Weekend Progress Report #15

First the Round Robin which has dominated my stitching recently:

The deadline was Thursday, April 15. Because I was so close to finishing my own panel and didn't wish to mail it off with those small bits of negative space spoiling the effect, that I kept working on it Friday. Unfortunately, I finished it after the Post Office closed ... next time I won't use my Jeeves and Wooster CD collection to keep me company during stitching against dealine ... I must have spent as much time watching as stitching. Since I work Saturday mornings, that eliminated a trip to the Post Office which closes at 11am and I work till Noon. I'll just have to send it off Monday morning, probably by one day delivery to make up for my tardiness.

Just to help you track the progress: this is what it looked like on Monday morning, April 12 [see photo on top left] ... and this is what it looked like just before it was finally stitched Friday evening, April 16 [see photo on top right]. And here is a close-up of the top panel. When I get it back, I may add a dog following the wagon, if I can find one in the right scale. I did have to condense the design a bit since the space in the RR was some eight rows shorter and 10 rows narrower than the chart ... I also removed the large trees in the left and right foreground, replacing them with pumpkins. It seem to work better with the smaller scale of my piece.

I haven't received my first "guest-stitching" RR yet, so Sunday I indulged myself in working on my Monsterbubbles' Jail [from the Town Square SAL] which is progressing nicely.

This coming week, I will concentrate on finishing the Monsterbubbles Jail, and on couching the Watercolours on my Mermaid's Singing from Workbasket as well as kitting up and starting the February, March and April ornaments for the Bride's Tree SAL. It will be a real pleasure to add a few finishes to my sidebar. The Mermaid's Singing piece requires only a few hours of work to qualify. I received the proper linen for the Bride's Tree SAL earlier this month [Glasgow 28ct linen in the shade raw linen] and th echart I have selected for the February ornament, the Quaker Heart freebie from Workbasket, and for the March ornament, the Quaker Flower freebie from Workbasket, are both quick stitches. Since I want to keep to a Quaker theme for the whole series, I may have to adapt/design my own Quaker Rabbit chart by lifting a Quaker motif from one of my samplers and placing it in the haunch of a rabbit chart sized for an ornament. Before you know it, I'll be another month behind once May comes around requiring the Bird's Nest ornament ... I suspect that the only way I'll be able to keep a Quaker theme in that one is to insert a circular Quaker motif as a Sun above/behind the nest. I have the perfect Fish chart [Poisson du Avril] for June, if I can only find it again ... I used it to make a biscornu and scissor fob set ... just a little tweaking will convert it into a Quaker Fish, for my Quaker ornament series. And no doubt, my first guest-stitching piece for the RR will arrive early this week ... I have picked out a Snowman chart, All Wrapped Up, that I think will work quite nicely as long as I shorten him by 4 or 5 rows ... not a problem since he is very attenuated to begin with. That should keep me more than occupied during the remainder of April. I shall have to wait till May to get back to TW's Autumn Faerie and Brightneedle's Ghosts and Ghoulies Etui and Sue Hillis' Cookie Santa.