The Challenge - "Halfway" to Where??

So far the colors for this month haven't stirred my imagination, and I'll probably just opt not to stitch anything new with them, as we are approaching the halfway mark of July anyway. My children decided last year to "temporarily" move me into my daughter's guest quarters until they could find me a suitable smaller residence than the house I was in - I had been quite ill, but apparently didn't fool them, as here I still am. I have told friends I think I'm in a Halfway House - that is, halfway to the nursing home (which looms just up the road.) My phone number is one digit different from the lovely assisted living for Alzheimer's home where I had my aunt staying for several years before her death - and people misdial and call here fairly often. However, lately, I have wondered if I am there and just don't know it. Anyway, this past six months have definitely been a landmark of some kind - not halfway through my life, as I would live to be 136 if that were so. ( I do not want to live so long that I can't dance the tango, play in the ocean, or see to do fine needlework.) The death of my beloved little granddaughter in May has brought me to the realization that this year is a sort of landmark for me - in plain words, I'm not as young as I used to be, and have moved on to the next phase - whatever that is. Granny doesn't watch soap operas and crochet in a rocking chair.!!

On a brighter note - I decided, after using up a great deal of my stash - at least what is not packed away in boxes, that I needed to go shopping for a new color scheme to inspire me. This is what I found at the LNS. I have no restraint where pretty colors are displayed. This is a big batch of the gorgeous Caron Soie Cristale that I enjoy using on my crazy quilt renditions in needlepoint. I selected a few, intending to use them on one piece - and also added some ribbon floss in the same color ranges that I had in my "leftovers."

These fibers and colors are super for the part of the CQ I enjoy most - replicating the background fabrics! Allie's new quilt has zillions of silk tie things in it, and I have studied them closely (my new colors also were inspired by this). I made an enlargement of one little patch to show how it was then translated to needlepoint - Hungarian Criss-Cross in the two colors, with little pearl beads for the white spots. Too often I see designers making patches with very colorful and busy textured stitches - but this isn't conducive to the embellishment, and is a different thing altogether. My pieces are small, so the background patches must be subdued but interesting. I do use the textured stitches, but as a means to an end and not the total focus.This is what I will do for the first one!

I have made the little dots with a pen on the weft stitches, and intend to insert beads where the same pattern is showing on the sample swatch (also an enlargement from one of Allison's ties that I saw on her quilt.) If by any chance anyone hasn't seen this gorgeous thing - look at this link.

The squarish markings at the top are to indicate placement of tone on tone stripes from another patch. The rest of the piece will be stitched with just beautiful fibers in pretty colors - textured stitches, but subtle - as background for the silk ribbon flowers and other intended embellishment. I'm never quite sure what will happen, as I don't dare plan these things in the beginning - just build as I go with the selected threads.