October recap, November goals

Somehow I managed to miss posting a recap and goals for the last few months. Anyway, here's what I accomplished in October:

• Started and finished Cancer Awareness Heart.
• Started Carolyn Mitchell's My Way and finished enough for my class next weekend.
  
• Continued working on Chris Berry's Tudor Style Purse.
  
• Picked up Martha Wilkins after almost a year's hiatus, and finished another band.
• Took a class with a local teacher for a Bargello needlecase.
• Started EGA GCC Summer Dream by Luan Callery (pics later today or tomorrow).
• Purchased some sampler goodness from Gay Ann Rogers.
  

My WIP pile is growing again...

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For November, here are my goals:

• Blog more (in the spirit of National Blog Posting Month, though I'm not committing to a post every day).
  
• Enjoy the My Way class.
  
• Finish Jim Wurth's Peace Tree so I'll be ready to start the last ornament when it shows up this month.
  
• Continue working on Summer Dream.
• Finish a few of the smaller WIPs kicking around here!

I can foresee another round of my WIP-loss challenge starting fairly soon!

A busy week!

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted. This week was very busy with stitching activities. Only occasionally does the first Monday of the month fall in the same week as the second Wednesday, and when it does, it means we have meetings for both EGA and ANG in the same week, plus stitch night at the LNS on Thursday. Strangely enough, I didn't stitch much at all at the guild meetings, and I tried to make up for it the rest of the week, to the neglect of my blog.

Winds of Color is progressing nicely, though.I finished the darning areas in the sky, and once stitched, I found I liked it. During the stitching, I had my doubts! I've started the areas on the right side that are packed outline stitch.

Right now there are only two parts I want to restitch:

• The area of sky on the left side with the blue grid looks really strange. I'm going to take it out, darken the background, and stitch it again.
  
• Also, I need to take out the river. This piece was designed in 1991, using threads available at that time. This is stitched with 4 strands of that DMC metallic that came on a spool. It's really hard to tame, plus I actually bent a needle trying to pull it (using hemostats) through the congress cloth and the existing stitches with all of the thread bulk. It's also not the best color here. While I was putting it in, I thought about all of the nice metallic ribbons that have been introduced in more recent years. After a trip to the LNS today, I've got a light blue card of Treasure Ribbon from Rainbow Gallery. Hopefully that will be easier to use and look better.

It looks like I'm going to have to forfeit this round of my WIP-loss challenge. While I had listed my two classes with Marion Scoular, coming up next weekend, as exemptions, I did not do the same for the new Gay Ann Rogers mystery. We're doing that as a group project for ANG, and I need to start it ASAP, since I volunteered to lead the group. Can I call another exemption partially through a round? If it makes a difference, I've decided I'm not going to turn in one of the GCCs I signed up for but never started - and I had made that an exemption! :-)

Happy Dance: To the Acorn

Ok, it's been done for a few days, but I'm finally taking the time to get this post written! Here is To the Acorn by Pat Krahn, which is available as an EGA group correspondence course.

My final project looks very different from the original, because I completely changed the colors to those based on Caron Waterlilies #220, Cheyenne. It's on Platinum Belfast linen, and uses DMC pearl 8 & 12 in color 3033, along with Splendor from Rainbow Gallery, colors S889, S913, S937, S964, and S977.

The last area I stitched was the cutwork oak leaf. If anyone's interested, I'll do a post similar to the last one, showing this being worked in stages.

Since the pictures have gotten smaller and smaller as the sampler grew, here's a close-up of the bottom whitework area.

Before I forget, thanks to the many readers who left such great comments on the last post. To those of you who commented that you would be worried about cutting your fabric - remember: it's just string. If you cut the wrong thread, one can always be pulled from the edge of the linen and woven into place of the incorrectly cut thread!

Now I'm back to working on Jim Wurth's Camelot, then I'll pick up Winds of Color again.

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This is my first finish for round 2 of my WIP-loss challenge! Two more to go, including Winds.

WIP-loss Challenge: Round 2

I've started a new piece, and I'm off on round 2 of the WIP-loss challenge. I'm changing the rules a bit for this round. This time, I'm going to finish at least 3 before starting another. The "at least" portion is described in Rule #2.

The rules for this round are:

1. Continue to have fun!
   
2. The "to be finished" list must include my new start (To the Acorn) and Winds of Color. At least one other small item must be finished, but the challenge won't be over until these two larger pieces are done.
   
3. The term finished means the completion of stitching. It does not mean the completed item must be framed or otherwise made into a useful item.
   
4. While selling, giving away, or trashing unwanted UFOs may reduce the total pile, they don't count toward the total finished.
   
5. Exceptions are allowed, if declared up-front. These pieces don't count for starting or finishing. Here are my exceptions:
• the Jim Wurth dodecagon ornament series
• gift stitching for a special occasion or for a Quaker exchange
• the class projects to be taught by Marion Scoular when she visits area EGA chapters in April**
  
• any GCC that I'm starting to panic about finishing on time to send in for evaluation. I can foresee at least one of these, but it's due after To the Acorn, so I hope I don't have to use this exception.
  

Does anyone want to join me for this round? Feel free to adapt these rules to fit your situation. Hopefully this round won't take me another 5+ months.


**Edited to add the projects from Marion Scoular. I'm the one setting up one of the classes, yet I forgot to make this an exemption! :-)

One MAJOR happy dance!

Yesterday's mail brought me the extra threads to finish my Strawberry Purse, designed by Elizabeth Talledo of FingerWork. Thank you, Elizabeth, for a fun project and for the extra thread! This dye lot of green was slightly darker than the original kit thread, but who says all stems on a given strawberry plant are the same shade of green? I like it!

This little happy dance is much more of a celebration than just finishing this bag, though. It marks the end of the first round of my WIP-loss challenge!!!! Here are the 10 "official" finishes since I started the challenge last July:

1. Luck of the Irish by Michele Roberts
   
2. Fantasy Remembered by Luan Callery
   
3. Redwork Mystery Sampler by Gay Ann Rogers
   
4. Traditional Elegance I by Pat Taff / Golden Thread Designs
   
5. Christmas Treat Bag by Shepherd's Bush
   
6. Bead Blanket Sampler by Catherine Strickler / Indigo Rose
   
7. Mimi's Tape Measure by Olde Colonial Designs
8. Treasured Snowflakes & Trees by Mill Hill
9. White-eared Hummingbird by Crossed Wing
   
10. Strawberry Purse by Elizabeth Talledo / Finger Work

Many of these were smaller pieces than I had originally planned to finish, but they're still pieces off of the Work in Progress pile!

Right after I finished the purse yesterday, I wasted no time. I immediately mounted the fabric to begin my new start! It is To the Acorn, an EGA group correspondence course by Pat Krahn. I'll share some progress in the next day or so.

Speaking of happy dances

Yes, here's another small happy dance! This poor little hummingbird had only one color of his tail feathers stitched for over a year. Nothing else, just some of his tail feathers. I picked him up again on Sunday, and he went together so quickly!

Here was his progress on Tuesday evening. Yes, that is an ordinary U.S. dime.
And I finished him last night at the LNS! I love the sparkle of the tiny bit of blending filament on his head.
I can't believe how much easier it is to see 40ct gauze with my true color Ottlite than it was with my old high-intensity bulb. I used to wait for sunny days to stitch on gauze, but this lamp makes it easy to see the holes no matter how dark it is.

Now I'm going to go back to Winds of Color until my Strawberry Purse thread gets here. Then I can finish that up and declare the first round of my challenge over!!!!!

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WIP-loss challenge status: 9 down, 1 to go

SBQ: First 2008 Happy Dance

A quick SBQ today...

This week's SBQ is a yearly favorite in January:

Have you had a happy dance yet this year? If so, tell us about it! (Or just point to the entry that mentions it.) If not, when do you predict it will be?

If we're just talking about finishing a project, I've had two so far this year. See the posts here and here. I'm looking forward to a major happy dance when I finally finish the first round of my WIP-loss challenge and I'm able to start something!

Happy Dance: Treasured Snowflakes & Trees

Hooray! Another WIP down!

Once I got started again with this, it really didn't take very long to finish. I put the final stitches in last night. This is Mill Hill's Treasured Snowflakes and Trees. This one is really going to sparkle in the light of my tree next Christmas!

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WIP-loss challenge status: 8 down, 2 to go

Happy New Year!

Only about 6 hours left of 2007! It's time to recap all that I've stitched this year. That will be difficult for the first few months of the year, because I wasn't at all diligent about writing it down. Instead, I'll just list everything I've finished since I started blogging in March. Pictures for all of these can be seen here.

Monrovia (counted canvas - Jim Wurth)
Goldwork Heart I (goldwork GCC - Michele Roberts)
Tiramisu (blackwork GCC - Dakota Rogers)
Wedding Row (cross stitch - Bent Creek)
Hearts & Flowers (counted canvas - Jim Wurth)
Arcadia (counted canvas - Jim Wurth)
Goldwork Heart II (goldwork GCC - Michele Roberts)
Luck of the Irish (goldwork GCC - Michele Roberts)
The Baroness Edie (counted canvas - Jim Wurth)
Fantasy Remembered (stumpwork GCC - Luan Callery)
First Christmas Ornament (painted canvas - Kathy Schenkel)
Redwork Mystery Sampler (counted thread - Gay Ann Rogers)
Czarina (counted canvas - Jim Wurth)
Traditional Elegance (whitework sampler - Pat Taff)
Christmas Treat Bag (cross stitch - Shepherd's Bush)
Bead Blanket Sampler (counted thread - Indigo Rose)
Mimi's Tape Measure (counted thread - Olde Colonial)

It was definitely a year for GCC's - especially goldwork - and Jim Wurth's Dodecagon series!

So, what are my goals for 2008? Let's see:

1. Enjoy my stitching.
   
2. Keep blogging.
3. Continue keeping up with the Jim Wurth ornaments.
4. More WIP reduction! I'd really like to finish at least 4 of my large WIPs and several small pieces. After this round of my challenge, though, I'll probably switch to finish 3, start 1 (instead of finish 10!).
   
5. Complete my new crop of GCC's on time (which means I really have to start one, since the first one is due in April!)
6. Start one of the "Seasonal Girls" from Gay Ann Rogers.

This is pretty ambitious, but it's good to set stretch goals, right?

Before I forget, I'd like to thank all of you for visiting and commenting on my posts this year. I've enjoyed getting to know my fellow stitching bloggers!

More progress, and another HD

Isn't vacation great? I've been making a lot of progress on my UFOs.

First, I finished Mimi's Tape Measure from Olde Colonial Designs. Another one down!







A few days ago, I pulled out an old GCC. This is Plum Blossoms by Margaret Kinsey. It is in a Japanese technique called Rozashi, which is stitched on ro fabric, and all stitches are vertical. This ro is 40 holes to the inch horizontally, and about 10 holes/inch vertically. All I have left to finish is the background, but it looks like it's going to take a while!

I started a project for the Quaker Quarterly Exchange on the Legacy board. I can't share pics of this until after the recipient gets it, though. This has to be sent out by January 5th.

On several of the boards, folks are talking about what big projects they're starting over the holidays. I haven't started anything, of course, but I did resurrect Martha Wilkins from The Scarlet Letter. This one has a loooong way to go.

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WIP-loss challenge status: 7 down, 3 to go

Happy Dance: Bead Blanket Sampler

Sorry, all! It's been a heck of a week, with all the Christmas preparations. Up until yesterday night at the LNS, I think I stitched about two hours all week. I've been off work since Wednesday, but I've still been baking, writing Christmas cards, finishing up my shopping, fixing my sister's electrical outlets so she could plug in her tree for her party tonight, etc., etc.

On Wednesday, I received a surprise in the mail. I knew Kaz was sending me the Moss Waterlilies I needed to finish the border on my Bead Blanket Sampler, and it arrived Wednesday. That wasn't the surprise, though. The surprise was learning that not only did this generous stitcher send me the thread, but that she sent it from the U.K.! The sharing in this wonderful global community of stitchers never ceases to amaze me. Thanks again, Kaz!

So, for stitch night at the LNS yesterday, I packed up my Bead Blanket Sampler with all the threads I needed to finish. Between time at the LNS and an hour afterward at home, I finished the back cover. Today I made time to finish the project, before sitting down with a pile of presents and wrapping paper.

Here is the Bead Blanket Sampler, designed by Catherine Strickler of Indigo Rose. The three pictures are the front (with the alphabet), the back (with the types of beads listed), and the side (so you can see the piece of velour blanketing that's meant to keep beads from bouncing all over the place while I'm attaching them onto a WIP).

Another UFO down! I'm officially down to 39 WIPs/UFOs. That still seems like a really big number, but I've got another small piece that really only needs a couple of hours to finish, and that will knock the number down again!


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WIP-loss challenge status: 6 down, 4 to go

Happy Dance: Christmas Treat Bag

It seems that the plan to finish small UFOs is working!

This is the Christmas Treat Bag from Shepherd's Bush. I finished up the ribbons on this tonight, changing the arrangement slightly from the instructions.

The drawstring area is made by withdrawing several fabric threads, and a ribbon is threaded through these. The instructions showed that the drawstring was made with the burgundy ribbon, but the bow was tied with both the blue and burgundy ribbons. That seemed silly to me, because whenever the bag was opened, the blue ribbon could be lost. I made the drawstring out with the burgundy ribbons and just attached large silver beads at the ends. I then tied the blue bow over a couple of the linen threads in the drawn thread area where the ends of the drawstring met. Now, the bow stays in place when the bag is opened and closed.

(Oh, and in case you're wondering... I did not stitch the doily on which the easel is resting. My grandmother collected such pieces, mostly through garage sales, and this is one from her collection. I hope my hard work doesn't find its way to somebody's garage sale, but if it does, I hope it finds somebody that appreciates it as much as my grandmother did and as I do!)

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WIP-loss challenge status: 5 down, 5 to go

Happy Dance: Traditional Elegance

It's amazing what you can accomplish while listening to an evening conference call with colleagues in Japan! I was home, listening on the phone speaker, unmuting the microphone only when I needed to discuss something, and happily stitching away! That's the way to work! I found I actually could concentrate more on what was going on (rather than falling asleep or being distracted by email, etc.) while I was stitching than I usually do at work!

To top it off, I finished Traditional Elegance (by Pat Taff) just as the conference call ended! Since the sides of this were laced to the scroll rods, it had been a while since I looked at the bottom row. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had put a "2007" date on it already! I'm glad I didn't have to change it!

The bottom rows are pretty squished from being rolled up on the scroll rods for so long. I'll have to at least dampen this and press it from the back to get the stitches back in shape before I take it in for framing.

Also on the UFO front, this week I picked up a small piece from Catherine Strickler/Indigo Rose. I started the Bead Blanket Sampler a bit over a year ago. For a time it was in my desk drawer at work, and I'd pick it up occasionally during lunchtime. When I switched jobs last year, it found its way home, and I hadn't touched it since.

Monday I finished off the front side and started work on the back - and quickly ran into a problem. There's not enough of one color of thread. I'm not a terribly frugal stitcher, but I try to be cautious when stitching from kits. Nevertheless, I ran out. I need to find enough Waterlilies 'Moss' in a similar dyelot (or another silk brand that looks very similar!) to finish the border on the back. I hate to buy an entire skein for something that would work for <100 stitches. Stay tuned!

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WIP-loss challenge status: 4 down, 6 to go

November Recap & December goals

Despite a few changes in plan (like posting every day and a change in the UFO strategy), I did fairly well this past month. Here were my goals for November:

• Keep blogging! Certainly done, especially after I joined NaBloPoMo!
  
• Finish the GAR mystery sampler. Done! (And framed.)
  
• Start and finish the Jim Wurth ornament that's due out this month. Done!
  
• Complete the border on Examplar IV. Nope. I finished half of it, and then decided to concentrate on a UFO instead.
  
• Work on some of the other pieces in my challenge list (or other WIPs/UFOs). I worked on Scottlee a bit, but then picked up Traditional Elegance.

I also went though my baskets, boxes, closets, and drawers to find and list all of my WIPs & UFOs. I found forty-two pieces that had some amount of stitching done. Several of these are very small pieces, like ornaments or scissors fobs, and others are medium to large pieces. I can't see why those shouldn't count on my WIP-loss challenge, so I'm going to concentrate on getting some of these done in the near future.

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For December, here are my goals:

• Keep blogging! (Though maybe not quite as frequently.)
  
• Finish Traditional Elegance.
  
• Finish at least 2 small UFOs.
• Finish at least 1 additional medium-sized UFO.
  

Here's hoping I work through my challenge soon so I can start one of my GCCs!

Happy Dance: Mystery Sampler

Yes! It's done! I've finished the Redwork Sampler Full of Surprises by Gay Ann Rogers, otherwise known as the Mystery Sampler!

I made another change to the kitchen, which worked well when I realized that there was no date on the sampler. I have a calendar in my kitchen at home, why not in the sampler cottage? It's a tiny bit out of scale, but it's not too bad.




The bathroom was stitched as charted, with the appropriate monogram on the towels.

Here is the complete sampler, stitched on 25ct natural Pearl Linen with Vikki Clayton's Hand-Dyed Fibers in Winterberry 1431. Thanks, Gay Ann, for such an enjoyable project. I had fun personalizing it!
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WIP-loss challenge status: 3 down, 7 to go

Happy Dancing (but no picture!)

I was so excited that I finished Fantasy Remembered late last night! It's my first completed stumpwork piece, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out!

I wish I could share a picture. :-(

I couldn't wait to get it to the framer, so I took it in today. Unfortunately, I failed to take a picture of it before I dropped it off to be framed. Oops!

Well, my LNS is the frame shop, so I'll try to sneak into the back workroom to take a picture while I'm there for stitch night on Thursday.

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At long last, this is my second finish for the WIP-loss challenge!

WIP-loss challenge status: 2 down, 8 to go

It's progress, plus the mystery sampler isn't far behind!! :-)

Good stuff in the mail!

I've had packages waiting for me when I returned home from work over the past two days. Last week, I also received some goodies! Best of all, three of the four packages weren't new projects - they were returning GCCs.

Last week my Luck of the Irish and Tiramisu returned home. These were taken to the LNS for framing this past Thursday. I'll be sure to share pics of the framing!

Yesterday, Fantasy Remembered was on my doorstep. I should be able to finish it in the near future. Stay tuned!

Of course, the remaining package was my order from Gay Ann Rogers. The box was surprisingly heavy! I soon found out why! Gay Ann is so thorough in her instructions that each design has dozens of pages to describe the intricate stitch sequences.

Take Flower Girl, for example. The paperwork for this consists of 4 oversize (11" x 17") charts, a color picture, 3 pages of introduction, and 67 pages of instructions! The entire pile of paper in the box, for 6 pieces, was over 2 inches thick! I can't wait to work on these, but wait I must, as I have plenty to finish before I can start something new.

Hmmm..... maybe I can find a few projects that don't have a lot of work left to do, and count those toward the challenge... so much for my list!

The Baroness Edie is done!

Don't look now, but I've actually had two postings in two days, and since it's the beginning of the month, I'll be posting my monthly goals today or tomorrow, too!

I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to complete the latest dodecagon ornament from Jim Wurth sometime this weekend. Here's what it looked like after last night's stitching. -->

<-- And here it is now! Yes, The Baroness Edie is complete! Happy dance! I really enjoyed the play of all the "Easter" colors on this piece. If you look closely, you can see that each of the four quadrants (outside of the center and the bargello areas) is stitched with the same stitches, but with different combinations of the same 4 colors. (If that makes sense!)

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Unfortunately, as one of the exemptions for my WIP-loss challenge, this piece does not count toward my total.

So, the WIP-loss challenge status is still: 1 down, 9 to go

An Irish Jig!

Hooray! Happy dancing here because Luck of the Irish is complete!I really like the way it came out, even though I discovered that I made the leaf veins in a slightly heavier gold than directed. That's what happens when I do three goldwork projects back to back - the threads get mixed up!

Now I just have to send this in to the group coordinator. Since I'm doing this GCC through the Cyberstitchers chapter of EGA, the projects go through the mail system more than in a face-to-face group. In an FtF chapter, the only mailings are between the teacher and the group coordinator. The instructions are handed out in a meeting, the projects collected for critique in a meeting, and returned to the stitchers in a meeting. For a cyber group, each of these steps requires two mailings: teacher to group coordinator, group coordinator to stitcher (or visa versa).

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This is my first finish for the WIP-loss challenge!

WIP-loss challenge status: 1 down, 9 to go

The To-Be-Finished List

Here's the preliminary list of pieces I want to finish in my challenge. Clicking on the name will show what the finished piece is supposed to look like (or the painted canvas for the kimono), and I'll try to add pictures of the current state of each in the next day or two.

1. Fantasy Remembered - stumpwork EGA GCC by Luan Callery (due in September)
   
2. Luck of the Irish - goldwork EGA GCC by Michele Roberts (due in September)
3. Tassels Kimono - hand-painted canvas from Sophia Designs
   
4. Blackberries - silk gauze design by Gitta's Charted Petit Point
   
5. Be You to Others Sampler (a.k.a. The Ninja Squirrel Sampler) - cross stitch design by Hillside Samplings
   
6. Scottlee - counted canvas design by Jean Hilton
7. Winds of Color - line drawn canvas design by Elsa Parrish
8. Examplar IV - historical-style sampler by Catherine Theron
9. Redwork Mystery Sampler by Gay Ann Rogers (if I get all the parts before finishing this challenge)
10. Rose's Pyramid - stumpwork pyramid box by Marsha Papay Gomola

(Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of Scottlee or Winds of Color on the web!)

I have a lot of work in front of me - but I've deliberately chosen a wide range of techniques, so I won't get bored with any one piece!

Now, I may stitch a bit before going back to Harry Potter...

(Edited to correct the date on this post - I started it on Thursday, but didn't actually post until Saturday. Blogger is weird that way!)