Weekend Progress Report #38

The weather cooled down a wee bit this weekend and I finally felt inspired to do a little Fall decorating in my entryway. As I get more areas in the house decorated, I'll post a few more photos. But for now, here's a shot of the antique washstand in my entryway, all decorated for Halloween. I believe I have room to squeeze in just a few more ornaments ... I quite liked five of the charts in JCS Halloween ornament issue and would like to add those to the mix this year.

As promised, a photo of the ornament I have managed to finish finish during the third week of this designated Catch-Up Month of September ... though, unless I devote every waking moment of the next five days to stitching the remaining backlog of ornament goals, October will be a catch-up month as well.

The Prairie Schooler Turkey [from the Harvest Time leaflet] stitched on 28 ct raw Glasgow linen in WDW and GAST cotton overdyes. Edged with Mill Hill beads in frosted orange [2042] and matte ivory [3016]. I am really pleased with this one but then I always like the shapes that go beyond the usual circle, square/rectangle or heart. The color change in the browns is not nearly so glaring in real life as it appears in the photo ... particularly, when viewed under the soft lighting of my entryway. This makes 8 Thanksgiving ornaments for the tree I keep up from late September through February in my entryway ... changing out the ornaments from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas to Valentine's Day. My wedding anniversary is January 10, so I set up the heart ornaments as soon as I take down the Christmas ornaments on Jan 6 [Little Christmas, aka the Feast of the Epiphany]. I plan to make two or three more Thanksgiving ornaments before Nov. 1 which ought to fill the tree up quite nicely.

The May Bride's Tree SAL ornament: Bird in a Nest [from Aury's blog], representing Security. Stitched on 28 ct raw Glasgow linen in Belle Soie Chester Blue, Chocolat, & Fern Frond. I made a counting error on the backing which I only discovered when I went to pin the back to the front for stitching up as a fringed pillow ornament. So I frogged out the entire right side and a third of the bottom of the border and, in total disgust with myself for being in such a hurry, set the whole thing aside till Monday brings a better mood and the oomph to re-stitch the darned thing correctly. That's what I get for being in such an all-fired hurry to tick off my goals.

And a WIP: Once I finished the above-mentioned frogging, stitcher's ADD set in and I just had to start a Halloween ornament from the recent JCS issue. I chose to work on Blue Ribbon Designs Perched on a Pumpkin since I dearly love owls as a decorative motif. as a symbol of wisdom and as a gift of nature to warm my bird-watching soul. I'll post a photo once I get beyond the border stitching ... very basic and not yet visually interesting. There are four other ornaments in the September issue that I want to stitch ... it'll be interesting to see how I'll manage to fit them on my Halloween Tree.