Ramblin'

Let's just ramble on for a bit. 

One of the first things I found this morning was a tutorial for embroidery on eggshells. Just in time for those who celebrate Easter. Or just an interesting challenge for others. This is from the folks at DMC who have much information to share on their website. Go take a look. I don't mind. 

Sad to read that The Gift of Stitching is giving up publishing. It's terrible that the pirates have won and Kristin is calling it quits. Sharing copyrighted patterns is illegal. And now a terrific source of new and wonderful has dried up because some people are thieves. I had hoped that online publishing was going to change and expand the needlework industry. Sigh.

I've got two new projects but no photos. What was I thinking? Apparently I wasn't. 

One is Holiday Square by Laura J Perin and it's a freebie on the Rainbow Gallery website. (Does anyone want to know that I typed Rainblow???) Of course, mine has nothing to do with holiday colors. Ms. Perin encourages us to experiment with this design and I did. It's the first time I've used Painters Threads by YLI. I'd been searching for an excuse to play with these threads. I got mine from Sara Leigh and Dawn at the Scarlet Thread.  I'll try to get a photo up by tomorrow. I'm playing with Picasso and the one thing I have found is that if you have to frog this thread, you will almost certainly start to rip it apart and won't be able to reuse it. Stitch carefully the first time. (Just a little orientation error. What can I say. I wasn't looking at the chart. LOL)

My other project is a Shepherd's Bush scissor fob. A friend was stitching on the Tiny Garden Fob and I was admiring the black-edged ribbon that is used in finishing. At home, imagine my surprise when I was going through a bag in my studio and found this kit:  2012 Scissor Fob Which I thought was sweet and it was designed to match my Tessa Gingher scissors! So out came that kit and I stitched the whole thing in two days. I've already trimmed it and started the finishing. Should be done in a day or two. 

I have to say I am feeling slightly rudderless now that Stars is finished. I have other big projects waiting to take its place. But it's been fun this week to kind of bounce around without a stitching agenda. 

There is a little bit of a plan rattling around in my brain. Something I saw in a magazine that has given me a bit of inspiration. And I just may have to give in to the impulse.