March update

At last! I have a stitching update as well as another banner update. I'm so pleased to have made enough progress on Winter Fairy to post a new picture. Let's hear it for quiet, sunny Sunday afternoons! I was able to get a couple of hours of stitching on each of the past two Sundays, and the bright sunshine made it so much easier to work. I'm nearly done with the green band and then I get to move into the purple and blue skirt. I'm looking forward to that!

I've also finished banner #3 in the Lenten series. I must admit I'm particularly pleased with this one. I wanted to show the reconciliation of God and man through the cross, and I think it does that. It was a bit challenging to get the details on the hands right. I didn't want to use a marker because it would bleed in the felt, so I finally settled on cutting thin strips of the dark purple felt. It took a while to cut, place and glue them, but it was worth the work. I'm getting together with June this week to try to get the fourth and final banner done, and I'll post a picture when it is completed.

Lenten Banner #2

Last Wednesday I spent the day at home because our dog was too ill to be left alone. During the times when he was asleep I finished the second Lenten banner. It was a good distraction - enough to occupy the mind but not requiring as much concentration as cross-stitch, which I certainly would have messed up. When my husband got home from work we took Shadow to the vet and let him go in peace. Definitely not a high point of our year, but the vet assured us that nothing more could have been done for him, so we take a little comfort in that.

Anyway, here is a photo of banner #2. Not sure when the other two will be done. We had a houseful of college students this past weekend, so I got no crafting done at all. I will have to get together with my cohort and get to work.

Lenten Banner #1

You may (or may not) have wondered why my cross-stitching has slowed so much. Here is a major reason. I've gotten together with another woman from my church to create four banners to hang along the sides of the sanctuary during Lent. When I proposed this, I thought, oh what fun! A few of us will get together for a couple of weekends and make banners. You know, the classic "sewing circle". It didn't quite turn out that way (I really should know better). There are just two of us, with occasional help from our daughters when they're available. She & I both work, so the only time we can get together is for a little while on Saturday afternoons. We cut out the banners, headers and crosses - all four banners will be identical that way. The girls got about half of the letters cut out to spell "Lent" at the top of each banner. Now in order to complete these before Lent is over, I've neglected cross-stitch and all but basic housework to spend my free time on the rest. Last night I completed the first one, just in time to hang for the first Sunday in Lent. I have some work done on the second and I hope it will go a little more quickly. My cohort is working on an idea for the third banner and we agreed on the pattern for the fourth. Meanwhile, here is a picture of the first banner. I want to mention that my oh-so-handy hubby cut the poles (I stained them) and added the chains for hanging.