Yippie! Progress AND a Finish!

I know it doesn't seem possible, but I've made progress.. just remember:  Baby Steps!   [Some day I will attend the seminar that teaches me to be a speedy stitcher, or teaches my needles to stitch while I nap.]

Here is the corduroy stitch in place in Mr. Engineer's overalls -- it has worked out far better than the t-stitch in my humble opinion:

Please note, just because I love you all, I *forced* myself to put in several rows of the corduroy so you could really see how it looked in place.  No, of course it wasn't because I was obsessing about stitching it... noooooooo---- not me.  It was all for you, gentle reader.

And lookie here -- Massachusetts has arrived in Ellen's flag!   All the letters AND the little bobble at the end!  I was so overjoyed that I actually started the border on the next stripe.  I tell you it's the little things.   I should not that I was *not* overjoyed enough to start more of the stars in the blue field.  There are limits to my enthusiasm.   But I do know I need to get them done -- this weekend... yeah, that'll work.  I have a weekend of "peaceful" hockey viewing and audiobook listening time scheduled -- that should give me ample time to ignore the stars err, I mean crank out several stars.

And here is my glorious finish!   Done done done!   He just cracks me up.

The fabric is an overdyed jobelan from Wichelt and the threads are all DMC save for the black which is Splendor.

On behalf of Sir Terry Pratchett and Lady Vimes, please enjoy your St. George's Day responsibly:

Progress on many fronts and something ridiculous

Greetings gentle reader.  So good to see you.  I have resettled into life in the land of Really-This-Is-Winter?-Who-Knew-?!  Today we are supposed to hit 71F  This weekend we needed to air condition the shop. Honestly, last Thursday it snowed on me and now I'm trying to find light enough sweaters to wear to the office.  Oh well.  I guess I will just have to muddle through.

On to the exciting news ----   I stitched!   I know-- it is gasp worthy.

This weekend after the customer flurry left for the day (Saturday was the first day of my needlepoint shop's annual post-TNNA sale, and the shoppers were out IN FORCE!), my little stitching country club settled in for a get together and Ethel got all the leaves (Sampler Thread) in the uppermost basket and the flowers started going in (French knots in white Flair which may be joined by very, very pale blue and pale blue Flairs as well).  And, she also got a bit more sky because that's where I started only to quickly work out that to do any more sky I needed to rid myself of the waste knots  in my way and to do that I needed to get those threads running through the white flowers anchored.   If I had done a better pic you could tell that the Flair makes the flowers sparkle a bit.

On Sunday I hunkered down at Chez Hovel, put on an Agatha Christie audio book, and stitched and napped the day away.  It was blissful!   First up on Blissday was starting my By the Bay Serenity Harbor.  I am loving it.  

I am changing the roses in the border from pink to red.  As far as I can tell I have not messed up my counting yet, but I am accepting all prayers and good thoughts that not only is that assumption true but that they continue to be true.  I have a habit of just giving up on things where I get off in count and can't find the mistake in an hour of hunting.  It's a character flaw, but life it too short to be frustrated for long.

And Ellen's flag came out to play --

That's By Gone Stitches' One Nation -- and it got some new stars and an "O" in Connecticut.  I know, I know.  A 10-year old could stitch faster, but hey, I'm getting there.  

I am going to leave you with a little ridiculousness from DC.
Behold, Sound Suit by Nick Cave. (from the Smithsonian American Art Museum)

The front:

The back:

Details:

My first reaction was "dang it someone's grandma did those."  Eventually after circling the thing for a while I decided I might have to come back from the grave to shoot someone who did that to my stitching.