Two Finishes in a Month!!

I put the last bead onto The Drawn Thread's Summer into Autumn early yesterday afternoon.  There are one or two things I would change if I were to stitch this again, but I am very pleased with how it  turned out.  No close up photos, sorry, my camera doesn't like to take close up shots.

Summer into Autumn
The Drawn Thread
Materials as kitted

I was so excited to reduce my WIP list from 24 to 23 and ready to add another one to the active stitching list that I didn't wait for the now vacant slot to come up in the rotation and did a quick random number pull and went off in search of the newest member of the list Special Delivery by Just Nan, only to find that it wasn't a WIP at all.  There was not a stitch in the fabric. If thinking about stitching something makes it a WIP than I don't DARE count how many I have!!  What to do?  As I am trying to reduce my WIP list, I wrapped it all back up and put it in the smalls/ornament box for someday.  It then dawned on me that my WIP list had gone down one with no effort at all on my part.  With my stitching spirit buoyed by that thought, another random number generation brought up Elegant Doily by Kayann's Kreations to fill the now vacant spot.  Off I went into the WIP box to pull it back from the edge of the blackhole it was falling into  show it the light of day after ten or so years  and find the threads.  In the process of finding the doily, I discovered two more WIPs that weren't on my original list!!  Talk about crashing a mood, I went from 22 back to 24 WIPs in the span of less than 20 minutes!  And this one is a doosie!  Don't let the term doily fool you as it did me the darn thing is a table runner or a doily for a giant.  This isn't a great photo, but to get an idea of the size, it is spread across a double sized bed.  Probably not the best choice for a first hardanger piece was it?
I also noticed that the entire round of blanket stitches had discolore, this will have a date with a wash and perhaps some bleach when it's finished.  Without further discussion, here is the newest member of the active WIP list for 2013:

This will go on the frame in a month of so, on the frame for this week is a much more managably-sized 99 by Ink Circles Designs.

IHSW and a finish

This past weekend was the first IHSW of the year, I had a four day weekend and had visions of hours and hours of uninterrupted stitching dancing through my head, it wasn't uninterrupted nor was it hours and hours, but I did get a fair amount of stitching in.


I do have one non-IHSW project, Just Nan's Christmas Elegance was on the frame from last week.

Before

Just Nan's Christmas Elegance
Stitched on 28-count white linen with DMC

 The next two projects are IHSW projects and this one is a finish and my first finish of 2013:

Little House Needleworks' Pine Tree Inn
Stitched on 28-count Silkweaver's opalescent Desert Sky with DMC

On the frame this week is The Drawn Thread's Summer into Autumn I probably jinxed myself by putting the year on this one, but I made such good progress this weekend and have today off that I am hoping to be close to a finish by this evening:

Before

The Drawn Thread's Summer into Autumn
As kitted

TUSAL, YOTA and a new SAL

I have myself involved in five different SALs this year. I don't know what came over me, I kept seeing all these sign-ups and thought "I can do that"! It will be interesting to see how long I can keep it up.  

Before I start with the check-ins, I have been very remiss in welcoming my new followers!  Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read my, sometimes, rambling posts. OKAY, more often than not rambling posts...

And so far this week, the frog infestation seems to have moved on.  I am hoping they are lost somewhere in the middle of the not a lot that I live in and have not moved onto someone else's home...


My first two check-ins are for Daffycat's TUSAL and Pull the Other Thread's YOTA.

I participated in TUSAL the year before last and it was fun to watch the ORTs pile up. That year I put the ORTs directly into that year's glass ortament um that would be an ornament full of ORTS. Turns out that was a bad choice as I didn't realize how often I went digging through my bits of leftovers for a piece just big enough to do half a stitch or to help pull a thread through. I did learn my lesson and this year am using a much more appropriate, for my stitching style, bowl:

Now if the weather had cooperated with some sunshine you really could see the little threads there in the bottom.  There are actually more than usual as I, as mentioned in my previous post, had a frog attack so there are lots of frog fluffed pieces in there.  If you're interested in joining this SAL, hop get it frogs/hop? pun fully intended on over to Daffycat's blog for all the information.

My next check-in is for Pull the Other Thread's YOTA SAL, I found this one through a new to me blog Kali's Creations.  This one is a WIP reduction SAL and one I definitely need.  Between this one and WIPocalypse 2013, I may actually reduce that ridiculously long list over there to the right.  If you're interested in joining this SAL, check it out here!  I don't have a specific WIP that I am focusing on, as my entire rotation is now WIPs, but I did work on these the first two you have already seen, but in the following of the SAL's rules/guidelines, you get to see them again:

Serengeti by Chatelaine.  This was a new start, but as soon as you put a stitch in the piece becomes a WIP, so I am counting it.

Here's my before:

and the after:

Same story with Little House Needlework's Pine Tree Inn. I don't have a before, but here is the after:

Twilight of the Tsar by Dimple Designs is probably more in the spirit of this SAL and I am pleased with the progress I made:

Before:

And after:

Pine Tree Inn is going to be this month's focus piece for the 2013 Ornament SAL at Stitching Lotus.  If you are interested in this SAL, it's not limited to Christmas ornaments, check-in is on the last Wednesday of each month and actually  finishing it into an ornament is optional *that* criteria alone made it something that I thought I could keep up with - if I actually had to finish-finish every ornament, I would have been sunk.  The actual rules are on the SAL tab.  If you're interested in an ornament finishing SAL, there's a new one at Stitched: Now to Finish. 


There in one symbol on TotT that I would like to finish today and then I think Just Nan's Christmas Elegance will be put in the frame for the coming week.

Not Amused!

My stitching has been invaded by frogs! I am so not amused although the Muppet frogs are rather cute! Visions of great progress danced in my head on New Year's day and while there was a goodly amount, it was not what could have been if not for the frogs!

Chatelaine's Serengeti
Stitched on 32-count Summer Sky Jobelan with recommended fibers and beads

Thinking that, perhaps, a large project was too enticing to the green demons, I switched to a much smaller piece:

Little House Needleworks' Pine Tree Inn
Stitched on 28-count opalescent Desert Sky from Silkweaver with recommended DMC

The house is only about ten stitches wide, how difficult is that?!?!!  Well, those frogs moved right in and it took three tries to get everything lined up correctly!!  Although the invasion on this piece may have had a bit to do with the fact that my eyes were dilated from my optometrist appointment yesterday morning.  Yours truly has lost the battle with age and will be trying progressive lenses/bifocals for the first time.  For years I have been using reading glasses and glasses for distance while driving only but as I can't see to the end of the hall at work clearly (in my defense it is a city block long) it seemed time to stop doing the switch around thing and finally get one pair of glasses.  Given all the creepy crawly things I can see without my glasses at work, I'm not sure I *want* to see that clearly.

US Department of Agriculture's South Building in Washington
My office is sort of shown by the arrow, as it's in the basement  it's rather hard to point to.

Both of these pieces have been put away for a little while and Dimple Designs' Twilight of the Tsar is on the frame for this week.

May your stitching be frog-free!

And in with the New

I don't participate in any of the Crazy January challenges, but I do start a project on New Year's Day.  And this is my start for 2013:

Chatelaine's Serengti
Stitched on 32-count Summer Sky Jobelan with recommended fibers and beads

 It doesn't look like much right now, but someday it will be beautiful! Tune back in around 2015 to see it finished...

 

I didn't make very specific stitching goals for last year and will now make it a tradition - my stitching goal for 2013 is to keep up with my TUSAL, WIPocalypse, YOTA and IHSW postings. 

 

 Best wishes to everyone for a safe, healthy and prosperous new year.