More UFOs...or are they WIPs?

Here's a little embroidery project that is stalled out in the planning stages. I could never be a designer, because none of it comes naturally to me. It takes me a great deal of time and thinking to conceive a project, survey my available materials, assemble them in different combinations and make decisions! This was supposed to be so simple! All I wanted to do was stitch a little motif of lavender for a lavender-scented sachet. Remember this post, where I took such lovely lavender pictures as a little teaser?Since then, I tried finding embroidery motifs for stitching lavender plants or blossoms. I had no luck! I even found by looking at pictures of lavender blossoms and reading about the plant, that different species have different flowering patterns. By that I mean that the little purple flowering parts will be arranged in different ways on the stems. There really isn't a readily recognizable way to depict lavender, except with color, of course. The shape of the flowering parts is a little non-distinct and variable, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of lavender embroidery with a stitch associated with stitching lavender. I am not an experienced embroiderer, so I still don't know exactly how I'll stitch the little floral parts. I thought I was doing well to decide to stitch the stems with stem stitch. Too bad there isn't a lavender stitch. I had selected some colors to use from what I already had, and then on my Columbus Day gad-about, I made things more complicated by buying more violet shades!

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This cross-stitch project is something I started a few years ago, I can't remember why, and so I don't know why I put it away, either. I took it out again a few weeks ago, and have been working on it. When I took it out, all it had stitched on it was the beginning of the prayer, up through the word "hallowed". And so, I've been trying to stitch 15-30' each night. That is, up until one sunny day, I discovered that in the too-dim light I was using, I had stitched quite a lot in the wrong shade of green. I haven't made the decision yet whether to leave it, as it won't be too noticeable or pick it out (what a mess!) and re-do it, even though I don't love doing cross-stitch so much. It has gotten a bit more difficult as my eyes have gotten older. I've joined the ranks of forgetful older ladies who keep several pairs of readers all over, so I don't have to keep track of a single pair. It's kind of like discovering a subtle, but noticeable mistake in your knitting and not wanting to rip out several rows to correct it. So you keep working, trying to ignore it, and eventually you do rip it out and correct it, now having to rip out even more than if you'd just done it when you first discovered it. So, it's taking a little rest...until I have the patience to (and lighting....and glasses) to scrutinize my work against the pattern, and work out a rehab plan. Once I get through that phase, I'll be about 3/4 of the way to being finished, and then I can frame and hang it!But I don't think it'll be anytime soon, considering how exhausted and frustrated it makes me just to think about it! Obviously, I need to restore myself with a hot cuppa tea and some good eye candy!I just loooove the combination of light blue and bright red together with some dark shade of brown or taupe to ground it. And accented with the evergreen color, beeeaauutiful! See the Victorian Trading Co. catalog? It only encourages my desire to get a red or cranberry-colored winter coat.....Have you seen Jodie's red coat over at Can-Do Mom? A red coat also looks so crisp with a white or even ivory scarf, or hat (a beret!) and mittens.

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Maybe you remember this dresser scarf? I started it way back in January. At least this UFO was started in 2010. I was such a smarty-pants, I wanted to have it done by Valentine's Day, of 2010 that is. I committed my usual error in judgment, confidently assuming that I had enough cotton thread to finish my project. Never mind what the instructions say, since of course I'm not using the thread they recommend nor the same size crochet hook, and I certainly didn't check guage, since it's just a runner -- an inch or two or even more hardly matters at all. And besides the thread I need is easily obtained, right? Wrong! It was Southern Maid brand and no longer carried by the usual nearby stores. I have been to another store twice since then, which does still carry it - in at least three colors, and both times the bin for this ivory color has been empty! I could have ordered it online and paid twice what it cost just for the shipping. So on that Columbus Day shopping trip I bought two other brands hoping one would match. I can honestly tell you that I can't tell! The two balls of thread seem actually be made by the same company, and sold under two different brand labels. I just need to pick one and try it and see if the difference is really that noticeable.... It really is close to being done, I just need to do it.But what I'm really working on now is the sage green filet lace. I hadn't lost the hook after all. It was in the bottom of my purse, concealed by a fold in the lining. Oh my......