Stitching While S.I.P.

Hello, My Fellow Shut-Ins!

Of course, the S.I.P. in the title refers to sheltering in place, which most of us are doing right now.  So while I have a captive audience, I'll take this opportunity to show you some finishes and also what I've been working on lately.  Let's start with the finishes...

I love the robins on this pillow.

March is the month when you start to see them again

around these parts.

From Heart in Hand's Square Dance series.

Jeanette Douglas taught this class last year

at a retreat in Bloomington, Indiana.

I just recently got these two pieces back from the finisher.

About five years ago, Plum Street Samplers 

came out with a series of Sampler Lesson bowl fillers.

I, of course, bought all the charts (with thread).

This is the second one that's completed.

And yet another March pillow.

This is from the Little Dove's Year leaflet.

In the chart, the fourth sheep was on a hill

that was floating above the ground.

I decided to extend the hill downward

and backstitch the month over the cross stitching.

Now for the WIPs...

I'm close to a finish on this Charley Harper piece.

Just a couple of sections on the large bird and

a small piece of the background need to be stitched.

The name of the piece is Rainforest Birds.

I'm getting close on this one as well.

This is a freebie (!) from Blackwork Journey

entitled Pandora's Box.

In addition to the blackwork motifs,

there are boxes with cross stitch,

pulled work and pattern darning.

This book is from 1995,

and I came across the cover piece on Instagram.

It was love at first sight.

There are a lot of enablers on Instagram!

I found the book for sale on Etsy,

and started kitting it up right away.

Here is my start.

It was somewhat of a challenge.

The book was in perfect condition,

but the printed chart was so small

as to be unreadable.

So I enlarged it on my copier/printer.

The model was stitched with Anchor yarn,

which doesn't necessarily correspond to DMC colors.

I matched colors from my fairly large stash

of DMC floss to the photo as best I could.

Finally, the chart did not have every tenth

line bolded, and no stitch count was given.

So, after manually counting and

marking every tenth line, I was ready to go.

I know that two empty boxes

are not very exciting, but just wait.

Here is my final WIP, Spring Robin

from Widgets and Wool Primitives.

The chart was gifted to me by Averyclaire

a couple of years ago.  Thanks, K!

The fabric is 20-count "Summer Sunset" Lugana.

So what is on my staying-at-home horizon?

More small pillows, of course.

I have a very fun painted canvas

that I plan on starting when

Rainforest Birds is completed.

And after that, who knows?

Thanks, as always, for visiting.

Stay well.

Goodbye, 2019

It's been a while since I've posted, so I thought I'd scoot in here before the end of the year/decade to catch you up.  The stitching never stops here at Southpaw headquarters, so here is the latest update.

Finishes

A trio of pillows made an appearance.  First up from the

Heart in Hand Square Dance series: December.

Not my best finish (or photo), but there it is.

This one turned out a bit nicer:

Be Merry from Chessie and Me.

The fabric that it's sitting on is the backing.

Finally, just in time for January,

another one from the Heart In Hand

Square Dance series.

Those designs are so stinking cute,

I love them all!

WIPs

You may remember this start

from my last post:

Well, this has gotten some love...

and

You'll notice that I added a finish date here.

The last time I did that on a project,

I had to rip it out because I was 

a little overconfident

in my speed as a stitcher.

But with this project, I think it

should be finished in

the first quarter of 2020.

We'll see.

This is In All Things be Exceedingly Diligent

from Needle Work Press.

This was going to be the start of my blackwork piece.

The framework that you see there is

the four-sided stitch (a pulled stitch).

The ground was 32-count linen.

But as I arrived at this point,

I recalled all the problems I had

with my blackwork project on linen last year.

It's a little too diaphanous to hide

even the shortest thread carried where

there's no stitching.

Did I learn nothing from that project?

Apparently not.

So I decided to trash what I'd done and start over.

Those are a lot of four-sided stitches,

but I needed to cut my losses.

Here's where I'm at now.

I have just a tick more of the four-sided stitches completed

than are shown in the first photo,

and three of the areas are filled in.

This is 32-count Jobelan (an evenweave),

and it's working out much better.

The design is Pandora's Box from

Elizabeth Almond's Blackwork Journey.

It incorporates not only blackwork and pulled work,

but also cross stitch, Assisi (a type of cross stitch),

and pattern darning.

There are two sets of instructions:

one for Aida and one for evenweave.

Yes, she even specifies evenweave!

And it's a free pattern!

She is one of the most generous people I know.

(Well, I really don't know her, but I know of her.)

She has all sorts of free charts on her website here.

Check it out, if you're interested in blackwork.

My Charley Harper piece has been

a bit neglected.

It's a little hard to tell right off

what's been stitched on a painted canvas,

but I've got one flower, two birds

and the tail of a third bird stitched,

as well as a bunch of the basketweave background.

A lot of needlepointers of my acquaintance

would not choose the basketweave stitch

as the background,

but I actually enjoy doing it.

It's very Zen.

Last but not least, here is

a January design from Prairie Schooler's

A Prairie Year leaflet...

The chart shows the clock at 11:45,

but I figured that that was still December,

so I changed the time!

This is on a fabric called Molino,

and the reverse of the fabric is a

variegated light blue.

I'd never seen anything like that before.

Weird!

I'd show you, but there's no sun today,

and the colors are not photographing well at all.

This is actually a little more purple than it looks.

Alrighty then, we are all caught up.

Molly wants to wave a paw at you

one last time this year...

From the looks of things,

she will not be awake at midnight to greet 2020.

Have a safe and happy New Year's holiday.

We'll chat again next year.

Thanks for stopping by.

The Northwoods and Some Finishes

Usually, this blog concerns all things stitching, but today I thought I'd share my little end-of-summer trip with you, too.  We went to a place that I'm guessing not a lot of people have visited - Upper Michigan.  It's a hidden gem.

When we were planning a trip this year, this describes my state of mind perfectly:

We drove up through the Lower Peninsula.

The two peninsulas weren't even connected before 1957!

In Mackinaw City there is a little museum

on the second floor of a pizza place

that tells the story of building the Mackinac Bridge.

It's interesting (and quirky) and free.

If you squint at the horizon to the right

of the bridge, you can see St. Ignace

in the Upper Peninsula.

The "mighty Mac" is five miles long.

We stayed at a cozy, rustic cabin in Hulbert.

The next day, we traveled to Munising which is the gateway

to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

We took a 2-hour boat ride to view the rocks,

which extend for miles up and down the shoreline.

They probably would have been more

brilliant if the sun had been out.

After the boat ride, we ate lunch at

a local cafe/book store where I found this...

The dust jacket is a little frayed,

but the pages are fine,

and for two dollars I'll be happy to

peruse it and pass it on.

Another stop was the

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in 

Whitefish Point.

There have been over 500 shipwrecks

on the Great Lakes since records were kept.

The majority of them occur

in Lake Superior between

Munising and Whitefish Point.

This is the actual bell from one of the most

famous wrecks, The Edmund Fitzgerald.

A replica bell was made and engraved

with the names of all her crewmen,

and lowered down to the wreck

to serve as a memorial.

The crew remains at the bottom of

Lake Superior with the ship.

Just beyond the museum is a small beach

where you can walk or just gaze

at the big lake...

The clouds look ominous,

but we encountered only a few sprinkles that day.

Tahquamenon Falls State Park is nearby.

There are several smaller lower waterfalls...

...in the back among the trees...

and a larger upper falls...

On our way west across the peninsula,
we stopped at the
Michigan Iron Industry Museum
just outside of Marquette.
The Upper Peninsula was rich
in both iron ore and copper.

This was very interesting to me personally
because both of my grandfathers
worked in the iron ore mines.

Our last stop was at the
western end of the peninsula

where I got a chance to visit

with some of my cousins...

OK, enough blathering about my trip.

Here are a few recent stitchy finishes:

The Summer Foursome from

Prairie Schooler's Summer Breeze

leaflet was finished,

and I just happened to have

this frame in my stash.

Heart in Hand's Stitching Bird

got stitched and FFO'ed.

I added the four small buttons, 

which were from my stash.

Good that I'm using up stash, eh?

And almost in time for September

(it's not pillowfied)

is September,

from Little Dove's Year.

Well, that's it from here.

Hope your August was fun.

Thanks for visiting!

Even More Exciting News...

...Ladybug and Daisy, my blackwork project, is finished...

...and framed...

Here are a couple of close-ups...

The cross-hatching on the petals drove me bonkers.

It was "random" but charted, so I kept having

to look back and forth from the chart to the piece.

I would have gladly paid someone to do it for me,

if I could have found any takers.

I'm elated that this is done!

Here is another framed finish...

Kathy Barrick's Good Intentions

I seem to go a while without any finishes,

then I have a bunch all at once.

Let's get to the pillow parade...

A monthly from Heart in Hand's Square Dance

Bent Creek's Flag of Stars

The trim is not cording, but a braid.

Lizzie-Kate's Buzz from their Spring Smalls leaftlet.

I stitched this a couple of months ago,

and just got around to finishing it.

Here's what I'm working on now...

This is the July monthly from the

Little Dove's Year chart.

This chubby fellow is from Bothy Threads.

The chart is called Jolly Robin.

Here is my start.

It's going to look like a blob for a while.

This is my ANG challenge piece,

due next Saturday.  😄

I got quite a bit done
since the last time I posted.

My revised goal is to at least get

the panel on the right completed.
As I was stitching it,

I discovered that this piece

is not quite as easy as it looks.

But I probably could have completed it

if I had picked it up before last month.

I had all year to do it.

When you're as old as I am
you should stitch what calls out to you,
which is what I've been doing.
Hence, the DNF on my challenge piece.

Well, that's it from here.

Hope your June is going splendidly.

Thanks for dropping 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.