A Work in Progress

During those long car trips to take my two younger children to college, I've used my time wisely and stitched these canvas ornaments. These are Kathy Schenkel designs from a series called "Countdown to Christmas." The first two or three ornaments took me around five hours to complete. Now I have it down to a science and each one takes about three hours. Except for this one which took me about three months. That pesky satin stitch on the candle (see close up below) was ripped out, oh, about four times, before I could get it to a reasonable facsimile of the way the stitch looked in the diagram. Fronts will be joined to backs (not by me--way beyond my finishing competencies) and embellished with ribbons and hangers to go on a small tree that serves as an Advent calendar. In fact, I tried to drop these off at the needlepoint shop on Monday, but forgot they aren't open on Mondays. It wasn't a wasted trip as I had breakfast near the shop with a good friend and enjoyed

Anna asked this question and though I'm late to the party (hey, I've been busy!!), I finally took these pictures when I was home during daylight hours yesterday. This is only one of my stitching bags, but it's the one that travels in my car and to guild meetings. It's from Tarzhay and has served me well over the last few years. Right now it contains a Kathy Schenkel canvas ornament project for the eventual Advent tree, an over-one project that has no business being in the travel bag (it was a guild project that hasn't been moved into the stitching basket beside my couch), a Lights of Advent ornament (in the Q-snaps) along with a working copy and a bag of threads, my name card for guild meetings, two pair of scissors, a Vera Bradley wristlet containing packages of needles and a doodle cloth.

I mentioned in this post that I finished a needlepoint project because I wanted to work on something new during a few car trips this summer. I finished ornaments 6, 7 and 14 during the trips to my son's camp and to Newport. Ornaments 20 and 21 were earlier finishes. I took them all to the finisher this week and am choosing a few more to work on. These are by Kathy Schenkel and will be placed on an Advent tree. . .eventually. I apologize for the delay between posts. Life intervened in the form of a lot of pain following a dental appointment. That issue still isn't resolved, but I'm going back today so I'm hoping it will be taken care of. We also had an overnight guest on Friday. I always look forward to seeing him as he is one of the most upbeat people I know. Another friend was over on Saturday afternoon which was a perfect day for sitting out on the deck. Due to the houseguest, I had to do a little extra cleaning, but I also managed to get out to lunch with a friend