Stitching Fast and Slow

It was an NBS day...nothing but sewing...and the best kind of day, if you ask me. I started out working on the first of the trees for 12 Trees for Christmas. This is going to be a very enjoyable project. The first tree is finished now. When I finished the stitching, I took it to the window for the next step.

The next step was to add a bead to the end of each limb, and then down the trunk where the red "bows" are. These beads are seriously tiny...about the size of a grain of quinoa. If I don't spill this box before the project is finished, it will be an effing miracle.

For safety's sake, I keep it over a sheet of paper, hoping clean-up will be easy. (You'll notice I'm phrasing that in "when" and not "if" terms.) The center hole of each bead is large enough for my needle, but not large enough when I add a single strand of embroidery floss. The first two went on okay, but then the third one broke as I tried to force the issue. From there, I switched to a thin beading needle, and that worked better. The beading needles are long and flexible and awkward in my hands. Still, I got the job done with a minimum of four-letter words. And here it is...all decorated up.

With that one finished, I traced out the next one. It's very similar to the first, but with branches slanting in the opposite direction. This one also has beads. The Frixion pen has kind of a clunky point for this fine tracing. It made it hard to get my stitches evenly spaced on the first tree. For this second tree, I tried just tracing in the lines of the tree, and then using tiny dots where the "pine needles" are stitched. I'm hopeful that will work better.

From there, we headed into the sewing room. My goal was to reach the second star border, and that meant adding two narrow borders in gray and red. My able-bodied assistant held the fabric while I cut.

Then I sewed on the gray border...

and the red border...

and then laid it out once more. I worried when I was back on the first star border that the fabrics were too dark. Now that I've added the flag border, I'm really liking how it looks.

Smitty is still working on poses for his Purrine Corps recruitment poster. He kind of likes this standing-at-attention pose.

What about me? Do you think girl cats can pose for Purrine Corps recruitment posters?

The next border will be another friendship star border...58 stars in all. When I finished up yesterday, I had the beginnings of the next 15 stars. I'll be cutting these in half and then trimming them to size.

There is just one more border after the star border is finished. I've been intentionally hiding the project from my friend Andy, and I'm getting excited to show it to him.

Now that he's famous for his Purrine Corps recruitment posters, Smitty tires of the Pawpawrazzi following him all the time. He's hiding his face when he sees the cameras.

Besides, it's a good way to nap in the bright sunlight.

And last night...because it was Friday, and because we got more carrots in our CSA share...I had a yen for these little Warm Carrot Cakes with Cream Cheese Sauce for two.

I made these once before, but I didn't have the right size ramekins the first time around. They end up the size of little cupcakes when baked in 4 oz. ramekins. They are sinfully decadent. It's a very good thing there are only two for the two of us.

Today I'll be back to making stars. It's coming to the finish line, and my excitement over the finished top is propelling me forward. At some point this weekend, we need to visit two wineries to pick up more wine shipments. The weather is predicted to be sunny for the weekend, and so it'll be a nice couple of days to get out for a drive.