WIPocalypse 2015: August 29 Full Sturgeon Moon

Topic:  Pick one of the WIP pieces you’ve stitched on this month, and tell us about your stitching journey with the piece.

Well, I have two BAPs that have been ongoing since 2013! The first (which I did NOT stitch on this month) is "Save the Stitches", a blackwork sampler design by Elizabeth Almond. I started this back in early February, 2014 and it is now nearly half completed It was last touched in early April, 2015:

The other, which I did stitch on this month, was the series of nine mandalas called "Roll Your Own", designed by Tracy Horner of InkCircles back in 2003. 

Back in 2013, this was originally a SAL with one chart, "Roll Your Own", which meant each person coud choose their own private colorway *or* use one of the those provided by Tracy. This evolved in two directions. First, people sent ideas to Tracy about colorways, often with an inspiration photo, and she came up with the colors to be used. Second, Tracy, decided to issue more mandalas and create a series which we could opt to subscribe to or not. I opted to subscribe to this series and a second (which is a set of circular mandalas with astronomical/geographical terminology - I have them downloaded but not started).

I decided to use the "Tropical Ocean" colorway of 12  shades of blues and greens on a large piece of Silkweaver's "Iris Garden" 32ct Lugana and to stitch all 9 "Roll Your Own" mandalas on the same piece. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!

Anyway, I finished the first of the mandalas, "Roll Your Own",  February 21, 2014:

The second, ""Roll Your Own Reloaded" was done on June 2, 1014:

The third, "Bride of Roll Your Own", was completed by March 2, 2015 (clearly, other things got in the way and RYO was neglected for some time!): 

Next up was "Spawn of Roll Your Own", three small mandalas, each named after one of the daughters in "The Brady Bunch". These were quicker to stitch, given how small they were but... I was finding deadlines harder and harder to meet in both the Crazy Quit Journal Projects and the Bead Journal Projects so these took priroity. Also, a cruise and a road trip interrupted my stitchery as did a long repeated bout with a sinus infection from late 2014 through summer of 2015. Basically, I didn't do a lot of cross stitching on anything during that tie period.

Anyway, the first of "Spawn" to be completed was "Marcia", March 29, 2015:

Then came "Jan", completed August 16, 2015:

And finally, last night, "CIndy":

This is how the mandalas look so far:

The three that are remaining are large mandalas like the first row, and will be arranged below the smaller ones in this order: "Revenge of Roll Your Own", "Rematch of Roll Your Own" and "Return of Roll Your Own". I will probably start with the outline for "Rematch", directly under "Marcia",  so I can get the three placed properly (I'm no good at eyeballing placement so there will be a lot of counting and recounting and counting again before I put in that first black outline stitch.

I would love to have this done and framed for entry in the county fair next summer, but that entry deadline is likely to be late June 2016, and, given my track record on completing these mandalas, I seriously doubt that will be possible. Maybe summer 2017?

SO on to reporting in on WIPOcalypse for August, 2015. Last month, my goals were "continue as we started - July and August Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal blocks and finish "Jan" in Roll Your Own!" Well, I managed that plus a little more ("CIndy")!

So this next full moon, my goals will be:

• September block for the Crazy Quilt Journal/ Bead Journal Projects (the block is assembled --- embellishment with stitchery and beads is all (yeah, all! ) that is required
• Start on "Rematch of Roll Your Own" trying to get at least the outline completed and placement of "Revenge and "return" established.

And if time is good to me, maybe pull out "Save the Stitches" and get a few more blocks filled on that one!

And when these two BAPs are finished, I think I will try some color combinations OTHER Than blue and green!

Week Thirty-four, August 27, 2015

Put in one evening of stitching after International Hermit and Stitch Weekend pt 2, and got one more color done in "Cindy":

Nothing else to report on except late autumn weather in August. Weird! This was one of the wettest summers on record, and one of the coolest, I suspect (only two days at 90 or over, and low 50-degree nights are pretty unusual too!). Bad weather for vegetable gardening, but the daylilies loved it!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, pt. 2

It's IHSW pt. 2! As per my promise last weekend in IHSW, pt 1, I concentrated on placemats for my quilt guild. I pieced another placemat top, sandwiched and envelope-turned all three. All that remains to be done is to whip-stitch closed one side on each and quilt:

and "Cindy" the third "Spawn" of the Roll Your Own mandalas. I finished "Cindy's" outline and completed 2 of the 12 colors of filling stitches:

IHSW is good for my stitchery mojo. Now to keep up the momentum...

Week Thirty-three, August 20, 2015

Not a lot to report on since the weekend when I reported in on IHSW pt1. I did work on the outline for "Cindy" the third (and last) of "Spawn" of Roll Your Own:

Didn't get very far, but then one wouldn't watching the complete, re-digitized, entre'act music-and-all version of "Gone With The Wind"! On the other hand, my next stitchery binge will likely be a week from now when Turner Classic Movies is celebrating Ingrid Bergman's 100th birthday! I have something like 8 movies set to record for that one!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, Pt. 1

IHSW was posted early this month as part 1 (I assume there will be a part 2 coming on the assigned date of August 21-23, 2015.  At any rates, I was stitching this weekend so here is what I accomplished...

A completion! "Jan" the second of the "Spawn of Roll Your Own", a series of mandalas designed by Tracy Horner, if now finished:

It was started back in the first week of April, 2015, and shouldn't have taken THIS long but other events intervened (nasty sinus infection, road trip to Florida and Georgia, etc) and I really didn't get back to it until the last weeks of July. It is in the "Tropical Ocean" colorway on "Iris Garden" dyed 32-ct Jobelin. Here is how it looks with it's "sister", Marcia, and the first three large mandalas, "Roll Your Own", "Reloaded" and "Bride of Roll Your Own":

The outline for the third "Spawn" ("Cindy") is now started to the left of "Jan" and there are three more large mandalas which will be lined up below the spawn (eventually!).

I also spent some time with my sewing machine this weekend. The quilt guild I belong to is making place mats to take along at the holidays for the local version of "Meals on Wheels". I cut and stitched two place mats and they are ready to sandwich, quilt and bind:

These place mats and "Cindy" of the Roll Your Own mandalas will be my projects to stitch on this coming weekend.

Week Thirty-two, August 13, 2014

Another completion! The August Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal block:

It's not really very imaginative, but as I said, August is always a problem for me as nothing much ever seems to happen to me in August (that I want to journal about in beads, at least!). And it means I'm caught up with Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal Project for this year! Woo Hoo. 

I also stitched on the fifth motif ("Jan") from the "Roll Your Own Mandala" series and seven (out of 12) colors are now filled in (finally got to the blues --- I was beginning to worry that it would be all green!):

Husband has a garden tour today and I have quilt guild tonight so no stitching this evening. But I have lots of plans for the weekend! 

Week Thirty-one, August 6, 2014

A completion, and ALMOST on schedule, finally! The July Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal Project block was finished on August 1! 

Because it is July, it HAD to commemorate July 4, even though we didn't go to a fireworks display or parade this year. However, we could see fireworks from our house --- some farmer apparently got permission set off  a really good aerial show! So... the batik stars, the (VERY PALE) white-on-white stripes and the scattered star-shaped buttons are meant to be a patriotic reference!

Meanwhile, I played with lazy daisy flowers using beads on one seam treatment, beaded a stem stitch on an adjacent seam, and added beads to the strip of lace on a third.. 

That means I had to get cracking on August, and this is how far I got...

I don't really know how to embellish this to make it relevant to me in August. There is the fair, but I'm not entering (that sinus infection really put me off my game and I don't have anything to enter and there is no other reason to go, IMO). I'm no fan of the National Tractor Pulling Championships!  And I have no kids to send back to school (hard to believe it starts August 24!). There's always the garden, I suppose... August is, as always, a puzzlement...

As for other works in progress, they weren't touched.