DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME, KIDS. I'M A TRAINED PROFESSIONAL.

Miss Charlene picked me up at 6:15 for Guild this evening.

At 6:45 I drank a Venti skinny nonfat peppermint mocha latte.

It didn't have whipped cream, but I suspect that there might have been five or six extra shots of expresso in there, because I find myself ready to solve the world's problems at 1:45 am.

am.

As in the morning.

But the happ happ happiest news of all is that I have completed the big red bow on my Valentine Wreath!

Here are the first few steps.  I used a Sharpie to draw the bow on the canvas by carefully counting and following the chart. (Those are the purple and orange marks that you see in this picture:

Next, I stitched long vertical stitches with perle cotton randomly, being careful to stay one thread inside the outline. These long stitches will act as padding for the bow and will give it a little dimension:

 

When the padding stitches were complete, I stitched the dark parts of the bow with the called for Very Velvet V213:

And then finally added all of the rest of the bow in long horizontal stitches with Very Velvet V282, also as per the chart:

Overall, I am totally pleased with the result.  This was my first time marking canvas with markers, padding stitches with perle cotton, and then stitching with Very Velvet.  

Good thing I had all that caffeine to fuel my efforts.  Maybe I'm on to something...