Stitching from Stash in July

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's the end of July already and that means it's time for my Stitch from Stash report.  This is a Stitch-a-Long hosted by Mel of Epic Stitching where we all try to stick to a $25/month budget for new stash acquisitions.  I have three finishes and a new little start to show you, too, but first the stats.

I spent a total of $10.25 this past month,
all of it on this one little chart:

I guess I was just in a patriotic mood.

And, it's very cute!

This month I've been stitching on the usual suspects:  Mates, A Tree by Itself and, currently, 99.  And I stitched and finished...

 ...my Semaphore quilt.  My self-imposed deadline was September 1st for this autumn-colored cutie, but I beat that by a lot!  (That usually never happens around here.)  The bottom part of the quilt that's in the shade shows the quilted fern design a little better.  You can click to make any of the photos larger...

...and here's Nancy Buhl's Flowers from my Needle from the workshop I took in back in May.  This had been my traveling piece, because it was so mindless and small--and it was stitched on 18-count canvas so it was easy to see.  What looks like a frame is really the top of a lovely music box.  All I had to do for finishing was trim the piece a little and pop it into the top of the box.  Easy peasy!  It was fun to stitch--I'll miss it.

Oh, don't worry!  I have another small 18-count canvaswork piece in my stash that's been kitted up since last year and which I'll start the next time I go a-traveling.  This is why the Stitch from Stash SAL is so easy for me.

And finally, finally:  The Long-Lost Pumpkin.  That's not its real name, but that's how I was starting to think of it, since it took so long to get it finish-finished.  Remember this?

If you've looked at this blog at all in the past year, of course you do!  And you were probably hoping never to see it again!  I posted about my June 4th finish of this weeks ago.  It was at the finisher's until the day before yesterday.  It took a long time to be finished--much longer than the three weeks which was promised--and then it was weighted wrong (very lopsided) and the green crocheted stem had it's wire poking out.  It was a mess.  Why would the finisher/store even think that a customer would be happy with something like that?  I had the store send it back to the finisher to be done properly, even though I had wanted to enter it in the Lake County Fair and didn't think that it could be fixed in 10 days' time, which is all the time that was left at that point.  But it was more important to me to get it finished properly.  So I did get a call on Friday that it was done (again) and went to pick it up.  Saturday was the Fair deadline.    Did I mention that it's a 120-mile round trip to the store?  The weighting issue was fixed and the stem was fixed, but overall it was just OK.  To be honest, I probably would have been happier with the result if I had not been mentally comparing it to the stitched model that Debbie (Stiehler, the designer) had brought with her when she taught the workshop last year.  And the store owner did give me a 10% discount for my extra trip.  All I have to say is it's a good thing that paying for finishing doesn't count against the Stitch from Stash budget, even with a 10% discount!

Debbie Stiehler's Autumn Pumpkin Patch.

Yes, it looks fine in the photo.

All's well that ends well, I guess.

Last but not least,

here is my new little start (from stash, natch):

This is Blackbird Design's Bird in Hand.

I seem to be in a bird mood recently.

My friend Anne gifted me the chart a while back.

Yes, I just finished another small piece called "Bird in Hand,"

but that was from La D Da.

This will be just a bird, a branch and a border, no words.

I'm using a dark blue floss instead of the red

which was used on the original model.

The ground is a 40-count piece of mystery linen from my stash.

So that's it from here.

I'll be back in a week or so with 

the Lake County Fair report.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

June Stitch from Stash Report

Hey Blog Buddies,

Mel from Epic Stitching is hosting a SAL this year where the participants try to keep spending on new stash to $25 or less per month.  This is the last day to post progress for June, so I'd better hop to it.

I spent a grand total of $6.25 for the month on this quilting book:

It was on sale, and I had a $10 gift certificate.

This little pattern from the book caught my eye...

The blocks are a combo of Log Cabin and Courthouse Steps designs.

I like everything about it.

 I did finish piecing the top to the Semaphore lap quilt

that I started earlier in the year,

but do not have a photo.

I'll show it to you once it's all quilted and bound.

No new starts (other than the workshop last weekend),

and I'm still working away on Mates, 

my hardanger table topper and 99

for the Turtle Trot SAL.

I spent the better part of June catching up

with the Nordic Needle Canvaswork Club piece.

I hadn't worked on it since February,

when it looked like this...

We get the instructions for this piece

in monthly installments.

I decided to do all four month's worth of instructions

that had been accumulating

in the project bag,

and it now looks like this...

The piece is Laura J. Perin's Nordic Panel.

I believe it's a little over half done now.

That's it from here.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Thanks for visiting!

May Stitch from Stash... and a Finish

Hey Blog Buddies,

Mel from Epic Stitching is hosting the Stitch From Stash SAL this year wherein the goal is to keep to a budget of $25/month or less for all your stitching purchases.  I'm happy to report that, for the first time this year, I spent nothing during the month on stitching supplies!  I worked on several WIPs, one of which was Needle Delights Originals' Winter Logs, which is now finished (woo hoo!):

 

 I stitched the optional border in Watercolours Quicksilver.

I knew that I wanted to use a gray for the border,

and this had the subtlest variegation.

Since there's a lot going on in the piece,

I didn't want the border to look too stripey.

Kreinik metallic braid was used in several spots,

including in the backstitching separating the four quadrants,

to give the piece a subtle glimmer.

It's hard to see in a photograph.

Here are some close-ups,

to give you a better idea of the texture of the piece:

And now for something completely different,

I also had a new start from stash.

I've had this little chart kitted up for a couple of years now.

I just love that funky bird!

DH says he's a ham radio bird

because he has what appears to be an antenna on his head.

Here is my start.

I'm using 35-count WDW Straw linen and almost all of the

recommended NPI silks, 1 over 2.

It's quite a shock to the eyeballs going from

18-count canvas to 35-count linen! 

Well, that's it from here.
Hope you all are enjoying your spring
(or autumn, as the case may be).

Thanks for visiting!

April Stitch-from-Stash, a Finish and a RAK

Hey Blog Buddies,
How are you all doing?  I'm kind of excited that I have my second finish in a month, but we'll get to that a little later.  First, my Stitch from Stash report.  I knew going into April that this would be my cheat month because of the Nordic Needle Retreat.  (Did you know that they maintain a rather comprehensive boutique and a wide range of snacks in the hotel conference room set up for stitching between classes?  How is a person supposed to stay strong?)

To refresh your memory, the items pictured above are what I purchased in Fargo.  For full disclosure, I bought a package of floss bags that didn't make it into the photo.  The book and the magnifier/light were a little pricey, but it could have been much worse!

But prior to going to Fargo, I stopped off at my LNS.

Because... Cheat Month! 

Here is a very large, very expensive piece of 28-count pewter Lugana.  The photo doesn't capture how nicely mottled the color is.  The fabric and the Kreinik will be used for the Save the Stitches blackwork freebie found on the Blackwork Journey blog.  I don't really want to start another large piece this year, but this project is calling me.

Then I started talking with Cathy (yes, the owner of my LNS and I are on a first-name basis) about the Prairie Schooler Alphabet charts, and she mentioned that she is having trouble getting one or two of the titles.  They are over ten years old, and I decided not to wait any longer and had her order the remaining five titles that I needed, plus another PS oldie.  Fortunately, she was able to get all of the titles I asked her to order...

I really love all of these charts!

So that's it stash-wise for the month of April.

I can't see that I'll need anything else this year

unless I run out of thread on a WIP or something.

Now for the exciting (to me) news--my finish:

Here is Libby Sturdy's Bejeweled Tree #3

from the pilot class I took earlier this year.
This was worked mostly in Kreinik
with a couple of cards of Neon Rays thrown in.
Blingy!!

(Picture me standing up, shaking my hips and stirring a big pot.

Frightening, no?)

Last but not least, I received this groovy RAK

from Moonsilk Stitches

I love the creepy-crawly centipede fabric,

the nifty ribbon with witches and bats

and the cool skull, cat and skeleton embellishments.

What a fun package!

Thanks again, Moonsilk!

That's it for now.

Thanks, as always, for visiting!

March Stitch from Stash

Hey Blog Buddies,

Mel over at Epic Stitching is hosting the Stitch from Stash SAL this year.  We all have $25/month to spend for new stash.  Obviously, the goal is to stitch from stash as much as possible.  So, time for the monthly SFS report.  My purchases for the month so far are three packages of beads for a blackwork freebie that I plan on starting later on in the year.  

You can find the instructions for the piece over at Blackwork Journey.  It's gorgeous and looks like a lot of fun, but it's yet another really large piece--it's called Save the Stitches and the directions are coming out in installments.  

I also got some fabric from JoAnn's.

This will be the backing for a lap quilt that I started a couple of weeks ago.  The pattern is called Semaphore and it's from the Fall 2013 issue of Easy Quilts.  Here's a photo of the model:

All my blocks are sewn. I chose an autumn colorway:

So, beads:  $4.50; fabric, $15.70.  Deduct that from the $25.00 spending money for March, and there's $4.80 left over.  Add that to my $35.08 carry-over, and I have $39.88 going into April.  (Too much math!)

I had a birthday this month, so I got some stash as a gift.

These are GHI and JKL of the Prairie Schooler Alphabet series.  There's also a little seasonal chart from Heart in Hand called A Spring Day with a cute bunny and flowers.  I still need five charts from the PS Alphabet series.  I plan on stitching them as one large piece.  Not this year, though.   (smile)

Finally, I participated in a workshop this month hosted by my Guild.  The piece was Carrots by Jennifer Riefenberg, and the pattern was so cute I couldn't resist...

See what I mean by cute?

Here is where I'm at.

Other than that, I've been stitching along on my rotation

which seems to be filled with BAPs at the moment.

This week I'm stitching on a round robin piece

which unfortunately I won't be able to show.

So that's it from here.

Hope everyone is having a lovely spring or fall,

depending on where you live.

It's technically spring here,

but we're expecting more snow (and cold) tonight!

Thanks for visiting!

Stitch from Stash ... and Sparkly Stuff

Hey Blog Buddies,

Stitch from Stash

It's almost the end of the month, so it's time to give my Stitch from Stash report.  I spent $23.72--not great but still within the budget.  For that I got some DMC floss, a Tunisian crochet book (I want to learn how to do that this year), and I broke down and purchased a chart (YZ from the Prairie Schooler Alphabet series).  I was gifted DEF and then decided I needed the entire series--what can I say?

Sparkly Stuff

I did the February installment of the

Laura J. Perin Nordic Panel SAL.

It's the band on the bottom:  the gold half eyelets with the red zigzags running through.  This was all stitched in metallic ribbon.  You can't really tell in this photo, so I took a photo in direct sunlight, something I normally avoid:

 

The gold now looks like gold,

but the red zigzag still doesn't appear to be shiny.

Trust me, it is.

So far, this has been an easy SAL to keep up with.

The current installment only took a few hours.

Continuing on in our glitzy theme, I mentioned in an earlier post that I went to a workshop recently.  Workshops and classes are exempt from SFS rules if you don't let the projects become instant UFOs.  The ANG National Seminar is coming to Chicago this year, and our chapter did a pilot class with Libby Sturdy.  For those of you who may not know, a pilot class is a regular workshop, but involves giving a teacher/designer feedback on her instructions before he/she unveils a design.  Libby will be teaching these designs for the first time at the national seminar, and since the catalog listing all the classes came out last week, I can now show you what they are:

This is her Bejeweled Tree Trio, and we did the middle one and the one on the far right in class because they are the more challenging ones.  Well, no one actually finished them in class, but we started both of them.  (heheh)  Libby has hers finished off in a gorgeous triptych.  All of these trees are stitched entirely in Kreinik metallics, with a couple of cards of Neon Rays thrown in for good measure.  There are lots of beads and sequins to add even more glitz.  If you look closely, the "snow" in the background consists of white beads.

Here is my start on the tree farthest right:

Again, I took the photo in direct sunlight.  The yellow and purple on the ornaments are stitched in Neon Rays.  Neon Rays and I have an adversarial relationship, but we are learning to play nice with one another.  (It's rayon ribbon that frays if you look at it funny.)

However.  These are really fun and colorful trees, and the more I complete on this piece, the more I want to do, just because it gets cuter and cuter!  Would definitely recommend taking this class if you happen to be going to the ANG seminar this year.

I won't show you the middle tree yet because it's nothing but a mess of parked threads and "spaghetti" which is what almost all pieces look like at the end of a workshop.  The above piece is the one I'm giving my feedback on, and it needs to be completed first. 

So that's it from here.

Hope you got some stitching time in today.

Thanks, as always, for visiting and all your wonderful comments.

January Stitch from Stash

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's nearing the end of the month (January can't leave fast enough to suit me!), so that means it's time for the Stitch from Stash check-in.

Mel, over at Epic Stitching has organized this SAL.  If participants spend less than $25/month on new stash, they'll be entered in the monthly drawing.  My reasons for joining the SAL have less to do with saving money (although I like that added benefit), or winning prizes (but that's nice, too) than they have to do with not buying any more new charts.  So going by that criteria, I was successful in January.  I spent $1.60 on four skeins of DMC which I needed for my Mates WIP, and $15 on fabric needed to balance out the tones on a lap quilt which I intend to start soon.

 

The two orangey fat quarters on the left,

and the two brown half yards in the middle

were my new purchases this month.

The new DMC skeins have already been sucked

into the vortex of the ring of floss

which is being used for Mates.

You didn't miss anything colorful;

they are light grays and beiges. 

My new starts from stash this month were:

Nordic Needle pre-work (click here, if you missed it),

 the pincushion that was part of my

Third Blogaversary Giveaway (click here)

and a Christmas ornament...

 I know this looks a little strange,

but it will be cute when made into a strawberry.

Here's the chart.

It's the one on the top left.

So that's a grand total of $16.20 spent, and $8.80 left.

I have a $25 gift card which can be used as

stash money, so that gives me

$33.80 that I can roll over into February!

I know, too much math!

I hope to do better, money-wise, next month.

That's it from here.

Folks in my area just have to make it

to Wednesday, and the temps

are predicted to rise above 0 degrees F.

Isn't that special?

Stay on the warm side of the door

if you've been visited by Polar Vortex, The Sequel.

Thanks for visiting!