WIPocapolypse - September's Full Harvest Moon, 2012

What did I do this past "moon"?  Well, there were      •    the Take a Stitch Tuesday stitches: Pistil Stitch,  Drizzle Stitch, and Knotted Buttonhole Stitch;  and "Autumn Break" sampler, and the completed "page" for September.     •    The September Stash Buster from Janet Perry      •    The September Mittens & Mini-Socks from Janet Perry --- both a mitten and a sock      •    The September Color Through the Ages from Janet Perry      •    the September parts for "Kimono - Revisited":     •    The September Color Palette Challenge/Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal Project block      •    and quite a bit on "Birds of a Feather", shown here (all cross stitch done, including metallic braid - next step: speciality stitches!):

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

2012 - A Year of Challenges - Week Thirty-NIne

First of all, I finished week thirty-nine of Take a Stitch Tuesday - the Knotted Buttonhole Stitch:

Here is the page with the September stitches:

And I also stitched the September installments of "Kimono- Revisited":

In all, a pretty productive week, I think!

Color Palette/Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal Project Challenges - September 2012

I struggled with this one --- somehow, the color choices didn't resonate with me, even though MOST of them were used in other blocks. I suspect the black and gray are the culprits, although I am getting a tad tired of blue and orange! LOL

The color challenge was posed by Judy Laquidara and VIcki Welsh back in the beginning of September and is based on a photo of a mineral spring at Yellowstone National Park. All fabrics, beads, threads and laces are from my stash. The block grid was a slightly modified block six from the "I Dropped the Button Box" over at PinTangle. As usuall, I added a strip of lace, some crystal beads and my "signature" chain stitch to tie the series of blocks together.

That white thread lower left --- a stray --- don't know why I didn't see it before!

2012 - A Year of Challenges - Week Thirty-Eight

I continued on with "Birds of a Feather" and actually got started on the metallic threads! Maybe you can see some of the bling in the right-hand and top borders?

I suppose I could have continued but my conscience was bothering me --- so many pieces sitting there, unstitched! So on Friday...

First, I tackled Take a Stitch Tuesday week 38, Drizzle Stitch. Keep in mind I HATE threading needles and I'm not a fan of "knots" so this one was hard for me to do but here are five "Drizzles" in a flower with a stem stitch stem and French knot center:

Next up was Color Through the Ages, Lesson 7 - CIvil War Colors! I got ambitious (OK, I couldn't decide on a colorway! LOL) and did all three with GAST, WDW and DMC from my stash.

Here is my Union Uniform version, using all GAST: Midnight, Brethren Blue, Pacific Green (yes, green --- doesn't look it, does it?), and Blueberry (0230) for the blues and Oatmeal for the background.

Here is my Confederate Uniform version - I used GAST Brandy and Tarnished Gold and WDW Tin Roof (1174) and Pelican Gray (1302) for the uniform colors and DMC3033 for the background.

And last, my Patriotic Colors version - I used GAST Blueberry (0230), Midnight, Mulberry (02350), Walnut and Flax for the background (consider it "distressed!):

There is still my Color Palette/Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal piece waiting in the wings, to say nothing of the September installments of "Kimono-Revisited" (and October is almost here!), so I'm not caught up yet. But there's only so much stitching one can do in one day!

Oh, and I signed up for another online-SAL! I'm out of my mind, I know...

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend - September 14 - 16, 2012

I put in a total of 2032 stitches in on "Birds of a Feather" this weekend and only have two more DMC colors to go before I have to start on metallics, speciality stitches and beads! So it was a good weekend!

2012 - A Year of Challenges - Week Thirty-Seven

This weekend is International Hermit & Stitch Weekend for September and I am stitching on "Birds of a Feather", which is here right now:

So, in order to have the weekend clear for "Birds", I decided to finish as many of the outstanding small projects as I could. I did finish TAST week 37; I pieced the basic block for the Seotember color palette/crazy quilt journal/bead journal project piece; the Mittens & Mini-Socks for September (San Francisco Fog), and the September Stash Buster (Scrap Stars):

No progress on "Kimono - Revisited" though...

I stitched a lot yesterday...

And have a few completions to show for it!

First, the Take a Stitch Tuesday for week 37, which was the "pistil" or long tack knot stitch. I'm sure there are uses for it besides being the pistils of flowers but I wasn't thinking very imaginatively yesterday so here are my pistil stitch in a stem-stitched flower with couched stem and leaves:

Having spent the morning kitting up the Janet Perry Stash Buster and Mittens & Mini-Socks for September, I decided to work on one of them as well... I chose Mittens & Mini-socks - "San Francisco Fog" and got both sock and mitten done:

I used DMC921 for the bridge (as close as I could come, in my stash, to the memory of the rustoleum color they actually paint the bridge); DMC 3072 alternated with four strands of 3072 blended with 2 strands of GAST "Pebble" for the fog (the blend wasn't very successful as the GAST was way too close in color to the DMC, I think), and GAST Barn Grey for the cuff. 

Finally, I stitched together the basic block for the color palette/crazy quilt journal/bead journal project challenge:

Now to do seam treatments and beading...

2012 - A Year of Challenges - Week Thirty-Six

Except for completing the eye-candy challenge for TAST and printing out the new charts for Janet Perry's Stash Buster and Mittens & Mini-Socks series, all I did this week was stitch on "Birds of a Feather". Progress is slow but it is progress (two colors complete in the birds in the center and on to the third color, and all central motifs are now placed and at least have a little stitching in them!):

Take a Stitch Tuesday - Autumn Break (Week Thirty-Six)

The challenge this week was to catchup (I was caught up) or take 3 to six stitched we have uesed so far adn create some eye candy!

My attempt, using French knots, fly stitch, feather stitch, running stitch, satin stitch and backstitch (the latter of which we have not used so far): a cat sleeping on a pillow atop a wall in a garden… as shown here:

Since this week included a WIPocalypse report, there isn't a whole lot new to report today. But I did get in more stitching on "Birds of a Feather" --- past the half-way mark in the dark blue in the center: