January IHSW: A Blast from the Past

Hey Blog Buddies,

Did you ever pick up a stitching project that you hadn't worked on for 13 years?  That's what I did during this International Hermit and Stitch weekend, and it wasn't easy!  The project was Mates, from my Turtle Trot list.  Every project on that list is something I want to finish (or at least make significant progress on) this year.  Here's my before photo:

 

I had forgotten a lot of the details about this piece.  I remembered that it was stitched on Aida cloth (a little easier to work with and besides none of the ground will show when finished), but it's 18-count and I couldn't figure out if I had used one or two strands of floss.  (I should have figured out by the coverage of the black that it was two.)

One of the things I had done was to tape the edges of the ground with masking tape.  Don't judge:  it was 13 years ago and I didn't know any better!  I've kind of gotten away from using Q-snaps (they're a little too heavy for me to hold, and I don't have one of those wonderful but expensive gripper frames), so I took the piece off of the Q-snaps (yes, it had been on them all this time--are you horrified yet?) and decided to mount it on stretcher bars!  That should also help with getting some of the wrinkles out.  heheh.  When DH heard the pounding, he came up to ask if I was starting yet another new project.  When I showed him my "new" project, he was quite surprised and he remembered it right away (I was impressed!)--it is kind of distinctive.  At this point I still wasn't convinced that I was going to take a stitch on it.

By the way, I found the highlighter that I was using to mark off my stitching progress in the bag along with the piece and it still works!

 Do they even still make these?

This project kind of reminds me of a HAED, only not so big.  I guess it would be one of their "quick" stitches - ha!  There are "only" eight pages of charts.  I don't believe I would ever purchase a chart this large (and with so much confetti stitching!) today, but there is a lot of stitching already finished and it would be a shame to give it away (I wouldn't throw it away), plus I really like how it's turning out!  So, after circling it mentally for quite some time wondering where to start, I just plunged in.  Here is what I got done this weekend:

After quite a few hours of stitching, it doesn't look like anything was done to it, does it?  I'll give you a hint:  I filled in areas under "her" throat and also areas on the bridge of "his" nose. 

I'm not a patient person, but working on something like this will either teach you patience or you'll be throwing the piece down on your driveway and backing over it with your car (no tread marks on it yet!).  Maybe if I can stitch just a tiny bit on it each day, I'll make decent progress on it without driving myself crazy.  That's the current plan.

In non-IHSW stitching, I worked on Debbie Stiehler's pumpkin earlier in the week.  Here's where it's at now...

I'm halfway done!   Here are a couple of close-ups--they're a little more interesting.

Last but not least, I finally got Rosewood Manor's Rose Watercolor Butterfly framed--  I finished stitching it last July!  I brought it to my new favorite framing shop this past Wednesday and got the call that it was ready the very next day--crazy!

I have no idea why I let it sit so long.  Love the butterfly, but those of you who've been reading this blog awhile know that it was the blackwork that attracted me to this design.  Speaking of which, I must get another blackwork piece going this year, and I have just the project in mind. I already have the chart and I can scrounge the fabric/threads from my stash so I won't have to spend any money.

Of course it's blackwork--darning stitches are often used in blackwork!  Gosh, I may have had too much caffeine today.  I should stop now.

Don't forget to check out my giveaway here.  Deadline to enter is midnight, Chicago time, Monday, January 20th.  You can check on the other hermitters' progress here.  Hope your weekend was groovy.  Thanks for visiting!