My bender

Greetings!  I'm starting with an apology.  My frustrations with the current stitching project, the lack of help with the house projects, a few family issues, and my failure to control my diet, has me in a snit.  I haven't been commenting, only catching a few blogs now and then, and I'm sorry.  I feel like I'm on the bench in the locker room instead of being in the game.  We all have these periods of disconnect and I'm hoping it ends soon.  My fear was that I will take a break from stitching which has led me to stop before, but that won't happen I'm sure.  I'm on the home stretch with the design after removing the horse's ass once again.  And the big flower.  I thought it would be a cinch to chart these simple flowers and such from a blurred photo of a folded piece.  Why yes, I am a naive twit.  Color changes and simple placements can look good on paper, but not on teal linen.  All the white floral and leaf outlines will be done last.  The top center area has spotted flowers?, strawberries? and a leaf with shading.  That leaf may be another color frogging marathon and I'll start that area after the horses are redone and the big teal leaf is finished.  The other MAJOR issue I've been having is the actual stitching.  The new needle's point is not sharp, yet I am splitting the linen thread one in every five stitches so the floss is not in the "hole", it's off and noticeable.  Sometimes I don't see it until the next row which leads to more frogging.  Lucy Redd tested my patience but wasn't even close in frustration and frogging.  I've never had a problem with splitting threads like this.  Could it be the new needle even though it's not sharp? 

 Whatever, here is the result.  And if I would ever consider a stitching related business, the name would be The Bent Needle.  Appropriate.  This isn't the first time, I've done it often.  I yank so hard when I try to backtrack a stitch instead of removing the needle and gently pulling out the misplaced floss, that this is the result.  

 

 

 

Always in a hurry, I  end up catching or splitting something on the backside, get frustrated, and yank until I distort the linen and bend the needle.  Whew.  That's hard to admit.  But it happens.  Never have the linen threads been damaged or broken, but I do have to give the fabric a snap to realign. This is another one that I keep just to remind myself to be more patient.  Doesn't work though.  Here's so far, done over so many times that I'm surprised the linen color has held.

 

 

 I think hope the next few days of working on this will be the end, and all the white outlines will be an easy relaxing finish.  Good.  I don't want to enter into a new project with this bad attitude.

I'll leave you with a cat puzzle. Took me a while to figure out whose paws were where.

We've had a few days of warmer weather and the snow is melting, along with rains, lightning and thunder. It won't last though. More bad news coming for next week.

Enjoy your weekend.

 

Thanks for visiting.