I thought I knew how to do Portuguese stem stitch so I didn’t review Sharon’s how-to description carefully. I had these three flowers already stitched so I used it to make the stems. Then I read several posts that questioned if the poster had done their stitches right, so I followed a link to a Mary Corbet video. Nope! I had not done it right at all! So I practiced doing it correctly. As you can see, I also played…
TAST week 3 challenge was Buttonhole stitch and Reversed Buttonhole Bar. The bright yellow flower is Reversed Buttonhole Bar with regular buttonhole around it (2 strands of floss and perle 5). The stem is backstitch (perle 5). The dark gold flower is a spiraled overlapping buttonhole over a snippet of fabric (2 strands of floss). I didn’t like how it turned out, so I added single chain stitches (perle 5). That one’s stem is stem stitch (perle 3). The bottom of…
I don’t know who walked up onto my deck this morning, but I have never seen such big bird tracks before. The crows’ feet aren’t that big. I imagine something the size of a turkey. They are about the same width and half the length of my feet! (Yes, I do go out into the snow in bare feet,)
Yesterday, after finally clearing the creches off the mantel and piano, I decided I wanted a planned mantel. It’s always what I want, actually, but somehow never what I’ve had. I googled around and finally ended up reading at The DIY Playbook and got an idea what I’ve always done wrong. I was sure I had a “before” photo, but if I do, I can’t find it. It’s not in iCloud or on Flickr. So… I played around with GIMP,…
The sun (running stitch and chain stitch) and the evergreen branch in the lower right (fly stitch, stem stitch) were done about seven months ago. Today I added the the birds and the tree. The birds are Italian border stitch with two strands of variegated floss, one flipped to give 2-tones to each stitch. I think I want to add more birds. Many more. Darker, smaller, in the blue block. Not sure yet. The tree trunk is single fly stitches…
By the echinacea photo I took today
The cloudy, rainy days get to me. Since the rain has paused, I went out to look for some cheer. I didn’t need a coat, though if were going for a walk I would have put on a sweater–or better yet, my rain slicker. This is what I found: Not bad for January 5! The grass is greener than ever and the driveway is, too(with moss)! Pretty soon the early blooms of spring will be out. Woohoo!!
A new kaleidoscope image:
This post is really me thinking/planning for the new year, which is as close as I get to resolutions. I’m making it public for a certain level of accountability. And, who knows, maybe someone else might find something helpful. Goals are not, never have been, my strong suit. Nonetheless, periodically I do set some. Although 2020 has been a crap year for most, I have minimally come out on the plus side. This is partly because what is a lockdown…
Digitizing I’ve had laundry basket labels on my to-do list for some time. With a label, Iqbal will know which basket to put things in when he does that chore and I won’t end up shrinking or bleaching something if I forget to double check before putting them in the machine. I started working on them last spring, but interruptions and distractions kept me from finishing. At first I did them too big. When I stitched one out, I didn’t…