2014 - Staying Connected, Week Forty-Three

I did get some work done at guild retreat, although I forgot to take my handwork with me and ran out of things to do by dinner on the first full day! Didn't help that I was so very sleepy the entire time adn had very little focus...

Anyway, here are the pieces I did work on...

November block for Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2014:

Blocks January - September for the 2014 Crazy Quilt Journal Project assembled (blocks for October and November are awaiting December for final assembly):

The 2013 Crazy Quilt Journal Project blocks assembled (needs borders, backing and binding):

The 2013 Bead Journal Project assembled (needs borders, backing and binding):

Also worked on this week were the John Clayton Golfer (one new color added - DMC 321):

the Roll Your Own mandala "Bride" - finished second and third colors and working on the fourth:

and Take a Stitch Tuesday ##136 and 137, Knoitted Buttonhole and Beaded Buttonhole bands (the latter is a little rough given that I kept losing my place):

I also skimmed the fourth, and final, lesson in Pillowpalooza and will be preparing my homework assignment this weekend.

The Final Bead Journal Project 2013 butterfly...

The final bead was put onto the December butterfly on December 26:

Another collection of "blocks" to be finish-finished!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, December 2013 and 2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Fifty-One

For IHSW, I worked on three WIPS.

I had the body and two top wings and part of the bottom wing beaded on my December BJP butterfly before the weekend. Over the weekend, I managed to get the third wing done and started on the fourth:

Early in the week, I couched red cording around the appliqued flower and sewed on the buttons in the heart of the flower --- cording (passing as "string") and buttons being two of the requirements of the "Green Thumb Challenge" for January's quilt guild meeting. Over the weekend, I couched black perle cotton (more string) as the stem of the flower:

I also completed the ladybug in "Ladybug & Daisy" - now on to the blackwork (once that blasted December butterfly is completed, that is):

Also completed this week were four variations of a stitch in TAST:  Stitch #94, the Reversed Buttonhole Bar.

I have found my inspiration fabric for the 2014 Bead Journal Project --- and ordered it (it was on sale, although the coordinating fabrics were not! Phewey! Oh well...). Still mulling over a format for the 2014 Crazy Quilt Journal Project...

 I really don't know how much stitching will happen this week, what with the holiday and all... Being neglected is "Roll Your Own" mandalas (which is now fully kitted out and I only need to start), and two online classes from Janet Perry... It's embarrassing how many OTHER pieces I have in my pile of unstarted projects, some kitted up, some not, that are calling to me. And to think the year is almost over!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Fifty

Lazy again this week. At least as regards stitchery. (OK, I admit it, I'm in another stitching slump and motivation isn't my strong point this time of year) 

There was a lot of time decorating trees... Two with hand-stitched ornaments: 

and one with multi-colored glass (and faux glass) balls):

Husband was also busy decorating outside, once his back order of industrial grade LED lights arrived... The front yard, with one artificial and one real (the closest to the house) tree:

and the dock in the back garden, from top:

to bottom:

And of course, as you can make out from the above photos, we had our first "major" snow of the season (7 inches, give or take --- the most in three years of winters!). It isn't much in the scale of things nationwide but it was enough to cause the quilt guild to cancel their Christmas brunch on Saturday (and that means I have a nicely gift-wrapped biscornu pin cushion with no where to go!  But it also meant I had more time to stitch, supposedly)

I did put in a little beading on my Bead Journal Project December butterfly:

Of course, I started running low on the red (this running low on one color is beginning to be a nasty habit --- next beading pieces are going to have to be smaller and use less beads!) so I had to improvise with buttons and gold beads...

I also started on the quilt guild challenge for January 2014, called "Green Thumb". It came with a requirement to use a specific floral shape, a four-patch, black-and-white somewhere, string (see the red cording --- I'm couching it around the floral piece), a button (not shown here) and any other embellishemnt. It was a coward's way out to go with black, white and red, but I am limited in my stash to only a few black fabrics and one came with built-in red polka dots; I came up with this:

It looks awfully plain, now that I see it on the photo, but I hope it will get a little more blinged out as I proceed... 

Not quite what I had in my mind originally but there is no point in getting truly different when this will be a first time for me and I'm a total novice at this kind of challenge.  We shall see if this even gets finished before the January meeting when it is due.

If all goes well, I'll get my gifts for our Girls' Night Out exchange wrapped today (the exchange, weather permitting, is tomorrow night) and a card made for husband's birthday (ALSO tomorrow). No idea what the Christmas plans are yeat --- husband and brother-in-law are always last minute on that --- so there may also be an emergency trip into town for dinner supplies. A busy week ahead, I fear!

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-Nine

Holiday prep and a persistent headache sort of got in my way of stitching this week. To be honest, so did two or three football games! My alma mater, Bowling Green State University, won it's league by upsetting a ranked team and Ohio State LOST YAY! Adrenalin for two straight days, enhanced by a UPS delivery snafu before the first game which had me going as well (I HATE to deal with customer service with all their computerized messages and hang-ups and... it caused us to miss the HOA Christmas party - for which we had already paid). But I did get a crazy quilt journal block done earlier in the week and I got started on my December butterfly:

In addition, on Wednesday, after husband's high school class monthly breakfast, I took three pieces into the framers: Laura Perrin's "Purple Daisy":

Elizabeth Almond's "Midnight Garden" (the photo doesn't show it but that frame is a deep blue-black and matches the darkest blue thread in the piece exactly!):

and the Ajisai "Puppy Dog":

I'm really happy with how all three came out - the first two as fair candidates for next summer and the third as a Christmas gift for our West Highland Terrier-owned neighbor!

Quilt guild Christmas Brunch is Saturday so that will put a crimp in my weekend... and although we

dodged one winter storm bullet, last night we got hit with freezing rain. The streets are icy and it's COLD! Good week to stay in, decorate two trees, wrap gifts for mailing and stitch (IF I can beat this headache, that is).

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-Seven

No TAST this week so all I had to stitch on was my November bead journal butterfly. Well, not all, but all that had a true deadline assigned to it. And here is is: "Fallen Leaves"!

When I finished this up Sunday night, I didn't want to start on my BAP of "nine Roll Your Own Mandalas so I pulled out the first chart in my project bag and it turned out to be another blackwork designed by Valentina Sardu for Ajisai Designs: ""Ladybug & Butterfly". Here you can see the start of the ladybug's head and three legs:

Once the cross-stitched ladybug is finished, it will all be blackwork fill patterns and backstitching. I need to get some more DMC 310! LOL

Thanksgiving is at husband's nephew's in Toledo. I'm to bring my "rice dish", a brown and wild rice stuffing with apricots and dried cherries that I found in "Bon Apetit" about five years ago. Total surprise to me that a) it worked and b) it became an instant favorite with my husband's family! SO now I need to find the recipe/magazine and create a shopping list so I can assemble it on Thursday morning.

If I don't see you again before the holiday, don't eat too much and be thankful for all the blessings we have in this increasingly dysfunctional world.

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-Six and IHSW November 15 - 17

This week, I managed two more completions --- my November monochromatic orange crazy quilt block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project and the two TAST stitches that were assigned. Otherwise, I tried calculatiing  how to place the nine Roll Your Own Mandalas and think I have come up with a plan, using Iris Garden overdyed 32ct linen (even though my husband is no fan of the fabric) and the Tropical Ocean color scheme. The I forced myself to work on two neglected pieces --- the Chinese Coins quilt and the November BJP butterfly. The Chinese Coins top is finished, even though the top and bottom borders had to be sewn on twice because I forgot to put right sides together when pinning! 37 inches x 2 (because I didn't catch my mistake until I had done both borders) of ripping! AAARGH! Here it is laid out on my craft space floor:

and as you can see, I am at the limits of my "design floor" so basting it will be an issue... You can get a better idea of how it looks, hung from the two Chinese armoires in my craft space:

At present it is roughly 37 inches wide and 41 inches long so will probably finish nicely at 36 x 40...

I also started the November butterfly, which will be in shades of brown and yellow - probably turn out to be anoher "camoflage" butterfly!. The body of the butterfly is done and the wings are (barely) started:

Spent a good portion of Sunday (roughly 4 PM through 7 PM) watching live coverage of the storm that passed through here, getting ready to bail to the basement when our tornado warning sirens went off (and they did).. Needless to say --- NOT conducive to stitching! 

Luckily, all we "lost" was a decorative flag that blew UP from the lake onto a sidewalk, but there was significant damage to the east and south of us, much of which has yet to be assessed. Lots of people without power, many buildings with roofs blown off and windows blown out - there were reported hurricane-strength wind gusts in nearby Bowling Green from straight line winds... and one house collapsed onto four inhabitants who were watching a football game and were slightly injured), and many road closures due to downed power lines, lack of traffic signals, cars blown into median strips and other debris not only in the roadway but also still blowing around in 35 - 30 mph gusts (sustained winds around 20mph).

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-Four

For some reason, I simply couldn't motivate to stitch this week. I had all sorts of plans, starting with kitting out the November Bead Journal and Crazy Quilt Journal blocks (which I did):

and working on my Chinese Coins quilt and my 2010 Bead Journal book (which I didn't); and with stitching the two stitches in last (and this) week's Take a Stitch Tuesday.

Then I stalled! didn't get back to anything until Sunday night when I finally finished up one page of the backstitching on "Puppy Dog":

Maybe it was Halloween... It lasted four days here  (not counting all the events that occurred the weekend before!). Our HOA trick-or-treat was rained out Thursday (we were ready for people who were made enough to brave the wind since only the HOA residents knew it had been rained out, but no-one came), postponed to Friday (we had maybe 30 kids in all, from the hayride the HOA put on to transport them safely around our very dark neighborhood). No stragglers that we know of... But there was always the off chance that stragglers from outside our neighborhood, whose Halloween's were postponed to Saturday or even Sunday, would come by so we had to be ready for that as well. Needless to say, I read a lot on my iPad and ate a lot of mini Reese's dark chocolate cups! (Yes, we weren't PC --- all our candy had nuts in them!).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v29/thatyank/thatyank%20siggies/November%202013/Halloween2013.jpg

Caught Up At Last!

Sort of! There are still three online classes/stitchalongs I haven't started yet but I do have the Bead Journal Project all caught up! The missing beads arrived yesterday and while their "matte" patina is a little more matte than the ones I started with, I don't think they stand out to much as different!  Presenting the "Halloween Butterfly":

This butterfly's November and December relatives are all kitted up and ready to go so I should be able to keep on track for the rest of the year! Woo Hoo!

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-Two and IHSW for October...

This past week (and this International Hermit and Stitch Weekend) were spent on catch-up projects.

I started the week - and ended the weekend -  by stitching away on the blackwork "Puppy Dog":

Most of the weekend, however, was spent on my October Bead Journal Project butterfly for October and I ALMOST finished it. Would have, too, if I hadn't run out of purple beads! Here it is so far, waiting for a bead delivery from Mill Hill, stitched on one of the Halloween fat quarters I got at quilt retreat last weekend:

If it weren't for those pesky ten or so beads, I could have claimed to be caught up! AAARGH! As it is, there is still "Roll Your Own" to start and the online classes from Janet Perry on background stitches and on stitch guides to complete as well as Take a Stitch Tuesday that can occupy my time this week while waiting for the mail!

Catching Up!

My September butterfly for the Bead Journal Project. I call it Autumn Leaves but, as my husband so kindly informed me, I put it on the wrong background. This butterfly has assumed camoflage!

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty

2013 -  Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty

I made a particular attempt this week to start catching up with various deadlines so, after stitching a few days on the blackwork "Puppy Dog" - and completing the first page of fill patterns:

I kitted up and started stitching on the September 2013 Bead Journal Project butterfly:

and began embellishment of the October Crazy Quilt Journal Project block:

In addition, I started getting "go bags" together for a crafting night with my friends in Toledo (we are working through the Tim Holtz "Creative Chemistry 102" online class which starts this week) and the quilt guild retreat (which meant cutting 5.5" strips from the strip set I stitched up at quilt work day in September and pulling together all the fabrics and notions I will need for a weekend of quilting, as well as adding backing and batting to my "Bling it On!" block).

A Completion --- and an ALMOST there completion!

August's BJP butterfly:

Needs to be backed and bound... but nearly there --- Bling it ON! 

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Thirty-Eight and IHSW September 20- 22, 2013

All of my stitchery done this week was done this weekend, which also happened to be International Hermit and Stitch Weekend for September. In addition to tackling the week's TAST assignment on Friday and visiting the Needlework Show on Saturday, I made a concentrated effort to work on "Bling it On":

which is now ready for beads, and on the August BJP butterfly:

which now has an outline in place.

No completions but I am getting closer...

Catching Up - slowly but surely!

My July Bead Journal Project butterfly. He did end up a tad wonky, one side being a slight bit smaller and his body something of a tortured curve, but he is patriotic, as  July butterfly should be:

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Thirty-Six

This week, to reward myself for finishing a couple of pieces (Midnight Garden and the June butterfly for BJP), I started a new project, a non-traditional blackwork piece from Ajisai Designs, called "Puppy Dog":

Just teh nose so far... the finished piece looks to me a lot like our neighbor's West Highland Terrier and so I'm making it as a Christmas gift for this coming holiday season.

I also beaded on my July BJP butterfly:

He's a little wonky, with his body just a little contorted and his right side just a scosh smaller but he is in patriotic colors...

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Thirty-Five

I buckled down this week and tackled more WIPs which were tending to becoming UFOs...

I completed the Take a Stitch Tuesday stitch.

I kitted up the Crazy Quilt Journal Block for September: 

I assembled the block for "Bling it On", the quilt retreat: 

I stitched on "Midnight Garden" (only eight more border blocks to stitch in the two blues): 

and I completed the June BJP butterfly: 

Yet I'm still woefully behind... 2012 Color Palette/Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal Project wall hanging needs batting, backing and binding; the July, August and September BJP butterflies need to be kitted up and beaded; the September Crazy Quilt Journal block needs to be embellished as does the the "Bling it On" block; "Midnight Garden" has those eight border blocks to stitch and then bead;  the "Roll Your Own Mandala" SAL with Tracy Horner of Ink Circles (there are now seven) has only been printed out with fabric selected and threads pulled and the class on stitching journals/background stitches from Janet Perry and a stitch guide practicum by Janet Perry have only been printed, not even read! I'm hoping that, with Septembebr 14 being a quilt guild work day, that I'll get SOME of this done but I fear catch-up is highly unlikely in the near future...

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Thirty-One

Other than going to the fair to work quilt day and check on my needlework, all I managed to accomplish this week was:

purchase of the necessary stretcher bars for L auraJ. Perrin's "Purple Daisy", which arrived this week, complete with the first weeks assignment

stitch #75 for TAST

purchase a packet of silvery seed beads which, although they don't quite match the ones I'm using now, might just work on the June Butterfly. You tell me --- does it work? Most of the lower right wing has the new mix in, the lower left does not:

Pretty sad, don't you think?

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Thirty

Saturday, I took my fair entries to the check-in booth, and they were either judged yesterday or will be today. SO I will be able to find out tomorrow, on the fair's official opening day, what, if anything, I won. 

Otherwise, the only stitching I did this week was a little beading on my June BJP butterfly. 

What is more, I fear I don't have enough of the silvery grey to finish it. Plan B? I may have to order some online as the local shops have a very slight supply of Mill Hill... Clearly, I will NOT be caught up with BJP this month...