Leaf me alone!

I am so sick of leaves I could scream! They seem to go on and on. I've finished the leaves on the border but the trees need a bunch. I have to keep cutting the overdyed floss so I can make the leaves look variegated, and I've got little snippets all over the place. On the bright side, my border matched up! I did find one stitch where I crossed over three threads rather than two, but I'm leaving it. I'll just invoke the "nothing is perfect but God" rule.

This was so strange - I uploaded the picture to Blogger, and it rotated on its side. I did it three times, and it wasn't until I tried it on the left side that it uploaded right side up. Then I centered it again and it came out right. Blogger continues to be mystifying to me. I still haven't figured out how to make the pictures clickable - does anyone know? Do you do something special, or do they just turn out that way? Maybe it's my template. I'm long overdue for a change anyway.

Well, I'm off to do some lettering, till I get sick of that. Then I'll go back to putting foliage on the trees. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

A BIG visit from the frog

See this? It's Moon and Stars by LHN - BEFORE I discovered I'd left out four stitches at the top of the border where I started the piece. Therefore, it wasn't wide enough, which I only discovered when I got to the D in thread. I couldn't believe it - I had counted the border three times (so much for my math ability). There was no way to fix it - it had to come out. So I ripped out half the border and the tree branch on the right. Since then, I've restitched it and the D now sits in its rightful place. But it sure set me back awhile.

Borders make me so anxious. Whether I stitch them first or last, I always hold my breath when I reach the end and start doing the rest of the design. I live in fear that what happened to me with LHN's Where There is Life will happen again - I did the border last, and ended up one thread off from meeting the stitching on the other end. You'd think I would have learned.

I went off to my local needlework shop because I needed a skein of Crescent Colours Desert Mesquite for M&S, and came home with another LHN chart that uses silk - Always and Forever. I love the feel of the silk sliding through the fabric. This time I'll center the stitching properly!

I followed a link on this great blog (thank you for visiting me!) to the Cricket Collection's website, a company new to me. I fell in love with this project, perhaps because I grew up reading a wonderful children's book called The Sherwood Ring, which set its story at a house called Rest and Be Thankful. I feel an order coming on...

Boy, I sure am into linking things today. I guess I'm making up for not posting for quite awhile. It's nice to be back.

Back At It

I'm hoping my hiatus is over. There was a death in my family and a serious illness, but finally life has stabilized. And I've actually been doing some stitching! I made this flower to go on the back of whatever I do with the peacock. I'm actually thinking of trying to make a needlebook, though the thought of it strikes terror into my non-finisher heart. But what am I going to do with the little pile of projects I've managed to amass if I don't try something new? So stay tuned...

The other thing I completed (sort of) is Schoolgirl Lessons. I say sort of because I didn't leave quite enough fabric at the bottom so I decided not to do the motif that runs under the lettering. I think it looks okay without it. The house kind of looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa but I hope that can be straightened out. I loved working with silk but it was very frustrating that the color stained the fabric. Don't look too closely or you'll see all my frogging!

I haven't decided what to start next so for now I'm going back to Gingerbread Cottage, which has been languishing in a pile somewhere. But I tend to get bored with it so I'll be thinking of something else before long. Hope everyone is doing well.