LaDDa: Watchful Eye

On the way home from an appointment, I visited Yankee Cross Stitch up in North Hampton, NH.  I wanted to walk among the models, see finished projects.  Get inspired.

In a back corner cubby was a LaDDa design.  An old one.   One I had in my stash...the model looked nothing like the chart cover.  The chart cover was dark & murky.  It made me wonder why I bought it...not much wondering: I must have loved the bones of the design.

Yankee's rendition was brighter, clearer, happier.  That was the version I went home to create (with a few changes both intentional and unintentional - the unintentional being the miscounts that I can kept to avoid redoing).

I can never get the cloth color right in my photos: the cloth is yellower than pictured.  I used a mystery stash cloth of 36 count.  I used the chart listed GAST except that I ramped up the red.  I also used beads for the isolated stitches in the border and the few around the heart.

The chart original was done on BOAF Meadowlark which is a great fabric  which I have in my stash but it was not the look I was seeking in this piece.

There you have it.  My first start of the year and finished within a month.

Bent Creek Reindeer Sampler

This came kitted in a small vinyl pouch.  I remember picking it up at a Cross Stitch Festival in the late 1990s.  I miss those festivals.

Anyway, I probably started it soon after.  It was during one of my Over 1 phases.  It did not hold my attention or patience long enough to finish it at that time...but finally TA DA!

Bent Creek: Reindeer Sampler

The cloth color is a greeny-brownish Khaki colored 28 ct. not the grayish neutral pictured here.  It came with a little cardinal button which I didn't use here due to scale but I no doubt I will use it on something else.

I should have put something beside this for scale because it is tiny: something like 1 3/4 inches by 2 3/4.

It is done!  Time to move on to something else.

2015 Goals: not unlike 2013...2014 was a lost year

2013...15 Goals

More Wip killing!
1.  12/12: 12 wip finishes in 12 months (or more)
Doing good thus far.  I believe I have 2.  One was a decade old Bent Creek: Reindeer Sampler (over 1) finished in January? or Dec 2014 (close enough).
The other was a new start in January: LaDDa's Watchful Eye.  Finished in February.  
 
2.  Keep new starts to a minimum: finish any new starts within the same year (except for any SALs)
The LaDDa: started in Jan, finished in Feb.
I started the Heartstrings: Sparrow sampler in Dec...so I cheated.  The SAL for this one just started but I never finish with the pack and of course, this one is very big.
 
3.  Get reacquaintedwith my wips: stitch on at least 1 wip by every designer I have already started.   Back in 2013 I learned that this doesn't work because  I have way too many wips.  Now I hope to find a way to keep a current handful worked on a regular basis towards completions.   

The really good news is that by now the drive to work the wips is so much stronger than wanting to start anything...though I have started more these past 6 months than I did in the year prior (3 pieces).  The good news is that I have about a half dozen finishes in the last 6 months.  I know, bad me, I have not blogged about them (yet).

Specific Goals:
1.  Tony Minieri Stars for a New Millenium: stay on track.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA  um, sure, the track is gone.  Maybe I can at least pick this up and finish 1 more square this year.  That would put me on a new track to finish this sometime in 2021.
2.  Pieces of 8: only 5 3 octagons left: finish this.
3.  Blackbird Designs: Xmas Garden: finish this.  Not finished but not a priority. 
4.  SB:Sheep, my NY tradition: start & finish a small sheep piece. I worked NY so I didn't have time for the tradition but I did take out the old BC Reindeer and finished that that week.  1 old wip finished NY week could easily become a new tradition.
5.  Permission to start 1 really good sized piece during 2015 (then try to not start anymore big pieces).  Sparrow started last Dec fits this bill.  Unfortunately there is a huge blackwork piece screaming for a start.

Organization:
1.  Put my stash room back together - the annual organization & clean up.
2.  Round up my NP canvases.  Catalog them.
3.  Organize my frame stash.  At this point I will be happy if I could put together all the wips whose threads have scattered to places unknown.  There is nothing like wanting to settle in with a piece only to discover some necessary component missing.  AAAAARGH.