5 lighthouses, all in a row

It has been a busy time at the shop this week--I sold a Susan Roberts Santa tree skirt and spent part of 2 days kitting it.  Actually, it took one morning just to hem the 8 pieces and that felt like I were wrestling a whale, it was so unwieldy. 

I also received some canvases from a new designer, one of which I'm now going to blog-stitch.  This is the 5 lighthouses by Pippin.  

I swear I used to be an organized person; after all I was a library cataloger, the most rigid of the rigid.  You couldn't prove it by my behavior as I approach my dotage.  I started the navy border at the shop one day and then packed everything up to take home for stitching this weekend (yeah, Saturday off!).  This morning I reached for the fiber bag--and you got it, no navy silk 'n ivory.  I wanted to stitch it in the daylight while watching golf, but it isn't in the bag. Mumble, mumble.  To Plan B.

I started stitching the background in Nobuko stitch, but taking a page out of Anne Stradal's stitch book, my version is slanting the other way.  I wanted a contrast to the right-handed slant of the Diagonal Triple Parisian that I had started in the border.  We'll see if it works when I manage to get some more of the border done.

I decided that while the openings in the top structures of the lighthouses should be the background (i.e., sky), I can make the stitches more appropriate to the shape of the structures.  Therefore, I did an enlarged Cashmere stitch in the top of the first lighthouse.   The triangle-shaped top of the structure I stitched in the Mosaic stitch.  At first I tried Satin stitch, but the silk 'n ivory didn't blend smoothly enough to be pleasing. 

The rocks on which the lighthouses are reposing I am doing (she says optimistically) in the Woven stitch. 
The waves are happening in a Diagonal mosaic.

I also brought home a Christmas stocking that a customer brought in for us to paint a name on and then stitch the top.  It has been shoved aside since Adele has been out sick (and as I mentioned before, Helen retired).
So that will be my Sunday afternoon stitching.  It's 18 mesh, so I think it will take me several Sundays.  But I still have time, thank goodness.

And a shout-out to Sharon in Lake Mary who reads my blog and came in this week to see what Needle Nicely and Vero Beach were all about.  Thanks, Sharon, and I hope to see you often.