Steadily Stitching Along

Hi stitchers! Hope everyone is having a good week.

I am still upside down at work, but I've now been temporarily assigned to a new department. It's still a heavy workload with high expectations, but a different environment, so it's much quieter and less hectic. Hopefully it will be less stress for a while, and I can concentrate more on happy stitching. :)

Last week, I pulled out Flora again, though by Friday I was so tired I barely got anything done. Still, I made a decent amount of progress:

Lots of red this time, as I was trying to get the red flower done at the bottom. Hopefully next time will see that done.

I also managed some meager progress on Scale, though I seem to be stagnating on her a bit:

For a while, I had a good rhythm going with the white, then filled in some ecru so I could see my progress better. I'm trying to alternate white with colors, but the colors were being fiddly and uncooperative for a while. Still, she is starting to fill in. I'm about halfway done on page 7. I'd love to finish the page by the end of the month, but we'll see.

I would probably make more progress on Scale if I could stop stitching on Death by Cross Stitch. This piece is absolutely addictive, and I've spent a few late nights with this when I should have been sleeping (though I regret nothing):

The first border had a really nice rhythm to it, and it was hard to put down. I'm now working on the first "scene" which is the unicorn, and part of why I was so intrigued by this piece. It's very unusual, in that the background is stitched, leaving blank fabric to "color" the unicorn. I think it's a lovely concept, and would love to see this stitched on hand dyed fabric. But I am quite content with my boring Aida. :)

Also, a tip I would like to pass on. Someone on Facebook (can't remember who) mentioned that for long borders stitched Dutch style (i.e. lots of first legs, then crossing them all later) counting can be made much easier by crossing each tenth stitch in the line. A simple concept, but it has really helped me on this design. You can see where I've done this if you look close; I've still got some uncrossed bits in there. Hope that helps someone else down the line. :)

That's all for this week, short and sweet. I've got Luna back on the stand (yay!) and I'm hoping for a page finish this week (fingers crossed!). Until next time!