The Parade Inches Forward

The harsh reality of the end of vacation has set in this week. The looming deadline for a work project is threatening to take away my evening and weekend stitching time. But, I'm determined to squeeze in my stitching somehow!

I chose some small areas to work on this week that I knew I had a good chance of being able to finish. Santa's hat and his backpack received some attention as well as his beard. The beard is stitched in Weeks Dye Works overdyed cotton floss. The stitch is Victorian Slide variation. The backpack is stitched in Burmilana.

I also finished up some work on the snowman's face and body. The Silk Lame Braid adds some nice shimmer to the Scotch stitches on the snowman.

Background work on the Christmas banner continues behind the scenes. I found a few hours worth of stitching time for it this week working on Step 2 of the background and finally starting to work again on Step 3 using the #4 silver Kreinik fly stitches that bracket each square. Step 3 is really tedious for me. I suppose it is because the stitches are small and it takes several groupings of the squares before you begin to notice any difference in the appearance of the background. It is definitely worth the time to add these stitches. I have to just remember to concentrate on the area in front of me and not worry about how many more sections are still waiting to be stitched.

Enjoyed watching the Gran Prix of Monaco this morning and looking forward to the Indy 500 and NASCAR later today.  It's a good day for stitching in front of the television! It was 94 degrees out yesterday so being inside today is not a bad thing!

Hope your stitching is going well and that you have a great week ahead!