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 Stitching with the Peepers

The weather was unseasonably summer like and the peeper chorus was loud even through closed windows.  Here is the progress that the peepers inspired.

I can never get the cloth color right in the pictures.  This is stitched on 32 ct. Waterlily linen with HDF silks.

The before picture:

The after:

I had hopes of finishing as this is just below the half way point but my small attention span too me back to canvas.  

I restarted the Laura J. Perin Lilac Collage - this time on the canvas called for in the chart.  More on that later.

In Search of More Old Pieces for WIPocalypse

Strangely, it was kind of sad to finish off the old Dragonfly row.  I'm thrilled it is finished but I am also a little sad.  It has been in the WIP pile for a VERY long time.

It wasn't alone.   I went diving into my old WIPS for some more contenders. 

Crossed Wing's Warblers 2 Bellpull.

 The cloth is actually a mocha color which my camera never seems to pick up.  I don't know anything beyond point and click so it's most likely me not setting something properly in it.

At least 1 have 1 bird to show for 10 years "work."  This is 32 ct. Mocha Belfast, worked with 2 strands of Anchor.  I used the Anchor conversion printed on the chart - which can sometimes be quite funky in pattern contrasts.  I went through a thread phase inwhich I was converting everything to Anchor.  The results were more vibrant but with not always the best shading results.

I have since become more lazy and just work with the ever more discreasing quality DMC on projects when I can't afford the high quality relatively inexpensive (for silk) HDF silks on conversions.  I still think Anchor is the better, stronger cotton fiber over DMC but it is tougher to find and the conversions can be problematic.

This is as far as I got on bird 2 because I thought I made a mistake when I couldn't find my place but after I frogged then restitched, I discovered that I had it right the first time just that my brain couldn't figure out where I should have started in again.  

The gray birds get a little depressing so this wip didn't stay out long.

I have since taken out my version of Ink Circles Croakworth & an old Lu Fuller kit whose cloth I switched out to a 40 ct.  Pictures of those next time.  If I can find my Quaker Go Away Banner, I will take pictures of that, too.  I was more in the mood to work on that than Croakworth but one Quaker style isn't that much different from any other.

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.

WIPocalypse Pieces of Eight

I had a change of projects for the WIPocalypse.  I have been bitten by the canvas bug thanks to conversational threads at The Wagon (a Yuku Board).  The enthusiasm of assorted canvas project discussions swept me up and carried me off the nether regions of my stash storage in search of canvas pieces I haven't touched for YEARs and had little intention of more progress.  I just hadn't gotten around to tossing them out yet.


It's a good thing I didn't.  I resurrected the oldest piece thanks to Marilyn, a Wagon poster who finished this piece and posted pictures.

Here is my starting point for the WIPocalypse.  This was where I abandoned it almost as soon as I started it in 2000. 


This is an embryonic Gayle Bicknell's Pieces of Eight published in a series of issues of Needlepoint Now, 1999 - 2000 with the listed threads on 18 ct. Sandstone mono canvas.


I did not have a thread stash beyond embroidery floss weights so I used the charted colors & threads.  They are not my colors, but it wouldn't hurt to have an eyeball alka-seltzer on the wall with my other pieces to wake up the visual senses.  If you have a stash of assorted size and textured threads: go for it.  This piece was designed using leftover threads from the designer's stash.   I will have a couple of sacks of weird threads leftover from this so I will be looking for more UseTheScraps Needlepoint charts.

This is where I left off 3 days later.  I clipped out the original start.  It was easier to clip out to restart then to try to figure out where the stitch sequence left off.  I wasted an hour trying.  LOL  

As Marilyn warned in her posts, there are several issues with the directions as printed.  Some stitch instructions are not adequately explained, or even properly sequenced but armed with Jo Ippolito Christensen's The Needlepoint Book and an openness to let it fly, to make something else work that will be close enough and fun enough, I jumped in.   I have made some changes in color placements and modified some stitches to better suit me.  The project just bit me in the right place and hasn't let go.  I could not put this piece down.  I referred to it as my stitching crack on the forum.  

The next octagon is another heavy thread in few holes modified Amadeus beast...actually the next 2 Octagons are like that...so my interest is flagging a little right now.  I suspect I will be returning to some cross stitching for a little while but I really don't want to put this away.  Maybe I will just work those modified smyrna borders for a bit.   Then I will enlarge the heck out of the small diagrams,  pour a big glass of wine then jump in.

WIPocalypse & finishing challenges update but with a NEED of something else.

All week I have been feeling the pull of other things.  I have been concentrating on trying to finish all 4 blocks of Chatelaine's Dragonfly Quilt, Row A.  I am so close to the finish.  

Is it going to happen?  No.  Not at this time.  The border is done except for the beading - which is not in the original pattern but the rest was beaded so I added beads to the border pattern.  Block 4's plain X around the perimeter with assorted little bits on the inside...I can't do any more.  I keep walking away to other distractions so time to put it away for a bit.

As much as I thought the dragonfly was my favorite block I think I like Block 3, with the gold and blue beads background the best.

Meanwhile, I am being called by these other 3 projects which I kitted up this week when I needed to walk away from the almost finished piece above.  These have been calling to me for sometime I just didn't have them ready to go.  Now they are - not in any particular order:

Chatelaine's Japanese Octagon Box that will not be a box.  The cloth is a greenish 32 ct Platinum.   I am still not convinced about the color.  The other alternative is a 32 ct raw linen.  

The only thing I'm convinced about that choice is that the white will show up.  Part of me keeps wanting to try it on 32 ct Flax but I know from experience the white thread won't show up very well on that.  Since I didn't finish the Dragonfly piece I can't bring myself to start this one.

Which leaves one of these as a February start:

Lizzie Kate's Winter Alphabet on a 36 count ancient mystery Green Mountain dyed cloth.  The cloth is a grayish khaki with slight mottling and some stray marks.  1 strand over 2.  I love 1 strand work.

Lizzie Kate's Autumn Alphabet on a 36 ct tea dyed edinborough.  Different teas produce slightly different results.  This one had slightly more beige-tan than the other piece I was thinking about.

At least I waited until February.   

With the exception of the 2012 semi- BAP challenge, I finished the 2 pieces I started in January.  We will see if I can continue the trend of finishing what I start in the same month started.

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!

WIPocalypse Samplar Workes Nonesuch Sampler

Switching gears to something different: 
 
I don't know whether it was the color changes on the other pieces or whether it was the same colors but I need a change.  I need to work on something different. 

This is a piece I started too many years ago to remember.  

Using 50 ct Ivory cloth w Eterna silks and some assorted others being tested for the tight gauge.  

The sheen of the Eterna is incredible but I will have to be careful.  I don't know what I have in my deep stash for duplicate skeins, if any or if it is still available.  

Right now, I just have to make it through the whitework bands.  Because I wasn't sure of how much I had I switched to a tatting thread for Band 6, the just started bigger diamond band.

The 50 count and the Eterna wore on me in past.  Let's see how far I get this time before putting this one back to sleep.  Hopefully, a short sleep.  Maybe the WIPocalypse challenge will help me to keep it out and get some bands finished.

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.