I have a confession to make. Several, actually.

I haven’t finished embroidering the hummingbirds.

I haven’t finished hemming the redwork runner.

I haven’t finished re-organizing my workroom. (This is a never-ending occupation. Know the feeling?)

I haven’t finished the Stitch Sampler Alphabet e-book.

But I have, regardless of the other prioritized items on my To-Do List, been sneaking in some stitches on Late Harvest.

I keep an itemized To-Do List, and every night, I prioritize the next day’s activities. I also keep a Project To-Do List, on which are all the projects I should be working on, arranged by priority as well.

Late Harvest is at the bottom of the list.

But really, what’s a gal to do? Ever since I set up the project, I’ve had a blank canvas there, just waiting, waiting, waiting. And every time I go out to do some real work, it looks at me, pleading. Put some stitches on me! Put some stitches on me!

I couldn’t just ignore it, could I?

So, the first step in the project is the central pomegranate, and the middle of it is worked in battlement couching.

I love battlement couching! And if you try it, you’ll probably like it, too! I have a step-by-step tutorial for battlement couching right here. It’s easy, it can be colorful and fun – it’s a neat filling technique!

What I really love about the battlement couching on Late Harvest is that it is couched with tiny seed beads on the couching stitches.

What I didn’t notice when working it was that I pulled the top layer of laid stitches with every couching stitch I took.

I’m not sure of two things: why that happened, and why I didn’t see it at the time. I didn’t notice it until I looked at the photos.

So, I went out and looked at it again, with just my eyes. And I thought about it a bit.

I thought about taking it out.

And then I thought about leaving it in.

And while I was contemplating these things, I decided to put some more stitches in.

Why stand there doing nothing but thinking, after all?

So I started adding the stem stitch padding around the pomegranate, at which time, I concluded that I would not take out the battlement couching.

The stem stitch here is worked rather quickly and not super neatly – it is simply padding for some stitches that will go over it. And while you can see some gaps right now on the very edges of the battlement couching, once the outer skin of the pomegranate is finished, those won’t be noticeable.

Now, I was going to stop there until I reached a goal (like finishing the hem on the redwork runner, finishing the rest of the wing on the hummingbird, finishing the re-organization of some spots in my workroom), but suddenly, looking at the photo above, I feel sorry for the pomegranate. It looks cold and naked. It needs skin. Gosh darnit, it’s winter, after all!

So now you know.

I think I’m going to have to work on my prioritization skills. I seem to be confused about the meaning of the term.

Either that, or I need to start putting the more urgent items at the bottom of the list.