Weekend Progress Report

I didn't make as much progress on my goals as I wanted this weekend: pressures of work. I had planned to work on finishing three more pieces into tote bags but I am afraid that didn't happen. It was easier to pick up my cross-stitching for a few minutes here and there than to settle in at the sewing center, formerly known as the dining room, for long blocks of time.

I had to deal with a minor disappointment: for the first time in four years, there was an error in my order from 123stitch. Joann failed to include a skein of DMC #5 Perle 815. Since it wasn't even listed among the back-ordered items, I have to assume it somehow fell off her radar ... not all that surprising, since it fell off my radar when placing the order ... I had to make a second call minutes after the first to add it to the order. I'll be calling her this morning to ask her to mail it ASAP ... I do need it to finish the floss tag for my monthly giveaway. Even so, I still consider 123stitch one of the most reliable online sources for stitching supplies.

I found this Prairie Schooler card at the bottom of one of my stitching bags and the stars aligned to make this a perfect travel project. I had a small piece of a Silkweaver overdyed blue fabric [Starquest] in just the right size, a card of Rainbow Gallery Elegance black [a silk perle that I have been dying to try for blackwork], a spool of Kreinik #4 braid 002HL as called for and just the right Belle Soie silks for the rest: Ocean Tide to replace the DMC930 and Old Crow to replace the DMC 310. I love it when a spur of the moment project comes together like that. Well, I tried the Elegance out for the blackwork and it was just too thick a fiber for this 32ct fabric, getting fuzzy as it was pulled through the holes, instead of staying well-defined and crisp as it does on 28ct. A lesson learned and time well-spent even if I had to frog my test patch. By the way, a scrupulously clean eyebrow brush is an excellent tool for removing fuzzy fibers from a frogged area of linen. Next, I will try double strands of the Old Crow and if that doesn't work I will pare it down to a single strand.

I have also gotten quite a bit more done on The Primitive Needle piece since my 123stitch order did include the Old Crow I had been working around. The bottom band is done with all the black lettering and stars completed and I have moved onto the witch in the main panel. It's great to have reached this point since I will no longer have to flip between three pages and four overlapping charts ... Halloween Revelry is one of those dreaded magazine charts [JCS September 2009] that are printed in pieces in order to fit magazine lay-out. There are two more charts in that issue that I plan on stitching: the two blackwork ornaments.