Rotation Stitching To Date

Over the pre-Christmas weekend, it was stitcher's choice and I chose to jump around quite a bit:  I made a little bit of progress on several pieces but nothing worthy of a photograph.  All, in all, it was a very simple and relaxing weekend: just some very easy stitching while watching a marathon of an old PBS series, The Duchess of Duke Street.  In short, it was a hermitting weekend.

Then came Christmas week:

Monday, it was back to The English Band Sampler, picking up from where I frogged out the errors.   When last seen this flower was a mere outline, now it is quite filled in.  I stitched a few more curlicues around the acorns and stems.  Now, that I have relaxed and stopped stressing over when I will finish this piece, I have begun to make discernible progress again.I also spent a little time cutting all the boards for the stitched ornaments.

On Tuesday, I finished the Sage tea towel.and kitted up the Mint towel.  The pair of tea towels was meant to be a Christmas gift for my secretary, but clearly I didn't get it done in time.  She'll have to wait till little Christmas, The Feast of The Epiphany, on January 6.

Then on Wednesday it was back to stitching on the dragon with the result that page 1 of the chart is completely done but for a few beads that will just have to wait till all the stitching on page 2 is done.  I have gotten a good start on page 2: the breast plates; the scales along shoulders, neck and head; some of the fill stitching and a bit of the face are done.  Of course, that still leaves the wings, shoulder, front claws, neck and face to be completed as well as a bit more scenery.  I doubt this will be finished in 2014 but it may very well be the first 2015 finish.  I do have yet another reason to despise rayon fiber: it is the very devil to frog.  No matter how carefully one picks the stitches, the wretched stuff shreds, leaving one with a fuzzy tail useless for weaving under existing stitches.  The only option is to lay it carefully on the underside of the linen and ever so delicately stitch over it, avoiding bringing any of the fuzzy mess to the front of the linen as one pulls one's stitches.

Then on Thursday, I worked on the Mystic Smalls and finished up the cross stitching and over one stitching on the needle book.Now, all that's left is the ribbon embroidery.  I'll tackle that tomorrow, since the Sage tea towel has dropped out of the rotation.  [I have deferred the Mint Tea Towel to January's rotation.]  With luck the needle book will be my final finish in 2014.

I didn't do any rotation stitching on Friday and so have no assembly finishes to show.  I did page through some of my baby and toy charts to pick out a design for a bib and a burp towel for my great-nephew Liam who is now weighing in at 3 pounds, having gained a full pound since his birth in November.  He is off the ventilator and is strong enough to have yanked out his feeding tube.  The NICU nurses, of course, replaced it immediately.  But it's good to know that Liam is a tough little guy and a fighter.  I have decided on a train motif for the burp towel: a locomotive pulling four flat cars carrying the letters L - I - A - M and a caboose bringing up the rear.  I will probably just use the same alphabet to stitch Liam's name on the bib.

As to the weekend goal of doing some non-stitching activities, I tried a new recipe: Egg Nog Pancakes from cooking.com.  I can't call it an unqualified success.  Though my husband enjoyed them, I found them both too sweet and too heavy.  I also detected a slight metallic aftertaste but I am guessing that was due to baking powder past its prime.  I'll be putting that on the shopping list before I bake again.  While still in a cooking frame of mind, I made a tray of stuffed pasta shells.  Then I puttered about the house, decluttering a closet, reorganizing my kitchen counter space and cleaning out the refrigerator and oven.

I must have second sight

In September, I wrote

I am determined to complete this sampler this month.  Yes, I know I have said the very same thing every month since January but this time I really mean it.  Of course, if I end up failing to finish this month, I will "really mean it" when I say I'll finish in October.  Oh, the lies I tell myself about my ability to stretch time!  

I had hoped to be done by now but clearly, as you can see, I am not.  Close, but as my husband says, "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades."  Such a charming sentiment.    I have reached the point where I imagine I will still be working on this project when I am 90.   I have a recurring stitching nightmare in which I see my family tucking the sampler into my coffin so that I can take just a few more stitches as I wait in line for my final judgment at St. Peter's gate.  

I began this sampler with such giddy optimism that I actually stitched "2012" in the line with my name.  How mortifying to have to frog out the 2 and replace it with a 4, or perhaps a 5.   Or maybe I'll just find a way to squeeze a tiny 2014 or 2015 into the bottom right corner of the last band as a reminder of the length of time spent on the project.

Ah, well, here is a photo of my Monday rotation progress.  It may not look like much has been done since I last posted about it here but I have done four Rhodes Squares, finished the center curlicues on the bottom left and top right, finished frogging the spiral border and the bottom border as needed, re-stitched the bottom border, and stitched another two flowers on the right.   I think that is pretty good progress for just one day's stitching: an hour before work, half an hour on my lunch break and a two hours while watching TV in the evening.
The first photo is of Band 7 in its entirety.

The second photo is a close up of the right side of the band, so you can see a little more detail.  I am enjoying this sampler again.  I haven't stitched on it in a little over two months.  It would seem that this piece is rather overwhelming, at least for me.  I need long breaks from it to maintain enthusiasm.

The Tuesday rotation piece is a pair of tea towels from Cross My Heart's A Sampling of Herbs leaflet.  I got a nice start this morning on the first one, Sage, as seen in this photo.  There is a lot of confetti stitching in these charts and I am not entirely crazy about that aspect of them.  [ The two overlapping leaves, small as they are, have 14 different shades of DMC in them. ]  But they do stitch up quite prettily as you can see here and here on the last pair I stitched.  Well worth the effort though I do believe I will be passing this chart on after this pair.  I don't think I'll be stitching any more of these herbs charts.  They are just a little too fussy and finicky for me.  I have some other herbal charts that were designed specifically for Huck towels that I will be using for the next pair I stitch.

  

Assessing September Goals, Setting October Goals

The school year began with a bang [more like an explosion], miscommunication and misdirection on the part of the archdiocese creating all sorts of problems for my program.  It's been a tense month, one in which the soothing qualities of stitching have been needed very badly indeed.  Alas, there simply wasn't enough time.  I never get as much stitching done as I hope but this month was a little more than usually disappointing.  To complicate matters, half of what I did stitch had to be frogged.  It just wasn't a good month for stitching.

SEPTEMBER GOALS:
Christmas Gifts: Stitch another pair of tea towels, using the charts for Mint and Sage.  No
Current BAP:  Work on Piper's stocking. No

UFO/Class Project:  Finish work on The English Band Sampler. No, not even close.  See photo below.

Town Square SAL:  Stitch The Sweet Shop No and The Quilt Shop. Yes

New Start:   Finish Hazel's bib.  Finished 9/3/14.  Start work on The Dragon of the Summer Sky.  No.

Sewing Finishes: Try to get another three or four projects completed. No.
Off-goal project: one crocheted crib blanket.



Here's hoping that October will be a much better month.  Most of my goals will be repeats of last month's goals.  Though if time permits, I'd like to pick up a Halloween or Thanksgiving piece

OCTOBER GOALS:
Christmas Gifts: Stitch a pair of tea towels, using the charts for Mint and Sage.
Current BAP:  Work on Piper's stocking.

UFO/Class Project:  Finish The English Band Sampler and pick up work on The Mystic Smalls projects. 

Town Square SAL:  Stitch The Sweet Shop.

New Start:  Start work on The Dragon of the Summer Sky.   This will be my last Dragon Dreams chart from stash, making the 6th chart of Jennifer's [not counting freebies] that I have stitched.  The next series that I will work on will be Workbasket's Quaker Animals.  I have quite a few of those in stash.

Sewing Finishes: Try to get another three or four projects completed.

There has been some progress on The English Band Sampler but not nearly as much as I had hoped.  I still need to do some Rhodes Squares and some back stitched curlicues on the left and a whole lot of stitching on the right.  And I still have to frog out the side spiral border as well as a piece of the bottom dark blue border.  I managed to get a few long slip knots formed on the underside which will probably show through the linen when the piece is framed.  I need to frog about two inches of the bottom border and restitch it so that everything is tucked in nicely.  Therefore, I am not sure the sampler will be finished in October even if I stitch on it exclusively.  This piece is deceptively complex.  Individual motifs can take as much as 6-8 hours each.  I usually can manage one hour of stitching a day, sometimes two.  And I do have a few other projects I would like to be getting on with as well.  It's not looking good for an October finish, but I am reasonably certain I can finish it in 2014.  I hope to cross it off my WIPs list in the sidebar.  It would be so nice to start 2015 with at least one less BAP on my list.

Colors Bright and Bold

As I continue to work through Band 7 of the sampler, I have to admit I am enjoying the eye-popping colors.  Normally. I prefer a subdued palette but the corals and electric blues in this band are so splendidly bold that I can't help but love them.  My personal aesthetic should have me cringing at the juxtaposition of purple and coral.  It is just so Red Hat Society!  But somehow, it all works well together.  I am nearly halfway done with Band 7, having stitched all the floral motifs on the left hand side and some of the spiral border.  

Random Monday

It's mid-August and time to start working on worrying about stitched Christmas gifts.  I thought this year I might make sets of tea towels, stitched with botanical charts, herbs for the most part.  I am also in need of something a little easier on the eyes than my two current projects.  So tea towels with 14 ct Aida inserts are the perfect interim projects when the sampler and the stocking get a little wearisome.  In any case, I pulled some tea towels out of stash and a few herbal charts and started on one today. The charts I am using are from a Cross My Heart booklet called A Sampling of Herbs.   The chart I am using is actually a sampler with 12 blocks, each featuring a different herb.  I am using six of  the single blocks for the tea towels.  I didn't care for the charted border, a sketchy pseudo Greek back-stitched cross and reverse cross sort of affair.  So I stitched it as a solid border using two blues from the rest of the piece.  And since these will be tea towels, I replaced all the gold beads with floss.  I still need to stitch two more sprigs of rosemary to complete this towel

At least, this is a productive sort of startitis since I'll have a few Christmas gifts as a result.  I tend to get antsy when my rotation slips down to 2 or 3 pieces.  And it is currently at 1. what with my steadfast concentration of the The English Band Sampler.  Here's a photo of my progress on the sampler over the past few days.  As you can see, I am still working on pansies.  I want to stitch all the floral motifs in the left section of the band before finishing the spiral border.

I know I have to get back working on Piper's stocking if I am to have it done this year but the mere thought of facing all that pink is daunting.

And Now Back to the Band Sampler

I finally finished the Town Square Cafe du Monde, which was my Town Square ornament of the month for June.  It took one entire hour to stitch the 35 confetti stitches that completed the bottom of the porch under the awning.  This was complicated by the fact that at least half of those confetti stitches were French knots rather than cross stitches.  I am still not certain whether all that confetti is supposed to represent flower boxes with French knot flowers or people seated at outdoor tables with French knot heads.  Anyway after the confetti, I spent another hour finishing up the backstitching.

Then I put away all the floss for this project and kitted up The Silversmith Shop which is my Town Square ornament of the month for July.  All I will have to purchase is a Thread Gatherer Silk'n'Colors skein and a charm for this piece. While I was at it, I kitted up Dragon Dreams Dragon of the Winter Moon which is my New Start for July.  I was pleased to discover that I had all five of the Kreinik Very Fine Braid, one of the Caron Waterlilies skeins, one pck.of the Mill Hill beads and a partial skein of Anchor Marlitte white which will substitute nicely for the DMC Rayon White this chart called for in my stash.  But I will have to purchase one Caron Waterlilies skein and 1 package of Mill Hill seed beads.  I will place the order tomorrow.

The weather is perfect for patio stitching.  For the rest of the day I'll get back to The English Band Sampler.  The plan is to complete the last 45 eyelets and the remaining satin stitches to finish up Band 6.  You may well believe I will  be pleased to finish these finicky and fussy stitches.  Normally, I enjoy all specialty stitches [with the one exception of the bullion stitch which I have yet to attempt] but having to constantly slip my needle under existing cross stitches was a major pain in the rump, complicated further by the closeness of the pale fawn floss to the color of the antique ivory linen.  I hope to have some fabulous progress photos in a day or two.

It will be such a pleasure to move on to the final band of this sampler.  I feel as though the end is in sight.  I know, I know: I still have to go back to Band 3 and decide whether to stitch my name or my initials, the year or a full date, or something else entirely.  But starting the last band does signal impending closure.  This is another closely stitched band so it is questionable whether I shall finish the sampler this month or next but at least a finish in the next little while is a reasonable expectation.

Stitching Marathon Report

Dragon Dreams Compass Rose Dragon:  I have finished stitching this exactly as charted.  Now, normally I trust the designer's sense of perspective.  But, even allowing for the slight tilt of the dragon's head, it appears to me that the horns on the right side of the dragon's head are growing out of precisely the spot where his right eye ought to be.  Consequently, I haven't back stitched that area.  I am living with it for a while to see if I really want to frog the horns and move them a stitch or two to the right.  What do my readers think, I wonder!

And I started the second chart in the Dragon Dreams leaflet, Here Be Dragons.  Just the border and the point of a dragon's tail so far but it is a start.

The English Band Sampler:  I have stitched another 75 of the 160 eyelet stitches in Band 6, bringing the total up to 115.  Since each eyelet is made up of 16 smaller stitches, that's 1200 stitches, but who's counting?  Just another 45 eyelets to go before moving on to Band 7.  I am quite sure that once I start Band 7, I shall recover my enthusiasm for this piece.  But these endless eyelets are exhausting.  I need to stitch them outdoors in full daylight with a magnifier.  My town house only has windows front and back and no amount of artificial light alone seems to do when stitching on this ivory linen in very pale fawn floss.  I may not get back to this until Friday when I will be free to stitch on the patio again.  Please pray for pleasant weather.  Otherwise, I'll be moving furniture around in my living room so that I can stitch by a window.  This will annoy my husband no end because he will have to move his TV watching chair to accommodate me.

Cafe du Monde:  This is one of those pieces that, no matter how long you work on it, no discernible progress seems to be made.  And then, quite suddenly, it's done!  Well, it's not done yet and I am still at the no discernible progress stage.

Altogether, not bad for a two and a half day stitching marathon.

Back to The English Band Sampler

Band 6 to date

I picked this sampler up again yesterday after a long hiatus.  And, much as I have enjoyed it in the past, it's becoming something of a duty stitch: something I am determined to finish simply because my A-type personality cannot tolerate loose ends and unfulfilled commitments.  Matters are made somewhat worse by the fact that I am not enjoying the specialty stitches, a simple eyelet and a satin stitch, I am currently working on in an effort to finish Band 6.  These stitches are  complicated by the fact that half the legs of each stitch need to be started by slipping the needle beneath the sides of completed cross stitches.  The instructions indicated the cross stitches needed to be stitched first but if I had it to do over [God forbid], I would  stitch the eyelets first.  There are 20 eyelets surrounding each blue square and 24 satin stitches within each square.  It takes me the better part of two hours to stitch them.  So far I have stitched the specialty stitches for three squares, leaving five more to do.

Close up of completed squares

Since I stitch between one and two hours a day, finishing up the squares should take anywhere from three to five days.  That will leave a little over half the month to start and finish Band 7 and go back to Band 3 and decide whether I am going to stitch my own name and date or something else entirely. The goal this month is to finish the entire sampler, but que sera, sera.  When I consider that I started this pieces in August of 2012, I am ashamed to admit that I have not finished it yet.




 And, of course, I wish to meet the other May goals of resuming work on Piper's Christmas stocking and getting some ornament and pillow finishing done.  Oh, the joys of an A-type personality!

The English Band Sampler

Another November goal accomplished and just under the wire: The English Band Sampler has been rescued from the UFO basket.  It's been a very long time since this was in the rotation; so long, I had almost forgotten how much fun it was.  It is a bit out of my comfort zone.  I tend to prefer muted colors.  But somehow I don't really mind the brightness and the outrageous contrasts of this piece.  I think all the specialty stitches and the antique sampler motifs are what's really keeping my interest.  They provide just enough challenge to keep me on my toes.

I was working on this band the last time I had it in hand.

And this is the progress made today.

Weekend Progress Report: August 5, 2012

I generally start my Christmas gift stitching in July but I didn't quite make that deadline this year.  But that changed today.  I have made a small start on Wentzler's Woodland Angel Christmas Stocking which I hope to have completely stitched and assembled and ready for my grandson by Christmas of 2012.  It's been awhile since I worked on a Teresa Wentzler piece so I expect to enjoy the complexity and fine detail that is her trademark.    There is always a point, usually midway through a TW project, that this same once-so-appealing-to-me complexity becomes anathema, requiring a short stay in a suitable rest home for stressed out stitchers.  But that should be months away.  Whenever it gets to be a little bit too much for me, I'll switch back to The English Band Sampler which is also a complex project but in a completely different style.  I figure alternating between the two pieces ought to keep me fresh and motivated.  But I have kitted up a few small Christmas ornaments, as well - just in case I need a shot of instant gratification.

And speaking of The English Band Sampler, here is  a photo of recent progress on it.  This current row is a breeze after the recent fussy work with the Queen stitched strawberries of the previous row.  Currently, I am working on completing the rest of the cross stitching in this row though I did do a bit of the satin stitching while waiting for my car to be serviced.  There are also a few other specialty stitches, an Algerian eyelet and some fern stitches, that will be a nice finishing touch.  Part II is made up of two rows of elaborately stylized floral motifs.  I haven't done much of this sort of stitching.  Oh, there have been a few sampler borders that incorporated
stylized flower motifs but nothing this dramatic.  American floral motifs seem quite restrained when compared with the English ones. The photo on the right shows the whole band as far as I have stitched it.  If you look closely at the olive green [DMC 732] divider, you will note that I have stitched a good bit of the satin stitch fill between the cross stitching.  It made perfect waiting room stitching: same color floss, repetitive stitches, no need to fuss with charts and floss boxes.  And the photo on the left is a close-up of the floral motifs that will ultimately fill the entire area and will be filled with varying lengths of vertical and horizontal satin stitching. This is turning out to be an interesting piece and a bit of a challenge.  At least it is not boring.

Finally, some recent stash enhancement.  I purchased copies of The Proper Stitch and the JCS Halloween 2012 issue.  A quick glance through The Proper Stitch revealed a treasure trove of information for anyone who loves samplers and specialty stitches.  I just know I am going to love delving into this book at my leisure.    I also bought a set of those needle ID cards and tucked them away in the VB pencil case I use to store all my needles.  The cards will come in handy to identify all the stray needles that have been separated from their proper packets.  And I got the remaining skeins of WDW and GAST I needed for stitching Primitive  Needle's Thy Needle.  Only the JCS Halloween issue was a disappointing waste of money.  None of the ornaments appealed to me and the larger pieces fall into two categories so far as I am concerned: [one] far too similar to things I have already seen and stitched or [two] just too silly for words. I find the whole experience of paging through this issue similar to my disenchantment with the recent JCS Christmas ornament issues.  I haven't purchased any of those for at least three years now: pretty much a matter of been there, done that reactions to the designs.  The one really bright light in this recent stash enhancement venture was the speedy service: I ordered from A Needle in A Haystack [Alameda, Ca.] on aFriday morning and had the items on the following Monday morning.  You just can't do better than that!

Most of the day I have spent reading in bed while convalescing from a minor ailment.  I like Robert Parker's Jesse Stone novels and am nearly through with Night and Day.

Seventy Six Trombones Led the Big Parade ...

 Actually, It's seventy six Queen Stitches making up the Strawberry motifs in the English Band Sampler ... but I certainly feel like staging a parade to celebrate their completion.  Now don't get me wrong, I like Queen Stitches quite a lot.  They are intricate without being particularly difficult and they are quite attractive.  But seventy six is a bit much even for me.  I was curious and I timed this particular bit of stitching.  It took me 4 hours 48 minutes and 30 seconds to complete all 76 Queen Stitches ... one two hour sitting and one ... well, you can do the math.

 The photo above shows the third row of Part I, now complete while the photo to the right is a close-up of the strawberries.  This second photo is truer so far as actual color goes: the strawberries were stitched using DMC 350, 351, 352 and 353; the caps are DMC 3011.  And the photo below is a slightly out-of-focus close-up of a single strawberry.  Clearly, I am not the best photographer on the planet but I wanted to give you some sense of the strawberry's construction: first a row of 4 Queen Stitches, followed by a row of 5, then another row of 4, then rows of 3, 2 and 1 as it tapers to a point.

I have started on Part II from the SANQ Summer 2012 issue.  The first row of Part II involves some cross stitch and lots and lots of satin stitch.  It ought to very relaxing.  Satin stitch will be perfect for what I have to do tomorrow: sitting in an auto dealership waiting room as my Hyundai is inspected and has its regularly scheduled maintenance.  I plan to do as much of the cross stitch as I can today and save the satin stitching  fill for the waiting room tomorrow.

The nice thing about today's stitching is that, with it, I have now met all my July stitching goals.

Weekend Progress Report, April 28, 2012 & April Goals Assessment

I didn't receive the Tokens and Trifles cards in the mail yet so my plan to work on my scissor keep exchange was derailed.  Instead I continued to work on The English Band Sampler and put in an hour or two back stitching my own design for a bookmark, Riona's Book Nook.  Here are a few photos.

On the left is Part I of The English Band Sampler with the Rosebud motif completed ... I am thinking of putting the intitial R stitched over one in the darker green in the open space in the center.  And on the right is Riona's Book Nook bookmark.  I still need to stitch the geode beneath the slanting books on the second shelf and fill in the spider plant on the top shelf and finish the back stitching.  Once that is done, I will finish it by backing it with some very soft flannel cut from an old bed sheet and fringe the edges ... my usual way of finishing off a bookmark.

And, now to assess my April Goals: It is fairly obvious that I spent more time on my garden than on my stitching this month.  The unseasonably warm weather in early April threw me off track and I remained off track for the entire month!

APRIL GOALS

2010-11 WIPs: Stitch Block 3 of Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie.  NOT AT ALL.

2010-2011 WIPs: Stitch four blocks on Jacobean Elegance Afghan.  NOT AT ALL.

2012 New Start: Start work on TW's Woodland Angel Stocking for Liam. NO, but I did manage to pull the fabric and what DMC I had and make a list of what I need.

2012 Start: Kit up and start the next Town Square SAL ornament: The Primitive Shop.  NOT AT ALL.

Class Project Challenge: Finish Phyllis Mauer's Japanese Kogin Tea Cozy.  Progress was made but it is not yet finished.

Sewing and Assembly Finishing: Two pillows.  NOT AT ALL.

TSS Scissor Keep Exchange: Stitch scissor keep and fob.  Still waiting for my Tokens and Trifles cards.

Off goal stitching:   One hopes that there won't be anything in this category by the end of April.  What with the Woodland Angel, The Primitive Shop and the scissor keep for my TSS exchange, my appetite for new starts should have been satisfied. Well this didn't go as planned.  Once I received the fabric for  SANQ's Part I of The English Band Sampler, I simply had to get started on it.  Now, all I have left to do on Part I are the queen stitched strawberries and the motto line in the alphabet section.  I am hoping to chart my chosen motto today and start stitching it.  I am like a child, saving the best [queen stitches] for last.

MAY GOALS: I have to do some serious retrenching this month.  As the weather warms, I can't help but hear the siren call of garden, patio and park.  Then, too, there are First Communions, Confirmations, Registration for Sept. 2012 and final exams/progress reports for 2011-12 to manage this month.  June and July are much easier months professionally, so I expect to get back up to speed then.

2010-11 WIPs: Stitch Block 3 of Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie.  

2012 New Start: Order the remaining floss and start work on TW's Woodland Angel Stocking for Liam.  I hope to have the Name Band and Borders stitched by the end of the month.

2012 WIP:  Finish stitching SANQ's Part I of The English Band Sampler.

Class Project Challenge: Continue work on Phyllis Mauer's Japanese Kogin Tea Cozy.  

HOE Project: Stitch a Christmas Bird ornament.

TSS Scissor Keep Exchange: Stitch scissor keep and fob & mail by early May.  

Photos to Go With Yesterday's Post

The new planter boxes

Here are the promised photos, now that my camera battery is properly recharged.  I am very pleased with the new planter boxes and will be even more pleased once I have finished filling them sometime this weekend.  I expect I'll be haunting my favorite nursery over the next few weeks, purchasing topsoil and peat and sand, checking out the vegetable seedlings as they arrive, picking out my stakes and trellises.  I am also anxiously awaiting my package of heirloom seeds so I can get some seedlings of my own started.  There's still a bit of work to do in the backyard.  I never did get around to painting the back door and frame and remounting the bird feeder.  And I would also like to get to work on the concrete retaining wall [at my back as I took this photo], scrubbing it, sealing it and painting it white.  Next year will be soon enough for doing something about new fencing.  One major investment in this space at a time.  This year it was the planter boxes.

And below, my current progress on the English Band Sampler: the Redwork section is complete and I have nearly finished work on the leaves of central tree motif.

English Band Sampler from SANQ