A Quick Update on a Slow Project...

Wow!  Work is pretty overwhelming right now, so blogging and e-mailing has been suffering lately.  I just about threw my computer out the window this morning at the office, when I lost two Excel workbooks full of data and analysis work due to Excel compatibility issues...  The most annoying part was that the work I lost took 3-4 hrs to generate - on my Sunday evening!  Nope, I was NOT a happy camper.  What did I learn from this?  Never, ever bring your computer home over the weekend - it is better to just stitch!  :-(

Anyway, I realized that if I don't post before bed tonight, chanses are that it won't happen for a few days, so here we go!  I am slowly stitching along on the Richmond sampler and here is the update:

It probably doesn't look like much, but right now I am stitching a lot of whites - see that bird inside the bird-cage hanging on the right side of the house?  Yep, that now contains a white over-one bird, which is hard to spot even in real life, even with the linen about 2 inches from my nose....  The over-one directions are still making me frustrated (main chart, sampler photo & detail graphs have not-so-many-things in common....), so I mix it up with "filling" sections - see that hill that the house stands on?  That will be completely green one day.  I also have to fill in the white grout between all the bricks, so that too is a good amount of no-brain work....   

There are a few sections of over-ones that probably won't be an issue - both vines next to the house need fruit, there is a little branch in the lower right corner right at the border that needs some blue berries, and the verse over the scene is stitched completely over-one.  There are also two absolutely glorious sun-flowers that are missing form the right hand urn - those will be a lot of fun to plant, I think!  Oh, and click on the photo to check out the three violas in that same urn.  How cute are those!?

The windows would have been complete, but I ran out of the dusty green color, so that will hopefully make itself over here in the mail soon.  Next session, I will probably devote to finish the birds.  I think that there are about 6-7 more to go and then the flocks are complete.  

Did I tell you that all the basket will be filled with queen stitches, by the way?  Oh, and the entire border will get filled with two rows of queen stitches too!  I think that I will have a lot of fun with that, since I actually enjoy queen stitches!  I love the texture and if you use the sewing method, queen stitches do actually whip up pretty quickly and neatly.

Before I log off, I also want to thank all of you for your sweet comments in regards to the Silly Spring pin-cushion in my last post.  Thanks, I really appreciate them!  I am still a bit torn about this one, but it is standing on the mantle in the living-room, so maybe I will get happier about it in a few days?

Henny hasn't even looked at it twice since we got it done, so I assume that she wasn't exactly overjoyed either... ;-)  (However, I noticed earlier this evening that a very long, very sharp, and very thin beading needle went missing from my TUSAL pin-cushion top.  I know exactly who flew off with that one.  Wonder where she dropped it?  I  have a feeling that DH will find it with his feet - he usually does.  I am already ashamed...)

Speaking of DH - he almost threw a complete fit this weekend when I did not let him use my needlework scissors to open a plastic pack with.  He thought that it was outrageous that I told him to get the paper scissors from the kitchen (3 steps away) , instead of tossing him the scissors I was using.  (Doesn't make it better that the pack in question contained parts needed to fix the flushing mechanism for the toilet....)  Does anyone else have to guard their needlework tools with their life around here?  Just wondering...  I guess some people just don't get it.  Sigh!

Well, time to hop into bed.  Hopfully I'll dream about filling in a lawn with green grass and not about disappearing  data...

Good Night and Sweet Dreams about Stitching to All!