Week Thirty-eight, September 24, 2015

After finishing that butterfly clip on Monday evenig, I didn't stitch a single stitch. We have house guests, and tonight is preview night at public television for "Indian Summers",  so I doubt I will get around to stitching anything at all until the weekend... which will lead up to WIPocalypse September. I'll post again then...

Meanwhile, happy autumn to all in the Northern Hemisphere!

A Completion

An ornament completion… Designer - Charlette’s Collections; from the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament Issue, 2015, On plastic canvas, using DMC floss, Mill Hill Beads, Beading Wire and one 1/4” butterfly paperclip.

And never again! Never again will I try a finish like this one. Agreed, it’s unusual, and interesting and all but trying to whip stitch such small pieces together around the arms of a butterfly clip, with the thread catching on everything from the edges of the plastic canvas to the beads on the wings, is not something for  my klutzy fingers to attempt. If all the swearing done when working on this little insect attaches itself to the insect itself, then there is some very bad karma associated with this soon-to-be- gifted ornament.

Oh well, perhaps the end result is worth the effort to the recipient, assuming it survives the mailing….

Here is a step by step of it’s assembly and how it looks in various views.

Wings on the clip, top view,side view and with clip arms straight out:

Body and antennae made of beading wire (finally got an in-focus photo that my computer would accept!):

Body and antenna after wire stitched to bottom of body:

Completed butterfly from top, from bottom and with clip arms straight out after body is attached (supposed to be glued but none of my glues held so I sewed it on!):

 

Maybe the substitution of DMC for braid wasn't the best idea for coverage, especially for the whip stitching around the edges but I didn't have any braid of the colors I wanted and, besides, I hate stitching with it so it would have been an even more unpleasant stitching experience!

This ornament/"small flat gift" took six nights of stitching, from start to finish. The card, which is the main focus of the swap, will likely take me only half a day! Somehow, I think I overthought this whole swap thing!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend 2015 - September 17 - 19

I actually managed to squeeze a little stitching in around university awards events this weekend... and finish up the pieces of an ornament meant for a Christmas swap. 

Here are the pieces I stitched this weekend:

and a closeup of the beading on the pieces I stitched during the week:

I tried to get a photo of the beaded butterfly body but it is so out-of-focus (my camera isn't meant for utra-closeups) that my computer wouldn't load it!. 

Anyway, here are all the pieces of the ornament, prior to assembly (the wings are to be whip-stitched together, wrong-side to wrong side over the arms of a 1/4" butterfly clip and the body is hot-glued to the clip body, covering a pair of wire antennae (which I have yet to construct):

Now back to "Roll Your Own", hoping to get at least some stitching on it done before houseguests arrive Wednesday...

Week Thirty-seven, September 17, 2015

I changed my stitching plans this past weekend after finishing my September 2015 Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal block:

It was meant to be autumnal, with all those purple flowers but then it occurred to me that Wisteria aren't autumn flowers so I added a few curlicues and turned them into grapes! 

I then changed course, abandoning "Roll Your Own" temporarily (I hope),  and started work on a swap for Christmas. 

In my card swap group on Facebook, we are supposed to include a "small handmade flat gift" in addition to the card. I was at a loss for an idea until the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament Issue for 2015 arrived. In it was a small sparkly beaded butterfly that look like it would be just the ticket. But (and it's a big but) it was stitched in metallic braid, not my favorite thing, on plastic canvas and mounted on a butterfly binder clip! Well, I had the plastic canvas (in scraps at last but that should work) and the butterfly clip but switched out the colors to DMS floss in a totally different scheme (reds and greens instead of copper and peach). I have spent two nights on this little thing and have it only half stitched:

It needs two more wings and then it needs finishing. It will take me as much as five times the time it will take to make the card! And because of the structure, it isn't quite flat so it will need a small box so it can be mailed. Oh dear, did I go wrong here or what?

Another busy weekend here at Chez Harper! Tomorrow (Friday Night) there is a reception (business attire - AAACK!) at the University, recognizing members of the "President's Club" of donors (of which we are an accidental member, having given a small amount annually since we graduated over 50 years ago!). 

Saturday, there is another reception, this one casual, for members of  the 1910 Society, the Carillon Society and The Leadership Circle (we are part of the first two: 1910 and Carillon), followed by the University football game v Memphis (tickets in the President's Box, so if it rains, which it is likely to, we will at least be warm and dry!).

Real philanthropists, aren't we? And all because we started donating $100 a year to a scholarship fund back in 1966!

On Wednesday, the 23rd, we have more houseguests --- passing through on their way to Detroit.

There is also an invitation to the preview of "Indian Summers" at the local public television station on Thursday, the 24th, but that kind of program isn't really husband's cuppa so I think we are passing on that.

Anyway, with all that happening, I suspect I will be lucky if I get that butterfly done! And then it's on to assembling the last three base blocks for the Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal Project, quilting the three placemats for the guild holiday project, and pulling "Roll Your Own" back out of the WIP pile and finishing those outlines...

Week Thirty-six, September 10, 2015

Well, I was right --- three days of husband's high school reunion followed by an overnight house guest from his working past and the entire weekend was shot as far as stitchery was concerned. I ate too much, slept too little and have a roaring sinus headache as a result!

I did squeeze in a few stitches early in the week on the placement outline for "Return" (shown here on the right):

and last night on "Roll Your Own" but that's about it. Here's how far I got on the outline for "Revenge":

As fast as these outlines are going, I'm strongly tempted to finish tall three before starting the color fill, but... a little bird sits next to my ear asking if I really want to keep hooping and un-hooping that huge piece of fabric for each mandala and each color --- that's three mandalas  x 12 colors over however long it takes to finish this thing, not counting hooping at the beginning of each day and un-hooping at the end. Hmmmm....

I really have to get out the September Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal block and get cracking on it... and tonight is quilt guild meeting and Saturday is volunteering at the library book sale, so RYO will go back into it's project back for at least a couple of days.

Week Thirty-five, September 3, 2015

Having completed (this past weekend) the "Spawn" segment of "Roll Your Own", a set of 9 mandalas designed by Tracey Horner of InkCircles, I put in some time starting borders of two of the last three mandalas... a partial right side of "Revenge" on the left and the top of "Rematch"  on the right (which will be the center eventually) "Return" has yet to be started:

I was simply positioning the motifs so they would line up with the top row *and* be the same distances apart as all the other motifs. The outlines are currently only half-crosses but that will be remedied when I start stitching in earnest. 

Here is how the piece looks now:

With husband's high school reunion taking up the entire weekend to come and a house guest (totally unrelated to the reunion) arriving Monday, I suspect I won't be getting in a lot of stitching time this week. But I can at least get the outline for "Return" started so I won't have to worry about any more counting!

Happy Labor Day weekend to all (in the US, at least)!

WIPocalypse 2015: August 29 Full Sturgeon Moon

Topic:  Pick one of the WIP pieces you’ve stitched on this month, and tell us about your stitching journey with the piece.

Well, I have two BAPs that have been ongoing since 2013! The first (which I did NOT stitch on this month) is "Save the Stitches", a blackwork sampler design by Elizabeth Almond. I started this back in early February, 2014 and it is now nearly half completed It was last touched in early April, 2015:

The other, which I did stitch on this month, was the series of nine mandalas called "Roll Your Own", designed by Tracy Horner of InkCircles back in 2003. 

Back in 2013, this was originally a SAL with one chart, "Roll Your Own", which meant each person coud choose their own private colorway *or* use one of the those provided by Tracy. This evolved in two directions. First, people sent ideas to Tracy about colorways, often with an inspiration photo, and she came up with the colors to be used. Second, Tracy, decided to issue more mandalas and create a series which we could opt to subscribe to or not. I opted to subscribe to this series and a second (which is a set of circular mandalas with astronomical/geographical terminology - I have them downloaded but not started).

I decided to use the "Tropical Ocean" colorway of 12  shades of blues and greens on a large piece of Silkweaver's "Iris Garden" 32ct Lugana and to stitch all 9 "Roll Your Own" mandalas on the same piece. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!

Anyway, I finished the first of the mandalas, "Roll Your Own",  February 21, 2014:

The second, ""Roll Your Own Reloaded" was done on June 2, 1014:

The third, "Bride of Roll Your Own", was completed by March 2, 2015 (clearly, other things got in the way and RYO was neglected for some time!): 

Next up was "Spawn of Roll Your Own", three small mandalas, each named after one of the daughters in "The Brady Bunch". These were quicker to stitch, given how small they were but... I was finding deadlines harder and harder to meet in both the Crazy Quit Journal Projects and the Bead Journal Projects so these took priroity. Also, a cruise and a road trip interrupted my stitchery as did a long repeated bout with a sinus infection from late 2014 through summer of 2015. Basically, I didn't do a lot of cross stitching on anything during that tie period.

Anyway, the first of "Spawn" to be completed was "Marcia", March 29, 2015:

Then came "Jan", completed August 16, 2015:

And finally, last night, "CIndy":

This is how the mandalas look so far:

The three that are remaining are large mandalas like the first row, and will be arranged below the smaller ones in this order: "Revenge of Roll Your Own", "Rematch of Roll Your Own" and "Return of Roll Your Own". I will probably start with the outline for "Rematch", directly under "Marcia",  so I can get the three placed properly (I'm no good at eyeballing placement so there will be a lot of counting and recounting and counting again before I put in that first black outline stitch.

I would love to have this done and framed for entry in the county fair next summer, but that entry deadline is likely to be late June 2016, and, given my track record on completing these mandalas, I seriously doubt that will be possible. Maybe summer 2017?

SO on to reporting in on WIPOcalypse for August, 2015. Last month, my goals were "continue as we started - July and August Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal blocks and finish "Jan" in Roll Your Own!" Well, I managed that plus a little more ("CIndy")!

So this next full moon, my goals will be:

• September block for the Crazy Quilt Journal/ Bead Journal Projects (the block is assembled --- embellishment with stitchery and beads is all (yeah, all! ) that is required
• Start on "Rematch of Roll Your Own" trying to get at least the outline completed and placement of "Revenge and "return" established.

And if time is good to me, maybe pull out "Save the Stitches" and get a few more blocks filled on that one!

And when these two BAPs are finished, I think I will try some color combinations OTHER Than blue and green!