This was a holiday weekend in the U.S., Decoration Day when I was a child, now Memorial Day. The former honored the military, I think the latter is more general, to honor and remember all who have gone before. The hubby and I both grew up visiting the cemetery on Decoration Day. All the veterans' graves would have a little American flag. We've visit all of the family graves.
Well, this year I had an unexpectedly long holiday--I went to leave for work on Friday only to find the car's battery was very dead. Since the other car was also scheduled for work on Friday and since the dead car is under warranty, it went off to the dealership for repair. And I got an extra day at home alone. I did some chores and then got out my frame stand and my Japanese embroidery.
I'd never stitched Japanese embroidery at home before--we don't have a lot of free space and the frame and stand take up all of the kitchen. But the kitchen has a lovely double window I can place to my left (as is proper) and I had room for my chair, stand and frame, a tv table for my threads and such. It was pure bliss.
I tried to make a picture with arrows showing progress, but they vanished when I saved the image in a form Blogger would accept. I stitched Friday afternoon and then I left the stand out (moving it around from room to room to get it out of the way) and stitched again in the early mornings on Sunday and Monday. I completed the red and white striped cord at the bottom, the two leaves next to the red mum, and four of the little round green clover leaves at the top (only three are done here--I took this photo on Sunday morning, before Monday's stitching). Little by little.It was different stitching alone--I've always been in a class or with a group. I liked it. I could really focus.
I still rip as much as I leave, but I'm more often seeing what's wrong before I make the mistake.
And even though she wasn't there, I could "hear" my teacher as I worked.
All of my stitching this week was with flat silk and it was nice to concentrate on just one thing, managing the silk and also trying to work more on the detail--the separation in the leaves, keeping the spaces between stitches even, turning the curve on the leaves nicely. I still snag the silk but I'm fighting it much less and am happier with my stitching. Now I'm looking to the next long weekend when I can try this again (I don't know how hubby would feel about waiting for breakfast every weekend...)
