Back in the saddle - Herbularius

To my shame I have not posted here since September of last year. I'm not sure why that happened other than I got busy with work, kids and home and more likely due to my perfectionist tendencies getting in the way: if the lighting is wrong, or I need the space for a picture, or it's not quite ready yada yada yada....

So I'm jumping back in with all my imperfections :)

I think part of the issue was that I moved most of my stitching to the office upstairs. I have Chatelaine's Herbularius on a scroll frame on a floor stand with the supply cart next to it all set up in the office which is great as it keeps the living room tidy, but it's less handy.

Here's where I am on Herbularius:
The center square is parts one and two completed except for beading. The dandelion and mallow on the right are part four.

Here are the dandelion and mallow. 

The cross stitches and backstitching is complete. As you can see the Petite Treasure Braid vines on the bottom are not complete. That is because they are not fun. I love the way PTB looks and it will be gorgeous when I'm done with the vines, but I am not enjoying that part. So now I've taken to bribing myself. If I finish one length of PTB vine I can do one length of specialty stitches. Sigh. It's the only way I can make myself do it!!

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you here again soon!

Sunshiny Days

We've had beautiful weather so I've spent a lot of time working on the home garden and in my community garden. I'm not getting lots of stitching done but I have made a little bit of progress on Herbularius after frogging that blue section on the top left. I did lots of confetti in the greens.

Herbularius, part 2, Chatelaine

I've started a slightly different rotation schedule. My goal was to work on Herbularius for 40 hours and then stick another project in at the end of the month until the new month begins. With the busy spring and summer I'd never get to another project so I've started to work on Herbularius for 10 hours and then work on another project in my rotation for 10 hours and then back to Herbularius for ten hours. We'll see how well that works out for me.

I like to keep a simple project next to my bed for evenings when I'm not too tired to stitch. I'm currently working on "Farm Fresh" by Country Cottage Needleworks. It's a charming design and a very easy stitch. 

Farm Fresh by Country Cottage Needleworks

Spring is a lovely time of year and it's very busy in the garden. Still, I've managed to get 10 hours of stitching on Window Garden during the last week of May.

Window Garden by Tiny Modernist as of 5.30.16

Next up in the rotation is Herbularius by Chatelaine. Actually, my goal is to work on Herbularius then a WIP in rotation - then back to Herbularius. Here's my starting point this week.

Herbularius by Chatelaine as of 5.30.16

I had to frog 2 hours of stitching. If you look closely at the top of Herbularius you'll see that I made the right "void" three stitches wide and the left "void" four stitches wide when it should only be three. Sigh.

I'm hoping to get lots of stitching in this weekend. We are expecting  a lot of rain on Sunday so that will keep me out of the garden and give me time to stitch. Fingers crossed.

Herbularius, Part 1

Herbularius, Part 1 is complete! Well, except for the beads which I'll do at the end.

Off to start Part 2.

My Primary WIP

I finished the cross stitches and specialty stitches for part 1 of Chatelaine's Herbularius Garden Mandala. Next I'll work on the backstitches for this part.

It's really coming together and I'm loving stitching it.

The beginning of the pattern was a little fiddly. I have trouble with tension at the beginning of every piece I start. You would think I'd learn to do some practice stitches on a scrap piece of linen. But it also started with 1/4 and 3/4 stitches which I hadn't had a lot of experience with and while I got better at them throughout the piece I'm hoping the beads in the center hide the first partial stitches.

Here's a closeup of some Diamond Eyelets.

It's been a joy to stitch this pattern.