A Stitchy Weekend

 This poor WIP.  I put it away for at least the last 10-15 years.  Lady of the Thread by Margaret Leavitt Imblum has gone through several moves with me.  Several times I have unrolled this in an attempt to restart it.  She is beautiful and I have always wanted to stitch her.  The only problem was that I thought that I had made a number of mistakes that I could not find.  So every few years I would pull her out and try to work on her, but I would get to so frustrated I would just shove her back into my project bag.  Part of me thought that I should just throw the whole thing away, but I just couldn't bring myself to do.

 A couple of weekends ago, I was in a mood and decided that if I had to, I would rip out the top half.  As I started pulling out the lace color stitching, I realized that the way that MLI lined up the overlap lines between the top and bottom of the pattern is different than what I am used to seeing.  I realized that there was no error after all.  It was the way that I was reading the pattern.  Whew!

So over the past couple of weekends I have been working on it.  I really needed a weekend off, so I took a stitchy weekend to just relax and enjoy working on her.  I really love MLI's patterns and I have stitched three of her angels.  There is something so feminine and beautiful about her work.  She also layers colors in a way that is so beautiful.  Several years ago, before she passed away I emailed her to tell her how much I loved her patterns.  To my surprise, she emailed me back thanking me for my email.  I still fangirl over it to this day.

Two things have contributed to my ability to stitch a lot lately.  For three weeks we had monster storms in California, and the central coast of the state really took a beating.  We were being advised to stay home.  You do not have to ask me really hard to stay home.  It is my favorite place.  So it has been nice to cozy in.  I am hearing from my weather friends that it is going to be a wet February so I think I might actually be able to finish the Lady of the Thread in 2023.

The other thing that is freeing up time to stitch is that I pretty much stay off my computer during the weekends now.  It has been liberating.  My best friend is 80 now and she gets so much done.  She is my inspiration. I wondered why she accomplishes so much and I realized it is because she is not  on her computer much.  So I take breaks from social media on the weekends.  It is really relaxing to stitch instead.

I think this is going to be my next stitching project.  It is so pretty.  I bought it from Shepherd's Needle.  I was so impressed with them.  Super fast shipping.  The package said, "Happy Mail" on the flap and it was gift wrapped in a pretty bird tissue paper.  I love when stores do something extra like that.  It makes it feel special top open a present.

I hope you get to have some special stitchy time this week.