2014 - Staying Connected, Week Twelve

This "reporting period" included the International Hermit and Stitch weekend (which I devoted entirely to "Save the Stitches"),  a Take a Stitch Tuesday pair of stitches and Band Six of the Mystery Band Sampler", I didn't have a lot of stitching time to devote to "Reloaded", but I have nearly 3/4 of the outline complete:

I'm beginning to wonder why I decided to do all seven of the "Roll Your Own" mandalas as they take so much time just outlining! But I do love the look so... I will soldier on!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend - March 21 - 22 - 23

I dedicated this weekend to more stitching on the "Save the Stitches" blackwork SAL from Elizabeth Almond. It looked like this on the Friday morning:

And when Sunday was over, it looked like this (nothing I do makes the color look right... the top is too yellow and the bottom too gray! It's supposed to be antique white):

Blocks 1 through 5 are done and outlines for parts of six are as well!

Here are some close-ups of Blocks four and five:

Take a Stitch Tuesday - Stitches 104 and 105

This week's stitches were the Buttonholed Cable Chain and the Alternating Buttonholed Cable Chain Stitches. 

Once I got into the swing of things, I found the Buttonholed Cable Chain easy to do, and I can see this as a seam treatment on a crazy quilt, simply because it looks a lot like crochet or tatting (which I cannot do!)!  But I had issues with the alternating stitch --- so I tried it twice. Still had issues. The top buttonholes courses simply weren't working, perhaps because I had to work them in reverse...

Giving up on Alternating Buttonholed Cable Chain Stitches, I turned to band 6 for the Wiehenburg "Mystery Band Sampler":

There is a mistake in this band but I'm leaving it, simply because ripping out 3 over 2 in 32ct is a real pain, and besides, I kind of like how it looks! I wonder how many more bands there are...

Happy Spring every one! hope it has arrived where you are.

2014 - Staying Connected, Week Eleven

It's raining! As dark and drear as it feels to have no sun, the fact that it's not snow is marvelous! Maybe spring really will arrive on Friday!

I bailed on quilt guild meeting on Thursday and quilt guild work day on Saturday. Just didn't feel up to pot lucks and show-and-tell. And on Sunday evening, old frimds from our grad school says at USC came by on their way to Washington DC. We watched the ice jam on the Maumee River break up, took them out to dinner, and then did a crossword puzzle. They left the next morning after we took them to breakfast --- being Californians, they weren't prepared for the snow, the cold and the wind (constant complaining!) but they may come back in summer since they are now so much closer for a year or two...

I didn't get a lot of stitching done later in the week but the outline for "Reloaded" in the Roll Your Own series is now about 2/3 complete (the fabric is NOT that yellow --- it's my camera):

I need to get working on the blackwork fill portion of parts 4 and 5 of the "Save the Stitches" sal. There is a TAST pair of stitches that arrived yesterday in my mailbox which I have yet to download, and band 6 for the Wiehenburg Mystery Band Sampler is up on Facebook. I have an idea for what I want to do for my April BJP and I need to set up the base block for my April Crazy Quilt Journal. So there are a lot of "to do" items on my docket for the coming week... Wonder how many I'll actually get done!

Bead Journal Project for March, 2014

Meet "Celtic Owl", who has, somehow, managed to acquire some leprechaun gold!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So here are my three beaded birds so far this year:

WIPocalypse 2014 - March

March's assignment is to show our favorite place(s) to stitch. So I took a photo of the only place I like to stitch - my bedroom:

I can sit at the left side of the bed, leaning against the headboard with two pillows behind me, within reach of my side table (and the telephone, iPhone, iPad and TV remote) and turn my Ott lamp (the foot slides under the bed and the lamp stem is right up against the bed frame) so it sits in front of me, with the magnifying lens at eye level and the light focused on my stitching. To my right, I place my project (right now it's bagged but ready to "assemble" and start stitching on). In front of me (out of camera range, is the television with DVR so I can listen to the programs I taped and look up if needed, to focus on what is going on on screen.

If I tire of the project I am working on (or if, wonder of wonders, I complete it), I have a project bag stocked with WIPS and kitted up projects, on the floor, next to my dresser (my main stash and unkitted projects are in my basement craft space):

When I finish stitching, I put the current project back in that WIP bag, place the Ott lamp next to it (parallel to the wall with its base under the WIP bag, for stability) and my stitching place is a bed again! All I need to do before sleeping in it is to do a quick search for stray needles and escaped beads!

In the past month, I have stitched on (and completed some of) the following:

• Take a Stitch Tuesday: Triangular Buttonhole, Beaded Triangular Buttonhole, and Beaded Butterfly Chain Stitches
• Crazy Quilt Journal Project - March block 
• Bead Journal Project - March ATC-sized ornament, which lacks a few finishing touches at this date 

• the "Save the Stitches" blackwork SAL from Elizabeth Almond (Parts 1 - 3): 
• the "Roll Your Own" mandala (first of nine in a series)
• the Wiehenburg Designs "Mystery Band Sampler" (bands 1 - 5) 
• the online fInishing (Framing) class by Funk & Weber. 

Not touched were the stitch guide primer and the needlepoint background booklet, both 2013 online classes from Janet Perry.

So on next month's list of WIPS are:

• The "Roll Your Own" mandala series (I'm working on the outline for "Reloaded"  which is now a little more than half complete): 

• The "Save the Stitches" blackwork sampler SAL by Elizabeth Almond (parts 4 and five are now outlined): 

• The "Mystery Band Sampler" SAL from Wiehenburg Designs
• my April Crazy Quilt Journal block 
• my April Bead Journal ATC ornament
• and whatever TAST stitches come along.

Take a Stitch Tuesday - another stitch completed

The latest stitch assigned was #103,  the Beaded Butterfly Chain Stitch:

And it's completion has resulted in the completion of a new page of stitch samples:

The stitches on this page include the Linked Chain and Beaded Linked Chain stitches, Shell Chain and Beaded Shell Chain stitches, Eastern and Beaded eastern stitches, Triangular Buttonhole and Beaded Triangular Buttonhole stitches and the Beaded Butterfly Chain stitch.

2014 - Staying Connected, Week Ten

Snow today (heavy and with winds so it's drifting - predicted somewhere around 8"), I need to make a casserole for quilt guild Thursday night and we are expecting house guests either Sunday or Monday so stitching won't be a priority this week, I fear. 

But that's OK because this past month has been a "Stitchathon" at Cross Stitch Crazy and I managed to participate  since I had all my February non-stitchy deadlines accomplished when it started. I put in a total of 14826 stitches between February 10 and March 9! Contributing to this stitch count were "Roll Your Own" (part one), "Save the Stitches"(first three blocks), and Wiehenburg Designs' "Mystery Band Sampler" (first five bands)! Basically, this is three non-completion completions since all three are shaping up to be long-term BAPs!

Here is the  Wiehenburg Designs' "Mystery Band Sampler" so far:

stitched 3 over 2 on 32ct Jazlyn (yet more of that "Iris Garden" overdye - I must have liked it because my stash is full of small cuts of it!) using ThreadworX (AKA NeedleNecessities) "Mosaic" - color 1138 (two-plus skeins of which are left-overs from "Kimono-Revisited")!

I also got started on the outline for part 2 of "Roll Your Own", called "Reloaded": 

and while it didn't count toward my stitch count, I also completed my March Crazy Quilt Journal Project block:

and made a start on my March Bead Journal ATC-sized ornament:

The next Take a Stitch Tuesday stitch arrived in my inbox on Tuesday but I haven't had a chance to do more than print out the instructions. It's time to dig out a new cut of fabric and switch out the threads being used because the current fabric cut is nearly full and I'm not sure the new stitch will fit on it!

2014 - Staying Connected, Week Nine

On Sunday, I finished (except for beading) all of blocks 1, 2 and 3 of "Save the Stitches" blackwork SAL from Elizabeth Almond:

These closeups show the color I used in place of the specified metallics:

Block 1

Block 2

and block 3

I then started on the outline for "Reloaded" for the "Roll Your Own" mandala series from Tracey Horner and Ink Circles, Here is how far I got on the outline:

and here is how it will be placed relative to "Roll Your Own":

I also managed to kit up the Crazy Quilt Journal Block for March as well as the Bead Journal ATC for March.

Winter still has it's iron grip on us --- it is snowing as I type, although not heavily --- just enough to camoflage the VERY thick layers of ice in our driveway. Walking to the mail box is an adventure in foot placement and even though husband has purchased some shoe spikes for me, they can't be put on indoors (they'd ruin the floors) and I refuse to keep my boots in the frozen tundra of our garage so... 

Not that the spikes would have helped much last night since when I got home from Girls' Night Out, my garage door opener wouldn't work. I had to stop in the driveway, navigate that ice in the dark to get to the garage to open the door from inside --- and you aren't supposed to wear the spikes when driving either, so they were hanging inside the garage, on the wall next to the door!!! What really frosts me is the opener worked fine, once I got my car into the garage! 

I've decided to become a hermit until the spring thaw comes!