Not a lot this time.

 It's been two weeks already?  I had a couple hours off last Friday afternoon and that's thrown my sense of time off a bit (not that that is difficult right now).  

No new birds to report this time.  Sadly, the migratory ones have moved on.  We do have at least three pairs of cardinals that are sharing tolerating each other around the yard and woodline this year, but I haven't seen the grosbeak in a week and we're down to one blue jay so other than the cardinals and the male Goldfinches some of the brightness has gone from the feeders.  

Some littles news:  

She's going to be running with her brother and cousin in no time.  What's the saying, "moving out of the way for the next one?"  

In my last post I said I was going to have a new rotation by this one.  I did a lot of thinking and it looks like the best option is to go one-at-a-time on each project.  It worked well last year (I was even done early) so hoping it will this year too.

I also mentioned that I had two pieces picked out for Grady's sister and was all set to start one of them, but was missing fabric or thread for both of them.  An order was placed and the waiting commenced.  I could have picked up Goldie but knitting was calling louder so I spent a week working on my Knights Who Say Knit MAL.

This is part 1 and a bit of part 2 finished.  Lots of artistic license happening (especially in the very top part. I have pulled it back and started 3 times but can't seem to get it to work, so I am doing a "variation").  The puffs towards the top are areas between some lacework and should block out when it's done.  I did do a quick steam block to straighten out the bottom and get it more in shape.  As expected, I am not keeping up with this any better than I do a SAL as part the last will be released on Monday.

My order came in (EARLIER then the tracker said!!!) and I started Winter Hearts by Shepherd's Bush.  It's done on white Belfast with Soie d'Alger and perle cotton.

The boxes are done with four-sided stitch and are taking me forever to do (it's good tv stitching).  It's in muted greens, pinks and purples.  The baby's room is being done in greys and pinks so I thought this would go well (and it's not babyish so could stay up for a while).  There will be a heart in each block with different specialty stitches.  The border is leaves and that flower in the corner that you really can't see.  This is an old kit (the chart is hand drawn) and I don't think it's available (the Shepherd's Bush website says if you'd like to purchase to contact them).  

I just realized that tomorrow is the official check-in for   and even though I'm off my normal rotation I still have projects that fit.  Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted by the every wonderful Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  She started this in 2015 as a way to show our appreciation for stitching gifts that we may have received.  It expanded to include gifts we are making for others or anything else we can shoehorn into the theme.  My MAL fits as I bought the yarn with birthday money.  Winter Hearts definitely fits as it's a gift for my great-niece-to-be as does this (my secret project from a bit ago):

Raccoon Rabble from Plum Street Samplers.  It's done on 36-count 'Shroom Juice (my tag doesn't say which company) with the called for threads.  Here's the back: 

The chenille trim is from Lady Dot Creates (and it looks like I forgot to tie the bow in the corner). This was a Mother's Day gift for my mom.

I've liked all the Plum Street stacks but have you seen the newest?  It's hedgehogs and sooooo darn cute.

So, I could have sworn I worked on more, but for the life of me, if I did, I can't remember what it was.

Today was my compressed day off and all the housework and grocery shopping is done, so I have the weekend to work on the hearts.  Maybe I'll finish those boxes!

Hope you're all safe and well.

 

Pretty busy couple of weeks

 I know it's only been two weeks but sure seems longer.  I think part of the reason is that I worked on four different pieces during my ten days of "pick a stitch" at the end of the month.  I'm used to seeing three pieces a month, so if there were six, it has to have been a long time.  

Lots going on in the family the last couple of weeks.  A couple of highlights:

Grady let us know...

He's going to be a really good big brother.  The photo started my search for a pattern for an announcement.  I've found two in my stash - Baby Bug Ball and Sophie's Roses both by Shepherd's Bush - that I keep coming back to, but I haven't started surfing for patterns yet. 

Next was that DS moved into his first Michigan apartment (he lived in several when he lived in New Hampshire).  As a housewarming gift, I did this for him:

The pattern is from Ampyfied on Etsy.  The fabric is 32-count Pacific Sunset from Sunny*Dyes Fabric and the thread is DMC.  The only change I made was to stitch the heart in red.  I'm planning to finish this as a pillow.  I've got it in my head to have a cartoon-ish fabric on the back (I'm sure I can find Godzilla fabric on Etsy) with black piping. 

Stitching-wise, Japanese Zen Moss Garden had one more day of rotation.  I had grand plans of getting the center finished and some beading started.  Unfortunately, I realized that I'd done Algerian eyelets instead of Rhodes stitches in a couple of places and had to do some frogging.  So while no beads, I did get most of the center done.  Here's where it was:

and here's the center with the specialty stitches done - most of those blank areas are beads or crystals:

After finishing Zen's 10-days, I put Temperature Tree by StitchinMommy on Etsy on the frame and finished off February and got March started.

See those four gold/yellow leaves?  That's the end of winter in central Virginia.  We'll still have cool evenings and even a cool day or two - like today's 45 F - but we won't have any more really cold snaps. 

Once I got the leaves on the tree, I picked up my secret stitching and got it finished.  I do need to finish-finish it, but I have a bit of time before it needs to be done.  After that finish, I started and finished May Godzilla Destroy This Home Last.  I had a few days left in the month, so spun the  wheel of what's next? and worked on Garden Fair by Courtney Collection.  I started this in January of  2020.  It's been touched once since.  When I last stitched on it, it was here:

and when I put it away after it's 2-1/2 evenings of stitching, it was here:

The before picture is wrong way around, I started this one in the lower right corner for some reason - I'm sure it made sense when I did it.  I'm stitching this on 40-count Mallow using Anchor black and DMC 817.  I will eventually frog the red corner motif but I wasn't in the mood for 1-over-1 frogging.  

Goldie went back on the frame for her ten days yesterday.  I didn't get enough stitches in last night for them to be noticable, so no progress picture of her.

And before I totally forget, last Sunday was WIPocalypse check-in day.  Fortunately, Melissa keeps that post open for stragglers.

Melissa at Measi's Musing started in 2012 so we had a place to show the projects we wanted to finish before the end of the world and it's just kept going.  Click on the badge at the top and it will take you to the official basics - there is also a Facebook group if you're more comfortable there.  I have two official WIPocalypse pieces, Goldie and Japanese Zen Moss Garden.  Zen's current picture is back just a bit in this post and Goldie's most recent picture is in my last post.  There are cues each month and this month's is: What is your process for working on WIPs? Are you a one-at-a-time stitcher, a rotation stitcher, or something else?  I am primarily a rotation stitcher.  I have had as many as 25 and as few as two projects in a rotation.  25 was right out - touching something for an average of two weeks a year did not make for much progress but it did provide a lot of variety.  Two provided progress, but not a lot of variety.  This year, I've found a rotation that allows for both productivity and variety.  My WIPocalypse pieces are my focus pieces.  I stitch on Goldie from the 1st through the 10th of each month, Japanese Zen Moss Garden from the 11th through the 20th, on the 21st I add leaves to Temperature Tree and then I spin the wheel of what's next? and work on that project through the end of the month or until I get tired of it.  If I get tired of it, I spin the wheel again and work on that project until the end of  the month, or until I get tired of it, repeat as needed.  Basically, those last 10 days are "stitch what I want with some guidelines".  BUT all that changes when I have a project with a deadline.  2020 was primarily a one-at-a-time year with two littles joining the family so double the announcements and Christmas stockings.  I will go OAAT once I find an announcement for Baby Girl W and when her Christmas stocking is picked.  I will probably replace my last 10 days with knitting as the blanket is taking much longer then expected (which I tend to say about all my projects)  I'll pick my rotation back up when I've finished all her stitching.  Going back into the office will also require me to evaluate my rotation, but we'll not talk of that right yet.

I havn't done any stitching today and not sure I will.  I had a cramp in my right hand this afternoon and it still hurts.  Sounds like a good evening to read.

Hope everyone is well.

I finally found my stitching mojo!

I am very pleased to report that my stitching mojo has returned from its walk-about and I am taking advantage of it.

Yes, we have another release of:

Pure, unadulterated joy



Snowgirls from Country Garden Stitchery is done:

 

 



I have tried for the last 10 minutes or so to get this to flip but even though it is saved landscape it still posts here as portrait every time, so I gave up.  Anyway, it's stitched on 28-count Mulberry Mix from Silkweaver with the called for Weeks Dye Works, the Weeks Dye Works replacement for the Gloriana and Mill Hill beads.  I used the White Blending Filament in the center one, but did not like the look so didn't use it in the other two. If you do this piece, I would suggest two skeins of WDW Conch.  I ran out about 1/4 way through the third snowgirl.  It would have happened sooner but I alternately mixed one strand of Conch with one strand of DMC 4150 and then one strand of DMC 950. I finished it up mixing one strand of 4150 and one of 950.  Even if using the called for 30-count I don't think you would have enough.  Your mileage will obviously vary, but I am a fairly stingy stitcher and there isn't enough of a difference between 28- and 30-count to cause the shortage so early in the piece.

To celebrate my finish, I started Just Nan's Kari's Snowflake and got to here with it:

I'm doing the rose color way this pattern has three different color ways listed on a piece of 28-count Opalescent Desert Sky from Silkweaver with DMC.  I think this is going to be another quick stitch so maybe another finish this weekend.  I do need to think about getting the stocking for my in-laws started but it is so nice to have these finishes that it's very hard to go back to something that is going to take months to finish.

A start, a finish and other stuff

Another finish!  I am as shocked as you!  Sentimental Heart is now hanging on the "Admire Me" curtain and will be off to the framer sometime this week. 

It took a while to get the beads figured out on the modified areas, but I am happy with how it turned out.

With that finish, I have one commitment piece to go.  A Glimpse of Santa is one the frame now and looks like this:

Someday this will be a Christmas stocking.  The pattern is from the Stoney Creek Collection and is done on antique white 28-count Monaco with DMC.  There will be a few modifications for this one also as the pattern is so old (I just found it but the copyright is 2001) that most of the called for bits and bobs are no longer available.  I see some time at the jewelry/bead sections of the big box stores in my future and am looking forward to seeing what I can find.

I also got some time in on Santa and the Mouse and Shakespearean Fantasy this week.

Started his glove and did a bit of a curtain.

More black here, but I should be back into the greens when I pull it back out Friday evening.

And last for this week:

Gold and Purple Corner by Scarlet Suen for The Sampler Life SAL.  I have a couple more gold motifs to add and then onto the purple.  I am fairly confident I will finish this one this month. I do need to unroll this so I can get a photo of the whole thing and remind myself what it looks like.

I should pull It's About Time out and get a few stitches into it this evening, but I am beat.  I had some minor surgery last Wednesday.  Few days off work and, because of my killer commute, a couple weeks of telework just to be sure everything stays together and where it's supposed to be.  I had no trouble getting up and getting going this morning, but around 2:30 this afternoon my energy level fell through the floor and I almost fell asleep on my computer.  Granted the project I'm working on isn't the most exciting thing ever dreamed up, but it isn't something that normally puts me to sleep.  All that round about to say, I don't think I will be doing any stitching tonight.  But as I have two weeks of evenings ahead of me, I'm not going to be too upset about losing tonight.

SAL check-ins

I'm home!  The training I did last week went well (or at least I think it went well, haven't seen the evaluations yet).  There were only two problem "children" but my training partner and I figured them out pretty quick and kept them under control.

As I mentioned in my last post, no new stitching happened this week, but I do have four SALs that have check-ins this weekend, so new words, old pictures.

The first is .  Sharon at It's Daffycat hosts TUSAL and everyone is welcome to participate. TUSAL is not your usual SAL.  SAL typically means "stitch along" whereas TUSAL is a "save along".   All those end bits of thread, dogears from quilting and whatever other loose bits you have when crafting get saved in a container of some sort, you take a photo and post about it on the new moon. Super simple and it doesn't really take any special preparation or supplies either.

A chunk of this is frog fuzz from Sentimental Hearts but the majority is bits from Winter Wonderland. 

And speaking of Winter Wonderland,  it is my finish for the .  The 2017 Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather at Stitching Lotus.  This is another straight forward SAL - stitch a small piece and post a picture of your finish on the last Friday of the month.  You get to define small and you just have to finish the stitching not finish-finish it.

Here's my January small finish again:

This is Winter Wonderland from The Silver Needle's Secret Needle Night.

The third check-in is for .  Melissa at Measi's Musings hosts this SAL.  It focuses on finishing some of those works-in-progress that you may have sittings around.  Up there at the top you can find a tab that lists out my WIPocalypse projects.  I worked on three of them this month.

Santa and the Mouse started the new year here:

and went to here in January:

Enchantment of Winter was a blank piece of fabric on January 1st.  It ended the month here:

And here are Shakespearean Fantasy's before and after photos:

Melissa also gives us conversation starters each month.  This month's is:  What SALs are you participating in this year?  I am currently doing the three that are in this post, WIPocalypse, TUSAL and Smalls as well as Gifted Gorgeousness.  IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend) is on the list, when I can remember and I am doing (so far unsuccessfully) Stitch From Stash on Facebook.  I am always open to new SALs, but have cut back drastically from years past as I tend to over-commit myself.

Speaking of Stitch from Stash, here's my report on that.

Budget:   $10.00
Purchase:  15.50 - The 12 Berries of Christmas (colly birds, golden rings and geese a-laying)
Balance: ($ 5.50)

Not a good month.  $10 USD would normally be plenty, but when I set my budget amount I forgot about the auto-ship for the berries.  Fortunately, the balances, good and bad, carry forward so on February 1st I will be back in the black.  There is a provision to give yourself credit for finishes and if I did that, I think I would have been even for the month, but as the finishes don't generate real money, it really doesn't balance out the real money I am spending.

January Gifted Gorgeousness

The problem with frequent posting is there often isn't a lot of progress to show and that certainly is true today, BUT it is time for  and I am determined to match last year's posting success.  Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching (I have learned to spell both gorgeous and serendipitous because of her) and is a way to say "thank you" to everyone that has given us stitching bits and bobs for gifts and to show what we are stitching as gifts.  Each of the pieces I showed in my last post were gifts of some kind - either from Internet friends or designers or, in the case of To Have and To Hold will be a gift.

Despite having a four day weekend, I didn't get as much stitching in as I had hoped.  I did; however, get the taxes all drafted out and ready to file, finally got the DVD player hooked-up in the den (my stitching area) and had a totally clean house for about 10 minutes.

The stitching that I did do resulted in a finish.  To Have and To Hold Bridal Sampler is complete. 

The original design was done in teals and green, but the wedding colors are lilac and green so some changing was necessary.  The most difficult part was switching out beads, but I think I found suitable replacements.  It took much longer than I expected to finish off the backstitching at the bottom.  The beads were a bit fiddly as the stitching didn't fall in nice neat blocks, but it lines up well enough.  Just have to wait for a nice sale at the framers.  And as I'm looking at the photo, I realized I forgot an entire line of beading - so much for that happy dance.

I'm going to count it as a finish as it will be complete within the hour and then I can put Sentimental Heart on the frame and get it started it needs a few more changes than this one, so I'm glad I have until October to have it finished.

Before the Storm

I have been remiss in thanking everyone that stops by and reads my blog.  I appreciate you taking the time to click over, read and comment.

So my blog title, refers to the snow "storm" we're supposed to have.  Well, what passes for a snow storm here in my little corner of Virginia.  The forecast is for 2" to 4" of snow between late tonight and late tomorrow - which means, the road crews have been out on the highways applying the liquid salt stuff (I assume it works, but mostly it just makes great white clouds after it dries), and the grocery stores are crazy. Part of the grocery stores could be a normal Friday, but it seemed a bit busier than usual.

We're all set for weather and had no plans to go anywhere this weekend, so we can settle back and enjoy it.  I have almost crossed everything off my vacation to-do list.  All that is left is laundry (again) and house cleaning (again).  Oh yes, I do put things like that on my list as it gives me a major sense of accomplishment to cross things off the list.  I've been known to put something on the list that I just finished so I could cross it off.

One of the things on my list was to start Enchantment of Winter from Dimple Designs.  I had planned it as a January 1 start but didn't get it on the frame until later.  Here's where it is today:

This is done on 28-count Wintered Marble from Stitches and Spice with the called for DMC, Access Commodities' Soie D'Alger  and Kreinik.  The fabric has faint traces of blue and pink on it, rather like the glint of sun off the snow.  I am trying out a new technique (to me) with the blending filament.  Rather than making it a blend while stitching, I am stitching it separately and only going over the crossing stitch.  It takes a little longer, but it shows up better and besides you only see the bit on the top anyway.

Not (originally) on my list was Winter Wonderland from The Silver Needle.

My first finish for 2017!  The finishing kit came with the painted snowflake, bumpy yarn, mounting board, backing fabric (a glitter felt), quilt batting and a pre-tied bow.  The bow covered up too much of the stitching, so will put it away and use it on something else.  It is stitched with perle cotton and Fuzzy Stuff (fluffy thread with bits of sparkle in it).  Fuzzy Stuff is so much easier to use than Wisper.  It would look super in Santa's Magic as the opalescent fiber would give that little bit of extra sparkle - because Mirabilias are so dull and colorless ;-).  I probably wouldn't use it to replace animal fur, but depending on the context of the animal maybe...

I am making Enchantment of Winter a WIP and will pull out Santa and the Mouse for this afternoon's stitching and then Shakespearean Fantasy for tonight and To Have and To Hold for tomorrow and Sunday.  Back to work on Monday.

April WIPocalypse

I'm a few days late for the  check-in, but fortunately Melissa doesn't put a time limit on posting.  You can find out everything you need to know about WIPocalypse on Melissa's website Measi's Musings, but basically it's a reminder to give our WIPs some lovin' before we start something new.  Melissa also provides us with "Questions of the Month" so we can get to know each other.  This month's question is:  What do you listen to while stitching?  Most often I listen to audio books while I'm stitching.  I discovered them 18 months ago and love them.  If I'm not listening to a book, there is usually music on and occasionally the television.  If the television is on, it's usually on something that doesn't take a lot of active watching as I would rather concentrate on my stitching and not the show.

So WIP stitching...  three projects in my current rotation are on my WIPocalypse list - you can see the list in the "WIPocalypse Project List and 2016 Stitching Plan" tab up top there.

The three projects are:  Secret Victorian Garden; Shakespearean Fantasy; and, Christmas Presence.

I finally finished Secret Victorian Garden - I showed the finish photo in my last post, but I'll show it again.

Shakespearean Fantasy went from here:

I love how the black makes the greens pop.

Christmas Presence was here:

and today it's here:

Didn't quite finish the column, but will fill in those missing stitches and start a new column next week.

I also had progress on two other projects that are not on my WIPocalypse list, It's About Time and Christmas Soldiers.

IAT is now here:

Quite a few missing stitches in that column

and Christmas Soldiers is here:

Those stars in the middle are two different colors, they just aren't showing up too well.

All in all, it was a good stitching week.

So what am I catching up on this time?

Month:  June
Spent: $0

Yes, it has been a while. No, nothing exciting or earth shattering (other than some massively wicked thunderstorms), but before I get into anything more...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TREVOR!!!

Here's a then:

and now (well a year or so ago):

Hard to believe it's been 32 years!!

Hope those of you that have been in the line of the storms the last week are all well.  I don't normally mind a good thunderstorm, but I have had enough for a while.  We've had more in the last week then we usually have in a couple of months.  There was a tornado (unconfirmed) just south of us, but we only had high winds. No damage, but I did take the lantern and sit in the basement for a while.

As the title suggests, I am AGAIN late for check-ins and updates. I have stitched a bit, but I haven't been reading blogs or even turning my computer on. I have; however, been reading a lot as I signed up for a month of Kindle Unlimited (all the books and audio books you can read or listen to - well there are specific books, but there are a lot) and I am going to get my $9.99 worth!! So according to my list, I am late for Gifted Gorgeousness, Stitch from Stash and the Smalls check-ins. I also signed up for IHSW last weekend and didn't post, so that one too.

So in order of check-in dates:  is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching and is designed to say "Thank you" to everyone that has gifted us with stitching or to show a piece of stitching we intend as a gift.  My main gifted piece is "Shakespearean Fantasy", I don't have a lot of progress to show on it. When last I left it, it was here:

This is on the frame for some attention this afternoon, so slightly larger blobs of color next time I show it.

I had categorized two more pieces as gifted because they are freebie pieces and are therefore, gifts from the designers!

"Christmas Presence" is one of the designs in the HAED freebie SAL this year.  I put a couple more colors into him and he went from here:

to here:

I do need to get busy on this one. The last page was released this weekend and I would like to finish him this year. I stitched on this as part of my IHSW.

The next freebie is The Sampler Life Yahoo groups SAL. I did not care for the design released this month, so picked Chatelaine's "Debi's Roses".

I switched out the called for Kreinik braid (all those eyelets were charted for Kreinik) for plain old DMC and quite like it. This was part of IHSW too.

And this month, I have two pieces that are going to be gifts. The first is Ink Circles "99"

which will be for DNephew and for DNiece:

"Sentimental Heart" from The Sweetheart Tree. This is the order that I mentioned in my last Stitch from Stash update.

And speaking of  it's time for the last check-in for 2015A!! Mel at Epic Stitching hosts the SAL and this year decided on two separate challenges each 6 months long. So my tally since January 1st is:

Total budget: $150.00
Total spent:   $  27.67
End balance:  $122.33

I have signed up for 2015B which starts July 1st and I believe sign-ups are still open if you are interested.

And finally, , which is hosted by Heather at Stitching Lotus.  I am using the blocks from The Sampler Life SAL as my monthly small piece. This month's finished block is shown above and here they are together:

I was concerned that the new block would be too heavy, but it fits rather well.

And finally, a piece that isn't part of any SAL this year, Just Nan's Spring in the Air.  It went from here:

to here:

I really do love the colors in this one. I am going to put it back on the frame for the week and maybe, just maybe finish it in the next few weeks. This was IHSW too - really shows that my concentration is shot - three pieces in two days!

PHEW!!! I think that's everything!  A short week for work this week and an extra long weekend - Independence Day is on Saturday so I get the day before off and because that is my normal Friday off, I get to move that to the next regular business day, so I get Monday off too.  We are going to the in-laws one day but no plans for the rest of the time - maybe I really will settle myself down and get some stitching in.