More Finishes... and Galleria

My happy, chubby bird is finished!

Jolly Robin came as a kit from Bothy Threads.

I love the speckled aida that came with it;

it was fun to stitch.

My framer finished him in record time.

This Laura J. Perin piece, Nordic Valentine,

was finished recently, too.

I was attempting to attach the

called-for beads with invisible thread,

when I thought to myself

"Life's too short."

It looks fine without the beads.

This is the second piece from

Jeannette Douglas' Flower Tray set.

I'm going to find someone to make it

into a pincushion drum for me.

And, finally, just in time for October...

This is from Little Dove's Year.

I changed the lettering

from backstitch to cross stitch

and omitted the second spider.

I backed it with the fabric shown  in the 

background of the photo.

It reminds me of centipedes,

so it's appropriately creepy.

I almost didn't find this fabric

because it was at the bottom of a

large pile of various non-purple pieces.

I wound up re-organizing all my fabric by color.

I'll be able to find all of the purples now;

I discovered that I don't have a lot of them.

Almost two weeks ago

I went to the annual

Needlework Galleria

held in St. Charles, Missouri.

The event was bigger than ever this year;

the entire fourth floor of the

Embassy Suites was given over to it,

and about a half dozen shops were on 3.

This is just a smattering of photos

from some of the participating shops.

The bottom photo was from a

counted canvaswork shop,

participating for the first time this year.

See the tall skinny red/blue piece

in the top row.

Doesn't it have my name on it?

Of course it did!

My haul.

I went crazy at the fabric place (lower left).

If you look at the lower right part of the photo,

you can see the instruction booklet,

threads and blue canvas

shown in the model photo above.

These people (sellers) were from Canada,

and I had never seen their pieces before!

I saved on shipping!

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Another thing I really liked about the Galleria

were all the doo-dads at the various shops.

Here's a close-up of those that I bought:

A couple of "square" hoops; 

metal tea balls to cross stitch

for Christmas ornaments;

little rubber cylinders to use when

tightening a hoop or to grab a needle;

and the wooden octopus square

will measure a border of either

1", 2" or 3" if you place it at the

corner of your fabric!

See, not many!

There were many other cute doo-dads

that I didn't buy.

I do have some self-control!

I seem to have finished most of

my WIPs at the same time.

I'm currently working on just

one Halloween small

which should be finished very soon.

I need to start a bunch of new projects now!

Well, that's it from here.

Thanks for visiting!

Rotation Recap

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope your December holidays were happy and fun-filled.  The Southpaw Stitcher staff had a great Christmas and look forward to a New Year celebration consisting of stitching and old movies.  

At the beginning of the year, I picked out ten medium-to-large-sized projects that I wanted to finish or at least make significant progress on this year.   Here are the photos of how each looked at the start of the year, and how they look now.  

In no particular order...

1.  Pristine by Cindy Valentine Designs

This was the albatross around my neck.

Started in 2006, messed up and cut a thread in the ground,

thrown back into the bag for about eight years.

I got really motivated with it this year.

Now it's all finished!
It's a shame that all the eyelets
and the satin stitch motifs
don't show up well in this photo.
At the beginning of 2015,
if I had had to pick a project
that I thought wouldn't get done,
this would have been it.

2.  A Tree by Itself by Rosewood Manor

The second biggest of the ten,

this one was left "by itself" (ha!) for most of the year,

but I've been working on it this month.

Here's where I'm at now.
As you can see, I'm over halfway done.

There's no good reason why

this piece shouldn't get finished next year.
And if you glance at the lower right,
you'll see I stitched in next year's date.
Now I'm committed.

Here's a close up of part of it.
It's hard to see the individual motifs when 
the entire piece is in the photo.

3.  99 by Ink Circles

At the start of the year,

there were only 55 bottles...

But now there are 99.

4.  Nordic Panel by Laura J. Perin

This is a Nordic Needle exclusive

stitch-along from 2014.

I was only about halfway done in January.

I finished this one, too.

5. Carrots by Jennifer Reifenberg

Not only wasn't I very far along with this in January,

but I managed to photograph the piece

face down!

Luckily, after I finished stitching

and attached the beads,

I photographed the correct side.
Some pieces just become favorites,
and this is one of them.

6.  Liberty Inn by Plum Street Samplers

This was my modest start in January.

I was shooting for an Independence Day finish

(and was successful),

but this piece is being displayed

all year long.

7.  Frederika by Carriage House Samplings

In January I had a wing...

And here is Freddi all her glory.

I don't understand why I had never stitched

anything from CHS/Kathy Barrick before,

but this piece definitely won't be my last.

8.  Summer Logs by Needle Delights Originals

I had just started on the second

quadrant in January

This was my ANG chapter's stitch-along,

with a scheduled finish date in June.

It was pretty easy to keep up with the SAL.

NDO charts are usually fast and fun.

9.  Save the Stitches by Blackwork Journey

This was (and is) a very generous 

free pattern from Elizabeth Almond

on the Blackwork Journey website.

As you can see, it's huge.

Here's where I was in January.

I did get a little bit done,

but I haven't touched this since February.

I just had too many projects going;

something had to give, and this was it.

And if you've checked out the newest
freebies on her wonderful website,
isn't Pandora's Box stunning?!
I just love the combination of
blackwork and pulled work.
(Uh-oh.)

10.  Dawn Chorus by Long Dog Samplers

This was my New Year's Day 2015 start.

Here's where I'm at now--
about 60 percent done.
I hit a roadblock when I noticed
that my somewhat tight tension
was really showing up in the middle tree.
You can't really see it in this photo,
but there's a lot of white showing.
I tried pressing it, but it didn't help.
Once that tree is "fixed,"
this piece should get finished sooner
rather than later.

Seven finishes out of ten isn't too bad.
The rotation list does help to keep me focused.
I intend to do another in 2016,
which I'll share next month.
My three unfinished projects
will definitely be part of the list.

OK, those of you who know me are
well aware that I have way more than those three WIPs,
or for that matter, even the ten or so
which will make the 2016 list,
but we're ignoring those for now.
They'll get finished someday.
Well, most of them will.

Have a happy and safe New Year,
and thanks, as always, for visiting!

That Was Quick!

Hey Blog Buddies,

I got so excited when I bought those Shaker boxes mentioned in my last post, that I pretty much dropped everything and went to work on BBD's Midnight Ride.  It was a very fast stitch, and now it is all done and finished just in time for Hallowe'en.

The smallest box was 7" in diameter (the pattern called for a 6" box), so I switched the fabric count from 30 to 28, and voila!  It's perfect!

This treasure was finished inside and out by the talented Averyclaire.  The top of the box is lined with the plaid fabric, too!   I had asked her to line the box, and was flabbergasted when I saw all that ruching!  It's pretty snazzy, as my mom would say.

In other stitchy news, I checked another project off of my rotation list.  This is my progress on Laura J. Perin's Nordic Panel as of April.  I was about two-thirds done.

 

Here it is now:

 All done!

But when one door closes, another opens, right?

 So here is the latest addition to

the rotation:

This is the start of Needle Delights Originals'

Autumn Logs.  It's my ANG chapter's 2015-16 SAL.

I've done Winter and Summer,

and I plan on doing Spring, too.

That's it from here.

I've got to start packing for

the Inspired Needle Retreat in Shipshewana

starting tomorrow.

It's going to be a fun weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

A Finish and A Challenge

Hey Blog Buddies,

Happy July!  And what better way to usher in the month than with a Christmas ornament, right?!

This chart was a bonus added in with

Laura J. Perin's Red Hot Peppers chart.

I changed the colors to make it more Christmas-y,

and didn't stitch the whole design

because my Christmas tree is modestly sized.

It was a really quick and fun stitch,

and the best part was that I have a friend

who is now doing finish-finishing so I don't have to!

I think she did a fantastic job.

Go check out all of her gorgeous finishes here. 

Now for the challenge.  My ANG chapter wants to encourage us to finish our WIPs, so those interested in the challenge were told to bring three WIPs that were no more than half finished.  The studio audience (i.e., the meeting attendees) would vote on the one project that they thought each participant should finish.  We have a year to finish that project.  If we are successful, we'll get a free ANG tote bag.  If not, we will pay $10 to our chapter's treasury.  Here are the projects that I submitted:

Jennifer Riefenberg's Carrots.

This was a chapter workshop in 2014.

Kay Stanis' Copper Illumination.

This was a 2015 chapter workshop.

And, finally, Debbie Rowley's Angles.

This was a 2-part class given earlier this year.

That little blue triangle in the upper left

indicates how far I've gotten on it.

And which project did the gentle chapter members pick?

I think you've probably already guessed:  Angles.

Of course they did.

It's the largest of the three and obviously

has the least amount of work done.

But that's OK.

I have an entire year!

I think I'd like to get Carrots out of the way first, though.

Then I intend to buckle down on Angles.

Not sure where that leaves Copper Illumination...

To all my US buddies, have a safe and fun Fourth.

To my non-US buddies, have a wonderful weekend.

Thanks, as always, for visiting!

Rotation Redux

Hey Blog Buddies,
It appears that the Turtle Trot SAL has sadly fizzled out, but since my TT projects are all a part of my so-called rotation, even if some don't rotate too regularly, you will continue to see them on this blog.

 the turtle has left the building

I have four progress reports to show you

since last month's update.

First, we have Plum Street Samplers' Liberty Inn.

 Here's where I was last month...

I know I shared this finish here already,

but thought that I would show you the framed piece.

Not only does my framer do an awesome job,

but I got this back the very next day!

(No, I didn't request a rush.)

Next there's Long Dog Samplers' Dawn Chorus.

This is where I stopped in March,

it's been neglected...

 Here it is now.

I really like all of the Long Dog Sampler designs,

but this particular one
really called to me the first time I saw it.
It's fun to stitch, too,
because I chose evenweave (Jobelan) for it.
Note to Self:  stitch on evenweave more often.

 

Here is another one that been

neglected for too long.

Carriage House Samplings' Frederika.

This is where I left off in March.

And here she is now...

...all grown up and ready to fly!
(No, the project isn't finished, just the bird.)
You may or may not have noticed

that one wing is a smidge darker than the other.

That was technically a mistake on my part,

but I'm leaving it in because

(1) I'm not ripping out a large wing on 40-count linen,

and (2) I think it gives the wing a little more depth!

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Finally, a surprise entry:

Cindy Valentine Design's Pristine.
(I'm surprised that I took it out.)

This is a hard design to show progress on

because it's large, it's white on white,
and the more recent photos were taken
while it was sprinkling just now...

This is where I left off in February!

This is the very center of the piece,

and I will call your attention to the three

small triangles filled with eyelets.

Now we have four small triangles filled with eyelets!
(I'm positively giddy.)

And if that weren't enough,
here's more!

I did the satin stitching (and more eyelets) in this corner.
Now the motifs in all four corners are completed!
Every milestone on this project, no matter how small,
is a cause for celebration.
The ground is 28-count Lugana,
and the satin stitches were done in No. 8 pearl cotton.
I don't remember ever having a problem 
with motifs like this in the past,
but they were very frustrating this time around,
mainly because I was having a
hard time seeing the holes.
I found myself wishing I had completed
all four corners when I started this project
way back in 2006! 

The whole piece, wrinkles and all.
You can see Southpaw Stitcher staff
behind the piece holding it up for me.
I asked him to take off his shirt so
we wouldn't see a pattern through the holes.
I was informed that the price for a
semi-nude photo assistant was quite high...

So I started out with ten projects in January:
three are finished, and here are the other four
that are currently on hiatus (but not forgotten):

Laura J. Perin's Nordic Panel.
It's about 2/3 of the way finished.

 Jennifer Riefenberg's Carrots.
It's about half way done.

Rosewood Manor's A Tree by Itself.
I'd estimate it's about 40 percent finished.

And finally, Elizabeth Almond's Save the Stitches.
This is about 4-5 percent there.

I have two guild projects that I need to start
before the end of the month,
so next month's rotation report will probably be smaller,
but there will definitely be something.

That's it from here.
Have a great Solstice this weekend
(either summer or winter, depending).
And thanks for visiting!