Final Phase

I couldn't resist a quick update. All day yesterday, I could think only about finishing that next-to-last section of ATS. So I got home as soon as possible (gee ... almost 7 o'clock), put my ass to the purple chair and finished the pretty little scene (woo hoo!).


Just to give it a little perspective, here's the whole Garden so far ...

Sorry for the blurry pic ... I think I have a problem standing still enough while clicking. But you get the idea. And don't you love the wrinkles and the tangle of threads and needles on the left? Stitching in-hand creates wrinkles, and keeping fibers ready to stitch on needles stuck into my work is my version of convenience. Prettier, wrinkle-free, uncluttered pictures will come at the end. So on to the last section! People have been telling me the ways they've chosen to fill in the last section, and they've caused me to start plotting my own fill-in plan. Before sharing I'll try a little to see how it looks.

Last night was supposed to be Lo How a Rose SAL night, but Adam and Eve and friends tempted me away. Now I'm off to spend some hours on LHAR, take a break from Eden, and think about the upcoming long weekend. My hopes for a blizzard with accompanying snow days will remain unrealized for the near future ... dang it.

Here, Kitty Kitty

While I was stitching that cute lion with the monkey face, I kept thinking, "here, kitty kitty", and eventually he appeared. The only things missing from this lovely little among-the-flora-and-fauna scene is the lady, a ginger-colored sheep and a blue bird sitting on the lion's butt. I like it, and I won't subject you to a long-winded explanation about what I did (or unsuccessfully tried to do) to the moon. Let's just say that I have a left-brain issue concerning symmetry. But then you know this because I've already told you how I readjusted the whole damn border. This pic shows my progress on page three of the four-page chart. My mom, who is retired and has become Super Stitcher (I think she's secretly stitched SS on her undies), is quickly moving through page two. And she just started the sampler at Thanksgiving!!! Can you believe that? I'm working to keep ahead of her in an attempt not to be the slowest stitcher in the family ... even though I am (sniff ... I feel so genetically cheated). My sister is on the last section but we haven't had a progress report lately. Maybe we can eventually do a three-way finish pic.


See the grassy area at the bottom? That's eight out of ten rows of dull fill-in. I've read about how many of the stitchy bloggers hate to fill in, and I'm right there. So, in an effort to make it not-so-dull, I've been stitching a few cute little fun-to-stitch things and then filling in a needleful of grass. Then I go back to the fun stuff for a little while. I'm the queen of deal-making with myself, so that's the deal. I'm not sure what will be arranged when I get to the last section pretty soon. It has lots of cute little things to stitch, but it's completely filled in with two colors of green. I've seen one completed piece with just the cute stuff and no filling. Anyway, thinking about all the filling-in to come got me to thinking about these two stinkers ...

They're both solidly stitched on 36-count linen over one, and that was more filling (yawn) than I've had to do on anything else. In fact, these two little samplers turned out to be true BAP's. So if I finished these two, certainly I can get through one section of ATS, right? By the way, I have another one of these ready to go but other things have cut into the projects-in-waiting queue.


And to you experienced (or just younger) bloggers: I really wanted to put these two pictures next to each other, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I continue to be technologically challenged, so it's not as cool as I wanted it to be.

I'm off ... school tomorrow, and not a snow day in sight! We really need a good blizzard around here.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho ...

It was back to work today for the first time since the big roto-rootering, and I'm a tired pup. As promised, every day is a little better (I don't look so much like Karl Malden), so there are great expectations (on my part) for Friday. Cocktails, anyone? Thanks to Nurse Nikki, my sweet daughter, I had to do very little during recuperation time. She said it was her turn to help me, which strikes me as a highly enlightened attitude for a 24-year-old. That's my girl!

As I signed off the other day, I mentioned my purple chair (or you may join me in thinking of it as a throne), which is where I spent most of Thursday through Monday. It's tucked into a corner of my bedroom and surrounded by baskets of projects on the floor and framed projects on the walls. I love to sit here and stitch!And in the admittedly awful picture of ATS below (I couldn't talk myself into detaching the camera from the computer and going back upstairs to re-photograph it), you can see what I have to show for my get-well time. I've made quite a bit of progress ... for me. What do people do without stitching? Honestly, I can't remember what I did before stitching and children. It's a blank, and it's not because I was in college in the 70's. When my kids were younger, if I tried to watch TV without stitching, I'd be asleep in minutes. (Kinda reminds me of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" ... keep moving so you don't go to sleep.) Anyway, it's good to have a hobby/passion/habit that produces such beautiful things.

Finally, I (like everyone else) just have to say something about the Inauguration today. What a thrill to see such an enormous number of people attend a truly historic event! I watched at school and almost started bawling. I don't recall ever feeling so choked up during an inauguration. A truly proud day for Americans. And I haven't heard anything about bad behavior by anyone attending the ceremonies. Can that be true? I'm not gonna count on that being the case, but I love the thought of humans behaving well as a group activity. It gives me hope.