Still Sampling

I am determined to complete this sampler this month.  Yes, I know I have said the very same thing every month since January but this time I really mean it.  Of course, if I end up failing to finish this month, I will "really mean it" when I say I'll finish in October.  Oh, the lies I tell myself about my ability to stretch time!  And for all you serene and placid philosophers who will gently remind me that it is all about the journey and not the destination ... well, all I can say is: I am far too flawed and obsessive and goal-oriented to subscribe to that nonsense notion.  I'd say "Bah, humbug!" or "Damn your eyes!" or some other tasty 18th/19th century Brit type imprecation in reply to the philosophers but that would be insufferably rude.  Can you tell that I've been reading [and watching] quite a bit of British fiction lately and some of the quaint phrasing is seeping into my own daily speech.  So much more amusing than the bald and overused-to-the-point-of-blandness effing this and effing that.  But I digress.  And isn't that last sentence a charmingly self-conscious mouthful?  Wordplay is such fun!

But this is a stitching blog, after all.  So back to the topic: I've been working on the spiral border.  It's been a two steps forward, one step backward sort of progress with nearly as much frogging as stitching going on.  I seem to have hit a slump when it comes to the more complex stitching that I love.  I think all the stress on the job has made me less competent so far as my stitching is concerned.  I trust this is a temporary condition and that as soon as things smooth out a bit at work, I'll be back to my old self.  Right now I am frogging the top leg of the border.  I've frogged and restitched the middle upright twice and may have to make some minor correction on the far right upright as well.Satin stitching the spirals has been a rather fussy and mistake-ridden affair.  I look forward to satin stitching the fill, once I finally get the outline done.  It's a much more relaxing and error free task.