IHSW and Not IHSW

Between my telework day on Thursday, my non-work day on Friday, the weekend and the President's Day holiday, I almost feel like I have a normal life! I leave the house at 4:45AM and don't get home until around 7:30 most week nights so have very little time to do, well much of anything during the week.   I did a lot of stitching, found a new to me show, DCI Banks, and watched every episode I could find, and read.   There was some boring housework and cooking thrown in there too - oh and my car had to go in for some repairs - fortunately *that* wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

We also had a minor invasion the last few days.  Two or three times a day we hear birds, LOTS of birds chattering in the trees around the house and then a black cloud descends on the yard.  Here's just a small portion of the yard just as they are starting to land, by the time they are all landed, there is hardly any grass to be seen just lots of twigs and leaves being thrown in the air as they look for food.  They're grackles, which I think are rather pretty birds, and don't mind them in ones or twos which is what we usually have but I am not so fond of the flocks as they chase all the other birds away.

Please excuse the trash can..

So stitching wise - I have two sets, all that I did last week the non-IHSW and all that was part of the IHSW.  

My non-IHSW piece was Dimple Designs' Twilight of the Tsars.  Here's where I left off last time it was in the rotation:

And here's where I left off Thursday evening:

Dimple Designs Twilight of the Tsars
Stitched on 32-count Belfast with recommended fibers and beads

This project is getting to the point that lots of stitching time doesn't equal lots of progress as the large sections of color are mostly completed so I'm down to confetti- and back stitching.

For IHSW I worked on two different projects, an ornament and my Just Nan.

Here is my progress pic for the ornament:

The Nutmeg Company's Oranges and Lemons Gingerbread House
Stitched on 14-count yellow Aida and 18-count white Aida with DMC and Mill Hill beads

I finished the roof, one side wall and the front wall, and made a start on the second side wall.  I don't think I'm going to get this one finished for the ornament SAL, but I do still have a few days until the end of the month.

My second IHSW project and still on the frame, so hopefully there will be more progress by the end of today is Just Nan's Christmas Elegance.

Here's where it was a few weeks ago:

And here's what it looks like now:

Just Nan's Christmas Elegance
Stitched on 32-count Antique White with DMC and recommended beads

The "Christmas" was all over 1 and took the better part of yesterday afternoon thank goodness for my Mighty Bright magnifier - not affiliated just a very happy customer - and new glasses.  I am hoping to finish one band today.  If I can do that, there will be two bands and the beading to finish next rotation.

TUSAL and Serengeti

First and foremost - WELCOME to my new followers!  Thank you all for taking the time to stop by and leave a comment.

It's TUSAL time! My photo isn't any better than last month's but I am surprised and pleased by how many new bits were added.

Chatelaine's Serengeti was on the frame last week.

Here's where it was when I started:

And here's where I finished up Friday night:

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

See all that blank space?  That will be filled with beads - lots and lots of beads and a few bicones.  So far there hasn't been an issue with the bead spacing as there sometimes is with 32-count fabric I'm hoping that since this isn't really a hand-dyed fabric, that the shrinkage that happens with them didn't happen with this but I have been looking at the pattern and trying to figure out which beads I could leave out if it becomes necessary.

Dimple Designs Twilight of the Tsars is on the frame this week.  I am down to mostly thread/blending filament symbols on this one so it will be slow going.  Not so much because of the number of stitches, but because I dislike stitching with blending filament so much that I tend to stitch slower or find other things to do.

YOTA and an Ornament Start

The first Saturday of February means it's time for a YOTA post.  If you're interested in joining this WIP SAL, all the details are here.  I am happy to report that I killed two WIPs, Summer into Autumn and Pine Tree Inn, since my last post.  You can see both finishes under the Finishes tab above.  I also had some progress on Ink Circles' 99.  Here is my before:

and the after 9 down, 90 to go:

Ink Circles' 99
Stitched on 32-count Golden Walnut with DMC

I stitched on several other pieces also, photos and project information are under the January WIPocalypse tab above.

My February ornament is Oranges and Lemons by The Nutmeg Company.  It's another of their gingerbread houses there are four in all.  Here's my start:

The Nutmeg Company's Oranges and Lemons
Stitched on 14-count yellow Aida with DMC

Chatelaine's Serengeti is on the frame for this week.  I'm only a year behind on this one.  Part 12 was posted yesterday and I am only about half through part 1.  For the first time in 8 or 9 years, I won't be part of an active Chatelaine project.  It is going to be very strange to not receive that monthly notice that a new part has been posted...

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!