August Turtle Trot: A Milestone

Hey Blog Buddies,

How's your weekend been going?  It's been cloudy here all day but no rain, so I'm not complaining.  The clouds are probably keeping the temperature down, which is good, because I like the cooler weather we've been having.

It's time for the monthly Turtle Trot update, organized by Claudette over at BAP Attack.  We all picked ten WIPs to work on at the beginning of the year, giving monthly progress reports about them on the 10th.  The reason that I keep showing only the same four is that four of my original TT pieces are finished, and the other two are just not calling to me now.  But I do have my hands full with these four because they are all large projects.

First up is (let's get this one over with) my hardanger table topper, Pristine by Cindy Valentine.

 

This is what I did last month--I filled in this triangle with all the eyelets that you see in the photo.  I'm doing these little slices of the project because if I took a photo of the whole piece, it would be hard to see what's been accomplished.

 

So this month I did another triangle's worth of eyelets.  Quite a bit harder to see!  I'm somewhat embarrassed to be putting these photos up because this project is a hot mess.  I started it on 2006 and wasn't going to do the eyelets at that time, so I started cutting.  (Any eyelets in a project like this should be done before the cutting starts, but oh well.  Nothing "bad" has happened yet!)

Second is Rosewood Manor's A Tree by Itself:

 

Here's where I was last month.

 

And here's this month.

I love all the rabbits and birds in this one.

And the Quaker-like trees.

And the Native American saying.

Third, we have the bottles.

 

Yes, it's 99 by Ink Circles.

Here's where I was at last month.

 

This month, I put up another six-pack.

I certainly hope they don't "happen to fall"

before I can get the shelf constructed!

Sorry, my corny sense of humor

got the better of me.

Finally, I'm still plugging away at Cross My Heart's Mates.

 

This is last month's photo.

Has anyone been wondering about the "milestone"

in the title of this post?

Well, here it is...

 

Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about!

I'm so excited, you'd think I was done with the whole piece.

But Wolfgang is all done.

There is not one stitch missing--that I can see--

in his slightly menacing face.

I still have quite a bit of work to do on Wanda, though.
(Of course I've named my wolf friends!)

I'm beginning to think that this project

will actually be finished sometime in 2015.
We'll see.

So that's it from here.

Hope you had a fun weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

July Turtle Trot

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's the 10th of the month, so it's time for the Turtle Trot report.  What's Turtle Trot?  It's a stitch-along hosted by Claudette of BAP Attack.  Everyone who joined picked 10 WIPs at the beginning of the year, and we report on their progress monthly.  And this month I've been turtling along slowly again.  Here's what I did on four of my pieces:

This is Pristine by Cindy Valentine.

It's a rather large handanger table topper,

so I'm only going to show what I've worked on.

I had started stitching eyelets in one of 

four large triangles last month.

My progress this month.

No, I didn't wash the piece.

I just photographed it in direct sunlight!

I told you it was white!

Next is Ink Circle's 99.

My progress as of last month.

Here's where I am this month.

When I started this SAL in January, I had one shelf completed.

It's taken me until July just to finish the second shelf!

Next are my old and dear friends,

Mr. and Mrs. Wolf,

better known as Cross My Heart's Mates.

Here's where I was last month.

This is where I'm at now.

Would you believe that this is

40-50 hours' worth of stitching?

But despite my relatively slow pace,

 I remain happy with the progress on this one

and I'm surprised that I'm sticking with it.

Finally, at long last

I dug out Rosewood Manor's A Tree by Itself.

This is where I left off in September, 2013.

 Not a whole lot of progress,

but I intend to change this from a UFO into a WIP,

with some progress made each month.

Well, that's it from here.

Hope you're getting some time to stitch.

Thanks, as always, for visiting!

September IHSW

Hey Blog Buddies,
Another International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW) has come and gone.  The project I was working on all last week continued on into Saturday before I felt I had come to a stopping place.  Here is my "before" pic:

My April start on

Rosewood Manor's A Tree by Itself.

 

Here's where it's at now:

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you.

That first "Hold" was black, and I changed it to "German Chocolate"!

If I can squeeze this piece into my rotation every month,

I should be able to make some real progress!

The color of the linen looks different in every photograph--

it's actually Lamb's Wool!

 

After I put Tree aside, I switched gears

and got out a small seasonal Lizzie-Kate chart...

...it's the one on the left, Autumn Basket.

 

This is how far I had gotten by Sunday evening.

I'm using a very lovely overdyed

32-count Lugana--the color is Legacy.

Looks much nicer in person.

I'm going to keep working on this one until it's finished.

 

That's it from here.

To see my fellow hermitters' progress,

go to Random Ramblings.

And a big thank you to Joyce

for hosting this fun SAL every month!

 

Hope you all had a wonderful, stitchy weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

A Finish and a Start

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope your weekend was fun.  Winter returned here on Saturday, complete with tiny ice pellets, and early summer made an appearance on Sunday (70 degrees--a gorgeous day).  And I did finish one of my ongoing projects this weekend, to-wit:

Variations on a Theme of Rhodes

by Freda's Fancy Stitching

This was a class I took in January.

Rhodes stitches aren't really that difficult

and they're actually fun, except when you

have instructions that call for extra-long lengths of thread

for stitches such as the corner triangles.

Those weren't too bad because the triangles were stitched with

just one strand of Carol Watercolours (Flagstone)

even though the length recommended was

"double the length of your outstretched arms."

What drove me nuts (just ask DH about my language)

were the Jessicas that called for 3 strands of DMC floss

which were not quite as long but had to be laid.

For those of you not familiar with the Jessica,

it is the round stitch, middle left.

I realize that the more I do this technique

(laying multiple strands of thread)

the better I will get at it,

but I guarantee that I will never enjoy doing it.

The smaller triangles you see pictured

were also stitched with three strands of DMC.

Eight of each needed to be stitched.

I'm very happy to be done with this one,

but I don't regret doing it because

the design is so eye-catching.

Having finished my Rhodes piece,

I'm feeling less guilty about starting a new project,
Rosewood Manor's A Tree by Itself.

Here is what the project will look like (one day):

It calls for 56 colors, 31 of which are shades of green!

The saying at the top reads:

"Hold on to what is good, even if it is a handful of earth.

And hold on to what you believe,

even if it is a tree which stands by itself."

According to the booklet,

the saying is from the Pueblo nation.

Here is my modest start:

The colors are a little on the dark side

because it's a cloudy day here.

The linen is 36-count lamb's wool,

and I'm using the recommended DMC threads,

except for the saying, which I'm stitching in

CC German Chocolate instead of 310.

(Yes, my lovelies, the color of that first "Hold" will be changed.)

Well, the excitement for this week will be

a 630-mile road trip to Fargo, ND with my friend Joyce (no blog).

We'll be attending Nordic Needle's annual stitching retreat.

They have quite a bit of snow up there, with more predicted.  Oy!!

We're leaving on Wednesday, and will be back

the following Monday--with four new WIPs for each of us.

Stay tuned for photos and a retreat recap!

That's it for now.

Have a wonderful, stitchy week and

thanks for visiting!

Girls' Day Out

Hey Blog Buddies,
Yesterday I met my GF Joyce (who lives 60 miles away) at a new (to both of us) needlework shop:  Tomorrow's Heirlooms.  My "excuse" for visiting the shop was to pick up some kitting supplies for a couple of classes I will be taking at my needlepoint guild, which I did.  I guess Joyce's excuse was when I said "Let's meet at Tomorrow's Heirlooms before we have lunch."  While I was there, I decided to kit up a chart I've had for about a year now, Rosewood Manor's A Tree by Itself:

The fabric (on the right) is 36-count lambswool linen.

About 2/3 of the called-for floss is shown.

I had the other 1/3 in my stash.

I can hardly wait to start on this beauty.

It's a BAP:  300 x 270 stitches!

I was also looking for a very specific frame

for the piece I started on January 1st

and which is now almost finished.

The frame had to be approximately 5" x 6"

and I strongly preferred white.

How often do you actually find that kind of specific item?

Never, in my experience.

But lo and behold, after looking through a few of their frames,

I found this:

Now this might not be a very exciting photo,

but I was beside myself with glee

when this little frame jumped into my hands.

My last purchase was--dare I say it--an impulse buy:

Two Lizzie*Kate Snippets

which I will simply have to make time

to stitch this year.

I am particularly fond of

Good Things.

While we were having lunch,

I gave Joyce a little ornie I had made

and which I can now share with you:

This is Little House Needleworks' Baked Goods

stitched on 40-count Abercedarian linen.

I had finished stitching the ornament back in early December,

but put off actually making it into an ornie

until Monday of this week!

I grumbled so much about finish-finishing it

that DH suggested I just give it to her as a kit.

I thought that was a splendid idea!

But I bit the bullet, and she got a finished ornament.

Yes, she likes it--she bakes quite a bit.

Here is the back.

The cording was purchased at JoAnn's.

Since the finishing of this ornament

straddles both 2012 and 2013,

I have arbitrarily decided that

this will be a 2013 finish.

That's it from here.

Hope you have a groovy weekend,

and thanks for visiting!