June 10, 2023 Saturday     

This morning on Queendom Website's Home  Page: a second version of Dressing Elizabeth.  Can you find the differences between the two versions?

As I am writing about these pieces, Dressing Henry and Dressing Elizabeth, I am trying to work out which I should write or whether I should try and do both.

Meanwhile my life is about clean up.  Progress is slow and tedious but I have been tenacious. For my tenacity, I am giving myself a pat on the back.

That said, I am sick of clean up, have mountains of it to do and all I want to do is sit and stitch. Ahhh, the wonderful long daylight hours of my favorite time of year.

Sigh....

June 9, 2023 Friday     

After I finished Dressing Henry, I still was in the mood for something big, so I undertook Dressing Elizabeth, a little less colorful, a little more challenging. I loved every challenging stitch on this one for it was at the heart of the sort of thing I taught for all those years.

More about Dressing Elizabeth on Queendom Website's home page tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, how am I doing with clean up? I'm proud of myself: I undertook a very large project yesterday and spent the whole day on it: I started tackling a crowded box and at the same time got myself a couple of good kits for EWeek's Surprise Windows.

I didn't finish yesterday, I suspect it will take me a good chunk of today. We'll see.  Happy Friday.

June 8, 2023 Thursday     

More cleanup today, as I decide what to do with odds and ends in a newly unearthed box.  Do you keep snippets of thread? I wonder about keeping it because I can't figure out how to store and retrieve it and even how to remember I have it.  Among today's decisions.

Then later in the day I have three packages to pack and send, and then more Tent Stitch into the evening.

I have tabled a decision about Dressing Henry, for I have another one, Dressing Elizabeth.

Watch for her tomorrow. Then some questions and then I will try and make a decision.  It is 3 days since my deadline day of June 5 and time is passing. Before I know it, it will be mid June.

June 7, 2023 Wednesday     

Today I turn in earnest to making decisions about using my summer time wisely.

Requisite clean up comes first, with hopes of adding empty boxes #10 and perhaps #11 to the growing stack. I have left them in the middle of the room, a mighty stack to pat myself on the back for trying.

Then if I am extra good, I will give myself a couple of hours stitching time just to celebrate the bonus of June's long daylight hours.  It is the 7th today which means exactly two weeks till my favorite day of the year, the Summer Solstice.

Today, once I finish cleanup, I will have a look at my computer files on Dressing Henry and see if writing him after all this time is indeed viable.  

And I will see if I can think how I might like to do Henry's Sewing Case also.

Busy day ahead. Busy indeed, a nice kind of busy.

June 6, 2023 Tuesday     

Snow Maiden is on her way to be proofed, and Matryoshka is gone too.

Today is the first day of liberation and I am still deciding what to do with my summer.  This morning I posted one of two designs I am considering writing. This one is called 'Dressing Henry.'

I've never wanted to stitch Henry VIII. Even though DH has told me I always have to consider the mores of the times, I have never wanted to stare at the face of a man who decapitated two of his six wives.

What has indeed always interested me are the many rich and beautiful patterns of his clothing as painted by Holbein, all the way down to modern times.

At the beginning of the pandemic, when I was holed up, I tinkered with those patterns and came up with this design.  I enjoyed stitching it, particularly the Celtic Knot patterns in the two lower corners, and of course I had a great time with all the different beads, but I never wrote the instructions.

I did draw the Oversize Graphs, at least a sufficient number of drawings to know what I stitched and in what order, so I am wondering if now is the summer for me to write Henry.

June 5, 2023 Monday     

My deadline day has arrived: today, June 5, I finish with Snow Maiden and transition to a Summer of work ahead.

I have decided I will make it a combo summer: I will work at cleaning up, a bit each day.  So far I have been exhuberant. I have stacked up 7 emptied boxes.  

I will mix in with clean up a healthy amount of time writing instructions and stitching, emphasis if I am disciplined, on writing instructions.

My major question now is 'Large or Small'?

So far the scale is tipping toward Small as less of a commitment, less expense and more versatile. People say they like the sense of pride in finishing something

June 4, 2023 Sunday     

Long ago my MIL whom I loved dearly told me, if you sort out a drawer a week, then at the end of 52 weeks you will have sorted out 52 drawers.

How about a box a day?  I started yesterday: I actually sorted through 4 boxes, and that was enough. Today I will start reducing it to fewer boxes and hope I keep it up.

The rest of the time belongs to me. I've asked you to help me decide what to do with it.

First  I posted a little Lace Needle Book, then a large Lace Sampler. They echo my  problem: in today's world, Small or Large?

So far the answer from you has been a mixed one, with a tilt toward Small.

Now I delve once again into the world of Tudor and we shall see where it leads.  This morning I posted Margaret Foster's wonderful poem about A Sewing Case for Henry VIII. I've wanted to make one ever since she first sent me the poem, a number of years ago.

Definitely a possibility for now....

June 3, 2023 Saturday     

We have a busy week coming up, company on several days, actually in the next two weeks.  Much needed socialization, lovely to see people! Yes, actual people.

I will leave my 'Beautiful Lace' designs on Queendom Website for another day, then move forward and see what else there is to think about writing.

Yes, coming soon: Dressing Elizabeth and Dressing Henry, two designs I stitched at the very beginning of the pandemic.

The big question I have about my business is small vs. large. It isn't even the expense of the large designs. Although a consideration, I think it is more the time commitment than the expense.

But yesterday a friend and I put our heads together and came up with a possible solution.

Will see as time marches on.

Meanwhile, last night I pulled it together and started a new heart....

June 2, 2023 Friday     

June 2 is here, and with June 2 is a choice: large sampler or small needle book?

It comes down to large or small.  I love to make big pieces and my followers have collections of them, but I wonder, in today's fast paced world, are small things more practical than large?

Would you rather have one large piece or several small pieces?  Sometimes it isn't about the expense of a larger piece, but the time it takes to make the larger one.

I would be interested in your thoughts on the subject, as I have thought frequently in the last couple of years of converting my business to small projects only.

I wouldn't stop making large ones, I just wouldn't necessarily write them.

We'll see.

I'll give you a chance to answer (hopefully some of you will, and then there are more. Many more. I like to stitch much more than I like to write instructions....

June 1, 2023 Thursday     

Happy June 1 to everyone, especially to myself, because June 1 this year marks freedome from the bondage of being too far behind.

Today marks the beginning of a summer to myself, hopefully I will make wise decisions and have a productive time.

I thought for the next few days I would feature designs I have stitched but never written instructions for and ask you, my followers, to help me decide what I do this summer.

This morning a little needle book I stitched a while back and have never written. Do I write it or do I make a new sewing case?

I will post new designs every morning for a while and ask, which?

Meanwhile, I have five days till my official 'end of catching up.'  I thought I would use that time to pick up around here. Five days won't make that big a dent, but it will give me a start...

So will I actually clean up?  Who knows. Meanwhile, long long days ahead with lovely daylight hours that beg me to pick up my needle. Let's see how disciplined I am.

Happy spring! Happy June 1!

May 31, 2023 Wednesday     

Saying good bye to May and good bye to Crown of St. Edward. I understand it is now back safely in the Tower.

After the Coronation I wanted to live through a bit of English History, so I pulled out a series called The History of Britain, written and presented by Simon Schama.  

Years ago DH gave the dvds to me as a  present; it was during my Queen Years when people were busy quoting 'historical passages' from Romance Novels.

This time I watched to the Plague, took a breather from Simon and sequed into The Wind in the Willows.

I'll be back tomorrow, as we say hello to June.

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