I always feel like I need to keep to a strict schedule on the blog, and then life happens and I fall off the wagon. When this happens, I feel like I’m disappointing you, and me as well, since I love the communication we have through here!

If/when I take a day job (which is looking more and more likely every day), this is only going to become worse. How can I write for others, write for me, update my shops and still crank out designs? Eesh! It’s overwhelming. And don’t forget, teach dance, workout and dance for myself in there!

And yet there is this inner need for schedule. For consistency. For putting very specific types of posts on specific days. It’s like these days my overly logical side is in a tug of war with my creative side – and I can’t get either to put down the rope and work together. Heh. My inner world is a lot like the US Congress!

So for now I’m going to try to ease back into blogging – and TAST, for that matter. The TAST weeks where I managed to stitch improved my creativity immensely, and that’s a good thing. I’m not going to fret if I can’t keep up every week though.

I am going to try to keep up with the Thursday posts about what’s on the design table or embroidery frame, however. That’s the kind of thing I really want to keep sharing with all of you, and your feedback makes my week!

That said, stitching relieves stress. (Unless you add business stress TO your stitching!) Here’s an article a friend passed on to me about how more people are picking it up and why.

Enjoy! (And go stitch something!)

May is for Medieval! (ooh, that worked out!) I’ve been a calligrapher for almost longer than I’ve stitched, and the illumination part of my calligraphy is sneaking out into my stitch designs this month! Enjoy them! These are based on illuminations and marginalia from medieval manuscripts. Notes on sources included.

Note: Elmows are distributed as a pdf file. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can get the free Adobe PDF Reader here. This creates a nice clean chart or pattern that you can print on your printer (and size up or down using a copy machine, or even work from the monitor, if you want.

What ARE these things? What can I do with them and is it safe to buy them from you?

If something goes wonky, PLEASE email or call me
(919-249-8698, 9-5 ET). I want you to be happy!

Reminder – please read–

Elmows will remain up for the month they are made available plus one month after. So March elmows will be available until April 30. April Elmows until May 31, and so on! They will later be made available as a hard-copy design pack only, either through my Etsy shop or at GoldenCircle Designs.com. />

Note: Elmows are distributed as a pdf file. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can get the free Adobe PDF Reader here. This creates a nice clean chart or pattern that you can print on your printer (and size up or down using a copy machine, or even work from the monitor, if you want.

What ARE these things? What can I do with them and is it safe to buy them from you?

If something goes wonky, PLEASE email or call me
(919-249-8698, 9-5 ET). I want you to be happy!

Reminder – please read–

Elmows will remain up for the month they are made available plus one month after. So March elmows will be available until April 30. April Elmows until May 31, and so on! They will later be made available as a hard-copy design pack only, either through my Etsy shop or at GoldenCircle Designs.com. />

Note: Elmows are distributed as a pdf file. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can get the free Adobe PDF Reader here. This creates a nice clean chart or pattern that you can print on your printer (and size up or down using a copy machine, or even work from the monitor, if you want.

What ARE these things? What can I do with them and is it safe to buy them from you?

If something goes wonky, PLEASE email or call me
(919-249-8698, 9-5 ET). I want you to be happy!

Reminder – please read–

Elmows will remain up for the month they are made available plus one month after. So March elmows will be available until April 30. April Elmows until May 31, and so on! They will later be made available as a hard-copy design pack only, either through my Etsy shop or at GoldenCircle Designs.com. />

Ick. I always used to have them finished and filed by mid-February at the latest. I don’ t know what happened after I got married. The EO is in the same boat… we were always prompt, now it seems that life continually intervenes.

But they are almost done. Tonight, I’m told. So I am celebrating by making a new kit available…

Felt Applique and Embroidery Heart. Ornament or pincushion!

Celebrate getting YOUR taxes done by getting creative!

Note: Elmows are distributed as a pdf file. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can get the free Adobe PDF Reader here. This creates a nice clean chart or pattern that you can print on your printer (and size up or down using a copy machine, or even work from the monitor, if you want.

What ARE these things? What can I do with them and is it safe to buy them from you?

If something goes wonky, PLEASE email or call me
(919-249-8698, 9-5 ET). I want you to be happy!

Reminder – please read–

Elmows will remain up for the month they are made available plus one month after. So March Elmows will be available until April 30. April Elmows until May 31, and so on! They will later be made available as a hard-copy design pack only, either through my Etsy shop or at GoldenCircle Designs.com.

The image to the left is a stamped sampler that my Grandmother put on muslin for me and used to teach me how to stitch. Cross stitches and stem stitches. It took me 3 years to complete (I’ve never had a long attention span). If I recall, the only reason I DID complete it was that my mother wouldn’t let me start a crewel project to go with the one she was doing until I’d finished “the last thing you started and didn’t finish.”

It’s stitched in JP Coats variegated floss. Pink, blue and green. I started it at age 6 and finished in 1975, age 9. (And in true Romilly fashion, I didn’t put the starting date on it… who wants people to know how long you took to finish something?! In this I haven’t changed.)

Last week I took the time to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. When I found it again in our storage room, I pulled it out, charted it, and stitched it on 28 count Cashel. I considered stitching it over one just to be annoying, but decided that was a bit of overkill. The new version? Charting + stitching = done in one business day.

The original is about 8 X 10 inches, and the restitch is about 4 X 5.

If you know where the original stamped design came from, I’d love to know. And if I can find that out, I might be tempted to ask permission to release the chart as a freebie for anyone else who wants to stitch it. (It’s possible that the original is actually out of copyright at this point: it WAS from my Grandmother’s box, but it could just as easily be out of a McCall’s magazine from 1969! It would make a lovely first project for an older child on 8 or 11 count aïda cloth with 4 strands of threads – in their choice of colors. I know I picked out the three colors on the original sampler. In the new one I used the new DMC Color Variations instead of the standard variegated, and I do like the result.

I think I’ll have them framed side by side in a double-opening mat.

The package:

Week One Design:

Note: Elmows are distributed as a pdf file. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can get the free Adobe PDF Reader here. This creates a nice clean chart or pattern that you can print on your printer (and size up or down using a copy machine, or even work from the monitor, if you want.

What ARE these things? What can I do with them and is it safe to buy them from you?

If something goes wonky, PLEASE email or call me
(919-249-8698, 9-5 ET). I want you to be happy!

Note: Elmows are distributed as a pdf file. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can get the free Adobe PDF Reader here. This creates a nice clean chart or pattern that you can print on your printer (and size up or down using a copy machine, or even work from the monitor, if you want.

What ARE these things? What can I do with them and is it safe to buy them from you?

If something goes wonky, PLEASE email or call me
(919-249-8698, 9-5 ET). I want you to be happy!

Reminder – please read–

Elmows will remain up for the month they are made available plus one month after. So March elmows will be available until April 30. April Elmows until May 31, and so on! They will later be made available as a hard-copy design pack only, either through my Etsy shop or at GoldenCircle Designs.com. />

Note: Elmows are distributed as a pdf file. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can get the free Adobe PDF Reader here. This creates a nice clean chart or pattern that you can print on your printer (and size up or down using a copy machine, or even work from the monitor, if you want.

What ARE these things? What can I do with them and is it safe to buy them from you?

If something goes wonky, PLEASE email or call me
(919-249-8698, 9-5 ET). I want you to be happy!

Reminder – please read–

Elmows will remain up for the month they are made available plus one month after. So March elmows will be available until April 30. April Elmows until May 31, and so on! They will later be made available as a hard-copy design pack only, either through my Etsy shop or at GoldenCircle Designs.com. />