50 by 50 Stitches on my Spanish eyes

A tiny section complete of my overly ambitious x stitch self portrait of my eyes. Tiny, but still, woot!

First 50 x 50 section completed.

I'm finding it helps to break this piece down into 50 x 50 stitch squares. Otherwise I'll go mad with longing to see it come together.

The long view: One tiny section on the path.

Which is strange. I've always been a "process" maker who loves to plan and slowly build a piece. In the face of a pressure-filled and busy time at my corporate day job, I find myself having a harder time transitioning into the slowed-down process time.

My work kit spread out on my sofa.

This frustrates me. I'm hoping that, by being conscious of this trend, I can be less tortured by it.

PA and PE, 1990. By Peter Alexander at the Getty.

Headed to LA this week. (2014 has been a wonderful travel year so far!) What I'm most excited by? Spending time with the lovely family we're visiting, exploring Joshua Tree National Park and my first ever Dodgers game. And the fascinating LA grid, which is beautifully interpreted by Peter Alexander in PA and PE.

Interpreting these eyes in stitch.

For now, back into the corporate salt mines, I go.

Outside of my normal - a crafty kitty

Last month I was asked to take part in an online experiment for embroidery bloggers. Alyssa Thomas, the designer and owner of Penguin and Fish, sent me a very simple and charming crafty kitty pattern. Although I rarely use patterns or stitch kitties, I loved her injunction to do whatever the hell we wanted to do with the design, so I went for it.

Craft Cat. Hand embroidery on watercolor paper.

Crafty Cat was stitched into a painted watercolor paper background, on top of stitched fish scales. I wrote about the experiment on Mr X Stitch.

I want a cat.

Meow.

Penguin and Fish featured a collection of all of the experiments on their blog. There are some talented stitchers out there, including Nicole Vos van Avezathe and Leigh Bowser. Ch-ch-ch-check it out!