All I have this week is Song of the Dead. I made the mistake of taking my daughter to a shoe store one day -- we didn't get home until after 10! What is it with girls and shoes? I must not really be a girl because I just don't get it. And yesterday we went to the dentist, saw a movie, and went out to eat. Thus losing another whole day. Add computer problems into the mix and we end up with little stitching done. Probably won't get much done today, either since it's afternoon already and I still need to do my weekly cleaning. I simply hate it when my computer doesn't work right because I can't seem to do anything else until I figure it out and then my whole day is shot.

My work on Rose Tinted was a disappointment. Doubly so since I had to wait so long to get a corrected chart which I don't even know was worth it.


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The picture on the left is the new chart and the one on the right is the old chart. These were both done on 25 count Lugana -- the new on antique white the old on pink. Despite the fabric color, the thread colors in the images are fairly close to real life. The lack of background detail in the newer version is a big disappointment. The rose does seem to have more definition in the new version but the color is so much darker. So back to the drawing board. Someone on the HAED board has posted a progress pic of the older version on a 28 count fabric so I'm going to keep a close eye on how theirs is looking and then make a decision between the old and new version (although I'm currently leaning toward the old version). Regardless, I'm scrapping both of those and will do my restart on a 28 count.

So on to Sea of Roses. This is another back and forth story. I started having a hard time excluding the background so I went ahead and reordered the chart and had the background removed. Which didn't work quite the way I expected since the new chart was larger and had 40 more colors! I was doing this on the "short" side of the fabric and so had enough to restart if I flipped it to the "long" side. Which I did. There was an error on the first page -- I really don't think those light pink stitches are supposed to be there -- but I continued to work on it for a couple of days anyway. Comparing the two, I didn't really see a huge difference in the way they were coming out and since I really had finished a big chunk on my original start, I decided to go back and work on that for a bit. I'm through the worst of the background removal now and so will probably stick with what I have. You never know, though, I do tend to be a bit wishy-washy when it comes to this stuff!

I finally got a new Rose Tinted chart on Thursday, so I worked on Rose Fae a bit longer than expected. Thus only having one WIP to share this week.


I didn't get all that much done since I spent a largish portion of one day organizing my books. I got rid of almost all of my paperbacks when I moved and managed to fit all that are left into this media cabinet (plus all my unread hardcovers and oversized paperbacks). I was a little disappointed with the shelf placement and have 6 shelves left over. I guess I could drill my own holes and manage one more on each side, but it's probably not worth the effort since I try not to keep the paperbacks after I have read them. Which means that I haven't read most of the books in that cabinet! Yikes -- simply not enough time to read or stitch everything I want! I still have two large plastic storage containers full of hard covers that I'm not sure what I'll do with. I can't afford to get another cabinet right now and even if I could, I'm not sure where I would put it!! I think I'm going to have to move the couch down a bit and use the wall next to the window. It will probably look a bit odd, but there simply is nowhere else unless I put it in my room.

And for my weekly update we have...

Martyr's. I finally made it all the way across! And I managed to stitch all the black! This was the first project I worked on after I got my (ginormous) new chaise. I did 4800 stitches in 4 days! Even though it was over the weekend and close to half of those stitches were blocks of black, that still has to be some kind of record for me. I choose to credit the chair. It's grown on me and I have to say it is extremely comfortable and since I can position my body any which way I don't ever have to reach when I'm stitching. Plus, I find I'm able to see the TV much better and so am stopping less.

Peace. I only worked on this for three days since I decided I was going to disrupt my rotation a bit and re-start (yet again) Rose Tinted. I had purchased the new chart since I was never entirely happy with the way the roses looked (what big red blobs they were!). I was quite dismayed to discover 21 duplicate symbols and one color with two symbols! I've e-mailed HAED, but being a holiday weekend (and with a sale on) I don't expect to hear from them before Tuesday. Oh well, that's what I get for trying to start something out of turn!

And now let me leave you with another picture of my ridiculously over-sized chaise. Complete with daughter and 38" scroll rods.