I started this canvas a really, really long time ago…so long ago that I really don’t want to admit exactly when I took the first stitch.

or the first bead. Whatever… I found these absoluterly purr~fect brown beads and I beaded the words. And then, well you know. It gets put away because there is something else that you really want to work on. Or in my case it is because I really need to be stitching on something else.

I am always saying while teaching when the students lament that they don’t have enough time to stitch…I tell them something I learned from my sistah Meredith years ago. “Just an hour a day, that’s all! you will be surprised at how much stitching you can get done.” You know what? Meredith is right…but shhhh, please don’t tell her I said that!

So I made a commitment to myself that I would spend an hour of my stitching night on something for me. Like this canvas or my Stitcherie games piece or my Bastet the Cat…okay you get the idea.

Moving along…

I am ready to bead the lotus. Easier said than done. The dark brown beads that I have will work great for the dark brown in the flower. I found a great bead that I used for the medium color beading with dark brown beading thread and the intention was to use the same bead for the lighter color with a light colored beading thread.

There must have been a heavier silver lining in this bead than I thought, so plan A didn’t work. So plan B was to use a lighter brown beads that I had… well I don’t like ’em. No actually I hate them and they gotta come out. Along with the clear white beads. I auditioned a few colors and you know what, you need to bead a small section to really know if you are going to like ’em.

Normally I would bead a new section before I took the beads out that I didn’t like. Why is that? well you may not like the newer color and then all of a sudden realize that the first color wasn’t that bad after all! Then you would need to rebead the same beads that you just took out. Well I disliked that first color so much, that I knew that wasn’t going to happen!

The background is done and after the lotus is beaded I just need to stitch Buddha. I must have selected every single Kreinik color known to man that was even close. He is not really shiny, he is matte with a great patina. So do I want to stitch him in floss? or Kreinik? well I am sure that I have a few weeks yet to make up my mind!

This is AlleyCat sleeping on my lap while I am stitching. Every so often so sticks that little back end of hers up in the air as if to say “scratch me! scratch me!” and I do… and then we go back to stitching. Gotta love her.

and until next time…keep on stitching