Incoherent Scribblings

It felt kind of funny to be stitching a wintery penguin today here in West Texas Town as the temperature reached 80 degrees (Yes, I live in paradise!), but stitch (and finish) him I did. Behold, “Jingles the Penguin” from the JCS 2007 Ornie issue!

As is the norm for me when I stitch these wee designs I made some substitutions because I didn’t have all the floss and embellishments called for. I understand the appeal of beads, buttons, fuzzy thread, and the like, but honestly the only time I am going to go to the expense of getting those things is for a BAP. These little ornaments are mostly just a quick happy dance fix for me and just don’t warrant all the extras in my opinion.

So even though Jingles doesn’t have a button for a nose, a bell at the end of his Santa hat, or a fuzzy red scarf, I think he is cute all the same.

Even though I was only home for part of this month’s Stitch-A-Thon weekend, I did manage to get a fair amount of stitching done.

On Friday night I worked on “Four Seasons Cats – Fall.” As you may remember, this is a project I started a couple of years ago that turned into a UFO. I then organized a round robin and used it for my project, but when it came home to me last week one of the squares was only about 25% complete.

The stitcher who was supposed to stitch this square had some life issues come up and so I had her send it on to the last stitcher incomplete. She offered to finish the square after the last stitcher finished, but I decided it would just be easier if I got my fabric back and finished the square myself. Right now I only have two WIPs (”Fairy Flora” and “Spring Queen”) so it’s actually no big deal to stick “Four Seasons Cats” back into my rotation. (Wow! Only two WIPs! How exactly did that happen I wonder?! )

Today I beaded some more on Flo. I have now finished the beading of her wings and have moved on to her scepter. I actually think that I am probably a little over half finished with the beading now. As I look at the chart I see that I still have to bead her dress, but the majority of the beads really seem to have been in her wings. I decided not to take a progress pic of the beading tonight though because I am going to try and get one tomorrow when it is still daylight and see if I can’t get a better shot of all the bling!

On Sunday, I started beading “Fairy Flora.” Oh. My. God. There are so many beads! I have been beading for 11 hours and I am not even finished with the wings.

So anyway, remember how I decided to order the beads instead of sorting through the pack that came with the kit?

Good idea… in theory.

I ordered the beads, but silly me, I didn’t realize I needed more than one package of the crystal beads. (Note to self: Check chart next time to see how many packs of beads are called for.) I was merrily beading away, a little over half finished with the first wing, and boom! I ran out of the crystal beads. As a result, I ended up sorting the bead package that came with the kit anyway. Sorting the beads actually didn’t turn out to be as bad as I thought because the crystal beads were easy to pick out and the mauve and lavender weren’t as similar as I was afraid they were going to be.

I can’t believe how sparkly the beads are making the wings. I tried and tried to get a picture that 1.) shows the beads and 2.) does the sparkle justice, but I am not sure I succeeded. Hopefully you get an idea though.

Once again, every time Flo gets closer to being finished I am blown away by how gorgeous she is. Take my word for it. Even in her not-quite-finished state she is simply stunning.

I was about to say that I have been a woman of few words lately, but that is not true. I have actually been a woman of many words. However, the words have been for my writing class, not my blog.

I know that I was going to try and blog my writing class, but it hasn’t really worked out that well for some reason. Luckily using the blogging medium to post my writing journal wasn’t required. It was just a personal experiment.

Alright. On to the happy dance! As you can see, my stash order finally arrived so I was able to finish “Summer’s Magic.”

Summer’s Magic
by Dragon Dreams
May 11, 2008 – February 13, 2009
32 Count Cream Belfast Linen
Stitch Time: 43 hours
DMC Fibers, Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid