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.

More Summer Updates

Pieces of Eight

 I did not get work done on Pieces of Eight since my last post because I could not put down the Filet Bluework but I did take an updated picture of progress made in June.   

When I post the finish I hope to include notes about what colors I feel the magazine got wrong when ccompared to the photos and my own work.  Not all the colors listed in the directions need to be bought.  Based on my study of the photo of the original piece, it had  fewer colors with better distribution.  

I finally started making more of my own choices as I progressed.   I wished I'd made them sooner to better balance the colors.  I love it anyway.

Chatelaine: Egyptian Mandala

I am finally starting to feel like I am getting somewhere.  It is funny to me, that while I longed to be done with the inner block sections there was something reassuring about filling them in.  I have to pay more attention to the chart now.  

New territory to be stitched.  I am on to other shapes, other motifs. 

Filet Lace Bluework 

This piece did not take long as I could not stand to put it down.   The colors are still a little off but a little closer than the older picture.

I enjoyed working on this piece so much I dove into my stash of HDF spools then found another small pattern to start.

Filet Leafy Scrollwork 

A semi mystery thread.  It is HDF.  It is labeled.  It is a Single Stranded Regular silk.  The mystery is how I got it because I never ordered SSR a la cart.  I suspect it came in a bag of mystery spools from an old carrot option in the shopping menu.

I absolutely love the SSR.  I wonder if the new SSR is like this onld one.   The coverage on 36 ct is better than 1 ply from the 6 stranded. 

I also love this color.  It reminds me of leaves starting to change for fall or a forest path.   The color numbers listed on the mini  spool are: 5135/5271/3255/3221 which I think is a combination  of Kodiak Bear 5135/Jackalope 5271/Luteus Green 3255/Willow Withies 3221

WIPocalypse # 5

This has been another crazy month...actually,  this might be the first sane month I have ever had for stitching since I haven't flitted about 20 projects.  I didn't start 20 new projects but stayed with 4 already started pieces.  The 3 challenges I joined this year have really helped me to focus.  

First up: Gayle Bicknell's Pieces of Eight.

Eight more octagons finished.  1 stalled for changes.  Eight more to go. 

I stalled on this last one because the colors listed in the instructions are not the colors that look pictured - but I know how misleading that can be given how out of whack my own pictures are which never photograph the cloth colors the way they actually look. 

I thought the dark green would work as it is a part of the multi color NN which shows up in a few blocks above it but I finally decided it looks too dark.  When I pick it up later in May I will clip out what's there to replace it with a lighter green.  From there, I may even be able to zip through the final 8 for another Wipocalypse finish...unless I get to another color decision.

Martina  Weber's Egypt Garden Mandala

I am thrilled about the progress on this one, too.  I had 2 vacation days which I spent mostly stitching.   Not the best picture but I was in a hurry as the camera battery was running down.

 I am finally out of the inner sections (except for a few stitches and beads here and there).  I am out on the golden sections with trees, pillars and other scenes.  

I can't believe I am seeing progress.  I think at one point it was hopeless to think I would ever get anything done on this.  Now I dare to think I might get it finished.  It gets more beautiful as it progresses.  Even family members are beginning to comment on it as it doesn't let look like a blue blob.

Nora Corbett: J Fairy

I wanted to work on something small for the instances where I didn't have much time to haul out a bigger project with a lot of components.  I thought this would fit the bill.  It didn't really.  One evening's work amounted to some over 1 flesh on her arm and shoulder.

For some reason, she wasn't the itch I wanted to scratch this month.  I think  I still wanted to work on Egypt but I just couldn't haul it all out.  I looked at some other small projects I had within reach but nothing screamed to me.   I switched to knitting some  more on another family snuggly afghan slims.

Wipocalypse #4 recap

I have made some posts on my wip work this past month but not all of them.  I have been busier stitching than posting which is a good thing in some ways but bad in other ways because the posts help me keep track on what I have been working on - otherwise it all blends together and it feels like I got nothing done.

Old wips worked on for this reporting cycle:

Martina Weber's Egyptian Mandala:

This piece is so slow going, so labor intensive that it doesn't give  much of a sense of progress even after you spend hours  working on it.  I would love to have this more than halfway finished by the end of the year.  I hold no illusions about actually finishing it this year.

Ink Circles: Croakworth:

I reported on this in more detail previously.  I stopped at over half way because I could not make up my mind about combining this piece with the companion piece Quackworth.  I cut the cloth to put the two on top of one another, combining them into a longer piece.  

 But now, I am changing my mind.  I don't have the heart to cut that much cloth off the piece but I will have to.   I want the 2 of them stitched then framed separately.  I will feel better about it when I find something else to put on the cloth trimmed off.

  I think that was it for older pieces as I was obsessed with the Laura Perin piece - which only qualifies as an old collected pattern which had been in my stash forever.


In catching up on some of my blog reading on other stitchers I am reminded of some more old WIPS of mine which haven't seen progress for ages but look so wonderful as other stitchers work on theirs.  Maybe my old huge Prairie Schooler ABC blocks can come out to play for the next update.  It has 4 foot scroll rods.  I will need some vacation days, I think.

Or maybe just more work on Egyptian.  There is always more work to be done on Egyptian.

WIPocalypse: Dragonfly Quilt Row A FINISHED!!!

Granted, it wasn't that large and it shouldn't have taken 10 years (or thereabouts) but it is finished.  It could have been finished years ago if I had only kept picking it up but I didn't.  I didn't even LIKE working on it at several points.  

I have loved every minute I have worked on it since picking it up for the WIPocalypse and the 2012 HAEDless stitching challenge.  It is done.  Scary part is that I'm tempted to now start another row instead of picking up another old piece to finish off.

Here are some closeups: 

 This is block 4.  The directions recommended putting some pottery shard or something like that in the medallion.  In a past medallion on MW's Bluebell mini, I put in a small crystal.  I couldn't conveniently find one I liked for this so I just stitched in the attribution information.

Some pictures of the border.

The new starts of the last 2 weeks.

Remember when I said I didn't know what I was in the mood for?  It took me a couple of new starts plus some work on the 2012 Challenge piece and 2 WIPocaylpse pieces  to settle down.  Here are the new starts.

 Martina Weber: Japanese Box 

My plan with this is to frame the panels.  It will have better protection framed than it will done up as a box- at least at my house.  

Sorry about the wonky picture.  I didn't want to take it off the Q snaps because I want to return to it.  The panels work up pretty fast.

I changed the material since my first picture of supplies. I changed it out twice.  I went from Platinum 32 ct to a beautiful Waterlily 32 ct then back to a Platinum but 28 ct.  I think Waterlily is a discontinued color now, but even if it hasn't been discontinued in a 28 count, I really wanted to work out of my stash.  The Platinum works well though the Waterlily would have been really lovely.  The Waterlily is of that wonderful DMC 500 range.  

The reason I went to 28 was because I didn't want to crowd the stitches.  I have other Chatelaine pieces on 32 which I now sort of regret.  I can get the stitches to lay down, but the stitching process isn't as relaxing for me when I have to work that much at it.

Everything else on this is as charted, except that I swapped out the solid NPI for the less expensive DMC.  



Lizzie Kate Winter Alphabet


I started this a couple of weeks ago but didn't have pictures handy until now.  It was fun but my short attention span took me away to other things.

 Charted threads on 36 count flax, 1 strand over 2.

WIPocalypse January 9 report

I am posting a day or so early because I don't think I will get any further along on this between now and the report date.  So while I have time to work with the pictures here is my first WIPocalypse post.

I hauled out this really old Wip: Martina Weber's Dragonfly Quilt Row A all blocked up.  At the time I started this I was fairly new to Martina Weber's great designs.  The size of the entire quilt intimidated me so I decided to attack it in manageable chunks: arrangements in blocks of 4 with the border framing them.

 It was a good plan until I didn't get very far.  I modified the border a little bit by adding some stitching and some beads but that wouldn't have taken me this many years to complete had I stuck with it.

 Here is a close up of Block 2 where I picked up again in response to the WIPocalypse challenge.

And now TA-DA!  I have had a thoroughly enjoyable few days of working on this, loving even the parts of the stitching that I remembered hating when I put this down years ago.  

The border is not completely filled in with the funky stitches but it is marching along to the bottom half of the piece.  Block 2 is completely finished.  YAY! 

Onto the bottom half!  I can begin to imagine that I might even finally finish this this year.  This piece will be framed as soon as it can be at that point.  I am not putting this away in the map chest drawers with so many other pieces.

Thank you, Measi, for the challenge.  I don't think I would have hauled this out without it.