April Turtle Trot Update

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's April and the big news is that my friend Joyce and I are going to the Nordic Needle Retreat in Fargo, ND (road trip!).  The festivities begin at 7:00p.m. on Wednesday the 9th, with a Dessert Bar, and end at midday on Sunday the 13th with a Farewell Brunch (yes, there is a lot of food involved).  In between the meals we do a lot of stitching, and I will have a recap for you after the Retreat is over.

But meanwhile, we have the Turtle Trot update, which for me this year means the once-a-month update on the progress of my (ahem) rotation.  So, here we go--first is Needle Delights Originals Winter Logs:

 last month

this month

If I can get the rest of the bottom triangle finished
before the next meeting of my ANG chapter,
I'll be all caught up.

Next, we have Cross My Heart's Mates:

last month

this month

This month's progress doesn't even look like that much to me

because it was at least one hour of stitching

(often longer) every day!
And I should have more done, don't you think?

This couple might not see too much action in April

because they are no longer being worked on every day.

That doesn't mean they've been abandoned,

just that they are going to have to find a slot in the rotation.

(Good luck, Wolfies!)

The piece that has taken their place as the once-a-day, every-day stitch is Debbie Stiehler's Autumn Pumpkin Patch, known informally around here as La Calabaza (Spanish for pumpkin).  I did this switch just a few days ago, so don't expect much.

last month

this month

This is the piece that I really want to finish next.
Each of the 16 sections is stitched five times--
they just switch locations--and it's becoming a little tedious.
I still really like the piece, just want it to be finished!
I need to find my zen place with this piece
and think more about the journey than the destination...

And speaking of finishes, I actually have one this month!

Needle Delights Originals Tangerine Twist:

last month

this month

...and a close up of one of the squares so that you can see the beads.

They are Little Charmers,

and the package had an assortment of colors, finishes and sizes.
All the directions said to do was attach them at random,
making sure that you don't get two of the same beads
next to one another!
This is only my third finish for 2014.
(And one of them was a small piece!)
That's what happens when you devote a lot of time to the BAPs.

Check out Claudette's blog, BAP Attack, 
to see what the other Turtle Trotters have been doing.

That's it from here.
Thanks for visiting!

February Turtle Trot

Hey Blog Buddies,
It's time for a first progress report for my Turtle Trot SAL projects, so let's get right to it:

Winter Logs

 Before

 After

The January Guild meeting was cancelled due to weather (sigh),

and the leader of this SAL suggested

that we just wait until the February meeting

to do the next two sections.

(We are doing an eighth at a time.)

I decided to do the piece that we would have normally done
now, and not have a double assignment later.

Autumn Pumpkin Patch

Before

After 

I love this design,

but it is very labor- and time-intensive.

Still hoping to get it finished

by May-June.

Tangerine Twist

 Before

 After

Seems I'm doing a lot of canvaswork this year!

Cool Cardinal

Before  

 After

Without his crest, the cardinal

looks more like a fat, red vulture!

The top photo most accurately depicts the linen color.

99

Before

After

I was only able to stitch 1.2 bottles!
It didn't help that I had to rip out half of the first bottle
and the bottom part of the outline of the second
because I miscounted and they were too long.

Mates

 Before

After

Yes! I'm getting some momentum going here!

My plan of stitching a little on this piece every day

seems to be working!
I'm usually the first up in the morning,
so I've been working on this in the quiet hour before breakfast,
which is good because I need all my concentration for it.
There was a large swath of white block stitching
 in Mr's muzzle this month,
so I may not have quite as much progress to show next month.

I might have overstated in my last post

when I mentioned "ten active WIPs"

because, as you can see, I've only worked on 

six this past month.

The other four are still officially UFOs.
Maybe I'll pick up one of them next month.  Maybe.

I'm itching to finish one of the above pieces

sooner rather than later.

The only two that have any chance of being finished soon

are Cool Cardinal and Tangerine Twist.

Cool Cardinal just has the bird's crest

and a moderate amount of backstitching on the bird.

And 80 large snowflakes.  Yes, I've counted!

Tangerine Twist has only one more square to stitch.

And 240 beads of assorted shapes and sizes need to be attached,
 to be chosen however I decide--no instructions on that.
Any guesses as to which of these
will get finished first?

I went into The City this past weekend
for a needlepoint workshop (more on that in another post),
so I'll leave you with this...

 This is a very common sight in Chicago's neighborhoods.
Lots of folks may not have a garage or, at best,
only a one-car garage, so they have to park in the street.
They have to shovel their car out before they can drive anywhere,
so they reserve that nicely shoveled-out spot
with anything they can get their hands on.
I saw plastic crates and buckets and even a wooden reindeer
this weekend, but lawn chairs or folding chairs
are by far the most common.
It's not really legal and "Mayor Rahm" 
has told people to stop doing this (yeah right),
but the overwhelming consensus at the workshop was
that no one would have the nerve
to move those items and park in those spots!
This doesn't happen in the suburbs, to my knowledge,
just in the city.
Is this strictly a Chicago phenomenon,
or does it happen where you live (if you experience snow)?
BTW, more snow is predicted for this week.

Well, that's it from here.
To see other Turtle Trot progress,
visit Claudette at BAP Attack for all the links.
Thanks for visiting!

A Few Small Things

Hey Blog Buddies,

Happy July!  Yikes, the year is now officially half over!!

I've been fairly busy stitch-wise this week, and have gotten a few small projects completed.  Let's get the photos up:

I may not have finished this project

but I did finish stitching the first square of

Needle Delights Originals' Tangerine Twist.

The canvas that you see showing through on the right

will be covered by Little Charmers orange beads,

which are waiting for me at my LNS.

The beads are a variety of sizes,

and should add a lot to this already eye-popping square.

Obviously, the beads will go on

after all the squares are stitched.

 

Here's a funny story.

When I was stitching on this last Monday,

I was so in the groove that I kept putting off

eating dinner--the "just one more row" mentality.

I vaguely noticed that it was getting very dark outside--

too dark for early evening.

We've had a lot of storms come through here just lately,

so I was unconcerned.  Just more rain.

Little did I know that we were going to get hit with a derecho!

(According to Wikipedia, a derecho is

a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is

associated with a land-based,

fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms.)

When our lights started flickering,

it got my attention fast.

I ran upstairs to put my leftovers from lunch

into the microwave, but I was about a minute too late.

Pouf!  Power out until 10:30 p.m.

Had to make dinner on the gas stove,

and my stitching was on hold until the next day.

There were lots of branches down,

but no damage to our house.

Lots of people had it far worse.

 

The next little project is my

June ornament for the 2013 Halloween SAL.

The theme for the month was mummies/tombs.

  

This is one the headstones from Prairie Schooler's Heads Up leaflet:

stitched on 40-count Heritage linen

(I purchased a large piece of that last year!),

using one strand of Gloriana India Ink

over two threads.

 

I was on a roll this weekend,

so I also started and finished this...

Lizzie*Kate's Summer ABCs,

stitched on 28-count light mocha linen.

I changed the colors on the lettering because

 I wanted to make it look a little more "beachy,"

but used the recommended JABC watermelon button.

 

Last but not least,

I started and finished a charity project for one of my guilds.

 

We are donating a bunch of bibs to PASS,

an organization which assists young single moms.

The incredible part about this finish is

I don't even have to turn it in until the middle of September!!

It's unheard-of for me to be so early!

 

I think this calls for a new start, don't you?

 

That's it from here.

Hope your weekend was fun,

with a little stitchy time thrown in!

Thanks, as always, for visiting!

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!