Taking a Break

I finished another tabletopper today. This is the seventh one I've done now since the end of January. And, now I started working this evening on number eight!

Sorry, but I don't have any pictures taken of the most recent one but here's the one I got completed earlier this week. This is the one I should and could have had finished over two weeks ago but the kit didn't have enough floss of one color to complete it and a second kit I had purchased -same identical design, etc. -well that kit was missing the very color that was a bit short in the first kit.

Anyway, this one was to be a birthday present for my good friend and neighbor, Shirley. Her birthday was last Wednesday and I didn't get the floss color I needed to complete it until this past Monday so I took it with me to our monthly meeting at church of our women's group (WELCA) and gave it to her then -only a week late but this time, it was no fault of mine for being tardy.
Here's the full view of the "Cardinal" Tabletopper and below is a view of just one corner of the piece.
The one I finished today -took two weeks to do it -was also done in cross stitch as is the one I started this evening. These two will be sent to my cousin down in Austin, Texas.

But let me tell you something now. I'm not really a fast stitcher when it comes to cross stitching -and heaven forbid I would be working on counted cross stitch, cause I really slow down when doing that stuff cause it makes me feel like I'm gonna be totally cross-eyed when I'm done.

But tonight now -I had to take a little break from my stitching action cause my right hand was starting to cramp up a tad. I think the last time my hand was this stiff from doing something was when I was helping Mandy write out invitations to her wedding. My penmanship is not something to write home about to begin with, so I have to really take my sweet time and be ultra careful to make every letter legible ya know, so addressing all those invitations was really a heck of a chore for me. (I'm just thankful that they didn't want all their wedding napkins all hand-written too or I would really have been in big trouble in ever using my right hand again then, huh?)

So now, the tabletopper I am currently involved with is one that is also "for the birds" -except this one has a big rooster in each corner of the cloth. And when I get the tabletopper done, it also has a table runner that goes with the kit that I get to do as well.

The fabric for this set though is such that it's about as stiff to poke the needle through as my hand had become working on it which makes picking up any amount of steam and speed a bit rough.

Once I get this set finished, you can bet your bottom dollar my project after that will be a couple things that are all embroidery stitches and no cross stitching involved -at all!

And, after working on cross stitching first cardinals and now roosters, I'm probably gonna be crowing too, come to think of it!