Week Twelve, March 24, 2016 and WIPocalypse 2016 - March 23

I’ll merge these two topics this week because there’s no point in making a weekly wrap-up different from the WIPocalypse wrap-up. I really haven’t stitched enough this week to make it worth the extra blog space!

Anyway, the topic for this WIPocalypse is: “Do you use hoops, stretcher bars, lap stands or Q snap frames and why?”

My answer to this isn’t all that straightforward, and somewhat lengthy . 

I use both hoops, Q-snaps and in hand pretty much equally. I do NOT use stretcher bars or lap stands for a few reasons… First, they require me to sit upright in an uncomfortable chair which means I have issues not only with comfort but also with lighting and magnification. I find these frames less than ideal with my Ott light. Second, when I have to end a thread, it means unscrewing and rescrewing the stand to which the frame is attached to get to the back of the piece.  Not only is it an inconvenience but I never seem to be able to get the frame back in the right position when I finally have finished off the thread. I HATE that! And third,  attaching the fabric to stretcher frames is a PITA — I have a set of scroll frames that require stitching the fabric to the frame. I also have some stretchers that require tacking the fabric to the frame. Both of these approaches take time I’m not willing to expend when a hoop or Q-snap will do!  And fourth, while I realize that frames, especially scroll frames would allow me to keep a piece set up until it’s finished, and would allow safer attachment of beads, etc., I don’t really have room for such an apparatus where I stitch (to say nothing of the likelihood of attraction of cat hair as well as dust on the piece). Finally, I do not stitch with two hands (I hold with one and stitch with the other) so there is no advantage to using frames or lap stands for me in this regard.

I use a hoop, especially a 10” hoop, when doing my crazy quilt blocks (usually 8 inch blocks but sometimes larger).  I like the tension I get with a hoop and it allows me to keep the multiple layers off the quilt block together while doing the embroidery and embellishment.

I use Q-snaps for larger cross-stitch and blackwork pieces. I have various sizes but mainly I use a 4 x 4 square and a 9 x 11 rectangle formulation, and move the q-snap around when I need to get to a different area of the fabric. I realize that I can’t use these with beads, and that I run the risk of crushing my stitches on already-stitched areas. I have not found either issue to be a major concern for me, although I do find that, after a few months of stitching with Q-snaps, the tension isn’t as reliable or stable as it is with hoops (I suspect the clamps loosen with use). 

In all instances, I remove the stitchery form the hoop or q-snap after a session of stitching to avoid marking the fabric. I put the piece away in a plastic zip-lock back with the pattern and the threads as well as the hoop of disassembled Q-snap for storage unit lithe next time I take it out to stitch. I realize that this only helps in my chronic procrastination of stitching but…

There are times when I stitch in hand. Usually, although I have done this with smaller, ornament sizes of fabric for cross-stitch, my primary in-hand work is on needlepoint pieces. though I have been known to tack larger pieces to stretcher frames to avoid having to block later, stretched needlepoint canvases are less portable and needlepoint tends to be my traveling project, and so I much prefer the in hand method. 

So, last month, I had  not set any goals except getting my taxes to the accountant (they were supposed to be done Monday… wonder where they are now?) Anyway, in this full moon cycle, I managed to completed two colors in the inner border of my traveling needlepoint (“Palm Tree Elegance”) and the outline, two colors and roughly 30% of a third in the mandala (“Rematch”):

I fully expect to make progress on “Rematch” in the coming month. I probably won’t finish it (house guests, doctor’s appointments, taxes, a wedding… all are probable interruptions to a stitching schedule). “Palm Tree Elegance” is back in the travel bag until our next trip, probably in June.

Week Eleven, March 17, 2016

I did stitch this week! Honest! Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…four days of roughly 2 hours each. Although you might be hard pressed to see any progress…

What has happened is I finished the outline for “Rematch” in the roll Your Own Mandala series. Well, mostly finished, because as I started with the color filling, I did discover a few places where I missed out a few black stitches and had to go back and fill them in. 

So where I stand right now is one color finished and a second roughly 30% done:

Now I’m in the middle of what my husband calls my 50,000 mile check-up.

• First was a podiatrist appointment (for diabetic neuropathy screening — so far, so good, no neuropathy, even though I have extensive ankle image from causes unknown) and General Practitioner for a Well Woman exam (all’s well in the pre-screening nut no PAP this year and there were la tests to run) were completed in this time period. 
• Today I had a blood work-up (and received a somewhat scary call from the GP saying they wanted to talk about it — how in blazes did they get results in less than four hours after the blood draw, anyway?) after a dust-up with the registrar who questioned my insurance (after all, I TOLD her it had changed but why should she trust me, the card issued by the insurance company, etc. when she can’t even tell that the last time I used insurance in the hospital was February 2015 - she actually had the nerve to tell me I had used the now-defunct insurance in February 2016 so of COURSE she had to question that I said!!! GAH!). 
• Next up, mammogram and dexascan (both in one day the coming week) and colonoscopy (pre-consult on April 5 with the actual procedure to be scheduled). And then a dental 6-month check-up on the 12 of April… 

I’m trying to decide whether I will schedule that conversation with the GP now or wait until after the procedures are at least completed, if not totally analyzed. Why Should I pay for multiple follow-up visits? And she said no rush but then, why call? 

Can you tell I HATE medical appointments almost as much as financial stuff (taxes, hated in last week to the accountant, should be ready to sign Monday!). I can’t think a a better way to ruin my weekend, and to disrupt my focus on that mandala, than worrying that something is bad in that blood work and that we will owe taxes for 2015… And I DO tend to worry.

So… This weekend, I will be spending my days in may basement craft area, playing with paper, ink and various “stuff”. Maybe that will cheer me up… And then I’ll pet some cats:

Week Ten, March 10, 2016

I did manage to put in two days of stitching (and ripping, sadly) on “Rematch”, the eighth of the nine mandalas in the Roll Your Own set. The outline on this one is really giving me fits but it is almost done and the color would move along much faster (I live in hope!).

Here is how the mandala looks today:

and how the entire series looks so far:

Quilt guild tonight which will mess with stitching. But the taxes are done and hated in to the accountant, the laundry is caught up and the mail is too… and it’s raining spot I’m not likely to be going anywhere I don’t HAVE to; so I should be able to get in more than two nights of stitching in the next week.

Week Nine, March 3, 2016

As I said in last week’s update, we had been in Florida for a three-week “holiday” and my stitching was pretty much limited to my traveling piece, “Palm Tree Elegance”, a needlepoint of a pal in a pot which I had hopes for for my oak-tree inspired bathroom. Not sure it will work now (not real fond of that leopard-spot border)  but, being who I am, I WILL finish it!

In the last week, in between visits to the University of Florida Natural History Museum/Butterfly Rainforest exhibit  (where a Blue Morro butterfly perched on my shoulder --- unfortunately he, or she, didn't show off his, or her, brilliant blue coloration),

the two-day drive home, the laundry and mail sorting, getting taxes ready, and shopping for the bare food essentials, I only really got in a couple of days of stitching on Palm Tree Elegance, but there are now two colors (out of four) completed in the inner border:

The Roll Your Own piece, with the partial outline of “Rematch” is now back on the stitching calendar, with hopes to start it tonight.

I will leave w=you with a view of the Micanopy Historical Cemetery, founded in the early 1800s,  abloom with azaleas and dripping with Spanish moss from majestic Live Oak trees!