The Dragon Takes Flight

The dragon's wings were stitched over the long holiday weekend ... and, oh, what a joy it was to stitch with Kreinik Very Fine Braid and Caron silk.  But that wasn't all: the head and neck and most of the foreleg are stitched as well.  When I pick this up again on Wednesday, I'll finish the last little bit of background and tackle the rest of the back-stitching.  Forgive the poor photo.  Indoor lighting has given the piece a very yellowish cast bit at least you can see how mucch progress was made.

I am closing in on another finish this month as a result of the extra stitching time during Martin Luther King Day.  What a difference from 2014, when I had my first finish in April.  It looks like I'll have four, and possibly more, in January alone in 2015.

Wednesday Report

Tuesday's rotation piece: the Sage tea towel.  Unfortunately, I was unable to stitch at all yesterday.  There was simply too much going on at work.

Today's piece is Dragon Dreams' The Dragon of The Summer Sky.  I made tremendous progress over the weekend but it is unlikely I will manage a single stitch today.  I started my day at 8:00 a.m. prepping for a breakfast meeting that I hosted for the Regional Catechetical group.  Following that meeting, we moved on to the Regional Christmas luncheon at a local restaurant.  That took us up to 2:00 p.m.    On the way back to the office, I picked up the 3 foot hero for the parish Catechist Christmas meeting/party.  Once back at the office I cleaned up the meeting room and set it up again for the second event and then ran out for the trimmings: more paper goods, beverages and Christmas baked goods.  Then, labelled all the catechist Christmas presents [thank the Lord, they were already wrapped] and got the meeting materials ready: the agenda and the handouts.  The party ended around 9:30 p.m.  I am way too old for 13+ hour workdays  Normally, the regional Christmas meeting/luncheon is on the 1st Wed. in December and the catechetical program is the second.  It's just my luck that the year I host the regional event, they fell on the same day.

I am really looking forward to this weekend but I fear I will be in a state of total collapse for most of it.  I still have my Christmas cleaning and decorating to do.  That was the plan anyway.  We shall see if it comes to pass.

It's that time of year: a lot going on in the parish for Advent and Christmas.  And it will only get more hectic.  Next week is the last week of classes before the break.  We start off with a Pancake Breakfast with Santa after all the Sunday Masses, the Advent Reconciliation services on Monday, classes on Tuesday and Thursday with all the usual Christmas hoopla for the younger children.   Wednesday evening is the parish dinner at the rectory.  I am exhausted just thinking about it, especially since the plan for the following weekend is to do my Christmas food shopping and cooking and baking.  Gift shopping is a breeze, at least: my adult children just want American Express gift cards and I shop for my grandchildren on the Internet and have their gifts mailed directly to them.  I expect to be worn quite thin by Christmas but hope to avoid the Bah, Humbug spirit.  Come to think of it, I have a cross stitch chart of those famous Dickensian words.  Maybe this will be the year to stitch it.

Rotation Progress

Wednesday's rotation piece was the last of my Dragon Dreams charts: The Dragon of the Summer Sky.

Wednesday morning, I kitted it up with the suggested fibers.  The fabric I am using is one of the bargain purchases made at Chris' Collections retirement sale, a 28ct Jobelan Blue Wing instead of the 28ct Zweidart Luguna in slate that was suggested.  The colors are quite close.  Happily, I had all of the Kreinik already in stash. One of the advantages of having a fairly extensive fiber and fabric stash is that kitting up is accomplished without the long wait for mail-order bits and pieces.  I do like being able to start a piece while the mood is upon me.

Of course most of my pre-work stitching hour was taken up by measuring, cutting and binding the edge of the fabric and gathering all the necessary fibers and beads from stash.  The result: was that very little actual stitching was done.  But, I was able to stitch for a portion of my lunch break and for a few hours after dinner, with this result.  Since I made this the stitcher's choice piece for the weekend, I was able to get a really flying start with nearly 1/3rd of the design complete.

Thursday's rotation piece was the Victoria Smalls Class Project from my first Stitcher's Hideaway, the Mystic Smalls.  I didn't have much more than an hour to stitch on Thursday, so the progress is minimal.  Still, it felt good to pick up this 8 year old class project.  For some reason, this photo isn't uploading and I haven't the time to figure out why or to take another shot.  I'll try again this evening after work.

It's been a very long while since I last worked on this project.  I haven't taken a stitch in it since February of 2013.  So, it feels fresh and new again.  I intend to spend the next months reacquainting myself with old class projects and hope, by the end of 2015, to have whittled my sidebar list down to just three or four.

I'll be taking another class with Thea Dueck in October of 2015 and I want to finish up all my previous class pieces from Victoria Sampler so that I have something appropriate to share at show and tell.  That means I'll want to finish this set of smalls, the Sturbridge Box and accompanying smalls and a Christmas  sampler.  I also have an Autumn sampler from her farm series in stash that I'd like to stitch, time permitting.  I realize this is a rather ambitious plan but I will just do as much as I can and be content with whatever progress I make.

Friday's rotation was sewing finishing.  Again, not much time was spent on stitching, so all I managed was to work a bit more on a tote using Mehitabel's Redwork Sampler as it's focal piece.  I'll post a photo of the final finish next week.

And the weekend goal of finding a life beyond the stitching chair was met by
1] visiting my mother and bringing her my annual pre-Christmas gift of a potted mini-Christmas tree.
2] sorting out some books to donate to the local public library's swap room. I'll probably ask my husband to bring them on down on his way to the Historical Society on Wednesday

As noted above, Saturday and Sunday was stitcher's choice and I worked on The Dragon of the Summer Sky.

Monday's rotation piece was The English Band Sampler: I think I am going to have to frog some of the interior of this flower.  Things aren't quite lining up.  So it's two steps forward and one step backward.

This has been a very long post, so I think I'll save Tuesday's progress photo till I've made a bit more progress.  Look for it tomorrow.  Meanwhile, don't forget to check out the sampler charts giveaway in the previous post if you haven't already done so..

Another Dragon Dreams Finish

The last stitch was put in The Dragon of the Winter Moon late this evening.   I enjoyed stitching this piece but I think I am done with dragons for the next little while.  I had intended to start The Dragon of the Summer Sky this month as it is the companion piece to The Dragon of the Winter Moon.  But I think I will hold off on that for the time being.  For one thing, I don't have a suitable 28 ct linen in my stash.  For another, I really want to concentrate on The English Band Sampler for the rest of the month or until it is done, whichever comes first.

I am hoping to persuade my husband to take a day trip to Hyde Park while I am on summer break.  I'd like to visit The Deer Hill Farm Cross Stitch shop.  I have ordered from them before but have never been to the shop.  It's the closest thing to an LNS in the area.  But it's not the only reason to visit Hyde Park.  There is the FDR house and Culinary Institute of America.  If they serve lunch at CIA, adding that to the day's activities would be a real treat.  But if not, maybe we could find a B and B in the area and do a one night - two day get away and have dinner at CIA.  Granted, my main reason for the trip would still be the LNS visit.  I need the right fabric for the Dragon and for the remaining Quaker animals for my quilt, I need to get a few items framed.  And I have been wanting a good sturdy magnifying lamp for sometime.  But visiting the local sights would be fun and go a ways toward justifying the hour and a half trip in each direction..

Progress on July Goals

As the month winds down to a close, I am moving along on all of my July goals.  Here are a few progress photos to document that claim:

Dragon Dreams' The Dragon of the Winter Moon.  She now has firm ground on which to stand.  I have finished the mountain ranges, all but the beading.  And I have finished work on the castle in the background.   Though the chart does not call for back-stitching the castle, I am considering doing so.  Switching the fabric from the charted Zweigart Colonial Blue to Silkweaver's Sudden Storm has lessened the contrast values somewhat.  I think some back-stitching is needed to restore the balance.  Opinions, anyone?  Otherwise, since I make it a practice to back-stitch as I go along, I am caught up with the back-stitching of the dragon's body.  Just the wings with backstitching, the moon and the beading to go.  I am debating whether I want to stitch the moon in the Kreinik Vatican Gold Very Fine Braid [106] as charted.  It just doesn't seem right.  I am considering doing the moon in Kreinik Opalescent White Very Fine Braid [032] or in the Marlitt white [800].  The moon I see in the night sky is white not gold!

SANQ's The English Band Sampler  The first two motifs of Band 7 are complete, as well as the garland that ties together several more motifs.  For now, this sampler will be part of a three project rotation.  But as of August 1, I intend to make it my main focus until it is finally done.  I began working on this sampler in August of 2012 and intend to have it finished in August 2014.  I can't remember when it has taken me so long to complete a single piece, not counting class projects.  For some reason, I seem to lose interest in class projects almost as soon as I get home and unpack from a retreat.  I don't know whether it is because I am incredibly fickle or because I just have so many other projects going at home that require my attention.  Go figure!

Indy 2006 Town Square Series' The Silversmith Shop.  I made a start on this on 7/26 and it is moving much more quickly than Cafe du Monde.  Happily, there is not a confetti stitch in sight.  For the most part, this piece is stitched in blocks of color, with all the shading accomplished by using over dyed floss.

Sewing and Assembly Finishes.  I plan on spending a few hours at the sewing machine after breakfast.  I have a dozen or so ornaments, a throw pillow and two small pin pillows in my finishing pile.  It remains to be seen how many of these projects I manage to get to today.  I will post photos at the end of the day.

IN THE GARDEN:
I had a tidy little harvest this morning: three cucumbers, 5 baby eggplant and a good sized sprig of miniature basil.  I'll be using the eggplant and basil at lunch, sauteed with onions, peppers and pignoli nuts, moistened with a bit of chicken stock and half & half and served over farfale [bow tie pasta].  The cucumbers will be thinly sliced with onion and dressed with a light vinaigrette as a salad to accompany lunch.

Tuesday's Tasks and Wednesday's Work

Since I am wrapping things up at work before summer break, I ended up working through my lunch hour and may end up doing so again today.  That means a little less stitching time.  So I don't have much progress to show.

The only piece I actually did get time to work on yesterday was The Dragon of the Winter Moon.  I did finish up the blade at the end of the tail and filled in a bit more of the icy mountain range below the dragon.  I know it is hard to see but there has been progress.  That's one of the reasons I backstitch as I go along.  It helps me to "find my place" as we used to say in grade school. I've decided this dragon's name is Luna.  I had first thought it might be Selena but I realized soon enough that Selena wasn't a strong enough name for this matriarch who curls so protectively and alertly in her mountain stronghold.

We are expecting some rain later in the day.  I am hoping it holds off till evening since I'd like to finish the first motif on The English Band Sampler after work.  The soft light of 5:30 to 7:00 pm is perfect for stitching on the patio.

But if that doesn't work out, there is always The Silversmith's Shop or some sewing and assembly projects to work on indoors.

Monday Miscellany

No photos today: the camera is recharging.

Stitching:

I have made some progress on The Dragon of the Winter Moon: the shading on the tail and back haunches is done and a start on the blade of the tail.  I hope to finish the tail and finish work on the mountain range done in Kreinik very fine braid today.

Because the end of the month is approaching and I want to make a serious attempt at meeting all the stated July goals, I finally kitted up The Silversmith Shop from the Town Square series.  I plan to get to stitching on it sometime toward the end of this week.

Gardening:

I have harvested two more cucumbers and am very impatiently tracking the growth of 7 eggplants, the largest of which is only 4" long and the smallest, less than 1".  Still nothing but blossoms on the tomato plants.  I begin to wonder if the neighbors trees are blocking the sun to the extent I will no longer be able to raise vegetables even in my raised [3 1/2'] planter boxes.  The soil gets warm enough but I am probably not getting enough full sun.  I may have to start planting the vegetables in the front yard planter box but then I will have to worry about pilferage.

Work

Just three more days till summer break!  The count down begins.  End of the school year tasks are very nearly done.  Life is good.

RAKs. The English Band Sampler and The Dragon of the Winter Moon

First I want to thank Linda from Albany, NY and Dani from Canada for sending me Marlitt floss.  I am able to complete The Dragon of the Winter Moon thanks to you ladies.

I especially want to acknowledge Dani's totally unexpected gift of a small cut of fabric which will make the perfect backing for my Here Be Dragons pin pillow and a fabulous scissor fob complete with small dragon, all enclosed in a beautiful mermaid card that accompanied the Marlitt floss.

The series of thunderstorms that plagued us for a week has finally passed on.  The patio was dry and comfortable Thursday morning and I should have gotten a bit of stitching done before I had to leave for work at 8:45am.  It's great living less than a ten minute drive from the office.  But, I had a wakeful night and ended up sleeping in till it was time to dress for work.  But the weather continued to be fine on Friday and Saturday.  So, I did get plenty of stitching time in optimum light on my patio.  What could be better than stitching in a comfortable chair, with a flask of iced peach infused ice tea, and entertained by birdsong.

The eyelets are done, done, done!!! I am so happy, I could sing and dance and sing some more.   I even managed to stitch the chain border between Bands 6 and 7 on Friday.  Band 7 is another densely stitched and intricately designed band.  It looks like loads of fun.  I expect the enjoyment quotient of this piece is about to sky rocket.  I did manage to get a start on the first motif on Saturday evening though I spent most of Saturday on my latest dragon.    The first motif was offset by one thread.  I know this was done to balance the design but it just seems so wrong, violating all the rules.  I will divide my Sunday stitching between sampler and dragon.

And, now for the dragon: Thanks to the lovely ladies mentioned at the top of this post, I had the Marlitt to stitch a good bit of the dragon's body.  There is still the shading of the tail to fill in and both wings to stitch as well as the blade at the end of the tail.  And, of course I need to finish up the mountain range beneath the dragon and the castle in the background as well as the moon.  Then there is the back stitching and the beading.  I guess I am just a little bit more than halfway done with this piece.   I plan to stitch the shading of the tail as well as the blade at its tip on Sunday and then spend the remainder of the time on the sampler.

The Dragon Of The Winter Moon

Thanks to Linda from Albany area, I have some Marlitt and have started to fill in the main body of the dragon.  Luckily, two other cyber stitching friends have offered me skeins of Marlitt.  I believe I am going to need it all.  The skeins aren't very long and Marlitt only has four strands.  I anticipate needing at least a skein and a half more then the full skein Linda sent and the nearly full skein I had had on hand.

Since last seen, I have, as noted above, started filling in the body and I have stitched a bit more of the Kreinik icy mountain range.

A Very Mixed Bag

Thursday, I took a sick day because I either had the flu or heatstroke.  The symptoms were stomach and intestinal distress, light headedness, headache and nausea.  So I pampered myself indoors with a/c, lots of decaffeinated beverages and ibuprofen.   Didn't feel up to driving to work or concentrating on things like registrations and writing family catechesis programs once I got there.  So I stayed home and I  did only the simplest of activities, which included reading Catherine Coulter's new FBI thriller, Power Play, and making some light meals.  I wasn't feeling much better on Friday and repeated the pampering routine.

A highlight of Friday afternoon was the arrival of my package from 123 stitch.  It contained an additional portable stitching lamp, some clip on magnifiers [1.5x and 3.0x] and the threads I need to kit up The Dragon of the Summer Sky and The Silversmith's Shop as well as one Caron Waterlily, Blue Lavendar, that I need for The Dragon of the Winter Moon.  I still need to order the charm for The Silversmith's Shop but I'll be ordering that from a not so local needlework shop here in NY state.

I was feeling a bit better by Saturday and did get some stitching done..

I got quite a bit done on The Dragon of the Winter Moon on Sunday.  I learned something new from a blogging friend, D.B., who stitched some models for Jennifer Aiken-Smith of Dragon Dreams.  All of the Dragon Dreams dragons are female.  Just an interesting factoid I am passing on to you readers.  I have to apologize to all the dragons I have stitched in the past and to whom I have referred as male.  Yesterday, I received a skein of Marlitt white from Linda, so I will begin filling in the body of the dragon.  Linda was one of three lovely stitching cyber friends who offered to give me a skein.  Two other lovely ladies did a search for sources in Britain and Australia.  The stitching community is a very generous one.  There is always help to be found when needed.

And Monday morning, it was dry enough for me to get in an hour of stitching on the patio before heading to work.  I used the time to work on The English Band Sampler.  I worked on Band 6 and finished up the sixth block of eyelets and satin stitches and then continued on to stitch the satin stitches on the remaining two blocks.  Now all I have to do is stitch the eyelets on those last two blocks.  We are expecting thunderstorms through Wednesday but I am hoping for another dry morning or two.  Even with clip-on magnifiers, I need good strong daylight to work on this phase of Band 6.

 As to gardening: my patio pots of chives, thyme, rosemary and basil are doing pretty well.  I have already harvested my first cucumber and there are three more ready to harvest within the day or so.  Some of the eggplant blossoms have set fruit, and the tomato plants have a fair amount of blossoms but haven't set fruit just yet.  The pepper plants are not doing much of anything, which is a disappointment.  One of my flower boxes is coming along nicely but for some reason all but one of my marigolds up and died on me.  I will probably plant some peas for an early fall harvest on Thursday once the thunderstorms pass through and maybe a row or two of radishes, lettuce and carrots.  I'd like to keep the salad stuff coming.

Here is a shot of some tomato plants guarded my my garden dragon you can also see the lone surviving marigold and a pot of small lavender flowers, whose name I forget at the moment.  I picked them up at the nursery just because I thought they were pretty.  I am afraid I am not one of those expert gardeners who remembers all the botanical nomenclature and can reel off name after name with the greatest of ease.

 I am going to have to call in the landscapers again very soon.  The trees above the retaining wall are blocking the sun.  It's been three years now since I had them come in and cut away some of the lower branches.  It would seem it is time to do so again.

In this shot you can just make out a very tiny eggplant to the left and to the right, my miniature basil is thriving.

In this shot, you can see that my patio pots of chives, thyme, and parsley are doing pretty well.    To the right of the herbs are my mini-Christmas tree which has grown from one of those 12" potted trees tp it's present 2 1/2 feet and one of my tomato plants, a new variety to me, with a very un-tomato like leaf.

A Progress Photo

Dragon Dreams' Dragon of The Winter Moon.  I substituted an over dyed Silkweaver 28 ct linen in the colorway Storm for the suggested 28ct Zweigart Colonial Blue.  This over dyed linen has a medium to light grey base with mottling in darker grey and grey blue.  To my way of thinking this is perfect for an early evening winter sky.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post I had very nearly every fiber and bead needed to kit this up already in stash.  I am just waiting on one Caron Waterlilies and one package of Mill Hill beads to complete the kit.   I might also need some additional white Anchor Marlitt rayon floss which, of course, is a discontinued line.  I am never very good at guesstimating when partial skeins are involved.  So, yesterday morning, I sent out the word via blog and message board that I'd appreciate another skein, if anyone can spare one.  So far three generous stitcher's have replied.  But if I can't get a good match, I already have an alternate solution in mind.  I'll use the Marlitt for the body of the dragon but I will use DMC Satin white for the wings.  That way any differences will look intentional and not the result of my being scatterbrained.  In any case, I have started the piece with the supplies on hand and this is my current progress.

When this dragon is done, he will be quite the glittering fellow.  There are five shades of Kreinik in this piece and two shades of glass seed beads.  Happily, I have no problem working with metallics and I love beading.  I am delighted with the way things look even at this early stage.

Another Dragon Finish

Here Be Dragons is done.

Now,  it will be on to the remaining goals for June:
1] to finish Cafe du Monde: I'll be working on this tonorrow.
2] to get the remaining eyelets and satin stitches in Band 6 done on The English Band Sampler.  This will be Sunday's project.
3] to get three sewing finishes done.  I'll try to squeeze these in on Monday but I am not all that confident that I'll manage all three.

That leaves just one day per goal.  I am not sure that is actually doable but I'll give it my best shot.

Another Dragon Emerges

I continued to work on Dragon Dreams' Here Be Dragons this morning before work.    It's amazing how much I can accomplish when the husband is still abed.    Not only did I stitch, I did two loads of laundry and a load of dishes ... and managed to get to work on time.

I expect to complete Here Be Dragons very soon thereby fulfilling at least one of this month's goals.  Then it is on to The Cafe du Monde with hopes of meeting another of the monthly goals.  If the neighbors don't destroy my opportunity to stitch on the patio over the weekend, I hope to be working on The English Band Sampler on Friday and Saturday.  If I can just finish the eyelets and satin stitches in Band 6 this month, I shall be quite happy with my progress.

He's Got the Whole World In His Hands

Well maybe, not the whole world, but as you can see, this little dragon has the Americas wrapped in his sinuous curves and his companion will handle the rest of the planet.  I spent an hour or so on my dragon this morning and made a fair amount of progress.  I still need to backstitch the land masses and the longitude and latitude lines.  The chart has all the back stitching done in DMC 823 but I am using DMC 3371 for the dragon, 823 for the globe and map lines and 890 for the land masses.  I think that this gives a cleaner, more distinctive look.  This is an amusing stitch and I look forward to adding it to my  little basket of smalls as a pin pillow.

I plan to spend the rest of my stitching time today out on the patio, working the remaining eyelets on The English Band Sampler.  But I have a number of errands to run first: the Verizon store to check out some new phones for when we renew our contract, the nursery for some garden and potting soil and some flower transplants for the front planter box, the post office to mail some postcard registration reminders for work and the hardware store to pick up some paint chips for the room I am renovating as an office for my husband.  I also want to make a lemon icebox pie for tonight's dessert and marinate some chicken for grilling this evening as well as weeding and planting up the front planter box.  So, a busy day ahead.  After a long winter of lazy weekends spent indoors watching DVDs and reading, it's nice to be active again.  I was beginning to think I'd take root on the couch.

And an update on my little silver cup from yesterday's post:  Every time I was dishes after a meal, I have been spending another few minutes polishing the cup.  I have been using Twinkle's silver paste polish since I didn't seem to be making any headway with Wright's liquid silver polish.  The cup is still pretty tarnished but I am seeing some improvement.  I wonder how much longer it will take to get it nice and clean and bright.  If any reader has a silver polish they swear by, I'd be happy to learn of it.  Otherwise, I think this project will require loads and loads of elbow grease.  I'll show another photo once it is all bright and shiny.

Here Be Dragons

I've always loved those prints of old maps with intricate calligraphy and drawings of sea monsters and the warnings of "beyond this point, there be dragons."  So this lovely little chart was made to order for me.  I am stitching it on 36ct Meditation Blue linen with one strand of the recommended DMC flosses.  I did sub out a different gold for the Kreinik metallic at the corners of the border.  It seemed silly to order a new spool of that particular gold when I had several partial spools of various other golds on hand.  The one I chose to use is a blend of very pale gold with a darker gold, though in the photo it looks more silvery than golden.  After all, there are only 48 stitches in the Kreinik in the entire piece: definitely not worth the expenditure when I have so many options in my stash.   I was making grand progress till I noticed that I miscounted the point at which to start the left side dragon's wing.  The result: I had to frog about 40 minutes' worth of stitching.  My own fault, of course, but still aggravating.  Anyway, I caught up during my lunch break and then got a bit further ahead this evening

I intend to finish the piece as a little decorative pin pillow.  I'll just have to stop at the pet store and buy a small bag of lizard litter, aka ground walnut shells.  That's my favorite pin cushion filler and much less expensive than emery.   I save my emery for those strawberry shaped needle minders that actually see serious service on my stitching table.

I neglected to mention yesterday that the companion  piece, the Compass Rose Dragon, will be finished as a miniature bell pull.  It is just the right shape for such a finish.  And I do have some small brass bell pull hardware in stash that I believe will suit it perfectly.  And, yes, I will be frogging the horns out and moving them to the right a stitch or two.  Apparently it's not just me who finds the placement of the horns oddly out of perspective.  Several readers commented that they looked "wonky".

Stitching Marathon Report

Dragon Dreams Compass Rose Dragon:  I have finished stitching this exactly as charted.  Now, normally I trust the designer's sense of perspective.  But, even allowing for the slight tilt of the dragon's head, it appears to me that the horns on the right side of the dragon's head are growing out of precisely the spot where his right eye ought to be.  Consequently, I haven't back stitched that area.  I am living with it for a while to see if I really want to frog the horns and move them a stitch or two to the right.  What do my readers think, I wonder!

And I started the second chart in the Dragon Dreams leaflet, Here Be Dragons.  Just the border and the point of a dragon's tail so far but it is a start.

The English Band Sampler:  I have stitched another 75 of the 160 eyelet stitches in Band 6, bringing the total up to 115.  Since each eyelet is made up of 16 smaller stitches, that's 1200 stitches, but who's counting?  Just another 45 eyelets to go before moving on to Band 7.  I am quite sure that once I start Band 7, I shall recover my enthusiasm for this piece.  But these endless eyelets are exhausting.  I need to stitch them outdoors in full daylight with a magnifier.  My town house only has windows front and back and no amount of artificial light alone seems to do when stitching on this ivory linen in very pale fawn floss.  I may not get back to this until Friday when I will be free to stitch on the patio again.  Please pray for pleasant weather.  Otherwise, I'll be moving furniture around in my living room so that I can stitch by a window.  This will annoy my husband no end because he will have to move his TV watching chair to accommodate me.

Cafe du Monde:  This is one of those pieces that, no matter how long you work on it, no discernible progress seems to be made.  And then, quite suddenly, it's done!  Well, it's not done yet and I am still at the no discernible progress stage.

Altogether, not bad for a two and a half day stitching marathon.

Another Dragon

This Compass Rose Dragon is a delightful little stitch.  For one thing, it is nice to stitch on 28 ct every so often.  There's no need for my magnifying lamp and I can take the stitching outdoors or to work for lunch time stitching.  At this time of year, it is ever so pleasant to stitch on the patio.  And then there is the fact that I have always liked the soft blue green colorway of the DMC 500-504 family of floss that is used in this piece.  It is a very easy stitch, almost elementary, really.  A no brainer and a welcome relief after the fussy shading of Cafe du Monde and the demanding specialty stitching of The English Band Sampler.  Progress is rapid.

I spent two hours stitching this Wednesday morning before work and another half an hour at my lunch break.  Of course, there wasn't much time for stitching in the evening since the annual parish ministry team dinner took up most of the evening.  I really wasn't very much in the mood for it since, this year, the words team and Christian didn't really seem to apply to everyone.  One of the deacons has been engaging in some rather nasty back-biting and sabotaging of others.  But, of course, that's not the pastor's fault and when he so generously invites us [and our spouses] to gather for a meal, we should all come.  I did resist the urge to kick the offending deacon under the table and was on my best behavior.  But I'd really rather have been at home stitching.  I am taking back some over-contract hours that I worked and will have the rest of the day off today.  I hope to get all caught up with my housework leaving the next three days free for a stitching marathon.

Cafe du Monde

Unlike most of the other pieces in this series, the Cafe du Monde has a great deal of fussy shading.  As a result, it is taking a bit longer to complete than the last few entries that I have stitched. Here is a shot of my progress, such as it is.

And when I got tired of all the meticulously counted shading, I picked up my "new start" chart for this month, Dragon Dreams' Here Be Dragons.  Since I had a small scrap of Golden Promise Silkweaver 28ct linen left over from other projects that was perfect for the smaller piece in this leaflet, I started the Compass Rose Dragon last night and stitched  a bit more this morning.

Kitting Up Cafe Du Monde

The tea party is finally over.  I am not sure if you can see the fuzziness of the Wisper hat trim but I believe the silk satin stitched beard shows pretty clearly.  I like to change a few details on charts, adding a bit of texture.  Now that I have finished The Dragon's Tea Party, I have kitted up my next two projects:  The Indy Town Square Case du Monde and Dragons Dreams' Here Be Dragons.

Both of the new projects use DMC exclusively as does this month's UFO project: so I have all the needed DMC in one convenient carrying case: from left to right, the floss for The English Band Sampler, Cafe du Monde and Here Be Dragons.  These are the projects I will be working on for the remainder of the month.

This month's entry from the Indy 2006 Town Square series is The Cafe Du Monde.  It is a little larger than the past few month's entries and will probably take a bit longer to stitch.  But it is such an interesting design that I am quite looking forward to working on it.  I got a quick start on it this morning before Mass while enjoying some early morning stitching on my patio.

... And Continues

This may be the longest tea party ever, started 5/12 and still going strong.  It is hardly surprising, after all I consume at least 6-8 mugs of tea a day.  It follows that my dragon would be an equally avid imbiber of fine teas.

Monday was a busy day.  It started with a lot of housework before heading out to work at noon and working non-stop till 9pm when the last catechist meeting of the year ended.  Tuesday morning wasn't any better: putting away two loads of folded laundry, folding another load and putting that one away, washing dishes [my retired husband can't seem to manage this simple task and I was too tired last night to tackle them], watering the flowers I bought from the nursery on Sunday and have yet to transplant in patio containers, making breakfast and cleaning up after it.  So, no stitching time Tuesday morning ... though I did manage 45 minutes during my lunch break.

This morning, in spite of all the housework screaming my name, I took my usual hour of pre-work stitching time.  I know it is hard to see what with all the similar greens and the lack of back stitching as yet, but a small dragon is beginning to form.  He is snuggled up in the curl of his mother's tail, blissfully sleeping.

In spite of the limited stitching time these past few days,  I am flying through this chart which is just as well since I have promised to pay it forward to a cyber friend.