Rotation Recap

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope your December holidays were happy and fun-filled.  The Southpaw Stitcher staff had a great Christmas and look forward to a New Year celebration consisting of stitching and old movies.  

At the beginning of the year, I picked out ten medium-to-large-sized projects that I wanted to finish or at least make significant progress on this year.   Here are the photos of how each looked at the start of the year, and how they look now.  

In no particular order...

1.  Pristine by Cindy Valentine Designs

This was the albatross around my neck.

Started in 2006, messed up and cut a thread in the ground,

thrown back into the bag for about eight years.

I got really motivated with it this year.

Now it's all finished!
It's a shame that all the eyelets
and the satin stitch motifs
don't show up well in this photo.
At the beginning of 2015,
if I had had to pick a project
that I thought wouldn't get done,
this would have been it.

2.  A Tree by Itself by Rosewood Manor

The second biggest of the ten,

this one was left "by itself" (ha!) for most of the year,

but I've been working on it this month.

Here's where I'm at now.
As you can see, I'm over halfway done.

There's no good reason why

this piece shouldn't get finished next year.
And if you glance at the lower right,
you'll see I stitched in next year's date.
Now I'm committed.

Here's a close up of part of it.
It's hard to see the individual motifs when 
the entire piece is in the photo.

3.  99 by Ink Circles

At the start of the year,

there were only 55 bottles...

But now there are 99.

4.  Nordic Panel by Laura J. Perin

This is a Nordic Needle exclusive

stitch-along from 2014.

I was only about halfway done in January.

I finished this one, too.

5. Carrots by Jennifer Reifenberg

Not only wasn't I very far along with this in January,

but I managed to photograph the piece

face down!

Luckily, after I finished stitching

and attached the beads,

I photographed the correct side.
Some pieces just become favorites,
and this is one of them.

6.  Liberty Inn by Plum Street Samplers

This was my modest start in January.

I was shooting for an Independence Day finish

(and was successful),

but this piece is being displayed

all year long.

7.  Frederika by Carriage House Samplings

In January I had a wing...

And here is Freddi all her glory.

I don't understand why I had never stitched

anything from CHS/Kathy Barrick before,

but this piece definitely won't be my last.

8.  Summer Logs by Needle Delights Originals

I had just started on the second

quadrant in January

This was my ANG chapter's stitch-along,

with a scheduled finish date in June.

It was pretty easy to keep up with the SAL.

NDO charts are usually fast and fun.

9.  Save the Stitches by Blackwork Journey

This was (and is) a very generous 

free pattern from Elizabeth Almond

on the Blackwork Journey website.

As you can see, it's huge.

Here's where I was in January.

I did get a little bit done,

but I haven't touched this since February.

I just had too many projects going;

something had to give, and this was it.

And if you've checked out the newest
freebies on her wonderful website,
isn't Pandora's Box stunning?!
I just love the combination of
blackwork and pulled work.
(Uh-oh.)

10.  Dawn Chorus by Long Dog Samplers

This was my New Year's Day 2015 start.

Here's where I'm at now--
about 60 percent done.
I hit a roadblock when I noticed
that my somewhat tight tension
was really showing up in the middle tree.
You can't really see it in this photo,
but there's a lot of white showing.
I tried pressing it, but it didn't help.
Once that tree is "fixed,"
this piece should get finished sooner
rather than later.

Seven finishes out of ten isn't too bad.
The rotation list does help to keep me focused.
I intend to do another in 2016,
which I'll share next month.
My three unfinished projects
will definitely be part of the list.

OK, those of you who know me are
well aware that I have way more than those three WIPs,
or for that matter, even the ten or so
which will make the 2016 list,
but we're ignoring those for now.
They'll get finished someday.
Well, most of them will.

Have a happy and safe New Year,
and thanks, as always, for visiting!

Done and Done

Hi Blog Buddies,
How has October been treating you?  Today near the Big City we're experiencing some of "October's bright blue weather," with temps in the upper 70's.  I'm not complaining.

The big stitchy news here is my hardanger table topper.  Can you believe it's done?!  I got the woven bars finished a couple of weeks ago, and I've been futzing with the hemstitching since then.  There's a lot of prep work involving with hemstitching.  The instructions called for three rows of basting, but I got by with just two:

The basting lines perpendicular to the border were my idea.  I did them in each corner to help me count threads, but fat lot of good it did me.  Four threads were withdrawn for the hemstitching row.  I actually cut two (yes, two!) incorrect threads.  I then had to withdraw the threads cut in error, take a thread from the edge of the warp or weft of the fabric, depending on where I was, and reweave those in.  I didn't see any other way around it.  After those little episodes, DH started calling this piece the Devil Project.

 But all's well that ends well...

Cindy Valentine's Pristine

Started in April, 2006

Finished on October 4, 2015

(I didn't want to take it into the double digits, yearwise.)

I am glad that this is finally done!

This past weekend, we went to the Knox County Scenic Drive here in Illinois, as we normally do each year.  It takes place on the first and second weekends of October.  Most of the action takes place in and around Knoxville and Maquon.  There are folks selling crafts, flea market items and food.  A lot of the items are unusual:

I passed on this quirky lamp, but further down on the same table, three items did come home with me.

These wooden Shaker boxes are not quite as fancy as the very, very expensive ones that are for sale in my LNS, but I got all three for $8.  If there had been more of them, I believe I would have bought them.  I was ecstatic!  As soon as I got home, I went stash diving and pulled out this chart:

The piece will look fabulous

mounted on top of the smallest box!

Knox County is really pretty in the fall.

Here are some photos:

 

 

This is Wolf Covered Bridge.

And just north of Knox County is

 one of my very favorite Illinois two-lane roads,

Henry County 5.

It's a lovely stretch of rolling hills and farms.

 

That's it from here.

Thanks for dropping by.

Rotation Revisited

It's been a while since my last rotation update, but I've been busily stitching away during these last few weeks.  Larger projects take more time to show any real progress, and everything takes longer to complete than one thinks.  Let's get to the photos:

First up is Long Dog Samplers' Dawn Chorus.  Here is where I left off in June:

And this is where it's at now:

Here's a close-up of some of the birds:

I love the dog standing in the "O"...

I've still been plugging away at my hardanger table topper, Cindy Valentine's Pristine.  Before-and-after photos just don't work with this project, so I'll give you some photos of what I've been up to with this BAP:

 

Woven bars...

 ...woven bars...

...and more woven bars.

But the good news is

that once I finish the woven bars,
whenever that will be,

then "all" I have left is the hemstitching!
I have some real momentum going here,
and the project is humming right along.

Finally, here is where I left
Carriage House Samplings' Frederika
in July:

And here she is now:

All finished!
Stitching the border took
way longer than I anticipated.

Here's a close-up:

As you can see, lots of stitches

and color changes.

I'm very happy she's done.

The colors are perfect for autumn.


A-a-nd...

I took her in to be framed
the day before yesterday.
I got a call late yesterday that
she was ready for pick-up.
Norm (my 91-year-old flying finger framing guy)
helped me pick out the frame, too.
And I just love it!

Here's a close-up.
I actually said "No, this isn't my type,"
when he pulled the frame.
Then I put it next to the piece.
I clearly need to think outside of my little box more often!

My next challenge will be
making a label (and sewing it on)
to a quilt that I've entered
into my quilt guild's show,
which is being held in nine days.
It's a requirement.
Just one little label for one little quilt.
(The quilt was finished a couple of years ago.)

I wonder if they'd reject my quilt
if I brought it in without a fabric label?
I may find out.

And Debbie Rowley's Angles.
It's been screaming at me all summer.
That's my ANG chapter's challenge piece:
finish it by the deadline and you get a tote bag;
miss the deadline and you
pay $10 to the Chapter's treasury.
Wanna see how far I've gotten?

But my deadline for this piece
is June 2016, so I guess
I should do the quilt label first.
 Yeah.

That's it from here.
Enjoy your September,
and thanks so much for dropping by!

Rotation Review

Hey Blog Buddies,

How has July been going for you?  Hope you all have had a chance to enjoy the summer (or winter) weather.

I've been stitching, but not so much on my regular rotation lately.  I do have some progress to share, though, so get ready!

First, there is Carriage House Samplings' Frederika.  Here she was last month:

And here she is now:

I cropped out the little zigzag at the bottom left because I didn't like the way it looked in the photo, but I certainly didn't rip it out.  It's my modest start on the border, which is a solidly stitched 12 rows all around.  That's "all" I have left to go on this piece.

Next up (surprise!) is Cindy Valentine Designs' Pristine.  Here's where I was last month:

And here it is now:

It was sunnier out this time!  It's really hard to notice, but I filled the two remaining large border triangles with eyelets, and I completed all the cutting for the woven bars.  Not counting the hemstitched border, which will be done last, all I have left to do is weave the woven bars...  hundreds of woven bars.  The good news is that I actually like doing woven bars, there are just so many of them.

Here is a close-up so you can maybe see the difference between the woven and non-woven bars for those of you not familiar with hardanger.  The woven ones are skinnier!  I estimate that as of today I have the bars on the inside of the perimeter about half done--not too bad.  I finally have a little momentum going on this piece!

This is better!  That other photo was difficult for even me to make out, and I know what I'm looking for!  But looking at this close-up, that one section of the satin stitch looks wonky, doesn't it?  And don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about!   (I'll have to look into that...sigh)

Last but not least, I finished Jennifer Riefenberg's Carrots.  Here's where I was last month:

And here it is, all finished:

I think this piece is really cute, and I'm glad that I stitched it, but lemme tellya there was simply too much laying going on for this #5-pearl-cotton lover!  The entire piece was done in cotton floss and silk floss.  True, the wacky carrot tops didn't have to be laid exactly, but they had to be shaped and couched.  The lighter green was DMC Memory Floss and the darker green was a slightly flat Kreinik braid--not a ribbon, two threads I had never worked with before.  That was fun...

But it is hanging in my kitchen now, and I get to ogle it every time I sit down to eat! 

If all this looks like a lot to you guys, keep in mind it's been over five weeks since my last rotation update!

That's it from here.  Stay tuned because I have several new starts to show you.  I know some of my friends are shaking their heads, but it's not like I haven't been finishing stuff, now is it?

Thanks, as always, for visiting!