Weekend Progress Report: January 2, 2011

Documenting the first two days of the Crazy January 2011 Challenge:

January 1: Sue Hillis' Cookie Santa. For the past several years now, I have started a Christmas project on the first day of the New Year ... my way of extending the Christmas season a bit longer. I didn't see any reason to deviate from this practice during the Crazy January Challenge. I usually choose a Sue Hillis or Prairie Schooler piece. This year it's the fifth in the Charmed Santa series by Sue Hillis, stitched on a 28ct Silkweaver linen called Desert Sky using the recommended DMC floss. A respectable start, if I do say so myself, with a good bit of the border done. Once I have completed my 15 starts, this is the piece I shall return to first, hoping for a January finish.

January 2: Dragon Dream's The Ice Dragon's Kingdom. Another piece that starts with a border. While I love Jennifer Aiken Smith's designs, I am not crazy about using rayon floss ... and I am learning I really dislike Anchor Marlitt floss. I am not entirely certain that the final result is worth all the irritation. I have stitched another of the large Dragon Dreams dragons, Storm Bringer, which proved to me that the designer really knows what she is doing ... in spite of my personal preferences. I am stitching this on another piece cut from my 28ct cashel Silkweaver [Desert Sky] using the recommended floss. I have one of the needed Kreinik and one of the Marlitt on back order along with some Mill Hill beads. Otherwise this is all kitted up ... at least I have what's needed to start it all off and I should have the rest of the materials by the time I am ready to pick it up again in February.

The biggest problem I am having with this challenge ... yes, I am already having problems at day 2 ... is that I don't have startitis as badly as I thought I did. Starting a new project each day means that just as I get interested in a project, it is time to move on and start the next one. Most irritating! Even though tomorrow's project is Homespun Elegance's The Stitcher which I have wanted to do for ages ... I don't want to put The Ice Dragon's Kingdom down until I have completed the bottom leg of the border, at least.

WIPs

Life hasn't left much room for stitching this week as we enter into the final countdown for Christmas ... cleaning and shopping have supplanted my usual leisure hour activities ... and work seems to be taking up more than its fair share of the day: a nine hour workday on Monday and an eleven hour workday on Tuesday and another eleven hour workday today ... even though today was punctuated with the mandatory Christmas parties, regional and parish, it's still work so far as I am concerned since I am hostess of the parish party with all the set-up and clean-up that entails ... and though this afternoon's event was a luncheon party, glad-handing colleagues-in-ministry, it kept me from all the things I needed to do at home and at the parish office. Call me Scrooge, but I really wish I could get off the merry-go-round of professionally mandated Christmas celebrations and just celebrate in my heart and in my home. I guess as I get older I find myself in need of more simplicity ... less stuff, less fuss, less running to and fro, and, dare I say it, fewer people. My natural inclination to be something of a hermit is intensifying at an alarming rate. But comparative solitude shall just have to wait till the retirement years and then, with all the natural contrariness of human nature, I shall probably long for company.

But I did squeeze in a bit of stitching, if only for the sake of my sanity. Here's my current progress on one of my ornaments for the Bride's Tree SAL: Workbasket's Quaker Santa.

Weekend Progress Report #49

This week has seen little time for stitching ... let alone for the mini-finishing-frenzy I had hoped to manage. I've put in 10+ hours overtime because of various Whole Community Catechesis Events I've had to run three times this week and will be running once more next week. Then late Thursday night I ignored Doctor's orders/warnings and indulged in a Sicilian pizza with black olives ... people lacking gall bladders should not eat such fatty foods ... but it has been four months since the surgery, all has been going well, and I thought I would risk a small indulgence. I didn't even finish my second piece. Never again, I was in pain all night and wasted my entire day off Friday retreating from the lingering pain by catching up on my sleep for the better part of the day ... not at all the way I had intended to spend the day off. In fact, I wasn't fully back to normal till late Saturday afternoon.

Even so, I squeezed in a bit of stitching time on Workbasket's Quaker Sampler, maybe an hour or so a day. This has been such a pleasure. I like the delicacy of stitching with one strand over two threads on a higher count fabric [in this case 36ct] ... and am amazed that all these old eyes require is a good light without yet having to resort to magnifying glasses. In fact, I have been enjoying this piece so much it has been all I worked on from Monday through Sunday morning before church. I just had to complete a third motif and the letters that were stitched in the same shade on either side of it. I am using only four shades of GAST on this project: Cranberry, Forest Glade, Gold Leaf and Midnight. This contributes to the elegant simplicity of the piece. Can you tell I am loving it?

Bride's Tree SAL ... the last two ornaments: Quaker Angel [November] and Quaker Santa [December]. I did manage to get back to work on the December Santa piece for an hour or so in the afternoon. The photo shows the minimal progress I have made. This is the very first time all year that I am working out of order on this SAL. The reason is simple: though I have chosen the Quaker motifs I wish to combine to make my November Angel, I haven't actually charted the piece to see how everything goes together. I have a feeling that the November Angel may very well be my Christmas break stitching project. It will make it to the tree sometime before the New Year but probably not in time for Christmas. But since I keep my tree up til January 6 [Little Christmas, aka The Feast of the Epiphany], I'll have a little time to enjoy it this year.

But, alas, no sewing finishes.

Just to round off the photos, I am including one of the round robin that was finished last week. Waiting for the perfect conditions for daylight photography was my excuse. Well, what with working extra hours and sleeping away my day-off, I was never able to take advantage of the good photography conditions on offer this past week. So here is a less than perfect indoor shot.

The Design Process

I couldn't find a Quaker chart for a pinecone for the October theme in the Bride's Tree SAL, so I cast about for one I could adapt to my purposes. I remembered that Gift of Stitching had a nice Pine Cone ornament that I had stitched as a gift for a stitching friend last year. I looked at that and ultimately decided it didn't work for me.

So I grabbed my handy dandy pad of graph paper and a #2 pencil and started doodling. I used a standard Quaker leaf motif for the rounded top of the pine cone and then adapted a Quaker circle into an overlapping honeycomb for the remainder of the chart. And, knowing I would change it out considerably, I borrowed the branch and pine needle part of the GOS chart as a jumping off point for my first sketch. My immediate reaction was that the first sketch was entirely too top heavy and that, paradoxically, there was also too much white space in the top third of the design.

I started stitching anyway, making the changes I envisioned on the fly ... which is the way I do a lot of my designing. My first change was to eliminate the bottom third of the leaf motif and replace it with the overlapping circles. Next I broadened the top center piece of the leaf motif and filled in some of the white space with connecting cross stitches that left small crosses of negative space. Finally, I stitched a very stylized rice stitch branch for my pine cone and some long stitch pine needles. After completing the stitching to my satisfaction, I charted what I had actually stitched, just to have it on file.

Now I need to get started designing a Quaker Angel. I have a clear vision of what I want: a horizontally oriented angel in flight with fragments of standard circular or oval Quaker motifs forming wing and gown, a circular motif for the halo, and the bodice and head stitched in a simple, though not primitive, style ... think Prairie Schooler.

I wonder how many people design the way I do ... half on paper, half on linen. The creative process is a very personal one, to be sure. And I don't claim to be anything but a rank amateur but I do wonder if others share the same process that I do. The vision > a half-realized graph or sketch > a stitched model on which the actual design problems are resolved. No doubt, the real professionals are adept at using all the computer models for designing but I prefer the feel of a pencil or a needleful of floss in my hand.

In fact, sometimes I work entirely on linen with floss like I did with my Fertile Circles Needlebook which I must really get back to and finish. I think, having solved all the design problems, played with all the variations on a theme, and experimented with all the different fibers and techniques to my satisfaction, I just moved on ... even though just a few more hours stitching would have seen the project to completion ... or at least, ready for the final sewing finish! The same thing happened with my Beach Find Pansies, which grew out of finding oyster shell fragments on a Chesapeake Bay beach that reminded me of pansy petals. These projects will have to be resurrected from the UFO basket and finished up in December or January.

Stash diving & WIP Progress

Every now and again I like to go through my stash of charts, partly just to refresh my memory of what is there, partly to plan for the future and partly just to admire the work of the many talented designers I patronize. During the earlier part of the week, I was troubled with sinus headaches that were edging toward migraine intensity. As a result I wasn't able to concentrate on stitching. Instead, I used my usual stitching time to do a bit of browsing through my stash. Although I stitched three Halloween ornaments from JCS September 2010 last month, I have another four charts for Halloween ornaments that I had planned to stitch but didn't get to. I'll be keeping these charts in my current stitching bag to be stitched in 2011: Blue Ribbon's Halloween Greetings from the JCS issue, Monsterbubbles Day of the Dead also from the JCS issue, The Stitcherhood's Boo Pumpkin freebie and Primitive Needle's By the Light of the Moon freebie. I will be designating 2011 a year of Halloween and fantasy stitching. I have such a heavy concentration of Halloween charts in my stash as well as a plethora of dragon charts ... all of which I love and am itching to stitch. Yes, I know that, according to the Chinese calendar, 2010 was the year of the dragon ... but for me it will be 2011. As for larger projects I'll be slipping into the rotation: I definitely want to work on Cross Eyed Cricket's Sleepy Hollow and Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie as well my four remaining Dragon Dream's dragon charts [Dragon of the Summer Sky, Dragon of the Ice Kingdom, as well as the compass point dragons and the dragon tea party charts], a few TW dragon freebies and a beautiful Celtic knotwork dragon that I bought as a pdf directly from the designer. Then I have a few more Workbasket Quaker animals to stitch before I can assemble my quilt. And then there is Something Wicked and Ghosts and Ghoulies Etui and Zucca and The Goblin Market and ... But all that is for next year.

My current project: The Town Square SAL Clock Tower, by the Cricket Collection. I probably managed 3 or 4 hours of stitching on this today, in between chores and errands. However, I am going to have to set it aside for a little while since I am waiting for some GAST floss in colors I didn't have in my rather extensive stash. I am always surprised when a design calls for a GAST and WDW color I don't have. I tend to have most of the muted traditional sampler colors ... and this design calls for a number of bright vibrant colors not found in the sort of thing I usually stitch. I ordered the floss from Stitchery Row back in late October but they forgot that I had said I didn't mind paying two shipping and handling charges if they didn't have everything in stock. I had asked them to send me whatever they had on hand immediately and the back orders in a second mailing.

Another small finish:

The Octber Bride's Tree SAL ornament. The Quaker Pine Cone is my own design. As soon as I receive more fabric from 123 stitch, I'll get started on designing and stitching an angel in the Quaker style for the November ornament... I don't want to fall behind again with this SAL. I have ordered Workbasket's Quaker Santa for the final ornament in December. It'll be nice to have the complete set.

Weekend Progress Report #44

While I did quite a bit of stitching and finishing during the past week [see recent posts], I didn't do a great deal during the weekend.

I did design and start stitching a Quaker Pinecone ornament for the October entry in the Bride's Tree SAL. I have used Belle Soie silks Cinnamon Silk and Chocolat and have yet to choose a green silk for the pine needles. I'll have to place an order for more 28ct raw Belfast linen on Monday so that I'll be able to stitch the Angel [November] and the Santa [December].

And I kitted up my next piece for the Town Square SAL: The Cricket Collection's Town Clock. I am stitching all the pieces in this SAl on overdyed blue linen in various compatible shades/dyelots and from different manufacturers. I started things on Silkweaver's Starquest and then started using Zweigart's Meditation. But I did have one piece of Starquest left that was the perfect size for the Town Clock. I will stitch all the finished blocks into a quilt for a queen size bed when I have enough. I am envisioning placing The Town Clock at the very center and surronding it with strips of small garden print cottons in log cabin fashion and then some divider strips in either a grey [for cobblestone] or dull red [for brick] to represent paving. Next will come all the public buildings, making a rectangle joined by the same grey or red used to represent paved paths. There'll probably be two rectangles of public buildings. The last and outer ring will be the shops. I can always use some nice LHN or PS house charts to make residential blocks for pillow shams ... this is a long-term project, rather like my Quaker animal quilt-to-be, but I am enjoying accumulating stitched blocks for both quilts and dreaming over them.

Assessing October Goals, Setting November Goals

OCTOBER GOALS: Not too bad, much more green [accomplished] than red [neglected].

SALS AND RRs

Linda's RR: Stitch and mail the last piece to Linda by 10/15. This was RECEIVED in the mail on Oct. 15 and I started stitching on Oct. 16. The finished piece was mailed on 10/18. Now I simply have to wait till my own piece comes home.

Town Square SAL: Val's Stuff Train Depot. DONE. 10/11/10.

Bride's Tree SAL: Catch up to October ornament. May: DONE. 10/1/10. June: DONE, 10/15/10. July: DONE, 10/20/10. August: DONE, 10/24/10. September: DONE 10/27/10. October: deferred to November goals.Rachel's Halloween SAL: Stitch a Halloween ornament from the JCS issue. Completed M Designs' Winifred Witch and began Plum Street Sampler's Halloween Greetings.

MONTHLY PROJECTS:Thanksgiving Ornaments: Stitch four ornaments from CEC Thanksgiving Circle to catch up to goal of one ornament a month. Deferred to November goals.

BAP: Finish Section 1 & 2 TW's Autumn Faerie. Deferred to November goals.

MEDIUM PROJECT: Resume work on The Sweetheart Tree's Holly and Hearts Sampler. Deferred to November goals.

SURFACE EMBROIDERY: Continue work on Encrusted Crazy Quilt Square, mastering the boullion stitch. The aim is to get in at least one hour a week. Deferred to November goals.

SEWING PROJECTS: Finish-finish ornaments to date ... DONE ... and stitch up two larger projects from the finishing basket. Afraid not.




NOVEMBER GOALS

SALS
Town Square SAL: Kit up and stitch The Clock Tower.
Bride's Tree SAL: Stitch October and November ornaments.

MONTHLY PROJECTS:
Thanksgiving Ornaments: Stitch four ornaments as needed to catch up to the goal of one a month.
UFO: Peacock biscornu.

FOCUS PROJECTS:
BAP: Finish TW's Autumn Faerie
Medium Project: Resume work on The Sweetheart Tree's Holly and Hearts Sampler.

SURFACE EMBROIDERY: Continue work on Encrusted Crazy Quilt Square, mastering the boullion stitch. The aim is to get in at least one hour a week.

SEWING PROJECTS:Finish-finish ornaments to date and stitch up two larger projects from the finishing basket.

Okay, so I lied ...

... in my last post about dropping all ornament stitching for the time being and reverting to stitching on my BAP. But I was so close to finishing my September ornament for the Bride's Tree SAL that I just had to continue working on it till it was stitched and assembled. Progress is addictive. In any case, I'll have to stop work on the Bride's Tree SAL in a little while. I have just enough linen left to stitch the front of the October ornament but I'll need another piece [18x27] for the back of October and the fronts and backs of November and December. I'll be adapting the GOS Pinecone ornament that I stitched for Rachel last year to make it more Quaker-like for the October ornament and I have ordered Workbasket's Quaker Santa chart for the December ornament but I haven't even started looking for a Quaker angel chart for November yet. If any kind reader knows of one, I'd appreciate it if he/she would leave a link in the comments.

As I get closer to actually finishing up with this SAL, I get more and more excited about it. I've decided exactly how I am going to display the ornaments and in which room I shall place the tree. I rather like this whole SAL idea. I enjoy looking at other stitcher's ornaments on the Bride's Tree SAL blog and have seen many clever finishing techniques that I fully intend to use in the future. As for next year, I shall concentrate on the Town Square SAL and hope that others who signed up will begin to post to the blog as well. I intend to turn all my pieces into a coverlet for a queen size bed.

I also spent some time today on M Designs' Winnifred Witch. I still have quite a bit to do and am not sure it will hang on this year's Halloween tree. All the hair and the sign and the rest of the over one on the face need to be stitched as well as the backstitching ... and then, of course, there is the finishing to do. Maybe I'll be able to get it done tomorrow in between all the usual chores and errands. I really want to start something new and fresh for Rachel's Halloween SAL ... what I choose to do for that depends, in large measure, on whether my order from Stitchery Row arrives tomorrow.

ISO A Quaker Angel Chart

If you have been reading along this year, especially in recent weeks ... you know I have been participating in the Bride's Tree SAL. I set out to stitch all twelve themes in the Quaker style, using the same 28ct Glasgow raw linen and Belle Soie silks and hemp cord hangers for each amd every ornament.

So far I have done pretty well finding existing charts: Jan-May and August and December were all readily available. I had to design my own charts for June and July but was able to find charts that I could adapt for September and October. The only piece missing now is a Quaker Angel for November. Before I go to the trouble of transforming one of the PS Blackwork angels into a Quaker angel, I thought I'd ask for help from my readers. If anyone knows of a chart that would suit my needs, please leave a comment below. It needn't be a free chart. I'll buy a chart if someone can point me in the direction of something I like. I have googled but just haven't the patience or time to wade through over fifteen pages of links ... I started to do so, but when I went through four pages without finding anything useful ... well, I figured an appeal to other stitchers might be a better way to search.

Weekend Progress Report # 42

Still working on catching up to my ornament goals this week:

Bride's Tree SAL: I am doing rather well. Since October 1st, I have stitched and assembled the ornaments for May through August, and am currently stitching September's Teapot, symbolizing Hospitality. As I have mentioned before, I am making a conscious effort to make all these ornaments a genuine "set". All are stitched on 28ct Raw Glasgow linen and finished as fringed pillows with hemp cord hangers. All are stitched in the same style using Quaker motifs and Belle Soie silks. I have a three foot tall faux Christmas tree that I will use to display these ornaments come Christmas time ... the only other thing I will use on this particular tree will be some cranberry strands made of wooden beads ... this will give me the rustic look I am going for in my dining room. I spent most of Saturday stitching on the August Bride's Tree SAL ornament, a rose done in the Quaker style in Belle Soie silks Tortoise Shell and Sister Scarlet. I never cease to be amazed at how close juxtaposition has an effect on color values: the green with black-brown undertones of the Tortoise Shell looks so much greener beside the Sister Scarlet than it did alone against the raw linen. It really does seem to have the look of dark rose leaves, now. It is one of my favorite shades of green for backgrounds and borders since the brown-black undertones give it a neutral value that tends to work with an almost endless range of colors. I definitely need to order some more as I am running quite low, down to my last 12 strand length when just a week or so ago I had one full and one partial card. I finished and assembled the Rose Sunday afternoon at which point I began the September Teapot. Here are some photos of my progress on this series. The front of the teapot ornament is done except for the border. I figure I'll work on the border and the back for the ornament Monday morning before work. That will leave only the October ornament to do and I'll be all caught up ... at least till November 1st rolls around next week.

Halloween and Thanksgiving ornaments: I am still working on a few Halloween ornaments for this year's tree: M Design's Winifred Witch is my current WIP. There are two more kitted up and "in the pipeline". I have also asked my husband to order the kit for Monsterbubbles Day of the Dead as a Christmas gift ... now that's one ornament I really want to stitch ... but it will have to be for next year's tree. I just love the over-the-top, wildly creative Monsterbubbles signature style. And their use of unusual materials really calls to my aging hippie soul ... I am always using found objects in my own textile art. I also love playing with color and I enjoy the serendipitious moments that occur so often when stitching. For instance, this past week I have been working on two distinct projects that have led me to the planning of a third ... all because of an observation about color. When laying out my projects for this week's stitching bag, I couldn't help but notice that the 32 ct Aurora linen I am using for M Design's Winifred Witch and the Belle Soie silk Foo Foo Flamingo I used for my Quaker Fish ornament would combine to make the perfect tone-on-tone project ... perhaps a pin pillow or an ort jar cover. However, the silk looks so much paler against the raw linen shade used in the ornament that, had I not laid out all the materials on a table in close proximity to one another, I'd never have noticed how vibrant the silk could look against a more color-saturated background.

But even though I haven't met all my ornaments stitching goals, I am going to revert to my BAP, TW's Autumn Faerie for the remainder of October with this one exception: on Sunday, October 31st, I'll be participating in Rachel's Halloween SAL by stitching on whatever Halloween ornament is still a WIP and posting three times on my blog that day with photos of my progress.

A visit to Blacksheep's blog earlier this week had me salivating over the mere thought of gingerbread ... a pity photos can't be transformed into edible reality with the click of a mouse. I think that's something Bill Gates ought to get working on immediately. Failing the ability to attain instant gratification by computer magic, I dug out my favorite recipe for genuine New England style gingerbread and made it this morning ... I am also saving blacksheep's recipe for future baking adventures. One can never have too many gingerbread recipes.

Here's the one I use most often [from June Platt's New England Cookbook, c1971]

Raisin Gingerbread Preheat oven to 350F

2/3 c sugar

2/3c dark molasses

2/3c boiling water

2 Tbs butter

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 c raisins, washed and dried

1/2 c chopped walnuts or pecans

1 egg, well beaten

1 &1/2c sifted flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1c heavy cream lightly beaten

Mix tgether sugar, molasses and boiling water. While the mixture is still hot stit in the butter and baking soda. Let cool slightly. Add raisins, nuts and beaten egg. Sift together flour & spice and stir into molasses mixture. Pour batter into a well-buttered 9" square pan and bake in pre-heated oven 35-40 minutes, until it tests done in the center. Serve hot or cold with beaten cream.

I tend to double the spices or add chopped crystallized ginger because I like a very spicy cake. I also use lemon custard sauce instead of beaten cream, just because I like the combination of spice/sweet & lemon.

I had intended to spend the better part of Friday cooking and baking ... but that didn't happen ... so Saturday became a cooking day and Sunday, a baking day. I made a pan of Chicken Parmigiana and a pan of Eggplant Parmigiana, both with fresh mozzarella, on Saturday. This ought to take care of dinner through Tuesday nght. Since I work till 9:00pm on Mondays and Tuesdays and my husband's daily commute gets him home at 8:30pm, having something ready to re-heat quickly and conveniently is a priority. I picked up some Lemon Curd and some fresh lemons while shopping Saturday so I could embellish my gingerbread ... the lemon curd being a back-up since my home-made custard sauces tend to be rather hit-and-miss.

July down, August started, September & October to go ...

... I am talking about the Bride's Tree SAL ornaments, of course. I had fallen way behind. At the beginning of this month only January through April had been completely stitched and assembled. Since then I have stitched the back for May, both sides of June and July and assembled them and have started on August which ought to be a relatively quick stitch. The July ornament is, of course, the Fish, representing Christ's Blessings. Unable to find a fish charted in the Quaker style, I designed one of my own. I stitched it in Belle Soie silks Foo Foo Flamingo, Old Black Crow and Fern Frond. The August ornament is a Rose, representing Affection. I am using a Workbasket complimentary chart, Quaker Flower, and am stitching it in Belle Soie silks Tortoise Shell and Sister Scarlet. With luck, I shall have the August ornament done by Friday leaving me free to work on the September and October ornaments over the weekend. I may just catch up entirely by the end of the month. I have a teapot chart from which I will appropriate the outline only which I will then decorate with a large Quaker motif from the Workbasket Quaker Sampler. I haven't a clue as yet about how I shall stitch October's Pine Cone. The only chart I have that even remotely resembles the Quaker style is in an old Gift of Stitching issue. I am still looking for a better option.

Once I catch up with the Bride's Tree SAL, I shall be free to concentrate on my Halloween and Thanksgiving ornament goals. I have one Halloween ornament WIP and two more ornaments nearly kitted up ... just waiting for a few overdyed flosses I ordered from Stitchery Row. I'd like to have at least one of these done in time to add it to this year's Halloween Tree. I am four ornaments behind in my Thanksgiving ornament goal but I'll worry about that in November. I currently have 8 Thanksgiving ornaments, stitched either this year or last year. A decent enough showing, although four more would make it an even dozen ... ever so much better!

Weekend Progress Report #41

This post should have been published yesterday and with photos but we have a semi-annual ritual here at chez Doherty called the befouling of the printer/scanner connection which occurs in late spring and mid-autumn when the window unit air conditioner located immediately behind the computer desk is installed and removed. Together, my husband and youngest son preside over this ritual designed to drive me absolutely, positively crazy. I have checked all the obvious connection points and have had no success in getting the printer/scanner to come back to the land of the living. And, of course, the high priest of chaos, aka my husband, is a safe 40 some miles away blissfully ignorant of the gnashing of teeth going on at home. Happily, I will be too tired to be aggravated and aggravating by the time I see him late this evening at which time I will ask him, ever so politely, to see what he can do to get us up and running again.

Only 11 more weeks in the year, only 10 more weeks to Christmas. I'd best get busy on some of my annual and some of my Christmas stitching goals.

I am still catching up on my Bride's Tree SAL Christmas ornaments: when I originally decided to join this SAL, I came up with the notion of stitching all the ornaments in the Quaker style. It was very easy, at first, to find appropriate charts. Now that I am well into the project it is a little less so and I find myself either designing an ornament from scratch or tweaking an existing design till it meets my needs. If any readers of this blog know of Quaker charts for the various remaining monthly themes, I'd greatly appreciate a comment leading me in the right direction.

June: the Quaker Fruit Basket. Finished stitching and assembly: 10/15/10. See 10/15 post for photo.

July: the Quaker Fish. My own design. Started on 10/15/10

August: the Quaker Rose. Kitted up 10/15/10. I'll be using a Workbasket complimentary chart for this: Quaker Flower, stitched in Sister Scarlet and Tortoise Shell Belle Soie silks ... to make it more rose-like.

September: the Quaker Teapot. I found a baseline chart for my general outline in an old copy of Stitcher's World. I plan to decorate it with a large Quaker motif on the side and maybe stitch a small round motif for the knob on the lid. I'll use motif's from my Workbasket Quaker Sampler ... after all, isn't that what samplers were designed for: recording and preserving motifs to be used in other works? All very doable.

October: the Quaker Pinecone. Still looking for an appropriate chart. I may have to design one of my own. Hope to have this done by the end of the month, bringing me up-to-date on this SAL.

November: Quaker Angel or Church. I am leaning toward the angel option and still looking for a Quaker chart.

December: Quaker Santa. There is a chart available from Workbasket that I'll have to order on Monday. Another easy fix!

The final installment of Linda's RR, due to arrive 9-15-10, finally arrived on 10-15-10. So I quickly found a suitable chart in an old Stitcher's World magazine, an excerpt from a larger chart called Liberty Parade, which was a similar in size and style to the other pieces stitched. I got to work on it very quickly in the hope of mailing it on Monday. I look forward to receiving my own piece back but expect it to be delayed as well since the person two spaces back in the rotation fell a month behind leaving the person immediately before me in the rotation behind time as well. Anyway, this last installment was soooo outside my normal frame of reference [cartoonish animals], it forced me to pull out my stash of old magazines in the hopes of finding something suitable ... with the side effect that I not only found a chart for the RR, I found a chart to adapt for one of my Bride's Tree SAL ornaments, rediscovered some issues of Stitch that bear a second or even a third and fourth reading, and I came up with the perfect November monthly giveaway: a magazine grab bag. What could be better on a cold winter's afternoon, then a pot of tea and a stack of magazines to peruse? I call that a stitching Grand Slam and all because of Linda's RR. Many thanks to Linda!!! The piece was finished Sunday evening and will be mailed this morning.

On the Halloween front, I did a bit more stitching on Winifred Witch by M Design's. I am slowly becoming reconciled to using green floss for a witch's skin tone, expecially when the design is funky and fun ... though on more formal designs, I still prefer natural skin tones. When I get to the over one section [the eyes] on this 32ct linen, I'll be totally dependent on my magnifying lamp.

Stash Enhancement. I've made up my list and I've checked it twice. On Monday, I will order the afore-mentioned Workbasket Quaker Santa chart and all the fibers I'll be needing for the rest of my ornaments: be they Christmas, Halloween or Thanksgiving. I'll place my order with Stitchery Row since they seem to be the most diligent when it comes to mailing the same business day.

Interim Progress report

I have been concentrating on ornaments, to the exclusion of all other projects lately. I am determined to catch up to my goals in this area by the end of the month. I am up to 37 stitching finishes and 23 sewing/assembling finishes for the year, way down from previous years when I seemed to stitch much more. In addition, the majority of my finishes this year have been "smalls": ornaments, fobs, pin cushions. I have stitched a few medium sized pieces and have been plugging away at my BAP. I have to figure I am either slowng down with age or just don't seem to devote the same amount of time to stitching as I have in the past ... and yet I do stitch almost every day.

This is what I have accomplished over the past few days:

The Quaker Fruit Basket [my own design using an amalgamation of Quaker motifs appropriated from some Workbasket's charts in my possession] which is the June entry in the Bride's Tree SAL series. This is a bit different than the design I charted in a recent post ... I made the top of the basket broader and reconfigured the handle as well as adding a broader base to the basket. I am pretty happy with the final product.

The Quaker Fish [the July entry in the Bride's Tree SAL] ... So far all I have stitched is the outline ... I am still working out the rest of the design on graph paper. I believe I have worked out a rather Quaker-ish pattern of scales which I will stitch tomorrow. I visualize working the head of the fish in solid cross-stitch using a negative space [unstitched] Quaker motif for the eye. I still haven't worked out the design for the tail but it will probably be the upper half of a Quaker diamond motif, turned on its side. I am toying with the idea of working the scales in black and adding an outline of cross-stitches separated from the current outline by one space all around, also in black. The head and tail would be worked in the same salmon I have used for the primary outline.

Weekend Progress Report #40

This post is a bit late because I have just returned from a long holiday weekend at the Hotel Sagamore in Bolton's Landing, NY ... one of those glorious old inns from the late nineteenth century that transports you back to a time when ladies really did spend entire days stitching on the veranda, when folks played croquet on the lawn, when formal tea was served between 2:00 and 4:00pm, when couples strolled along garden paths in late afternoon sunshine and when such activities were all that was required of a vacation resort. I did all of the above and even went on a very leisurely cruise of Lake George. I am including a shot of me stitching on the veranda, alas, in modern dress instead of one of those romantic turn of the century outfits, and another photo of the view that kept distracting me from my stitching. The only thing I didn't do that was on offer was take a horse and buggy ride around the island [my husband sort of raised his eyebrows when I suggested it and then headed straight to the wicker armchairs on the veranda]. The place has changed since our last visit some three years ago. A beautiful sloping lawn once covered with Adirondack chairs is now the site of a series of enormous swimming and diving pools ... looking quite out of place when viewing the lovely old Sagamore from the lakeshore. And the service has deteriorated slightly, but then that seems to be happening everywhere. Well, I am back to my usual work-a-day schedule after a few days fantasizing that I was the wife of one of the first generation robber baron millionaires ... so, bring on the 10 hour work days and the parent meetings and the deadlines and the classes ... I am rejuvenated for the next little while.

First, catching up a bit on the Bride's Tree SAL

Bride's Tree SAL June ornament: a Quaker Fruit Basket [Plenty]. Stitched on 28 ct Glasgow raw linen in Belle Soie silks of Scarecrow and Sister Scarlet. I made some progress on this piece but was hindered by the fact that my silk kept shredding. I switched to a brand new needle but the problem persisted. I have had this same issue with other Belle Soie silks recently ... something that has never happened before. I am wondering if the painted box in which I am storing them is giving off noxious chemical fumes that are breaking down the fibers. Some gifts soaps or candles [can't remember which] came in this lovely heart shaped box painted in a folk heart style and I kept it to store some of my special fibers. In retrospect, probably not such a good idea.

Bride's Tree SAL July ornament: a Quaker Fish [Fertility]. This has been charted out and will be stitched on 28ct Glasgow raw linen in Belle Soie silks.

Next, the Town Square SAL: This SAL has been pretty much a non-starter. I am the only one who seems to be stitching on it. At least, I am the only one who has been posting to the SAL blog and even that has been after a three month hiatus! I finished Val's Stuff Train Depot while stitching on the veranda this past weekend ... in between long intervals of just gazing at the scenery and day-dreaming and, this really shows my age, napping.

Some hand-finishing: I assembled and trimmed Full Moon ... when doing a little stash diving, I came up with some lovely black velvet cording ... just the perfect trim for this piece. The final touch is a hanger made from some glass jet beads salvaged from an antique necklace, interspersed with a few Mill Hill seed beads.

And a new off-goal start: M Designs' Winnifred Witch: This is stitched on a 32ct Belfast overdyed linen, Aurora, using most of the recommended fibers but making a few substitutions so I might stitch-from-stash. Even on 32 ct, this chart [designed for 28ct] is shaping up to be an over-sized ornament - I thought JCS had guidelines about size - I now think I should have used a 40 ct but the only orange toned linen I had on hand was 32ct.

There are still two more ornaments I wish to stitch from the recent JCS Halloween issue: the Plum Street Sampler's Halloween Greetings and the Monsterbubble's Day of the Dead entries; but I'll have to order the kit for the Monsterbubbles ornament, a funky piece stitched on screening and using a 20ct waste canvas, not the sort of things easily found even in a fully stocked on-line needlework shop. I have almost everything on hand for the Halloween Greetings ornament and, with just a few substitutions from stash, should be able to kit it up in time to stitch for Rachel's Halloween Day SAL. I'll ask my husband to get me the Monsterbubbles' kit as a Christmas gift and will hold it in reserve to stitch up for next year. I know I shall continue to see "must stitch" Halloween ornaments but I shall need a bigger tree ... my current table top model is getting very crowded.

Weekend Progress Report #38

The weather cooled down a wee bit this weekend and I finally felt inspired to do a little Fall decorating in my entryway. As I get more areas in the house decorated, I'll post a few more photos. But for now, here's a shot of the antique washstand in my entryway, all decorated for Halloween. I believe I have room to squeeze in just a few more ornaments ... I quite liked five of the charts in JCS Halloween ornament issue and would like to add those to the mix this year.

As promised, a photo of the ornament I have managed to finish finish during the third week of this designated Catch-Up Month of September ... though, unless I devote every waking moment of the next five days to stitching the remaining backlog of ornament goals, October will be a catch-up month as well.

The Prairie Schooler Turkey [from the Harvest Time leaflet] stitched on 28 ct raw Glasgow linen in WDW and GAST cotton overdyes. Edged with Mill Hill beads in frosted orange [2042] and matte ivory [3016]. I am really pleased with this one but then I always like the shapes that go beyond the usual circle, square/rectangle or heart. The color change in the browns is not nearly so glaring in real life as it appears in the photo ... particularly, when viewed under the soft lighting of my entryway. This makes 8 Thanksgiving ornaments for the tree I keep up from late September through February in my entryway ... changing out the ornaments from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas to Valentine's Day. My wedding anniversary is January 10, so I set up the heart ornaments as soon as I take down the Christmas ornaments on Jan 6 [Little Christmas, aka the Feast of the Epiphany]. I plan to make two or three more Thanksgiving ornaments before Nov. 1 which ought to fill the tree up quite nicely.

The May Bride's Tree SAL ornament: Bird in a Nest [from Aury's blog], representing Security. Stitched on 28 ct raw Glasgow linen in Belle Soie Chester Blue, Chocolat, & Fern Frond. I made a counting error on the backing which I only discovered when I went to pin the back to the front for stitching up as a fringed pillow ornament. So I frogged out the entire right side and a third of the bottom of the border and, in total disgust with myself for being in such a hurry, set the whole thing aside till Monday brings a better mood and the oomph to re-stitch the darned thing correctly. That's what I get for being in such an all-fired hurry to tick off my goals.

And a WIP: Once I finished the above-mentioned frogging, stitcher's ADD set in and I just had to start a Halloween ornament from the recent JCS issue. I chose to work on Blue Ribbon Designs Perched on a Pumpkin since I dearly love owls as a decorative motif. as a symbol of wisdom and as a gift of nature to warm my bird-watching soul. I'll post a photo once I get beyond the border stitching ... very basic and not yet visually interesting. There are four other ornaments in the September issue that I want to stitch ... it'll be interesting to see how I'll manage to fit them on my Halloween Tree.

Getting it done

I am so thrilled to be doing my own projects again that I am building up a fairly strong momentum. I just finished stitching the Prairie Schooler Turkey ornament and should be able to start work on the assembly and final finish tonight after work. I also bit the bullet and frogged back the part of the border of my Bird in a Nest ornament for the May installment of the Bride's Tree SAL. My original border, which followed the shape of the design was too irregular and sloppy for my very linear brain to accept ... I have re-stitched it as a rectangle with softly rounded corners ... much less jarring on the old optic nerves. Now all I have to do is stitch the monogrammed back and assemble the ornament. I should certainly have that done this weekend.

I have also kitted up the June Fruit Basket ornament for the Bride's Tree SAL, so I can segue into that smoothly the very second I finish the Bird in a Nest. I once used the image of the "stitching equivalent of chain-smoking" when I wrote about a series of Sue Hillis Santa designs I did one after another [4 in total] ... I do believe that metaphor applies to this series of Thanksgiving and Christmas ornaments I am working on now. I feel a certain energy, even a compulsion, when I am working on them ... I almost resent the time spent away from my stitching chair doing mundane things like eating, sleeping, bathing and working ... okay, I don't resent taking time out to eat ... but as for the rest of it ... yes, indeed!

I am going to hold off taking any photos until the end of the weekend ... I am challenging myself to have at least three fully stitched and assembled ornaments to show my readers. Dare I say four ornaments?

September is Catch-up Month

September was supposed to be catch up month, with only a few days at the beginning devoted to the Round Robin. Well, things didn't work out quite that way with the round robin consuming stitching time till 9/15. But half a catch-up month is better than none. The first order of business will be working through the list of ornaments that fell by the wayside when things got a wee bit crazy with work and other stitching. This is what I have to do in order to get back on schedule

Thanksgiving ornaments, one a month.

--July: Prairie Schooler Turkey from Harvest Time leaflet. Using a lovely raw linen [28ct Glasgow] and substituting my own conversions of WDW and GAST for the DMC, this one is nearly done. I have just a few more hours stitching and this one will be ready for assembly. I have already cut and padded the boards for backing and selected my backing fabric. I will have to pull a skein or two of DMC to make the necessary cording.

--August: Cross-Eyed Cricket Indian from Thanksgiving Circle leaflet. I have a suitable strip of 28ct Country French Latte linen, probably long enough to make three ornaments from the CEC leaflet, which I will finish as fringed pillows with twisted cord hangers. I won't kit up with floss until I am actually ready to start.

--September: Cross-Eyed Cricket Female Pilgrim from Thanksgiving Circle leaflet. Same linen, same floss as above.

Bride's Tree SAL Christmas ornaments, one a month, all in Quaker style. I may have to design a few of these myself since I have been unable to find suitable freebies.

--May: Bird in a Nest. Using a chart from Aury's blog. This was stitched on 28 ct Glasgow raw linen using Belle Soie Silks Chester Blue, Chocolat, Fern Frond. I still have to stitch a backing, though I may do some frogging on the already stitched ornament as well ... I don't like the way I stitched the border and want to make it more regular.

--June: Fruit Basket. Using a half a chart from Workbasket's Complimentary Charts section, basically a flower pot that I am using as the "basket" to which I will add a topiary arrangement of round Quaker motifs as apples. This will be stitched on the same 28 ct Glasgow raw linen as all the rest and will also use Belle Soie Silks, colors yet to be determined.

--July: Fish. Again same linen as above and Belle Soie silks, as yet to be chosen. This one I will probably have to design myself since I have been unable to find a suitable chart. I have been toying with the idea of using the basic shape of the Christian icthus symbol, outlined as a simple band of alternating upright and upside down triangles, with the scales suggested by quaker triangular motifs or semi-circular motifs. I am still mulling over how to suggest fins and tail. By the time I sit down to doodle on graph paper, my sub-conscious brain should have worked out most of the details.

--August: Rose. There is a complimentary chart on the Workbasket site that with a few color changes should work very well for this one.

--September: Teapot. I haven't even started looking about for a Quaker chart of a teapot as yet. Though I can always combine a conventional teapot chart, used for the outline and general shape, with any Quaker motif that suits my fancy as the design on the pot.

I guess the moral of this whole story is don't fall behind on your goals if you are an obsessive A-type personality because you will only be that much more determined to meet them. Which isn't really all that bad, since I will enjoy every bit of stitching along the way. Realistically though, I don't expect to be caught up completely until the end of October. [Note Freudian slip that just occurred here: I just typed August, and had to back-space and re-type October ... I guess I am not mellowing with age as much as I think I am].

The Promised Photos

The digital camera battery is now re-charged, so here are some photos of my latest Thanksgiving ornaments.

Prairie Schooler's Pumpkins from the promotional card for Farmer's Market, stitched on a 28 ct country french latte linen using Belle Soie silks Carrot Cake, Creme de Menthe, Enchanted Forest and Glissen Color Wash Silk 536, a progression of yellow to pale orange.

The Kreinik's Cornucopia using a 32 ct Silkweaver linen called Mississippi Mud and the called for Kreinik silk mori.

Today, I'll work on finishing up another Prairie Schooler ornament, the turkey "medallion", from the Harvest Time leaflet. It feels good to be working on a September goal: catching up on all my ornament starts. I expect it'll feel even better when I tackle the backlog of ornament goals. I have to come up with a June, a July, an August and a September Quaker Style ornament for the Bride's Tree SAL and I am still two ornaments behind on my monthly Thanksgiving ornaments, even after finishing the three mentioned in the post.

On another front entirely, I bought 6 pots of mums from the church sale and will be putting them in the new stone planter box in front of my townhouse tomorrow afternoon. Now all I have to do is find time to get down to the nursery and find two small "Christmas" trees for the backyard patio pots. Some three foot or four foot cube planters are also on my to buy list before Fall advances much further. I want to start filling them with alternating layers of garden soil and fallen leaves this year so that I have wonderfully leaf mold enriched soil for Spring planting in 2011. I also need to do some much-needed pruning of old wood on my Van Houten Spirea bushes above the retaining wall ... they didn't bloom this past spring since all the old wood has choked out new growth. My husband and I really missed the lacy white blooms. They don't last more than a week or two but they make a gorgeous show while they're here. Having a townhouse means not having much of a garden, but I do enjoy putterring with what little I have.

Weekend Progress Report #24

There was not much stitching done this weekend. This was the first Saturday that I did not have classes, since the Religious Education Program ended last weekend. Even so, I got up especially early [6:16am] to finish the RR piece and get it in the mail before the post office closed at 11:30am. The rest of Saturday morning was devoted to running errands: banking and running to the other end of the county to pick up the designer fountain pen I had on lay-away for my husband's combined Father's Day and birthday gift. I am afraid Sunday morning was pretty much a total loss. The past few weeks finally caught up with me. I am afraid even four mega-mugs of strong Assam tea didn't rev me up enough to get to Mass. I spent most of the morning in my stitching chair desultorily putting in the back-stitching in my Kreinik Cornucopia. Then, given my limited concentration, I started a very simple project, Shepherd's Bush's Be A Witch, on 10 count tula. I needed something easy if I was going to keep the frog from the door. Most of Sunday evening was consumed with a multi-event celebration: Father's Day, my husband's birthday and my youngest son's birthday ... all falling within the eight day period of June 15-23. We visited the family's favorite sushi restaurant, a tiny place called Hanabi, half the width of the normal storefront. But the food is fabulous. My husband, carnivore that he is, enjoyed the beef negi as well as some more traditional sushi rolls. My son and daughter did the usual sushi platters, with the addition of some steamed dumplings. My sister-in-law and I went totally vegetarian. She had the mango/avocado salad as did I but she follwed hers with two spring rolls [more like fluffy pancakes at Hanabi] and I had three different vegetable sushi rolls. I wished I had my camera with me: the presentation of the food is phenomenal ... the sushi chef is creative, the food is amazingly fresh, the service in this small Mom & Pop restaurant is casual and friendly ... a wonderful way to cap the weekend.

So instead of finishing up three Thanksgiving and one Christmas ornaments as planned, including final finishing as flat ornaments, this is all I accomplished:

Linda's Round Robin: Jane's Quilts [May15-June15 rotation] FINISHED AND MAILED 6/19. This was a a frenzied, quick stitch since I only received the piece in the mail on 6/14.

Thanksgiving Ornaments:

Kreinik Cornucopia [May's ornament] stitched but still needing assembly. I hope to spend a little time this evening assembling this little beauty. I quite like the effect of combining satin and cross stitch in the same piece and I love the tone on tone effect of the cross stitches in Ancient Parchment on the Mississippi Mud Silkweaver 40ct linen.

And a little Startitis: Shepherds Bush's Be A Witch. Normally, I finish such seasonal, large count pieces as classroom banners but I am not sure this is quite the message I want to send to my students. I believe I will attempt my first no-sew cube for display in my sewing room-to-be. Or perhaps a stand-up using one of my little acrylic L-shaped doohickeys. I look forward to some more relaxing stitching on this in the coming week ... I just don't feel up to anything that requires concentration right now. It's probably because as one school year winds down, I am busy with all those finicky little details necessary to close out one year: inventories, tracking down all the kids who owe me exams, other work or textbooks, evaluating all the home study students, etc. etc. Then there are the start-up details for next year: getting next year's registration in and on the database, ordering textbooks and supplies for the new school year, recruiting and vetting catechists, finalizing the calendar, etc. etc. All of which needs to be done by June 30, when I break for a much needed month long vacation.

Weekend Progress Report #23

It's been a little of this and a little of that this week ... trying to clean up unfinished business from last week [... and even from last month] and keeping up with developments in my on-line class on crazy quilting.

Monsterbubbles' Jail [Town Square SAL] Finished Sunday evening. I am delighted to get back to stitching in color. All of this grey was just a bit much since we have been having overcast days ending in thunderstorms each evening. A case of art imitating life that I could've done without. The next piece I am planning to do in this series is Crescent Colours Saloon ... ever so much more colorful ... but that will be a July goal!

Kreinik's Cornucopia ornament [ a Thanksgiving ornament-a-month goal] I picked this up again once I finished the Town Square SAL piece. The back-ordered silk mori I had been waiting for had arrived earlier in the week.

Prairie Schooler's Harvest Time Turkey [a Thanksgiving ornament-a-month goal] Thanks to Carrie [of Carrie's Threads] , I received the right dye-lot of GAST Maple Syrup. I expect to be able to finish this in the coming week.

The encrusted crazy quilted block: Last Wednesday's lesson included a lot of techniques and stitches that are either new or nearly new to me ... and I need to practice a bit more on these techniques before actually adding them to my block: boullion stitch [used for roses, leaves, and free-form outlines], spider-web ribbon roses, ribbon embroidery flowers. I did manage to gather some ribbons and beads for this stage of the embellishment but haven't gotten much further than that. With the next lesson coming up inexorably on Wednesday, I'd best get moving.