Moving along

I've made good progress with my IsaV Marquior - only four blocks to go with the fourth section.  Since I had to move the entire piece on the hoop, I took a quick photo of IsaV in all her glory.  I wish I could take better photos, each letter is highlighted with gold silk and you can't even see it.  :-)

Thanks for all your warm words regarding the loss of my niece and sister-in-law.  It's been tough but time heals all. 

Late last week I received my first home owners tax bill for the year.  It went DOWN 60%!  They taxed me on the purchase price which was way lower than the appraised price (I bought a short sale).  I have a surplus in my escrow account of over $3,000.  By law the bank can't keep it so I'll be getting a check in the mail soon.  I've spent the money a thousand different ways already.  But tops on my list is a new hot water heater, duct cleaning, a new TV and cabinet and some new agility equipment.  My monthly escrow should also be going down a couple of hundred a month so I'll be able to afford agility again!  I'm so happy.  :-)  And so will the pugs and Isibeal.  :-)

Frederick Finis

Frederick - design by Carriage House Samplings

36 count Silkweavers Antique Gold Linen

Recommended NPI silk one over two

At long last!  Frederick is finished.  I started this bad boy in May of 2010.  Two years!  I love how it turned out.  Like with his wife, Frederika, I made a couple of changes.  I don't like my borders to be "off" so I did make a small change - the bottom row of diamonds in the border don't butt up to the black border like charted.  I added the year of the finish rather than the 1831 as charted.  And I put my initials in the box rather than an date on Frederika.  And of course the biggest change, they are both stitched on the same piece of linen.

Here are my two birds stitched together.  I'm happy I did this.  For a while I wasn't sure if I would like the end result but now I'm pleased.

Since this is the year of the WIP, I picked up my IsaV Marquior - I haven't worked on it since February of last year.  I'm using 35 count WDW linen in Havana with Vikki Clayton silks in Imperialosity and Bewooded.  Not sure how long I'll work on this one but I would like to get at least the entire chart done for this release.  Each of the six monthly releases had nine blocks so this one has five more to go before it's finished. 

I really struggled with what to pull out next.  I really wanted to start something new and even had a Shepherds Bush in my hands for about a half hour.  Then I thought I really need to get a couple more things in the done stack so I pulled this one out.  This was the last full size photo I took of it the last time I worked on it back in November of 2010.  So this round I'm hoping to have the alphabet to R completed.



My family had a hard week last week.  On April 26th one of my sister-in-laws died from complications from heart surgery.  She had been ill for quite some time now and her passing was almost a blessing.  But the biggest blow was the lost of my youngest niece Haley.  She was only 21 and died last Monday.  She will be sorely missed.