Beading and goldwork goes on, and butterflies are in movement

The linen portiere already looks as if it's been in place for years!  since it's unchanged, it might even make it onto the Thanksgiving table.

Meanwhile, the stamped butterfly is going on nicely.  This is really fun to stitch and design as I go.  Thinking of several of them, all different in design, but the same general shape.  This is about four inches wingspread.  Anyway, this is where we are.  

Lately I've developed a few little problems, mainly in my left arm, hurt last winter in that dramatic fall, and injured many years ago by an enthusiastic black lab pulling on me.  My body seems to remember, and it's playing up a bit.  Painting the kitchen and installing two backsplashes and an insulation project may possibly be part of it, too.

So I have to remember to let my left arm rest a bit, and that means stitching sessions are a bit shortened.  But, aside from that organ recital, me, I am not complaining, as Andy's Ecuadorian aide used to say.  I am getting the butterfly done bit by bit instead of in one great big swoop.

On future plans for stitching:  when I mentioned I'd never done shisha embroidery -- that's the kind using small mirrors -- my good friend Girija promised instantly to find me some mirrors or metal substitutes when she goes to India in December for a wedding.  So there may be butterflies with it!

She also explained why some shisha uses mirrors and some metal circles instead.  And told me the Hindi name for the items, which I have now forgotten, dang. The mirrors are Gujarati, and clothes with shisha embroidery are washed with reverence for the mirror glass (that's what shisha means, by the way).  But elsewhere laundry is done by beating which is bad for the glass, so metal circles, prestamped with holes around for stitching, are substituted. The stuff I learn from her!  Mirrors would be fine for my butterflies, since they won't be a laundry item.

So look out for that!