February IHSW: Something Simple

Hey Blog Buddies,

It seems that I have been stitching things lately that range from the fiddly (lots of color changes) to the annoying (having to lay a lot of threads and/or using the dreaded Neon Rays).  So for this IHSW I decided to go with something simple:

What could be more simple than a Prairie Schooler ornament stitched in only one color?  I started and finished stitching this piece this weekend.  It looks like basically nothing now, but eventually it will become a "strawberry" ornament with candy cane stripes.  The chart is from Prairie Schooler's Christmas Strawberries book--so that makes two ornaments that I've stitched from that book.  One more, and I'll have them all finished into the strawberry ornaments that they are meant to be.

In other stitching news, I have a lovely new finish-finish...

 This is Little House Needleworks' Warm Winter Woolens,

stitched by me and finished by the talented Karen U.

It was finished as a box, and is sitting on my shelf as I type.

That's it for now:  short and sweet.

To see the other hermitters' progress,
click on over to Random Ramblings.

Hope you're keeping warm if you're

anywhere near the Midwest US.
Winter is just not letting go here.

Thanks for visiting!

December IHSW

Hey Blog Buddies,

Are you all ready for Christmas?  I am, finally, so I was able to devote a little time to stitching this past weekend.  Winter Logs got a little love.  Here is the before photo:

 

And here is what it looks like now:

(indoor photo w/flash because of nasty weather)

 

I'm now caught up with this phase of the SAL.

 

Next, I worked on a "new" piece that I started this week.

I was pawing through my stash

and found a seasonal chart that I forgot I had

which had been gifted to me from my friend Anne (no blog).

Here is LHN's Warm Winter Woolens:

 

After having stitched my last Halloween ornament

on 40-count linen, I was looking forward to

working on a lower count.

The directions called for

Lakeside Linens Vintage Exemplar

and I was happy because I knew I had that fabric.

Surprise:  40-count!  oh well...

It's turning out well--I really like that sheepie!

 

No, I didn't do all of the above stitching this weekend!

I had had a good start on both pieces

and wound up working a little on both

on Saturday and Sunday.

 

And last night I started (cough) another new piece from stash.

I'll show you that when I have a little more done on it.

 

That's it from here.

Check out what the other Hermitters did

by clicking here.

 

Thanks for visiting!

November IHSW: Tornado Warning, Power Outage and a Finish

Hey Blog Buddies,
Here in Illinois we had some pretty severe weather yesterday.  There was widespread property damage, some injuries and even some deaths due to the storms, and my thoughts are with those families.   A little before 1:00 yesterday afternoon the sirens went off here and the loudspeaker told us to "take shelter NOW."  Evidently there was a tornado on the ground nearby.  We had one heck of a storm for about a half hour, lots of rain and high winds but no tornado here.  We lost power right away, though, and didn't get it back until 9:00 this morning.  (Many people are still without power.)

Well, before the power outage I had been in the middle of trying to finish-finish my little Tudor Tassel ornament.  When DH went out to get some spare batteries for our emergency lights, I found the window with the most light coming through and continued where I had left off on the ornament.  It wasn't what I would call "stitching light," but beggars can't be choosers.  When he came home and saw what I was doing, he told me he thought I had a Problem.  I quite agreed.  At around 4:00 I was this close (picture a thumb and forefinger a hair's width apart) to finishing, but what little light remained was almost gone, so I reluctantly stopped.  After the power came back on this morning, I was able to finish it and take photos, so without further ado, here is the saga of the Tudor Tassel.

I started stitching this ornament back in August and posted this progress pic:

 

The above piece, finished, looks like this:

This is a Victoria Sampler design,

from the 2010 JCS Christmas Ornament issue.

It's very, very cute, but I think of it as

a product of the Evil Genius of Thea Dueck.

First off, I don't like doing wrapped bars.

I know, they give a more delicate, lacy

look than woven bars, but still.

And this is only one of three sides to the ornament,

so three of these need to be made.

 

I've had this kitted up for three years.

I was reluctant to even start it

because I thought the finishing would be very tricky.

 

For those of you contemplating making (and finishing)

this ornament, I highly recommend getting this publication:

 

This leaflet had two pages of finishing instructions,

complete with photos, which left

nothing to the imagination.

I believe there was only a short paragraph on

how to finish the ornament

in the 2010 JCS Ornament Issue.

And of course, there are directions for

three more adorable tassels here!

Once I had read and reread the finishing instructions,

I actually was encouraged to try finishing it myself.

 

So I had my three sides stitched and

was ready to cut out around the hardanger bottom.

 

Oh no!

Oh yes.  I was careless and the first thing I did

was cut into the blanket stitch.

Arrrrrrghhhhh!

But it's nothing that a little ripping,

Fray Check and restitching won't fix, is it?  (sigh)

The whole project was very fiddly from start to finish,

and cutting into the blanket stitches didn't help.

 

So, blanket stitch repaired,

here are my three stitched pieces.

I flipped one over face down to show you the

fusible interfacing called for in the instructions.

Not certain that the fusible interfacing would stick,

Thea also recommended that you sew it down.  (I did.)

By the way, the seams have an overlock zigzag,

per the instructions.

 

On to the finished product...

I have to say, this ornament

is much cuter in person than any photo.

I got a little carried away with the bead strands--

they turned out quite a bit longer than I thought they would.

It's hard to see, but there are three strands.

The ornament is hanging from a pencil,

and I'm standing in front of my garage door,

taking a photo with my free hand.

If my neighbors thought I was nutty before, they're sure of it now.

I tried out many spots in front of, and inside of, the house,

before hitting upon this one.

 

 

Yeah, I know, not as good.

That last one is on my Halloween tree,

cleared of ornaments on one side to showcase The Tassel.

Yes, it's still up, and yes, I have a Problem.

 

Can you tell I'm really excited about this finish?

And no, just in case you were going to ask,

I'm not going to start any of the other tassels

any time soon.

 

That's it from here.

To check out what the other Hermitters

were doing this weekend,

click here.

 

Hope you all had a great weekend,

with better weather than we had in Illinois.

Thanks, as always, for visiting! 

September IHSW

Hey Blog Buddies,
Another International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW) has come and gone.  The project I was working on all last week continued on into Saturday before I felt I had come to a stopping place.  Here is my "before" pic:

My April start on

Rosewood Manor's A Tree by Itself.

 

Here's where it's at now:

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you.

That first "Hold" was black, and I changed it to "German Chocolate"!

If I can squeeze this piece into my rotation every month,

I should be able to make some real progress!

The color of the linen looks different in every photograph--

it's actually Lamb's Wool!

 

After I put Tree aside, I switched gears

and got out a small seasonal Lizzie-Kate chart...

...it's the one on the left, Autumn Basket.

 

This is how far I had gotten by Sunday evening.

I'm using a very lovely overdyed

32-count Lugana--the color is Legacy.

Looks much nicer in person.

I'm going to keep working on this one until it's finished.

 

That's it from here.

To see my fellow hermitters' progress,

go to Random Ramblings.

And a big thank you to Joyce

for hosting this fun SAL every month!

 

Hope you all had a wonderful, stitchy weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

July IHSW

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope you all had a groovy July weekend.  Well, another IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend) has come and gone.  I didn't get that much stitching in Friday through Sunday for various reasons, but I "cheated" and made up for it this morning.  However, I'm sure that Joyce at Random Ramblings will forgive me.  (heheh)

First up is the ornament for the

Halloween 2013 SAL.

This month's theme was bats/spiders,

so I chose Sweetheart Tree's

Itty Bitty Kitty - Halloween design.

The design is very small, and it's a good thing

because there were quite a few

quarter stitches and backstitching.

You'll notice it's not ornamentified yet.

I was definitely not in the mood to do that,

but it needs to get done before I start

the August ornament.

 

Then I decided to dust off my canvaswork pumpkin--

it's been on hiatus since shortly after the workshop.

 

Here is another case of the photo

not even coming close to doing the piece justice.

It's hard to make out the sparkly orange Treasure Braid,

the olive green Burmilana wool

and the burgundy Petite Very Velvet threads,

but they're there, and this little section

looks fantastic in real life.

It's right at the tip of the middle "football."

There are five adjoining football shapes which,

when finish-finished, will make up

a 3-dimensional pumpkin.

I'll be working on this piece all week,

so stay tuned for a more detailed update on the whole thing.

 

That's it for now.

Click on over to Random Ramblings to see

what the other hermitters were up to this weekend.

Thanks for organizing this, Joyce!

 

And thank you for visiting

and leaving your kind comments!

June IHSW

Hey Blog Buddies,

How is your summer/winter going?  Did you have any time to stitch this past weekend?  Despite being "gone" for a day and a half of this past 3-day International Hermit & Stitch (IHSW) weekend, I managed to work on two new and very different projects.

The first one is...

Lofty Pumpkin by Twisted Threads.

There are two options:

just the pumpkin stitched over two--the model is 32-count--

or the "scissor weight" with specialty stitches, over 1.

I chose the over-one option,

but used 28-count Lugana instead of 32-count linen.

It's not the over-one that's driving me crazy

(a very short trip)

but all the blasted confetti stitching!

This project has now been lovingly placed

at the bottom of my rotation pile.

 

The other project that I started is

Needle Delights Originals' Tangerine Twist.

Zany, huh?

I grabbed this chart as soon as I saw it,

not so much for the design as for the colors.

It will go nicely with the quilted wallhanging

that I finished earlier this year.

See photo of that here.

Okay, there is no green in this design,

but it's close enough to be a nice

companion piece.

 

Here is my progress so far.

I really love this design--photos don't do it justice.

It's challenging enough so that it's certainly not boring,

but not so difficult that it's frustrating.

The cashmere stitches

(on the diagonal stripe right next to the yellow eyelets)

were the worst so far

because of all the compensation stitches!

 

Right now I'm torn between finishing this square

and starting my June Halloween ornament

to stay on track with the 2013 Halloween SAL.

I have too many projects,

and most of them seem to know my name!

 

That's it from here.

To check out all the other IHSW stitchers,

go to Joyce's Random Ramblings blog, here.

Until next time, thanks for visiting!

IHSW: May 2013

Hey Blog Buddies,
I signed up for the IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend) this month even though I knew I would be able to stitch only on Sunday.  BUT... I was able to put the finishing touches on two projects!  The first was my knitted cowl, which I started at the end of February.  And now I'm all ready for...  November?

Molly looks a little glum here.

She's thinking, "It's 80+ degrees and dinner time.

Why do I have to pose in this woolen cowl?"

Yes, that is a black T-shirt that she's wearing

to protect the knitted cowl from her black hairs.

Needless to say, I was rather disheartened

when she plopped herself down on the carpet

which attracts dog hairs like a magnet.

 

You can see in this photo that the wool is

variegated--it's kettle-dyed--Malabrigo Merino Worsted,

and the color is Red Java.

The cowl is long enough to wear as a sling for your arm,

although I'm hoping I won't need it for that.

Molly was disrobed and fed immediately after

this photo was taken, and all is now forgiven.

 

My second finish is my Prairie Schooler Heads Up Witch:

 

Her face was originally charted as orange,

but I thought that any self-respecting witch

would have a green face.

Stitched 1 over 2 on 40-count Heritage linen, as usual.

I was going to use my Gloriana silk for the black,

but I've somehow misplaced it.

Don't know how that happened,

I have so few stitching supplies!   hehehe

So I thought I'd try No. 12 pearl cotton.

I used it on her mouth and eyes,

but it was way too chunky to continue using it

for the rest of the black,

so I switched to Crescent Colors Blackbird

for her hair, hat and clothing.

She is the April ornament for

the Halloween Ornament SAL 2013.

You can see everyone's ornaments

by clicking here.

I may be a month behind, but at least

the ornie is finish-finished

 

I should be starting the May ornament now,

but instead I decided to give some love to

Crabby All Year, which has been neglected recently.

I didn't stitch enough on it to show here,

but I hope to have February finished soon.

 

To see what my fellow hermitters did this weekend,

click here.

 

That's it for now.

Hope your weekend was fun!

Thanks for visiting!

March IHSW: ... finally!

Hey Blog Buddies,

I do love my International Hermit and Stitch Weekend (IHSW) stitch-a-longs!  I didn't have too much time to stitch on Sunday, but I made up for it on Saturday.  The "finally" is because I finally stitched the January square from Crabby All Year!  It missed its turn in the rotation last month, and I wasn't super-enthusiastic about it, but I'm glad it's done!

 I made the "W" and the "C" much larger than charted, just because.

This square is actually more appropriate around here

this month than this past January when we had only a trace of snow,

as opposed to the 9 inches we had almost two weeks ago!

You can see from this photo that I also started on the header

since I've now made my way to the top row of the piece.

I finished the (January part of the) header after the sun went down,

so I had to take this with a flash,

hence the totally different color of the fabric and threads!

Actually, I think this is more representative of the real colors.

I also did a little sewing

(trying to piece together a table topper to match my

Circle Dance wall hanging),

and a little knitting

(on the same cowl that you've already seen),

but I'll show these when finished so as not to bore you to tears.

To see what my fellow hermitters have been up to,

go here.

Hope everyone had a fun, stitchy weekend!

Thanks for visiting!

Valentine Project Revealed

Hey Blog Buddies,
Now that Valentine's Day is over, I can show you the "secret" project that I was stitching:

This is Love Tokens from The Gift of Stitching e-magazine.

The designer is Nancy Pederson.

I stitched the hearts as called for in the design,

but switched out the blackwork squares.

This was the photo I used for

Jo's Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop,

so that's the reason for all the secrecy.

I am still using the leftover Gloriana silk

from when I stitched CT13 last year!

We've now arrived at the 2nd International Hermit & Stitch Weekend

for 2013, starting today!

If you've never heard of it

and/or want to get in on it,

hurry over to Joyce's blog and check it out!

The more, the merrier!

This weekend I'm hoping to finish a little Lizzie*Kate Flip-It

for March that should have been finished

a week ago, except that (ahem) knitting

has kind of derailed my stitching rotation.

That's it for now.

Thanks, as always, for visiting!

First IHSW for 2013!

Hey Blog Buddies,

This weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend (IHSW).  For those of you who may be new to this phenomenon, it's a virtual stitch along, happening once a month, hosted by Joyce over at her blog Random Ramblings.  You can click here to find out all about it.

So this is what I accomplished:

I'm doing an ornament a month for the

2013 Halloween Ornament SAL.

This is from the Prairie Schooler Heads Up booklet.

I used DMC 310, WDW Carrot and one of my DMC greens.

The linen is 40-count to make it nice and small

so it won't overwhelm my tree.

Then, I switched gears to crochet.

It's getting pretty cold here finally,

so I made a cowl or neckwarmer, if you will.

It's only about 6 inches high.

Boy, this is an ugly photo!

The yarn is Sensations Angel Hair Stripes,

fuzzy but not itchy because it's acrylic.

This only took me a couple of hours--

crochet goes fast!

Here is the grayer side of the piece.

It really doesn't look too bad,

although I wouldn't categorize it as "pretty."

Finally (there's more?  oh yes!),

I did a little commitment stitching.

I'm teaching a mini-hardanger class

later on in the year, and this is the model:

This is a freebie from Victoria Sampler.

I stitched it on 25-count linen,

and I probably should have used #5 pearl cotton

for the satin stitch instead of #8.

And my wrapped bars need work.

I'm a firm believer in pointing these things out

to my class so that they can learn

from my mistakes.

I probably should do one or two more samples

on different grounds and with different colors,

if only to practice the needleweaving!

That's it for now.

Be sure to come back tomorrow because

it's my blogoversary, and you know what that means...

giveaway!!

To check out what my fellow hermitters

have been up to this weekend,

click here.

Hope you had a grand weekend.

Thanks so much for visiting!

December IHSW - A Finish and A Start

Hey Blog Buddies,

This is the last IHSW for 2012, and it was a good weekend here for indoor activities such as stitching:  chilly, gray and rainy all weekend.  I did do things other than stitch:  got my Christmas cards done--another indoor activity.  But Christmas card writing is not what brought you here.  Let's check out my finish...

This is my fifth (of five) Laura J. Perin canvaswork ornament.

The first four were from her

American Quilt Collection, Holiday Ornaments-Series 1.

Not wanting to have to stitch a duplicate from there

(I plan on finishing the five as a cube),

I discovered a bonus ornament chart to go along with

her Red Hot Peppers chart which I also have.

I switched the colors around to make it Christmasy.

Here is a collage of the first four charts

to refresh your memory...

All five of these charts are at the finisher's as I write this.

They won't be ready for Christmas,

but I've got a headstart on the holidays for 2013!

Recently, I've been kitting up a lot of things for next year,

and I had a hankering to start one of them.

But I was good (surprise!) and went off of my 2012 list

and started Plum Street Samplers' Hare's Christmas.

I got more done than I expected...

The fabric is a pretty buttercream,

but the lighting was bad for all the photos.

I decided to stitch this one in hand,

and I think the stitching went faster.

Back in the day (waay back in the day),

I stitched most projects in hand,

but then went to Q-snaps.

Anything bigger than 6" x 6" is a little too heavy

(for me at this point)

if you don't have a gizmo to hold your work.

I have priced a couple of systems out,

and they are quite expensive.

So for now, this will be my

stitching method of choice.

Thank you so much, Joyce, for hosting

this fun SAL this year, and I'm looking forward

to joining in again in 2013.

To see what my fellow hermitters have been up to,

go to Joyce's blog.

That's it for now.

Thank you for all the wonderful comments,

and thanks, as always, for visiting!