First Finish of 2013!

Hey Blog Buddies,

First of all, thank you all so much for the kind comments on Hare's Christmas!  I think I photographed the piece while it was still a little damp.  As it dried, the small bleed became less and less noticeable, so that's good news.

I didn't finish my January 1st start, if that's what you were wondering.  My "slow and steady" sewing strategy paid off sooner than I expected:  I finished piecing my quilt top yesterday!  And sewing only 2 or 3 blocks a day was a totally painless way to do it.  (Definition of a block:  two pieces and one curved seam.)  I started cutting the fabric in early November, so the entire process took about two months.

It was a little tricky

laying out the blocks to be sewn.

The pattern is somewhat random,

but I wanted to keep the circle-in-a-square design evident.

The batik fabric is just beautiful--

the photo doesn't do it justice.

DH (he's in the above photo,

you can see his fingers in the upper left corner)

likes muted colors and traditional quilt patterns.

However.

He did say that this quilt top is "growing" on him.

I plan on using it as a wall hanging in my dining room

which is very neutral and needs a pop or two of color.

Here is a close up:

The curved seams were a big challenge.

I'm happy with the way the project turned out,

but I am "one and done" sewing curves--too stressful!

Hope your new year is off to a flying start!

Thanks for visiting!

The 2012 WIPocalypse-Final Report

Hey Blog Buddies,
For those of you celebrating the holidays, I hope you had a wonderful time.  I did.  I even managed to carve out time to stitch!

In an effort to catch up with the actual calendar month, I stitched two months' worth of Crabby All Year this month.  If I do the same thing in January, I'll be caught up.  October you've already seen--here is November:

That cat is awfully fat!

I don't know if he's a relative, too, or just a friend...

I've also made progress on my Circle Dance quilt top this month:

I've been sewing just three blocks per day.

As the tortoise said in the fable:

"slow and steady wins the race."

About a week ago I decided to sew

what blocks I had into rows.

Above are four of the five rows I've sewn together.

If I keep at it, this should get done

in a couple of weeks.

I've also made progress on Hare's Christmas.

I'm hoping to finish it soon, and

will show you a photo when that happens.

We survived the Apocalypse and even the WIPocalypse, too!  This was a fun SAL, and though I didn't complete everything on my list--it was a really ambitious list--it kept me focused throughout the year.  I had 22 projects on my list, 12 were finished, 3 are WIPs in my current rotation, and 7 are (cough, cough) still UFOs.  Of those seven, there are only two that are still calling my name.  I'm working on my 2013 to-stitch list, and it's really hard to get it down to a manageable size.  I'm trying to be more realistic about what I will actually have the time to stitch next year!

All of my 2012 WIPocalypse before-and-after photos are on a separate page.  If you have some time and are so inclined, grab a cuppa and click here to peruse them.

Have a good weekend!

And thanks for visiting!

September is an Ugly Month

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope you had a great weekend.  Between all the made-from-scratch leftovers that my friend Joyce sent with us on Thursday (yum!) and the stitching/sewing I got done, it was a good one for me.

First up, as you might expect from the title, is Crabby All Year's September.  Yes, it is ugly, but that's why I like it because all of Crabby's months are ugly in some form!

There was a lot of stitching with this one,

between the bag of leaves and the large pile of

(you guessed it) leaves.

I just placed the buttons on top

to pretty it up a bit and so that

you can see what the finished product

will look like.

I'm sure that there are parts of the world

where all the leaves fall off the trees in September,

but here in northern Illinois it's more like

late October/early November.

However, the ladies have something different planned

for those months.

While I was plugging away at September,

I was also busy cutting fabric for my quilt.

I finished that task, much to my surprise,

and thought I'd start out with sewing a small block.

The plan is to crease the two pieces down the middle,

line up the creases and pin.

The first two pieces:

sew the two curved sides together.

Hahahahahaaaaaaaa!

They suggest using the one-pin method,

but that didn't work for me.

I need three pins, one in the middle

and one on each end.

I'm acquainted with many people

who could whip this out in the blink of an eye.

I am not one of them.

But I did get a block finished:

Not really perfect, but kinda close.

For me, this is as good as it gets.

If all my blocks turn out like this,

I'll be a happy camper.

The  construction of the above block took a long time--

and a lot of stress.

I only had to rip out two seams.

My goal is one per day, until I reach seven.

Then, it's on to the larger pieces.

In the meantime, I plan to start another stitching project

from my 2012 list.

It's the hand embroidery that will keep me sane.

Until next time,

thanks for visiting!

November IHSW: Assisi, Batiks and September

Hey Blog Buddies,

I had no finishes this time around--and I knew that would be the case going into the weekend--so I decided to do something a little zany for me:  three starts!  I'm feeling a little chatty today, so maybe you should get a "cuppa" or an energy drink before we embark on our journey...  ...Got everything you need?  Good, let's go!

As the year draws to a close, I keep glancing at the 2012 goals list on my sidebar.  Now I knew quite a while ago that I wouldn't be able to finish all the projects, but it would be nice to at least put a few stitches in all of them.  So that is the reason for the three starts.

First, I chose Christmas Elegance by Milady's Needle.  Here is what the pattern looks like:

I chose the top left version,

only I'm doing it in green silk.

The difference between the top and bottom versions

is that one is the negative image of the other.

In other words, the top trees have the background stitched

and the bottom trees are the opposite.

They call the top versions Assisi stitching.

Normally in Assisi the entire background is stitched

and the design is left blank.

That's true here only for the tree.

Since I was doing the design with one strand

on 40-count linen, I was somewhat concerned about coverage.

The directions suggested doing "Two-Sided Italian Cross Stitch"

for better coverage, and the stitch was even diagrammed.

The best way I can describe it is

a cross stitch with a back stitch on the left and bottom.

This makes for a very dense, chunky stitch,

even if you're using only one strand!

I did the border in regular cross stitch and

decided to do the potted tree in Two-Sided Italian Cross Stitch.

You would not believe how long it took me

to stitch the pot!

And no, ripping the pot out at this point

is not an option.

Ripping anything more than a couple of stitches of

Two-Sided Italian Cross Stitch is not an option!

I don't have a crystal ball,

but this little guy might not get finished

by the end of the year.

Next I decided to go for another challenge:

Elisa's Backporch Circle Dance quilting pattern.

Sewing curves (shudder).

Here is a photo of the pattern to refresh your memory.

I wasn't crazy about the fabric in this photo,

so I decided to start over with some very bright batik fabric instead.

Don't worry--I hadn't gotten far

and the above fabric was used to make

some very cute ort bags this summer.

No sewing yet, just cutting,

and only 12 pieces of each element cut.

I'll need to cut 40 total of each of the smaller elements,

and (ahem) 106 of each of the larger.

But it's a start--and I love the fabric!

The last is not technically a start

since I've been working on this project a good part of the year,

but it's a start on a month.

Yes, Crabby All Year is back after an extended absence!

You can tell this is September, right?  No?

Well you'll be able to recognize it soon,

because I plan to finish September

before I move onto anything else.

That wraps up my November IHSW.

To check out the other hermitters,

visit Joyce's blog here.

Hope you had a grand weekend,

and got some stitching in, too.

Thanks for visiting!