We Have Lift Off

I was right in my previous post: I did finish the second wing on Thursday.  I spent Friday and today working on some of the back-stitching, the trees between angel and bird as well as the bird itself and the remaining trees.  The first photo shows the whole stocking.  The second is a close-up photo of my most recent progress.  So, the angel now has both wings and there is a second bird in flight. as well.   I have been moving along at a pretty good speed.  All that is left of Sections 1 and 2 is the Celtic Knotwork border, the over one stitching of the name and face, and the back-stitching of the trees.  I hope to have  finished the back stitching by Sunday afternoon.  I should be able to begin the Celtic knot work border of Sections 1 and 2 by Sunday evening.   It will be my main focus for the remainder of the week.  Although it is rather fussy and will require careful counting, I hope to have the border done by Friday.

Once that is done, I'll have to take a little time to chart Liam's name into the space.  I haven't decided whether to use the alphabet included in this chart or use the same alphabet as I used for my son Sean's stocking.   If the second alphabet [which is over two] fits in the space, I'll go for it rather than the over one alphabet included in the chart.  It would speed things up a bit and serve visually to tie in Sean's stocking with Liam's ... and later on, Piper's, Rocco's and Christina's.

Here is a photo of Sean's stocking:  I am going for a woodland theme here. Click on it to see an enlargement that gives you a better view of the alphabet.  This was stitched about 15 years ago.  I don't have a photo of the sewn finish and the stocking now resides some 3000 miles away so it is unlikely I will ever get one.  I backed it with green upholstery weight velvet and trimmed it with gold braided cord.  Sean [my son] has the woodland Santa, Liam [my oldest grandson] will have the Woodland Angel, Piper [my granddaughter] will have the Woodland Maiden, Rocco [my youngest grandson] will have a woodland Prince or minstrel from the Best of TW Fantasy book, and I have yet to figure out something for my daughter-in-law, Christina.  I want something dramatic and lovely for her, either a Mother Nature figure or a woodland fairy.  I am leaning toward Mother Nature.  If I manage one stocking a year, I'll have outfitted the whole family by Christmas 2016.

I continue to enjoy working on Liam's stocking and look forward to picking it up again everyday.  I'll have to pull some other Wentzler designs out of my stash to work on once this is done.  Even if I go back to a rotation, it would be a shame not to include a Wentzler design in the mix.  Her work gives me so much pleasure!