Report From a Blustery Day

My goodness did we have wind today!  There's a large oak tree in front of the house and when the wind blows it brushes against the siding and makes the most dreadful racket.  I took the cats to the vet this morning and drove through little whirlwinds of leaves.  And yes, you read that correctly, I took the cats, as in both of them.  I've never taken them both at the same time before, but it actually worked out very well.  I had them in separate carriers but took them into the exam room together.  Timothy, Mr. Social Butterfly, wandered around and looked out the window, then settled down with his feet tucked under him and waited for his new best friend the vet.  Mimi wasn't quite as thrilled with the whole situation and stayed under the chair until it was her turn.

I haven't been doing much stitching, but I wanted to show you the stitches in the Tapestry Sampler.  This first picture shows some of the bargello work and petit point, but the diagonally-stitched area with the blue thread coming off it is cross stitch with 2 strands of DMC (on 24 count!)

More bargello and petit point:

There will be another pear to the right of this bit, then another section like the first bargello.  The white stitches around the pear are kind of an open basket-weave stitch; I believe the designer called it "dotted Swiss stitch".  It's a nice contrast to the petit point.

More petit point, some satin stitch and some herringbone:





I'm glad I remembered this piece and pulled it out.  I like the design and I like the earth tones.  It'll be fun.

Happy stitching to everyone!

Musings on a Rainy Weekend, or Fall Has Fell

Fall seems to have fallen with a definite and resounding thud! in western PA.  Mother Nature began teasing us on Thursday and Friday with cooler weather; the sprinkles started Friday afternoon and had developed into a steady rain by the time I got to Panera for stitch night that evening.  It rained pretty much all day yesterday and most of today and the cool temperatures prompted me to put the flannel sheets on the bed yesterday.  I love flannel sheets.  This morning on the way to and from church, I noticed that many of the trees that had green leaves just a few days ago now have a lot of red and yellow mixed in with the green.

It's been the perfect weekend to stay in and stitch.  I did do some chores around the house yesterday and I'm happy to say that the laundry basket is more empty than full for the first time in recent memory.  The ironing board is also clear of ironing (although not so clear of finished stitching smalls that need to be finish-finished).

I think I've made good progress on the stocking this weeknd:



The brownish round thing is her head and I hope it will look more like a head when I get some Alpaca to do the French knots for her hair.  I have the embellishmet package from Shepherd's Bush and there are some little doo-dads to go in her hair as well.  I made the discovery this afternoon when I started on the sleeve that I had used the wrong shade of green for part of the wing.  I thought for about 2 seconds about frogging it and re-doing it, but the error isn't glaring and the green I used works, so it will stay as it is.

I worked a little bit on Spring Sampler #2 at stitch night on Friday, and yesterday evening I started a new ornament.  Sharon (Daffycat) had posted on her blog the other day that she is working on a new reindeer and that reminded me that I had only done two of the three that she has already designed, so I started on her Jinglebell Reindeer.  I'm working it with DMC on 40-count mystery fabric; it's Lakeside I'm sure, and I think maybe Maritime White.

I don't remember if I've shown you a picture of this next piece.  Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I went to a Spirit of Cross Stitch festival in Winston-Salem and one of the classes I took was for a piece called Tapestry Sampler.  I don't remember who the designer is.  Her signature is on the chart and her first name is Jill; I think the last name is Siegle or Siegler.  I started this back in 1990-something, whenever the first SOCS was, and this is all the further that I ever got on it:

The ground fabric is 24-count Congress cloth and it's more yellowish than it looks in the picture.  The fibers are DMC and Ginnie Thompson flower thread.  A lot of the stitching is done in petit point, so that might go more quickly than full crosses on the 24-count.  For some reason I was thinking about this piece this afternoon and decided to pull it out of UFO land and try to finish it.  I'll try to post some close-up pictures of the different stitches; it's really very cool.

Stitching buddy du jour:



He likes being my stitching buddy until I have to shift my position or get up, then he gets all offended and jumps down.  At least he doesn't try to play with the floss.



Wishing everyone a good week...happy stitching!