Earworms, M&Ms, Stash and Stitching

Thank you to everyone for your comments on my Shepherd's Bush piece, I really am happy with the way it is turning out.

I have had a plague of earworms lately.  My current one is 3AM by Poets of the Fall, which replaced Viva la Vida by Coldplay - both of them are huge improvements over the Oompa Loompa song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!  That one was stuck for almost a week - very irritating to wake up and hear that running through your head - strange thing is I haven't watched the movie recently, so I am not sure how or why it started.
Have you tried these?

Yep, dark chocolate mint M&Ms! They are addictive!  I am not really sure why they packaged them in a zip closing package - it wasn't really necessary.

Look what came in the mail!!

First is my bead pack for Chatelaine's Serengeti:

Doesn't European Cross Stitch package things up nicely?

And second is Maxim & Zoya from Plum Street Samplers:

I am trying to figure out what drew me to this as it is not my usual style.  Not sure when this will fit in my rotation, but it will be soon I hope.

Stitching? Yes, I actually did do some stitching this week.  Here is my progress on Blackbird Designs'  Birds of a Feather:

Blackbird Designs' Birds of a Feather
Stitched on 30-count R&R Reproductions Irish Creme linen with Gentle Arts and Crescent Colours

That vine border on the left? It took me three tries to get it right. Counting to five was a very difficult task for me last weekend. It seems that the easier something is, the more I have to frog. 

Birds of a Feather was my Friday stitch, the rest of the weekend I worked on Just Nan's Christmas Elegance


Just Nan's Christmas Elegance
Stitched on 28-count Antique White with DMC, Kreinik and beads

Twilight of the Tsars has been put onto the stand and is ready for some stitching. I will be out of town for work next week, so I won't get a lot of time for stitching, I may take something small with me, but my experience has been that I am so tired after a day of training that all I can do in the evenings is review my notes for the next day and sleep.

March Came in Like a Lamb

Yes, March came in on 70+F temperatures and sunny skies. We're supposed to have thunderstorms and rain for the rest of the weekend and given the weirdness of the weather, who knows what will be in store for us.

When I got home from the grocery store this morning, my front yard had a very "The Birds" look to it, except instead of seagulls and crows it was robins.  There must have been 100 or more hopping around the front yard and I could hear more in the trees. The feeders have also been inundated with finches, both gold and house, and grackles.  The red-winged blackbirds should be showing up soon they are my favorite summer birds.

Welcome to my new followers and thank you to everyone for the comments.  I am really enjoying having some of my older WIPs come out of hibernation. I noticed when I was working on Secret Victorian Garden that I hadn't done any of the beading. I think that the next rotation will be a beading only one as there are, as usual for a Chatelaine, a ton of beads and spending days and days beading at the end is not appealing. And yes, I use scroll rods and bead as I go. I run a strip of quilt batting/wadding right up next to the scroll rod before rolling and that provides enough padding that I have yet to crack or break a bead and it also keeps the tension more even. I only do the Delicas as I go, the bicones, cubes and other assorted bling are added last.

Cover your ears as I am going to SQQQUUUEEEEEEEEE here! I won a give-away! I was so shocked, I don't usually enter drawings on blogs but Doris at A Pause in the Journey was looking for good homes for some of her mother's projects so I gave it a try and won two beautiful The Drawn Thread kits Summer into Autumn and Winter into Spring.  I LOVE The Drawn Thread's patterns and really couldn't resist.

Thank you so much Doris.

Serengeti? Did someone ask about Serengeti and my crazy "treasure hunt"? Well, my first thread showed up! Thistle Needleworks came through in amazing time with the Fiesta Impressions from the Caron Collection.  Here is the thread on my chosen fabric which is fairly close to what the fabric color really is although not quite as bright - the fiber is a bit washed out as it is much more in the brown/orange range. 

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my other fibers and the beads.  Part one has been released and while this won't be in the rotation for a bit I'd really like to have everything on hand. I have already pulled the called for DMCs and somehow I was missing four. That might not be unusal for some people, but I swore I had at least one complete set with duplicates of most of their colors. I stopped into A.C. Moore on the way to the grocery store this morning and got the missing four.

So on to the stitching...

My focus piece this week was Shepherd's Bush's Holy Night. The colors are a bit brighter than other Shepherd's Bush I've worked on but it could be more a factor that it's done with two threads over two instead of their usual one.  I'm using the recommended fibers, with the exception of the called for Rainbow Gallery Alpaca - I switched it for The Gentle Art's Simply Wool as that's what the shop had, but have a 28-count fabric instead of a 19-count. I don't have the name of the fabric, but given the coffee smell, it's an R&R Reproductions piece which makes sense since I bought the chart and fibers at Dyeing to Stitch  in Virginia Beach which is their shop the fabric is brown/gold despite what the picture shows but by now you should all be used to my craptastic photos.  All I had done when I started last week was the "A" and the top vine border.

Holy Night by Shepherd's Bush
Stitched on unknown 28-count R&R Reproductions fabric with TGA and Crescent Colours fibers

I am going for a new start today, Blackbird Designs 2011 Birds of a Feather.  Karen at Wasatch Needlecrafts had this one as an automatic so I will be using the recommended 30-count Irish Creme from R&R Reproductions and GAST and Crescent Colours. The ones I have seen finished across blogland are beautiful and I can't wait to get started.

Next week's focus piece will be Just Nan's Christmas Elegance which is, as the name implies, very elegant and very much an "old style" Just Nan.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Happy New Year

This is likely to be long and possibly rambling as I am going to combine what would normally be two or three posts. 

I have a 2012 finish!!!  

Rose Garden by Blackbird Designs
Stitched on 30-count Old Mill Java by R&R Reproductions with
Faded Roses by The Gentle Art

I probably could have finished this yesterday but I ended up running several more errands and didn't get a chance to stitch until later in the day.  I will be keeping a running list on the sidebar, but will have a more detailed list on a separate page tabbed above as "Finishes".  Probably the most amazing thing about this photo is that it was taken outside on January 1st and I did not have on mittens, a hat or coat.  The high temperature today was close to 70 F!  Absolutely crazy, but I did wash the car and get a couple of things picked up and ready for the temperature drop predicted for later this week - the high on Thursday is supposed to be in the 30sF.

Next is my year in review.  My revised goals were: 

Angel's Song - stitch 6 bands  

Christmas Elegance - Finish

Egyptian Garden - Finish DONE

Hawaiian Garden - Stitch through Part 6

Holy Night - Finish

Santaberry Pudding - Finish DONE

Twilight of the Tsars - Restart DONE

I did finish several items that were not on my list but generally I had a fail for the year.  For 2012, my goals are a bit more realistic - to stitch on my WIPocalypse projects and keep up with the SAL postings.  I am not going to put any pressure on myself to finish certain projects or to get to certain points - just stitch. 

I did better on my December goals:

Finish With Thy Needle and Thread's Birds of a Feather Mystery DONE

Complete two volcano corners and two pineapples on Hawaiian

Finish Lizzie*Kate's Socks & Underwear: Santa 2010 DONE

Stitch on Dimple Designs' Twilight of the Tsars DONE

I definitely get a pass for December's stitching.  As I mentioned above, my only monthly goals are to stitch on my WIPocalypse projects, so I won't be posting separate monthly goals anymore.  I have had commitment pieces for the last three years, it will be strange not having to have a piece finished but I think a nice change.

Hawaiian  is first on my WIPocalypse list, so I will be working on that until Friday.  My first "compressed" Friday stitch will be Holly by Mirabilia.  At some point during the week,  I need to sort floss, I'll be using Martina's DMC conversion, and get things labeled for the new Chatelaine mandala - Mystery XV Deep Sea.  I was given the bead pack and fabric for Christmas, but won't be starting it for several weeks as it was a last minute addition to the list.

Last finish of 2011?

Thanks everyone for your comments, I do need to provide some comments/answers...  Joysze, I like Hawaiian on lighter colors as well obviously, but it does look amazing on black.  I'm doing mine on Wichelt's hand-dyed Jobelan - Summersky.  It's my favorite neutral hand-dye.  It has a very subtle blue/white mottling and reminds me of, well, the sky. I'm using it for several mandalas and love the way it highlights the stitching, but isn't a flat color.  Dani, I hope you were finally able to get your treadmill - I would really miss mine.

I hope everyone had a wonderful whichever-winter-holiday-you-celebrate.  I've been on the run since last Friday and am really looking forward to some real down time.  Friday was errands, packing and general getting stuff around.  Saturday we went to DFIL's in Virginia Beach to have Christmas with him and his wife.  That evening we went to the Hubs' Aunt's house for her family open house.  We didn't stay very late as we were driving home that night but it was fun seeing everyone from that side of the family.  The Hubs and I were up semi-early Christmas morning he's really a big kid and gets very excited at Christmas and did our gift exchange, cleaned up and headed to DMIL's for Christmas with her and her husband.  Another good time with good company and too much food.  Home mid-afternoon and I started packing for a trip to New Hampshire to see DSon.  He just moved into his own apartment he previously shared a place and decided to stay home for Christmas, but he did invite us to come up for a visit.  The Hubs declined but I jumped at the chance I mean as if I was going to pass up the chance to see my son, especially as this was the first Christmas he had ever spent by himself.  We had a really good time just talking and catching up.  We also went to IKEA and he came home with some very nice Christmas gifts - a chair and ottoman, a computer workstation and a television stand/bookcase.  His place looks much less like a dorm room now and he really likes the extra storage space.  Rumor has it that he has a cat, but Tessa didn't show so much as a whisker the entire time I was there, so it is just a rumor.  I did see snow, so at least it felt/looked like winter even though it's going to be in the 60s by the end of the weekend.

And as the title says, I may have had my final finish of 2011.  We had a bit of time before DMIL got home from work on Saturday, so I stitched on Lizzie*Kate's Santa 2010: Socks & Underwear and had a finish on Christmas Eve which was very fitting.


Lizzie*Kate's Santa 2010: Socks & Underwear
Stiched on New Khaki Lugana with DMC thread
Finished December 24, 2011

 So as every good stitcher would, I went through my WIPs and pulled one out to finish went through my stash and pulled out a new project. 

This:

is Blackbird Designs' Rose Garden.  I'm doing it on 30-count Old Mill Java from R&R Reproductions with Gentle Art Sampler Threads' Faded Rose. I'm planning to stitch this one until it's finished, so I may have another finish before the end of the year, but I will not be upset if I don't.

I've made a couple of changes to my WIPocalypse 2012 list, but I think it's pretty well set.  I've even worked out a schedule, but as I'm sure I've mentioned before, I'm a really good planner...

Summertime Stitching

I am safely returned home from my trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. Met lots of new people, which is always a treat, caught up with several old friends and learned a few new things, so a successful conference.

My only regret is that I was not able to get to Ogden. I was one short hour away from Shepherd's Bush and Jill Rensel!! Unfortunately, we were scheduled from morning until sometimes late in the evening, so I wasn't able to get away. Actually, my bank account is probably very happy that I wasn't.

Rant ON - People please, if the bag you're going to carry on is bigger than you are, please be polite and check it.  We all know it's not going to fit in one of those overhead bins, no matter how many times you turn, push or jiggle it around, just admit it. You're just making it difficult for everyone else on the plane. Thank you - rant off.

I typically read while I'm travelling especially if it involves flying as there just isn't enough room to spread out and get comfortable enough to stitch in cattle regular class seats. I did quite a bit of reading but also did a bit of stitching during those "turn off all electronic equipment" times I'm not sure how reading my Kindle during take off or landing is going to cause the plane to crash, but I'm not going to take any chances during the flight on an ornament. Here's my progress:



Holiday Joys
Homespun Elegance

There's not a lot left on this, so I may go one-at-a-time on it until it is done.

Before I left I did a little, very little, bit more on With thy Needle & Thread's Birds of a Feather mystery sampler:

Birds of a Feather mystery sampler
With thy Needle & Thread

I also started Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden over at The Stitch Specialists Yahoo Group. I'm stitching this on opalescent Ocean from Silkweaver Fabrics I really don't like stitching on opalescent fabrics, as I have a very difficult time "keeping the box" but it looks really nice and gives a frosty look which is what I was going for with Weeks Dye Works #1269 (I don't have the tag) and Needle Necessities #130 (no color name, just a number) 

The photo is taken in front of a window, so you can see the parked thread. Parts 1 and 2 are done, part 4 is partially done and part 3 will be done when part 4 is done so that the placement is correct.

Have you put your order in for this yet!?!?

Blackbird Designs - Birds of a Feather - Summer

There is a main design and two bonus patterns per chart - it's a three part series. A year ago I would have said "this isn't my usual style, but I like it", but it seems my taste is changing as I've been ordering and stitching more and more of this style project lately.  I'm sure there's some deep psychological reason for it, but "I like it", seems like a good enough reason to me.