The Tea Party Continues

I am very glad to be finished with the rayon floss.  It is nasty and slippery stuff, with one strand or sometimes both coming out of the needle if one doesn't take a very firm hold of the needle. Such a firm grip tends to aggravate my  generally mild arthritis, especially in the recent damp weather.  And I dislike having to use the much shorter lengths of floss: a 12" cut instead of my usual 18" or 24" lengths.  Needing to re-thread my needle so frequently slows me down considerably.  And rayon floss doesn't lay as evenly and easily as cotton or silk or bamboo floss.  But I do have to admit that it looks rather nice as the wizard's robes.

I have been back stitching as I go along, so the design details are really popping.  I am still toying with ideas for doing the hair, beard and hat brim differently.  The notion of satin stitching the beard vertically in white and silver grey silks and then stitching the brim in white Wisper to change it into fur trim rather than a stiff brim, well, they still have an appeal.  But I won't make a final decision till after I am done with all the green of Momma dragon and the last of her brood.  Working on that should keep me busy for the rest of the week.

Still at The Dragon's Tea Party

I'd like to show you a bit more progress on The Dragon's Tea Party.  I have been moving very quickly on this piece and am pleased with my progress.  You can see the guest beginning to take shape, a wizard in purple robes and hat.  The purple is all done in the old discontinued DMC Rayon floss.  Luckily, I had the two purples required in my stash ... something of a miracle since I had only 7 skeins of rayon floss in all in stash.  It's not my favorite thing, being a nasty and slippery fiber.  I am using only 12" lengths of the stuff in an effort to tame it somewhat

I am holding off stitching the wizard's hat's brim and his hair and beard while I decide whether or not I want to use Whispers in white for the brim [thereby turning it into fur trim] and in grey for the hair and beard.  I need to check my stash of Rainbow Gallery fibers to see if I have enough for this project.  If I do decide to use the Whispers, I'll have to stitch them last anyway.  This is hardly a problem since there is so much else left to stitch.

Ladies Who Lunch

Well, not really!  But since Liz and I both work in the educational field we each get a minimum of 4 weeks off during the summer.  I celebrated my first day off by inviting Liz to join me for lunch at a favorite restaurant of mine, Lynch's here in North Rockland.  The food is always good, the standard is excellent.  Granted the dinner menu is more imaginative than the luncheon menu, but the starters are the same on both.

The Irish nachos are a messy must for any meal at Lynch's: baked potato skins topped with shredded corned beef, melted Irish cheddar cheese and a nice vinegary sauerkraut.  It's definitely, a high calorie treat best shared with a friend or two or three.  I am afraid we only managed to eat half of it between the two of us.  For our luncheon entree we both had the open face Reuben and for dessert cheese cake and tea.

Next door to the restaurant is a consignment shop.  Since Liz had never been in there, we dropped in to look around.

I try to stop in a least once a month or so to see what they have.  Most of the shop is devoted to women's clothing, shoes and handbags but there is a small section devoted to small furniture like accent tables and curio cabinets, to china and crystal and to high end costume jewelry.   The jewelry is a good source of embellishments for my needlework and every so often I find a nice piece of crystal, china or silver.  Liz found a lovely teapot to send to her sister for a birthday gift and I found this darling little doll's Blue Willow tea set from Japan that will make my granddaughter Piper a very happy little girl.