Back to Basics and Learn a New Technique, Week Thirteen

Nothing to show today since Garden Sampler is finished. I need to decide: will it be an Ink Circles chart (I have the fabric but need to pull the floss for two of them), a UFO (I still have a few long-term UFOs in my cabinet) or that Just Cross Stitch Alphabet Sampler that I stitched the letter "M" from (I have the fabric and the floss already pulled). Or maybe something altogether new... Hmmmm!

Of course, I COULD cut the fabric for the guild mystery quilt or even my Unstarted Quilt Project. To say nothing of actually stitch some of the blocks together... But that means I need to spend time in my basement craft room and it is so beautiful outside...

And I NEED to finish the March BJP and plan the one for April. It is April 1, after all!

A quandary!

Quilting Report

Well, I did it. I got up the courage to cut into that fabric for the "row of the month" challenge. So 0.4yds of 2.5" wide strips await my ginning up the courage to fire up the sewing machine and start stitching on the first 8 blocks...

So my very first Stash report:

Used this Week:  0.4 yards
Used year to Date: o.4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Used for 2010:  0.4 yards

Meanwhile, I dug out a UFO San Man Originals Christmas ornament to finish up. This is what it looked like yesterday when I found it...

Back to Basics and Learn a New Technique, Week Three

A quaker Christmas met "the frog" this last week. I think I ripped out as much as I stitched so I didn't quite finish the Balsam Fir motifs (you can see the last motif in the bottom left that still needs it's interior stitched. The it's on to the red (Cupid) letters and numbers and thd gold (Old Gold) stars and angel.

I ordered some fabric to go with my Unstarted Quilt Project pice for the guild. I went with yardage of solids: brown, beige and two shades of blue --- this many since I ordered online and am not sure how they will work with my half-yard lengths. So while I will stitch from stash, i will have actually increased my stash by several yards. That's OK, though, as one of the choices will probably work as the backing.

The other Black Swamp Quilter's Challenge was Row of the Month. I "shopped my stash" and found these fabrics which I had purchased when living in Saudi. I clearly liked them as I have YARDS of each of the patterned fabrics and I bought it in two colorways: Forest green on the left; deep red on the right with the yellow fabric in the front matching the red colorway. And I lucked out in that I have green, red and yellow "solids" that actually "go"!

Back to Basics and Learn a New Technique, Week Two (one day late)

Ooops! I lost track of time this week. 

But besides finishing the beading on my January BJP, posted earlier this week, I stitched on "A Quaker Christmas". The Balsam Fir Crescent Colors part is a little more than 2/3 done now...

I assembled the fabrics for the Black Swamp Quilt Guild "Unstarted Project" challenge and took them to the guild meeting on the 14th. here are my fabrics. Maybe I will actually make a quit with them (and some additional fabric will be needed, I'm sure) now that I joined the challenge. Not so sure about the striped on on the left --- it's more of a twill than a quilting cotton...

Oh, and I picked up the "Row of the Month" challenge at the guild meeting as well. Has ambition gotten the best of me? We shall see!

Bead Journal Project - my January page

Not the most even of curves and there must be a trick to stitching in points (I wonder if I am having tension issues, even though I used a hoop and went so very slowly). Also not sure I like my color choices.

Anyway, I'm calling it "North Wind" because that has been what January has been so far: cold, snowy, wind from the north...

Still needs to be "finished" (binding and backing, maybe into a flat-fold):

Back to Basics and Learn a New Technique, Week One

Back to Basics. Well, holdover from 2009 WIPS, anyway. Here is "A Quaker Christmas"nearly 50% complete (I've only been stitching with the Balsam Fir Crescent Color so far --- there are still a red (Cupid) and gold (Very Old Gold) to do which is why you see some unusual gaps in places...

Now, as for "Learn a New Technique", it's sort of preliminary but here is the paper-pieced Grandmother's fan block (5.5"  square) which I intend to use as a background for my January "installment" in the 2010 Bead Journal Project. I have a pattern in mind, a series of swirls radiating from the blue corner at the bottom right, in white and blue beads. Meant to represent snow (which it is doing right this minute, in fact)... I hope they will show up on this fabric but, if they don't, it's a learning process after all.

2009 Wrap-Up and 2010 Plans

Back at the first of the year, I defined what my goals for this year in stitchery would be:

"Over on Cross Stitch Crazy, we name the year for what we want to accomplish and this year, it's "Use what's mine (stash you already have) and start/complete a BAP (Big @$$ Project)"...

"I'm interpreting "Use what's mine" as work on current WIPs and (IF I finish them all) UFOs..."

So how did I do? Well, working from stash:

Out of 16 completions, 9 were completions of old WIPs (and therefore my stash):

• "Autumn Leaves"
• "DMC Paisley tie-backs"
• "Tsunami Sampler"
• "Bath 5¢"
• "The Needlework Shoppe"
• "Walking to Town"
• "raw edge appliqué 'quiltlet'" (still not quilted)
• "San Man Originals Snow collage"
• "Free Flight"

Five were small pieces started from scratch in 2009, all using stash fabric and floss:

• "the letter M" (a gift)
• "Purple Penguin" (a swap ornament)
• "Letter Heart" (I'd intended this to be a quilt square but it was too big)
• "Missing "T" Stitch" (a quilt square)
• "Rooster" (another quilt square)

One was a larger new start from stash:

• "Wedding Sampler" (another gift)

I had one BAP (or so I defined it, because it was stitched on black, a real difficulty for me):

• "Spirit of the Sockeye" (I had to special order the black linen)

So I think I did pretty well --- I thinned out my UFO stash pretty significantly and only had to order one piece of fabric (for my BAP), although I did buy more fabric for three projects already kitted up for 2010 (I had nothing of the appropriate size for those three pieces).

Cross-Stitch Crazy is leaning toward "Back to Basics" ... and Learn A New Technique" for 2010 and I already have some projects planned for the coming year that might well fit into that theme.

A piece which was started in December, fate still not certain but this one will be a 2010 completion. This had already been kitted up two years ago so I consider it a stash piece. It is also a BAP, with six sheets of chart and 12" x 20" image size.

• "A Quaker Christmas".

There are also five long-standing UFO's in my cupboard that I hope to make some progress on:

• "Antique Rose" napkins
• "Angel of Love"
• "Celestial Angel"
• "Map of England and Wales"
• "Harvest Sampler"
• "Nature's Song" (excerpted from a larger chart)

Also kitted up and candidates for stitching in 2010 is the flower alphabet from which the letter "M" was taken. I had to order fabric for this piece, as well as for the following two for which I have yet to pull floss: Ink Circles' "Sea Stars" and Ink Circles' "Garden Stars". 

All of these would qualify as "Back to Basics" in my eyes as they are all "just" cross stitch.

For my "Learn A New Technique", I  hope to do some work on some quilt UFOs and to learn beading by participating in The Bead Journal Project. And perhaps one or more of my 2010 completions will be suitable for entry in the County Fair (something I have never had courage to do before.)