We Pause Now for Some Hyperventilating

I decided to change things up a bit for the bottom part of my Sweetheart Sampler. I've substituted "sweetheart" and Phil's initials instead of stitching "Valentine's Day". I'm fine with how the "sweetheart" part turned out but the line with Phil's initials ended up running into the left side. I didn't like the funky hearts that were there so I decided to substitute some more of the flowers and I really was flying by the seat of my pants here and GAH! I want to rip it all out but I'm down to the last of my Chamomile thread and I'm sitting here wringing my hands because I really wanted to finish this by the end of the month!

 

Okay... breathe...

There... that's better!

 

I will work on the rest of the red hearts in the border today and maybe that will help to balance out the flowers. 

 

 

Gotcha!

I've used a needlework light with a magnifier for as long as I can remember. Over the years it has come in handy for more than just counting threads on linen. I've used it to remove splinters from fingers. I've used it to read dosage instructions on medicine bottles (two every six hours, not to exceed six in a 24 hour period) and nutrition facts on packages (so I know exactly how much sodium is in that soy sauce). Recently I've been using it to check my Everything Pretzel Crisps for caraway seeds. (Because I really really  hate the taste of caraway seeds!)

You see him there? Hiding amongst the sesame seeds? Trying to blend in with the poppy seeds? He thinks he's fooling me but no! I see that little rascal!

Anyone else out there using their magnifier for tasks unrelated to needlework?

A to Z

418 rice stitches later and I am done with the second alphabet! Woohoo! I have a lot of the heart border to finish, and I do mean A LOT, but I have a feeling it will go pretty fast.

We are heading up to Gainesville tomorrow to visit Phil's son for Friends & Family Day at the Medical School. I promise not to take any selfies in the cadaver lab!

A Day's Work

O, Q, S, & U are now finished!

Time to switch from Holly Berry to Chamomile for P, R, & T!

Sweet Progress

Six days and two skeins of thread later and I'm now halfway through the rice stitched alphabet on my Sweetheart Sampler! I'm really pleased with how it looks so far! We have two more weeks down here in Florida before heading back home to Michigan for a week so I'm kinda sorta hoping to have it finished by then. We'll see how that goes!

Gimme an F!

And half of a D!

I didn't have much time for stitching over the weekend but I did get a start on the rice stitched alphabet. So far so good!