I have had the past four days off work and to myself and as a result, I have some great stitching progress to show today!
I know it isn’t the start of “Spring Queen” as I had promised, but I ran into a slight problem: I was gathering my 746 (it recommends 4 skeins) and noticed that I had what appeared to be different dye lots. I was under the impression that DMC doesn’t have dye lots, but it was obvious that two of the four skeins were slightly yellower than the others. Perhaps it isn’t a different dye lot and the skeins are yellowed by age, but I didn’t want to start such a BAP until I get some more 746 to compare all my skeins to and figure which color is the right one.
So instead of “Spring Queen” I worked on “Poet’s Heart.” I had a wonderful time stitching this area of the sampler and in about eleven hours I managed to make considerable progress. In fact, I was so close to finishing the band at ten hours I decided to continue working on it until I was finished. If the rest of the sampler stitches up as easily as this band, it sure won’t take long to finish it. 
I guess it is time to make a final decision for my Monochromatic Exchange and start stitching it though… August 15 will be here before you know it.