Weekend Progress Report: January 16, 2011

Just a word about my other WIPs ... you know, the ones left over from 2010! I have been making intermitent progress on these and will continue to do so by just working the Crazy January starts into the rotation one or two at a time.

Workbasket's Quaker Sampler. I am really pleased with the progress made on this. I finished the gold motif and the two letters, C & D, stitched in gold. I see this piece becoming a year-long companion, with one motif and its companion letters worked each month. Since this piece is being done on 40ct linen, it's not a candidate for a travel piece. I can only work on it in very good light ... so I'll be tethered to my Ott light when working on this,

Aury's Red, White and Blue Quaker Heart. This is my current travel piece, small enough to fit in my purse and pull out when waiting in line, or at the drive-thru at the bank or pharmacy, or in a doctor's waiting room. I do want to focus on this a bit more in the next few days because I would like to have it finished and assembled in time to hang on the Valentine's Day tree. When I last worked on this, only half of the blue stitching had been completed. Yesterday, I was able to complete the blue section as well as all of the red areas. This is being stitched on a 28ct linen from Silkweaver called Starquest, using Belle Soie silks Blue Lagoon, Rose of Sharon and Icing. I just love Belle Soie silks ... such a pleasure to stitch with. I can recommend these reasonably priced silks wholeheartedly. I'll continue to use this little Quaker as my travel project for the coming week and hope to have it stitched and assembled before Friday.

And since this will be a long weekend due to Martin Luther King Day, I'll be deferring the first Crazy January start to return to my stitching rotation, Sue Hillis' Cookie Santa, till Monday. I was hoping to work through the challenge projects in chronological order but some of the flosses and fibers I ordered way back in mid-December for a few of the projects [notably, The Ice Dragon's Kingdom and Black'd Skie] are still on back order. I expect I'll have to do some skipping about. Not a hardship ... I really love all the pieces I selected for the challenge and will be delighted to return to each and every one of them.