IHSW Check-In

Not as much stitching as I hoped the weather was just too nice, but hermitting happened this weekend. In addition to the three pieces I showed in my last post, I worked on Christmas Soldiers from Just Nan and am happy to report that the cross stitching is done.  Specialty stitches, beading and the name tag are left, but definitely in the home stretch.

I think I am going to use a forest green for the back and trim, but will see what I can find once I get to that point.

The next piece I worked on was Tiny Tiger from Artecy Cross Stitch:

I'm not sure how this style block will fit with the others, but I did sign up for a mystery sampler block project to try different designers.  This is the April block for The Sampler Life group SAL.  I have  just fallen behind on this project and do need to buckle down and get on with it again.

WHEW!!  Two posts in one weekend!  Not something to get used to, but it sure does feel good!!

Gifted Gorgeousness and IHSW

My blogging is slipping again.  I'm not sure what is going on, I take pictures and even have posts written, at least in my head, but they never seem to get out of my head.  Something to work on. 

It is the third weekend of the month and that means !  Yeeaahhh!!  Hop on over to Random Ramblings to sign up.  What?  You haven't heard of International Hermit & Stitch Weekend? Click here and you can read all the "rules" (more like guidelines) and then sign up.  As Joyce says, "the more the merrier" and who can say "no" to a SAL that encourages you to sit and stitch?

I started my weekend a little early and have stitched on three pieces already.  Fortunately for me and my inability to keep up with my blog the three pieces also fit into my  check-in! 

You haven't heard of Gifted Gorgeousness either?   Oh my. Well, you can find out everything you need to know and sign up on Jo's blog, Serendipitous Stitching.  This SAL gives us an opportunity to thank those wonderfully generous stitchers that have gifted us with patterns, fabric, threads or anything else stitching related.  We can also highlight pieces we are giving as gifts.

The first of my three pieces is It's About Time by Cireo Marchetti and charted by Heaven and Earth Designs.  The pattern was gifted to me by Kate at Needles and Haystacks. 

I think I will have a column finish soon.

Yesterday afternoon I worked on Christmas Presence by Myles Pinkney, also charted by HAED.

The pattern was given as part of the 2015 HAED SAL, so I'm counting as a gift from the designer/company.  Not sure if what I put in is woodwork or curtain shadow but it did fill in very quickly.

Last night I worked on Shakespearean Fantasy and yes, it's another HAED.  The pattern was a gift from Pull the Other Thread. 

Yes, more black.  I have the rest of this column and then a partial column and I will have a page finish.  This piece more than the others show me that my rotation is working as it took almost a year for my first page finish and this one will have taken about six months.  I know that's not stellar speed compared to lots of folks, but it is only out for a couple hours a week, so not too bad.  I do need to work on my rotation and get these large pieces worked into it somehow, but I will probably leave that for next year as I plan to have all the obligation stitching out of the way by the end of this year.

Just Nan's Christmas Soldiers will be on the frame for the rest of today and tomorrow afternoon.  I have to decide which smalls piece I will pull out as I would like to have a finish this month and I do still have enough time to start and finish a small piece.

June?!?

June?  I seem to have lost May somewhere.  If you see it, please let it know I'm looking for it.  Those two weeks that I thought would interrupt my stitching actually threw my entire life schedule off and I am just now getting back to it.  That and the weather turned nice, so the siren call of reading on the deck was difficult to ignore.

I did get some stitching done but that darn deck and all those books slowed me down considerably.  Before I get to the stitching,  Secret Victorian Garden came home from the framer yesterday.  I am thrilled with it:

The outer mat is a bit lighter than the photo shows and has a bit of texture to it.  The frame was a wonderful find.  Face on it has a beading detail that adds a bit of texture and color, but edge on,

there is an echo of the outer boarder.  Just a little unexpected extra. 

I also did some stash shopping.  Yes, me.  I know that isn't a common statement but I could not resist this:

I want to stitch EVERY design in this booklet.  I was first attracted to the dove and house in the upper right corner, but when I read that three out of print designs, Christmas Garden, Tis the Season and Blessings be Thine, were also included (Blessing be Thine had been on my wish list for years), I jumped right over and ordered it.  When I got it and looked at the rest, well, I fell hard and fast for all the other designs, so a very good purchase.

So, stitching...

Well, let's see...

Things are coming along on Christmas Soldiers and it is looking like a stocking:

I finished the flourish after I took this picture, so there is just a short stripe of ecru perle stitching and the toe left, oh and the name tag and some beads and a bit of metallic.  I would love to do a fancy finish like the cover model, but mine will be a bit plainer.

Staying with the Christmas theme, I finished the few stitches for a column finish and put a few stitches into a new column on Christmas Presence

I am looking forward to getting my rotation moving again so I can spend a bit more time with him.

I also had a column finish on Shakespearean Fantasy

All the stitches were in that green blob so I will be back to stitching black on Friday.

On It's About Time rather than stitch block by block, I did a modified cross country and carried on with a color down the column.

 I will have to see how many stitches I missed before I decide whether or not I will use this technique for an entire column.  This will be back on the frame Thursday evening, so hope to fill in lots of those empty spaces.

No classes or traveling this month, so hopefully I can really settle back into my stitching, and blog reading and writing.