TAST 3 and 4

I have been keeping up with my TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) weekly challenges, but I have not been good about posting them on the blog.  And that is important, to me at least, because I feel it keeps me accountable to a degree.  Just the fact that I am stitching regularly is a stretch for me, because I always tend to make myself do other things first. It’s a leftover behavior from childhood; you know, like when you had to get your chores done before you could go out to play. Or get your homework done before you could watch TV.  I “save the best for last”, like stitching, and often never get to it.

But not this year!  In keeping with my Word of the Year, ENJOY,  I am allowing myself to let things like dirty dishes sit in the sink while I stitch, in hopes that [a] Bruce notices and puts them in the dishwasher himself, [b] they grow wings and fly away,  [c] aliens visit and capture the dishes to take home as an Earth souvenir, or [d] it’s bedtime and I end up doing them because I have to have a clean kitchen before going to bed.  Of course, we know that the only possible answer is [d].  But I digress.

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This is the feather stitch I did - well the second variation of feather stitch - for TAST.  The first one was on my last black block from January. This one is five back and forth - the most I have ever done in one direction and probably the last time I ever do it.     It was more difficult than I imagined to line up.  I tried using templates and marking with chalk, but it just did not work for me. I do not have the marking gene, I guess.  

Week 4’s TAST stitch was the Cretan, which I have always loved.  Here I did one overlaid on the other (Yes, again without measuring. So sue me.)  I rather prefer it a bit wonky.  ANYWAY, it has a buttonhole stitch below it and then green detached chains for “leaves” and bead flowers (that do not line up with the leaves, but that’s OK in my world).

And here they are together on my second - the February - block for the CQ Journal project.  The next seam I am going to try is the Van Dyke stitch, because Kerry at CQI has that as our current BAS (Build-a-Seam) challenge.

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I had an absolutely crazy 24-hour period in my Etsy shop where I got about 10 orders, and some large ones at that.  I don’t know if it was due to the end of the month, the beginning of the month, the new stuff I have listed, or if the universe just aligned to have everything happen at once, but WOWSERS! Thank you to all who dropped by!  The best news is that I remembered to shower and get dressed before I went to the post office, LOL!  ;-)

I do have some new laces listed - I’m calling them Colorwash Golden Laces.  They are my golden laces with gentle blushes of pastel color added.   For the first time last night, I listed a few, and one color has already sold out. I will have a serious painting day next week to restock, but please feel free to stop by and see them. And if you have any ideas or suggestions as to what you would like, I would love to hear it!

Until next time,