Week Thirty-Eight - September 22, 2016

Having completed the birth samplerand taken it off to the framer, it was time to get to work on the wedding sampler. I chose “Love Is” by X’s & Ohs (by Jo Gatenby). It is the passage from 1 Corinthians (13:4-8a) that I read at my niece’s wedding back in April (before I took a flying header off the podium and sprained my ankle!). I thought it would work in the variegated red DMC floss called for and chose 32 ct white linen as my fabric.

However, this is as far as I’ve gotten in the last three days:. 

I hadn’t realized how much of it was backstitch, in two strands at that! And it is a constant stop and start, complete with waste knots, in order to keep that red thread from showing behind the white linen. I think I shall HATE this before it is done!

WIPocalypse 2016 - September 16

The discussion topic for this WIPocalypse period is “Tell us a story about the journey you took through one of your completed pieces.’ Sadly, I can’t answer this as, for me at least, what I stitch doesn’t necessarily reflect a story about me or it’s stitching. It just is/was… It may have traveled with me (usually a needlepoint piece) but that is just in case I am left alone in a hotel room while husband is out on his conference duties and I need something to fill the time if I’ve run out of reading material. My traveling pieces may take years to complete (for example, the last completed traveling piece was “Butterfly Beauty”, started in May, 2005, stitching completed in May 2006,  and finally finished as a pillow in January 2012!) and may have been all over the country and even on a cruise or two. But it doesn’t reflect any specific “journey”.

In my last WIPocalypse report, http://210920746822434353.weebly.com/my-stitchery-journal/week-thirty-three-august-18-2016-and-wipocalypse  I had proposed the following goal - to finish the birth sampler and send it off to my niece. Well, it is finished (except for blocking and pressing, that is):

Once framed, THEN it will be sent off to my niece… So I didn’t meet that goal… but I came close!

My next project is a belated wedding sampler for another niece. I need to kit it out, my plans for today. 

The long-term WIP onboard is the “Save The Stitches” blackwork sampler, designed  by Elizabeth Almond (in the works since February 2014). I MAY or may not get it out and work on it. 

Week Thirty-Seven - September 15, 2016

I set myself a goal to try to have the birth sampler ready to frame by the end of this week. So, once I finished all the cross stitch, I set right in to the backstitching and now have all the basic backstitch and French Knot bits done:

All that remains is the personalization, which I will have to chart out before starting.

Meanwhile, that wedding sampler  (for the wedding last April!) I ordered needs to be kitted so I can start on that. It’s only one color so it ought to move along nicely… just need to decide on fabric and color.

Saturday will be a day lost to stitchery — home football game!

Week Thirty-Six - September 8, 2016

Some progress made this week on the birth sampler, mainly on the single-stranded cross stitching of the grass and waterr, despite one night of stitching foregone in favor of binge watching the last series of "Lewis"! Only three more pairs of animals to stitch (one is started) before the backstitching. Man, do I ever dread that!

This coming weekend is going to be a real test of my mojo since there is quilt guild tonight and the Friends of the Library book sale and the Volunteer Firefighter’s “steak out” on Saturday. That means at least two days where I won’t have the energy or time to stitch. Sure am hoping to get this done and to the framers as the kid is already a week old!

Week Thirty-Five - September 1, 2016

What a week! Here I was, stitching away on the birth sampler for a great-nephew who was supposed to be born next week. Naturally, he must have heard I have deadline issues because he was born on August 30! And I am nowhere near finished. Oh well, at least I have all the data needed to finish the sampler when the overall stitchery is finished!

Here is where I stand so far - only three more rows of the sea to do in the single-strand cross stitching and a flag on the flag pole and the I can move on to the left half.

Oh, by the way, I’ve been calling it “Two by Two” and I got that wrong, it’s “All Creatures Birth Sampler”, a “lite” version of “Two by Two”! Good thing it's a "lite" version too! I'd NEVER have attempted the full-blown version for this deadline!

Back to the stitching grind-stone — there’s a lot of green grass on the left that will probably take several days (all that space in one color! AAARGH!) and several pairs of animals before I can move on to the backstitching!

Week Thirty-Four - August 25, 2016

Well, I didn’t get as much stitching done this past week as I had hoped. A big kerfuffle about someone hacking my Apple Store account took all of Friday on the phone and back and forth to Federal Express. And Wednesday night was filled with tornado warnings, tornado watches, sever thunderstorm warnings and heavy downpours. Both event tended to put me off my stitching “stride”, as it were.

But I did get some stitching done and the full cross-stitching right-hand-side of the birth sampler is nearly done:

 (what remains to be done in cross stitched water using single instead of double strands… And of course, there is copious backstitching and a few French knots on another set of charts…)

I hope to do better this next week! But then, I always say that, don’t I?

Week Thirty-Three - August 18, 2016 and WIPocalypse

The WIPocalypse topic for discussion this month is “Have you ever read any fictional books that involve embroidery?  If so, give us some recommendations…”

Yes, I have although I hate to say that most needlework-related fiction uses knitting - and a few years ago, quilting - as a theme more than traditional embroidery. In fact there is even a sewing circle-themed mystery series… But I digress.

There are three needlework authors in my “library” and I have read many of the books listed here. 

I can highly recommend the Needlecraft Mystery Series, all in paperback (a few in hardcover) by Monica Ferris (pseud. of Mary Pulver Kufeld), set in Minnesota.  The books include clever (albeit cozy) plots and well-developed characters and includes needlework patterns. (Note, even she has gone over to the “dark side", with her latest boom a knitting themed one!)

• 1.  Crewel World (Berkley, 1999)
• 2.  Framed in Lace (Berkley, 1999)
• 3.  Stitch in Time, A (Berkley, 2000)
• 4.  Unraveled Sleeve (Berkley, 2001)
• 5.  A Murderous Yarn  (Berkley, 2002)
• 6.  Hanging by a Thread (Berkley, 2003)
• 7.  Cutwork (Berkley, 2004)
• 8.  Crewel Yule (Berkley, 2004)
• 9.  Embroidered Truths (Berkley, 2005)
• 10.  Sins and Needles (Berkley, 2006)
• 11.  Knitting Bones (Berkley, 2008)
• 12.  Thai Die (Berkley, 2008)
• 13.  Blackwork (Berkley, 2009)
• 14.  Buttons and Bones (Berkley, 2010)
• 15.  Threadbare (Berkley, 2011)
• 16.  And Then You Dye (Berkley, Dec. 2012)
• 17.  Drowning Spool (Berkley, 2014)
• 18. Darned if Your Do (2015)
• 19. Knit Your Own Murder (2016)

I am a little less prone to recommend the two series I have on my iPad. The first is The Embroidery Mystery Series by  Amanda  Lee (aka Rebecca York), set in Oregon. To be honest, I can't remember if I have read any of these even though they are in my "read" file":

• 1.  The Quick and the Thread (Signet,2010)
• 2.  Stitch Me Deadly (Signet, Feb., 2011)
• 3.  Thread Reckoning (Signet, 2011)
• 4.  The Long Stitch Good Night (Signet, 2012)
• 5.  Thread on Arrival (Signet, 2012)
• 6.  Cross-Stitch Before Dying (Signet, 2013)
• 7. Thread End (2014)
• 8. Wicked Stitch (2015)
• 9. The Stitching Hour (2015)
• 10. Better Off Thread (coming Dec. 2016)

The other series I have on my iPad is the Mainly Needlepoint Mystery Series by Lea Wait, a cozy series set in Maine. I have the first three and have read the first one.  

• Twisted Threads (2015)
• Threads of Evidence (2015)
• Thread and Gone (2015)
• Dangling by a Thread  (2016)
• Tightening the Threads  (coming in 2017)

Last month, I had low expectations for my stitching this month. My mojo was gone and I was struggling to put in even minimal stitching. However, I DID manage to complete the "Roll Your Own" mandala series (Ironically, on the day the county fair I had been aiming for ended! Maybe next year!

Instead of moving on to the "Save the Stitches" blackwork sampler, I took my own advice and started something new. Even though it has a deadline of early September, I took on the Bothy Threads "Two by Two" birth sampler and, even though it is full of fudging because of counting errors, I am making some progress on it:

It is a break from all that blue and that, along with stitching on 14ct AIDA, helps. I wouldn't call it a cure for my lack of stitchery mojo but maybe it's a start...

So next month, my plan is to have finished this piece and send it on to our niece.