Border to Border

Once I had moved the Q-snaps, I decided to go ahead and finish the upper right hand corner border. Of course, I couldn't just leave the threads as they were, but had to add some bling by putting Rainbow Galley Petite Treasure Braid Gold in the upper inner trefoil. It doesn't look like much bling in the picture, but there is a subtle sheen that I like a lot. I've been very schizophrenic about stitching. Some days I have spent hours moving along with this project. Then there are days that I ignore it completely to play Farmville or Godfinger and watch the new Starz series The Pillars of the Earth. Right now I have started filling in the blues, purples, and maroons of the background. This is not a cute dragon, but is actually rather mean looking, but fitting for his Celtic heritage.

Other than stitching, my main project is organizing the Hugo presentation for Aussiecon IV in Melbourne, Australia. We will be leaving for there in less than a month. Hooray! I had my first round of infusion chemotherapy last week. It went fairly well though I was nervous about sleeping with the infusion machine. It wasn't too bad. Just like a sad puppy that pulls on his leash a bit and whines softly every few minutes. Actually it sounds more like a camera shutter clicking. This week is all about the new house: the pool tomorrow and doors and windows on Wednesday. Much of the interior cabinetry is chosen and so is much of the plumbing fixtures. We still need to settle on flooring and countertops. So until the next time: I wish you swift stitches and beautiful threads.

The Headless Beast

You can get a lot of stitching done when you are in San Francisco with no refrigerator and no television. No refrigerator, no cooking. We did have a refrigerator, but it lost its freon AGAIN. So it is no more than a big white box now. I would have even more of this done if I hadn't gotten involved with several iPad games. But I did move the Q-snaps to give me room to stitch the wing at the top right hand corner. Which means that if I continue around in a clockwise manner, I will finish the head last. I couldn't resist stitching a bit of the border to get over stitching all the blues and greens. Now I do love blues and greens, but a steady diet of any color will make you long for colors of a different value.

On the health front, my month of travel and recovery is almost over. On Wednesday I had minor surgery to put in an influsion port (a plastic valve that will eventually sit invisibly under the skin and allow access to a tube in my vein. It is safer than putting chemo directly into a vein in your arm.) It was very odd to have surgery while being totally awake. I have taken my Intro to Chemo class (required half hour video that they subjected me to at 8 in the morning). The first of nine infusions will start on Tuesday. I should be able to stitch (and type) for a while, but eventually my hand motor skills may degrade. I just hope the first three infusions go smoothly. Then I will have a break while we travel to Australia and finish the last six infusions after we get back. I hope everyone has a happy and productive weekend. I'm planning to do a lot this weekend.

By a Neck

Wow! I certainly did a lot of stitching in one day. The dragon himself is starting to take shape here, including his spiky parts. I didn't finish off the top of his wing because I was coming too close to the edge of the Q-Snaps. This pattern is just a little too big for the 8" Q-Snaps, so the wing could not be finished before I moved the fabric to expose more of the top right. There are actually lots of other colors in this design; purples and reds and blues, but they are mostly in the background, so I am stitching up most of the dragon before starting the background.

On Wednesday we left for San Francisco which has been a festival of food. Not just favorite restaurants like LuLu's and Chef's Chu's (where I got a lovely autographed cookbook from Chef Chu himself), but also favorite foods from Whole Foods (like their wonderful banana cream pie). I wish all Whole Foods had the same bakery recipes, as the desserts from the local Nevada ones are not near as good as the ones in San Francisco. And the piece de resistance was our visit to the Saturday farmer's market yesterday. I ate wonderful Mexican food and bought cheese and olive oil and jams and APRICOTS. Oh, my ghod, the Blenheim apricots from Frog Hollow are wonderful. And so are the HoneySnow white peaches. But today we head off for Nevada where I will have a port put in my chest on Wednesday for chemotherapy.

A Wing and A ...

back and a leg? This is what I stitched during Westercon in Pasadena, a traveling science fiction convention over Fourth of July weekend. Next year it is in San Jose, California, then Seattle, Washington. I love stitching in public as usually some one has something nice to say. I will also remember this stitching as it was done during a talk by Larry Niven and Dr. Jerry Pournelle on the science in science fiction and during a concert by Seanan McGuire. I especially enjoyed her songs, Counting Crows and My Story Is Not Done. Besides songs, Seanan tells a great story. I love her recent book, Feed (written as Mira Grant). She's up for a Campbell award (best new writer) at Worldcon in Melbourne this September and I hope she wins. The convention was very nice for me as I saw tons of old friends I had not seen in months. But I also got tired more often than I would have liked. I was very happy to be home again and just collapsed all day Monday. Well, sort of collapsed. I actually sat in my stitching chair for hours and listened to podcasts while stitching. I'll show my progress in my next post.