Pieta, pt. 7

I want to get this up before I forget I didn’t post it. I just realized I didn’t post a progress photo after completing the fourth page. I’ve been recently obsessed with Pinterest, and well, wait…is this my blog? I have a blog? You get the idea. So here it is:

Progress stats, according to Terri Reckoning (tm  ):
Completed rows: 61/235, or 26%
Completed pages: 5/16, or 31.25%  It’s actually32%, because the design isn’t a square.
Completed stitches:14442/42300, or 34%

 

Before/Later

 

Later/After

Pieta, pt. 6

I’ll be on Pieta’s Island for quite a long time. Where’s the Skipper? I’ve got three pages done, three pages done…

Progress stats, according to Terri Reckoning (tm  ):
Completed rows: 48/235, or 20%
Completed pages: 3/16, or 18.75%  It’s actually20%, because the design isn’t a square.
Completed stitches:11018/42300, or 26%

  

Before/After

Happy Stitching!

The Joy of Books

If you haven’t seen this video yet, you simply must. It’s so charming, delightful, and wonderful. It makes me ever so happy. It will make you happy, too.

 

Poppies…

I hope the Wicked Witch of the West doesn’t use my poppies to thwart Dorothy’s journey to the Wizard. That would make me sad.

Here are my poppies. They make me smile.

Happy Stitching!

Pieta, pt. 5

Like I said, I was this close to finishing page two. I’ve a bit more to go on page three, but I’ve put a major dent in the big empty spots.

Progress stats, according to Terri Reckoning (tm  ):
Completed rows: 31/235, or 13%
Completed pages: 2/16, or 12.5%  It’s actually13.33%, because the design isn’t a square.
Completed stitches:10212/42300, or 24%

ETA: OOPS! I forgot a before/after.

    

There’s so much done on these first four pages that I’m going to look like Superstitcher this week. I’m so impressed with myself.

Happy Stitching

Pieta, pt. 4

I haven’t managed to get my camera and my poppy biscornu together yet. I forget until I see one or another, and am generally focused on something else. I’ll get there.

I meant to make this post so long ago, but it was during the non-blogging period I had last year. I wasn’t blogging, but I was stitching. I completed my first page! It feels like a major milestone, all that highlighter yellow filling in every block. I’d started by working on each row. When I got close to finishing the first page, I abandoned my row-by-row stitching and concentrated on completing that first page. Now I’m this close to finishing page 2, so I want to document my first page progress.

This is actually a picture with a bit more stitching than I expected to show. I never did photograph my progress after completing page one. Oh, well.

Progress stats, according to Terri Reckoning (tm  ):
Completed rows: 31/235, or 13%
Completed pages: 1/16, or 6.25% It’s actually 6.67%, because the design isn’t a square.
Completed stitches: 8400/42300, or 20%

  

Before/After
Still doesn’t look like anything, but it doesn’t look much like a moon anymore, as the hubby said of the first picture.

Happy Stitching!

Happy New Year

I finished a project on New Year’s Eve, but haven’t photographed the final result yet. I did scan the completed stitching, though:

My love affair with biscornus continues…

Vitals:
Poppy Biscornu by Faby Reilly Designs
Stitched as charted on 32-ct. white linen
I had big plans to modify the back from the original design, but I burned out completely. I got sidetracked after starting this in October. By December’s end, I just wanted to finish the thing and be done with it. I couldn’t believe it had taken me so long to finish.In the end, I omitted all text and simply stitched a bud on each corner, rather than just the one.

Plans for 2012

I’m feeling a bit scattered with my stitching goals. My primary goals right now are to complete Shores of Hawk Run Hollow and to work on Pieta each month. I’ve signed up for a SAL of Mirabilia’s Touching the Autumn Sky which begins the last week of January, and except for wanting to stitch pretty much my entire stash, those are my current New Year goals. I desperately want to start Ann Dale: Big and Beautiful, but there are a ouple of things standing in my way: 1. I’ve ordered her, but not received her yet. 2. This is just as well, as I’m restricting myself from starting her until I’ve completed 11 blocks of SHRH. <– Notice the disciplined restraint.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year. Happy Stitching!

Exchange Day Came Early

Because we couldn’t wait (kiddies, much?), because all ornaments had been received, the exchange moderator moved the opening day to yesterday. I gasped and squealed when I saw my giftie. It was on my to-stitch list. I’d admired it on other blogs. And now I don’t have to stitch it, or think about how I want to stitch it someday, because I have it! I’m thrilled to bits. Thank you, Carmen.

Joy of the Snowflake by Litlle by Little from the 2011 JCS Ornament issue. How perfect is that trim? It’s whimsical and gives the ornament movement and life. Carmen attached it with matching beads.  Just gorgeous. Did I mention I love it? Because I do.

Here is what I stitched for Lyn, and previewed the other day–

She says she likes it, and I’m relieved. Exchanges always tie me in knots, which is why I don’t participate in them often. And then they’re over, and I’m so happy I did it.

Lizzie Kate, JCS Ornament issue from the 90′s, 32-ct shell linen, recommended fibers, flat finish. And stuff. I’ll likely edit it with proper info later, but you get the gist.

Happy Stitching!

Ornament exchange preview

I stitched an ornament for an exchange on a Yahoo group I belong to. The opening date is Dec. 20. I can’t show what I stitched until then, but I can have fun and show a preview here for myself.

This is sort of a picture of the back. The starry pattern is the fabric I used for the ornie back, and I did put our initials and the year on the back with blanket stitch. Really, though, I used a neon framing tool that eliminated the ornament’s image and changed the trim’s color and moved the initials to the center of the ornament. And now I realize how complicated that was, but I was goofing around and didn’t know what I was going to do until I did it. It was just a bit of fun.

Happy Stitching!

Jacks are Wild

The men in my life known as the husband and the boy are both named Jack. This meant stitching Waxing Moons Designs’ Jacks are Wild was inevitable. I began this project with big, speedy plans. I would finish stitching before Halloween. Stop laughing! OK, laugh. I know you share my delusions. I’ll enjoy laughing at you when it’s your turn.

I had fun with this project. I used DMC Glow-in-the-Dark for the lightning bolts, DMC Rayon (I think they call it Satin now) for the sunglasses and DMC Memory Thread for the spirals. I figured if the Jacks were wild, the stitching should be, too.

Vitals:
Jacks are Wild by Waxing Moon Designs
Stitched 2 over 2 on 32-ct Silkweaver Superstition Reflections
Stitched with the following substitutions: instead of GAST Black Crow, I used Raven, and DMC Satin for the sunglasses; instead of GASS Butternut Squash, I used DMC memory thread for the spirals; and instead of GASS Picket Fence, I used DMC glow-in-the-dark.

I took of this picture of the project in the dark to test the glow-in-the-dark threads. They glow, with varying results. I don’t know if you can tell, but if you look at the center Jack’s teeth, some stitches are brighter than others. The brighter stitches are glowing. I used a photo editor to brighten the photo, so it doesn’t appear to have been shot in the dark, but it was. The lightning bolt on the bottom right doesn’t stand out in regular light, because that part of the fabric is white, too. It is detectable in the dark, though, just like in this photo.

Silly fun.

My birthday was yesterday. In addition to stitchy goodness, I also received a lovely drawing from the husband. I don’t know which is more moving: the sentiment or the drawing.

 

Happy Stitching!

Hummingbird Sampler

I’m in a blogging slump. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, I just don’t feel like taking the time to say it once I sit at the computer. It’s a shame, really, especially when it comes to this project, because there’s so much to tell. First, the important stuff: the finished sampler, stitched in my mother’s honor.

My mother lost her battle with breast cancer in 2006. She would have been 73 this month. She loved hummingbirds. And geraniums. I had a plan for stitching this sampler and a small geranium piece I saw in a magazine somewhere, and having them framed with my favorite snapshot of her. Then I learned that the hibiscus I thought was pinkish was purple. When I started stitching the sampler I discovered that my plan for stitching the flower in a pink color wouldn’t work with the dyelot of overdyed floss I had. Which is just as well, as I had already succumbed to stubbornness in the face of my trouble with numbers and had to abandon my original framing idea. See, this is a counted needlepoint chart, meant to be stitched on 18-ct canvas. I reasoned that 18-ct is 18-ct, so I can stitch it on whatever fabric/canvas I choose. This is true, except: many motifs in this design are stitched over 2, and as we know, over 2 on 18-ct = 9-ct. I say we know this. I know this because I stitched this on 36-ct. fabric and ended up with a sampler that is much smaller than I planned, what with 36-ct stitched over 2 being 18-ct, not, um, 9-ct. Oh, yes, I could have stopped stitching and waited until I had the proper size fabric/canvas, but there was that stubbornness trait I mentioned earlier. I was supposed to be 5-3/8″ by 8-1/4″. It’s not. It’s tiny.

See? So tiny! It’s adorable and tiny, as is the hummingbird. So, good. Except that durn not being pink thing. I like purple, I do. I didn’t expect purple, and now I’m all unsure. That and because it’s tiny I’m  fiddling with the idea of adding a pulled/drawn thread border to it. I can’t decide. By the way, this is what I was expecting:

See what I mean? Pink flower. Very rainbow-y overdyed floss. NOT.

Vitals:
Hummingbird Sampler by Rainbow Gallery designed by J.R. Patterson & Pam Miller
Stitched over 2 on 36-ct white linen with RG Bravo! A119 (boquet), RG Splendor S812 (dark lavender) and S808 (med purple), RG Flair F502 (white), and Kreinik #4 very fine braid, color #032 (pearl).

Still, it’s beautiful, and I do love it, in spite of the troubles, uncertainty and hair loss. Here we have fun close-ups, for fun.

Happy Stitching!

Forgot to post

There are a few things I forgot to post. First, my TUSAL shot–

Next up is my latest WIP. When I started this, I expected it to take less time than it has, not only because I always underestimate how long a project will take, but also because I was working on another project that took me much longer than it should have taken. I’ll post about that project soon.

This is Jacks are Wild by Waxing Moon Designs. The lightning bolts are stitched with glow-in-the-dark DMC thread. I’m going to frog the yellow swirl. I will replace it with DMC’s new memory thread or their flourescent thread. I haven’t decided yet. I’m stitching this because the husband and the boy are both named Jack. I’ve decided to have fun with the project because it’s a funny image, and it will make it more fun–and wild.

And last, something that’s been finished since August, I believe.

Elizabethan Stitching Accessories by Tristan Brooks Designs. The original plan was to make a mattress cushion, but apparently, I can’t count. I pouted for a while before assembling them. The pincushion is stuffed with lavender. Mmm…

Happy Stitching!

Full of Hope

I got this kit from Mary Kathryn of Handcrafts Online. I don’t think it’s available anymore. I’m not one to jump on a project the second I get it. I like to procrastinate. Mostly because I want to stitch too many things, and I’m busy doing other things.

Now I’ve got to make it up into a pinkeep. You’d think that would be easy, as the kit came with all of the materials. You’d be wrong.

Vitals:

Full of Hope kit by MKPeter
Stitched with kit supplies

Happy stitching!

And Then I Stitched…

The back of Patty Parsley by CHS. I’d abandoned it quite a while ago in a fit of frustration. The border didn’t match up, and I couldn’t figure out why. I think it might have been especially hard to find the mistake because it was off by a single stitch. Those are the worst, don’t you agree?

In August I decided to finish it the way it was, boo-boo and all. So, I’ll get a dimple when I finish it. At least it’s done and not nagging me, feeding my guilt. Now I can worry over not finishing it. Progress!

Oh, and the reason I couldn’t find the mistake? I assumed it was on the right side, but, NO! it was the left side. Another reminder of what happens when you assume, with “you” and “me” being me and…me.

Vitals:
Patty Parsley, back side. Designed by Kathy Barrick-Dieter of Carriage House Samplings
Stitched 1 over 1 on 28-ct black linen with recommended DMC threads with one exception. I substituted DMC 347 for the recommended red.
Initials are (L to R) the husband’s, mine, Miss Parsley’s and the boy’s.

Happy stitching!

TUSAL, 09/28/11

Only one day late. Impressive. OK, not.

Happy stitching!

Summer at the Shores, pt. 13

I had a difficult time stitching Shores of Hawk Run Hollow over the summer. My motivation was at low tide. I’m happy to report I’ve completed an eighth block. I’m getting there, stitch by stitch, block by block.

Block 11 of Shores of Hawk Run Hollow, 8th block completed

And here’s how she lookin’–

Happy Stitching!

Justice in our Hearts

I stitched Giulia Manfredini’s freebie Justice in our Hearts for the tenth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. According to her, the translation of this Psalm comes from the book, Lighthouse Psalms, (Honor Books, Tulsa, OK), from the Holy Bible New Century Version.

I made a few modifications. I used all Caron Waterlilies, but used pine forest for the green (my choice) and cherry for the red (to avoid a second trip to the LNS). I stitched the white stripes on the flag with honeysuckle rather than leaving them unstitched. I didn’t use the silver metallic, but stitched the stars with honeysuckle and the candle flames with Tahiti. The biggest challenge/modification was crafting my own heart. The pre-fabricated heart Ms. Manfredini used is no longer available. So I faked it. I’m very happy with the way it turned out.

Live, Laugh, Love

I actually finished La-D-Da’s Live, Laugh, Love last month. I hated every shade of green I  owned, and then I remembered that I love Caron Waterlilies Cafe Au Lait. I’m pleased with the finish. This piece was what got me my out of my funk. I had been trying to finish a block of CHS’ Shores, but I couldn’t do it. This design kept calling to me–Yoo-Hoo, Terri, you know you want to finish me, come on, give it a whirl–So thank you, design, you were right.

Vitals:
Live, Laugh, Love by La-D-Da
Stitched one over two on 36-ct linen (pearled barley, I think) with CC Belle Soie Espresso and Caron Waterlilies Cherry and Cafe Au Lait.

Happy Stitching!

Small finishes

Two small finishes of projects stitched earlier this year.  First is Petite Confidences, or Key to My Heart. I saw a different way to stitch smalls together in Ginnie Thompson’s Linen Stitches and thought I’d give it a whirl. She outlined her pieced with chain stitches, saying it made for a pretty finish. It certainly makes for a pretty outline. I can’t say I noticed much difference when they were assembled.

I used a grommet to be able to hang the lock. I was going to use eyelets for the key, but I used thick interface to make the pieces sturdy and had trouble getting eyelets through each of the keys. I made Kloster blocks instead. It worked out well. This picture shows them hanging from my purse handle. I moved it to the zipper because my zipper pull broke, but I’m thinking of moving it again.

Next I finished the Tulip Bookmark by Needleworks. I struggled with the cord, but I’m happy with the finished product.

Happy Stitching!

TUSAL catch up

June was a really bad month. That’s about as interesting as it gets. I didn’t get much stitching done over  the summer. I didn’t post them, but I somehow managed to take TUSAL pics. Then I broke my arm patting myself on the back.

June 01, 2011 TUSAL photo

July 01, 2011 TUSAL photo

July 30, TUSAL photo

August 29, 2011 TUSAL photo

 I hope you’ve had a lovely summer. I’ll try to catch up soon with what I’ve been up to lately. Happy Stitching.