Betcha didn't know embroidery is a blood sport!

Procrastinating Seamstress is Procrastinating....

.....A lot.

I worked some more on the PPoD. (Pin Pillow of Doom.) I finished up the fourth slip...and I quite like it! I got scared of the bird, so I decided to move on to the background instead. Within the next few weeks, it will be time to reposition! YAY!!!!!

Greenery done (front)


Greenery done (back) I'm actually quite pleased at myself that the backside doesn't look like a complete disaster area! It could stand to be a smidge cleaner, but this is *BY FAR* the best backside I've ever accomplished.


Flowers done....


See the skeery birdie?! I'm thinking of re-drawing him. He looks kind of squished up in that little corner. I'll see how I feel when I get all the background for this slip filled in. I love the mindlessness of the background....I don't have to worry about where to place stitches to get the correct curvature or anything....just keep stitchin'!

0% Motivation for Camp Dress...

....so I worked some more on my pin pillow. I'm giving myself one more afternoon of laziness, then it's down to some serious business. (If I feel up to it, I actually may even start tonight....)

I'm still struggling a bit with making curves nice and smooth, especially curves that go to the right, but it's coming right along. I am now officially 3/8 done, and I'm starting on the last section that will mark the 1/2 way mark! As soon as I'm done with this guy, I'll be moving the frame so I can easily access the other side. Yay! If I were to go back now, I would know how to handle the strawberries and columbines better. The first flower I actually *like* is the carnation....you can actually see the progression of my techinical skill from one flower to the next! (Not to say I'm skilled at all, but I've been learning a lot!)


This is how far I got after one episode of "Glee" and one episode of "Chuck". It doesn't look like much, but there is a *lot* of unpicking represented here!

I'm actually hopeful I will finish this embroidery project, so I splurged this morning and bought some silk for the tassels and cording. I need to find some good silver gilt, or just use some of the gold I have in my stash already. Hmmmmm. Well, miles to go before I get to that point!

Weekend!

I took a break from the yard work this weekend. Hubby mowed and trimmed, but that's the extent of it. But just to remind you all, this is what my yard looked like at this time last year! :D


On Friday, Holly came up to visit and work on stuff over the weekend. We stayed up *wai* too late dying fabric for her dress, but I ended up popping awake at 7 am. I spent most of the morning alternating between working on the last bits of capitol for the scroll for Quest and ransacking my entire house for a flippin' eraser. aaaaaaaaaargh.

Anyway, by the time Holly woke up, I was done messing around with my scrolligraphy stuff, so then we patterned out (yet another) bodice pattern for her dress for Quest. I stopped at 1 pm for a massage from Erica. (Which was fabulous, by the way) Meanwhile, the remainder of the linen went in a dye bath. (The wine linen I posted about earlier). Later in the afternoon, dragonfly_sidhe came over, and we all ate pizza and watched True Blood while various crafting went on. Holly worked on my matching collar necklace for the outfit I'm wearing in my icon pic. I worked on her blue linen gown, and much funs was had. I ended up going to bed while it was still Saturday, so that's a bonus. ;)

Sunday I was actually able to sleep in a bit but I had a hard time getting motivated when I finally got out of bed, so it was a good thing I was at the point of attaching the skirt so I could sit on the couch and hand sew in front of the tube for a while. :D Eventually, I got the last of the main construction done on the dress, as well as the sleeves, and finished up the last little bit of scrolligraphy to be done.

Still do to on the dress:
-lacing rings
-bodice guards
-sleeve rings
-hem
-bind sleeves


I've had a love affair for years with fabric that I used for Holly's first Italian gown. She found some extra recently, and gave it to me.....I am *so* excited!! I can't decide exactly what I'm going to do with it, but it will be something *awesome*. Yay! :D


It was a really long weekend, and Demitri is pooped!


I'm trying to decide if I have enough energy to get a new gown done by Quest....I really *really* need something to wear camping. (No rly. I do.) I'd like to use the wine linen we just dyed.....and I'm thinking of doing something along the lines of one of the below. Hmmmm. I don't really have an appropriate camacia for either of them, though, so I'd probably have to make a new something or other. What I really think I'd like is one like Holly's big boofy camacia that Susan made for her. I love that thing so much!

My three favorite things about these two gowns are the higher/straight across waistlines, boofy sleeves, and fabric sashes. Any opinions?