Which One

I was almost done.  Only five daisies to go.  But I had to see what happened to the design when I added more cross hatching as the pattern called for. Then I had to leave it for a day to figure out which side looked better.  It is a dilemma. This side with fewer cross hatch lines looks more neat and more even.

Then this side makes the bouquets stand out more even though it is less even. I haven't added the daisies yet to this side.

Here is a complete photo:

I'm still thinking about which side wins but it will probably be the more lines of cross hatching.

What do you think?

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Pin Cushion

I have a ton of pin cushions. The last thing I need is another pin cushion. But when I see a cute one, I am tempted to make it. I saw a fish pin cushion on The French Needle.  I love fishy things. I thought I could probably make one like it.  I could buy some hand dyed velvet and some felt and try my hand at sewing one.  Then I thought heck with it, I'll just buy it.  So I did!  It came in the mail yesterday and it is adorable.

He looks like he needs a name.
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Dancing Lady

I've gotten a few of the pieces to Dancing Lady embroidered. I'm finding it hard to do going through the sticky Solvy stuff. I was complaining to a friend and she suggested that I use a needle grabber to help me.  Well, duh, why didn't I think of that? I think I'll order a couple different ones and see which suits me best.


Then I got my beads from Michael's and tried my hand at drawing her face and hair. Luckily I have plenty of beads to practice on until it looks good. Not bad for a first try.



I expected Dancing Lady to be much harder to put together but as I work on her I think she will be easy.

Now where did I put that colly bird I made??

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Tape Measure Cover

At least I started this.
First step is to split stitch around the watering can. I only had the right color in #12 pearl cotton so that is what I used. What is the right thread to use? Who knows? That information is not included in the instructions. I'm not quite all the way around. I'm not very happy with it. It looks kind of rough but I think I do long and short stitches next. Let's hope it gets nicer looking as I go along!
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Versailles

It is ironic that this project seems to be going the fastest among my new starts. Maybe it is just easier to pick up and work on.  I am very happy that the embroidery looks way neater than my Pin Disc with the same design. A little practice and I can see improvement in my stitching.
This is the scissors case front. After I wrap the white chain stitch I will do the cross hatching again. Fingers are crossed that it goes well.
There is also a needlebook in this set.
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A Tale of a Tail

I don't have much done on the Peacock's tail.

 I trying not to be concerned whether it is perfectly done or not. There is gold plate and a paillette that goes on each petal. I'm hoping that hides any imperfections and makes the tail look sparkly.  I have been tempted to get out my pliers to pull the needle through.  It is hard to stitch through the layers. At least there is some progress.
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Update on the Queen Sampler

The row  that I am working on is going to take awhile. Sometimes I feel like the designer wants to make it more of a challenge or try to use the stitches from the original sampler.  There seems to be some prestege in stitching reversibly. My philosophy is why make stitching harder than it should be?

 This row has some specialty stitches.  You really need to have Amy Mitten's book about the Montenegrin stitch called Autopsy of the Montenegrin Stitch.

  I had the book but had never used it until now. It is a great resource for showing exactly how to do the stitch in whatever direction you need to go. But four rows of Montenegrin stitch in three different colors for the vine was a bit too much so I changed it to two regular cross stitch rows and two Montenegrin rows in the middle. So far, so good.

Then I had to look up the spiral trellis stitch for the grapes on YouTube. I'm still not sure that I'm doing it right as the outlined corners are usually an angled stitch.
This is how far I've gotten:

The leaves were supposed to be a specialty stitch but I just made them cross stitched

How can it be June already?

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