Hopping on the Bandwagon--And Falling off the Wagon Again

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was satisfying! I spent a bit more than a week running around, so there wasn't a lot of time to stitch, which some days got on my last nerve. I got a lot accomplished though, with my butt not parked on the sofa. But I see some butt-parking in my future, with Nicola's Scarlet Letter challenge, which I've emailed to sign up for. The challenge for me will be figuring out exactly which SLs to stitch in 2013. Here are some of my SL WIPs. Ann Smith. I love the colors and the Magnolia fabric I used, but goodness, there's so much over-one.

Ruthy Rogers. Hardly any cross-stitching here, and doing all the fill in pieces, using stem stitch is very challenging. Yes, it will be pretty in the end, but I just don't know if I have the patience.

Elizabeth Sheffield. How I love the Rhode Island samplers, but I got stuck on the idea that my fabric seemed awfully dark, never mind that it is probably the perfect shade, especially considering the cover photo. I need to just get on with it and stop obsessing.

Product of My Needle. I love it, but I started it back in the day (10 years ago?) on 32 count fabric and the fabric showed through the silk crosses. So I restarted it on 40 count but got distracted by other things, other samplers.

Catharine Metcalf. Love this, but got sick of stitching yellow border flowers and the tree.

Dorothy Walpole. I will plan to finish this in 2013, and probably Mary Ann MacDonald too (not shown). And that doesn't even count the SLs lined up in the wings, although predictably, the one sampler I really truly want to stitch is no longer available: the stamped "Richmond Fire." (If anyone has it, I'd be happy to purchase it from you for a nice premium!) Richmond Fire is long out of print, which Marsha at SL confirmed, and that is why we stash even when we don't have immediate plans to stitch something.

Here's a pizza in case you're hungry. I bought it on the Cape and this photo is to show my sister (Papa Gino's). It was delicious. Why oh why can't they make decent pizza in Northern Virginia?

Almost finished! I have to finish before the SL challenge, and also before the deadline for framing so I can enter it in Woodlawn. Entering it in the Woodlawn show (where there are something like 600+ needleworks is not about winning, but more of a show and tell to me.

The fish store on the Cape that I visited was selling lobster heads when I stopped by (they make excellent broth for lobster newburg or lobster bisque. Sigh--there was no time to make soup on this visit.) Something about the way they were displayed made me think of commuters riding the Metro.

This is the part where I fell off the wagon. I was at In Stitches and someone had brought this completed sampler in to have it framed. It's by Stacy Nash Primitives. The stitcher had used pale linen--a little different than mine--I'm using Picture This Plus in Fog, on 40 count. I am also converting the DMC to NPI silks. It's a little different for me--I don't generally stitch prims, but I'm loving it. It's beautifully charted.

Here's our little guy, whose name so far is "Kitten-Kitten." We can't seem to think of an adult name for him. He's a darling--very active though and into everything, which means I have to zip up the project bags very tightly and put them out of reach.
Fell off the wagon here too (I had said I wouldn't start a bunch of stuff...). I've wanted this for quite a while: Green Apple's "Beatrix Potter Christmas"; it was an ebay win. I saw it stitched up at the Woodlawn show two years ago and haven't forgotten it. The stitcher chose three of the designs and stitched them one below the other and had them framed. Hers was tiny (over one I think), but mine will be larger--stitched on a cream colored plain linen, two over two (DMC).

What appeals to me about Beatrix Potter is that she got the eyes of little animals just right. Peaches wishes you all a pleasant week ahead.