Progress All Around.... Way back in March, Dear Readers, was the last time I showed you any progress on the carpets I am stitching. It seems hard to believe so much Time has flown since then, but truly it also means I have progress to show you! I had just completed the outline of the second dragon, to make sure they were not bumping too closely anywhere. This was especially necessary because I had made an error in my stitching of the first dragon's tail which effectively "lifted" it up towards the second dragon by one whole stitch! You would think that would not matter.... but in the ..read more

   It's Been a Busy Week.... I Hope you will Understand, Dear Readers, that the 4.8 magnitude earthquake that rumbled through our region last Friday has been completely Overshadowed by the solar Eclipse of Yesterday! Earthquake...? WHAT Earthquake?? It only shook the ground for about 20 seconds and then was gone. Nothing in my house fell or broke, although it rattled and shook quite alarmingly! The Little People also seemed to have fared well as no-one fell over! But Really....! An Earthquake!! These are not often felt around here! It was centered in New Jersey, about 200 miles fro ..read more

   Roots and Trunks..... Well, Dear Readers, I apologize for the dark and gloomy picture of the Rhododendron Shrub Skeleton, the weather has been dark and gloomy again, and this is the only picture I have showing the "before" scene for the shrub roots! As you know, I am making three of these Shrub Skeletons, as identical as I can so that I can have "seasonally changeable" Rhododendrons in The Folly Garden. I was eager to get the skeletons moved on to the next stage of construction and didn't pay much attention to the photography as I went along. This is to show the Roots of the shr ..read more

  And More Leaves.... I Hope you will not be Surprised, Dear Readers, to learn that I have been making lots and lots of leaves! I really need to get ahead of the blossoms with the leaf construction, and finally decided that the best way to tackle the project was with small batches. Lots of small batches! It feels so much less daunting to start a batch of forty leaves (20 stems worth) and know that in about an hour and a half, or less if all goes well, I will have a completed batch. I had tried an eighty leaf batch.... which would be enough leaves for the ten blossom clusters per week th ..read more

  Sewing And Shaping.... I Reassessed the frame pieces in my pile of different sized pieces, Dear Readers, and came up with a larger frame that almost fits the entire William Morris carpet. It was enough larger that I could make considerable progress with the main design area. This will keep me going for a while! The carpet is a square one, so there is an area of border all around which will need to be scrolled a bit to stitch all of it. I will deal with that when I need to. The design is really coming along and is fun and easy to stitch. I just love to stitch these wool carpets! As for ..read more

   Continued... I Hope you won't mind, Dear Readers, if this is a boring post about the Rhododendron Shrub construction... again! There is not a whole lot to show you because it is slow going on three different skeletons which are all supposed to look the same. That is the trick... it is nearly impossible to make them look exactly the same... so I have to constantly try to adjust a little one way or another. And as I mentioned on an earlier post, I have to make each step on all three of the shrub skeletons at the same time so I don't lose track of which branches I have done what to ..read more

  Slow But Steady... Because, Dear Readers, I cannot spend All my time making rhododendron blossoms and leaves, only Most of my time, I have managed to make a little progress on the petit-point stitching as well. In the above picture, you can see my first cushion in progress. I had neglected to design it so the shape would end up square, and needed to adjust the outer border in tiny ways so it mostly repeated in a pleasing pattern. But I learned a lot, so the next cushion will perhaps be a better product. I was surprised at how quickly one small section of the carpet could be stitched ..read more

  The Skeleton... I am working away, Dear Readers, on the Rhododendron Blossom making process and can report that I am making good progress. I have challenged myself to see if I can make two batches of florets per day, totaling ten batches per week (with the weekends for other project pieces). The truth of the matter is, it gets easier when you apply yourself consistently to a task! But I still need to be making progress on the leaves.... and the shrub structures themselves. In the above photo you can see the "skeleton" of the Rhododendron on the right side of The Folly porch, looking t ..read more

  Take Two... I will Understand, Dear Readers, if you can't remember the Rhododendron Shrub project I began with great enthusiasm last May. It has been a very long time since I posted about it, and I can't even remember where I left off showing this project in the blog! But never mind, I have not forgotten the project at all! It has been nagging at my conscience for months now, as I slogged through  the Holidays and completed the Christmas Card. If you recall it at all, you might remember that I had stopped trying to make the blossoms last July when the humidity made glue never dry ..read more

  Small Progress.... You Might recall, Dear Readers, that I ambitiously started a couple of new petit-point embroidery projects a few weeks ago. Because it is Winter and I am indoors, I have managed to make some progress on them! I apologize in advance for any blurry photos... it is also unrelentingly dreary and dark, making it difficult to get good photos here in my dark old (under-lit) antique house. But you can see in the above picture that I started to add the blue background to the central section of this carpet. It is one of Janet Granger's kits, on 18 count canvas, stitched with ..read more