Take A Stitch Tuesday 2012 Challenge - Week 31

The Algerian Eye! A stitch I've used relatively often in samplers and even in needlepoint, so it wasn't so much a learning curve for this one. What is more, it was almost fun playing with the shapes of the stitch!

2012: A Year of Challenges - week 30

Well, I need some sleep, having spent the last six hours watching men's cycling road race! Why, you ask, as if you know me, you know I can't keep a bicycle upright at street speeds, let alone 50 mph? Well, it was started and finished in the neighborhood of where we lived for nearly 5 years and it was so cool to see our old neighborhood from the air (from Putney Bridge through Richmond Park) , however fast they moved through!

At 9:30, I was first in line at the fairground to hand in my entries  (three categories of ornaments, one cross-stitch set, one framed picture and one fair theme entry). What I found out was that they already have next year's theme selected so I need to ask when I collect my pieces on August 8. Then I can concentrate on what I stitch for the fair earlier than I did with "Ornaments ala Round"!

Anyway, besides TAST, "Kimono" and Mittens & Mini-Socks  this week, I worked on "Birds of a Feather" and here is where I am so far...

It's slow (because nothing is more uninteresting than straight lines! I thrive on patterns!) but it's progressing...

Take A Stitch Tuesday 2012 Challenge - Week 30

The oyster stitch, done in a variegated perle because I just KNEW that if I tried it in floss, I'd be screaming and tossing it across the room! I suspect if I had four hands, this would be a lot easier and I'd be less likely to lose my place in the steps.

Yet another wonky circle...

And I just noticed --- check back on the previous couple of posts and note that nearly everything I'm working on is  the same shade of BLUE! AAACK! N WONDER I'm getting sick of Kimono and slow in Birds! It's the color! Gotta be!

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend, July 2012

This weekend, I stitched, and completed, two stitching tasks!

The first was the July installment (sections 66 - 78) of "Kimono - Revisited":

which means I'm all caught up with that class.

And the second is the sock portion of the July "Mittens & Mini-Socks" class from Janet Perry:


Same threads as for the mitten but a slightly different auroral "wave" from the same photograph.  Still have coverage issues with that navy...

I also got in a few stitches on "Birds of a Feather" - the outside border is now about 2/3 complete:


In all, a productive weekend!

2012: A Year of Challenges - week 29

Besides TAST and Color Through the ages, which I posted on the 19th, I have one more completion for this week - The Aurora Borealis mitten:


The Aurora "pattern" is my own, based on a photo called "Green Aurora Rising"  but I used blue threads instead of green because my stash was somewhat skimpy on green "shiny" threads!

The Aurora is Kreinik 1/16" ribbon (014HL), DMC Jewel effects (E334), Kreinik #4 braid - 3 strands (3214) and DMC Pearlescent effects (E3747). The "sky" is DMC 3750 (I have coverage issues with dark threads...) and the cuff is DMC 3756.

I plan on doing the sock as well, although I need to buy more DMC 3750!

Otherwise, my stitching has been focused on the July installments of "Kimono - Revisited" which I hope to have completed before the weekend is over... After all, this is International Hermit and Stitch Weekend so I should be putting some time in (after my husband's garden is clear of visitors, that is --- he's on the local hosta and daylily society's garden tour today!).

Some completions...

Take a Stitch Tuesday - week 29: Basque Stitch:
It was "OK" but not really pleasing to stitch --- I'm not a fan of trying to keep a needle in the fabric while wrapping thread around it. My fingers always end up being too big! But my circle is a little better on this one --- now if only I could keep the "rays" all the same length!

Janet Perry's "Color Through the Ages", lesson Five - Japan (A Japanese Star):

Based on the dsicussion in the lesson, I opted for a "September" feel of fallen leaves and went with DMC3830 as the accent color (in the sashing) and the color range of 3820, 3821, 3822 and 3823 as the dominant color (the stars and the backgrounds). Perhaps the color choice wasn't different enough to show the centers of the stars off well enough but finding a range of colors for that deep gold "fallen leaf" color isn't that easy to do... at least in my stash!

Now back to "Kimono - Revisited"!

2012: A Year of Challenges - week 28

It may seem like I didn't stitch much this week with only two "completions" and little else to show and I suppose that was partially true --- no stitching on Tuesday because of Girls' Night Out or Thursday because of quilt guild meeting but, really, I did stitch quite a lot.

I did the TAST for the week and finished my Color Palette/Crazy Quilt Journal Page/Bead Journal project block for July. And I stitched on "Kimono-Revisited"! I actually got June's installments done (along with a lot of yelling and ripping out --- some of those patterns simply would NOT stick in my brain):

I even got working last night on the first part of the July sections  only got one part done though - stitches are so SMALL on this congress cloth and it's so hard to see what I'm doing half the time, even with magnification!:

I finished all the threads I had but one so am starting over with the entire thread selection --- having put aside three sets of threads for sections which are repeats of ones done earlier. I decided that, since this was supposed to be a scrap kimono, made up from scraps of OTHER garments, that is a pattern was repeated, so would the colors I used used the first time (I just don't feel creative enough to try a made-up stitch and these colors are hard enough to work with as it is - I'm already tiring of my color-way choice - can you tell?). Besides surely there were 130 different kimonos in the same color way in that ancient Japanese sewist's cupboard?

The last Stitch Guide lesson arrived last night and I skimmed through it. The latest Mitten & Mini-Sock piece still awaits canvas before kitting it up (it calls for all sorts of metallics which I only have a limited selection of - DMC and Kreinik, primarily - so I'm a little flummoxed about how I will stitch this thing from stash) 

I didn't get time to put in any stitches on "Birds of a Feather"... hopefully I will catch up with "Kimono" before the August sections are released and be able to work on that ore-or-less full time.