Royal Fever...

I have been working hard to catch up on all my "must stitch" projects so I could treat myself to a little Royal Garden stitching.  If you click on the first picture it will become larger so you can see it closer.  

I absolutely LOVE this piece.  However, it is painstakingly slow...and tests my patience...and stretches my abilities...and teaches me...and is slowly driving me mad.  But I still LOVE it!!  I thought maybe you would like to see some of the stitches close up...and understand why I can only work on this a little at a time.  I think after today...after working with fibers 90 inches long...and working out kinks in flat fibers, while untying knots, and swearing after finding I've been ONE canvas thread off trying to count little tiny specialty stitches...it will be neatly put away for a day or two.  Seriously...my arms ache trying to hold the canvas and draw 90 inches of thread through the canvas!!  But I know in the end it will be worth it.  Now mind you, I didn't work on all these stitches today, just the woven teardrop, the crescent with a tail, and a couple of the sword Amadeus stitches, a few oblong rhodes and square rhodes.  

But honestly, isn't that enough for one day?  I'm off to find something that's a little less "cerebral" to stitch on for the remainder of the day.