WIPocalypse 2015 - September

Harvest Moon, Super Moon, Blood Moon, Total eclipse of the Moon! And all celebrating the death of my pizza stone (the stone cracked from side to side, to paraphrase the Scottish Play!) and my birthday! What an event. 

And now it's time to report in for WIPocalypse, where the topic of the moon is "Where do you buy most of your stitching supplies?"

Sadly, online, when I do buy, as we have no local needlework shop and the big box stores aren't very good about keeping what stock they do have up to date. 

I have a fairly large stash of DMC and Anchor which I "shop". so, lately,  I haven't bought much except for the odd skein of DMC when I find I have none of the right color (This shortage, by the way, is becoming more and more frequent.). I try to shop the DMC store online if possible for threads.

I do subscribe to a number of magazines and a few online sites, and, in the rare event that a pattern appeals to me (most, sadly, do not - altogether too twee for my taste), I will use them as my chart source. I rarely buy kits anymore if I can help it as I'm no fan of being shorted on threads or fabric (which has happened all too often in the past) and I try to avoid AIDA  (which most kits come with) at all costs.

As for fabric, I've been shopping my stash, although I am running low on the larger cuts and evenweaves so may have to splurge out in 2016. 

When I do buy charts, fabric and/or specialty threads, my shop of choice  is Needle in a Haystack in Alameda, CA (a treasure trove of goodies and a staff without equal! If they don't have it, they will try and find it, and I can't fault them for their service or their quality.).

So, last WIPocalypse, I set the following goals:

• 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 = DONE

• Start on "Rematch of Roll Your Own", trying to get at least the outline completed and placement of "Revenge" and "Return" established. = Placement DONE

• and "Revenge" outline underway. Here is what it looks like now:
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I did divert from my goals, however, to complete a plastic canvas ornament which will be

part of a card/gift swap next month, and that meant I didn't stitch much at all on my two

BAPs.

So I will reset those goals, modify them somewhat, and add a few more for next month! My goals will be (not necessarily in the order listed):

• finish outline of "Revenge"
• put some stitches into "Save the Stitches" blackwork
• Design and prepare the base blocks for the Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal Project for October, November and December
• Complete the October blocks for the Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal Project
•  Quilt three placemats for the quilt guild holiday project

All this assumes that a weekend away at a papercrafting class and two football games (both mid-week night games) don't chase away my still rather fragile stitching mojo!

Week Thirty-eight, September 24, 2015

After finishing that butterfly clip on Monday evenig, I didn't stitch a single stitch. We have house guests, and tonight is preview night at public television for "Indian Summers",  so I doubt I will get around to stitching anything at all until the weekend... which will lead up to WIPocalypse September. I'll post again then...

Meanwhile, happy autumn to all in the Northern Hemisphere!

A Completion

An ornament completion… Designer - Charlette’s Collections; from the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament Issue, 2015, On plastic canvas, using DMC floss, Mill Hill Beads, Beading Wire and one 1/4” butterfly paperclip.

And never again! Never again will I try a finish like this one. Agreed, it’s unusual, and interesting and all but trying to whip stitch such small pieces together around the arms of a butterfly clip, with the thread catching on everything from the edges of the plastic canvas to the beads on the wings, is not something for  my klutzy fingers to attempt. If all the swearing done when working on this little insect attaches itself to the insect itself, then there is some very bad karma associated with this soon-to-be- gifted ornament.

Oh well, perhaps the end result is worth the effort to the recipient, assuming it survives the mailing….

Here is a step by step of it’s assembly and how it looks in various views.

Wings on the clip, top view,side view and with clip arms straight out:

Body and antennae made of beading wire (finally got an in-focus photo that my computer would accept!):

Body and antenna after wire stitched to bottom of body:

Completed butterfly from top, from bottom and with clip arms straight out after body is attached (supposed to be glued but none of my glues held so I sewed it on!):

 

Maybe the substitution of DMC for braid wasn't the best idea for coverage, especially for the whip stitching around the edges but I didn't have any braid of the colors I wanted and, besides, I hate stitching with it so it would have been an even more unpleasant stitching experience!

This ornament/"small flat gift" took six nights of stitching, from start to finish. The card, which is the main focus of the swap, will likely take me only half a day! Somehow, I think I overthought this whole swap thing!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend 2015 - September 17 - 19

I actually managed to squeeze a little stitching in around university awards events this weekend... and finish up the pieces of an ornament meant for a Christmas swap. 

Here are the pieces I stitched this weekend:

and a closeup of the beading on the pieces I stitched during the week:

I tried to get a photo of the beaded butterfly body but it is so out-of-focus (my camera isn't meant for utra-closeups) that my computer wouldn't load it!. 

Anyway, here are all the pieces of the ornament, prior to assembly (the wings are to be whip-stitched together, wrong-side to wrong side over the arms of a 1/4" butterfly clip and the body is hot-glued to the clip body, covering a pair of wire antennae (which I have yet to construct):

Now back to "Roll Your Own", hoping to get at least some stitching on it done before houseguests arrive Wednesday...

Week Thirty-seven, September 17, 2015

I changed my stitching plans this past weekend after finishing my September 2015 Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal block:

It was meant to be autumnal, with all those purple flowers but then it occurred to me that Wisteria aren't autumn flowers so I added a few curlicues and turned them into grapes! 

I then changed course, abandoning "Roll Your Own" temporarily (I hope),  and started work on a swap for Christmas. 

In my card swap group on Facebook, we are supposed to include a "small handmade flat gift" in addition to the card. I was at a loss for an idea until the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament Issue for 2015 arrived. In it was a small sparkly beaded butterfly that look like it would be just the ticket. But (and it's a big but) it was stitched in metallic braid, not my favorite thing, on plastic canvas and mounted on a butterfly binder clip! Well, I had the plastic canvas (in scraps at last but that should work) and the butterfly clip but switched out the colors to DMS floss in a totally different scheme (reds and greens instead of copper and peach). I have spent two nights on this little thing and have it only half stitched:

It needs two more wings and then it needs finishing. It will take me as much as five times the time it will take to make the card! And because of the structure, it isn't quite flat so it will need a small box so it can be mailed. Oh dear, did I go wrong here or what?

Another busy weekend here at Chez Harper! Tomorrow (Friday Night) there is a reception (business attire - AAACK!) at the University, recognizing members of the "President's Club" of donors (of which we are an accidental member, having given a small amount annually since we graduated over 50 years ago!). 

Saturday, there is another reception, this one casual, for members of  the 1910 Society, the Carillon Society and The Leadership Circle (we are part of the first two: 1910 and Carillon), followed by the University football game v Memphis (tickets in the President's Box, so if it rains, which it is likely to, we will at least be warm and dry!).

Real philanthropists, aren't we? And all because we started donating $100 a year to a scholarship fund back in 1966!

On Wednesday, the 23rd, we have more houseguests --- passing through on their way to Detroit.

There is also an invitation to the preview of "Indian Summers" at the local public television station on Thursday, the 24th, but that kind of program isn't really husband's cuppa so I think we are passing on that.

Anyway, with all that happening, I suspect I will be lucky if I get that butterfly done! And then it's on to assembling the last three base blocks for the Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal Project, quilting the three placemats for the guild holiday project, and pulling "Roll Your Own" back out of the WIP pile and finishing those outlines...

Week Thirty-six, September 10, 2015

Well, I was right --- three days of husband's high school reunion followed by an overnight house guest from his working past and the entire weekend was shot as far as stitchery was concerned. I ate too much, slept too little and have a roaring sinus headache as a result!

I did squeeze in a few stitches early in the week on the placement outline for "Return" (shown here on the right):

and last night on "Roll Your Own" but that's about it. Here's how far I got on the outline for "Revenge":

As fast as these outlines are going, I'm strongly tempted to finish tall three before starting the color fill, but... a little bird sits next to my ear asking if I really want to keep hooping and un-hooping that huge piece of fabric for each mandala and each color --- that's three mandalas  x 12 colors over however long it takes to finish this thing, not counting hooping at the beginning of each day and un-hooping at the end. Hmmmm....

I really have to get out the September Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal block and get cracking on it... and tonight is quilt guild meeting and Saturday is volunteering at the library book sale, so RYO will go back into it's project back for at least a couple of days.

Week Thirty-five, September 3, 2015

Having completed (this past weekend) the "Spawn" segment of "Roll Your Own", a set of 9 mandalas designed by Tracey Horner of InkCircles, I put in some time starting borders of two of the last three mandalas... a partial right side of "Revenge" on the left and the top of "Rematch"  on the right (which will be the center eventually) "Return" has yet to be started:

I was simply positioning the motifs so they would line up with the top row *and* be the same distances apart as all the other motifs. The outlines are currently only half-crosses but that will be remedied when I start stitching in earnest. 

Here is how the piece looks now:

With husband's high school reunion taking up the entire weekend to come and a house guest (totally unrelated to the reunion) arriving Monday, I suspect I won't be getting in a lot of stitching time this week. But I can at least get the outline for "Return" started so I won't have to worry about any more counting!

Happy Labor Day weekend to all (in the US, at least)!