Some small progress . . .

(I'm scattering the latest photos of the WIPs in my Hopeful Box -- that is, hopeful I will actually finish them someday-- throughout this post even though they have nothing to do with the text!)

Is it weird when you don't really mind frogging, and might actually enjoy it sometimes?

I decided to rescue a piece of 36ct Rue Green Linen (love the color and it's no longer made) from a Marjolein Basten start that I would never finish. I had maybe 2 x 3 inches of stitching to take out so I sat on the couch with my seam ripper and picked out all those stitches. I wound up tearing the linen (a distinct danger if you use a seam ripper - quick but dangerous) but it was in the middle so I have two good size pieces still.

Permin Museum Celle 1826 - HDF Black Iris series 1x2 on 36ct LL Vintage Sand.

Then, I started Chatelaine Designs Knot Garden last week. I don't know what I was thinking stitching 1 x 2 on 30ct Dower Linen with HDF (not a real "big" fiber). On the plus side - it had a nice delicate look. On the not-so-great side - it looked washed out and it lost the contrast between some of the thread colors. So, the other night, I took my trusty seam ripper and frogged out eight hours of stitching so I could restart it with 2x2. And I kind of enjoyed it.

Drawn Thread Three Friends, first panel, HDF 2x2 on 32ct PTP Legacy (I think).

Must be the destructive side of my nature. If I can confine it to ripping out threads then I'll be doing good! (grin).

Cross-Eyed Cricket Be Ye Thankful - GAST and DMC 1x2 on 32? ct greenish linen.

Since I didn't finish this in time for Thanksgiving, I imagine it will sit for another year. Sigh.

On a more positive note, I am feeling very virtuous this week. I managed to grant three wishes from the 123 message board the last couple of weeks. I sent one lady a skein of SNC I had from another project, another lady in England a box of DMC, and a third a chart. I even managed to get them all packaged up and to the post office. For me--that's progress. I even made a wish of my own -- not very hopeful it will be granted but that is to be expected - it's a wish!

Elegant Needle Showers of Blessings - HDF 2x2 on 30ct Coconut Macaroon Legacy Dower Linen.
I really need to finish this one - it's really lovely.

And a finish! This little piece is a gift for my youngest son's teacher if I ever manage to get it framed or finished!

Lizzie Kate Flip It Encourage - SNC, HDF, and Gloriana 1x2 on 36ct PTP Willow.

Stay warm and positive!

Six months later . . .

Ok - it's taken me six months to update this blog. Sigh. I could claim that I was furiously stitching away during the past months - although that's not the entire truth. The truth--I was lazy -- and stitching!

Here's my big finish! By the end, it was only grim determination that got it done!

Quaker Virtues - 1x1 on 25ct Platinum Jubilee with thirty different silks.

See my webshots site for detail photos at:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/568739575wGuHBF

Here's my fiber list:


Au Ver a Soie - 1711, 1712, 1713, 1733, Creme Blanc, 3422, 3423
Belle Soie - Fern Frond
Dinky Dyes - Mint
Gloriana - 071 Winter Brook, 132 Lavender Ice
Hand-Dyed Fibers - Examplar Salty Sea, Magpie Twitters, Steelies 2449, Velvet Midnight 2149 and 2151
Silk'n Colors - Aqua Clouds, Pearled Blues, Heirloom Blues, Green Tea Leaves, Surf & Sky, Slate Blue, Blue Cotton Frocks, Blue Sage, Sea Heather
Waterlilies - Ice

The whole piece only measures 14 x 11 - there's a whole lot of stitching in that small piece! And a whole lot of frogging - that little round motif above the EQ of Equality was stitched and restitched at least four times.

This was the first piece I did in my own colorway and I thoroughly enjoyed picking out the colors (if not the indecision about whether I should use a dark one or a light one here or if the left side was "heavier" than the right.)

I am really pleased how the piece turned out. I really love the look of the two-color pieces people are doing - very dramatic - but I like the more subtle effect here as well. I think it turned out much better than I thought it would!

Now, off to finish the other dozen BAPs in my WIP list!

June Weather

I promise I will not complain about June in Kansas ever again.

We are in vacation in Duluth, Minnesota, where the WIND CHILL today was 36 degrees.  WIND CHILL - IT'S JUNE 11 for goodness sake!

Brisk isn't the word for it.  The wind is sustained at 20mph with gusts up to 40mph and a driving rain off the lake.  Unbelievable - and miserable if you're out in it.  

Instead of the outside activities we had planned with our friends, I'm taking the little boys to a movie while everyone else huddles around the fireplace in the lodge trying to stay warm.

At least I'm getting in lots of stitching!

Four States, Four Storms

Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota - nothing but wind, rain and storms.  Who thought June could be this windy and wet?  (Well, I should expect it after three decades in Kansas).

We headed out of town for our June vacation this morning - Kansas and Missouri had consistent 30-40 mph winds with a severe storm forecast for the afternoon.  Iowa had the severe storms.  Minnesota - just rain but great clouds.  

Looks like Duluth is going to be windy and rainy all week.  Hopefully we can find lots of fun stuff to do indoors! 

I did manage to get some serious cross stitching in, though - except when it got too dark because of the storms.  Here's my progress on Quaker Virtues (the photo's not great but it's what you get when you're taking pictures in a vehicle!):

Tomorrow:  the Mall of America, Stitchville USA in Minnetonka, and then off to Duluth.

Here's a lovely upside down and backwards photo of my first day's progress on Quaker Virtues.  I decided to start June 1 with the SAL and I'm really enjoying this so far.

The colors so far are SNC Heritage Blue, Sea Heather and Green Leaves Lt. and AVAS Blanc 1 x 1 on 28ct Platinum Jubilee.

The usual summertime stitching slump seems to be in full swing.  I am trying to rehabilitate the back garden - now "Weed Central" since it was so neglected last summer.  We spread 30 bags of mulch last weekend and only managed to cover half the beds around the deck.  So, between the rest of the beds around the deck and  the beds that run all along the back fence and the sides, we'll be spreading many, many more bags.

I did manage to get some stitching in this week, however.  I am still plugging away at Permin's Museum Celle 1826 - somehow I can't seem to do anything in monochrome.  Here's my progress as of this weekend.  The picture is very washed out - the colors are much more vibrant in person.  

I finally received the chart for Ink Circles Garden Stars this week and, of course, just had to get that started as well.  I am using Vikki Clayton's May Floss of the Month assortment over one on 28ct Waterlily linen (one of my favorite linen colors).  I am really liking how it looks so far - if only linen weren't such a pain for over-one stitching!

And today I started Quaker Virtues using Silk'n Colors in about six shakes of pale blues and greens on 28ct Platinum Jubilee.  I'm using the excuse that the Quaker Virtues Stitch-A-Long started today but the truth is that I just wanted to start it!  I haven't done enough to merit a picture but I'm sure I'll be posting as I make progress.

I also made more progress on my never-ending stash organization project.  My second order of Annie's Keepers arrived Friday and I spent Friday night and Saturday morning getting all my silks on the keepers, the keepers labeled and put into storage slides.  They fit nicely into a plastic file box.  I used almost 500 keepers to get my AVAS, HDF, Caron and Silk'n Colors organized but I really like the system!  Here's a picture of a finished slide on top of the plastic file box of storage slides.

I am very proud of my labels - the little circular labels that came with the system just didn't work for me.  I couldn't find 1/2" x 1/2" square labels, so I bought 1" x 1/2" and print 2 thread labels up, slicing them apart with an Exacto knife.

This will be a crazy week for us.  We're going to an indoor water park - Great Wolf Lodge - overnight on Thursday for Taylor's birthday.  Taylor is inviting a friend and my oldest, Quintin, and his girlfriend are going along as well.  Ian is still a little young to invite a friend but he usually has no trouble finding new friends wherever we go.  Hopefully the weather will hold out - they're predicting severe storms again for Thursday and Friday.  

My husband is taking Friday off so he'll stay overnight with us and then help set up for his club's car show at Cabela's - just across the street from Great Wolf.  We'll be at the show all-day Saturday and Sunday morning and then are leaving around noon to head up to Lake Superior for the national meet of another of his clubs.  (I'll have to find time to pack and load the car sometime!)  On the way to Duluth, we're taking the boys to the Mall of America and detouring to Minnetonka so I can go to Stitchville USA.  I'll post pictures when we return!

Have a great, safe, and productive week!

So much for good intentions . . .

This week I tried to be so good.I inventoried all of my non-DMC floss and Mill Hill beads.  I ordered more of Annie's Keepers and storage slides to use for the silks and printed out my label sheets for them.   

In the face of 40+ WIPs and UFOs, I vowed not to buy anything more till I finished some of them.   Yeah, right.

My downfall was the autoship of Hand-Dyed Fibers' May Regular Floss-of-the-Month assortment.  Look at them - don't they just scream STITCH ME?!  NOW!

And then a badly behaved little voice said: Ink Circles Garden Stars would be perfect!  That's it!  Order it now!  Oh, and order a few more patterns to make the shipping less unreasonable! Yeah, that's it!

Because I have no willpower at all, I ordered Garden Stars, Nostalgic Needle's Strawberry Thief, and Fingerwork's Playful Day Necessaire from Wyndham Needleworks.  Just to spread out the shipping charges.  Really.

Now, I just need to go buy some 36ct White Linen or maybe 32ct. white evenweave to go with the pattern that I bought to go with the silks. And maybe a few more Silk'n Colors to justify the cost of the gas to get over to my LNS.

Oy.