A new blog entry--really!

Initially the blogging break was because I hadn't been stitching very much, and then it was because I kept putting it at the end of the day so by the time I finished all the other computer work I was too tired to be coherent. I even managed to get things ironed and decently(ish) photographed and just couldn't manage this last step. Then company arrived--lots of swimming and eating, no stitching or blogging.

So the excuses have been laid out, and it's on to the WIPs....

Like most of my life my stitching has had very little focus this month, by which I mean I've picked up a project, put in a small motif or a few rows, and then picked up another project. It's a feedback loop--because I'm easily distracted, I have a lot of projects going, and because I have a lot of projects going I'm easily distracted from what's currently nearly done by something else.

So, in the order in which the pictures appear in my directory....

"Book of Spells" from The Goode Huswife. I'm using Vintage Green Slate from Lakeside Linen, and the green is much deeper than what came out in the picture (if 40ct Havana from Weeks Dye Works

had arrived in the shop earlier I'd be using that instead). I tried fixing the color, but this was as close as I could get. I've recharted the verses for over 1 using my own lettering--I'm as close as I can get to the feel I wanted. It'll be nice to stitch with something other than black on this piece, but that would require a more purposeful approach to my stitching and based on 20+ years of doing this, that's not going to happen. At least I only started this project a couple of months ago--it'd be worse if I was only this far after a year (although typical).

I have a second pic in the upload folder, but I can't remember why....

Ah...it's less fuzzy, but even worse on color.

And next in the grab bag we have....

...the "HF" quaker reproduction from The Marking Sampler. I'm stitching on 45ct (I think, could be 48ct) possibly Vintage Sand Dune or Vintage Autumn Gold but definitely a Lakeside Linen with Belle Soie. I finally started adding the motifs at the bottom this month. I really like working on this sampler, and it's small enough to make a large pincushion instead of a framed piece. On the other hand framing it would mean my bit was done when I finally finish stitching it, so framing is in the lead right now. I would prefer to use soie surfine for the queen stitch motifs, but none of the colors Access Commodites imports will work. I either need a source outside the US or I have to go to plan B and use soie de paris, which isn't quite as fine. Of course, by the time I get to the queen stitches Gloriana and The Society of Soie Surfine will probably have three times the colors they have now. That's how I justify my flighty attention....

Oh good, another sampler:

I'm stitching "The Petite Mexican" from The Samplar Workes as charted on 48ct Vintage Light Examplar from Lakeside with soie de paris. I have a special place in my heart for Mexican and Spanish samplers, and this is also the first piece I started on 48ct. I'm VERY close to being done....

And now for something out of left field:

I love Pooh, both the Disney version here and what's known as Pooh classic. Stitching him, on the other hand, is not something I would do voluntarily; it's just not my style of cross-stitch. However, my niece picked this out at The Crafty Frog  in Kambah, ACT, just before they moved back to the states (so that makes it springish 2007). As we all know stitching becomes a chore and not a pleasure when the project isn't something you would pick out yourself, so getting this thing done while Celeste is still of Pooh age was quite an accomplishment. (It's the backstitching--I detest backstitching even more than french knots, although not as much as bullion knots). Now for the FINISHING finishing....

And last we have....

The return of "The Prospector's Surprise" from Just Libby Designs. Since last he appeared I have finished his boots and most of his vest--I just need to add the cording around the vest edge (which I've started since this picture was taken). The surprise will be me actually finishing this and moving on to one of the other 20 or so Libby things I have kitted up....

And that's all for today. Thanks for sticking with this. I hope to be a better blogger soon....

Progress of a sort, I suppose

Yes, progress. Also much frogging and swearing. All Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow pics can be found in the Picasa web album http://bit.ly/aR0FqC

This is late. Well, technically there's no deadline, but I had planned to put this up on Sunday. Of course, I'd also planned to add more stitches to it Sunday through today, and so far that hasn't happened either. It's amazing how time slips away when you really don't have anything you have to do at the moment. Apparently free time means free from accomplishment for me.

Right. Stop procrastinating again.

I spent half of Saturday ripping stitches out that had been there for over a month, because I discovered just then that I had either used the wrong color (for the second time, although different motif) or put the motif in the completely wrong place. And so I spent an entire day taking one stitch forward and two stitches back. Really, I can count and I can read a graph. 

So to punish the piece for my own fumbling I shall work on the Prospector Santa tonight. Although I can here the Mexican Garden Sampler calling me again (it's the sampler in my banner)...oh yes, stitching over 3 reversibly on 45 count will be ever so much easier....

Sort of weird observation...the little motif just to the right of the center flower kind've looks like BP's logo...hrm.

Needlepoint!

Two weeks ago I finally finished Susan Portra's 'Spirit of the Southwest', a counted needlepoint project started and mostly finished in 2004. All I had left was the border--what my friend (and first needlepoint teacher) Alice calls 'primetime stitching' (not so complicated you can't accomplish a lot in front of the TV at night). With so little left to finish, and it being fairly mindless, I of course lost interest. I worked on it maybe 4 times in the last 6 years. How did I finally get the thing done? Alice.

A couple of weeks ago Alice finally had a Saturday off from teaching, and met me at The Attic's open stitch/potluck. Since she's primarily a needlepointer, and everyone else would be doing cross-stitch, I brought along a project to make her feel more at home. When I took the pillow case off, Alice was 1) happy to see the piece because I chose her favorite color palette (can't remember what it's called, but it looks like the ocean around Bermuda where Alice grew up) and 2) was appalled I had so little left to do for the last 3 years. I promised her I would finish, and the next afternoon I did. So thank you, Alice, for giving me a gentle kick to FINISH SOMETHING.

Bad picture from my phone

Actually doing needlepoint for the first time in years reminded me how much I really enjoy it--I love all the different stitches and the textures of the different fibers. So now I've been inspired to work on another of my 100s of unfinished pieces. I present to you The Prospector Santa, started in a class with the designer, Libby Sturdy, in 2001:

Slightly more finished than at the end of class--hands, shirt sleeves, and pants were worked on 2 weeks ago.

It doesn't look like it, but there's a lot of work in the burro's face; I think most of one day was spent on it. Thanks to a wonderful yesterday spent with Alice and our friend Jean, it now looks like this:

I had pants like that in the 70's. And red cowboy boots (tradition in my family) but mine weren't sparkly. I'd also like to add I wasn't old enough to be dressing myself yet....

I am still working on it today! I think I've set a new record for not being distracted by 1) a new project or 2) another UFO. Saturday is the monthly Attic get together for Hawk Run Hollow projects--we'll see if my enthusiasm for needlepoint (did I mention I have 5 other Libby class pieces started and a drawer full of her kits, plus a LOT of other class and non-class canvases?) survives the fun of over 1 on 40ct....

Er...hello

I don't know how to start this blog except in the middle, which is where I am in all my projects....

I'll start with the soon to be out-of-print 'Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow' from Carriage House Samplings--

My home shop is Attic Needlework in Mesa, Arizona. The shop recently started a monthly SAL group for Hawk Run projects, and since this is the one I could find, this is the one I picked (I swear I have the first 'Houses of Hawk Run Hollow' somewhere in the stash....). I'm stitching as charted with Needlepoint Inc. silks, except the fabric I picked was a limited addition (sort of dyed by me) and the piece wasn't big enough, so it's over 1 instead of 2. I like to use a #10 or #12 beading needle when I'm stitching over 1 on 40ct (it's easier to run the needle under stitches on the back).

I love peacocks, and this piece has several.

Hopefully you'll see some progress on this project in the near future :)