Back to Stitching

Hope you all had wonderful holidays over these past few weeks! I know I did but it is sort of nice to get back to a more regular schedule. I stitched very little over the holidays and I am looking forward to getting back to some serious stitching.

The third kit for the Christmas banner arrived from Amy's just in time for the new year. This kit will cover the H and R pears. I worked earlier in the week on the third step of the background stitch. It is definitely the more time-consuming of the three stitches that make up the background. We use a silvery Kreinik for this step that adds a subtle sparkle to the background. Very nice!

The last few days I have worked on the background of the H pear. I really like the striping and the topiaries. Once I had finished the light green striping I was ready to start the Rice Stitch for the areas between the light green stripes. I realized very quickly that my canvas had been painted differently than Amy's because I only had three threads between the stripes and the Rice Stitch that Amy calls for in the stitch guide uses four threads. A late night email to Amy for stitch suggestions for three threads brought a new stitch to my Inbox on Thursday morning (Thanks, Amy!). Now I am working a 3 x 3 cross stitch with a strap stitch over it. If you are stitching the banner, count the threads between the light green lines and if you have only three threads between them, give Amy a call or email her for the stitch or send me a message and I will send it to you.

The new stitch works perfectly. The Kreinik we use for the strap stitch is so colorful, hence the name "Confetti Gold". You see flecks of metallic greens, golds, and sometimes turquoise depending on the light. I've made good progress on the background this weekend and can hopefully finish it up in the next few days. Maybe I will have started the topiaries by the time I post next weekend.

While I was in Jacksonville for Christmas, I stitched on two of my Melissa Shirley candy canes. I have had these for a few years and just needed to add the beading to both of them. It was easy and quick to finish both of them and didn't require a lot of concentration.

You might remember that last year for Christmas, Andrew and Anna gave me a gift certificate for a Rent Amy day. What a great gift it was! This year they gave me an equally wonderful gift certificate from Amy's that will cover the cost of the canvas and stitch guide for Susan Roberts' Christmas Parade.

This is the canvas I will be stitching at Amy's Needlepoint University in May. I am so excited to be going and to be stitching this canvas. I haven't even stitched this one yet and I already want to stitch the others in this series. Did you see the July 4th Parade canvas in Amy's January newsletter? There is a big eagle leading the parade and seeing the eagle sealed the deal for me on this canvas. I've got to call Amy's this week and have them order one for me.

Speaking of eagles, the eagle nest cam at the Norfolk Botanic Garden (Norfolk, Virginia) will be going live in the next couple of weeks. The male eagle (Dad Norfolk) and his new mate (no name for her yet) have already been busy renovating last year's nest. New cameras have been installed and all of us in Eagle Nation eagerly anticipate the cameras going live. The new female has been photographed sitting in the nest as though she were trying out her new home. Educated observers think that she is a young eagle (4-5 years old) and that this might be her first nest. Fortunately for her, she has chosen a mate who has raised 15 eaglets at the Garden. Hopefully, we'll see some eggs in late January or early February and little eaglets in early March.

In preparation for the eagles' nesting season, Andrew and Anna gave me her computer monitor which she doesn't use any more and I have set it up in my office so that I can view two monitors at once. One monitor for the Norfolk nest cam or the Wildlife Center of Virginia Critter Cam and one monitor for work. I am addicted to the live cams and I am not ashamed to admit it!

Time to get back to some stitching now! Have a good week everyone!