The chosen one

 of all the gorgeous reds is 347.  On this darker linen, 3777 was sort of moody.  DMC 22 was shy, 221 was boring, 816 was harsh (mine is not the shade in the DMC book), 321 was AUGH!, 498 was serious.   My favorite red, GAST Buckeye Scarlet, was good.  But I'm hoarding it.  DMC 347 is close, not orange, certainly not pink, no sign of purple or blue, strong without overpowering.   Holy hairnets girl, it's not house paint, it's thread.  In my defense, the red of that dress being the focal point needs to be free of color regret.  And it is.  

So I'm moving on with this piece, and already had counting errors.  The girl is charted a stitch or two (I quit counting) off center and once again my errors were because I did not study the chart and assumed placement.  Ended with centering her which really does not interefere with the design one bit, and I don't have to remove stitches again.  Plus I prefer perfectly centered. Yippee ki yay baby.  

I look younger today.  Has my hair filled in?  Not a strand.  Have I lost weight?  I planned to lose 20, only 30 more to go.  Did I get a few pounds of eyelids removed?  Not yet.  So what's the deal?  The dental work I had done involved injections in both front quadrants and I am quite sore.  But also swollen.  From under my jaw to the lip corners - jowls are gone!  All filled in with swollen tissue.  And I only get 1/3 the usual numbing because I am so drug sensitive.  Shots at nine, wore off at 6 pm, and that's the quick recovery stuff (not Lidocaine).  

My cousin is recovering after family was told she would not, from sepsis. She's pulling through because they found this is tick related and the right meds are already making a difference.  Wow.

Marti asked to see the finished berry, I only have one done and it is a gift.  This is part of what posted to Instagram, a place where 95% of what I see is not from posts I follow, people I know, or ads I have interest in.   I plan to make another and also a larger one, perfect project for those few inches of leftover linens.  I'll show those finishes soon.

Hope your weekend is enjoyable!

Be safe.

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What up?

 Does anyone still say that?  I hope not.  

The same large projects that I consider starting after every finish, are back on the table.  If they were kitted and I did not have to find a linen that works and is also large enough, it would be easier.  I should do that.  Sure.

So I chose (in keeping with all the reds lately) Gigi R's ... Petite Fille en Rouge.

Another small, quick, darling project.  I pulled threads, some left over GAST and some DMC to my liking.  The linen is 36 count and was originally C&C's Oatmeal.  It was dark, more like a taupe-ish cocoa brown, but my other small pieces were too gold.  So I crumpled and dipped in a bit of Goldenrod/Dark brown dye and the change is barely noticeable.  Just a bit warmer, just enough.  May start this evening after the Advil kicks in to calm the 3.5 hours in the dentist's chair this morning.

We're having a maple tree cut down tomorrow morning which is a terrible feeling.  It was originally three trunks, now two, and leaning.  My neighbor owns the business and just stopped by to let us know.  Oh crap.   I just realized we have to pay him!  It's been so long since we hired him that I didn't even think about cost!  Damn skippy.

Have a good day tomorrow, be well, be safe.

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Mary Bell 1811

 Finish!

Changed the feather eyes to blue, red birds' beaks to brown. 

40 count unbleached that I bleached, gently mottled.

The single row of brown defining the house corner looked bad to me.  So I went over the stitches with a half cross and it helped.  Even on 40, I was not happy with coverage and surprised at how the linen shown through. 

It proved to me that my stitch tension pulls those wimpy threads closer together and coverage is worse than on a lower count fabric.  It's just not substantial enough.  Lesson learned.  

This is the photo I posted before starting Mary and you can see how sheer this 40 count is, but it was the right size without having to cut a larger piece. 

Have a good one!

Be safe.

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Happy 4th

 Still working on Mary.

Sewed two finishes.

Enjoy the day, be safe!

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Eureka!

 My border met!  So many one stitch errors I've made so far and yet the area of greatest risk for stitching screams is perfect.  I'm surprised and delighted.  

The tree is not centered yet, and I did find another error.  The 8 should be five stitches wide, mine is four, add the one linen thread over to the right and that's 1.5 spaces off.  No need to change that bottom area as I said, since those errors aren't causing other problems.   The tree will be centered and the house needs to be thinner by one or two rows, reason not found.  We're good!  I love this little design and now I can move forward.

More good news - I finally found a site that offered the Paint program I know and love.  It's back baby!!  But I can't get Windows to accept the app and list it in programs.  It's a little work to get in, but it's there.  

My Varithena treatment went as expected.  Hurt like hell.  That's unusual for this procedure, area is numbed first, but inserting the cannula and especially the foam when entering the vein is scream worthy.  This upsets the techs and docs when it's not expected, but not so much as the poor gastro surgeon listening to me yell during a colonoscopy without anesthesia.  

This was the brighter pink of the peony that took years to bloom.  My others are pastel.  I had a ruffled bicolor but it croaked.  Not easy to kill a peony, but I have talent.

Have a great day, be safe.

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And so it continues

Correction made. Technically it was two stitches short but really only one and I don't even remember why.  But it's wrong.  In that process of mind blowing counting, I found that the bottom date and name is one thread off, not lined up with the border stitches.  That doesn't interfere with any other elements so it's fine.  It's frustrating for sure, obviously there is a counting error somewhere.  Over and over the result is the same and for such a small area, I'm really at a loss for an explanation.  How could the width count of the house be correct, yet the foundation is not, and does not align with the bottom area.  Each stitch carries two linen threads so that's not the issue.  My only option is to continue with the border on the right side to see where the house will end.  Do I believe it will meet since I've had nothing but errors so far?  Nope. The concern is that the house would be only one stitch away from the border but three away on the other side.  Once I can see where it would end, adjustments to the house will be easy.  Some stitchers complete the border first and use it as a guide, some use the completed body as a guide for the border.  Like a putz, I'm halfway on both.

We had a storm, heavy rain, and these Annabelles just starting to bloom, are no longer upright.  They are really taking over and my Limelight is hidden within those stems.  First year that the deer haven't dramatically trimmed them for me.  The peony to the left has been planted for years, bloomed for the first time, a much brighter and deeper pink than the others.

The wrinkle should hit the fan today and then .... it starts.  I don't know of a way to explain without an enormous rambling post for background so ..  I will avoid the story.  Not related to health.

First treatment of five today.  It's concerning why some surgeons follow completely different protocols for the same procedure.  Inquiring about their method to understand it better as a patient (play dumb) can yield answers without questioning expertise.

Someone asked about the Ranger ink pad color I use for aging, it's Coffee.  Sepia is lighter and reddish.  

And the boxes I wanted to label and sell, will take some time.  For some reason, Windows removed my Paint program and that's where my files were created and manipulated.  I downloaded Paint again, but it is the original and older program, not what I had.  Whether Windows no longer supported it or not as other programs, there was no reason to remove it without a trace. I searched everywhere, no Paint, Paint 3D is horrible.

Have a good day folks.  

Can you believe this is the end of June already?

AUGH!!!!!!!!

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