While avoiding all that backstitch in the "Red Thai Mandala"

(funny, I usually like backstitch in blackwork but the light oclor of that gray is driving me nuts) another completion of a small piece...

It's lesson 11 in the "Color Through the Ages" twinchies by Janet Perry, and uses DMC 310, 3706, 5282 and E677. I THOUGHT I was electing a silver metallic but when I started stitching with E677, it turned into a pale pale gold. Since ripping out DMC metallic is a PITA, I decided to leave it even though it isn't really Art Deco in feel any more.

Some January Completions - a Wrap-up

First completion this month was the sock from Janet Perry's "Mittens & Mini-Socks". It's called "Jewel" and is posted here

Second was the companion mitten for "Jewel", completed January 21, 2013:

Also completed on January 21 was the January piece for Bead Journal Proejct 2013 - a beaded butterfly on snowflake fabric which I call "Snow & Ice":

Completed on January 23 was the January block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2013 - a monochromatic yellow piece:

And also completed on January 23 was the Take a Stitch Tuesday #49, "Knotted Feather Stitch" which I did in variegated #5 perle on white DMC linen:

It's been a busy week and I have at least one more small piece I want to complete before January winds down. But I thought I should play catch-up with posting today!

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Three (and IH&S Weekend)

This International Hermit & stitch Weekend coincided with the Cross Stitch Crazy week-long Stitchathon ... AND weekend house guests. Still, I managed to squeeze in 2295 stitches over the week, 752 of which were on the weekend and resulted in the completion of the latests Janet Perry "Mini-Sock", Jewel, on Friday:

The "jewel" is Kreinik silver braid ((#16 braid, color 001) while the purple background is DMC 208. 209 and 2011. The instructions called for four coordinating colors for the background but I didn't have another purple that quite matched the three (purple is a hard color to match, IMO).

There is still the mitten to do --- I only have a few of the silver stitches in at present.

 In addition, I put more beads into my January Bead Journal Project butterfly ('m calling it "Snow & Ice" because of the ridiculously cold weather we are having right now, even if it hasn't snowed much to speak of year  this January...); 

All that remains to be done is the antenna (a few stem stitches in silver and a couple of larger beads...) and it will be finished as well!

At the beginning of the week, I also stitched on "Red Thai Mandala" and got a bit more of the border stitched:

I have neglected my Crazy Quilt Journal Project piece which I really have to get moving on as the month is almost over! Also, I need to start my BJP "finish-finish" this week and Take a Stitch Tuesday will be starting up again tomorrow as well. 

Hmmm, doesn't sound like I lightened my stitching commitments at all, does it?

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Two

I didn't get as much done as I had hoped this week --- mix in a damaged rotator cuff (i'm on massive doses of ibuprofen in the hopes that it will allow it to heal without further intervention) , Girls Night Out on Tuesday, quilt guild on Thursday, and a crafting weekend with my friend Mary, there was little time for stitching. It won't be much better this coming week either since we have house guests all weekend and two of hubby's dinners (one Master Gardener's recognition and one Hosta and Daylily Society); I expect I'll be to tired to stitch...

Anyway --- no progress on my Crazy Quilt Challenge block, but I got a little more of the outlining done on the Bead Journal Project block:

a VERY little progress on the border of  "Red Thai Mandala":

and only a  few stitches put into Januarys "Mitten * Mini-sock" (no photo to show for it - not worth the effort given the amount of stitches shown!). 

But I did complete the BJP 2011 wall hanging!

Here is the back:

tied with clear buttons (which of course, don't show up in this photo), a hanging sleeve and a label (no fabric pen decided it was too old to write so it's not at all clear, but it is only basted on and it will only take a new pen and all will be copacetic).

"Kimono-Revisited" took a road trip Thursday night to quilt guild "show-and-tell" and even though it isn't a quilt, per se, it did go over reasonably well. The fact that I actually had something to show was as much as a shock to the membership as the fact that I showed off a needlepoint project! 

This week is a stitchathon week at Cross Stitch Crazy so I expect I will work more on "Thai Red Mandala" than anything else, but I do want to plan out how to "finish-finish" BJP 2010 (A book, perhaps - I have a clue as to how to do that now) and 2012 (another quilt top/wall hanging?).

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week One

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week One

Over on Cross Stitch Crazy , it seems the theme for 2013 will be "reconnecting" and reconnecting with my cross stitchery is really in my goals for 2013. In addition, I want to get some finishing done, to bring down the size of that stack of stitchery which is stitched but otherwise put away...

So this week, I set about tackling these and other goals!

First of all, I assembled the basic block from my Crazy Quilt Journal Challenge 2013 piece. Monochromatic --- this block being all yellow with touched of white and gold when it's finished. The grid for the basic block is block 1 from Sharon B's "I dropped the Button Box" quilt...

Next was starting my January piece for the Bead Journal Project 2013. Since I am doing encrusted beading again, this will take a longer than last year's BJP but it will be closer to the real meaning of BJP, I think... January will be a (roughly) 3" x 3" white and pale blue butterfly on a dark blue snowy background. I have the felt template stitched down with some of the light blue beads. At the corner is the pattern I intend to follow (more or less) for this month's butterfly, which is based on one of five free butterfly symmetry outlines:

Speaking of BJP, I have three years of BJP pieces which require "finish-finishing". BJP 2010 is already in "pages" for which I now need to devise a book. BJP 2011 and BJP 2012, however, were, until recently, simply stacks of beaded fabric, awaiting inspiration. I finally decided that I should take my desire to get more comfortable with my sewing machine seriously and at least finish BJP 2011 as a wall hanging. After much sewing and ripping and sewing and ripping, I finally got all 12 blocks together although, as usual, my attempts at making sashing line up failed miserably (although this is much better than the original three attempts!); since it's only for myself, however, I decided that I wouldn't try again to make that bottom row line up. 

This awaits batting large enough I but I think the fabric shown here will make a suitable backing (to be honest, I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this, let alone why I bought so much of it, but it should make a suitable backing fabric).  I have no intention of fussing with a binding at present so I think I will make this an envelope-turn finish... And since the beading is so heavy and quilting around the motifs is impossible, at least for me at this time, this will be tied when finished.

Finally, I stitched on the Elizabeth Almond "Red Thai Mandala" which was published in The Gift of Stitching:

I'm well into the middle border and have made a tentative start at the blackwork outer border. According to the write-up in TGOS, this was inspired by two different temples in Thailand, with the floral motif representing the lotus flower and the four "pointed" motifs in the center square the wat temple towers...

So, despite a few interruptions for family functions and a wonky right shoulder which seems to have decided to malfunction, I did manage to stitch quite a bit this first week of 2013. Here's hoping I keep up the pace.

End of Year Wrap-Up ... and Plans for 2013

I'm not happy with my completion rate in 2012. I had several, but all but 6 were small needlepoint stitch exercise pieces (I was working several Janet Perry exercises:  learn-a-stitch stockings, the Bargello Club,  the Stash Busting Club, Mini-Socks & Mittens, and Color Through the Ages) as well as three sets of Christmas ornaments.. I did complete the 2012 Bead Journal Project (although each piece needs to be "finished" into a wall hanging), the 2012 Color Palette Challenge and the 2012 Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2013, all of which were combined into 12 individual crazy quilt blocks, and I also attempted the Take a Stitch Tuesday 2012 Challenge as well (51 weeks of freehand embroidery stitch, exercises, many of which had me totally defeated!).  I finish-finished several projects in the beginning of the year as well!  My 6 entries in the county fair won 4 blue ribbons, 1 red and 1 white (and I sold one of the blue-ribbon winners!)!  

As for accountability, I participated in the WIPocalypse 2012 Project and the International Hermit & Stitch Weekends, both of which required regular accounting for my works-in-progress! 

 I am still a full-fledged, non-quilting member of the local quilt guild (and their webmaster as well!); maybe one day I will actually quilt something! And I'm the "detail angel" for the 2013 Bead Journal Project blog! So I guess I didn't do so badly after all.

I end the year with no real WIPs, which is a first for me! But… I started a new piece on December 30: an Elizabeth Almond blackwork design called "Red Thai Mandala":

I STILL  have the same four UFOs in the cupboard that I had at the beginning of the year: 

• "Angel of Love" - started before we moved to England in 1992!
• "Celestial Angel"  - started before we moved to England in 1992!
• "Map of England and Wales" - started in Saudi
• "Nature's Song" (excerpted from a larger chart) - started in Saudi

to say nothing of that ancient crewel-work pillow (I'm sure the moths have  done in the wool by now), all the top work on six or seven needlepoint pieces that all predate 1992, and a slew of piece-worked tops from quilting classes in Saudi...  And then there is my Round Robin piece from 2006 --- I still need to finish that off. 

Three BJP years, all those Janet Perry needlepoint exercises, and a slowly growing stack of "finished" cross stitch and needlepoint BAPS need framing or assembly into wall hangings or cushions or books or… : finish-finishing is my weak point, as you can see...

So 2013: 

I have re-upped with the Bead Journal Project 2013; signed up for challenges at Take a Stitch Tuesday 2013, the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2013, and the 2013 WIPocalypse; as well as signed up for two short online courses: Sharon B's "Encrusted Crazy Quilting Class 2013" and "Sumptuous Surfaces Embroidery Class" as well as paid for three classes on Craftsy: A block-of-the-month class with Amy GIbson, "Free-Motion Quilting a Sampler" with Leah Day, and "Sumptious Stitching" with Carol Ann Waugh (these latter, once paid for, remain available for eternity which doesn't put a lot of deadline pressure on me…). There are the ongoing exercise pieces in Janet Perry's "Mittens & Mini-Socks" and "Color Through the Ages" classes as well.

In addition to my regular weekly progress reports, there will be specific WIPocalypse postings on the full moon of every month and special postings for TAST 2013 (Tuesdays), CQJP 2013 (monthly), and BJP 2013 (monthly). Blogging will be keeping me as busy as stitching, I fear!

This sure doesn't leave me a lot of room for starting anything "new", and that could become a problem because I've been feeling a case of start-itis coming on forever a year now...      

I didn't think I would finish it this year but...

Here is "Home Sampler", designer Michael Powell stitched on 27-ct even weave (antique White) using 32 colors (and 11 blends) of Anchor floss. Completed December 29, 2012.

I have a piece picked out for my next start --- it's a blackwork Mandala by Elizabeth Almond --- but do I want to start it in 2012 or end the year with no WIPS and save the blackwork for 2013? I suppose I could start laying out my crazy quilt block for January and my BJP piece as well. Kitting those up wouldn't constitute a WIP, would they?

Meanwhile, I'll continue to enjoy the winter white outside my windows (we got another inch yesterday and, wonder of wonders, no wind so it's sticking, not blowing around, so the trees have a little edging of white too!).