The 2017 List - Part 5

Ah yes, until today I had forgotten about Kindred Spirits, the Ellen Chester workshop that I attended in October 2015.  So many small items that I could pick and choose from:  needle roll, scissor case, ruler case, pipkin...

But what I'm shooting for this year are the three pieces which make up the lining of the sides of the wooden carry-all.  It would be really nice to get those done.  (Lots of over one on 36-count there.)  And I have almost a whole year to do them!

Thanks for visiting!

Have a groovy Saturday.

See you tomorrow.

Leap Year List - November Report

Hey Blog Buddies,

Less than two months left until 2017.  How time flies!  Do you all have a list of projects to stitch for next year?  I do--but I'll wait until January for the Big Reveal.

In the meantime, I'm still plugging away on my 2016 list, which tends to get longer as the year wears on instead of shorter.  What's up with that?  Here's what happened since we last got together.

In the middle of last month I attended another workshop--my last one for this year, I swear!  This one was Ho Ho Santa, taught by Deborah Forney.  It is a cute 3-sided stand up.  

This was our class kit.  Look at all those Rainbow Gallery threads!  And it came with a 30-page instruction book.

Another view of just the threads.  You can't see them all, because they're piled one on top of the other.  On the right side in the plastic sleeve are two bullion needles:  5" and 7" long(!), respectively.

Here are what the three sides of the piece will look like... someday.  Santa's eyebrows, beard and mustache are all bullion knots.  Now I have had a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with bullion knots in the past, especially the ones on canvas. But Debbie sat down and demonstrated the construction of one bullion knot after the other until we were all confident that we could do one.

I'm really excited about my doodle canvas.  I know it's only five knots, but the top right knot has 30 wraps!  Very fiddly, and it took a while to get done, but these things don't just pop into place, even for Debbie.  Fortunately, most of the bullions on the beard are 7 wraps or less, like my row of three on the far left.

The mustache, however, will be the most challenging part of the project.  And look at that red nose!  I think that Santa must be a tippler.

Here is what I've gotten done so far.

(close up of the packages)

I can hardly wait to be able to get back to this fun project.

But enough of that.

Let's get down to brass tacks with the rotation.

First up is Needle Delights Originals' Spring Logs.

Here's where it was last month...

...and this month.

A close up so you can see the texture.

Some of the SAL participants think that the

variegated gray on the outer edge looks

out of place with all of the bright spring colors.

I say that Spring around here is always rainy.

Here's one we haven't seen in a while.
In January, I had 4 of the 6 sides
completed for the pin cube, part of 
With My Needle's Kindred Spirits project.
I have been doing a little here and there
on the last 2 sides during the past few months.

And now I have a completed pin cube.
And I put it together myself!
There was an awful lot of over-one stitching
on 36-count linen here.
I found that cubes are very hard to photograph.
One side always seems to be in shadow,
even with lights on every side.

Here is the bottom of the cube.

Now all I have to finish are
the needle roll,
the scissor case,
the ruler cover,
the pipkin,
and the lining of the wooden carrier!
The pin cube took me a year.
Hmmm, let's see...

Finally, the month wouldn't be complete
without Prairie Schooler's Alphabet.

The D, last month.

And this month--another finish!
The eagle's head was charted in yellow,
but I didn't care for that
so I switched to white and back stitched
in 3371 so that the head would show up.

I even got a modest start on E.
Wanna see? (Of course you do!)

The stitcher on the bottom looks like
she's conducting an orchestra.
I think she needs to sit a little closer to her work.
But her posture's great, though.

 Last month I showed you a little raven
that I had stitched.
This month it's finish finished
courtesy of Averyclaire.

I love the pompom finish.

And here is a pompom tip:
I bought my pompoms from my LNS
and they are fine.
Some discount stores carry
 the mini-pompoms, too.
As I was examining the package in one such store,
I noticed that the material used is
100% nylon, and if the pompoms get
near a hot iron, they will melt
quicker than you can say "Eeek!"
So if you see mini-pompoms in a store,
be sure to check the package.
Just so you know.

That's it from here.
Congratulations if you've read this far.
Thanks for visiting!

Leap Year List

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope your holidays were happy and fun.  Thank you so much for the nice comments on my end-of-year recap post, and throughout last year.  They make my day.

Happy Leap Year!  I've seen quite a few leap years (more than 10, less than 20, heheh), and in my experience, major life events tend to occur during leap years.  My parents' wedding, my birth, our wedding, the adoption of our first dog, and the purchase of our current house all happened in leap years.  Maybe I just have too much time on my hands to be coming up with this trivia?!

Anyhow, I thought I would call my rotation a Leap Year List this year.  It's a catchier name, and I don't usually stick with a strict rotation anyway.  I just stitch what I'm in the mood to stitch on any particular day.  Eleven projects that I'd like to focus on made the list this year, some old, some new.  Let's start with our old friends:

  Dawn Chorus by Long Dog Samplers.

Still haven't fixed that tree, so it's currently at a standstill.

Save the Stitches by Blackwork Journey.

Hopefully including this piece

will inspire me to get going on it.

The formerly neglected A Tree by Itself

by Rosewood Manor.

I worked on it most of last month and

I'm still working on it!

Here's the photo I took at Christmastime.

Notice the treetop with no trunk next to the

rabbits at the bottom left.

Now it has a trunk and flowers.

I count each completed motif as a mini-finish.

Woo-hoo!

Here is Autumn Logs by one of my favorite designers:

Kathy Rees of Needle Delights Originals.

I have done a lot of her pieces,

and have quite a few more in my stash.

This is my ANG chapter's SAL.

Anticipated completion date:  end of June.

Kindred Spirits by With My Needle.

This is the workshop I took in Shipshewana, IN,

in October.

It's true that most of these are smalls,

but taken together,

it's a good-sized project.

I showed these four sides of the pin cube a while ago.

This project has been neglected ever since.

This one is brand new (to me):

The Song They Sang by Carriage House Samplings.

I bought the chart a few weeks ago,

and it just elbowed its way onto the list

(and I even started it!).

The verse starts out:

"It was early, early in the Spring..."

so the drab colors are appropriate for how it looks here in March.

Can you tell that this is my new favorite?

I'm so fickle...

This was an ANG class that I signed up for but missed

because I was out of town at said 

Shipshewana workshop.

The design is by Jennifer Riefenberg.

I haven't started it yet.

It's not huge, but it's tricky because

I have to transfer two designs

onto the canvas: the puzzle pieces and the

overlapping rectangles containing the various stitches.

This one will need some study

before I'm able to start stitching it.

This is a rare (for me) painted canvas:

Chicago Collage by Lynn Deininger.

This has been kitted up in my stash

for at least four to five years.

I have a stitch guide by a third party (not Lynn)

which is complete gibberish to me,

so I'll have to make my own stitch decisions.

I think that a lot of the areas 

will get the tent stitch/basketweave treatment.

Here's another one that hasn't been started:

Blackwork Horse by Tanja Berlin Designs.

Transferring the design to the fabric

will be a challenge with this one.

I won't elaborate here but, trust me,

you'll hear about it down the road.

This one has a deadline, too:  end of July.

I had actually planned to start the

Prairie Schooler Alphabet on January 1st,

but I decided that postponing that start

would be the prudent thing to do!

I have all the charts, and they

keep beckoning me.

So, to satisfy my desire for a PS project,

I plan on starting this one:

It's a much more manageable size,

and I think the verse is very appropriate

for this leap year, too.

Instead of starting the PS Alphabet on January 1st,

I did the sensible thing and finally put some

stitches into this one:

Angles by Debbie Rowley.

I finished the Spratt's Head stitches

--I love that name--

in the upper left corner (Area 1).

For the longest time all I had

was the one blue Spratt's Head stitch.

Area 2 contains the large upright

rice stitches on the diagonal.

Area 3 is made up of four Amadeus stitches.

They are a kind of Rhodes stitch

for those of you not familiar with them.

Only 79 more Areas to go.

Seriously, the chart is 105 pages long

with two additional fold-out sections!

But it contains detailed diagrams of

all the nutty stitches that make up this piece,

so I'm not complaining.  Much.

This is my ANG chapter's challenge project.

If I finish this piece by the end of June,

I'll get rewarded with a tote bag.

If not, I'll owe the chapter's treasury $10.

Gotta get busy.

I have a couple of smaller projects

that I'd like to finish this year, too, namely,

Eastern Bluebird by Tanja Berlin

Yes, the bird is actually finished!

I have to be in the mood to do

the last blossom and all those leaves, though.

and 

Ruby of the Forest by Marsha Papay-Gomola.

This one is from 2011.

Both of these were EGA-sponsored classes.

That's part of how I get into trouble.

And you know that  later on this year, 

something new will

come along and catch my eye

that I'll want to start right away.

It always does.

Wishing everyone a happy,

healthy and stitchy New Year.

Thanks for visiting!

Rotation Recess

Hey Blog Buddies,

Yes, the title of this post says it all.  No new rotation photos this month because I've been ignoring the one new and three original projects in my rotation.  But some months I think of the rotation as merely a suggestion anyway, and this was one of them.

Which isn't to say that I haven't been stitching--I have.  I've been to two classes in the past few weeks.  First, I went to Shipshewana, Indiana.  It's an Amish community in the Northeast part of the state.  The class was With my Needle's Kindred Spirits, which was taught at the end of Inspired Needle's annual retreat.

We stayed at the Farmstead Inn in Shipshewana.

Bucolic, no?

Cathy had a fabulous boutique set up

in the stitching room.

This is only part of it.

There was an optional exchange of smalls.

Some of the items weren't so small!

But on to the class...

Students each received this wonderful wooden carrier.

We are to stitch the linings for the sides

and all the accessories, including a needle roll, 

pipkin (squeezy thing), ruler holder,

pin cube and scissor case (not shown).

We got some lovely green Dupioni silk

with which to line our carrier.

This is my progress so far.

I have four sides of the pin cube done.

The sides are less than two inches long.

That big-looking needle you see

is a petite No. 28.

A lot of the stitching is over one

on 36-count!

Needless to say, this project will take me awhile.
I do want to give kudos to Ellen Chester;
she is a great teacher,
and her written materials are very comprehensive.

Next up was a Tanja Berlin needle painting

class hosted by the Indianapolis

chapter of the EGA.

This was our project.

Tanja's rendition of the bird is stunning.

I'm actually a bit farther on than this photo shows.

It was dreary and rained all day today,

so I didn't document my latest progress.

It's my every-morning-before-breakfast project.

What I don't care for is how

stripey the bottom of his little belly appears.

Perhaps some additional white stitches will do the trick?

I'm finding this project to be a little nerve-wracking,

but will try to stick with it until it's done.

It's the type of project that, once put away,

probably wouldn't get picked back up.

Tanja also is a great teacher,
with detailed step-by-step instructions
that leave nothing to the imagination.
I'm just not sure that needle painting is for me.

I started and finished this little ornie.

Yes, I finish-finished it myself!

It's Prairie Schooler's Winter's Eve, found

in the 2015 JCS Christmas Ornament issue.

Last but not least,

I started another smaller project.

(Really!?  Don't I have enough WIPs!?)

This is the right-hand side of

Plum Street Sampler's

Sampler Lesson No. 3.

The saying is:

"The daily labors of the bee

awake my soul to industry."

I have the other charts in the series,

but chose to start with No. 3.

Well, that's it from here.
Thanks for sticking with me
through this rather long post.

Hope you are having a grand November,
and a Happy Thanksgiving to my US readers.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by.