A gifted WIPocalypse check-in

I am a few days late for the

and  the

check-ins, but given my track record the last few months, I am very happy with a few days late.

WIPocalypse is hosted by Melissa at Measi's Musings for some reason I can't get to her site today to link the address but will keep trying.  It started in 2012 as a tongue-in-check nod to the end of the world and an attempt to leave with as many WIPs completed as possible.  I've been trying ever since to complete mine.

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching and is a way for us to thank all those folks that have gifted us with something stitching related or to show our progress on something that will be a gift.

I have two pieces that fit into both categories that I have progress on since my last post.  The first is Shakespearean Fantasy

This pattern was a gift from Pull the Other Thread.  I completed the small strip I think it was three stitches wide up to the blue line.  I know I've mentioned how I don't see the picture developing on these until I sit back, well with this one, I completely missed it.  Leonore and Justine both commented about the fairies in my last post.  I really could not see what they were talking about.  I kept seeing tree leaves, but kept staring at it with squinted and crossed eyes it always worked with those magic eye pictures that were all the rage in the 90s but still was not seeing it/them.  I'm not sure why but after stitching the last bit of that tiny little column, I sat back and they jumped out at me.  There is half, or so, of one at the bottom and you can see just a bit of wing forming there on the edge. NOW the weird color changes make sense!! After consulting the map/guide to the piece, this section represents A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

Fortunately, It's About Time doesn't have a lot of hidden bits and pieces. This pattern was a gift from Kate at A Kowgirl's Stitchin Blog. 

I am very happy to say that this is a page finish.  I'm looking forward to seeing what that blob of yellow/gold in the lower right corner turns out to be.

I spent a bit of time working on To Have and To Hold Bridal Sampler, but I had to frog most of it as I miscounted and the name wasn't centered.  No photo as I was a bit frustrated with myself and just set it aside, but I have now run a basting line down the center and will be stitching the names from the center out rather than thinking I've counted correctly to the edge. 

Jo's Big Birthday Blog Hop

Jo of Serendipitous Stitching and Gifted Gorgeousness fame is celebrating a big birthday today.  A blog hop was organized to celebrate and I have 2009!  To read the rest of the years of her life, click on over to Serendipitous Stitching for the links to the other blogs and to see some of her gorgeous stitching.

On to 2009 - Jo was 43.  The Small Boy arrived early in the year, weighing in at nearly 10lbs it was not an easy birth.  He was unwilling to arrive and eventually came "out through the sun-roof" as they say.  The Large Boy was not keen on this new arrival at first but once he realised that babies come bearing Lego he was resigned to the situation.  Plus he got a great new bedroom with a midsleeper bed complete with slide.  Jo continued to run her Toddler Group, now with a qualifying baby, and also help with the PTA.  Three new PTA babies were born that year so there was often a "nurse-in" at the meetings.  Stitching was pretty non existent although Jo did complete one piece for a friend.

For me, 2009 was a year of ups and downs.  As this is a celebratory post, we'll leave out the downs.  The highlight of the year was a week long trip to Hilo on the big island of Hawaii.  It was a work trip but The Hubs was able to go with me and we had a really good time.  He would scope out all the neat places to see during the day and then when I got out of work we'd rush around to see them before they closed.  We even got snorkeling gear and were able to swim with sea turtles.  It is an amazingly beautiful island and definitely worth the jet lag to visit. 

Unlike Jo's baby, The Hubs gave me time to stitch during the year - except for the week before his leg surgery when he was pretty much bedbound - and I think I had a pretty productive stitching year that year.  I stitched the center of Chatelaine's Hawaiian Mandala while sitting on the balcony of our hotel room in Hilo, so that piece is doubly meaningful.  Jo has definitely made up for lost stitching time.  This year she's been doing a lot of Christmas and Just Nan stitching but she also does a lot of Hallowe'en stitching.  I don't do a lot of Hallowe'en stitching but this piece

has the look of one of the pumpkins in Just Nan's Counting Bats which Jo recently completed and I think is one she'd like.

Many Happy Returns on your Big Birthday Jo!!!

An attempt at regular posting

Maybe this schedule will help me get back into the habit of blogging.  The weather has taken a definite turn towards fall, we're supposed to be in the mid- to upper-80s this week with low humidity rather than the mid- to upper-90s with matching humidity.  I do love this time of year.


After running around and doing errands on Friday, I thought I'd have the weekend for uninterrupted stitching and a chance to settle back into my rotation.  That didn't happen and I had another weekend of being unable to tell you where the time went and what exactly I did. 


Some stitching did happen though and I had a column and page finish.


The column finish happened on Santa and the Mouse.

If you look really hard you can see a bit of Santa's face. As this is an ornament, there are only a few blocks on the second page, so it's not a lot bigger than this. I'm stitching this one-over-one on 28-count antique white Jobelan.


The page finish was on Shakespearean Fantasy (two down 58 more to go)

I also did the 3 stitches in the column that were on the next page, so have a little bit of a start on page 3.


It's About Time had a square finish (but I also finish a square whenever I stitch, so that's not as big a deal)

I did get some graph paper and have graphed out the names for To Have and To Hold but didn't do any stitching on it.  I also didn't put a single stitch into the tiger on the Smalls SAL.  I did spend a lot of time trying to figure out what happened to the other pages I had up to there, but have almost given up on that one.  The other thing I tried to figure out was this:

We have two very comfy beds, lots of chairs, a cat bed, and fluffy blankets set out so the cats can be comfortable when watching the birds, but Spot has decided to sleep on the scratch pad (the computer and monitor cords are only there on days I telework).  I know, it's a cat thing and I wouldn't get it even if she could tell me... 8-)

I'm back

I am back from my week in Philadelphia, but, since I have become such an erratic blogger, you probably didn't even know I was gone.  For all the time I have spent on the east coast, I had never been to Philadelphia and am very glad I had the opportunity.  I definitely want to go back to see all the things that were closed or I missed. 


In the time since my last blog post, I stitched on every piece in my rotation so lots of pictures.


Before I get to the stitching, Christmas Presence came back from the framers: 

Excuse the reflection of my head but I could not find anyplace in the house that didn't have some reflection.  I really like the way it turned out.  I would not have picked a black mat on my own, but it was the first mat the framer pulled out and I think it fits the mood of the piece well.


I started Santa and the Mouse

This is a round piece so I started in the middle and will work out from there too much counting to find the right starting place otherwise.  Practice does help with this style piece as it is going much faster than Christmas Presence ever did.


I worked some more on It's About Time and am a couple blocks closer to a page finish.

More black on Shakespearean Fantasy. 

I am close to a page finish on this one you've heard that before.  There may be some more green and blues added, but I think it's mostly black for the rest of this column.


I have done a terrible job of keeping up with the Smalls SAL that Heather at Stitching Lotus hosts, but I have been slowly but surely working on one.  Here's where I am  on the tiger

I decided to do this in 20x20 blocks as I made a counting error further down and will need to frog a few stitches. I am aiming to finish this for the SAL check-in this month it's good to have goals and I love the sound the deadline makes when it goes whooshing by.


I got to the names on To Have and To Hold  sooner than I thought I would, so I need to get out and get some graph paper before I can go any further.

I got into an organizing frenzy the other day and ordered enough bobbin boxes and bobbins for the thread for the HaED patterns I have stashed.  I don't anticipate stitching them anytime soon, but will be so much easier to find and use the threads if they aren't in gallon plastic bags in a basket.  I don't know when I will get around to doing it but sounds like a great winter project.

A 3 Fer Post

In an attempt to pretend that I am keeping up my blog, you will be getting three SALs in one post!!  Lucky for you, they all use the same piece.

I am so far behind in posting that I am not going to try to catch up, other than to say, I had a wonderful time on vacation (DSis and DBIL are wonderful hosts) and the office renovations ran a week over which meant an extra week of working from home.

I didn't end up taking any stitching with my on vacation, but I did do some stitching in the evenings during my extra telework week and..... insert drumroll!!!

I finished Christmas Presence.

 

He was finished on the 14th, but I didn't get around to trimming the back and washing him until today.  Michaels is having another amazing sale on framing so I took him in and should have him back right around September 2nd.  I have decided to enter him into the state fair also he's in a different section than Secret Victorian Garden so won't be competing against myself.

 

I put Santa and the Mouse ornament onto the frame and will start it later tonight.  I can't find the pattern for the ornament on the Heaven and Earth Designs website but the large pattern can be seen here.  The ornament focuses on Santa's face and the mouse (which nobody would ever guess from the title).

 

And that is my only entry for  and  this month.

 

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching and is a way to thank those wonderful folks that have gifted us with something stitching related.  Christmas Presence was a freebie for the 2015 HaED SAL so I am counting it as a gift from the company.

 

 is hosted by Melissa at Measi's Musings and provides some incentive to work on those WIPs that many of us have hanging around.  Each month Melissa gives us a topic to help us move our blogging along and also introduce ourselves to the group.  This month's topic is:  Have you ever read any fictional books that involve embroidery?  Yes I have.  I was a big reader of Monica Ferris's Betsy Devonshire Needlecraft mysteries. Unfortunately, as happens with many serial stories, they started to read alike and they faded from interest, but they were fun, cozy mystery reads.  I do still have the books as each one came with a pattern and there were several that I added to my to-be-stitched pile.

 

The 3rd SAL starts today and is .  IHSW is hosted by Joyce at Random Ramblings and is a wonderful excuse to sit and stitch all weekend and unlike me, post about it when you're done (I seem to forget that last part).  If you're interested in participating, click on the link and it will take you to the sign-up post and then just sit down and stitch.  It is supposed to be a bit cooler (90 and 92 F) this weekend, but I don't think I am going to be doing too much outside (although the lawn does need a good mowing) so IHSW will be a perfect way to use my time.

 

For only having one piece to show, I sure did go on for a while.  Hopefully the yakkiness lasts and I'll post sooner than the middle of September.

On the Road Again

I finally got my bag unpacked and all the laundry done from my St. Louis trip last week and am packing it up for a trip to Michigan starting tomorrow.  This trip is for fun so packing will be a little different than last week's which was for work, but still takes a bit to figure out what I need (of course if I forget anything, there are stores nearby...).  A bit of stitching has happened but nothing that will win me any speed awards.

First up, Christmas Presence.  I spent a good chunk of a morning working on it and got several colors completed.  It went from here:

to here:

I think I will work on him this afternoon as the blank spaces are big blocks of color and should fill in fairly fast.

I pulled out a semi-oldie for my small piece this week, 12 Days from Plum Street Samplers.

I finished the vertical between 9 and 10 and started the bottom line on 9.  Oh yes and started 10th day.  I think the black bit is a hat, but I am not 100% sure.

To Have and To Hold had the most progress and is here now:

More backstitching.  This band also has three Rhodes hearts which I am looking forward to.

I am just waiting for clothes to dry so I can pack my bag so while I'm doing that I think I'm going to work on Christmas Presence and then put To Have and To Hold back on the frame for tonight's stitching block.  I have a small piece I found in my stash drawer that I may take with me in case I get tired of reading.

Gifted Gorgeousness and IHSW

It's a bit past the 15th, so a little late for the official  check-in.  Fortunately, Jo keeps the check-in open for a few days to allow us stragglers to catch up.  If you click on the Gifted Gorgeousness 2016 picture, it should take you to the official rules page.  The Reader's Digest version is - stitch with something, pattern, thread, needles or fabric, that someone else gave you and show it off to the rest of the world to say "thank you" or if you're stitching something that will be a gift, you can show it off here.

Stitching has been a bit slow but I do have two pieces that fit the criteria.  The first is:

Christmas Presence  This was one of the 2015 Heaven and Earth Designs SAL pieces.  As it was a freebie, I am counting it as a gift from the charter/designer.

I finished a column and got a good start on the next one.  I am debating whether to do the last column or not. The piece will be  a 4.75"X4.75" square once this new column is completed.  I like the idea of a square, but I also like the idea of having a bit of play for framing.

My second piece is another Heaven and Earth Designs piece, It's About Time. Kate at Needles and Haystacks gifted this pattern to me. 

I finished one more square in this column.

And that's all I have for Gifted Gorgeousness this month.  These are also the only two pieces I worked on for .  Not as much as I would have liked but time just got away from me this weekend.  I'm all packed for my trip.  The weather is supposed to be miserably hot in the central US this week and I've seen predictions for 101+ F for Wednesday - so glad we'll be inside.