Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! We are well into a very hot August here and I have to admit that I have not spent much time outside this summer. We have had frequent poor air quality warnings and regular heat advisories. 

This was yesterday:

Heat Warning

Issued at Sat 5:07 AM Aug. 9

Issued by: Environment and Climate Change Canada

Description

Multi-day heat event begins today.

What:

Daytime highs of 30 to 35 degrees Celsius, with humidex values of 35 to 40.

Overnight lows of 19 to 22 degrees Celsius.

When:

Beginning today.

Additional information:

Slightly cooler temperatures are expected by the middle of next week, bringing an end to this heat event.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm tired of it! So I found the perfect project to work on... Anti-Summer Club! It fits the mood perfectly for me. And also, it's hard stitching and made me even crabbier! I don't really enjoy stitching with black or white as it seems to be harder for my eyes. But I persevered and messed up the lovely lace pattern on the umbrella. I ripped out and re-stitched, and finally said "my umbrella is unique" and chopped it off on the left side so the skull could fit underneath. UGH!

Eventually I decided that the paper pattern was too hard for me to follow. Maybe it's heat stroke - it's a lovely, easy looking pattern! So after the umbrella fiasco, I imported the project into pattern keeper (which is a cross stitching APP) and it has been smooth sailing ever since. It's so much easier for me. You can see on the left side (tilt your head!) that yesterday I added 371 stitches for a total of 769 stitches completed. This project has 8,691 stitches in total. Now why on earth was I thinking I could start and finish that in August?!? Craziness! Anyway I am 8.85% complete. Stay tuned to see how this drama will play out!

But there has been some fun stitching while sitting beside the window air conditioner - Extraordinary Birds SAL has seen some progress. 

I finished feat #8 (of the 11 steps that have been posted) without any mistakes. I still need to finish the backstitching on his head. This is the Rhinoceros Hornbill, which is a fascinating creature. I have really enjoyed learning about the birds of the world in this project by Lola Crow and it has been a highlight of my summer stitching.

How are you managing this summer? Or winter if you live downunder? Link up your blog post below and share your progress with us!

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