Take a Stitch Tuesday 2013 - Stitch #94

This stitch, the Reversed Buttonhole Bar, done four ways...

It wasn't difficult (other than my usual inability to stitch a good circle, that is) once I got the tension down. I like the look, especially in the circles - it would make great flowers!

This completes another "page" in my TAST sampler, the fifth for 2013:

This page includes stitches 82 through 94: Spanish Feather, Siennese, Spiked KNotted Cable Chain, Raised Cup, Turkman, two approaches to Buttonhole Picot, Twisted Satin, Twisted Satin with bead, Straight Feather and two variations, and revised Buttonhole Bar.

WIPocalypse - December 2013

This month, we are supposed to "Recap your accomplishments for the year! (Your finishes, your final before/after photos, etc)". HMMM... That means I need to check back through the year and see what happened as far as stitchery is concerned and that isn't an easy task. I try to do this as a final post of the year wrap-up as well, but let's see what I can come up with WIPocalypse-style...

Finishes were (not necessarily in order of finish):

• An Elizabeth Arnold blackwork design "Red Thai Mandala", the only hold-over from 2012, as it was started on December 30, 2012 
• An Elizabeth Arnold blackwork design "Midnight Garden"
• A Casey Buonaugurio design, "The Taco Sampler"
• An Ajisai blackwork design "Puppy Dog"
• Janet Perry's "Color Through the Ages" online needlepoint class (one piece) and "Mittens & Mini-Socks" online needlepoint class (3 pieces)
• A Laura J Perrin needlepoint design "Purple Daisy" which was an online class featuring "Messy beading"
• Sharon B's "Encrusted Crazy Quilting" online class (one piece) and "Sumptuous Surfaces Embroidery" online class (two pieces)
• Sharon B's "Tale a Stitch Tuesday" online challenge ( 41 stitches and one multi-stitch "challenge")
• Bead Journal Project for 2013 (11 of 12 butterflies so far)
• Wall hangings for Bead Journal Project (beaded in 2012) and Crazy Quilt Journal Projects (pieced in 2012)
• 12 crazy quilt blocks for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project - one a month every month
• A mug rug for a quilt guild challenge
• A "Bling It On!" crazy quilt block for a quilt guild retreat chalelnge (it won a prize for best use of embellishment)
• A "Pink" crazy quilt block for the fair's special entry
• A biscornu for a secret Santa exchange that never took place 

Eight pieces were framed for fair submittals in 2013 (five first place ribbons, 2 second place ribbons, one third place ribbon and one honorable mention - not framed) three more framed for a gift (1) and for 2014 fair submittal (2 so far).

Started but unfinished:

• The "Take a Stitch Tuesday" stitch for the week starting December 15
• The December butterfly for the 2013 Bead Journal Project
• A "Chinese Coins" quilt top (ready for sandwiching and quilting)
• A "Green Thumb" challenge quilt for quilt guild
• An Ajisai design "Ladybug & Daisy"

Waiting in the wings ( for which I have all the written material but haven't even started to think about) are:

• nine mandalas from InkCircles
• whatever Take a Stitch Tuesday stitches appear in the next two weeks
• Two Janet Perry classes (one a stitch guide practicum and the other a background stitch notebook)

In addition, there are the 2014 series of Crazy Quit Journal blocks and the 2014 Bead Journal Project pieces as well.

And I want to do a few more Christmas ornaments (this year, I used two trees to display my stitched ornaments because there were too many for the one, but there aren't enough to fill two so...)

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).

The Crazy Quilt Journal Project for 2013 is complete!

Here is my December monochromatic yellow block, complete with snowflakes to commemorate the first winter snow flurries, even while roses still were blooming in the garden.

OK, a little time shifted there because it was in late November that snow flurries and  still-blooming KnockOut roses coincided. But, hey, artistic license!...

Now --- to assemble the blocks!

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-Eight

This past week, in addition to three TAST stitches and a biscornu, I worked a bit (mainly I cut fabric) for the guild January challenge, stitched on the Ajisai "Ladybug & Daisy" (three more shades of "pink" needed on that ladybug and then she'll be done except for the backstitching.):

and started my December crazy quilt journal block:

Not a lot to show for the week, but the holiday put a crimp in my stitching time, what with cooking, time at the nephew's house and recovery from overeating!

My First Ever Biscornu

These items always scared me a little but I needed an "under $10" Secret Santa gift (don't you just HATE those) for the quilt guild Christmas brunch on the 14th and decided I'd try to make a biscornu pincushion as my "gift". After all, if it didn't work, it was only a days' time and two 6.5" squares of fabric form my stash (OK I did buy some thread to match and three sets of buttons to finish it off.). Besides, if it did work out, then I'd be willing to risk embroidered pieces on one.

It probably needed to be stuffed a little more as it's a little "squishy", and putting those buttons on was the hardest part so they are not quite centered (Note to self: mark center of each square next time!), but, in all, I think it came out OK enough to be a gift: