March Turtle Trot

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's the tenth day of the month, so it's Turtle Trot progress time.

Turtle shell deep in the snow in March--how sad is that?

Moving on...

First up, we have the ever-popular canvaswork pumpkin.  Here is where I was at last month:

And here is where I'm at now:

I hope you guys aren't getting too bored with this.  It's gonna be a long haul.

 

And a close-up to add a little interest...

Next, we have Cool Cardinal:

last month

 

...this month.  A finish!

In the third spot, we have Mates:

...last month...

...and this month.

As I look at my monitor,

his eye looks like it has maybe three colors,

but that's not the case.

It has a minimum of 20 colors--all in one tiny space.

I'm glad it's done!

Finally, I dragged out my hardanger piece.

 To refresh your memory since we haven't played with it for a while,

here is what it looks like--

kind of ugly since it's been folded up in a bag

since 2006.

I worked a little on the satin stitches in the center

in January of 2013.

This is where I left off.

Here's where I'm at now.

I'm actually surprised the satin stitches lined up!

I also did a bunch of eyelets in the lower right triangle.

Not too much progress,

but any progress on this piece is good.

And for the hardanger mavens out there

who are wondering why I am doing the eyelets

after I started cutting the ground,

all I can say is, I originally decided (in 2006)

that I didn't want the satin stitches and eyelets.

Now I've change my mind.

Wish me luck that the cut ends of the ground don't come loose!
(There are a lot more eyelets!)

Hope your weekend was good.
I went to yet another workshop which was really fun,
but more on that later.

Thanks for visiting!

Cool Cardinal

Zero with a hundred percent probability

is cool, man, cool,

even when you're wearing your red flannels.

Air traffic's grounded,

feeding station's socked in.

You can't stuff your gizzard in a blizzard,

so how do you survive?

Hunker up and sit it out,

rationing your reserves,

moderating your metabolism.

To put it another way,

when there's snow on the roof,

how do you keep a fire in the furnace?

Cool it, man.

 ...Charles Harper

 Harper in Stitches' Cool Cardinal
Started:  11/21/13
Finished:  3/2/14 
Fabric:  32-count gray linen, 2 over 2
Threads:  DMC 310, 317, 326, 498, 783, B5200(!)

If anyone would like this chart,
please let me know in a comment on this post.
If more than one person is interested,
I'll have a little drawing sometime next week.

Thanks for visiting! 

February Turtle Trot

Hey Blog Buddies,
It's time for a first progress report for my Turtle Trot SAL projects, so let's get right to it:

Winter Logs

 Before

 After

The January Guild meeting was cancelled due to weather (sigh),

and the leader of this SAL suggested

that we just wait until the February meeting

to do the next two sections.

(We are doing an eighth at a time.)

I decided to do the piece that we would have normally done
now, and not have a double assignment later.

Autumn Pumpkin Patch

Before

After 

I love this design,

but it is very labor- and time-intensive.

Still hoping to get it finished

by May-June.

Tangerine Twist

 Before

 After

Seems I'm doing a lot of canvaswork this year!

Cool Cardinal

Before  

 After

Without his crest, the cardinal

looks more like a fat, red vulture!

The top photo most accurately depicts the linen color.

99

Before

After

I was only able to stitch 1.2 bottles!
It didn't help that I had to rip out half of the first bottle
and the bottom part of the outline of the second
because I miscounted and they were too long.

Mates

 Before

After

Yes! I'm getting some momentum going here!

My plan of stitching a little on this piece every day

seems to be working!
I'm usually the first up in the morning,
so I've been working on this in the quiet hour before breakfast,
which is good because I need all my concentration for it.
There was a large swath of white block stitching
 in Mr's muzzle this month,
so I may not have quite as much progress to show next month.

I might have overstated in my last post

when I mentioned "ten active WIPs"

because, as you can see, I've only worked on 

six this past month.

The other four are still officially UFOs.
Maybe I'll pick up one of them next month.  Maybe.

I'm itching to finish one of the above pieces

sooner rather than later.

The only two that have any chance of being finished soon

are Cool Cardinal and Tangerine Twist.

Cool Cardinal just has the bird's crest

and a moderate amount of backstitching on the bird.

And 80 large snowflakes.  Yes, I've counted!

Tangerine Twist has only one more square to stitch.

And 240 beads of assorted shapes and sizes need to be attached,
 to be chosen however I decide--no instructions on that.
Any guesses as to which of these
will get finished first?

I went into The City this past weekend
for a needlepoint workshop (more on that in another post),
so I'll leave you with this...

 This is a very common sight in Chicago's neighborhoods.
Lots of folks may not have a garage or, at best,
only a one-car garage, so they have to park in the street.
They have to shovel their car out before they can drive anywhere,
so they reserve that nicely shoveled-out spot
with anything they can get their hands on.
I saw plastic crates and buckets and even a wooden reindeer
this weekend, but lawn chairs or folding chairs
are by far the most common.
It's not really legal and "Mayor Rahm" 
has told people to stop doing this (yeah right),
but the overwhelming consensus at the workshop was
that no one would have the nerve
to move those items and park in those spots!
This doesn't happen in the suburbs, to my knowledge,
just in the city.
Is this strictly a Chicago phenomenon,
or does it happen where you live (if you experience snow)?
BTW, more snow is predicted for this week.

Well, that's it from here.
To see other Turtle Trot progress,
visit Claudette at BAP Attack for all the links.
Thanks for visiting!

My 2014 Turtle Trot Ten

Hey Blog Buddies,

This year I decided to join the Turtle Trot SAL because I thought it would mesh nicely with the Stitch from Stash SAL.  

Turtle Trot is hosted by Claudette of BAP Attack, and this is her description of what the SAL is about:

1. You must have a blog, because you'll be posting links to it. If you don't have a blog, you can still work on those old projects, you just won't be eligible for the contest.

2. Pick 10 unfinished projects...

3. Take a picture of them and make a blog post by the 10th of January.

4. Each month, by the 10th, post whatever progress pics you have.

So, we would very much like to finish our WIPs

but there's no pressure to do so--it's not a race:  hence, Turtle Trot!

Here, in no particular order, are the WIPs I've chosen,

with a couple of UFO's thrown in for good measure.

No. 1

Rosewood Manor's A Tree by Itself,
started on April 4, 2013.

I absolutely love this design,

but it only made my rotation twice in 2013.

I hope to do better this year.

No. 2

This has definitely become a UFO.

It was a canvaswork class

hosted by my EGA guild on April 30, 2011.

All of the proceeds from this design

went to benefit autism.

I think this will be a make-it-or-break-it

year for the UFOs on this list.

No. 3

Debbie Stiehler's Autumn Pumpkin Patch,

started on May 4, 2013.

I'm behind on this big guy.

My goal was to finish the stitching in

May of this year, but I've fallen behind

and there's a lot of intense stitching ahead.

I know, it's the journey, not the destination!

No. 4

Harper in Stitches' Cool Cardinal,

started on November 21, 2013.

This is really a winter piece,

but I may not get it done

before the warm weather sets in.

No. 5

My most recent start on this list (December 22, 2013),

is Ink Circles' 99.

I know DH will be nagging encouraging me

to work on "the bottles" this year,

so it should move right along.

No. 6

This is Mates by Cross My Heart.

The chart is dated 1998, and I believe

the last time I worked on it was

sometime in 2001 (before I kept records!).

As you can see, I do have a large amount done,

but it's all confetti stitching,

and it's not calling to me at the moment.

I need to either finish this or try to find it a good home.

No. 7

Needle Delights Originals' Tangerine Twist,

started on June 22, 2013.

It's over half done, and should be

a relatively quick and easy finish.

I hope those aren't famous last words.

No. 8

Winter Logs, another Needle Delights Originals design,

was started on September 28, 2013.

Estimated completion date:  early June 2014.

This is a guild SAL.

No. 9

Winter by Indigo Rose.

I believe this is my oldest WIP,

predating Mates by about a year.

It has lots of specialty stitches which should be fun,

but this one, too, isn't calling me.  (sigh)

As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure where it is right now,

but I haven't looked too hard for it (snort).

This photo is from a couple of years ago,

and not a stitch has been taken on it since then

or, for that matter, in the last 14 years!

No. 10

Cindy Valentine's Pristine.

This will be a lovely hardanger tabletopper, someday.

Started in April 2006,

it spent years folded up in a bag

because I cut a thread from the ground

that I wasn't supposed to

and thought it was the end of the world.  It wasn't.

This piece only made my rotation one time in 2013,

and I hope to see more of it this year.

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me.

I also have quite a few small charts

and random pieces of fabric in my stash

that I can throw into the mix every

once in a while in order to enjoy

a finish or two along the way,

so that I can hang on to what's left of my sanity.

That's it from here.

Hope everyone has a fun, stitchy weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

Ornament Exchange

Hey Blog Buddies,

My EGA Chapter had its annual Christmas party this week, and we had an ornament exchange.  This is the ornament I brought:

This is one of the Lizzie*Kate Jingles designs,

stitched on 36-count natural linen.

 

Here is the ornament which I received,

stitched by Barb:

 

 

There has been some further progress

on Cool Cardinal:

 

 

You can see that I've gotten the

white sorted out.

Don't worry:  the bird is supposed to be

two shades of red!

 

Last but not least,

I received this great prize from Jo

of Serendipitous Stitching

for winning her

Awesome Autumn giveaway:

 

The bag itself is awesome

because everything except the border

is stitched over one.

On black.

And there was a delicious chocolate spider

tucked inside.

Thanks, Jo, I love it!

 

That's it from here.

Hope you have all your

holiday stitching done.

(I don't.)

And thanks, as always, for visiting! 

Stitching Disaster

Hey Blog Buddies,

How's your weekend going?  Swimmingly, I hope.  Mine--not so much.

This past week I had a couple of finishes (more on those later) and decided to start a new project.  It's nothing new, I've been stitching from stash recently, and this project is on my 2013 to-do list.  It's Harper in Stitches - Cool Cardinal.  Charley Harper was an American Modernist artist best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters and book illustrations.  Many of his designs have been adapted to cross stitch.

 

As you can see, it's a rather plump cardinal

sitting out a blizzard, while snow piles up on his head.

When I saw the stitched model at

a local needlework shop a couple of years ago,

I loved the cardinal and I was hooked.

 

I like this design despite the fact

that it depicts a snowstorm

(I hate snow).

But I'm really not too fond of

stitching the scores of "snowflakes."

They are 12 stitches each and are

spaced far enough apart

that I have to start and end a thread

for each one.

Tedious, to say the least.

 

Here is my progress so far:

 

Can you believe that I didn't notice

the difference in color until

I went outside to take the photo?

It's so obvious.

I couldn't either, until I took the piece

back inside and started to "unstitch."

I use a 21-bulb LED light with magnifier

that I absolutely love.

It really illuminates my work.

But this is how the piece looks under that light...

 

Believe it or not, I actually felt better

when I saw this (not as dumb).

The light absolutely does not differentiate

between the two whites.

 

So I have come up with an explanation for the goof.

I was using (or thought I was using) DMC blanc.

I believe that I inadvertently put a strand or two

of B5200 in with the blanc.

I do know that B5200 is a much brighter white

and I always keep it separate from the blanc.

Or so I thought.

I will dig out my B5200 and make sure

that it matches the bottom five rows

before I rip out the top 4 rows

plus one snowflake.

And once I start to restitch the snowflakes,

I'll make frequent trips outside

to check that the white is still

all the same shade.

Because now I'm paranoid.

 

Let's move on to happier topics.

Here is a design from Prairie Schooler's Nordic Holiday:

 

Stitched 1 over 1 on

25-count white Lugana

with DMC 815 and 500.

These are darker colors than the model photos.

I like so many of the designs in this leaflet

that I'm planning to stitch several more.

 

Last but not least,

I'm still keeping up with the

2013 Halloween Ornament SAL.

 

The theme this month is Candy Corn.

I adapted a design from

BBD's 'Tis Halloween booklet.

It was a stocking covered with candy corn,

and I didn't want to "finish" another stocking,

so I used BBD's chart for the candy corn

and made the ornament in the shape of a candy corn, too.

Some may see a Christmas tree.

 

That's it from here.

May all your stitching go without a hitch.

Thanks for visiting!