a finish or two

Happy St. Pat's Day! My WIP Weds includes some corned beef in the crockpot and a Watergate cake in the oven---smells pretty good at my house about now. I got the "coverup frosting" already made along with the molasses, horseradish and mustard glaze that the recipe calls for the meat. I'm good with kitchen detail till about 4:30-5 p.m.

My main reason for showing this pic is because of the 2 of the 4 hanging towels I have recently made. I whipped up these on Sunday between the finishing of redwork hearts and resumption of redwork Santas. My chair is blocking your seeing the apple motif on the front of the towel very clearly but it matches the potholders and oven mitts I use. You will just have to trust me on that one. The gold/yellow yarn goes with other things in the kitchen so they are growing on me. At first I was not so sure about the John Deere tractor colors, LOL. (Norma, see a peek at what placemats I am using? Even DJ has commented on how pretty they are!)

Other than hemming up the towel edges I still have not been sewing. Nope, don't really feel like it and proceeding will just lead to frustration and un-sewing. I briefly considered working on the March calendar block, seeing as the month is half over. Maybe tomorrow once I finish the block I am working on.

So more redwork instead keeping those hands busy while I watch TV programs on hulu.com. Shows that I wouldn't ordinarily have seen or miss because I normally see something on another network at the same time..........

I had quite a bit of this Stars and Stripes Santa done already till I set it aside. Basically the right side of the block to go---the tree, half of his body, his legs, a few of the stars. It didn't take too long to finish up.

I don't have too much more to go on the one I picked up next----#7 of 12 "Santa's Stack of Presents". (Bird Brain Designs in all cases) The designer suggests using #8 perle cotton on these or 3 strands of embroidery floss. I found that to be too heavy for my tastes plus I could not get the fine detail down well. I have been using 2 strands for most areas and cutting it down to even one if something has a lot of curves, twists and turns, or the tiny motif would be obscured otherwise. For example, the stuff in his bag was done with 1 strand. I should have probably done the bells with less as well. I will use the perle cotton in areas calling for cross stitch as it covers the lines better but those hearts and the itty bitty knots called for in the present stack, definitely down to 1.

So I am very close to another block finish. Yes, I will pick up another one but whether I continue to embroider to the exclusion of other projects? We'll see. One day my sewing mojo will return---it always does.