am actually stitching it, I am equally impressed by how detailed a design it really is and have revised my earlier assessment. While it is certainly not difficult, it clearly will not be a quick stitch. It feels like I am stitching a "Where's Waldo" picture - there are so many little vignettes, all meticulously and lovingly complex. This is not a complaint ... I am enjoying the piece. It's just that I am not sure it will be done for Halloween 2009 even if I drop work on my Quakers and my Autumn Faerie for a while. I plan on finishing this piece as a wall-hanging ... its size would make professional framing prohibitively costly ... especially considering the whimsical and seasonal nature of the piece.

I do have a three day weekend, starting this morning, so I expect to catch up on a lot of my stitching goals over the next few days.