A lighthouse makeover

An intensified work schedule has prompted me to rearrange my stitching priorities:  the Toyland Rocking Horse canvas, which I was stitching for myself, must go on the back burner to make way for more immediate deadlines.

In September, I'll be teaching a needle-blending class with the Cape Cod chapter of ANG using a couple of my lighthouse designs.  I needed to widen two of them so all three would be the same size, so surfed the net to properly elongate the buildings adjacent to them.

As I was living in Texas in 2001 when I first designed Nobska lighthouse, I used a photo from a book with a 1998 copyright date.  Flash forward to 2013, when my internet surfing revealed the keepers' quarters had since been resided with cedar shingles.

I'd also stitched the sky for the original model with a jacquard stitch in a solid blue DMC floss.  Had I known then what I know now, I wouldn't have worked the sky that way.  Bottom line:  time to stitch another model, this one  with a more appropriate--and realistic--needle-blended sky.

A Brief History of Nobska lighthouse

Located in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, at the entrance to Vineyard Sound, the original lighthouse was built in 1828.  Its octagonal tower was an integral part of a typical Cape Cod-style house.  Over time, the roof began to leak, and the lighthouse was razed to construct a new 40-foot free-standing tower in 1876.  A second outbuilding was added in 1907 to provide housing for a newly-appointed assistant lighthouse keeper.  The lighthouse was automated in 1985 and the keepers' dwellings are now home to the U.S. Coast Guard regional commander.

I need to write a stitch guide for this "new and improved" lighthouse design, so I'd better stitch it first!