FOCUS

One of my December goals was to focus on The Primitive Needle chart from JCS September 2009 ... and, boy, did I ever focus! I have been stitching on Halloween Revelry since last Friday evening when I received the much needed card of Belle Soie Old Crow. Such concentration has had an excellent result: this rather large piece was completed in just 12 days [I started it on November 29]. The pale grey [witch's hair and the two tiny owls in the bottom band] shows up much better than the photograph indicates. I intend to finish this piece up as a "tie-one-on" pillow cover for one of the oversized throw pillows on my couch, since I have more than enough wall hangings and framed pieces for Halloween. I am going to have to scale back on my purchases of Halloween themed charts. Though I enjoy celebrating that holiday, even I have to admit that enough is as good as a feast.

Another December goal was to stitch and finish one more Christmas ornament: here is the finished Prairie Schooler Peace Angel. I ended up using two strands of Belle Soie Old Crow for the blackwork wing and for the backstitched border but only one strand for the feet, hands and face. I used two strands of blending filament [Kreinik 002HL, to match the braid in the same color] to add a little glisten to the wing ... this was not in the chart but was in the photographed model. And I used some DMC blues [931 & 932] for the cording. I like this quite a lot and am not sure I'll be able to part with it. I had originally intended this as one of the four ornaments set aside to give my colleagues at work.

I spoke to Joann about the DMC #5 Perle in 815 that was missing from my order [the one that arrived Friday] and she assured me that it will be in the mail today along with the back ordered bell pull hardware. So I will go ahead and draw a winner for my monthly giveaway tomorrow and plan to have the finished floss tag in the mail by Tuesday morning at the latest.

So with a third of the month behind me, I am moving along nicely toward my goals. And when you consider I will have the 10 day Christmas holiday that educators enjoy so very much, I will have more than enough stitching time to achieve the rest of my goals. I'll be picking up Teresa Wentzler's Autumn Faerie again, now that I am done with Halloween Revelry. If I focus as diligently on the TW piece as I did on the Primitive Needle piece, I should have that finished and ready for the framer by Christmas. The timing will be tight since I had hoped to use it as a birthday gift in late January but one can hope for small miracles.