Feeling Adrift

Well, it finally happened. About two weeks ago I think I lost track of the days. I had planned to do an update, but then suddenly it was Wednesday? And now another week has gone by. *sigh*

Hello everyone! Hope you are all keeping well. I am still off work, and it's been long enough that I'm really enjoying my days. I'm still kitting things up and organizing my stash a bit, but I've also begun knitting again and I did a bit of quilting today. To those who are still working, I do hope you are finding ways to relax stay sane. :)

My stitching was a bit erratic at the beginning of May, mostly because I didn't know if I'd be returning to work and I was starting to stress out a little. But I did start another HAED, rather on impulse, but also because I have so many that I love and want to play with. So this is Secluded Blue, art by Annie Stegg, stitched 1x1 on 25ct Mushroom Lugana:

I managed 1400 stitches on the first page. I really love Annie's work and felt it was a crime not to have anything of hers on my needles. I also want to start Atargatis, named after the mythical first mermaid, but that one has a lot of black and I didn't want to stitch such dark colors when I'm stressed. But I love the brown and blue combination in Secluded Blue (even though there's still a lot of black at the moment) so this is making me pretty happy. I also wanted to try stitching in diagonal blocks since it looks like a lot of fun, but I don't think it meshes with my way of stitching. I start all of my threads on the front, and I just can't figure out how to keep them all organized and out of the way, so I'll probably go back to columns. Of course, I don't have any firm plans for this one. She'll just pop up in rotation every now and then.

I also managed two more columns on Ginger Nova, so I'm getting into some color changes:

I'm hoping to finish off two more columns this year, since that will complete page 2. :)

Part 5 of the Wonders of Space sal was released on the 15th, and it was a really quick stitch:

Looks a little creepy, doesn't it? That is an infrared image of a supermassive black hole. The bright parts represent the super heated material the black hole is "eating". Neat, huh?

Of course, the last week has been dominated by my last new start, Ann Dale 1827 by Shakespeare's Peddler, which I started May 10th. I'd been looking forward to this one all year so I worked on her a lot, starting in the bottom right corner:

I decided to stitch this with the called for silks -- mostly NPI with 2 Gloriana and a Belle Soie -- on 40ct Saltmarsh Green by R&R Reproductions. I don't get to stitch with silks often, but I really love the NPI, which might have motivated me to keep stitching. There is one color used for the leaves in the border that doesn't show up well on this fabric, so I started using another Belle Soie silk called Lily Pad instead. It was in my stash and matches the NPI very well, but has a darker variegation to it that tends toward green. If I had the resources, I might've swapped out the golds for greener colors, but I'm not good at color swapping, and it's really hard to do it from online shopping. Still, I think it'll look great.

I haven't been able to find any pictures of the full finished sampler online, but I did find this one on Kitten Stitcher's website:

This is A Part of Ann Dale, which is it's own separate chart and only has the bottom scene. But these are the same colors, so it gives a pretty good representation of what I'm working toward. A lot of the colors seem pale, but when I stitched the line of white that frames the grass and the tree, I felt like I was stitching sunlight, and that made me smile. The only warning I will give if anyone else decides to stitch this is that the designer left in all of Ann's mistakes, so be careful. The strawberry vine isn't even, and the hills on the grass aren't symmetrical, so just be aware. Still, it's a great chart. My goal is to finish this in May 2027, so it'll be like an anniversary. :)

Well, this is why I need to update more often. Lots of rambling. Hope you enjoyed the pictures at least. Until next time!