Yes, you read right: I’ve been stitching!

I am working on a Country Cottage Needlework piece called “Summer Retreats.” It has three houses and I have chosen to stitch the one called “Butterfly Bungalow.” It’s slow going… I started it last month for Pete’s sake! Normally a piece like this wouldn’t take so long, but in addition to the interference called my life, I’ve had a couple of pretty severe encounters with the frog, and I haven’t been 100% happy with the fabric. Oh, I like the color (it’s 28 count Opalescent “Green Apple” Lugana from Silkweaver), but I don’t think the threads are very even for evenweave. I am pretty close to getting finished with it though. I hope it will be either my last or second-to-the-last piece of the year.

I also have a new small start on deck from the latest issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework called “Snow Pals.” It is a pretty simple design, but I am going to try and work on it in the car when I go on vacation later this month. I have never stitched in the car because I am usually driving when I go on a trip, but this trip I am mostly going to be a passenger, so we’ll see if I can stitch.

And finally, in case you were wondering, I haven’t worked on “Castle Sampler” since mid-October. I know I will eventually come back to it though. I love the piece, I just needed a break from it. Maybe I will take it to work on while lounging in the hotel or visiting while on vacation… Hmm… Now there’s a great idea!

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.

And here is “Too Cute to Spook.” Dawn and I haven’t SALed for a couple of weeks due to my schedule, but we plan to remedy that tomorrow.

Hopefully I’ll get back in the stitching and blogging groove soon. Until next time…

I should also do a goal review I suppose.

For June, I wanted to:

Participate in the June SAT. – Nope

Work on (and maybe finish) “Too Cute to Spook” with Dawn.- Just barely

Work on “Castle Sampler” or “Spring Queen” or both. – Worked a bit on “Castle Sampler.”

Work on “Navajo Style.” – Nope

What can I say? I was too busy studying to do much. And since July looks much the same, I am just going to list two tiny goals.

• Work on (and maybe finish) “Too Cute to Spook” with Dawn.
• Work on “Castle Sampler.”

That’s it.

P.S. If you would like to see the pictures of fireworks that I took over the Fourth of July weekend, click here and here.

I have made progress on “Too Cute to Spook,” but have been too lazy to take a picture for a couple of weeks. Dawn and I moved our SAL day to Monday, so I will try and take a picture after I work on her tomorrow.

Last weekend (I think) I started a new project called “Lady Rose” by Joan Elliott. I bought this from a stitching catalog that I get and it came as a kit with 14 count Aida and floss “similar to DMC.” Normally I wouldn’t buy a kit, but I really liked the pattern and couldn’t find it any other way. Needless to say, I have switched the fabric from the Aida to a piece of 28 count pinkish Cashel from Silkweaver that I had in my stash (I’m not at home and can’t remember the name right now) and am using proper DMC.

This past week I pulled “Castle Sampler” back out of the WIP pile and worked on my over one alphabet. I chose to stitch “Castle Sampler” on 32 count, so you might think that the over one stitching would be a bitch, but it really isn’t. Of course, using evenweave as opposed to linen might have something to do with that… I do love my linen, but those uneven threads sure can be a pain over one!