Plodding Along

Grief comes and goes in waves.  I think I'm fine, and then I come downstairs in the morning and look over at the white Ikea fake sheepskin on the sofa, expecting to see a white cat on it, and there... isn't.

I'll be picking up Sushi's ashes tomorrow, and then at some point, probably in the spring, will inter them in the ground, probably planting them under a rosebush.

But I'm not in a constant state of grief, so things move on.  I've been working on the Olde World Map cross stitch, and have repigmented the figure in the lower left corner.  Given he? she? is clearly supposed to represent Africa and maybe Asia, having them be lily-white rubbed me the wrong way.

So I went through my box of floss and pulled out three shades of brown that seemed to work well together, and voila!

I've also been seriously thinking about attending Costume College this year.  For the first time in... four years?  Thinking about it seriously enough that I've finally washed that 15 yards of lightweight muslin and found a pattern or three I want to start working on.  (The first two are corset/chemise and bodiced petticoat respectively; the third is the gown to go with them.)  That said, the patterns are download-only so I'm going to need to transfer them to a thumb drive and take them to Office Depot and say "large scale print plz!"

NYE brief post

So, in the two weeks since I took up the Olde World Map project again, I've finished the two hemispheres and the lower right corner (the Native American).  Next I'm moving on the the bottom center which has a ship under sail.

Outside, it is pitch black and the occasional firework is being shot off.  I am not planning to stay up until midnight!  I'm too tired and too aware that I need to start shifting the boys (and their father) back to a school schedule.

I have started in on one of the gifts I got for Christmas, though, the Lego Viking Village set.  I've even persuaded Squiddle to work with me on it the last two days.  Five bags down, ten to go!  And after that, if he's amenable, we can build the Viking Ship and Midgard Serpent set to go with it.

New Old Project

So, last week I went with my mother up to Threadneedle Street up in Issaquah, which according to Google is my closest dedicated embroidery shop.  And it's a little hole in the wall type store, but it's packed with good stuff, beautifully organized.  It's one of those shops that just feels like it should be in a larger, more stylish space.  So I will definitely be going again!

I bought a Christmas gift for my sister there, and another needle minder, two of the Lavender and Lace Celtic seasons patterns, and the fabric, beads, and specialty threads for Mirabilia designs' Maidens of the Seasons, which I want to make a 2024 project.

(Wonderful Husband was feeling a bit at sea about what to get me, so I told him my purchases there can be his Christmas gift for me.  I even promised I'd act surprised when I opened it.  He has taken me up on the offer and spirited them away.)

But the thing is, I've had a half-finished project lingering on my scroll frame for... must be over ten years now, since I can't remember stitching on it since Squiddle was born.  And I've decided I don't want to take it off and put it away half-finished just to put a new project on.  So I've started working on it again.  Janlynn's Olde World Map.

I like finding and finishing others' half-done cross stitch works.  Just, this time, the half-done work is my own!  And, looking at it, it looks like the last time I worked on this, my method was to find all the areas of one particular color across the entire project and do them all.  But now, I'm doing it in sections.  Currently I'm working on the right-hand globe.  When I started, I had all the water done, and Africa filled in.  Now I've got all the continents filled in, all of the lettering, and about half the mountains, internal outline, and latitude and longitude markings.  I've also discovered that I dislike working the "two strands of floss and two strands of pearlized blending filament" sections; it's rougher to pull the filament through, the stitches are bulkier, and I keep worrying that the 10+ year old plastic will snap.  That said, there are only three more sections of it, so I shall persevere!