And so on and so on

I hope I am not boring my followers and readers but I am still working diligently on the stocking for Liam.  I have finished frogging and restitching all the errors in the right wing.  I have also added four more colors to the right wing portion in Section 2.  That brings the number of confetti colors up to 7 with only 5 more to go!  The next step will be to add the remaining five colors and to catch  up on the back-stitching of the wing and the angel's robes and drapery before moving on to the left wing and the trees that cross over into Section 1.  There's another white bird for me to screw up stitch in this area.  Part of the bird is in section 1 and part in section 2, giving me myriad ways to come up with a mistake.  Wish me luck!  But the truth is, I have not been doing all that well with the white sections of this stocking.  I will hold off stitching the top with the name to be done later and all at one go after the pictorial parts of Section 1 and 2 are complete.  It will be very very fussy with all the quarter stitches and such.  Anyway, I want to re-read the directions before I tackle the name area.  I've forgotten which part of the back stitching and/or long stitching involves the #4 braid and which part is done in good old DMC.  Besides which, I am not sure I have the right braid in my admittedly excessive extensive stash - I may have to order it.  I do know I have to order the beads.  I have a pretty large stash of petite seed beads but almost no magnifica beads as called for in this design.

The photos you see here are as last seen [first and to the left] and current progress [second photo shows the whole stocking and third photo shows the close-up of recent work].  There is not as much progress as last week, though, since I lost two stitching days to a migraine headache last Wednesday and Thursday.  Even so, I am still ahead of schedule.  I had hoped to complete Sections 4 & 5 and perhaps start Section 2 in September and then stitch 1 & 2 in October, leaving only the over one and embellishment charts for November.  But September has seen the completion of 4 & 5, the correction of the errors in the

wing in Sections 3 & 6 and more than half of the pictorial stitching of 2.  As you can see in the shot of the full stocking on the right, all those annoyingly wrong charcoal gray lines in the wing are gone, gone, gone.  I am still trying to figure out how I let such a glaring mistake pass unnoticed for so long.  I guess it's a case of seeing what you expect to see rather than what is actually there.  I am reasonably sure I can complete 1 & 2 in October, even including the over one stitching of the name and, maybe, just maybe, the over one stitching of the angel's face.  That will leave only the embellishment charts and the sewing assembly for November.  I continue to find it a source of amazement that I am not yet bored with the piece.  I usually have stitching fingers itchy for novelty and change.   Not only am I still interested in the piece, I am delighted by it and look forward to picking it up each day.

While watching a DVD one evening earlier in the week, my husband casually commented that Liam had better appreciate this stocking after all my hard work.  He than joked that the kid would probably spill hot chocolate all over it.  Like Queen Victoria, I was not amused.  But I do trust Christina, my daughter-in-law, who has an appreciation for handmade things.  She will treat it as an heirloom and not allow any beverages, hot or cold, anywhere near it.  As for Liam, at 6 years of age, I am sure he will care more about the contents than the stocking.  He'll have to grow a bit older before valuing the stocking as a gift in and of itself.  It'll be enough for me if he simply accepts delving into a stocking as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas and remembers fondly the grandmother who made it.