It finally feels like Autumn.

The Summer weather continued up until a front blew through overnight.  Today was the first day that feels like Autumn to me: overnight is chilly, morning air is crisp, midday is warm, some trees are starting to show color.

With that comes a change of mood which affects my stitching focus.   I took out some pieces which have not seen progress for a year or more.  One will go back to sleep as it just did not hit 'the spot.'

HDF 'Woodland Path' Filet

 

I finished the small HDF thread test on the woodland pathlike color.  

The greens are more green in real life.




Wiehenburg: Quaker Welcome

Still in the mood to stitch with HDF, a mystery unlabeled spool,  I hauled out my WIP of this very long Quaker Welcome sampler.  I finished a motif, started another then put it down.   

I will be putting this away until another time.

 

 HDF Chilean Sunset Filet

Then I started another HDF color test: Chilean Sunset.  

The colors were much better than I expected.  

This is using another filet lace pattern.

 JCS Ornament Sampler

I am often inspired and influenced by stitching on other blogs and on assorted stitching message boards. 

 All the talk about the 2012 Just Cross Stitch Christmas issue made me take out my JCS Christmas Ornament sampler.  

 I  have neither need nor desire for too many small stitched things.  I have no display cases and my book shelves are already overfull so I do not stitch things unless I can make them fit in a frame.

A long while ago I started this a piece of cloth a Montreal stitcher generously sent me.  The New Castle line of linens were just coming out.    She sent me a fat quarter of sand New Castle which I had not known existed.  I immediately started a sampler with ornaments from the 1997 JCS Christmas Ornament magazine.  

Since then I have included ornaments from other years.  I put them in as I can get them to fit.  My optimistic intent was to fill up this cloth then start another and another.   

Since this one has been about 8 or more years in the making to this point, you can appreciate how optimistic that thought is.  I have changed some colors, added beads, textural stitches as the whim hits.  The sand color does not show up in the above picture.

I am still waiting for my 2012 issue to get to my mailbox.

SANQ Joane Wallwin

SANQ article Part 1

Another reawakened interest from a topic on a message board.   I dove into my stash, grateful that at least some of it is still organized.  Out came the piece which confirmed that I am in for a change of focus on my stitching.

original Wallwin

 I hauled out Joane Wallwin which has not seen any work for at least 5 years or longer.  The uncertainty of not having all the threads called for is no longer going to hold me back.  The strangeness of working over 3 threads on tightly woven Oyster cloth is also not an issue anymore.  I don't know why these changed feelings happen but I am very glad for them.

SANQ Spring 2002 cover

The pattern as printed in SANQ over several issues, charted by Page Dorsey, Sampler Workes, is charted for Au Ver a Soie  silks: Soie de Paris and 100/3.  

The Soie de Paris's numbers are the same codes used for regular AVAS silks which I can match for color.  

The 100/3 silks are an issue.  I have no clue if these numbers are equivalent to any other line of thread or yarn.   I had some of them in my stash but not all.  

Designer's Model stitched Part 1

The designer used a 40/50 count uneven Oyster cloth.

I don't know how she tamed some of those threads!  

The tight twist of the 100/3 makes it too stiff to sit over 3 on my oyster cloth.  It arches up too high for my tastes. 

10 years of my progress

 I used DMC cotton floss instead, eyeballed to the 100/3 color or just chosen to correspond to my interpretation of the color name in the required  color family values.  In one case, the first band's "light salmon." I changed to a deeper one.  The original light color was not showing up on the cloth.  The DMC is still a little too thick for crisp blackwork lines but I do not have anything thinner.

 Blackbird Designs Christmas Garden

I loved it when I saw it.  I do not love it now.  Mostly enjoyed it but now not so much.  I still hope to finish it by the end of the year.

 I finally got a picture which is a truer representation of the cloth color.

 Tony Minieri's Stars for a New Millenium

New SAL, a 2 year project with The Wagon (a yuku board)  starting in October.  It scares yet excites me.  I have the pattern, the threads, the canvas and bars.  I just need to arrange them and wait for the start.   No picture yet: tune in next month.

Chances of finishing this year's chief WIPS:

 

Bicknell/Needlepoint Now: Pieces of Eight: Most likely.


Blackbird Designs Christmas Garden: Most likely but I will have to set aside days that I make myself work on this.



Perin Lahaina Breezes: Not likely.  I have to change the thread in the outer most border.  Satin stitching the 5 or 6 strands of DMC is just fuzzing up too much even with short strands.


Martina Egyptian Mandala: No way.


Lizzie Kate Winter Alphabet: Probably not.


Martina Japanese Panels: One more panel hopefully, but I would rather have more progress on Egypt.

Recovering Some Stitching Mojo

Long time no blog, I know.  Sorry.  I just lost my stitching  mojo for a while.  I am still with the SALs and challenges in spirit: they kept me on track during the winter doledrums.  They certainly kept me focused, kept me from starting so many other projects that I would have otherwise.  But by June it just became more work than passionate hobby.

I'm back now.  I did do some stitching over the summer.  I have updates to post of a few projects but I will only do 2 of them today.

Blackbird Designs
 Christmas Garden. 

 I finally got part of an alphabet in there.  The alphabet used was from another Blackbird Designs chart whose name escapes me right now (head/palm moment).

I have a little bit more done since the picture was taken but not much more.  Some of my color placements are not as charted.  I wasn't a fan of as much gold as there was charted so I subbed in the green in most of those places with some brown in at least one other place.


Bluework Blue, no name design from a Filet Lace book,  vol 6.

Bluework Blue is the name of the color, a blend of 4 blues from Hand Dyed Fibers, it was a custom forum call.  I finally got onto one before the calls were closed up.  I am usually too late for most of them.

This is 1 strand silk over 2 threads on Antique White 36 ct linen.  The thread color appears lighter than in real life.  In real life there are more gray/blue tones.  All of it being slightly more to the blue tone than the picture has.  

It was still a bit of a shock for me when I got them.  I guess the attempted facsimile of colors on the HDF forum call had as much of an issue with exact colors as I'm having with my camera.  Either way, I still love the color and have plans for more after this piece.

While I was looking for a small piece to test the color out, I found a scrolly design with a peacock in it in the same book that just about screamed to be done with this thread but the pattern was more than twice as big as this one.  I wanted something small, working up quicker to act as a test for show 'n tell.

Many designers have recharted old filet lace designs then sold them as individual cross stitch patterns.   I saved a lot of money and found a greater selection of patterns by searching out filet lace books.  There are even some online at sites like Gutenburg project and other archivist sites.  The charts are a bit of a chore sometimes but with a pen marking up the photocopied page that is easily fixed.

So until the next time when I can update more work on my Chatelaine Egypt and an almost completed pieces of 8 where I'm on to the last 4 medallions.

Blackbird Designs: Christmas Garden

This is my 2012 BAP challenge about which I have forgotten to send monthly updates to Becky who started this challenge.   I am still keen on finishing this piece by the end of the year. 

So here is April's work.  Picture taken at the end of last month's work.

It continues to work up slower than I imagined it would.  There has been less restitching of misplaced motifs than previous months.  If I can get south of that horizontal dividing line with May's work then I will still be on track.

2012 Challenge: Blackbird Designs Christmas Garden

I worked on this at the beginning of February, putting it down only after stitching every single motif on the right side TWICE due to counting & positioning errors which could not be fudged.

So, not much project for actual acreage covered, but the amount of stitching is twice what you see.  This was a painful month with this design.  I hoped to pick it up again before March but I know now, with 4 days left to go in this month that that is just not going to happen.  If it wasn't for the Challenge I probably would not be picking this up in March but I will be.  See you about this then!

Wips: The Week in Review

I behaved well last week in staying with some wips but I am really tempted by something new. Since I wasn't sure what exactly, I tried some tricks to stay with the current projects.

The first trick was working my way down to the first band of color on the Nonesuch Sampler.  Excuse the threads leading off to the sides.  I just wanted to work with some color.  I didn't trust my ability to count correctly on the 50 ct so I started each band on my way down.

I also realized that I don't have enough eterna color 10 (ecru) to finish the all the whitework.  I may not even have enough left to finish the band I started with it (below the big dull diamonds).  That shows you how long ago I started this: eterna was still easily available then. 

I need to go through all of my wips to see if that sort of thing will be an issue with any of them concerning their threads.

Diving into my stash I found the next closest color, which is still whiter than the ecru.  I have 2 skeins of that.  That should be enough.   One good thing about not completing the bands all the way through - it will be easier to integrate the new, slightly different color to make it look like more of a design choice than the OH NO! *face palm* that it is.

But even that bit of blue wasn't enough to keep me interested for long.  It was also too small.  Those xes are really tiny.  I didn't get that sense with the satin stitches over several threads in the bands above.

I wanted something I could see!  It doesn't shine like the eterna colors but it is 1 strand over 2 on 36 ct which seems like canvas holes by comparison.
I took my Blackbird Designs 2011 Loose Feathers Summer back out.

We will see how much further I get.  It is still not fitting the mood I am in.  I wish I knew what I was looking for!

2012 Challenge: Blackbird Christmas Garden

After a couple of weeks of work on this I need to take a break to work on something else.

This is working up faster than I thought it would but that only counts if this is picked back up to continue.  

How many times have I put something down for awhile only to not return to it for years?   Don't answer that!

2012 Challenge: Blackbird Designs Christmas Garden

I couldn't wait any longer.  I spent an hour tossing floss against cloth.  After that it was only a matter of minutes before I hunted up some scroll rods. .

The cloth is more orange - antiqued than the photo shows.  The cloth is almost the color of the gold thread. 

Cloth: 36 ct. R&R Flax Fields

HDF silks: not a direct conversion to CC - just sort of eyeball to stash on hand:

Exemplar Crushed berries

BeLeaved

BeHived

Mystery - unlabeled mini brown color

OH Ho Ho Ho...Oh NO! I can't believe I did it.

With my bad track record of SALs & Challenges, I have entered into a challenge for 2012 which I saw on Becky of SC's Blog . 

I think I was just looking for an excuse to start something I got in the mail just before Christmas.  I just happened to pull some threads for it this evening but I had absolutely no plans to start it anytime soon.  I did not need another big or even medium sized WIP as I have so very many older unfinished pieces.

Here is my challenge piece to be started sometime next month. 

225W by 272 H,

though that height might change by a few stitches because I will changing that bottom line out for something like family initials, town & year so that this can hang all year.

The threads chosen were Hand-dyed Fibers, silks from my stash in close enough for me approximation to the picture:

CC Calico Kitty = HDF Exemplar Crushed Berry

CC Fool's Gold = HDF Behived

GA Endive = HDF BeLeaved

GA Heirloom Gold = HDF  unlabeled mystery variegated brown

And maybe some beads thrown in just because I love to work beads on stitched pieces.

Cloth is yet to come but will probably be 35 count which will make this piece 12.85 by 15.54.

And so we will see if I just set myself up for my usual failure to make it through to the end...but I was looking for an excuse to start this from the moment I got it.

Blackbird Designs: Crowning the Tree

From finish to frame in 5 minutes. I finished my adaptation of a Blackbirds Designs stocking to a small picture that fits inside a 5 by 7 frame. 
 
 I  added some beads: Delica 103, Gold Red Luster. 2 color substitutions were made.    The cloth is 36 ct Flax.  The eyelets were modified.  The design was shifted.  

The design count was modified to make the sides more proportional to the height so it would fit a 5 by 7 frame more evenly.

The frame was one I had on hand.  I buy up inexpensive frames when I find some I like at great prices.  They come in handy.

Blackbird Designs: Crowning the Tree

While others are wondering about their New Year's starts - I couldn't wait that long.   The longer I looked at the new leaflet, Crowning the Tree stocking, the more I wondered how it would look as a little picture piece.  

Moving it alittle here, extending the bits there and this is what I have so far:

The 3 greens are as listed on the chart. 
The other colors are substitutions: 
WDW Lancaster Red
GA Brandy.

I might introduce some beads.

It is moving along quickly despite some motif misplacements, froggins and restitching.   Original target finishing date was today - which isn't going to happen.  Now hoping for New Year's Eve so that I can start something else on New Year's Day.