I am finally done with the damn border on the Conan sampler; I cannot imagine what posessed me to do something so dull1. I am finally starting to work the part that's the reason I set this project up like it is in the first place. It's a fairly complex, mostly surface stitch, called many names (like all embroidery stitches) but most of them are something like "interlaced double herringbone". I'm doing it in two slightly different shades of gold, and it's looking really nifty.
I'm remembering why I stopped doing much cross stitch; it's awfully boring and when you're done you don't even have anything useful. There are only so many angels and pre-Raphaelite paintings I need on my walls...
1: And really, in the great scheme of things, this is not even close to the most tedious cross stitch project I've ever done.