Memories

Back in the days when my boys were young, my husband and I learned to tread carefully at bed check.

Is it any wonder that we buy Legos for our grandsons' birthday and Christmas gifts?

August WIP/UFO Update

During August, I worked on #'s 8, 11, 12 and 22  [as marked in blue] from the list.   That means I have stuck closely to stated goals for August.  I just haven't gotten back into sewing and assembly finishing 

1. Lori Birmingham's Pansy Garden Nantucket Style Basket (2005 CATS project)
2. Catherine Jordan's Pretty Picot Edges (2006 CATS project)
3.  Karen Bovard's Filet Lace (2006 CATS project)
4. Peyote stitch bracelet (Willow Tree, Boothbay Harbor , Maine)
5. 2007 Stitcher's Hideaway at Mystic Victoria Sampler projects: a stitcher's pocket, biscornu, needle book and fob
6. 2009 Stitcher's Hideaway at Mystic Brightneedle's Ghoulies and Ghosts Etui and accessories.
7. 2010 Stitcher's Hideaway at Sturbridge.  Victoria Sampler's Sturbridge Box and accessories.
   
8. 2012 Stitcher's Hideaway Lady Washington Sampler.  The "class" did not involve any stitching but instead covered the research that went into the symbolism of the various motifs and how they referenced Martha Washington's life.  I started working on this 9-28-16 [yes. that's 4 years after the class] and last worked on it on 10-16-16 [see here for photo].  One of the advantages [or maybe it's a disadvantage] of coming back to a design with fresh eyes after a hiatus is that you catch errors and omissions.  I had to undo the entire fan stitch row and restitch it.  I needed to add one more cushion stitch to the pink row above the fans, complete the last two rice stitches in the band above the blackwork and I needed to go back to Row 11 and fill in the diamond stitch pineapples.  I had skipped over them because of an arthritis flare up.  Finally, I was able to work the next band, a row of double star stitches in the lovely WDW Old Glory floss: a faded Williamsburg blue shading into a muted barn red and an aged ivory.   This band, symbolizing the flag of the new nation, was a bit fiddly but only because the extremely soft hand and dense weave of the fabric made it difficult to place the 16 individual legs of the stitch cleanly and crisply, especially since two strands of floss were used.  The stitch is better suited to a more stiffly woven linen or to canvas.   I am up to Band 15, Smyrna Cross and Rice stitched rosebuds. representing the bouquet Martha carried on her wedding day.
9. 2013 Stitcher's Hideaway Victoria Sampler's Christmas Sampler
10.  2014 Stitcher's Hideaway Brightneedle Kindred Spirits Sewing Journal.
11. The Jacobean Elegance afghan - with 7 more squares to be stitched.  
    All the flower blocks are complete. Since I have already posted photos of an individual flower block, here's a photo of the recently completely bud block.
    

    
    
    
    I'm on a roll with this piece, having completed five blocks in quick succession.  I intend to keep going until I become bored by the repetition.  Even though the bud block is worked from a different chart, the similarity of bud and flower designs is such that, even at my most optimistic, I expect my enthusiasm for this piece to fade after one or two more blocks.  On the other hand. there is a certain satisfaction to be found in finishing one block after another so quickly.  And it is a very easy and relaxing stitch.  So who knows, if sheer momentum continues to carry me forward, this may end up as Mom's Christmas gift this year after all!
    

    
12.   2015 Stitcher's Hideaway.  Making Waves needlepoint project -  made some more progress on the bargello rows.
13. My own design, Fertile Circles needle book, the back panel needs finishing.
14. My own design, Beach Find Pansies, to be completed and incorporated into an embellished crazy quilt square.  
15. Another needlepoint project, Rice Pudding, using many variations of the rice stitch.
16. Yet another needlepoint project, an Owl, again a project using lots of specialty stitches.
17. Piper's Christmas stocking  adapted from a Dimensions kit.
18. Alessandre Adelaide's Zucca.
19. Encrusted Crazy Quilt Square & Strap
20. HAED's Tangle Fairy
21. Owl Sampler, needlepoint
22. Victoria Sampler Tea Cozy   Still practicing the bullion stitches.  No photos of my pitiful practice swatch, if you please.
23. T. Wentzler's Logo Dragon
24. Royal Albert Museum: Art Nouveau Napkin and Napkin Ring.

New Starts: 0

Number of Sewing Finishes:  0

Resuming Monthly Giveaways

I know I just had a blogaversary giveaway but I have decided to return to the practice of announcing a giveaway on the 4th of each month and selecting a winner on the 10th. I thought I'd start by sharing some of my favorite stitching themed charts with my readers.  Anyone who has been reading my blog for any length of time knows I enjoy stitching dragons [see here for a gallery post of my dragon finishes.]

Today, I'll be offering the following three charts to one of the readers who posts in the comments below a plaintive tale as to why he or she, much like the beloved Rubeus Hagrid of Harry Potter fame, would like to own a dragon:

Teresa Wentzler's Tracery Dragons

Teresa Wentzler's You Were Hatched

Cross Eyed Kat's Red Snowball Dragon

Giveaway Winner

Is Jo Who Can't Think of a Clever Name.  I'll send her an e-mail today and let her know to expect the charts as soon as the somewhat erratic cross-Atlantic mail can manage it.

What did it for me was her comment that she liked my sense of humor and found it a bit British. I majored in English literature while at college.   I imagine immersion in all those British authors has had an effect on my wit [though my siblings claim I lack any humor, at all - but, then, they don't get me]. 

To this day, I still re-read the collected works of Jane Austen annually and enjoy reading a  bit of Shakespeare or D. H. Lawrence every so often ... not to mention lighter reading like Tolkien, Lewis, Frye, Wodehouse and Ellis.  Even my DVD shelf is crowded with British titles: Jeeves and Wooster, Fawlty Towers, Rumpole, Mulberry. Cadfael, Poirot, Miss Marple, To The Manor Born and The Irish RM.

So,yes, I guess my sense of humor is a bit British.

Annual Goals Revaluated

As part of my blogaversary month activities, I am taking stock of my stitching progress so far this year.

These were my goals as of January 2017. 

• 01. My Own Crazy Challenge: work on unfinished class pieces from 2005-date. Made some minimal efforts on Making Waves and The Martha Washington Sampler, both Stitcher's Hideaway class pieces.
• 02. Complete two BAPs: Stitch stockings for Piper and Rocco.  Not a stitch.
• 03. Stitch a half dozen St. Patrick's Day and half a dozen Easter ornaments.  The Irish ornaments are not only stitched but are assembled and finished ready to be hung next March.  The Easter ornaments are stitched and in the finishing pile mountain.
• 04. Continue to work on UFOs and WIPs list going into 2016.  I have been working fairly steadily on The Jacobean Elegance Afghan and have finished three more flower blocks.
• 05. Limit stash purchases to fabric, fiber and tools needed to complete charts on hand.  So far this year, I have made no purchases at all, stitching entirely from a conveniently large stash.
• 06. Continue to blog regularly, aiming for every other day..  And then life happened in the form of a major illness.  Blogging from hospital and nursing home wasn't possible.  Even when finally back home, the energy and inclination were nowhere to be found.  So, this goal is a wash.
• 07. Make an effort to catch up on sewing finishes and frame 2 or 3 pieces professionally.  The energy and inclination elude me.
• 08. Renew my lapsed EGA membership, changing my status to cyber-stitcher.  With the demise of Sampler and Antique Needlework, I no longer have an active subscription to an informative and educational stitching magazine.  Renewed membership in the EGA comes with a subscription to the EGA quarterly.  So, I'll take care of this goal as soon as I am finished with this post.  It'll be nice to get some reading material about textile arts again 

Looking forward
* I'll continue to work on goals 1, 3 and 4
* I'll continue to stitch from stash as per goal 5
* I'll make an effort to meet goals 2 and 7.
* I'll simply accept that goal 6 is a total loss.

Ninth Blogaversary

The start date was 8/26/08.    To celebrate, I'll be giving away a grab bag of 21 charts that reflect my rather eclectic tastes, including charts from Bent Creek, Calico Crossroads, Homespun Elegance, Mill Hill, Prairie Schooler. Primitive Needle, Rosewood Manor, Victoria Sampler, Whispered by the Wind, and Workbasket.  To be included in the drawing, just answer the quiz below in the comments section and include an e-mail address at which I can reach you.  The drawing will take place on the actual anniversary.

I have been blogging for 9 years now and thoroughly enjoy the process of writing what is essentially a stitching journal, with the rare side trip into real life.  Writing about stitching is very nearly as relaxing as stitching itself.

I have the mind of a statistician and it seems very natural to take stock of what's been happening on this blog.

So, I find it interesting that during the past 9 years:
* I have written 1367 posts.  
* Blogger has recorded 371,267 Pageviews.
* Readers have left 4,920 Comments.
* I have 224 followers.


What I'd like to do this year is ask nine questions about blogging, one for each year I have been writing.

1. Do you prefer a blog that is
      a] 90% stitching and 10% personal, roughly what my blog is .
      b] 100% stitching and no personal stuff at all
      c] 50% stitching and 50% personal chat

2.  Whatever the preference selected above, what are your reasons for the preference?

3.  When reading blogs, be honest, do you just look at the photos and skip the prose?

4.  When reading a particular blog, do you enjoy tracking the progress of a specific project?

5.  How many blogs do you read on a regular basis? [Regular basis being defined as once weekly]
     a] 1-25
     b] 26-50
     c] 51-100
     d] over 100

6.  What sort of things do you expect to find on a blog, things that will keep you coming back to read?

7.  What do you like about my blog?  

8. What don't you like about my blog?

9. Do you blog?  If yes, provide a link to your blog.

Another Flower Block

Working on the Jacobean Elegance Afghan is very easy on the eyes ... and it has the added advantage of keeping my legs warm when my husband cranks up the air conditioner to full blast.  So far, I have stitched 8 flower blocks and 2 bud blocks.  And, after this block is complete, there'll be just one more flower block left.  And, of course. 8 bud blocks.  I wonder how far along I will get before boredom sets in and I need to return to something more challenging.

UFO/WIPs Progress Report

It's been a while since my  last progress report. These past several month, I worked on #'s 11, 12, 14 and 22  [as marked in blue] from the list.

1. Lori Birmingham's Pansy Garden Nantucket Style Basket (2005 CATS project)
2. Catherine Jordan's Pretty Picot Edges (2006 CATS project)
3.  Karen Bovard's Filet Lace (2006 CATS project)
4. Peyote stitch bracelet (Willow Tree, Boothbay Harbor , Maine)
5. 2007 Stitcher's Hideaway at Mystic Victoria Sampler projects: a stitcher's pocket, biscornu, needle book and fob
6. 2009 Stitcher's Hideaway at Mystic Brightneedle's Ghoulies and Ghosts Etui and accessories.
7. 2010 Stitcher's Hideaway at Sturbridge.  Victoria Sampler's Sturbridge Box and accessories.
8. 2012 Stitcher's Hideaway Lady Washington Sampler.  Started working on this 9-28.  I am up to Band 9.
9. 2013 Stitcher's Hideaway Victoria Sampler's Christmas Sampler
10.  2014 Stitcher's Hideaway Brightneedle Kindred Spirits Sewing Journal.
11. The Jacobean Elegance afghan - with 10 more squares to be stitched.  Since this was last seen, I have completed three more of the flower blocks.
12.   2015 Stitcher's Hideaway.  Making Waves needlepoint project -  made some progress on the bargello rows.
13. My own design, Fertile Circles needle book, the back panel needs finishing.
14. My own design, Beach Find Pansies, to be completed and incorporated into an embellished crazy quilt square.  
15. Another needlepoint project, Rice Pudding, using many variations of the rice stitch.
16. Yet another needlepoint project, an Owl, again a project using lots of specialty stitches.
17. Piper's Christmas stocking  adapted from a Dimensions kit.
18. Alessandre Adelaide's Zucca.
19. Encrusted Crazy Quilt Square & Strap
20. HAED's Tangle Fairy
21. Owl Sampler, needlepoint
22. Victoria Sampler Tea Cozy  Very nearly done with just the bullion stitch sunflower and the last little bit of vine to go.
23. T. Wentzler's Logo Dragon

New Starts: On Goal:
Four Easter Egg ornaments, variations of charts found in BHG 2001 Cross Stitch Designs

Off Goal Stitching:V & A Museum Art Nouveau Napkin and Napkin Ring.  Bent Creek's The Branch.

Number of Sewing Finishes:  0

Rebooting

The last post to this blog was nearly three months ago and I am still adjusting to the new regimens of living with kidney disease.  I haven't had much energy or inclination for blogging.  I have even fallen behind in my reading of other blogs.  But I am beginning to see my way forward and am developing some new routines.

I have been stitching, though.

At first, I wanted something light hearted and easy on the eyes.  So, I pulled Bent Creek's The Branch from the To Do binder.  It's a simple straightforward set of charts purchased years ago when I was buying just about anything with an owl in it.  This is one of the snapper series and, for the life of me, I don't understand what possessed the designers to think snaps were decorative.  They're fasteners, for God's sake: functional, to be sure, but not particularly attractive.  So, I left them out of my version and filled the only two really obvious gaps with some Rhodes stitches.  I had most of the recommended GAST and WDW floss but made a few substitutions as needed.   I didn't want to wait on an order to start work.  It's one of the advantages of having an obscenely large fiber stash: I can indulge myself with impulsive starts.  

If anyone reading this  would like to stitch this piece her[him]self, please post below with an e-mail contact.  I'll be happy to send the charts complete with snaps and buttons.

Next, I went in an entirely different direction with Victoria Sampler Tea Cozy.  I have taken several classes with Thea Dueck and love her work.  It is always a joy and a challenge.  Her mastery of specialty stitches as major design elements and her talent for combining various techniques [cross stitch, crewel, hardangar, etc.] in the same design result in pieces that delight this stitcher's heart.  She uses a lot of Kreinik silk mori in her designs which is one fiber I don't have in my stash. So I substituted Belle Soie silks in the appropriate colors [See comment above about advantage of large fiber stash] and went to town.  I have been doing fairly well and am happy with all the satin stitching and the fern and fly and chain and lazy daisy and Smyrna cross and Japanese ribbon stitches.  But, alas, I have hit a real snag with the boullion stitch sunflower.  I have already made three false starts and had to cut away some quite tatty knots.  I have tried using a milliner's needle - too long - and a shorter beading needle - not much better.  I believe my problem is not getting the right tension - I am wrapping the needle too tightly with the result that my knots look like hump backed caterpillars.  I shall have to practice. There are supposed to be 24 of these knots in the sunflower and I am determined not to be defeated,

A little of this, A little of that

In between doctor's appointments, home health nurse visits and home PT visits, I have gotten in a little stitching, a bit more reading and a very little catch-up housework.  My husband led a bachelor existence for a little over a month while I was in hospital and nursing home and the results were pretty much what I expected.  To give you some notion of my husband;s domestic skills: once he found out I'd be laid up for more than two days, he went out and bought a dishwasher.

But on to the stitching:  I have been playing with oddments  from my scrapbag, startimg with a small scrap of 36 count antique ivory linen.

This first Easter Egg ornament is loosely based on two designs from the Better Homes and Gardens 1001 Cross Stitch Designs.  I picked a motif from one pattern [the bunnies] and the size and shape  of the egg from another.  Then I pulled out a bunch of exotic and glitzy fibers left over from old Dragon Dreams, Silver Needle Night and similar projects.  The object was to mimic a bit of Faberge bling.  I have a hard time throwing away usable leftovers and it satisfies some deep-seated aging  hippie need to recycle such odds and ends into new projects.  I thought this was a fairly successful attempt to take what was old and make something new from it.

The next Easter Egg ornament is somewhat more conventional in its conception.  Following roughly the same shape as the first, I allowed the materials at hand to dictate design elements, e.g.: the thickness and placement of the stripes, the size of the flower.  Just an aside, rayon floss is nowhere near the usual pain in the ass to use when you are working with just one strand as I did on this 36ct linen.

The third egg was born after finding some green and lavender rayon floss.  I have always liked the combination of mossy greens and soft lavenders.   I had some vague idea of an egg wrapped up in a bow and found just such a chart in BH&G 1001 Cross Stitch Designs.  With a few adjustments, I had what I wanted.

And this fourth egg is back to Faberge style bling, done in metallic reds and golds.  Just to keep from being bored, I couched a scrap of leftover gold metallic ribbon with some 003HL Kreinik VFB as the center band of this egg.  I am pleased with the effect.  For some crazy reason, I have7 spools of the various red VFB and this was a way of using up a bit of it.  Can't imagine what possessed me to buy so much of the stuff!  It must date from the time I was stitching a lot of Christmas ornaments.

The last egg uses up some fibers in the yellow to gold color way: some Colorwash silk, some amber and bronze VFB, a bit of orange wool, a scrap of bronze metallic ribbon.  To avoid repeating myself, I have decided to go the sampler route and, so far have used cross, long armed cross, satin, box, diamond Rhodes and diamond eyelet  stitches on this egg.    I plan to stitch a band of upright crosses and a band of knotted crosses before I am done.   I liked the couched ribbon effect in the red egg so much that I repeated it here with a scrap of metallic bronze ribbon and the yellow colorwash silk.


One of my 2017 goals is to make a half a dozen Easter ornaments.  With one Mill Hill beaded Easter egg just needing the final finish of a felt backing and four of these just needing flat ornament finishes, I am well on my way to accomplishing that goal.  And once I finish the yellow egg, I do have another Mill Hill beaded egg kit in stash and will probably tackle that while the Easter season is still upon us.   It'll be nice to actually exceed a goal in at least one area after so many health related set backs thus far this year