WIP myself into shape, Week 12

A little more than half done, I'd say, but the half that needs doing is full of confetti stitches and blended floss, both of which are NOT my favorite kinds of stitching!

WIP myself into shape, Week 11

A little insomnia so I'll post this early.



All the blue bits done; started on the green. Getting a little tired of confetti stitches and blends but I have to admit it works.

March Bead Journal Project piece...

I was GOING to do it in shades of peridot (the March birthstone) and olive/lemon-lime greens. But after I got to a point with the top border ( a row of lemon-lime size 8s and four rows of silver lined peridot size 15s...) and could see the olive-and gold floral beads against the white felt I was stitching on, it became obvious that the rest of the mask had to be in white!

So here it is: "March Charm"!

February Bead Journal Project piece

Done at last. The beads I ran out of came Thursday so I worked on the last bits and pieces last night. It didn't come out quite like I wanted --- the amethyst color is a little on the brown side and the pink isn't quite the dusty rose I was aiming for. All in all, "February Love" is more of a compromise, I think...


Maybe I'll have better luck with March?

WIP myself into shape, Week 10

I am finding out why I didn't like stitching on this piece. There is hardly a place where there are two stitches next too each other of the same color. The starts and stops are murder! But I'm progressing, slowly:


And my beads came for the February BJP so this weekend, I will be beading, not stitching! Hope to finish both the February and March BJP masks!

I'm biting the bullet and taking out a long-term UFO...

I started this back when we were living in Saudi Arabia so that's 2001 or so. And it stalled out for a couple of reasons: a major miscount, I HATED the frame I was using, 9/11 happened, my husband needed medical care in the US, and we ended up moving in 2002! This is where it stood until last night:

It's called "Harvest Sampler" from a book by Marie Barber called GIfts of Nature (Meredith Press, 1995, ISBN 0-696-20026-8). It's being stitched in DMC, two over two, on 18 ct Zweigert cream Aida so I'm going to have to be creative with those dratted quarter stitches! But Aida was all I could get in Saudi and I don't feel like starting over, even with the miscounts.

I spent last night taking it off the stretcher bars, fitting it into Q-snaps, and ripping out the two pale gold pieces in the upper left and right --- turns out there are three different colors using similar codes and I misread the table! AAACK! Restitched in the appropriate color (which is a blend --- double AAACK!):

WIP myself into shape, Week 9 --- AND A COMPLETION!

OK, I cheated a little. I stitched half the final motif this morning but... "Garden Stars" is complete! YAY!