And another small but labor-intensive finish ...

The Plimoth Scissor Keep from Sampler and Antique Needlework quarterly [Summer 2009]. This brings my total finishes for the year up to fourteen ... but I have been tackling a few larger projects lately, which tends to keep the count rather low. What was interesting about this project was the medium ... working with the Tokens and Trifles cards is always a very different experience ... there is a certain enforced delicacy when working with such tiny cards. This project included cross-stitching, back-stitched tracery and blanket stitching ... all on these tiny little triangles that feel so fragile in the hand yet, ultimately, work up into fairly sturdy and durable pieces. Since I didn't have the recommended silks in my stash, I used some YLI silk in comparable colors. This stitching from stash is getting to be rather compulsive.

The finishing was also very fussy. I wanted to line the case with a pink fabric matching the bright pink of the embroidery silk I used ... but I needed to have a white background between the card and lining fabric to keep the embroidery from fading into the lining fabric. Soooo ... I applied fusible interfacing to the lining fabric ... which didn't fuse ... so I zigzagged the edges of the two fabrics together. The lining had to be trimmed very precisely because it interfered with the proper laying of the blanket stitching that held the front and back of scissor keep together. Trimming sliced the zigzag stitches up somewhat and I had to redo the zigzagging. I know that everytime I try a new finishing technique there is a certain amount of trial and error experimentation going on ... but this was more trouble than the finished product was worth. And I am still not entirely pleased with the neatness of my finish. Chalk this up as a learning experience. In any case, I think I will be using the remaining two triangles in the package to make a Christmas ornament and NOT another lined scissor keep as I had originally intended. Much better for the blood pressure!

Although this piece is not on my May goals list, it was an unfinished piece left over from April and I didn't want to see it turn into yet another UFO. In addition, it was so close to being done that it made for a quick finish ... it does give me such a boost to add another project to my finishes sidebar. And it was eminently portable, which makes it ideal for this crazy and busy week. All good reasons to ignore the goals list for a day or two.

And, on another topic entirely, the silks and overdyed cottons I ordered from 123stitch were waiting for me when I got home from work on Tuesday [except for three of the back-ordered silks which are to follow in ten days]. I love new floss and fiber purchases ... the colors spread out before me stimulate all sorts of creative impulses ... like lifting the lid on a brand new tray of water colors when I was a kid. So, when I am ready to start stitching on the next Town Square SAL in my master plan, Crescent Color's Saloon, and on the next Thanksgiving ornament, Kreinik's Cornucopia, I'll be good to go. I particularly love the CC Tennessee Red Clay and the Kreinik orange ... if you'd ask me just a few years ago what my favorite colors were I'd have gone with silvery greens, deep greens and blues ... cool colors, never warm ones. But lately, all I want to work with are autumn colorways.