Heirloom Stitching Sampler Progress

This one is just flying by - I think I should finish it by summerish time with no trouble at all. :) Unfortunately I'm probably gonna have to skip the fair this year though. :( We are planning on going to Disney one last time before Alex moves up and outta here, and the only week that works out for the special booking dates for our deal and around the kids extra-curriculars, and my boss's vacation schedule is the same week that the fair judging is. *sigh* Ah well, maybe next year. I can hardly complain about going on a nice vacation.

1843 Catherine Eleanor Blain

Not the clearest of pictures this time. I finally lept into the 21st century and updated my phone to a Motorola Grasp complete with QWERTY keyboard and camera. I took these with the camera - the 1.3MP is obviously not as good as my usual camera, but I wanted to try it out and was too lazy to retake them.

I finished another name on Mother's Tree and started St. Basil's Cathedral. Katie really, really wanted me to start on "her castle" so I caved and started it for her.

I'm planning to change some of the backstitching on the cathedral to make it stand out better against the white opalescent fabric.

All Clean!

The last time I posted about Stone Roses, I told you all about how some of the white thread had stitched in sort of dingy. I am lazy, so I really didn't want to frog and restitch, but I was afraid that the Waterlilies would run if I washed it.

When I started Convent's Herbal Garden I soaked all the silks for that project to bleed out all the excess dye. Since one of the Waterlilies colors for that design (112 fir) is also in Stone Roses, I decided to also soak the Stone Roses silks. Since neither of the Stone Roses silks bled at all, I decided I could go ahead and wash Stone Roses. No bleeding, and the white looks white now as it should! :) Whew!

So all that said, not a ton of progress this time. I'm sort of in that mid-point of the design where you stitch and stitch all these large blocks of boring color and there doesn't seem to be so much progress. Eventually though it will come together, and I still think she is pretty to look at in the meantime. :)

My new focus piece

Victoria Sampler's Heirloom Stitching Sampler is my new focus piece, simply because it is the closest to being done. This time I worked the bands from the second scene of stitchers down.

I'm hoping I can have it done in time to enter with Alhambra for the fair, but we'll see. :)

Happy Dance: Alhambra Garden

Here she is finished and in all her glory! No way I'm waiting to frame this baby. :)

A Tale of Two Chatelaines

I made a deal with myself that I could go ahead and start Convent's Herbal Garden on New Year's Day IF I stitched on only Alhambra Garden the week between Christmas and New Year's AND once I spent a few days on the new start, it was back to Alhambra Garden until it is finished.

Here is the progress on Alhambra Garden - definitely starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel - but it will still be a little stretch before I can really happy dance.



And here is what I managed to accomplish in 3 days of stitching on CHG. *sigh* it isn't nearly as much as I'd hoped, but the over-one and eyelets slowed me down a bit.



The fabric is 28ct Fairy Dust, which is a soft peach tone - very yummy. I'm going to have to figure out what to do about the yellow flowers along the outside edge of the design though cause I think they will disappear on this fabric if I stitch them in the recommended 094 Lemon Waterlilies. The yellow eyelets in the picture are that same floss color, but I think they are okay here since they are surrounded by other stitching so they still pop okay.

New Year's Mish Mash 2011

I finished the finishing for both of these pieces on 12/31/2010 so that my year end list of finishes might not be quite so awful. Angel of Summer I finished back in August, but just got around to framing, and the band sampler is a round robin piece that was finished a couple of years ago already but I never got around to making it into a bell pull until now. Tool all of an hour and a half - really should not have put it off for so long! I finally found a perfect frame for AoS; though I really should have hung her and took a picture against a lighter background so you could see the frame better. Don't worry she is going to my mom's house and isn't going to hang there permenantly - that is just where I had space for her at the moment. :)

2010 Review
In 2010 my goals were to try to finish at least 3 of the following designs that were in my rotation:

Inspiration - Rosewood Manor - nope
Mother's Tree - MLI - nope
Angel of Summer - MLI - yes
Heritage Sampler - Chatelaine - nope
Alhambra Garden - Chatelaine - getting close, but nope
Stitcher's Heirloom Sampler - Victoria Sampler - nope
Hardanger Table Runner - didn't even touch this one all year. *sigh*

I also wanted to finish these completed pieces into framed pieces or other items:
Just Nan RR from a few years back - into a stitching book - nope
Band Samler RR from a few years back - into a bellpull - yes, by the skin of my teeth - see above
Mirabilia Mermaid RR - into a framed piece - nope, but I got Jill Rensel's contact info and plan to put this to the top of the list for 2011. It WILL be done. :)

2011 Goals
I'm going to shoot for 3 bigger finishes from my rotation this year too. I know that is an attainable goal for me because for years I finished 4 or 5. I just had a slower for me stitching year than usual. I just didn't pick up a needle as much. I want to get back to stitching more, so I think 3 is still reasonable.

My current rotation list is similiar to last year's:

Inspiration - Rosewood Manor
Stone Roses - Mirabilia
Mother's Tree - MLI
Persian Floral - TW
Heritage Sampler - Chatelaine
Alhambra Garden - Chatelaine
Stitcher's Heirloom Sampler - Victoria Sampler
Hardanger Table Runner
Convent's Herbal Garden - Chatelaine

If I had to guess I'd say I could finish AG, Mother's Tree, and Stitcher's Heirloom Sampler by end of 2011. I'm pretty positive that Heritage Sampler, CHG (new start on new year's day 2011) and the Hardanger Table Runner will not be finished. Stone Roses is an unlikely 4th finish if I get that far.

I'd also like to frame/finish the following:
Mirabilia Mermaid RR piece
Mirabilia Children RR piece
Just Nan RR stitching book

A little inspiration

Inspiration by Rosewood Manor. Not a ton of progress, but I'm happy with how it is progressing. Because there are so many stops and starts this is one where you feel like you are running in place for ever and ever and then all the sudden you take a step back and Hey! there IS progress after all. :) I think I'll have that next moment when I finish filling in the leaves and flowers in the emptyish section. (Yes I'm making up words now, must be tired~)

I'm back to working on Alhambra Garden now, probably will work mostly on that until it is finished, which still might be another month or so. I am finishing the last of large triangles on the bottom now. I'm expecting the stitching to still take some time to finish and then all the beading in the center will definitely be time consuming too.

I got all the rest of threads for Covenant Herbal Garden for Christmas, so I have them soaking and bleeding out all the excess dye now. I decided to make this my new start for 2011 on New Year's Day even though I know I won't be done with Alhambra. My plan is to stitch on Alhambra til Jan. 1 - then stitch CHG through the New Year weekend and Monday (I have Monday off) so I get a good start on it. Then I'll go back to Alhambra until it is finished.

Fourth Fountain Finished!

I finally finished all four fountains. The first seemed to take forever and I know I frogged and cursed a lot, the second wasn't too bad, and the third was fine. This one seemed to fly by - don't know why it seemed so hard at first. Anyway, all four are done now. I'm not going to make the end of the year, but it'll definitely be done in time for fair this year. :)

Oh, and Covenant's Herbal Garden is almost completely kitted - it will be started as soon as this one is finished. :)

Advent Wreath Ornament

This little beauty was designed by Belinda of Tor Rhuann Designs. It is a freebie on her page if you are interested. I changed out most of the supplies for what I had on hand.

The fabric is 32 ct Driftwood Zweigart Belfast. The floss is all DMC rayon - 33607 (purple) 30899 (rose) and 30501 (green). I used PB25 Treasure Braid and Swarovski Crystals for the flames. The beads are Mill Hill 00332 (green) and 00367 (red).

This is my first biscournu finish and I love that it is small and delicate. I've always found the biscouru interesting, but the larger size made me wonder what to do with it once finished. Having a small one was perfect for an ornament for the tree. I really love how it turned out - Thanks Belinda for a great design! :)

I orginally intended to give this to my sister because she was saying she couldn't find many Christmas decorations that celebrated Advent, but I think I've decided to keep it for myself! :)

Think these guys know what's in my frig?

I guess these turkeys don't understand that it is almost Thanksgiving or they wouldn't be venturing so close to my backdoor. Or maybe they know I already have the bird thawing in the frig - so no need to fret?

We also get deer and the occasional red fox sauntering through the backyard despite being in a relatively populated area.



In stitching news, I've been working on TW's Persian Floral. Finished one of the inside corner motifs, which was fun, but tons of backstitching!

1818 Elizabeth VanDoren

I finished this name on my Mother's Tree last weekend already, just took me this long to get it uploaded to the blog. This one is going pretty fast - I just do one name each rotation and then whatever I can finish before the end of the weekend on the next name.

I'm worked some more on Alhambra Garden this weekend, but didn't finish enough yet for another pic - probably in a week or two I'll have some more to show on that one.

In other news, Katie has taken to playing with Alex's old match box cars. Course she doesn't quite play with or use them in quite the same way. :) She put them in the shape of a star, a heart, and spelled lots of various words. At least you cannot accuse her of not having an imagination. :)

Alhambra again

The latest progress on Alhambra Garden. I asked Katie to step into the picture as so many of you commented last time that it helped show size/perspective.

Also you can see my working copy of the chart in the background. I copied all the pages so I wouldn't ruin my chartpack and then cut and taped all the pages together. I really stink at trying to flip back and forth between pages, so that has really helped me a lot even if the entire pattern is huge. This way I can mark and bend and fold and no worries. :) I also clip the entire thing (often folded to the spot I need) to a music stand. I love having a music stand for my charts. I've seen several needlework chart stands that cost $100 or more - this was $12.50 several years ago at the local music store, and it does exactly the same thing.

Anyway, I'm really getting excited that I just might finish this one day. :) I'm starting to order the silks and such for Covenant's Herbal Garden - I've decided to start that when this one is finished. :)

Dance Bag Happy Dance

I finally finished Katie's new dance bag. It is on Aida, which I haven't stitched on in forever and half. I stitched it with some mystery pink varigated silk from my stash - I think it might be from a Dinky Dyes ooopps pack.

I have a tendency to believe that since I'm stitching something all in one floss color that it will be sooo so easy and quick. Yeah, not so much. I kept losing my place in the pattern with no color changes to go by and also it was kinda tedious and boring. Oh well, I'm reasonably happy with the result and Katie loves having a unique bag that I stitched. Just glad she is still young enough to appreciate stuff mom makes. Soon enough I suppose she'll only want the ultra cool brand name bag that all the other kids have - so I'll enjoy that while it lasts. :)

Some Heritage Sampler progress

Some good progress on this - I really like how it is coming out, but it is probably going to be forever and a half before it is finished. I guess that is okay, I'll just keep plugging at it. :)

This time I finished another band where the names will go, and I did a few more of the over one alphabet along the left-hand side.

Some more on Stone Roses

This is coming along quite nicely. :) Only one problem - I'm noticing that the white looks a little yellow or dirty in some spots. It doesn't show up in the picture as much as it does in real life, but you can kinda see it toward the bottom of the white section that is stitched. I always try to keep my hands really clean when I stitch, and I've never had this issue before when stitching large sections of white. :/ I might try and wash it, but I'm a little nervous that the silks will bleed, but at least they are not red. I think I'll wait to get a bit more done before I decide whether she really has to have a bath or not.

Goal Orientated Rotation

I have been working in a rotation for several years now, but always seemed to go by how much time I spent on a piece - not necessarily how many hours actually stitching, but one night, two nights, one week, etc. I think I've come to realize that it actually works better for me to do a goal-orientated rotation. When I pick up a piece I decide to stitch until I reach a certain point. I try to pick something that will take a week or less, but sometimes I don't get as much stitching time as I'd like, or it takes longer than I think, or the frogs visit or whatever. I still keep stitching until that goal is met. Very satisfying to stay on one thing until I meet the goal I think. You sort of get that satisfaction of being a "one-at-a-timer" but you still have the variety of the rotation.

This time my goal was to finish the second scene in Heritage Stitching Sampler by Victoria Sampler. I started with the white and metalic bargello and cross stitch band above it. The over one vine slowed my down a little bit, but not as much as I feared and I finished this one day earlier than I expected to - which almost never happens.

Anyway, I'm going to work on Katie's dance shoe bag tomorrow before going back to Alhambra Garden, which is my current focus piece.

Alhambra Garden

One pic of just the WIP - one with Vanna. LOL

Katie just needed to be in that last pic, so I let her. :) I made some good progress on this one the last two weeks. Finished the triangle on the right and worked some more down on the yellow and brown lattice work. I *think* I *might* just be able to finish this piece before 2010 is out - certainly for fair next year!

I also started a new travel project - just two small monochromatic designs of ballet figurines that I'm stitching on a tote bag made of aida. It has been so long since I've stitched on aida - but at least it is easy and this will be a fun project to work on while watchingng Katie's dance classes. If you didn't already guess, the finished product will be a dance bag for her dance shoes. Maybe I'll show a pic next time I post, right now it is just sort of a blob.

Inspiration 8/15/2010

This time I filled in the area on the left side down to the pot and started the vines beyond. I like to backstitch in the vines first in an area to sort of mark it out and then I go back and fill in all the flowers and birds. This is fun to stitch cause it goes relatively fast in spite of all the color changes. It is a little challenging to anchor all those loose ends in a way that they don't show, but it isn't too bad either. This is a relatively good picture except that the fabric color is a bit yellower than it appears here.

Persian Floral - new WIP

My new start - Persian Floral by TW. I included the mag cover as this is probably not one of the more well-known of Teresa Wentzler's designs.

I don't really keep track of my stitching time, but I'd guesstimate this is about 7 or 8 hours of stitching. It was fabulous to get that much stitching time in one weekend. Something that doesn't usually happen that often lately.

I'm all motivated now to get going on my other WIPs too. I'm going to work on Inspiration next and then Alhambra Garden, as that will be my new focus piece. If I can stay motivated I just might have another finish before 2010 is done!