Emerging From the Sea of Boxes

     I've been packing up or discarding those physical reminders of the last 28 years of my life over the past two weeks. So far, I've got the 15-yard dumpster in the driveway almost half full. I fear that I'll fill it up. Yikes! It's hard to make some of the decisions, and many of those are just being put off till next week, after the initial whirlwind I'm finishing up in the next day, or two, or three. It all has to be completed by next Friday, when the floor cleaners will come to try to spruce up my tired hardwood floors. So I'm taking a little break this morning before the carpenter/electrical-guy/all-around handyman and painter get here.

     I didn't stitch much last week, but since my last report, I have gotten a little bit done on a few of my projects. Pease pardon the photos this time, as I took them under less than optimal conditions, free space being at a premium around here just now.

 

     I did get started on From Molehill to Mountain at my ANG chapter meeting Thursday a week ago. When I left the meeting, I think I had all of four stitches in place, having spent the class time making decisions, planning, thinking, taking time out for a real quick meeting, and then finally placing those few stitches as everyone was cleaning up and getting ready to leave. When I got home, I sat right down and proceeded to finish Areas 1 and 2 of the first block. Yay! What you see basted are the sashing lines to the left and bottom of the block I'm working on, with the ever-popular pink hairtape holding the threads that will get woven in once I have enough worked to allow that. I'm happy with the color so far, the variegated thread, Dinky-Dyes Mardi Gras, and the lightest cotton floss of my primary color.

     On another night I tackled Stars once again. I'm oh-so-gradually getting Vivien Leigh finished. All I need to do are the triangles in the border. I stitched the bottom center one and realized it requires manipulating the variegated thread, Silk 'N Colors Peacock, in order to get the right color balance. There's a rather drab section in the length I'm using that just doesn't work for me. So I'll cut it out.

     Last but not least, I've been working on the 2011 ANG Stitch of the Month and managed to get caught up! I see a lot of pink hairtape in the stitching of this piece, along with a lot of Hilton lengths of thread to complete these stitches without having to start a new thread midway through. Ack! I'm hoping soon to be able to anchor some of these threads. They really bother me, coming from a cross-stitch background and being used to anchoring threads right away and not having any of these ridiculous away knots awaiting a place to go.

     So that's where I am. Perhaps I'll be stitching more after next week.

     Kthxbai.