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.

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.

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.

WIP Wednesday

Hey Blog Buddies,

Here lately I've been working on only two projects, so I thought I'd catch you up on the one you haven't seen yet.  But first, a Molly update.

She's Not Happy

First she had to go "under the knife"

and now there's this indignity.

She doesn't wear it all the time,

only at night and those infrequent times

that we need to leave her alone during the day.

I'm convinced she would chew open her stitches

if left to her own devices.

But other than hating her collar,

she is fine and acting like her old self.

Today we received the pathology report from our vet.

There's good news and bad news.

The bad news is that her growth was malignant.

The good news is that the vet removed

the entire thing (including one of her nipples!),

was happy with the margins,

and feels that the surgery will be "curative."

Let's hope so.

Back to the WIP.  A little while ago I showed this blackwork chart that I wanted to start...

...Blackwork Journey's Wandering Star.

Looking at the black-and-white chart above, 

it took me a while to figure out the star reference.

So I thought I'd make the stars a different color.

I will admit that some of the

filling patterns in this piece

almost make my head explode,

but I'm happy with how it looks so far.

That's it from here.

Hope your February is going along swimmingly.

Thanks for stopping by.

Leap Year List - August Report

Hey Blog Buddies,

July sped by quickly, despite it being one of the longest months.  It's been too hot here for my liking.  And the last part of July went from drought to deluge.  As a matter of fact, we had such a series of torrential downpours here last Friday that we got seepage in our below-grade family room for the first time in years.  But luckily, we were home when it started, and it was abated by the one-two punch of a shop vac and box fans.  It also helped that the rain stopped a little while after the water started to come in.  It was more of a nuisance than anything.  Lots of others in this area weren't so lucky.  Molly's cushion had to be temporarily relocated "inland" from the wet wall after her bedding was cleaned and dried, but it didn't seem to faze her.

On to the stitching... 

First up is Prairie Schooler's Farmer's Almanac.

Here it is as of last month.

And here it is now.

I constructed a farm house, planted trees,

and did more of the verse, from the bottom up, of course.

I know I can't avoid stitching

the rest of that grass for too much longer, though.

All this over-one stitching is slow going.

Next is another Prairie Schooler design:  

the A from the ABC leaflet.

I had it started last month.

And now it's finished.  Woo hoo!

I originally toyed with the idea of

doing this entire piece over one.

I'm so glad that I didn't!

It's been a joy to stitch so far.

Finally, we have Jennifer Riefenberg's 

The Missing Piece:

Here it is as of last month.

And here it is now--all finished!

Some of the various stitches

were a little tricky to compensate.
The bargello section
had me talking to myself.

I've been spoiled with Kathy Rees' 

Needle Delights Originals designs.

She graphs out all the compensation for you.

But it's nice to know I can do it on my own

if push comes to shove.

And speaking of Needle Delights Originals,
she came out with a new "Log" design
for Halloween (uh-oh).

I just couldn't resist this one.

And, yes, it's all kitted up.

Last month I showed you a little 
design from La D Da that I stitched.
I sent it over to Averyclaire
who crafted this sweet needle roll finish.

The outside.

The inside.

Here it is all rolled up.

So cute!
And I do plan to use it, not just look at it.

Last, but not least, here is
The Lake County Fair Report

Exhibitors' Night was last night
at the Family Arts and Crafts Building.
It's a sturdy two-story brick edifice,
with the second story
being just a balcony around the perimeter.
The building has no air-conditioning,
just a couple of strategically-placed fans.
Did I mention that yesterday the outside
ambient temperature was in the low 90's
with very high humidity?
Each exhibitor gets two passes,
and there are lots of exhibitors.
Many of them do bring a guest.
Think body heat.

Of course, I knew all this going in,
but I went anyway because
it's a rollicking good time.

This photo is from 2013,
with the Fair mascot in the doorway.

The baked goods,
which have already been judged,
are always given away to the attendees
who are willing to stand
in the very long Free Food Line.

But I, and many others, were not food-oriented.
Our main objective is peering into the
display cabinets and over them,
looking at the hanging pieces
that are set up out of harm's way,
squinting at the tags,
looking for our own entries and,
almost as important, our friends' entries.

There is lots of camaraderie,
with people greeting each other,
giving congratulations and just chatting.
Yes, the competitors who I know personally
are truly happy for each other's wins,
even if it might be at their own expense.

This year I had 12 entries,
10 of which won various ribbons,
so I did good, as did most of my friends.
Yes, the blackwork horse got a blue ribbon.
(I was the only exhibitor in that class.)

I do have one photo to show you.

After 25 years of exhibiting at this Fair,
this is my first Best in Show.
I have to say I was a bit giddy last night
and very, very surprised.
I was with Averyclaire (she was my guest)
and we got to scream and jump up and down together.
I truly believe it was her gorgeous finishing
that put this piece over the top.

"Best in Show" is a misnomer anyway,
because there are many Best in Show winners.
What it refers to is your Section,
which in this case is Needlecraft II,
limited to the embroidered pieces,
with the exception of holiday decorations and ornaments.

And, yes, I'm already thinking of 
what I might enter next year.

This post turn out to be a bit longer than planned.
If you're still reading,
thanks for sticking with me.
Have a wonderful weekend.

A Great Day for Stitching!

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's been snowing here since last night, and they say it won't stop until tomorrow.  It's not coming down superfast (yet), just steady.  There's only one in this household who could be considered a fan of the snow.

Yes, always with the nose to the ground!

I didn't get a good shot of my goofy scenthound

because I refused to stay outside

longer than 60 seconds.

So for all you Molly fans

(and I know you're out there)

here's a somewhat better photo.

I have no stitching photos to share today.

I've been working on nothing but

my Turtle Trot rotation,

so I'll save that for the update on the 10th.

Please come back then--

I guarantee I'll have lots to show!

For all those in the path of Snowstorm Linus,

stay safe and warm.

Thanks for visiting!