I am finally purchasing the first decent digital camera in my life – and FedEx will deliver my new Sony Cyper-Shot camera on Tuesday Well – they will ATTEMPT to deliver it, I find that they never come when I am home. Ever. It is rather difficult to get Fedex packages at my apartment for this reason – they do not wish to leave it without a signature and their pickup location is something like 20 miles from my home. No matter, I will get it however I can!

Once it lands, I will provide updated pics on the progress of Night Flight (almost done). I have decided that I will never finish it if I insist on stitching the entire project, so I am altering the project “limits” as it were. The full chart shows a night sky with a large bird flying “over” a full moon. Then there are lots of other parts of the sky to stitch, and water, and sand, and rocks. It is, in the end, a night landscape. I’ve decided to leave out the land part and just focus on the sky. It is quite large anyway, and at least this way it will get finished. Finishing is a good thing

I am also going to start work sometime this summer on embroidery for an Epigonation for a priest I know. Once I take care of a few details and actually get started I will post the progress here. I will use blackwork embroidery to stitch a cross and a border that will surround the cross.

Oh yes, I will also receive the entire television series of Stargate SG-1 in the same package. Something of an overkill, the series covers 54 dvds! However, one needs something to watch when doing non-liturgical needlework – and it is a good series. No more DVDs for me for a loooooong time

This probably is a record for me to complete an entire embroidery project. This was stitched for Anna, and I started this last Thursday, 4 days before her death. I completed it the day after…

Anna always found Blackwork embroidery to be mysterious, and there is something to that. On one hand it is very simple, a single strand of floss that is used to make geometric shapes that fill, and make, other shapes. She did get to see it in progress though, and my rush to complete it means that there are mistakes in the pattern. Some are intentional, a couple are not However, I shall not fix them.  Her husband will recieve this as soon as I have framed it properly.

May her memory be eternal!

A very good friend of mine reposed yesterday, Memorial Day, of a very swiftly moving liver cancer. Her funeral service will be Thursday evening, on the Feast of the Ascension. While I deeply miss being able to pick up the phone to call my friend, the thought of her funeral service being on Ascension and during the Pascal season is comforting.

I am also trying to complete a cross stitched in Blackwork to either “send along” with her, or to give to her husband (it will be his choice). I will post a photo here when it is completed. It should have been completed tonight, but it seems the closer I get to the end, the slower my progress. I suspect that is because when I finish the project it will be like another “goodbye” to her. She has become like family to me, and is indeed old enough to be my mother. She is greatly loved by all in my parish, and will be sorely missed.

Please pray for the handmaid of God, Anna, who has fallen asleep, and may her memory be eternal.

BBC News – Orthodox Easter in pictures

Christos Voskrese (a wonderful Serbian song with lyrics taken from a poem by St. Nikolai Velimirovich) – view the English translation here

Stichera of Pascha (Romanian)

Christos Anesti (Greek)

Toaca – Evening at a Moldavian Monastery
We have some young men who play the Toaca well at our parish, but nothing like this monk!

“Given that we desire long life, should we not take eternal life into account? If we long for a kingdom which, however enduring, has an end, and glory and joy which, great as they are, will fade, and wealth that will perish with this present life, and we labour for the sake of such things; ought we not to seek the kingdom, glory, joy and riches which, as well as being all-surpassing, are unfading and endless, and ought we not to endure a little constraint in order to inherit it? Besides, we are presupposing a kingdom free from war, which is impossible on earth, and a life without sorrow, which you can only find in heaven. So let anyone who desires these things run towards heaven and, whether the way there be easy or difficult, let him journey along it, “rejoicing in hope” and “patient in tribulation”

Saint Gregory Palamas

The Homilies of Saint Gregory Palamas, Volume Two
Homily 22, page 8
Saint Tikhon’s Press

As Lent approaches, I may post other words from Saint Gregory…

Apparently I am a “Cool High Nerd”
Who would have thought that a needleworker would also be a nerd

I found this new site (at least new to me) called Alphainventions. It cycles through a series of blogs that people submit, which seems to be a little addicting. The address is www.alphainventions.com. It is said that this will really increases the numbers of blog viewers, time will tell. It would be great to find other Orthodox needleworkers out there

I did not know when I changed the blog theme the other day that I would have a post with a title like this – but it fits rather nicely!

Meg asked about Shadow work and how the lovely effect is created. For a rather detailed discussion on this please go to this link. Note that I said discussion For a graphical representation of the rather simple stitch used, go here (same site, different page).

Basically, Shadow Work has most of the work on the back of the piece, which means that the color is seen as a shadow from the front. It is a simple double back stitch that crosses over on the reverse side to create a Herringbone stitch. One must be very careful to go up in the same previous hole, so a very good lamp is required. Remember that you do this sort of work on something like sheer transparent silk Organza – mine is so sheer that I lost it on top of my white tablecloth! Yep – though something WAS on top of it, so I have an excuse

Signing off for now – the clock is showing that I am past my bed-time

Meg asked what Forest will look like when it is completed – hopefully it will look like these images. The misty on is the front, the other photo is of the completed back.

This is called “Shadow Work” and I like it very much. It is actually quite simple, one just needs a VERY good light to work on the transparent silk organza, and a steady hand

Forest: Shadow and Mist

It seems that my postings on this blog always goes in threes So, for my third, and final post of the day, here are a couple of images of Tigger

Tigger contemplating his next move – will she squirt me if I do that, or not? Hmmmm

She doesn’t know I am in here! Hmmmm, her toes look good enough to pounce on!

Tigger is settling in well, he just has this propensity to pounce on my feet when I am walking. No matter what I do, it doesn’t seem to decrease the pouncing instinct (and he has plenty of toys). Thoughts anyone? The water bottle doesn’t seem to hold his attention as it once did…