UFO No. 2

It certainly feels good checking UFO's off of my list.  This one was the oldest on that list, from 2011.

This was an EGA fund-raising workshop,

Sue Reed's Stitching for Autism.

The photo turned out a little dark,

and you can't really tell that there's

a metallic wrap around the sheaf stitches.

There is almost always some bling in needlepoint designs!

It's going to end up in the lid of a Sudberry box,

which is a very easy way to display stitchery.

More pillows have been finished,

and they are...

Long May She Wave from

Heartstring Samplery...

...and A Year of Celebrations - August

from Hands on Design.

Jolly Robin hasn't seen any action

because I was concentrating on the

UFO above.

I've also been slowly working on a

summer design from Prairie Schooler.

This is from the Summer Breeze leaflet,

and I think the reason it's taken so long

is because I'm stitching over one.

It may not get finished before autumn!

That's it for now.

Hope your August has started off well.

Thanks for coming by.

Exciting News!

Did that get your attention?  

No, I haven't won the Lotto or 
had a date with Channing Tatum,

but I am halfway done with the background

on my blackwork piece.

Well, I think it's exciting...

After the background is completed,

I'll still have some shading to do on the petals,

and then I'll be done.

But it's a very, very slow process.

And just in time for May...

I've developed a renewed appreciation for Aida cloth.

I began my cross stitching life using Aida cloth,

and then abandoned it for linen.

I belonged to the group who had "moved beyond" Aida.

But now Aida comes in so many pretty colors --

the above is an over-dyed piece from Picture This Plus --

and it is so easy to work with and hide your thread ends,

that I've started using it again.

I wish I had chosen it for my blackwork piece!

The pattern is from Hands on Design's

A Year of Celebrations leaflet.

Here's Heart in Hand's Checker Bird...

I used the called-for colors,
but changed the bead color to red,

because I didn't think the included white beads

would show up on my... 

light-colored Aida cloth.

Am I being a reverse snob?

Just slap me if I am.

I don't think I've mentioned it here,

but for the longest time I've wanted

to get one of Charley Harper's

designs for needlepoint.

They are painted canvases and,

therefore, very pricey.

So I not only had a birthday in March,

but I had a 20-percent-off coupon from

my local needlepoint store, too.

The perfect storm.

I was planning on buying only one,

but I couldn't decided between these two...

I have a thing for birds.

And there were a lot of bird designs to choose from.

It's a miracle I was able to

whittle it down to just two.

If you're not familiar with Charley's wonderful designs,

you can google Meredith Collection

to see what I was up against

in picking just one two.

They all make me smile.

Last but not least,
I've been doing so many colorful pieces lately
that I had a desire to do something
a little bit more drab.
Enter my only other WIP at present...

...Kathy Barrick's Good Intentions.
This fills the bill for drab!

That's it for now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Catching Up

The time since my last post has been rather hectic, so we have a lot of catching up to do.  Let's get right to it, because there are a lot of photos.

This is my Prairie Schooler alphabet, finished as a quilted wall hanging by Vonna, the Twisted Stitcher.

I was able to find coordinating fabric that had a "stitched" alphabet pattern in it.  It was perfect for this piece!

I finished the last little bit of this Needle Delights Originals Easter design, and now its home is in the lid of a Sudberry box.

Another very recent finish is this little pillow from Hands on Design's A Year of Celebrations.  It's not my best finishing job, but it is what it is, and it looks cute from across the room.  The word "grow" under the daisies could almost be mistaken for "snow" which is what we got today.

This is from Prairie Schooler's A Prairie Year leaflet - the design for May.  A future pillow.

This design from Lizzie-Kate's Spring Smalls booklet is another future pillow.  I haven't been finishing these things too quickly, so these two may not make it for Spring 2019.

The ladybug that I showed a couple of posts ago now has a daisy to sit on...

I've started the background, and it is a painfully slow go.  I had planned to take this one to the county fair in August, but I'm not confident that it will be done in time.  We'll see.

I have a good start on this design by Jeanette Douglas.  It was featured in a class that she taught at the Fancy Works retreat in Bloomington, IN, at the end of March.  This will be a little tray, and there's a scissor fob and drum pinkeep in the set, too.  The overdyed ground fabric is really very pretty, but I guess my camera didn't like it.

This is the progress I've made on my ANG challenge piece.  Two and a half packages.  This one definitely won't be finished by the end of June, and I'll be $10 poorer.  But at least it's no longer a UFO.

Last but not least, this is what the stylish, color-coordinated dog will wear on a stroll if she's recovering from foot surgery and has a bandage that needs to be kept clean and dry...

Molly looks about as happy with the whole thing as we are.

I think we're caught up now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Only One WIP!

Let's pick up where we left off, and I'll tell you how my WIPs dwindled down to just one.  (Now when I talk about WIPs, I am not including any of my UFOs.  They will be a story for another post.)

My mammoth project, the PS Alphabet, was stitched up and shipped off to the finisher to be made more beautiful.

I previously showed this little canvaswork start, Valentine's Day by Needle Delights Originals:

Since this design is very February, I wanted to finish it quickly, and I did.  These small designs are very fun to do.

I have a six-by-six box that I use to display seasonal designs in the lid, and this one is there now.

I had also shown you this little start...

...another seasonal design that I wanted to display with my other "winter" pillows.

So here it is.  The red and gray felt "pennies" were included with the chart.  The way I attached them looks a little ragged to me; the designer predicted that they would look similar to this, and said that it is part of their charm.  Okaaay.

I started and finished the March design from PS's A Prairie Year leaflet, but it is in the process of being pillowfied right now, so I'll show it next time.

So that left me with only Blue Ribbon Designs' Blue Jeans and Daisies (the "beast") in the WIP pile.  Here is my start on the lower part of the left third of the design (previously posted):

And here is where I was a couple of days ago (yes, I'm a bit farther than this today)...

I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this one.  I really like finishing projects more than starting them.  But I need to switch between projects; I usually stitch on at least two, sometimes three, projects during the course of a day.  Does this mean I have stitching ADD?  

So I needed to go to my very local "store" -- my computer/sewing room, open 24/7, 365 days a year -- and see what I could find.  Many, many projects got my attention, but I limited it to just two.

This is Spring, from Lizzie Kate's Spring Smalls leaflet.  There is a theme here, isn't there?  This one was not kitted up, so I had to hunt around for the threads and fabric.  The model was stitched on a beige-y linen, but I pepped it up by using Kermit as the ground.  I think it works for spring as well as Halloween.  (I had previously used this linen for L-K's Hocus Pocus--you can see it somewhere in this rather long post.) I always buy more than I need of any linen that I like--which is most of them!  This strategy works out well when you want to start a project when the store isn't open, or you simply don't want to leave the house!  This project should stitch up pretty quickly.  Yes, this will be another pillow.  2019 is the Year of the Small Pillows around here.

Easter Sunday occurs pretty late this year but spring, hopefully, is just around the corner.  I could keep those canvaswork hearts in my box until summer at least, but why do that when I have the Easter design by--you guessed it--Needle Delights Originals.

The colors are displaying a little strangely on my computer.  They are much more pastel-y in real life.  The tulips at the top, for instance, are medium pink, light yellow and medium purple.  Hopefully that's what you're seeing.  This one was a no-brainer:  all kitted up and ready to go.

Well, that's it from here.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend.

Thanks, as always, for visiting.

A Snowy Weekend...

...is good for eating snow, if you're Molly...

...and good for staying indoors and stitching, if you're me.

Here is my latest small finish:

This is from Prairie Schooler's

A Prairie Year booklet.

I am into small seasonal pillows this year.

And as long as we're talking stitching,
these are the projects that

I'm actively working on and

sincerely hope to finish this year.
Actually, I hope to finish at least
two of them this month:

Minimal progress has been made on the Beast.

But at least those @#$%^&* bees are done!

The actual name of the project is

Blue Jeans and Daisies by

Blue Ribbon Designs.

I'm having a lot of issues with it.
This is definitely not one of the projects
that I hope to finish this month.

This is Needle Delights Originals'

Holiday Delights Valentine's Day.

Would you believe that the small hearts

come from a skein of Watercolours that is

 a totally different color than

the large heart?

And they show up less well

against the lilac background IRL.

So I held my breath and
ripped them out (very carefully)

because I wasn't restitching that background!

And I was careful to avoid the pink parts
 of the thread when I restitched the small hearts.

Better.

Here's another little seasonal start.

There are two very similar designs in this chart:

Solitude and Serenity.

I'm doing Solitude.

Last but not least
this one needs no introduction:

So near, and yet so far.

I lightened up the flowers considerably.

The red flowers would have been

the same color as the watering can.
And the purples would have been darker.
The leaves were charted in a much darker color, too.

I'm happy with the changes.

That's it for now.
Thanks for visiting!

First Finish of the Year!

Greetings, Bloglanders!

I'm back already.  I'm going to try doing more frequent, shorter posts this year.  We'll see how this plan works out.

We had a peek at this one in my last post.

Winter Defined by Erica Michaels - I believe it's one of her newest designs.

I'm not thrilled with my attempt at cording,

but it is what it is.

I got my January design (from Hands On Designs)

pillowfied, too!

After this finish, I vowed that I wouldn't

work with mini-poms again anytime soon.

And for you Molly fans,

here she is snuggling under a knitted scarf

that I actually gave away as a gift.

This fell under the "20-second rule."

Hopefully, the recipient has given up

reading this blog.

😃

So, my one-photo post

suddenly turned in a three-fer.

I'll have to work on that.

Hope your year has gotten off

to a great start.

Thanks for dropping by.

Year End Wrap-Up

Hello, Blog Enthusiasts!  It's me and I'm back for a year-end stitching wrap-up.  I realize it was July when I last posted, so we have a lot of ground (get it?  ground?) to cover.  Where to start...?

But of course, the Prairie Schooler alphabet:

I showed the V for Vineyard finish in my last post, and here's the entire row.

And we have Y for Yarn...

...and the ampersand.

No Z.  Yet.

This is the fourth block in this series

that shows a woman stitching,

and the first one who's a lefty.

The stressed-out sewer in S is for Sewing

had her scissors in her left hand,

but she could be ambidextrous.

I finished BBD's Spell of the Moon.

...and Lizzie-Kate's Hocus Pocus...

...Blue Ribbon Designs' Hayride Happenings,

published in an issue of Just Cross Stitch;

I got the frame from Hobby Lobby...

...Needle Delights Originals' Poppers...

...and Boo Logs by the same designer...

...I pieced together a bed quilt from a

Bonnie Hunter workshop!

The actual quilting was outsourced

on this large piece.

I used up a lot of scraps and left-over

fabric with this one...

...this cute little thing was a kit by Hands on Design,

sold exclusively by one of my LNSes...

...my only Christmas finish this year,

from PS's Folk Art Christmas booklet...

...and finally January, from Hands on Designs'

A Year of Celebrations.

This one hasn't been pillowfied yet -

hopefully, it will be before 1/1/19.

I have made very few stitching plans for next year.

Obviously, finishing Z is for Zinnia is one of them.

I have a start...

I'd also like to finish Blue Jeans and Daisies,

otherwise known as "the Beast."

I've got quite a bit done, 

but I just don't enjoy stitching on this linen.

This is an icky photo;

I can't get the colors right on my little iPhone -

it's much prettier IRL.

I have this little design in the works,

Erica Michaels' Defining Winter.

It's going to be another pillow.

One can never be too rich, too thin

or have too many little pillows.

I plan on starting this blackwork piece "soonish."

Other than that, I think I'll just stitch

whatever strikes my fancy.

So that's it for this year.

Hope your 2018 was a good one.

Thanks, as always, for dropping by.