Friday, August 31, 2012

WIPocalypse for August's "Blue Moon"!

What did I do this past "moon"? 

Well, there were 
  • the Take a Stitch Tuesday stitches: Cast On stitch, Pekinese Stitch, Linked Double Chain and sheaf stitch. The completed TAST "page" for August is:


  • The August Stash Buster from Janet Perry 
  • The August Mittens & Mini-Socks form Janet Perry --- both a mitten and a sock 
  • The August Color Through the Ages from Janet Perry 
  • the August parts for "Kimono - Revisited":


  • The August Color Palette Challenge/Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal Project block
  • and quite a bit on "Birds of a Feather":

Basically caught up, but tomorrow there will e more Kimono sections, Tuesday will bring another TAST, and there are certainly Mittens & Mini-socks, Color through the Ages twinchies and stash busters waiting n the wings as well.

I'm already collecting charts and ideas for next year's fair theme (Kitchens and cookery) sand hope to start kitting up a few of those soon (and other entry candidates) soon. Meanwhile, my craft space is crying out for a little heavy-duty clean-up and organize time.

From now on... my new blog home(s) are:

"Carol Stitches" on Weebly - http://210920746822434353.weebly.com/index.html where you can subscribe so I can see if there are any comments and where the photos are BIG, easily seen and unlimited!

Alternatively, you can try "Carol Stitches" on mirrored on ipernity  - http://www.ipernity.com/blog/carolstitches  where the albums are more like Multiply (I'm not totally caught up there, however nor am I going to try to catch up on blog posts --- they start in mid-August) but the photos are tiny in the blog posts and there is no follow-me capability.I am now a paid member there as well, so my photos are all visible... and will remain so as long as I am paid up (they have unlimited storage but unless one is a paid member, only the most recent 1000 photos are visible. I don't have near that many yet but...).

And finally, reluctant as I am to pay for an account, it might be safer so there is a third "mirror" at BlogSpot... also called  "Carol Stitches" (I mean, how imaginative can I get?) at http://carolstitches.blogspot.co where I have finally deciphered how to set up a follow me account but pictures, since they get loaded into Picasa, may eventually start fading away since I am not sure I want to pay for their premium... Also, I haven't yet caught up with blog post transfers here and may never unless Multiply supplies an export specifically for Blogger.

There will be no more blog posts or album downloads made here... I'm only keepin gte site active until a) they provide an export tool (looking HIGHLY unlikely), b) shut me down on December 1 and/or 3) I get all my stuff transferred to both ipernity and Blogspot...

Saturday, August 25, 2012

2102 - A Year of Challenges, Week 34: Take a Stitch Tuesday and Color Through the Ages


Catching up on "smalls"!

Take a Stitch Tuesday, Week 34, was the "Linked Double Chain". I did it as both a straight line and a meander, using perle cotton:


Color Through The Ages, Lesson 6, was "Colors of the Amish" and took the form of a log cabin quilt block:



Yeah, I know --- it doesn't look a lot like a log cabin to me either --- I tried to stick to the colors the Amish around here wear --- purples and blue, and sadly, in my stash, they aren't different enough to really show the log cabin effect. Anyway, I used DMC floss throughout: 301 for the border; 666 for the corners and the centers of each log cabin block; 824, 825 and 826 for the blues; and 794, 793 and 792 for the purples.

Perhaps it if weren't on a twinchie and each "log" were more than one row thick, it might show up better, but I think I need to check my color choices on swatches before setting stitches in the final piece (it's too darned hard to rip out a mistake on this canvas with floss).

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Two completions yesterday


In the Janet Perry Mittens & Mini-Socks bargello "club", I finished the "Japanese Maple" set for August. 



On 18 ct canvas, I used DMC Variegate 106 for the "Japanese Maple" strip and DMC987 for the background. DMC 500 is the cuff.

As is my wont, I misread the directions and, thinking the background Ms. Perry stitched on her model was in a variegated, I searched my stash in vain for a green variegated or overdyed in a particular shade of gray green and failed miserably. It wasn't until I was stitching the cuff that I realized she used two shades of green in the background. Oops!

So maybe mine isn't a Japanese maple but the sugar maple in our backyard that invariably has one branch go bright orange red in the fall weeks before the rest of the tree changes color...

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Take a Stitch Tuesday - Week 33 (a week late)

The stitch for week 33 was Pekinese Stitch and I realized that I had used it before but didn't know that was what it was called! Check out those swirls, and the border of the rusty-colored circle bottom right:

Anyway, here is what I stitched out last night using GAST for the backstich and perle cotton for the loops:

Don't forget --- I'm cross-posting at Weebly and Blogspot and will be until I get one or the other site up and running or this site goes down.

Monday, August 20, 2012

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend - August 2012

I spent the entire weekend stitching on "Birds of a Feather" and managed to finish four of the eight pages of chart done in the dark blue (and this pattern is devouring skeins of floss at an alarming rate!).



Two counting errors, one of which I know how to fudge and the other, not so sure...but once this dark blue is in, then the rest will be fairly simple filling stitches.

This was also the August Stitchathon over at Cross Stitch Crazy and I got 2723 stitches done on "Birds of a Feather" between Monday the 13th and Sunday the 19th. Of course, I neglected other projects to get to this stitching goal --- TAST week 34 isn't done nor is the latest Color Through the Ages (yet to be kitted up) or the latest Mitten & Mini-Sock or the remaining 11 August sections for "Kimono - Revisited"! So this coming week will definitely be a catch-up week.


COMMENT from Multiply:  tashacat wrote on Aug 21 That's great progress. You made good use of your weekend.

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend - August 2012

See also http://210920746822434353.weebly.com/1/post/2012/08/international-hermit-and-stitch-weekend-august-2012.html or http://carolstitches.blogspot.com/2012/08/international-hermit-and-stitch-weekend.html for the same post...

I spent the entire weekend stitching on "Birds of a Feather" and managed to finish four of the eight pages of chart done in the dark blue (and this pattern is devouring skeins of floss at an alarming rate!).

Two counting errors, one of which I know how to fudge and the other, not so sure...but once this dark blue is in, then the rest will be fairly simple filling stitches.

This was also the August Stitchathon over at Cross Stitch Crazy and I got 2723 stitches done on "Birds of a Feather" between Monday the 13th and Sunday the 19th. Of course, I neglected other projects to get to this stitching goal --- TAST week 34 isn't done nor is the latest Color Through the Ages (yet to be kitted up) or the latest Mitten & Mini-Sock or the remaining 11 August sections for "Kimono - Revisited"! So this coming week will definitely be a catch-up week.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

2012 - A Year of Challenges, Week 33

I completed my  August Color Palette/Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal; Project Challenge this past week and have been working on "Birds of a Feather" since Monday. So far, it is at this point, ready for International Hermit and Stitch Weekend this weekend...



2012: A Year of Challenges - week 33 --- from this week forward

I completed my  August Color Palette/Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal; Project Challenge this past week and have been working on "Birds of a Feather" since Monday. So far, it is at this point, ready for International Hermit and Stitch Weekend this weekend...



From this week forward,
I will be double-blogging, using Weebly as my new site. I will be blogging here: http://210920746822434353.weebly.com/

I know, not a very user-friendly address but I don't really want to spend $70 for a domain name and this site is working for me... it has galleries for photos (unlimited storage) *and* a way to save all the blog in zip files (Hooray!). I may upgrade to pro in future as that price is reasonable...

I have managed to move all my albums and links over to Weebly and am working on the posts. Hopefully, I will get there before the December 1 deadline when Multiply pulls the plug.

I'm also working on a back-up blog over at Blogspot:  http://carolstitches.blogspot.com using the e-mail the posts to me method, but it doesn't provide a way for me to post albums of completed stitchery so it will be blog posts only... and I'm really expecting all the photos now posted there to evaporate when Multiply pulls the plug.

Neither site has all my blog posts up but I am making progress, ten weeks at a time!

Monday, August 13, 2012

A completion...

The August Color Palette/Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal; Project Challenge:

The color palette can be found here: http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/08/01/august-color-palette-challenge/. The grid I used was block 59 of the " dropped the Button Box CQ" over at Pin Tangle: http://pintangle.com/2012/07/07/introducing-block-59-of-the-i-dropped-the-button-box-quilt/  Because of the stars in the red fabric lower right, I decided to use stars elsewhere on this block --- and luckily I have LOTS of star-shaped buttons so... I experimented with a button cluster, a la Kitty and Me: http://kittyandmedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/04/tutorial-how-to-make-button-clusters.html to cover up a very long seam and acute angle as defined by shawkl: http://www.shawkl.com/2012/07/bcq-tutorial-dealing-with-long-seams.html

Saturday, August 11, 2012

2012: A Year of Challenges - week 32

I hate having to do this but I haven't found a new blog yet so until I do, I guess I'll just take my chances. I've been trying to save this blog as well as testing out three possible replacements (Tripod, Weebly and Ipernity are all failures so far... I can't do anything on Tripod due to disk limitation, Weebly will take my photo galleries and I can copy my blog text but I can't copy my blog photos, and Ipernity will only let me insert one photo per blog...)

I didn't get much done this week. between a plumber fixing two leaks, another plumber checking out our HVAC for the regular annual check-up, a notary with papers to sign (we finally sold our "vacation" house - closing is the 14th!), picking up my fair entries on Wednesday (it was supposed to be Tuesday night but I slept through it), and quilt guild on Thursday,  stitchery took a back seat this week.

But I did accomplish a few things...

I assembled the basic block for my Color Palette/Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal Challenge for August:


I have only half a border of the fourth color to do on "Birds of a Feather":


And I finished (late, of course, but finished) a small sample of the Take A Stitch Tuesday week 32 (Cast On Stitch):


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Watch this space for a new blog address

If you are on Multiply, you may have noticed the following post for the CEO of Multply:  http://multiply.multiply.com/notes/item/5

Hello. Stefan here, writing you from Multiply HQ in Jakarta, Indonesia.

As most of you are probably aware, Multiply's mission has evolved over the past year and a half to become the biggest and most beloved ecommerce marketplace in two very exciting markets, Indonesia and the Philippines. As our focus has shifted, we have reviewed all of our operations, and made some decisions that will affect everyone here.

From December 1st, we will unfortunately no longer be able to support Multiply in its current form - notably we will be removing the social networking and content sharing part of Multiply (photos, videos, blogs, social messaging, etc.). We have decided to discontinue providing and hosting these services, as we have concluded that other Internet sites who are committed to social networking services will do a better job serving you than we can.

For our existing users of social networking features, we will be providing easy ways for you to either download your stuff (photos, blogs, content, etc), or migrate it to other online services. We'll announce the precise details shortly. It will be your choice whether to download, migrate or just let your content lapse (and get deleted).
For our existing ecommerce users (both buyers and sellers) in Indonesia and the Philippines, there will be no action required.

Regarding any existing Multiply Premium subscriptions we will refund any unused balance, and apologize for any inconvenience this will cause. Please contact customer service to request a refund. Note that this is for Multiply Premium, not the ecommerce related Multiply Trust product.

I am aware of how disruptive this news may be, and understand the disappointment that it may cause. Ultimately this was a business decision, critical to our to success moving forward. Instead, we are excited to pursue our own mission to give the 350 million consumers in Indonesia and the Philippines a great way to buy and sell items online. Our singular focus now is for Multiply to retain its status as a vibrant e-commerce destination in Southeast Asia in the years ahead.

I suspect that many of you will not like this news, and am sorry to have to deliver it now. I hope that you will be able to understand the reasons for our decision and thank you for being a part of the Multiply community over the past eight years.

Stef

As was so eloquently stated by my friend rifestitch (and since I can't say it better, I will quote her in part here):

"So ... the rest of us have to find a new home and place to put our posts, photos, journals - and who the hell knows if they will actually HELP us get our stuff from here to there, wherever there happens to be? Since there's no MONEY in it for them, I would say NO. I guess, with the continuing loss of functionality and Customer Service, that the end was obviously coming - but really?"

So watch this space for a new address eventually. Like others, I am doing some research as to a new location although I doubt any will have the flexibility that we had here at Multiply (blog and photo albums combined, for example) without a horrendously large monthly charge... So far, I am looking at Blogger (since I already have a Google account and use Blogger for Bead Journal Project postings) and Tripod (since I have four websites there --- three on Trellix and one on Zeeblio site builders), possibly parking my stitchery albums on Photobucket (where I already have a premium account). Of especial concern to me is space (as much as possible) and $$$ (as little as possible) and I don't want to mess with having to find a blog host either. If any of my readers have suggestions as to a suitable place to park my blog, I would appreciate comments as to the pros and cons.

P.S. Edited to add that Tripod won't work, at least for me, since the photo gallery I have is limited there, already filled with my website photos,  and it is not allowing me to upload ANY graphics into the blog. Had a heck of a time joining up with one other possible ipernity (they bill in euros so I'm a little wary about them after the international implication of dealing with Multiply --- AH --- just found out, they are French! No wonder they didn't understand my plain English request for help!), but finally made it. Also signed on with Weebly (based in San Francisco, it seems --- at least it's made in the USA - I have a draft site up on Weebly with three photo alums loaded here: http://210920746822434353.weebly.com/ Hate all those numbers but don't want to BUY a domain name so...).

If only there was a way to transfer blogs now without having to copy each and every one (I don't trust Multiply to make good on an export tool). I had three days in copying (two pages, not even one year) and all of a sudden, one of the pages disappeared and I'm back to square one on the copying!

Saturday, August 4, 2012

2012: A Year of Challenges - week 31

This week, I worked on "Birds of a Feather" and have only a little it to go to finish the second color in the border: I also stitched the latest Janet Perry Stash Buster - a "Triangles Key Fob"

using a variegated thread (WDW 4119 seems to be the only one I own that even comes close to her specifications:
  • more than four colors, not in sequence (this thread only had three and they were in sequence, sadly)
  • Similar values in all colors (I suspect that white violates this requirement)
  • All colors equal in extent (pretty close, although the red seems to have been skimped on a bit)
  • Transitional areas short (this also seemed to be the case although the blue transition did seem to be more prevalent than the red)

But I was darned if I was going to buy one that fit all her requirements, especially since I would have had to do it online and wait WEEKS before it arrived. besides, this little 1" by 4" strip took a whole card of WDW and there was no way a stash buster was going cost me more than a couple of $$$!

I suspect I made a mis-judgement on the DMC 413 background because it really blurs in with that blue, but white wouldn't have worked and I doubt that black would have worked any better.

Maybe I'll try another strip with another skein of floss late in the month --- if the spirit moves me.

Also done this week was the "fabric toss" for the color palette challenge:

It's a lot more subdued than previous months but there are repeats of fabric ( the two darker browns, the black and the dark blue were used in previous palettes).

There are now 13 new sections for "Kimono  Revisited" and I have read through them and made notes where I thought necessary. Once I get Birds' border done, I will take that up to work on. I need to carefully select threads so my distributions of lights and darks (what few there are --- most of those threads seemed to have turned out to be medium values!) is better...

Thursday, August 2, 2012

WIPocalypse 2012 - August 2, 2012

What did I do this past month? 

Well, there were 



I was pretty much caught up --- until today, when two online projects came in --- the 13 sections for "Kimono - Revisited" and the latest Janet Perry Stash Buster!  Also waiting in the wings is this month's Color Palette Challenge which is yet to be "kitted up" (I need to pull fabrics, seam treatments and beads) for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project/Bead Journal  Project...

I took my entries to the fair office on the 28th of July and they were judged as follows:

Four blue ribbons...
*Cross-stitch set of ornaments

* set of perforated paper ornaments (hard to see as it was so far away!) 

* "Sewing with Mama" in the 14-ct framed picture needlework category

* Set of needlework framed pictures, any fabric count ("Purrfect" and "Cat Pack")


One red (plastic canvas Christmas ornaments, set of three) - I saw the blue in that category, I think, and I don't know why they were considered better than mine but, hey, I'll take it!

and one white --- "Ornaments ala Round" in the fair theme "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Sadly, it was up against quilts and so really didn't have a snowball's chance of doing better, I fear. Not bad for something I rushed to get ready, I suppose, but I'm still disappointed considering the effort I did put in, the amount of metallic and beading on it, etc... Bad photo as it was way to far away for me to get close enough to get a good pic.

My fair record is perfect --- three years of entries, every entry has come away with a ribbon of some sort! Michael Phelps, eat your heart out! LOL But maybe I should quit while 'm ahead!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Take A Stitch Tuesday 2012 Challenge - Week 31

The Algerian Eye! A stitch I've used relatively often in samplers and even in needlepoint, so it wasn't so much a learning curve for this one. What is more, it was almost fun playing with the shapes of the stitch!