Needlework Update

It's picture-heavy, so be warned! 

Sorcerer Mickey framed. I actually forgot to photograph it before shipping it off to my niece, and had to text her to ask her to photograph it and send the photo. 

The piece we all called "Margaret's Monochrome Madness" finally framed. When I washed it preparatory to taking it to the framer I learned that an animal fiber (alpaca fur) had been eaten by something, and so had to frog those two blocks and re-stitch them in something inedible.

 Finished stitching Teresa Wentzler's "Carousel" back about 2011, and finally had it framed.

Teresa Wentzler's "Peacock Majesty," done for a cousin for the corner of his new home where he's putting the memorial for his mother, the younger of Mom's older sisters. The bauble contains the leftover floss bits ("orts"), for him to hang on one of his Christmas trees (he puts up several).

 A Sweetheart Tree anniversary sampler for my older niece's older daughter and her husband, who celebrated 25 years earlier this year (they married on my parents' and paternal grandparents' shared anniversary). This is the third of these I've done: a 25th for the older niece and her hubby, and a 50th for my eldest brother and his wife, parents of the nieces. 

 Bothy Threads' "Daisy Coo" for me, because  seriously LOVE "hairy coos.". Yes, I changed the fabric; I don't stitch on Aida, which is what came in the kit.

And a still-unframed "recent" finish: Little House Needleworks' "Home of a Needleworker I." Of course there are some color changes, including changing the color of the house to match "Home of a Needleworker II," which is framed and on the wall.

 EDITED TO ADD:

OMG, after all that, I forgot framed Hannah!

 

 

 

 

Stitch Class November 2013

Stitched exclusively on Margaret's Monochrome Madness, and am now down to just the outermost border and the beads in the outer border.

Retreat November 2012

Another stitching retreat in Temecula! Here's a view of the area from the top of the stairs by the dining hall:

And here's just one of the hot-air balloons from Saturday morning:

I didn't have a lot of luck with my stitching over the weekend. I had a hard time deciding what to work on (and even brought along a couple of extra projects!), and then kept making mistakes. This piece is a Dimensions' kit which only rarely sees the light of day. I actually started this piece back in 2005, so it's pretty obvious it doesn't get much lovin'. The first photo shows the status of "A Bird for All Seasons" as of Friday morning:

And here's the progress from this session:

(Ack! Another one popping up sideways!)

I also worked on Margaret's "Spot Sampler." Here's where I left off in June:

And here's where I left off on Sunday:

The motif in the upper left corner is actually farther over to the right than is charted on the original, so I'll have to decide whether to frog it and put it where it belongs or whether I'll juggle the other motifs around.

I had a good time, but seriously missed my BSF-M, who wasn't able to make it this time.

Hannah!

Stitched one strand over one fabric thread on 25-count Lugana Vintage Country Mocha. The primary color is DMC 3012; the other two colors are Anchor 369 (the tan/golden brown) and Anchor 846 (the dark green).

Stitch Class September

Stitch class this month was today, which is also BFF-N's birthday, so first the card for her.

The front. This was an experimental piece. I have a background stamp of cupcakes by the same artist as the main image here (also the same artist responsible for the cupcake-tower stamp I sometimes use), which I stamped with watermark ink, heat-embossed with clear powder, then ran through the dry-embossing "happy birthday" folder. I matted that with a sage green. The center horizontal panel got the folder treatment, but not the watermark/heat-embossing treatment, and was also matted with the same sage green. The cupcake was stamped with two colors of VersaMagic chalk ink on white card stock, cut square-on-point, and then matted with the sage green. The heat-embossing didn't work as nicely as I had hoped; maybe a touch of color in the embossing powder would have helped.

And the innard, where the sentiment square-on-point was also run through the embossing folder, then matted with the same sage green as the card front.

BSF-T (that's Best Stitching Friend) had a finish today:

This is her Mary Wigham, done on a much finer count that my own MIA Mary Wigham, and a most beautiful piece. Congratulations, GF!!!

I worked on Margaret's Monochrome Madness again. Here's MMM at the end of last month's session:

I started by frogging a bit of that green block I finished last month and then re-stitched the off-by-one-thread mistake I'd make on the last row. It's the green block at the top right corner of the (incomplete) center medallion. I also added a bit more (almost finished) to the block to the right of the green block.

 

And started stitching the border:

There's another section of border that will be stitched around the outside of this one.

10:30PM Update: Hannah Beeby is done. And getting a back.

Stitch Class 1208

Once again I worked exclusively on the piece affectionately known as "Margaret's Monochrome Madness."

Progress at the beginning of class today:

And at the end of class:

Now complete is the greenish colored block to the right of the center block. Unfortunately, I made a placement error in the top row, and it's obvious I'm going to have to do some frogging and re-stitching next month. I also added to the center block.

Yes, it looks like I'm getting close to a finish, but there's still a couple of rows of motifs for the border yet to be stitched.

TUSAL 1207 and a Progress Pic

Combined! Yes, I'm late again with the TUSAL, but that's life. This one contains mostly Margaret's Monochrome Madness and some nearly invisible--because of lighting and position--strands from the pictured current project, Hannah Beeby.

I see also that we're about 2/3 of the way through the month and I never posted anything from the monthly stitch class. Well, here's MMM, before class:

...and after class:

For some reason, the upper photo is turned 90° to the right from the correct orientation. I finished the block at the lower right corner of the center motif, started and got about halfway on the one on the far right side in the vertical midpoint, and got the center motif started. It looks a lot closer to "done" than it actually is, as there's a honkin'-big-arse border to go around it, too. With beads.

June Stitching Retreat

I stopped at the Temecula Hobby Lobby (I'm frankly unimpressed, and really prefer not to do business with businesses which aren't open when I'm not working) and The Stamping Post on the way to the retreat center. I chose to work on counted cross stitch pieces all weekend.

I started with the piece I worked on at our first retreat, back in November last year. This first photo shows the progress at the start of this retreat:

Here's how far I got before I moved to something else:

Then I chose to work on Hannah Beeby for a while. Once again, the first photo shows the progress at the start of the session:

And the little bit I did before switching to another piece:

I also did a bit of stitching on another Quaker sampler, but didn't take before and after pics of that one. I also didn't take a "before" picture of Margaret's Spot Sampler before I pulled it out, but I did take an "after" picture before we packed everything up Monday afternoon:

The stitching on this one consisted of adding another leaf motif or two and the two motifs and two letters in the interior.

Is it November yet? I'm ready for another one!!

TUSAL 120421

A little more this month, since I tossed poor neglected Beatrix Potter aside for even more neglect and put Hannah Beeby in the floor stand. The golden browns are from Margaret's Monochrome Madness, while the greens are from Hannah.

Progress Pic

Hannah Beeby, as of today:

I just couldn't get motivated to work on Beatrix Potter, and, spurred on by Melissa's and Terri's progress, I decided to put Beatrix away and put some time in on Hannah.

TUSAL March

Another pathetic month. This one contains both Margaret's Monochrome Madness, from the stitch class earlier this month, as well as a few token bits from Beatrix Potter Quaker.

Third Stitch Class of 2012

Today I opted to give some attention to Margaret's Monochrome Madness, a counted needlework piece that's been neglected for quite some time now.
Progress as of start of class this morning:
The block I worked on today is the second up from the bottom left corner (above the partially stitched diagonal motif).
The large eyelets are done; and we tested several different shades and colors of fibers to use to fill in between/among the large eyelets, but didn't have time to test what we hope is the last choice. Maybe next month.

I also went over to the LSS, Stamp Fever, to pick up some special orders and for the Card of the Month, but I haven't taken a picture of that card.

TUSAL January and February

It's been a slow year for stitching so far.
The first pathetic little pile is January's.

The second pathetic little pile is February's.

Thank You, Terri!!

For the lovely birthday gifts!!!!!!!!

First Stitch Class of 2012

It's kinda hard to get motivated to stitch on anything when your transportation is in the shop and it's looking spendy. As it turned out, it wasn't as expensive as it could have been, but I'm still facing having to replace my van.

So I didn't devote a lot of time to stitching yesterday, maybe half a dozen or so working lengths scattered over three projects. Here's where they stand as of right now:
Hannah Beeby:
I finished the border of the unfinished medallion on the left. Yes, I know it's upside down; that's the way I'm stitching it right now.

The Black Sampler:
I finished one flower, a couple of leaves, and added a bit of vine in the border and put a bunch of light green in a leaf in the upper segment.

and "My Stitching Treasures":
I finished the house (just had the windows to do), finished the left-hand tree in the block with the house, and stitched the tree trunk and fence on the right side of the house.

Yesterday was also the day for the Card of the Month at my LSS, Stamp Fever in Orange.

Endings and Beginnings

Yesterday, I needed to visit the LNS to take advantage of the punch card I'd filled up earlier in December, since there's a expiration date on the card. She still didn't have the AVAS floss I still need for Jeannette Douglas' "My Stitching Treasures," but I did go ahead and pick up nearly the complete set of Blackbird Designs' "Anniversaries of the Heart." No fabric, since I haven't decided whether to do them as a hay-uge single piece or as individual pieces. And I haven't decided just what anniversaries I'll commemorate.

Beatrix Potter Quaker is still in the floor stand, neglected pretty much all December long. No changes; there she stays until I decide to work on something else.

On the card-crafting front, after receiving a bonus at work I decided to purchase a CuttleBug embossing/die-cutting machine. I got the most basic version; I don't need anything fancier, since most dies and embossing folders will work just fine with this one.

It's also become time to buy a new desktop computer. No decisions yet, but WallyWorld has a HP with 6G of RAM and a 1T hard drive for a nice price. No monitor, because the one I have isn't that old. Mentally tossing coins now, trying to decide whether to go for it now or wait until later, when the taxes are done, especially since I'll have to buy Office.

TUSAL 2011 May

Here it is: a bit of Hannah Beeby, a couple of ornaments (one for the ornament exchange and another to even off the space on the piece of fabric before cutting the ornaments apart to finish-finish them), and a special project.

TUSAL 2011

If I remember right, we're supposed to post our photos on the new moon. Here's mine, although it's actually all of January's orts and not just from the new moon in January to the new moon in February. 'Course, that was only a few days!
Contained herein are orts from three projects: Hannah Beeby, the first of three ornaments for a private exchange, and a gift. And the random "whyever on Earth did I bother to keep a length of floss this short?" snippet.

Stitching Progress--Hannah Beeby

As of last night, 13 Jan 2011:

Stitching Progress

At least on Margaret's Monochrome Madness, from the last 3 or 4 class sessions: