I'm still spending much too much time just sitting and staring off into space, but I'm doing much better than I was and have gotten a couple more projects completed. (Now my sweetie has the cold and is miserable with it. Even then, yesterday he picked up my car from the transmission place and took it to a friend's garage to fix the suspension problem the transmission place found. Now that is definitely above and beyond!)The first is the silk sampler from Kreinik. This had been sitting around for a number of years. It was fun to do but the silk threads kept catching on my rough fingers.
I even felt good enough to root around in the basement and find the frame for the friendship tea sampler. The chart is from Charland, I think, and was kitted with the frame by Tomorrow's Heirlooms shop in Glen Ellyn, IL. I believe the original design was to be stitched over 2, but to fit the frame, this was done over 1. I also noticed the dye lot of the Needle Necessities overdyed blue used was much lighter than that shown in the model. I think this works fine, though, and had fun stitching it.I haven't begun anything else. I finished reading the fifth book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross. I have the sixth book, A Breath of Snow and Ash, but decided to wait to reread it until it's closer to the pub. date of the next book in the series. Reading nos. 4 and 5 had me noting references back to the earlier books so when this cold took hold, I picked up the first book in the series, Outlander (or Cross Stitch in England). It was like coming home.
It's still my favorite book in the series and I really enjoyed rereading it. Now I'm reading book 2, Dragonfly in Amber. I'm liking it better than before. This series is a very intense love story and the beginning of Dragonfly backs away from that story line a bit and I missed it. But now that I know more of the whole story, I'm really enjoying rereading this book. I must say I have my eye out for a passage I wish to avoid (a graphic description of drawing and quartering). It gave me weeks of nightmares the first time I read it and I've always skipped is since then.
These huge books are the perfect thing for reading with a cup of tea while not feeling well.
