Signs of Spring

After the mad dash to get my Stacy Nash pre-stitching done, I decided I needed to do some sampler stitching. There are so many beautiful samplers that I want to start, but I'm really trying to keep myself working on my WIPs. So, this is Dorothy. She's my oldest WIP. Dorothy and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship. I love her so much, but she's over one on 32ct so there's only so much of her I can take. But, last Monday I picked her back up and decided that a burst of spring color was what I needed. I've been stitching along on the border this past week. I had a minor issue when I picked her back up because I discovered 7 or so of the DMCs I'm using for her have wandered out of her project bag. I've looked everywhere and I have absolutely no idea where I've put them. So, new DMC was purchased. (Of course, wouldn't you know it that after I got home with the new DMC, I discovered one more I was missing. Gah!)

Anyway, I'm delighted with how the border looks and especially the little butterfly. Isn't it darling over one? I was surprised at what a difference the border makes in the overall look of the piece. It really pops that pink, whereas it's sort of been burgundy predominantly for so long. I'm always nervous about having enough fabric though, so I think I may continue that green vine all the way around just to check everything before I do anymore flowers. I've got that big house at the bottom to do too, which I should probably do in smaller chunks so that I don't get tired of it.

And since I haven't worked on Miss Dorothy since June of 2009, I thought I'd show you where she was when I left off last time.

Not bad for a week's worth of stitching, huh? Anyway, I'm enjoying stitching on her and that's always a good thing. Maybe she will actually be finished some day. And just in case there's nobody reading that even remembers this piece, it's Dorothy's Garden by A Stitcher's Hands. I am stitching over one on 32ct (no idea what linen this is) with DMC primarily. Pay no attention to the color in the photo from 2009 - the newer photos are a lot more accurate.

Anyway, Sunday was ATS day, so I pulled it out to work on. I went ahead and took a photo before I got started on it, just since it's been a little while since I've showed it.

Yesterday I finished the moon, a few little motifs and continued my border on both sides a little bit. I am now officially done with the top of page 1. I am below the fold! The bottom of page 1 looks pretty intense because there is a lot going on. But, the bonus is two more snakes plus I get to stitch Adam & Eve. It'll be awhile before I get that far though! But I always enjoy coming back to this piece at the end of each week. It's a nice change.

I am grateful for a little less pain and a weekend of movie watching.

Falling Behind When I Should Be Springing Forward

So much has happened in the past couple of weeks that it all sort of seems like a blur. I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say it's been an uphill battle to get things done - thus, blog posting fell by the wayside. One of the things I scrambled to get done was the pre-stitching for the Stacy Nash workshop I attended this past weekend. We only had a couple of weeks, so even with everything going on I did what I could to be ready for class. I was very happy when my kit showed up and Mr. Rabbit was a reminder to not be late (for my very important date).

Don't you love the thread colors?

I came very close to getting the prestitching done on one of the two pieces for class, although the night before I stayed up very late stitching and then woke up very early to get more stitching in. I was able to finally finish my stitching during the first 45 minutes of class, but I was exhausted. Since this was a finishing class, I really wanted to be able to work on the finishing of my actual piece.

Stacy designed a pin drum and sewing roll for our guild. I really love the pieces and Stacy taught us a lot of great techniques for finishing. And as much as I love my sewing machine, I really enjoy just doing handwork - stitching, hand sewing, etc. Stacy said that what she liked about these projects is that you can start one in your sewing chair and not have to get up to iron or sit at the sewing machine or anything. You can basically go start to finish sitting in your chair.

I did get my drum and strawberry completely assembled on Saturday.

And I came into class on Sunday ready to learn how to age my piece. The strawberry was a lot of fun, it's made from velvet and the top is silk matka (I think). The top and bottom fabrics on the drum are homespun.

The aging process is really interesting and the piece looks so different once it's aged! I'm still putting the final touches on my drum, but as soon as it's finished, I'll be sure to share.

After I aged my drum, I decided to use the remaining class time to get started on the stitching for my sewing roll. I'd really wished I'd had this ready to assemble and age too, but it just wasn't in the cards.

I'm looking forward to sharing my finished and aged drum as well as my sewing roll. I'm very glad I took the workshop and I'll have to dig out the other pattern for a drum that I have in my stash, now that I know how to make one!

I am grateful for the time I had with Lisa and so blessed she was my friend.