Leap Year List

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope your holidays were happy and fun.  Thank you so much for the nice comments on my end-of-year recap post, and throughout last year.  They make my day.

Happy Leap Year!  I've seen quite a few leap years (more than 10, less than 20, heheh), and in my experience, major life events tend to occur during leap years.  My parents' wedding, my birth, our wedding, the adoption of our first dog, and the purchase of our current house all happened in leap years.  Maybe I just have too much time on my hands to be coming up with this trivia?!

Anyhow, I thought I would call my rotation a Leap Year List this year.  It's a catchier name, and I don't usually stick with a strict rotation anyway.  I just stitch what I'm in the mood to stitch on any particular day.  Eleven projects that I'd like to focus on made the list this year, some old, some new.  Let's start with our old friends:

  Dawn Chorus by Long Dog Samplers.

Still haven't fixed that tree, so it's currently at a standstill.

Save the Stitches by Blackwork Journey.

Hopefully including this piece

will inspire me to get going on it.

The formerly neglected A Tree by Itself

by Rosewood Manor.

I worked on it most of last month and

I'm still working on it!

Here's the photo I took at Christmastime.

Notice the treetop with no trunk next to the

rabbits at the bottom left.

Now it has a trunk and flowers.

I count each completed motif as a mini-finish.

Woo-hoo!

Here is Autumn Logs by one of my favorite designers:

Kathy Rees of Needle Delights Originals.

I have done a lot of her pieces,

and have quite a few more in my stash.

This is my ANG chapter's SAL.

Anticipated completion date:  end of June.

Kindred Spirits by With My Needle.

This is the workshop I took in Shipshewana, IN,

in October.

It's true that most of these are smalls,

but taken together,

it's a good-sized project.

I showed these four sides of the pin cube a while ago.

This project has been neglected ever since.

This one is brand new (to me):

The Song They Sang by Carriage House Samplings.

I bought the chart a few weeks ago,

and it just elbowed its way onto the list

(and I even started it!).

The verse starts out:

"It was early, early in the Spring..."

so the drab colors are appropriate for how it looks here in March.

Can you tell that this is my new favorite?

I'm so fickle...

This was an ANG class that I signed up for but missed

because I was out of town at said 

Shipshewana workshop.

The design is by Jennifer Riefenberg.

I haven't started it yet.

It's not huge, but it's tricky because

I have to transfer two designs

onto the canvas: the puzzle pieces and the

overlapping rectangles containing the various stitches.

This one will need some study

before I'm able to start stitching it.

This is a rare (for me) painted canvas:

Chicago Collage by Lynn Deininger.

This has been kitted up in my stash

for at least four to five years.

I have a stitch guide by a third party (not Lynn)

which is complete gibberish to me,

so I'll have to make my own stitch decisions.

I think that a lot of the areas 

will get the tent stitch/basketweave treatment.

Here's another one that hasn't been started:

Blackwork Horse by Tanja Berlin Designs.

Transferring the design to the fabric

will be a challenge with this one.

I won't elaborate here but, trust me,

you'll hear about it down the road.

This one has a deadline, too:  end of July.

I had actually planned to start the

Prairie Schooler Alphabet on January 1st,

but I decided that postponing that start

would be the prudent thing to do!

I have all the charts, and they

keep beckoning me.

So, to satisfy my desire for a PS project,

I plan on starting this one:

It's a much more manageable size,

and I think the verse is very appropriate

for this leap year, too.

Instead of starting the PS Alphabet on January 1st,

I did the sensible thing and finally put some

stitches into this one:

Angles by Debbie Rowley.

I finished the Spratt's Head stitches

--I love that name--

in the upper left corner (Area 1).

For the longest time all I had

was the one blue Spratt's Head stitch.

Area 2 contains the large upright

rice stitches on the diagonal.

Area 3 is made up of four Amadeus stitches.

They are a kind of Rhodes stitch

for those of you not familiar with them.

Only 79 more Areas to go.

Seriously, the chart is 105 pages long

with two additional fold-out sections!

But it contains detailed diagrams of

all the nutty stitches that make up this piece,

so I'm not complaining.  Much.

This is my ANG chapter's challenge project.

If I finish this piece by the end of June,

I'll get rewarded with a tote bag.

If not, I'll owe the chapter's treasury $10.

Gotta get busy.

I have a couple of smaller projects

that I'd like to finish this year, too, namely,

Eastern Bluebird by Tanja Berlin

Yes, the bird is actually finished!

I have to be in the mood to do

the last blossom and all those leaves, though.

and 

Ruby of the Forest by Marsha Papay-Gomola.

This one is from 2011.

Both of these were EGA-sponsored classes.

That's part of how I get into trouble.

And you know that  later on this year, 

something new will

come along and catch my eye

that I'll want to start right away.

It always does.

Wishing everyone a happy,

healthy and stitchy New Year.

Thanks for visiting!