Further Progress on The English Band Sampler & Other Stuff

On Friday, I spent a bit more time on the patio in the pleasant late afternoon and early evening light.  I am currently working on this very fiddly satin stitched double helix sort of border done in three colors.  One of the spirals is supposed to be done in the same fawn [DMC 3770] that drove me batty during the great eyelet episode.  Since I really don't want to go totally blind, I have decided to stitch the spiral charted in dawn in one of the greens used in the vining [DMC 732 or 3011]instead.  I need a little contrast between floss and fabric in order to place my stitches accurately.  I may go ahead and use the fawn to stitch the centers instead of the called for light coral [DMC 352].  Band 5 had a similar border and I spent a lot of time frogging the darn thing.  So I am being particularly careful about counting and checking the border against the placement of other design motifs as I go along.  So far so good.

Saturday morning I emptied my stitching bag of all the flosses left from my last few finishes and put them away properly.  It took nearly an hour.  That will teach me to clean up after myself as I go along.  It's a tedious enough chore after just one finish but after three or four, it is just plain deadly.

And, because I wanted the relief of something easy, I pulled out a Prairie Schooler promo card Christmas ornament and started working it in Belle Soie silks on 36ct blue linen.  Between the beads on The Dragon of the Winter Moon and the border on The English Band Sampler, my brain fried.  I need simple straightforward cross stitch for a little while.  I figure a day of easy stitching will allow me to recoup my energies for the tough stuff.

As you can see, I didn't get very far along with the ornament either.  A trip to the Stony Point Farmer's Market and another trip to the King's Daughters library took up a good bit of the morning and early afternoon.  I should have taken photos at the farmer's market.  I'll remember to take my camera next time.  While there were only ten booths, they were almost all very interesting.  There were two farms, one dairy [raw milk products ranging from milk, cheese and yogurt to soaps made with milk] that also had free range chicken eggs and organically fed hormone free pork products, a baker, a honey stand, an upstate NY vinyard, a jam and jelly maker.  The other three were crafters [crochet and quilts] and cosmetic stands, not of much interest to me given I do those crafts myself and don't need any lotions or gels at this time.  At the farm stands, I bought some fantastic green beans, some blue carrots and a wild blueberry pie.   At one stand I saw some of the most beautiful onions or leeks I have ever seen: glossy red and white bulbs below perfect greenery.  They looked like they ought to be immortalized in a still life oil painting, they were that beautiful.    There were five different kinds of potatoes, including baby blue potatoes.  By the time I got there, just before noon, all the sweet corn was gone.  Next week, I will go earlier.

Between the Farmer's Market and my own harvest, we are eating very well.  I harvested some basil,  another three eggplant and another three cucumbers this morning.  The tomato plants have finally begun to set fruit and I am hoping to have my own tomatoes fairly soon.  Today, I prepared an excellent lunch using my own eggplant, some chicken, peppers, onions in a chicken broth sauce thickened with Half & Half and served over pasta.  I also prepared a cucumber and onion salad to serve with tonight's light supper of Italian confetti salad.


I haven't done any stitching today having spent most of the morning and early afternoon in the kitchen, preparing the above-mentioned salads and sauces, brewed some peach iced tea and starting some refrigerator pickles.  Other than that, I just been lazing about watching some old X-file episodes with my husband.