I am suffering from WIP overload. When I'm finished with Memorial Sampler, I'm planning on starting a new rotation since my old one kind of went to pot over the summer. But I'm stuck between continuing along the same lines as before -- with all 60+ WIPs in the rotation -- or picking 12 to 15 projects and work on them exclusively. I like idea number 2 because I'd be able to see some real progress on those selected few. The down side is that most of my projects will still take years to complete and so I'd be stuck with those until finished. And I wouldn't be able to start new stuff! So I'm stuck. I still have a while to decide, but it's been keeping me up at night.

My second dilemma is what fabric to stitch Dragon Skies on. I've decided not to stitch the background and I think I've got my choices narrowed down to:


Silkweaver Chasescape, Silkweaver Starquest, Sugar Maple Eye of the Storm
Sugar Maple Forget Me Knots, Polstitches Imagination, Heaven Lee Snowy Nights

It's so hard because hand dyed fabrics never look the same as they do on the computer screen! At the moment I'm kind of leaning toward Starquest. I've seen several other pictures of the fabric and it seems pretty true to the scan on Silkweaver's site. Of course, that could change at any moment. I really like Imagination, it looks like a dawn sky to me. But I'm reluctant because I don't know if the actual fabric looks so cloud like.

Last night I did another experiment with tent stitching on Monaco. This is the ladybug from Rose. There are over 40 colors in this tiny 30 x 23 stitch section! Coverage is very good and there are no predominant slanted lines, so I think I'll be doing more projects this way. Helps with dilemma #1 since I'll be able to stitch HAEDs twice as fast.







Since I was scanning, I also did another project I worked on in September. Here is Martyr's. I originally started this Jobelan and then restarted on 28 count bone Lugana.










I also scanned my progress on Memorial Sampler. However, I was not able to get the two halves of the scan to line up correctly. But I did crop a portion. I just love this parrot. He's so cute! And now I think it's time to put him back on the scrolls and get cracking.

Labels: Dragon Skies, Martyrs, Memorial Sampler

I finally got through to Verizon and got my account re-enabled. Obviously since my template is once again working correctly.

You may recall a while ago a lovely person (who I thank again!) sent me a HAED gift certificate. I was very happy to have it yesterday when I discovered Selena Fenech's Dragon Skies had finally been released. I've been waiting for it and I wouldn't have been able to purchase it without the gift certificate. Thank you, thank you!!

I was going to start it last night but after seeing the amount of white used in the design (the top pages are almost entirely white and Kreinik 032!), I decided I'd go insane trying to stitch it on the antique white lugana I planned to use. I have a fat quarter of Lavender Bliss and I almost used that, but good sense got the better of me and I decided a one inch margin on the left and right would really be pushing it! So I'll need to order a fat half, which will have to wait a bit. Ah, well. Waiting probably won't kill me.

I have to admit I was a bit disappointed with the chart itself. I can't see how all that white (with bits of 032) is going to translate into the top portion of the imagine. It's very delicate, but there is some color and definition. So I think I'll just skip the first 60 rows (which are 99% white).

Labels: Dragon Skies