Transitioning: Halloween > Thanksgiving

I've changed out the ornaments on the entry hall tree and moved a few smalls around but the generic Fall stuff remains in place for now.  The next change will come when the Christmas stuff goes up in December.

Another Small Finish or Two

The Fish Market in the Town Square series stitched up slightly more quickly than the others: started Sunday afternoon and finished Friday morning.  That's a little under a week and quicker progress than I had made on the last few Town Square pieces.

And, in keeping with my SSD [Seasonal Stitching Disorder], I immediately started the Prairie Schooler Year Round for November, a Thanksgiving Turkey.  I think I'll make stitching one Prairie Schooler Year Round in the appropriate month a 2015 goal thus adding to my seasonal ornament collection in a disciplined and consistent fashion.

Starting Monday, Dec. 1st, I am returning to a rotation system in an effort to accomplish a bit more than I have done in the past few months.

Halloween > Thanksgiving

I took my Halloween ornaments down and put up the Thanksgiving ones.  Here are three shots from three different angles: the better to see all the ornaments.  I could probably use 5 or 6 more ornaments to give my tree a nice full appearance.  I'll be browsing through my binders to see what I can find that's appropriate.  I have a Prairie Schooler Year Round chart that will likely have something appropriate and a few complimentary chart downloads that might work as well.  I like to stitch Thanksgiving stuff during the week leading up to the day and during the long weekend following.

Thanksgiving Ornament Tree

I had plans to post this much earlier in the month when I was still trying to post daily. But work has been crazy the past week and a half and I have consistently come home too tired to do anything but read light-hearted Nora Roberts romances. This puts me out of the running for NaBloPoMo.

I switched out the ornaments on my entryway tree from Halloween to Thanksgiving earlier this month and am enjoying this cheerful little greeting every day when I return from work. I did have to move the Pilgrim Woman with her pies to a less noticeable spot, though. Last year, my husband, in a thoroughly bemused tone, asked me why I had put a Groucho Marx ornament on the Thanksgiving tree. Apparently, as he was coming down the steps, a quick glance had him mistaking the lady's apron for a large nose, her outstretched arms with pies in hand for eyes and eyelashes, and the bottom of her skirt and her boots for a mustache. His question has forever changed the way I look at her ... all I see now is Groucho. And I was so pleased with the pretty little ornament before his comment. Here's one more view of the tree, showing some of the other ornaments.

Before you know it, it will be time to switch again, this time to Christmas ornaments. This year is going by way too quickly. It seems like the school year just started and I am already grading first quarter exams and preparing Progress Reports. We've already staged one of the two annual Whole Community Catechesis Events, one of the two annual Communion Breakfasts for the Confirmation candidates and most of the Safe Environment Programs for the children. I still have to squeeze in a fire drill or two before the snows start. It seems like the Fall months have just whizzed past. Coming up soon are the Catechist Christmas Party and Advent confessions for Grades 3-8 and the Reconciliation Mini-Retreat for Grade 2. I haven't even settled on the music for the Reconciliation service since our music minister has been out for nearly six weeks. Her doctors belatedly diagnosed her as having Lyme's disease, but only after it had done some damage to her heart ... hence the lengthy sick leave. On top of everything, her immune system was compromised and she ended up with coxsackie, further damaging her heart and lungs.

Weekend Progress Report #47

Well, let's see, what did I actually accomplish

FROGGING, FROGGING, FROGGING last week's so called progress so I can restart the Workbasket's Quaker Santa and Quaker Sampler ... with nothing much to show for it.

Now that my Round Robin has been returned, I decided to finish the last panel and then put it away till next Fall. I'll decide them just how to finish it: probably as a lap robe or a wall hanging ... it's too large for a pillow finish and I don't want to go to the expense of professional framing for so large and essentially ephemeral a piece.

I put in another hour or so on my Encrusted Crazy Quilt Square, adding yellow gold glass beads to the area with the chain stitched "rope" over black moire, some more buttons to the focal point seam embellishment near the silk tartan, another bird and a cat button to the garden scene as well as some more grass. So here's one more photograph to give you an idea of the progress since yesterday. It's slow going since I can only work on a small area at a time but I am going to try to work on this for an hour each week ... the plan is to turn it into a very colorful summer handbag.

These Thanksgiving ornaments are lifted from the Cross Eyed Cricket Thanksgiving Circle leaflet: Indian with corn, the Pilgrim Woman with pies, the Pilgrim Man with fish, the Turkey. All of these were stitched on 36 ct Silkweaver linen in a color called Shadowlands in the recommended DMC. And all are finished as round ornaments using a 2 1/2" diameter padded cardboard form. The two pilgrims were backed with black silk moire and the Indian and turkey were backed with a fall leaf print. I used various trims: purchased braid for the Pilgrim woman, beads for the Pilgrim man and hand made twisted cording for the Indian and turkey. I've added them to the wrought iron tree I keep in my entryway. The Thanksgiving ornaments will remain up till I switch to Christmas ornaments in mid-December.

WIP Photos

To get into the mood for Thanksgiving, I have been working on a few additional ornaments for the little wrought iron tree I keep on the antique washstand in my entryway. I figure I probably won't get to do the assembly finish until Friday or Saturday on these little gems but I'll keep them up for a week or so anyway. I don't really decorate for Christmas until mid-December. I don't like rushing the whole Advent season as if it didn't even exist and have purpose.

These pieces are really quite dainty, not more than 2" tall. All the designs are from Cross Eyed Cricket's Thanksgiving Circle leaflet. I have stitched them on 36ct Silkweaver linen in a color called Shadowlands, using the recommended DMC floss, stitching one strand over two threads. I've finished the Indian brave [bringing corn] and the Pilgrim woman [holding pies]. It's too early to take a photo of the The Pilgrim man [carrying fish]. I've only done a half hour's stitching on it. I'll finish all of these as round padded board ornaments, trimmed with twisted cord. I have enjoyed stitching these rather simple designs and have decided I really will have to stitch the entire piece as charted one of these days, instead of just pulling out excerpts to use as ornaments ... it would make a lovely pillow to display on my sofa during the Thanksgiving holidays.

I have made quite a few plans for stitching during the Thanksgiving recess. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, my round robin has been returned home finally ... so, I will finish up the last panel on that piece using a Prairie Schooler chart. I'll assemble the Thanksgiving ornaments. And, I'll chart and stitch the Bride's Tree SAL November ornament, an angel that I'll be making up in the Quaker style. If I have any additional time, I may do some over one frogging on the ill-fated start from last weekend, Workbasket's Quaker Sampler. After measuring and cutting the fabric so carefully, I can't believe I was so inattentive as to pick up the hoop wrong and start stitching with the wrong orientation. To avoid that problem in the future, I believe I'll prep the piece on a stretcher frame when I start again. I still haven't decided what I will do about the December Bride's Tree ornament, for which I will be using Workbasket's Quaker Santa chart ... but I'm leaning toward stitching the entire design over one on the 28ct Glasgow raw linen [in Belle Soie Cranberry, Old Crow and Icing] instead of stitching an excerpt from the chart and stitching over two on the 32ct Belfast raw linen [in Belle Soie Cranberry and Icing]. The second option would work and be the quicker [and easier] stitch but I really like the whole design and hate to truncate it.

DMC Deleted Colors

I must be the last stitcher to get the news that DMC deleted certain colors due to the toxicity of the dyes used to make them. Purportedly, the colors are still available in the USA ... I guess the legendary French disdain for Americans makes it acceptable to poison us, but not Europeans, Australians and Asians. In all likelihood, I heard about it or read about it at the time it happened but it didn't raise a blip on my radar because I prefer using silk whenever possible. Even when using cotton, I tend to prefer overdyes. But lately, I have been using DMC every so often. [I have been doing a lot of smalls, and many designers avoid charting an expensive over-dyed floss for just a few stitches.] Anyway, the topic came up again on a message board I frequent, listing the infamous #s:

731, recommended substitution: 732
776, recommended substitution: 3326
781, recommended substitution: 782
806, recommended substitution: 3760
971, recommended substitution: 740
3373, recommended substitution: 407

So, I went scurrying over to my DMC cases to see if I owned any of the offending floss. I did but I have removed the cards with those #s. I still stitch bibs, t-shirts and toys for small children and would hate to think that any of them might be exposed to a known toxic dye through a gift from me.

Also, in keeping with yesterday's decision to refrain from serious stitching till my concentration returns, all I did this morning was finish up my Halloween Greetings piece by adding two more crowns to fill in the empty spaces left when I deleted the words and date. Since I am using the piece to make a knitting bag for one of my sisters ... and not the Halloween ornament as charted, it seemed a more sensible choice. I never did get how sheep were a Halloween-ish motif in the first place, but that's beside the point. Then I kitted up my Cross-Eyed Cricket Thanksgiving Circle. I cut a 7" wide swath of 36ct Silkweaver Shadowlands linen on which I will stitch the Indian and the Pilgrim Man and Woman as individual ornaments using the recommended DMC floss. Once I have stitched all three, I will finish them as padded board ornaments. I actually started the Indian this morning and am about 2/3 of the way done. These could actually be done in time to put up on the Thanksgiving ornament tree in my entryway. Who am I kidding? Next year maybe!

Weekend Progress Report #39

Ornaments are addictive and I have succumbed to the fascination. In fact, since completing the RR piece on the 15th, ornaments have monopolized my stitching time. I have been adding to this post over a number of days, so the order of the photographs will be most recent finishes descending to older finishes ... for some reason, my "add image" function requires that I load photos bottom to top, since I can't seem to drag a photo past one already in place ... I am probably doing something wrong in my inimitably tech-challenged way ... but, anyway, here are the results of a week-long ornament marathon:

Quaker Fruitbasket, a pastiche of various Workbasket Quaker Motifs [for Bride's Tree SAL June ornament]. Stitched on 28ct Glasgow raw linen in Belle Soie Silks Scarecrow, Sister Scarlet & Wheatgrass. This is a WIP photo: I am making this up as I go along. There'll be an open work diamond in the body of the basket right above the row I am working now. And I'll be making a handle using a motif from Workbasket's Quaker Flower complimentary chart. All that will be left to do then will be to chart out some apples and leaves to fill the basket ... though that may be trickier than it sounds ... I have a very definite idea about how I want the final image to look.

One more WIP photo: Ink Circles' new Halloween ornament, Full Moon, stitched on 28 ct. Country French Latte linen in Belle Soie silks Old Black Crow, Paprika and Pumpkin Carriage. This particular ornament didn't impress me all that much when I saw it in the JCS Sept. 2010 issue but it is shaping up to be my very favorite Halloween ornament this year. I don't know whether that is because I am stitching it in silks, or because I plan to finish it in a somewhat more formal style than the magazine model, or because the magazine photo just didn't do it justice. Even the stitching process turned into a positively Zen experience. The Old Black Crow silk had a tendency to shred until I slowed down, consciously softening my tension and stitching in a deliberate up and down motion ... rather like concentrating on breathing in and out, in and out, in and out. The carefully balanced design elements of branches and cat's tails forming such elegant arches added to the Zen-like mood. Can you tell I am loving this little ornament?

Off-goal but irresistible, La-D-Da's Tis Green from the JCS Ornament Preiew issue. Stitched on 28ct Country French Latte linen using Caron's Wildflowers Black Watch, a very fine perle cotton in dark forest greens with a touch of blue/black. Stitched on 10/2 and assembled on 10/3. This was a lot of fun to stitch. I knew I had to do it after I had seen a photo of Dani's finish on her blog. Another instance of a magazine model photo not doing an ornament justice.

Aury's Quaker Bird in a Nest [for Bride's Tree SAL May ornament] Even with the frogging and re-stitching, I managed to finish and assemble this one on 10/1/10. Stitched on 28ct Glasgow raw linen in Belle Soie silks: Chester Blue, Chocolat, and Fern Frond. I have fallen way behind in this series, this being my first finish in this SAL since April. It feels good to get back on track.

And, because I accidentally left my stitching bag at work Monday night, I started an off-goal ornament, this one from the JCS Preview Christmas issue: Glory Bee's A Partridge in a Pear Tree. I switched out the colors a bit on this one since I wanted to use some Belle Soie silks I have on hand. Finished the stitching and assembly on 10/1/10.

Blue Ribbon's Perched on a Pumpkin, from JCS Sept. 2010 issue: Finished and assembled 9/30/10. Stitched on 28ct Country French Latte linen using the suggested WDW fibers, trimmed with hand-made black cord and a hanger made of Mill Hill beads.

The Kreinik Cornucopia and Prairie Schooler Pumpkins and Harvest Time Turkey were pictured on an earlier posts. 9/21 and 9/26.

As I have said, September was Catch-Up month and apparently October will be as well, since I am way behind in the goals I set for ornament stitching. In addition to the above-mentioned WIPs, I still have the following to do in order to be properly caught up:

---design and stitch a Quaker Fish for the July Bride's Tree SAL, front and back.

---stitch Workbasket's Quaker Flower in shades appropriate to a Rose, for the Bride's Tree SAL August ornament, front and back.

---find and/or design and then stitch a Quaker Teapot, for the Bride's Tree SAL September ornament, front and back.

---find and/or design and stitch a Quaker Pinecone, for the Bride's Tree SAL October ornament, front and back

---four more Thanksgiving ornaments, to make one a month for the year to date

---and, just because I want to, a three more of the Halloween ornaments from JCS 2010 Halloween issue

Weekend Progress Report #38

The weather cooled down a wee bit this weekend and I finally felt inspired to do a little Fall decorating in my entryway. As I get more areas in the house decorated, I'll post a few more photos. But for now, here's a shot of the antique washstand in my entryway, all decorated for Halloween. I believe I have room to squeeze in just a few more ornaments ... I quite liked five of the charts in JCS Halloween ornament issue and would like to add those to the mix this year.

As promised, a photo of the ornament I have managed to finish finish during the third week of this designated Catch-Up Month of September ... though, unless I devote every waking moment of the next five days to stitching the remaining backlog of ornament goals, October will be a catch-up month as well.

The Prairie Schooler Turkey [from the Harvest Time leaflet] stitched on 28 ct raw Glasgow linen in WDW and GAST cotton overdyes. Edged with Mill Hill beads in frosted orange [2042] and matte ivory [3016]. I am really pleased with this one but then I always like the shapes that go beyond the usual circle, square/rectangle or heart. The color change in the browns is not nearly so glaring in real life as it appears in the photo ... particularly, when viewed under the soft lighting of my entryway. This makes 8 Thanksgiving ornaments for the tree I keep up from late September through February in my entryway ... changing out the ornaments from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas to Valentine's Day. My wedding anniversary is January 10, so I set up the heart ornaments as soon as I take down the Christmas ornaments on Jan 6 [Little Christmas, aka the Feast of the Epiphany]. I plan to make two or three more Thanksgiving ornaments before Nov. 1 which ought to fill the tree up quite nicely.

The May Bride's Tree SAL ornament: Bird in a Nest [from Aury's blog], representing Security. Stitched on 28 ct raw Glasgow linen in Belle Soie Chester Blue, Chocolat, & Fern Frond. I made a counting error on the backing which I only discovered when I went to pin the back to the front for stitching up as a fringed pillow ornament. So I frogged out the entire right side and a third of the bottom of the border and, in total disgust with myself for being in such a hurry, set the whole thing aside till Monday brings a better mood and the oomph to re-stitch the darned thing correctly. That's what I get for being in such an all-fired hurry to tick off my goals.

And a WIP: Once I finished the above-mentioned frogging, stitcher's ADD set in and I just had to start a Halloween ornament from the recent JCS issue. I chose to work on Blue Ribbon Designs Perched on a Pumpkin since I dearly love owls as a decorative motif. as a symbol of wisdom and as a gift of nature to warm my bird-watching soul. I'll post a photo once I get beyond the border stitching ... very basic and not yet visually interesting. There are four other ornaments in the September issue that I want to stitch ... it'll be interesting to see how I'll manage to fit them on my Halloween Tree.

Getting it done

I am so thrilled to be doing my own projects again that I am building up a fairly strong momentum. I just finished stitching the Prairie Schooler Turkey ornament and should be able to start work on the assembly and final finish tonight after work. I also bit the bullet and frogged back the part of the border of my Bird in a Nest ornament for the May installment of the Bride's Tree SAL. My original border, which followed the shape of the design was too irregular and sloppy for my very linear brain to accept ... I have re-stitched it as a rectangle with softly rounded corners ... much less jarring on the old optic nerves. Now all I have to do is stitch the monogrammed back and assemble the ornament. I should certainly have that done this weekend.

I have also kitted up the June Fruit Basket ornament for the Bride's Tree SAL, so I can segue into that smoothly the very second I finish the Bird in a Nest. I once used the image of the "stitching equivalent of chain-smoking" when I wrote about a series of Sue Hillis Santa designs I did one after another [4 in total] ... I do believe that metaphor applies to this series of Thanksgiving and Christmas ornaments I am working on now. I feel a certain energy, even a compulsion, when I am working on them ... I almost resent the time spent away from my stitching chair doing mundane things like eating, sleeping, bathing and working ... okay, I don't resent taking time out to eat ... but as for the rest of it ... yes, indeed!

I am going to hold off taking any photos until the end of the weekend ... I am challenging myself to have at least three fully stitched and assembled ornaments to show my readers. Dare I say four ornaments?

September is Catch-up Month

September was supposed to be catch up month, with only a few days at the beginning devoted to the Round Robin. Well, things didn't work out quite that way with the round robin consuming stitching time till 9/15. But half a catch-up month is better than none. The first order of business will be working through the list of ornaments that fell by the wayside when things got a wee bit crazy with work and other stitching. This is what I have to do in order to get back on schedule

Thanksgiving ornaments, one a month.

--July: Prairie Schooler Turkey from Harvest Time leaflet. Using a lovely raw linen [28ct Glasgow] and substituting my own conversions of WDW and GAST for the DMC, this one is nearly done. I have just a few more hours stitching and this one will be ready for assembly. I have already cut and padded the boards for backing and selected my backing fabric. I will have to pull a skein or two of DMC to make the necessary cording.

--August: Cross-Eyed Cricket Indian from Thanksgiving Circle leaflet. I have a suitable strip of 28ct Country French Latte linen, probably long enough to make three ornaments from the CEC leaflet, which I will finish as fringed pillows with twisted cord hangers. I won't kit up with floss until I am actually ready to start.

--September: Cross-Eyed Cricket Female Pilgrim from Thanksgiving Circle leaflet. Same linen, same floss as above.

Bride's Tree SAL Christmas ornaments, one a month, all in Quaker style. I may have to design a few of these myself since I have been unable to find suitable freebies.

--May: Bird in a Nest. Using a chart from Aury's blog. This was stitched on 28 ct Glasgow raw linen using Belle Soie Silks Chester Blue, Chocolat, Fern Frond. I still have to stitch a backing, though I may do some frogging on the already stitched ornament as well ... I don't like the way I stitched the border and want to make it more regular.

--June: Fruit Basket. Using a half a chart from Workbasket's Complimentary Charts section, basically a flower pot that I am using as the "basket" to which I will add a topiary arrangement of round Quaker motifs as apples. This will be stitched on the same 28 ct Glasgow raw linen as all the rest and will also use Belle Soie Silks, colors yet to be determined.

--July: Fish. Again same linen as above and Belle Soie silks, as yet to be chosen. This one I will probably have to design myself since I have been unable to find a suitable chart. I have been toying with the idea of using the basic shape of the Christian icthus symbol, outlined as a simple band of alternating upright and upside down triangles, with the scales suggested by quaker triangular motifs or semi-circular motifs. I am still mulling over how to suggest fins and tail. By the time I sit down to doodle on graph paper, my sub-conscious brain should have worked out most of the details.

--August: Rose. There is a complimentary chart on the Workbasket site that with a few color changes should work very well for this one.

--September: Teapot. I haven't even started looking about for a Quaker chart of a teapot as yet. Though I can always combine a conventional teapot chart, used for the outline and general shape, with any Quaker motif that suits my fancy as the design on the pot.

I guess the moral of this whole story is don't fall behind on your goals if you are an obsessive A-type personality because you will only be that much more determined to meet them. Which isn't really all that bad, since I will enjoy every bit of stitching along the way. Realistically though, I don't expect to be caught up completely until the end of October. [Note Freudian slip that just occurred here: I just typed August, and had to back-space and re-type October ... I guess I am not mellowing with age as much as I think I am].

The Promised Photos

The digital camera battery is now re-charged, so here are some photos of my latest Thanksgiving ornaments.

Prairie Schooler's Pumpkins from the promotional card for Farmer's Market, stitched on a 28 ct country french latte linen using Belle Soie silks Carrot Cake, Creme de Menthe, Enchanted Forest and Glissen Color Wash Silk 536, a progression of yellow to pale orange.

The Kreinik's Cornucopia using a 32 ct Silkweaver linen called Mississippi Mud and the called for Kreinik silk mori.

Today, I'll work on finishing up another Prairie Schooler ornament, the turkey "medallion", from the Harvest Time leaflet. It feels good to be working on a September goal: catching up on all my ornament starts. I expect it'll feel even better when I tackle the backlog of ornament goals. I have to come up with a June, a July, an August and a September Quaker Style ornament for the Bride's Tree SAL and I am still two ornaments behind on my monthly Thanksgiving ornaments, even after finishing the three mentioned in the post.

On another front entirely, I bought 6 pots of mums from the church sale and will be putting them in the new stone planter box in front of my townhouse tomorrow afternoon. Now all I have to do is find time to get down to the nursery and find two small "Christmas" trees for the backyard patio pots. Some three foot or four foot cube planters are also on my to buy list before Fall advances much further. I want to start filling them with alternating layers of garden soil and fallen leaves this year so that I have wonderfully leaf mold enriched soil for Spring planting in 2011. I also need to do some much-needed pruning of old wood on my Van Houten Spirea bushes above the retaining wall ... they didn't bloom this past spring since all the old wood has choked out new growth. My husband and I really missed the lacy white blooms. They don't last more than a week or two but they make a gorgeous show while they're here. Having a townhouse means not having much of a garden, but I do enjoy putterring with what little I have.

Mine, Mine, All Mine

After nearly five weeks of stitching angels for two successive round robin rotations, I am finally working on a project of my own, albeit a very small one: Prairie Schooler's Pumpkins. I hope to finish stitching this today and finish it as an ornament for my Thanksgiving "tree". I have also begun the assembly process of my Kreinik Cornucopia ornament, padding the cardboard and selecting the backing fabric. It will be lovely to have a few finishes that I get to keep, instead of mailing on. Who knew I was so selfish and greedy where my stitching was concerned???

And to further delight and please, I came home from work Thursday to find these beauties in the mail: a totally unexpected gift of hand-made note cards from Karen who had won one of my giveaways a few months ago. Since I don't scrapbook myself and don't know anyone who does, I had no idea how lovely home-made cards really are. These cards have a texture, weight and depth that you just don't find in your average Hallmark store ... and the colors are so rich ... my photo doesn't do justice to these deeply saturated colors. Thanks, Karen ... my only problem will be finding occasions worthy of these cards.

Weekend Progress Report #24

There was not much stitching done this weekend. This was the first Saturday that I did not have classes, since the Religious Education Program ended last weekend. Even so, I got up especially early [6:16am] to finish the RR piece and get it in the mail before the post office closed at 11:30am. The rest of Saturday morning was devoted to running errands: banking and running to the other end of the county to pick up the designer fountain pen I had on lay-away for my husband's combined Father's Day and birthday gift. I am afraid Sunday morning was pretty much a total loss. The past few weeks finally caught up with me. I am afraid even four mega-mugs of strong Assam tea didn't rev me up enough to get to Mass. I spent most of the morning in my stitching chair desultorily putting in the back-stitching in my Kreinik Cornucopia. Then, given my limited concentration, I started a very simple project, Shepherd's Bush's Be A Witch, on 10 count tula. I needed something easy if I was going to keep the frog from the door. Most of Sunday evening was consumed with a multi-event celebration: Father's Day, my husband's birthday and my youngest son's birthday ... all falling within the eight day period of June 15-23. We visited the family's favorite sushi restaurant, a tiny place called Hanabi, half the width of the normal storefront. But the food is fabulous. My husband, carnivore that he is, enjoyed the beef negi as well as some more traditional sushi rolls. My son and daughter did the usual sushi platters, with the addition of some steamed dumplings. My sister-in-law and I went totally vegetarian. She had the mango/avocado salad as did I but she follwed hers with two spring rolls [more like fluffy pancakes at Hanabi] and I had three different vegetable sushi rolls. I wished I had my camera with me: the presentation of the food is phenomenal ... the sushi chef is creative, the food is amazingly fresh, the service in this small Mom & Pop restaurant is casual and friendly ... a wonderful way to cap the weekend.

So instead of finishing up three Thanksgiving and one Christmas ornaments as planned, including final finishing as flat ornaments, this is all I accomplished:

Linda's Round Robin: Jane's Quilts [May15-June15 rotation] FINISHED AND MAILED 6/19. This was a a frenzied, quick stitch since I only received the piece in the mail on 6/14.

Thanksgiving Ornaments:

Kreinik Cornucopia [May's ornament] stitched but still needing assembly. I hope to spend a little time this evening assembling this little beauty. I quite like the effect of combining satin and cross stitch in the same piece and I love the tone on tone effect of the cross stitches in Ancient Parchment on the Mississippi Mud Silkweaver 40ct linen.

And a little Startitis: Shepherds Bush's Be A Witch. Normally, I finish such seasonal, large count pieces as classroom banners but I am not sure this is quite the message I want to send to my students. I believe I will attempt my first no-sew cube for display in my sewing room-to-be. Or perhaps a stand-up using one of my little acrylic L-shaped doohickeys. I look forward to some more relaxing stitching on this in the coming week ... I just don't feel up to anything that requires concentration right now. It's probably because as one school year winds down, I am busy with all those finicky little details necessary to close out one year: inventories, tracking down all the kids who owe me exams, other work or textbooks, evaluating all the home study students, etc. etc. Then there are the start-up details for next year: getting next year's registration in and on the database, ordering textbooks and supplies for the new school year, recruiting and vetting catechists, finalizing the calendar, etc. etc. All of which needs to be done by June 30, when I break for a much needed month long vacation.

Weekend Progress Report #23

It's been a little of this and a little of that this week ... trying to clean up unfinished business from last week [... and even from last month] and keeping up with developments in my on-line class on crazy quilting.

Monsterbubbles' Jail [Town Square SAL] Finished Sunday evening. I am delighted to get back to stitching in color. All of this grey was just a bit much since we have been having overcast days ending in thunderstorms each evening. A case of art imitating life that I could've done without. The next piece I am planning to do in this series is Crescent Colours Saloon ... ever so much more colorful ... but that will be a July goal!

Kreinik's Cornucopia ornament [ a Thanksgiving ornament-a-month goal] I picked this up again once I finished the Town Square SAL piece. The back-ordered silk mori I had been waiting for had arrived earlier in the week.

Prairie Schooler's Harvest Time Turkey [a Thanksgiving ornament-a-month goal] Thanks to Carrie [of Carrie's Threads] , I received the right dye-lot of GAST Maple Syrup. I expect to be able to finish this in the coming week.

The encrusted crazy quilted block: Last Wednesday's lesson included a lot of techniques and stitches that are either new or nearly new to me ... and I need to practice a bit more on these techniques before actually adding them to my block: boullion stitch [used for roses, leaves, and free-form outlines], spider-web ribbon roses, ribbon embroidery flowers. I did manage to gather some ribbons and beads for this stage of the embellishment but haven't gotten much further than that. With the next lesson coming up inexorably on Wednesday, I'd best get moving.

Some small progress ...

... on the Town Square SAL. At least, Monday evening was bright and beautiful while I worked with all this grey. Wednesday was overcast throughout the day though a bit cooler ... and I didn't even get some lunch-time stitching done since work was so hectic ... right up to 9:00pm. I'll work on this again today and tomorrow hoping to finish filling in the Dolphin grey in the taller tower. The sun is shining now but thunderstorms are predicted for the evening ... appropriate given the storm clouds in the design ... don't you think? Then, I'll be in the homestretch ... long-stitching the outlines of the granite blocks. I hope to finish this piece, and my three partially finished Thanksgiving ornaments this weekend as well as my May Bride's Tree SAL ornament. That way I can work almost exclusively on the Brightneedle piece, Ghosts and Ghoulies Etui, again during the next week.

The mail has given some satisfaction. The back ordered silk mori for my Thanksgiving Cornucopia ornament has arrived so I shall try to finish that ornament up in the next few days. The Valdani overdyed cotton that I wanted to try arrived the same day ... different package, from same online shop ... a waste of postage. But the threads were back-orders from two seperate orders and I guess the vendor doesn't cross-reference ... after all, the situation can't come up very often! I'll have to stitch a small project with the Valdani to check it out ... maybe a biscornu or cupcake pincushion. Then this evening, three skeins of GAST Maple Syrup were waiting for me, courtesy of Sharon. I haven't held them up to my unfinished PS Turkey ornament but at least two of them look very close to the DMC898 brown that is the dominant color in my piece ... so thanks to Sharon, I may not have to re-stitch the whole darn thing ... just frog out two rows I stitched with the wrong GAST hoping against hope that it would look right ... as if that ever happens!

On the other hand, I am still waiting for the May 15th piece in the RR ... It is June 11th and I have nothing to stitch ... well, that's not quite true ... what I mean to say is that I have nothing from the RR to stitch. I approach the mailbox with a little tune from childhood running through my head: "Nobody loves me, Everybody hates me, I'm going to eat some worms." I guess that means there is some tequila in my future! I think I prefer Amaretto. With the June 15th deadline looming, I confess to being a wee bit nervous ... how many days will I have to stitch my contribution on Jane's piece? 3-2-1-0 ? ! ? I am beginning to get very weary of this RR and expect I'll never participate in another. After writing the above, I got an e-mail stating that the piece had been mailed ordinary post on June 3rd and should take 7-10 days to get to me. The agreement at the beginning of the RR was to mail Priority with delivery confirmation! I can't even go on-line to track the dratted thing, since the sender didn't purchase delivery confirmation! So I can receive this piece anywhere up to June 13 leaving me between 3 [at best] to 2 [at worst] days to stitch my piece and then move it along on June 15. This is crazy-making and not at all the pleasurable stitching I was seeking when I joined the RR.