STITCH. RIP. CURSE. REPEAT.

Ahhhhh, welcome back, old friend neurosis.  I got myself completely stumped on this piece and couldn't figure out why the stitches weren't matching up.  Turns out, I was off by one lousy little stitch in the striped section, and it threw the whole lot off.

A few hours of ripping and re-stitching and I'm back in the saddle.

And yes, I really did try to compensate rather than rip, but this is me we're talking about and I just couldn't stop the screaming in my head...

MEMORIAL DAY...7AM

THOUGHTS ON TURNING TEN, BY MASTER STEWEY ANGUS WILLOWSWAMP, HIS VERY LITTLE SELF

So far, it's a lot like turning nine.  Mo-ther has promised tea and toast in the big girl sleigh bed for the morning, but I'm not optimistic that her efforts to satisfy me will be entirely successful.  Oh well, I suppose that I will give the old gal points for trying.

Now that I'm ten does this mean I neèd to stop peeing on the ottoman?

CANVAS CONVERSATIONS

I 've been having a conversation with this project as I'm stitching it -- asking it what it wants to be and how I can help it live up to its full potential.  (What can I say?  It's vastly more satisfying than listening to Stewey prattle on about topics I don't understand --- like the impact of foreign aid on the Greek debt crisis or the British Parlimentary elections.)

This canvas keeps telling me that it wants to sing with some basketweave and a little silk, and, if I think I can manage it without making too much of a hash of it, some specilaty stitches and fibers that were suggested by Miss Janet Perry Her Very Self in a stitch guide that she did for me for this piece oh so long ago.

The months away from stitching have made me a little gun shy about getting all fancypants, so the fact that this canvas seems perfectly happy to stick with simple and classic makes me breathe easy.  No need to re-invent the wheel just yet, I guess.

Baby steps.

BACK IN THE SADDLE, AGAIN

It's 8:00 on a Friday night.  I'm in my jammies, the diet Coke is bubbling away in my sippy cup, and the needle is about to start flying!

WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!

By the way....crazy loved this book.  Just can't figure out why, since it is well beyond my coolness level.