Incoherent Scribblings

I don’t stitch a lot anymore and right now I am fine with that. However, I am still stitching here and there so when I have something to show, well… here’s what I have been working on when I have been stitching:

I am almost half way finished with the border on “Castle Sampler.” I say almost because after I took this picture I realized that I still needed to backstitch the left border.

I hope everyone who celebrates it had a happy Easter today. I celebrated by eating the Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs I bought yesterday, revising one of the short stories I wrote for my creative writing class, and stitching. A perfect day!

I hadn’t so much as picked up a needle since last weekend when I finished Flo and I tell you, it was about time. I never realize how stressed I am until I feel the tension drain from me when my needle meets my fabric. And what’s sad is that even stitching over one on 32 count helps relieve my stress!

And speaking of over one on 32 count, I finished the bottom border on “Castle Sampler” this evening. Now that I have reached this particular milestone I am not sure if I will continue working on it or not. I still have some Mirabilia momentum so I was thinking about working on “Spring Queen,” but Dawn and I are ready to start our next SAL too so you just never know…

After three (3) years, twenty one (21) days, 207.5 hours stitching, and 28 hours beading, may I present in all her Mirabilia glory… Fairy Flora!!!

Fairy Flora
by Mirabilia
March 15, 2006-April 5, 2009
32 Count Self-Dyed “Forest Fantasy” Belfast Linen
Stitch Time: 207.5 hours
Beading Time: 28 hours
DMC Fibers, Kreinik Blending Filament, Mill Hill Beads

I still can’t believe she is done! Excuse me while I dance the night away…

It’s getting late tonight so I probably won’t have it until tomorrow, but I am super close to a happy dance… betcha can’t guess which one it is!

Since the last day of March is tomorrow I thought I would go ahead and do my monthly goals round-up tonight. However, before we get to the goals, let’s look some more “Castle Sampler” shall we?

Tonight I finished the numbers on the bottom border. The numbers are surrounded by an intricate over-one vine/flower border that I haven’t done yet, but hopefully I can get that done this week.

You may notice that the motifs on either side of the numbers have blank spots. As is typical for a sampler, those are areas for personalization. The left side is for my initials which I will probably go ahead and do, but the right side is for the date. And as tempting as it may be to put in 2009, I am not a fool: I’m going wait until the entire piece is finished before I date it.

If you normally click on my thumbnails for a larger version of the progress picture, you may have noticed that it isn’t working at the moment. My webhost recently updated some stuff and it messed up my gallery and I haven’t had time to fix it yet. Soon though, I promise.

Alright… Goals!

For March, I thought I would:

• Participate in the March SAT. – Nope!
• Work on and hopefully finish “Four Seasons Cats – Fall.” – Nope!
• Continue beading and possibly finish “Fairy Flora.” – Nope!

The post title makes sense now, eh?

So, for April I am going to try and:

• Participate in the April SAT.
• Work on “Castle Sampler” until I get bored with it.

Then I will:

• Work on and hopefully finish “Four Seasons Cats – Fall.”
• Continue beading and possibly finish “Fairy Flora.”

Here’s hoping anyway!