Cocks and Demon Goats - Round Robin time!

And today, on an icy, awful day, when I'm trapped at work (University is closed, I'm "essential", so yay me, I'm here!  Go soobie!), I present to you - my latest round robin contribution.

This bit is for my friend, Melissa.    If you knew me, and you knew Melissa, you'll understand how this band came to be.   But essentially, she picked a set of patterns from the Antique Patterns Library for us to choose from, and a color scheme she would like us to stitch.

I went through the entire bunch of patterns, found some things I like, but did not find the one thing I was looking for.   Roosters (better known as cocks, also known as the Official Bird of Subversively Dirty Minds).    She granted permission for me to use a stylistically appropriate bird, and I combed through some antique patterns, settling on a freebie from the Smithsonian.

I did find some other motifs/bands in the "Erstmann, Friedrich &; Helbig, Paul, A-B-C der Stickerin, Das." pattern that she chose and set to work with Patternmaker.

And voila! 

Cocks!  

And a pretty band!  

And Demon Goats with Jewelry!

I do think it's going to be a really pretty RR when it's done.

The only thing I was concerned about was the balance.    I was told I had 154 stitched to work with, so that's what I designed (well, I accidentally designed 164, but was able to fix that pretty easily).  It looks like the bands above mine were narrower, but hey, I volunteered to make it pretty if I have to and decided not to stress it :)

And here, the view from my garage -   

It was not a fun drive, at all.   And the most alarming part is that the thick ice/sleet is frozen so solid that my rather heavy car (it's a Subaru) did not even dent the ice.   I know we don't have it as bad as the NorthEast, but we don't have the infrastructure to deal with this stuff.  And it's not even supposed to break freezing this week, which (according to the historical data I peek at), is rather unusual.   I'm an essential employee, so I go into work regardless of conditions.   Should be fun.  I cannot wait for the weekend, so I can hibernate!

Oh look, I finished something

June sent this to me as a RAK not too long ago. So, between the no-stitching thing, the fact that I did actually want to stitch the hummers in 2008 and whatever else has been going on in my head (lots of stress, trust me), I thought I'd give it a go.

Eeenterestingly enough, I had bought the fabric from Crossed-Wing's booth in Hershey. I think it's my new favorite fabric color. I'm not happy about the piece though, I felt like I couldn't stitch right while I worked on it. On the upside, it is a finish. It still needs a bath, but I wanted to post a photo pronto.