Band 6: Outlining the motifs

I have been working on the cross stitch outlining of the spaces to be filled with satin stitches and other specialty stitches and have made fairly decent progress.  The outlining is limited to DMC 3011 [olive green], 311 [navy], and 350 [dark coral] but once I do the satin stitching and the Algerian eye stitches, there will be a lot more color.  This is proving to be a very interesting band.  It is my hope to complete this band and and Band 7 this month.  I am not sure how rational an expectation that might be.  But with just one third of the month gone, I am hopeful.  It would be very nice to end January with a finish.

I was slowed down a bit by the necessary frogging I mentioned in my last post.  Such a stupid mistake in the placement of two of the navy blue blocks, throwing off the spacing for the surrounding Algerian eye stitches!  I am looking forward to seeing this tapestry like band grow and evolve.  In some ways it reminds me of a Persian rug.

And, shifting gears a bit, I thought I'd show you a photo of my Anniversary/Valentine's Day Tree.  I put thess heart ornaments up as soon as I take down my Christmas ornaments.  Bill and I are celebrating our  forty-third anniversary today.  I leave the ornaments up till February 14th.  Clearly, I need a few more heart ornaments.  The tree is looking rather bare especially when compared to the Christmas display.  I have some Spring ornaments that I put up after that but one of these days I am going to stitch a whole series of Celtic ornaments to put up for St. Patrick's Day.  I also want to stitch a bunch of Easter Egg ornaments as well.  Ultimately, the goal is to keep the tree up year round with a constantly changing display of seasonal ornaments.