Little mermaid, 3

I've been working on the tail smyrna crosses, alternating stitching them with the blue background basketweave.  This weekend my goal is to look on-line for instructions for the bullion stitch for all that hair.  Years ago I tried doing them and failed abysmally.  Since then I have resorted to fake bullion stitches.  We'll see if I have improved with age and patience. 

Yesterday Lynn packed the rugs into the plastic storage bins.  I have made color print-outs of each one and we have marked the bins so on the off chance someone wants to buy one, we know which bin holds it.  This organizational plan allowed us to discover that I had omitted one rug from the sale listings.  It got added as #70 last night.  I guess Lynn doesn't pack them as tightly as I used to--they still occupy 6 bins and over 20 have been sold since the rug sale began this year. 

Little mermaid, 2

 People often ask my about my stitching strategy.  I don't like coming up in a hole that has yarn, so I try to move from the upper right hand corner down and across the canvas.  On the mermaid's tail "fluke", I first did the green outline.  It was then easy to fit the slanted gobelin stitches in.  I know some people do the dark colors first, or the light colors first.  I just do them as I come to them.  You can also see that I have started doing the Smyrna cross  since the tail seems to be painted for them. 

And in an update to my mother dove.  I checked and the incubation period for doves is about 14 days.  Sure enough, Monday morning I looked out the window to discover the chick on the ground underneath the pygmy palm.  I assume it fell out of the nest.  You can see that the mother is sitting on it--perhaps to protect it from predators?  For a while, the chick was uncovered.  The chick is the whitish fluff under the front of the dove's breast.  Tuesday there was no sign of the chick, so I'm hoping it is safe.  It was nice to see that papa also took a turn sitting (he's larger and darker). 

Swimming with the fishes, part III

The evening newscaster just proclaimed "Today is the beginning of the Romney/Obama political campaign."  And here I thought the talking heads started that 7 months ago!  One of my Canadian customers said Monday that she didn't want to appear rude, but it did seem to be dragging on quite a bit.  All I think about is the money that is being spent on campaign ads that could be spent on feeding the poor or installing new programs in schools.  Of course, if the wife of just one of the candidates had been photographed doing needlepoint, I might be more tolerant!  

As evidence that the season is speeding past, Needle Nicely had its yearly employees luncheon at the Ocean Grill again today.  Poor Adele, who lives an hour South, got lost on her way from the shop and got to tour the greater suburban Vero Beach area.  As I was walking into the restaurant, I thought about pictures.  Then my cellphone rang and I had to try to lead Adele back in the right direction.  Our waitress was not amused!  We all had a wonderfully chatty time, though, and the food was delicious.

I managed quite a bit of stitching this week because of the Masters'.  I was so interested in Bubba's shots and performance that I could hardly take a stitch. 

I almost finished "greenie" during all that golf viewing.  I'm still looking at the seaweed.  I think I have the stitch I'll use, but I'm putting it off until after I finish the fish.  I rarely do the continental stitch and I've been surprised at how slowly it stitches on the fins. 

I guesstimate that I'm about 50% done.  I'm impatient to finish because I have already selected my next 3 projects! 

If the shoe fits...

I'm not usually a fan of Halloween canvases, but this one appeals to me.  Perhaps it's because of the shoe collection residing in my closet.  This canvas is by Treglown Designs on 13mesh canvas and is stitch-painted so it's a dream to stitch.  As is my wont, I started in the upper right doing the basketweave using slime green silk 'n ivory.  I plan to keep working from the top right, but also plan in the next week to jump down to the bottom right-hand section so I can do background and then get started on the "dots" or bubbles. 

But I had to reward myself by stitching the first shoe.  It was such fun to do the alternating Scotch stitch using silk lame braid 18.  Even though it's intended for 18mesh, it covers well on 13.  Then using the new L metallics from Kreinik, I stitched the stars.  If you look closely, you can see where I added a French knot to the center of the star to fill the blank area.  I looked on the Kreinik website but couldn't find what they call the L series of metallics.  I think of them as lacquer because they are so shiny.  I don't like the black one, though.  It has a greenish tint rather than a black shine.  Kreinik has also added some new golds--here I'm using 3270 which has a red tinge.  I also especially like the 3280 which is more irridescent.