Rotation Report

In an effort to meet my gift deadline, I have doubled up on the Jacobean Elegance afghan and eliminated the class pieces from my rotation for the time being.  I am still including the smalls and the Quaker themed pieces in the rotation for variety.

Monday and Tuesday: BAP

Jacobean Elegance Afghan.   Four and a half blocks of 20 completed.  But I'll be stitching on this both Monday and Tuesday, so I hope to increase that count by another block before Wednesday.

Wednesday: Smalls
Sean's Name Tree ornament from M Designs.  I have finished the first "E" and started on the second.

Sandi's Sweet Shop in The Town Square series.

Thursday: Theme

Workbasket's Quaker Bat.   As with the Quaker Owl, I have two complete skeins and one partial skein in different dye lots of  the fiber I'll be using.  This time the color is Old Crow, a deep blue black.  I'm working on the wings first using the darkest of the dye lots.
Workbasket's  Quaker Squirrel.  

Friday: Sewing Finishes.  
Town Square ornament series: 

The Pet Store, 

The Quilt Shop  

The Silversmith

and a By the Bay Acorns: these are supposed to be acorns but I am thinking they look more like stylized flower buds than acorns.  I found this free By th Bay chart in a e-newsletter.  Aside from the fact that it does not appear to be what it purports to be, I think it's rather pretty.  I'll use it on the spring and summer tree.

Saturday & Sunday: get out of the stitching chair and do a wide variety of things: walk, exercise, antique, reorganize, put the garden to bed for the winter, feed and observe the backyard birds, read, visit friends and relatives, try a new restaurant, experiment with the recipes I have been downloading, host a high tea ... whatever.
Weekend Stitching: Stitcher's Choice: The Jacobean Afghan, see photo above,
Monthly Stitching: March entry from the Prairie Schooler Year Round leaflet [done], a name tree ornament and one more Town Square ornament.  These will be my smalls for all the Tuesdays this month.  In the unlikely event I finish all three before month's end, I'll pull my Fertile Circles Needle Book from the UFO basket.

Rotation Report

We are in the middle of a melt and freeze cycle with daytime temperatures in the 40s and 50s and night time temperatures in the low 20s.  It makes for slightly dicey morning commutes but I am still delighted to have Spring-like warmth during the day especially since it has been sunny as well.

I am dong a little better with sticking to the rotation.  But if I am going to meet my deadline of finishing the afghan in time to give it as a Mother's Day Gift, I am going to have to rob Peter to pay Paul.  I am going to have to devote most of my at-home stitching to the afghan as it takes about 7-9 hours of uninterrupted stitching to do each block.  There are 5 rows of 4 blocks, totaling 20 blocks.  When I plucked this project from the UFO pile, only three blocks had been stitched.  So with a mere 17 blocks to stitch in just a little over two month, I'll be deferring the class piece part of my rotation till late May

Monday: BAP

Jacobean Elegance Afghan.   I am close to finishing one more block, a bud.  I'll post a photo once the block is done.

Tuesday: Smalls

Prairie Schooler Year Round: March.  I have finished this piece, a shamrock.  Though to be more accurate, if you note the flowers, a clover.  I used Belle Soie silks instead of the charted DMC, as I did with the January and February entries in the series.  This time I used Enchanted Forest, Oatmeal Scone and Pecan Pie.

Sean's Name Tree ornament from M Designs.  Both "S"s are done and the first "E" is started.  This such an enjoyable stitch that I have to wonder why I have let it languish for a decade, buried at the very bottom of the WIP/UFO basket.




Sandi's Sweet Shop in The Town Square series.  I've pulled all the threads for this but have to go stash diving for some 36 ct. light blue linen.

Wednesday: Theme

  Workbasket's Quaker Bat.  Workbasket's  Quaker Squirrel.   Kitted up the Bat.

Thursday: Class Pieces 

Finish Mystic Smalls Tuffet and resume work on Victoria Sampler's Sturbridge Box.  Deferred to late May.

Friday: Sewing Finishes.  Did some Assembly line finishing of flat ornaments, including 1 small Prairie Schooler Santa ornament and the following 6 Town Square series ornaments: 

The Gourmet Shop

The Fishmonger's Shop

Flocking to Knit

The Pet Store: This one is almost done.  I just have to stitch on the cording and make a beaded hanger.

The Silversmith's Shop and The Quilt Shop are at the halfway point: the back pieces are done, enough cording is made for at least one of them.  Just need to do the fronts, whipstitch back and fronts together, apply cording and hangers.

Saturday & Sunday: get out of the stitching chair and do a wide variety of things: walk, exercise, antique, reorganize, put the garden to bed for the winter, feed and observe the backyard birds, read, visit friends and relatives, try a new restaurant, experiment with the recipes I have been downloading, host a high tea ... whatever.  Though the weather finally warmed up somewhat on Sunday, most of my weekend was spent at home.   And most of my stitching time was spent on finishing.  I am hoping to get to the sewing and assembly finishes of at least 20 projects this month.  I didn't get any finishing done in January and February so Ihave a lot of catching up to do.
Monthly Stitching: March entry from the Prairie Schooler Year Round leaflet [done], a name tree ornament and one more Town Square ornament.  These will be my smalls for all the Tuesdays this month.  In the unlikely event I finish all three before month's end, I'll pull my Fertile Circles Needle Book from the UFO basket.

Rotation Report

It is time again to report on my February rotation, if I can call it that.  I really spent the beginning of this short month concentrating on the Tuesday Smalls and on Workbasket's Quaker Owl to the exclusion of the other pieces in the rotation.

Monday: Jacobean Elegance Afghan.  I have finally pulled this out of the UFO pile, with only two days left in the month in which it was supposed to be the major focus of the rotation.  But better late than never.  Some small progress has been made.  The way this is going to play out is alternating rows of Flower, Bud, Bud, Flower and Bud, Flower, Flower, Bud.  I am finding it slow going because of the unwieldiness of the very large Q-snap frame.  I am going to have to get my floor stand out so I don't have to hold it.  Stitching two handed will be much quicker, if only my Q snap will fit in the clamps of the floor stand.

Tuesday: Smalls. PS Year Round [done], M Design's Name Tree for Sean [restarted, frogged and restarted yet again. all because of a knot on the back.  Both S's are done and I have started on the first E.  I'd say I have made a good start on this piece], Town Square series Sandi's Sweet Shoppe [kitted but not started], Mint Tea Towel [done, see Tuesday's post for photo].

Wednesday: Work basket's Quaker Animals.  Owl [done], Bat.

Thursday: Class Piece.   Victoria Sampler Mystic Smalls Biscornu/Tuffet.  Once completed, resume work on Victoria Sampler's Sturbridge Box. I didn't get to any of this so will be deferring it to the March goals list.

Friday: Sewing Finishes.

Another Finish and some WIPs.

Here is a photo of the finished Workbasket Quaker Owl.  I think it looks rather nice, especially when you consider that I ended up using three different dye lots of GAST Maple Syrup in the stitching of it: a dark dye lot for the outline [head, wings & claws], a medium dyelot for the eyes, and a light dye lot for the chest.  March's Quaker beast will be a bat and I have three cards of GAST Black Crow set aside for that project.

I am still plugging away at the Mint tea towel.  It has become something of a chore as I have lost my taste for the piece.  But it is part of a pair of towels intended as a gift and I really want it off my conscience.  I lost my way a bit at the top of the large leaf on the lower right, so I counted from my last solid reference point and stitched in the rest of the stem as my new reference point.  I'll be stitching the remaining leaves and flowers from there and when I stitch back down to the place where I lost my way, I will readjust the pattern to make it all come out sensibly.  Readjust sounds so much better than fudge, doesn't it.  It's all the confetti and fractional stitching that got to me as I attempted to stitch two leaves at once so I wouldn't have to change the thread in my needle so often.  I have learned my lesson: one leaf at a time and one row at a time.  It's the only way to keep everything in sync.

I have picked up the name tree for my son Sean again, abandoned over a decade ago when I noticed a small miscount.  Since frogging over one stitching is so very tedious, I set it aside for "just a little while".  Well, you can see how that worked out.  I started this ornament while he was still engaged.  He will be married 11 years in May and has three children ranging in age from seven down to two.  Now that I look at it carefully, I must have decided not to frog and to stitch the second S as a mirror image of the first, mistake included, and then just continue from there.  So, apparently, there's lots of readjusting going on with my current stitching.  Some weeks are like that.

First Report On An Entirely New Rotation

Although I haven't blogged much lately, I have been doing some stitching.  Nothing terribly ambitious though, between the lingering after effects of the flu and the adjustment to changes in my diabetes medication regimen, I have been experiencing dizzy spells and headaches.  I thought it best to stick to simple stitched projects.

BAP Monday:  The Jacobean Elegance Afghan.  I was in no mood for stitching in the early part of the last week.  And as for yesterday, I was still stitching simple stuff and didn't have the patience to take this large and bulky project to the sewing machine to bind the edges which tend to fray with continued handling.  Another reason I am avoiding the piece is that the only tool that seems to hold it taut for stitching is a fairly large Q-snap frame.  I am not a fan of Q-snaps, finding them very unwieldy.  I need patience to deal with them.  Headaches and dizzy spells are not particularly conducive to patience.

Smalls Tuesday: M Designs' Sean's Name Tree ornament, PS Year Round: February  and, time permitting, start Town Square Sandi's Sweet  Shop.  I was able to stitch on one of the simpler pieces in the rotation and actually managed to finish the Prairie Schooler Year Round for February, for my first stitching finish of the month.  I substituted Belle Soie Cinnamon Stick, Fern Frond and Sister Scarlet for the recommended DMC.  I used Belle Soie on the January piece as well and shall continue to substitute Belle Soie for DMC as I go through the year. I used the same 40ct raw linen for February as I did for January.  I have a large enough piece of this linen to stitch all twelve pieces.  I haven't decided whether I shall finish the series as door hangers, ornaments or flat fold stand ups.  

Theme Wednesday: Workbasket's Quaker Owl.  I bound the edges of the fabric and kitted this piece up and worked on the project for several days running.  It is a rather simple piece, stitched on the relatively  large count linen, and in only one floss ... just my speed as I adapt to a new medication regimen and continue to recover from the flu.  The fabric is a 28ct natural flax colored linen and I am using GAST Maple Syrup instead of the recommended Belle Soie Mud Pie.  I am using one dye lot of Maple Syrup for the fairly solid head, wings and claws and another dye lot for the Quaker motifs that make up the breast and eyes.  For some reason I have quite a few partial cards of Maple Syrup in my stash but none from matching dye lots.  This division seems the best way to use what I have and still have an aesthetically pleasing finish.   I am stitching from stash as much as possible again this year, so substitutions like this one will be the norm.  And since Belle Soie is a discontinued line, sold to a new owner and renamed, I figure I may as well use it up since I will never be able to get exact replacements.  It is a shame really, since I was very fond of the stuff.

Class Piece Thursday: Victoria Sampler's Sturbridge Box.  I haven't pulled this out yet.  As I mentioned above, I am concentrating on the simple stuff for the time being.

Finishing Friday:  I hope to do an assembly line day sometime this month, finishing all the ornaments I have on hand.  

Assessing January Goals, Setting February Goals

JANUARY GOALS: I added a few charts to the finished column this month.

Monday: The English Band Sampler DONE, DONE, DONE!   Need I say more?

Tuesday: Cross My Heart's Mint Tea Towel, M Design's Sean Name Tree Ornament and the Prairie Schooler Year Round: January.  Stalled on the Tea Towel.  I guess  had my fill of confetti and fractional stitches and never did get to the name tree ornament.  The PS piece is done.

Wednesday: Dragon Dreams' Dragon of The Summer Sky  DONE ! DONE! DONE!

Thursday: Victoria Samplers' Mystic Smalls.  I have completed the scissor fob and am working on the tuffet.  It is the tuffet that is stalling me.  My eyes are not as sharp as they used to be given a cataract and a touch of glaucoma.  I don't seem to be able to manage the blanket stitch so essential to hardangar on a 36ct linen anymore.  I will hang this up for a while:  till warmer weather when I will be able to stitch in a sunlit back yard rather than the artificial light of my living room.

Friday: Sewing Finishes

Saturday & Sunday: get out of the stitching chair and do a wide variety of things: walk, exercise, antique, reorganize, put the garden to bed for the winter, feed and observe the backyard birds, read, visit friends and relatives, try a new restaurant, experiment with the recipes I have been downloading, host a high tea ... whatever.  This month, my weekend activities included an Anniversary Weekend Getaway, browsing in antique and collectible shops of Cold Spring, running a mini-retreat for First Confession, and, less happily, attending the wake and funeral of one of my loyal volunteers.   I am gradually changing from being something of a hermit to being a bit more social.  I'll never be the  life of the party.  I am just not made that way.  But I was in danger of becoming a total recluse, which was hardly a healthy way to live.  I realize many of my weekend activities were work related but that's just the way it goes this time of year.  Work-related or not, it still means getting out of the office/classroom/home comfort zone, interacting with other human beings in a variety of ways ... so that's something.
Monthly Stitching: January entry from the Prairie Schooler Year Round leaflet and one more Town Square ornament.  The Prairie Schooler piece is DONE, as noted above, and I have kitted up Sandi's Sweet Shoppe from the Town Square series.

Crochet:  Liam's Crib Blanket is DONE.

That makes a total of   5  finishes this month.  I am one very satisfied stitcher.

FEBRUARY GOALS: Even though I have occasionally broken my own pattern, rotation stitching is working for me, so I'll be carrying on with it.  This month, I'll be starting a new rotation

Monday: Jacobean Elegance Afghan

Tuesday: Prairie Schooler Year Round: February and Sandi's Sweet Shop in The Town Square series.

Wednesday:   Workbasket's Quaker Owl

Thursday:  Resume work on Victoria Sampler's Sturbridge Box.

Friday: Sewing Finishes

Saturday & Sunday: get out of the stitching chair and do a wide variety of things: walk, exercise, antique, reorganize, put the garden to bed for the winter, feed and observe the backyard birds, read, visit friends and relatives, try a new restaurant, experiment with the recipes I have been downloading, host a high tea ... whatever.
Monthly Stitching: February entry from the Prairie Schooler Year Round leaflet and one more Town Square ornament.  These will be my smalls for all the Tuesdays this month.  In the unlikely event I finish both before month's end, I'll pull my Fertile Circles Needle Book from the UFO basket.

Weekly Rotation Report

The pieces remaining in my rotation this past week:

Dragon Dreams' The Dragon of the Summer Sky:  Done.  I confess I ignored everything else in the rotation to finish this piece.  The nearer I got to a finish, the more I wanted to concentrate on this project alone.  It often happens, in my stitching, that momentum just takes over and throws all my carefully formulated plans to the four winds.  I attached the last bead to the dragon on Friday morning

Prairie Schooler Year Rounds: January:  Done.  Since this piece was the next one closest to a finish after the dragon, I went ahead and got it stotched on Saturday morning

Cross My Heart's Mint Tea Towel:  Once I finished the dragon and the PS round, I switched my focus to this piece.  I'd like to start February with an entirely new rotation so that means finishing up everything in the current rotation.

Victoria Sampler Mystic Smalls Tuffet:  I am in serious denial when it comes to this piece.  I keep telling myself that it is just a matter of finding the right stitching spot with just the right slant of light and I'll be back to zipping through the blanket stitches in this hardangar project.  But the bald truth is that, until I have a cataract removed, my eyesight is just too poor to manage the closely spaced blanket stitch on 36ct linen.  I don't want to admit this fact because it would mean deferring the tuffet until sometime in Spring, after the Easter break during which I hope to have the surgery to remove the cataract.  Then, of course, there is the recovery period during which no stitching will take place.  I don't want to think about that either.  I'll give this project one more shot during the coming week but if I find myself slicing through untidy stitches and pulling out all the nubby bits of perle cotton once more, it's back into the "later" basket it goes.

As my rotation is shrinking down to just two pieces, the tea towel and the tuffet, I am adding Sean's Name Tree Christmas ornament from M Designs into the mix.  This UFO, my first attempt at over one stitching, was abandoned the over-dyed floss I was using, Needle Necessities' Victorian Christmas, was just variegated enough to trick my eyes and to have me making all sorts of counting mistakes.  That was decades ago and I have since logged many hours with over dyed fibers and with over one stitching,  I think it is time to pull it out and finish it!  I am determined to whittle my list of UFOs and WIPs from previous years to nothing at all.  That will still leave all my class projects to complete.  Technically, they are all UFOs as well but I tend to think of them as an entirely separate category.

Weekly Round-Up: Rotation Stitching Photos

With The English Band Sampler in the finish column, these are the remaining projects

Liam's Crib Blanket: This piece was finished on January 11.  Having spent the weekend in the poorly lit rooms of a circa 1830 inn, I was unable to work on any cross stitch projects in the evening after dinner and was glad I had brought the blanket along.  I had intended to crochet on the trip back and forth to Cold Spring since I am no longer able to stitch in a moving car.  The pattern for the blanket is so repetitive that strong light is not an issue.  I can pretty much stitch this pattern on auto-pilot; all that's required is muscle memory.  I admit this is not the greatest photo, but it is terrible out doors: a mix of freezing rain, icy pellets and sleet.  Indoor lighting in a townhouse with windows only at front and back makes for awful photographs.  As you can tell my indoor light has a very yellowish cast.  The blanket is blue and off-white.  The crochet pattern is a variation on hounds tooth, both in the body and the border, with a chain stitched ruffle to finish it off.  

Dragon Dreams' The Dragon of the Summer Sky:  Stitching on this both Monday and Wednesday made for a nice little burst of progress.  I am done with the detested rayon stitching.  Stitching with the remaining DMC cotton, Kreinik metallic and the Caron Waterlilies silk will be an ecstatic experience by comparison.  I know I have done a lot of complaining about stitching with rayon but even I will admit that it does add interest to the piece.  There are some purists in the stitching world that insist a piece be stitched in one and only one fiber, either all cotton, or all silk, or all bamboo, or whatever.  But I do like the effect of mixing fibers in a project.  I believe it gives it texture and pleases the eye.

Cross My Heart's Mint Tea Towel: I let this lapse in favor of the Prairie Schooler Year Round for January..

Victoria Sampler's Mystic Smalls Tuffet: I didn't get back to this at all this past week.

A little non-rotation stitching:  I realized the month was half gone and that I hadn't started my Prairie Schooler Year Round for the month of January [one of my annual goals].  I found myself some 40 count linen in a nice neutral color, Summer Khaki, and began January's piece.  Instead of the recommended DMC, I am using Belle Soie silks, Oatmeal Scone for the half moon and Cake for the star.  And I am stitching with one strand over two threads.  These small rounds are meant to be stitched on black linen but I prefer to avoid the eyestrain that stitching on black causes.  The point is to enjoy one's stitching rather than to endure it.  In any case, I have been enduring quite enough what with the above-mentioned rayon.  I simply refuse to endure any further trials and tribulations.

Looking to the weekend:  Since the Dragon is now my "closest to a finish" large piece, it will be the weekend choice project.  Although, I'll have to work a mini-retreat for First Confession on Saturday, I'll be off on Monday for Martin Luther King Day.  I'll have more stitching time to drag the dragon closer to the finish line.

Weekly Rotation Report

Another week has flown by.  It was really tough to go back to work after a two week recess.  Just nine more months till retirement and so the count down begins.  I feel like a child ticking off the days till summer vacation.

I am thinking that, for this rotation, as I finish a project, I shall simply concentrate on the remaining ones until nearly all the projects in this rotation are done.  I am willing to carry the Mystic Smalls tuffet forward to the next rotation since I find it so hard to get back into the rhythm of hardangar stitching.  But I'd like to finish the other four before  I start a new rotation with fresh projects.  That way, at least, I'll have a few finishes with which to start my year properly.

The English Band Sampler:  It is Done, Done, Done.  See 1/7/15 post.  I am currently in e-mail contact with Jill Rensel to see about getting this framed in one of her wonderful frames with a hand painted mat.  Here is the better photo as promised.  Many thanks to my husband for standing in the Arctic cold temps so I could get an outdoor photo.  Click on the image to view an enlarged version. Until I winnow this rotation down to just the Mystic Smalls Tuffet, I'll be stitching the dragon on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Liam's Crib Blanket:  Again, not very much done on this piece during the last week.  I have been concentrating on my cross stitch projects.  

The Mint tea towel: So little done on this piece this week that it is not photo worthy.

Dragon Dreams' The Dragon of the Summer Sky: I finished the fill stitching of the body of my dragon with the rayon floss and then started on the rayon stitching in the wings.  I will be so very happy when I am done with all the rayon in this mostly rayon project.  Ever since I opened up a new skein of the stuff, I have been having difficulties.  The wretched stuff is snagging on itself which makes for uneven tension which makes for frogging which makes for shredding.  But I am determined to follow the old rule of childhood: save the best for last.  That means I am going to finish all the rabid rayon before I move on to the delights of Caron Waterlilies.  It sounds masochistic but I'd rather grit my teeth and get through the aggravating stuff in one fell swoop instead of having to deal with repeated small bursts.  Like Lando of Babylon 5, I'd rather not be nibbled to death by ducks.

Mystic Smalls Tuffet: I have ripped my start on this three times already ... I can't seem to keep my stitching even in length and in tension.  Let's hope that the fourth time I finally get it right.  It's been so very long since I did any hardanger stitching that I am having a hard time getting back into the rhythm of the technique.  Wish me luck.

What with my troubles with the rayon and the hardangar, this has not been a stellar stitching week but I am still managing to make steady progress.  I believe I will make the dragon and the crib blanket my weekend choice projects since those are the two projects nearest to completion.  It would be lovely to have two more finishes this month.  But I am not counting on it!

What's Next?

I am closing in on finishes for the larger pieces in my stitching rotation.  Not quite yet, but soon.  It's time to do a little browsing through the binders to pick the next pieces for the rotation.  

Monday's piece is a BAP so the logical choice is Piper's Christmas Stocking.  But I may be rethinking the whole plan of adapting a Dimensions Gold design not meant for a stocking.  I have a feeling I'll be browsing some sites for stocking charts.  I know I want to order Teresa Wentzler's Woodland Santa stocking for Rocco.  I may find something equally suitable for Piper.  It'll break my rule about ordering new charts, but, hey, we're talking grandchildren here!  But if I do choose to order new charts, what shall I stitch in the meantime?  The Jacobean Elegance Afghan hasn't seen any action in quite a while and, if finished by April or May, it would make a great birthday or Mother's Day gift for my Mom.  

Tuesday's piece is always a small.  Once I've finished the Mint tea towel, I'll have to choose another small chart.  I have Sean's Name Tree ornament from M Design's in my stitching bag.  That will do nicely and will carry on a long standing practice of mine of doing a little Christmas stitching in January.  After that, it'll be the Prairie Schooler Year Rounds and Town Square ornaments.

Wednesday's piece follows a theme.  In 2014, it was dragons.  I think, in 2015, it shall be Workbasket's Quaker animals.  I haven't worked on the charts for my quilt in a very long time indeed.

The class piece for Thursday's is an easy pick: Victoria Sampler's Sturbridge Box.  I'll be taking a class with Thea Dueck in October and would like to have as many of her pieces done for Show & Tell night as possible.Here is a photo of the completed box lid.  I do have to frog out one heart in the upper right corner and re-stitch it correctly.

The second photo is one of the side panels of the lid.  The remaining three panels finish up the alphabet.    Once all the pieces of the box are stitched, there are the stitching accessories that go in it left to stitch: scissor case and fob, needle book and pin cushion.  This should keep me busy on Thursdays for several months to come.  

I'll keep Fridays for sewing and assembly finishing.  I really do have quite a lot of that to do.

Some Progress Photos

Here's the current progress on the pieces in my rotation.

The English Band Sampler:  I started on the blue flowers flanking the coral pansy.  I should be able to finish these flowers on Monday when the sampler next comes up in the rotation.  It is looking good for a finish this month.  Though perhaps I shouldn't jinx myself by saying so.  After all, there are still the final stitches on the flowers, the spiral border and some more vining to stitch.  

Liam's Crib Blanket: Technically, this isn't in the rotation but I do work on it in the evenings when I am too weary to do more complex work.  There's no point in showing a photo: 50 rows of hounds tooth patterned crochet looks pretty much like 15 rows of the same.  There's simply more of it.

The Mint Tea Towel: I've barely made a start on this piece but it will be my chosen weekend project since I'd like to have it done by Little Christmas as a gift for my secretary.

Dragon Dreams' Dragon of the Summer Sky.  I spent a very quiet New Year's Eve concentrating on this project and got a substantial amount of fill stitching done.  I am still not a fan of rayon floss, or rabid  rayon, as I continue to think of it.  But I seem to be plowing through the stuff at a steady pace.  There's still quite a bit to go though: the ribs of the wings, a bit more of the body and neck, and of course, the face.

Mystic Smalls:  The Needle Book is done.  I am rather pleased with the ribbon embroidery on this piece.  I am finally getting the hang of it. The seed stitched leaves are really rather fine now that I've learned to control the size and draw the ribbon through very slowly and steadily.  It's taken me long enough to master the technique.  The needle book was my last finish of 2014.

Yesterday, I finished the scissor fob.  This meant more ribbon embroidery.  Happily, my success working with silk ribbon on the needle book wasn't a fluke.  I really do seem to have finally figured out the  proper technique.

Unhappily, I seem to have lost my knack for hardangar.  My third attempt at the blanket stitch outline of the biscornu in this series of smalls still looks wonky and will have to be cut out and restarted.  It's been so long since I've done this sort of thing that my tension is all off and I am failing to keep the stitches even in size when I make turns..

Rotation Stitching To Date

Over the pre-Christmas weekend, it was stitcher's choice and I chose to jump around quite a bit:  I made a little bit of progress on several pieces but nothing worthy of a photograph.  All, in all, it was a very simple and relaxing weekend: just some very easy stitching while watching a marathon of an old PBS series, The Duchess of Duke Street.  In short, it was a hermitting weekend.

Then came Christmas week:

Monday, it was back to The English Band Sampler, picking up from where I frogged out the errors.   When last seen this flower was a mere outline, now it is quite filled in.  I stitched a few more curlicues around the acorns and stems.  Now, that I have relaxed and stopped stressing over when I will finish this piece, I have begun to make discernible progress again.I also spent a little time cutting all the boards for the stitched ornaments.

On Tuesday, I finished the Sage tea towel.and kitted up the Mint towel.  The pair of tea towels was meant to be a Christmas gift for my secretary, but clearly I didn't get it done in time.  She'll have to wait till little Christmas, The Feast of The Epiphany, on January 6.

Then on Wednesday it was back to stitching on the dragon with the result that page 1 of the chart is completely done but for a few beads that will just have to wait till all the stitching on page 2 is done.  I have gotten a good start on page 2: the breast plates; the scales along shoulders, neck and head; some of the fill stitching and a bit of the face are done.  Of course, that still leaves the wings, shoulder, front claws, neck and face to be completed as well as a bit more scenery.  I doubt this will be finished in 2014 but it may very well be the first 2015 finish.  I do have yet another reason to despise rayon fiber: it is the very devil to frog.  No matter how carefully one picks the stitches, the wretched stuff shreds, leaving one with a fuzzy tail useless for weaving under existing stitches.  The only option is to lay it carefully on the underside of the linen and ever so delicately stitch over it, avoiding bringing any of the fuzzy mess to the front of the linen as one pulls one's stitches.

Then on Thursday, I worked on the Mystic Smalls and finished up the cross stitching and over one stitching on the needle book.Now, all that's left is the ribbon embroidery.  I'll tackle that tomorrow, since the Sage tea towel has dropped out of the rotation.  [I have deferred the Mint Tea Towel to January's rotation.]  With luck the needle book will be my final finish in 2014.

I didn't do any rotation stitching on Friday and so have no assembly finishes to show.  I did page through some of my baby and toy charts to pick out a design for a bib and a burp towel for my great-nephew Liam who is now weighing in at 3 pounds, having gained a full pound since his birth in November.  He is off the ventilator and is strong enough to have yanked out his feeding tube.  The NICU nurses, of course, replaced it immediately.  But it's good to know that Liam is a tough little guy and a fighter.  I have decided on a train motif for the burp towel: a locomotive pulling four flat cars carrying the letters L - I - A - M and a caboose bringing up the rear.  I will probably just use the same alphabet to stitch Liam's name on the bib.

As to the weekend goal of doing some non-stitching activities, I tried a new recipe: Egg Nog Pancakes from cooking.com.  I can't call it an unqualified success.  Though my husband enjoyed them, I found them both too sweet and too heavy.  I also detected a slight metallic aftertaste but I am guessing that was due to baking powder past its prime.  I'll be putting that on the shopping list before I bake again.  While still in a cooking frame of mind, I made a tray of stuffed pasta shells.  Then I puttered about the house, decluttering a closet, reorganizing my kitchen counter space and cleaning out the refrigerator and oven.