Happy Mother's Day and A Tale of Two Bears

First off: Happy Mother's Day Everyone!  I hope today is filled with happiness and fun.  :-)

Now to the bears...

Here's the first one:

The Black Bear cross stitch has rolled out of UFO hibernation again.  The only post I could find about him was back in November 2009.  He's come in and out of hibernation a few times since then.

Here's a picture from July 2010:

This one is after I'd started stitching this week and thought to take a picture.  Whoops.  But at least I have a reference from earlier in the week.

I took this one this morning, after stitching until 1 a.m.

To make working on this huge piece easier, I make "working copies" of the chart, i.e. ones I can scribble on, and have been shading the stitches in when I've completed them.  I don't do this on the real chart in case I mess up where I'm scribbling.

Just to make it easier for me to know what I'm supposed to be doing, I started using a different color of pencil every day.  I hadn't been doing that initially, but I find it easier to keep track.  Taking time to shade in the stitches does slow me down a little, but that means fewer mistakes to frog and re-stitch.

The blue pencil is everything from 2010 and a little bit I did whilst we were in Michigan last summer.  I couldn't get comfortable enough there to work on such a big piece.  Orange pencil is this past Thursday, and part of Friday until I had the brilliant idea to switch colors.  I moved on to green for the rest of Friday.  Pink is yesterday.

I'll be choosing another color after this post and will spend quite a bit of today stitching.  I figure I'd better stick with this guy as long as I find him fun.  He's been neglected for far too long.

My goal for this piece for next week's blog entry will be finishing the pine trees on the left of the piece and moving into the background trees that stretch across to the "closer up trees" on the other side of the design.

I do have a second BAP stitching project going, but it's a completely different style.  I started the blackwork piece I kitted up two years ago... finally.  But I figured out I'll need the frame I've got the bear in to hold it before too long.  Using a regular hoop for the moment is fine, but once I get the center sections done, I'll need the Bear's frame so I don't damage the center stitches.

This is what I've done, as of Thursday.  There will be a total of four large motifs around the little motif on the left.  It's actually the center of the piece.  An elaborate border goes around the edges.

Unlike the Bear, I'm only working with three floss colors.  I'm hoping to finish the lower right-hand motif's outline by next week.  Bear is my main focus though, so really any progress here will be nice.  I like to rest my brain with this design since I don't have to really have to worry about "getting lost."  Symmetrical designs are nice that way.

Now for the other bear!

In case you didn't know, the name Artan translated to "little bear" in English.  Well my "Little Bear" was having fun this morning.  He loves fresh flowers... which can lead to lots of spilled water and petals all over the house.

One of our neighbors brought me a sweet little bouquet that was extra from the high school's prom.  (She's the faculty adviser for the prom committee and thought I could use a pick-me-up, which was really nice.  I'm hoping I feel up to spending more time with her this summer.)  Artie was in seventh heaven!

The best part is the flowers are all tucked into the plastic tubes that florists use for corsages and single cut flowers.  No water to spill!  He's already knocked them over twice today so he could get better sniffs.  :-)  I can keep refilling the tubes until the flowers wilt.

Well I'm off to pick a new colored pencil and start working on Black Bear again.  I hope everyone has a nice week!