Monday, February 6, 2012

Weekend Progress Report: February 5, 2012

This has been what I hope will be an atypical week. Due to short staffing and just general madness at work, I have been a little too stressed to concentrate on my goal projects. Instead, I went for simpler and less ambitious stitching: bookmarks and a tiny scissor fob. At midweek, I finished a lovely Celtic Bookmark from Dinky Dyes, though I totally changed the colorway. Then I stitched a dainty little chart from CEC called Tiny Basket. I love pansies and just couldn't resist this darling little Spring scissor fob. Next, I finished up the week by stitching another bookmark, this one of my own design, Riona's Book Nook: a bookcase with lots of interesting little details - a spider plant, a kitten staring down from one of the shelves, a small geode tucked in the corner of a shelf, an antique bottle. Can you guess what you might find on my book shelves? Well, all those things and more, except the kitten. I am allergic to cat dander. But somehow, adding the kitten to the bookcase seemed to make it look nice and homey. All I have left to do on this bookmark is the geode [yet to be drawn and charted], the back-stitching and the specialty stitching of which the spider plant will be made [some modified lazy daisy stitches, some long stitches and some star eyelet stitches]. It is amazing how much detail one can pack into a space less than two inches wide by seven inches high. The upcoming week should be better. My program assistant will be back from her two week sick leave. First Confession and the Confirmation interviews are behinds us. The stress levels should recede just enough to let me get back to the Holly and Hearts Sampler and the Tracery Dragons. I hope to have both these pieces finished by month's end. And, though I really do want to limit new starts to small quickly finished items, temptation comes in the form of the latest issue of Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly. This issue includes Part I of a lovely band sampler that I absolutely must start. The story of my life: too many intriguing charts, too little stitching time!

3 comments:

Ann said...

I DO love your bookcase bookmark! Actually, with the exception of the cat (cat dander problems here, too), it would very much look like one of our bookcases.

Erica said...

I love your bookcase bookmark!
Well done!
Thanks for your kind comments on ATS. It is so true that we stitchers always kid ourselves in what we can accomplish! (it's not as if we don't have a million other things goiing on in our lives)!
I am looking forward to seeing Tracery Dragons finished, That is quite a big project.
I have to just do one at a time now. I just hate to think of someone finding all my unfinished projects at my estate sale LOL!

Kim Demaree said...

Love Love Love the Book Nook bookmark! So creative and darling. If you did chart it, please share it! I would love to replicate it for my mother in law. Keep stitching!