This 'n' That

Hey Blog Buddies,

Yesterday my guild held a This 'n' That workshop.  There were 30-minute demos of techniques such as the pinhead stitch, using a laying tool, attaching beads to linen so that they are not slanted, mounting a finished piece on a board for framing, the history of scissors, and a small bargello project.  All this was free to members--even the canvas and chart for the bargello!  Everything was very well done, fun and informative, but of particular interest to me was the mounting technique (lacing), since I have a lot of smaller projects that need to get finish-finished.  Here is a small seasonal piece that I started just a few days ago--mounted and framed last night:

This is from the Springology leaftlet from The Trilogy.

The design measures a scant 3" x 3".

Here are two more projects finished recently

(mounted and framed last night)

that readers of this blog will remember:

S is for Spring from The Prairie Schooler...

...and Snow Patches from the Cross-Eyed Cricket.

Yes, I know winter is just about over

despite the fact that we are still getting flurries here,

but this guy is now ready for next winter!

The talk on the history of scissors was

really interesting, and I brought

an unusual specimen for show 'n' tell:

This was a gift to me from a friend.

The shears (since it's longer than 6 inches)

has 5 sets of blades, good for shredding paper.

Hope you're having a fun weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

WIPocalypse 2012 - February Report

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's time for the February WIPocalypse report already!  Time sure flies when you're stitchin.'  I've worked on three things over the past month, and decent progress has been made, I think.

First, we'll check out Allesandra Adelaide's CT13.  Here's where I started out a month ago:

And here's where I am now:

I added a little extra on the lower right

since my last update

just because I couldn't leave it sitting "unbalanced."

Everything's got to stay more or less symmetrical.

(It's part of my problem, dontcha know!)

Next we have our old friend, the Uptown Stitcher.

Here's where she was at a month ago:

Here's what she looks like today:

Did a bunch of little details

(finished the boots, French knots on dress

and added grass for her to stand on)

and started the background.

I've decided to keep the background color

even though it's close in color to her

shopping bag (not shown here).

She needs to get done.

Last, I have a finish to show you!!

Here is Snow Patches by the Cross-Eyed Cricket

a month ago:

And here he is now.  I finished him yesterday:

I switched around the colors

and even some of the patchwork patterns.

The purple buttons were left-over

from another design.

They go with the hearts on his mittens.

I was going to use beads for his eyes,

but comparing the size of the beads to the

size of the buttons, he would have looked too

(are you ready?)

beady-eyed  (teehee).

So I did French knots instead.

They're not perfect, but then again

no two stones are the same in nature, are they?

He's got a little character,

and I'm happy with the way he turned out.

That's it for my February WIPocalypse report.

Go here to find links to all of the

February WIPocalypse reports.

Happy blog hopping and..

Thanks for visiting!!

The Bumbling Stitcher

Hey Blog Buddies,

First of all, welcome to all my new followers, and thank you for all your kind comments.  I love your feedback!

Today it seems that a more appropriate title of this blog would have been The Bumbling Stitcher.  The project that I'm currently stitching is the Cross-Eyed Cricket's "Snow Patches"--a snowman design.  (I realize that I had a little hissy fit in my last post about the snow, but pictures of snowmen are generally cute.  Go figure.)  I had a 9-inch square piece of confederate gray linen which I had chosen for another design that was deep-sixed.  It was too similar to the "Winter" piece that I did right after Christmas.  So why not use the linen on "Snow Patches"?

OK, this design is not quite square,

but I thought it would be doable.

The background of the piece is a little 20 years ago,

so I decided to change the colorway.

I didn't want holiday colors,

so decided to go with "different."

Katie, bar the door!

In the meantime, I'm stitching along

on the snowman, and his bottom half

is getting perilously close to the lower edge of the fabric.

The only part of the fabric that you don't see

is the selvedge which does not reach the

edge of the bottom clip.

I thought it was prudent to just stop at this point.

I decided against doing the top hat,

so now he has a National Park Service Ranger type of hat,

which makes him look a little like Clem Kadiddlehopper.

(Sorry, all you wonderful Rangers!)

Here's what it looks like so far:

He has a different personality than his cousin.
He's chubbier and a lot less sophisticated.

I'm still not sure about the flying geese design

that is making an appearance in the upper right corner.

It's a shame that all the confederate gray

will be covered up.

I really like it.

Is this going to turn out to be quirky

or just a hot mess?

Time will tell, since this is all being done on the fly.

I almost never change any part of

the design of a project.

There's probably a good reason for that!

I should at least get some graph paper

before trying something like this again.

Hope your weekend has been productive.

If you haven't already, don't forget to

check out my giveaway, here.

Thanks, as always, for visiting.