First Finish!

after Brigitte that is. Not a big project, but feels good none the less. One more block done in my quilt, 21 more to go! This is Lupine from Carolyn's Meadow.














I'm finishing up a gift for a friend who had a baby 2 weeks after Brigitte, and then I get a new start. I think it will be Spring Spell from Just Nan, since it seems that Summer Spell is on its way. I'm going to try to get back on my finish 2, start 1 project in order to get my WIP list down to a more manageable amount. I've been cheating, there are some not even on my sidebar list, so I've got work to do.

Update and SBQ

The lack of updates doesn't mean I haven't been stitching - just means I've been too lazy to download and post my pictures.

Here is my Christmas Chickadee - didn't manage to get the finishing done though.









Since that finish, I've been working on the March house for the country house SAL, finally finishing it up today. I'd miscounted the border and had to redo part, which took a bit longer than expected. I'm not sure if I'll catch up with January and February in March though. I'll work on A New Baby for a while then, and will try to get a picture in before I'm off to the hospital.









This week's SBQ is:
Do you use your needle, a seam ripper, or something else when you have to frog stitches? Why do you use the method that you do?

It depends on how many I have to frog. If its just a few, I'll use my needle. If there are a lot, but the back is clear, I'll use my little beaded frogging tool (see pic). If there is a lot, or there are a few colours making the frogging more tangly, I'll use my boo-boo snips (see pic) to get me started. I've never tried a seam ripper.

Bee Pinkeep

Another finish for today - I'm on a roll! Here is the Bee Pinkeep from the January issue of the Gift of Stitching (a LHN/CCN collaboration). I'm going to try and get some nice backing fabric for this tomorrow and finish it up into a little pillow.

Stitching details:
28 ct Haystack (Kiwi Illusions) Lugana from CountryStitch
recommended DMC threads
17-19 February 2007

February SAT Part 1

It's SAT weekend, and I have a new finish! This is the mystery flower sampler from last summer from Kissy Cross. I stitched it on 16 count white aida using DMC in 413, 470 and 3803.

I finished stitching the borders on my flower sampler this morning, and then decided that I would do the finishing as well while I was at it. I think it turned out pretty well - this was the first time I'd used a pillow form rather than stuffing and I got the dimensions right, although one of the seams was pretty tight. Unfortunately the colours don't match any of the rooms in our house right now, so I'll have to find a space for it until we finish decorating. I'm happy to get this done for a few reasons - one is that it's been hanging around for almost a year, so its about time it got done. But the other is that its one of my aida projects. I'm not starting any more projects on aida (at least not planning too) except for my flower quilt blocks. Now I'm down to only 3 aida projects, so I have more room for stitching on funner fabrics.

I'm now working on the Bee pinkeep from gift of stitching - its on the country stitch fabric that Nicki sent me for the cat lady exchange last fall - glad I finally found the perfect use for it. Hopefully pictures tomorrow.

Chicory

Rather than work on any of the projects I'd really planned to do, I decided to finish up my Chicory piece (Carolyn's Meadow). At least its off my table and leaves me free to do something else tomorrow.









I was getting ready to start my Cranberry sampler, when I realized I had the wrong fabric. I'd ordered cream linen but recieved antique ivory by mistake. Hard to tell if this will make a difference, but as there is stitching with really light colours, probably better to change. Unfortunately I don't have a swatch to compare with - just going by the recommended fabric. So doesn't look like I'll get this started in January like I had planned. Also waiting on fabric for my baby sampler. Not having much luck with my new projects, so I guess I'll have to work on some older ones tomorrow.

2nd finish

Yesterday I started this little kit I had from the Carolyn's Meadow series called Comfrey. I made a few changes to the colours, as I didn't like the combination of fuchsia (cross-stitches) and purple (backstitches) together in the flowers. I think I have 7 others in the series, and there is a total of 24 I think. While I might use this for a card if needed, I think I'll try to keep it - once I get some of the others done it might make a nice little quilted wallhanging. We'll see how they all come out.

Since the football wasn't over yet when I finished Comfrey, I took out le Temps qu'il fait and stitched block 9. Worked out well - finished just as the 2nd game ended. Here is the block and my progress to date. Only 47 more blocks to go!

First Finish of 2007

I thought that I might finish it last year, but needed a few hours this morning to get the beads on. Not only did I like the pattern, but it included some specialty stitches and beading, which I hadn't done before. As I have a bunch of patterns in my stash that require that, it was nice to get some practice in on a smaller piece so as not to get too frustrated later.

Just Nan: Beaded Rose
Dec 28 2006 - Jan 1 2007
28 ct Smokey Pearl Linen with DMC





When I finished this, I looked through my WIP drawer to see what was calling me. I managed to find my fabric for my flower sampler (Kissy Cross) so stitched block 4 on that. Here is the block and what the piece looks like all together.
I also put a few stitches into the border of a card I found while looking for something else, but as its solid yellow stiching the picture is pretty boring so far. I'd forgotten about that start, but as its been less than a year, its no yet on my UFO list, still a WIP. But I'll try to finish it anyways.

I downloaded my copy of the Gift of Stitching today, and was very tempted by the Bee Pinkeep. But I think I'm going to work a bit on my Regatta piece before I start that one. To try and meet my UFO goals, I decided to try and stitch at least 10 hours on a UFO this month, and so far that one is screaming the loudest so I'll try to work on it before.

I haven't stitched this much in a day in a long time - my arm is tired so off to bed!

Another busy day

I had another finish today, but I don't think I'm even going to post a picture - I was this close to throwing it out. In the end I couldn't throw my little squirrel out, so managed to finish it. While there isn't much I like about it anymore, at least I can start something new with a clear conscience.

I also did the finishing for my Christmas duck ornament. This is now on its way to Africa along with the card I also made today. I have one more ornament to make this year and have signed up for the SAL on the Robin's Nest to help me along. It will be Valerie Pfeiffer's Christmas Chickadee from the last WOCS. I have everything I need for it, but won't start it quite yet, as I had something else I wanted to start first and have a gift to finish up too.

I forgot to post about the lovely fabric I got in the mail this week too. 32 count lugana in Silver Mist (Silkweaver) for my next start, along with 5 pieces from the odds and ends assortment. I also got a fat quarter of cashel linen in Baby Lotion with my SEP from Traditional Stitches. The rest of the package didn't inspire me a lot, although I did like the chart freebies that came with it. I'll give it a few more months before deciding whether I continue with it.

And finally, here's my new start. Being that the sampler started in January, I'm quite late, but oh well. First of 52 blocks from the Temps qu'il fait sampler. Stitched on the Silver Mist with DMC 3838. Since most of the blocks are out, I can stitch in groups rather than the mystery order they came out it, so lots less gridding for me!

I've loosened up my rotation a bit. I have things that are inspiring me more and things with deadlines. So I've decided that I can stitch anything on my 5-item list whenever I want, but can't add anything new until one is finished. Hopefully this will help - I still havent' been able to find my missing fabric so couldn't keep it strictly anyways.

Off to stitch some more

Finishes

It's been a busy day. I was home again today and managed to get a lot of stitching done. First up, finished my zebra. This is another one of my UFOs that I wanted to get out of the way. I don't even like it anymore, but having so many UFOs around was just dragging me down and making me feel bad about the fun stuff. So trying gradually to get them out of the way, especially the ones I have no interest for. I could just throw them out, but with my habit of buying/starting everything that catches my eye, I think it would be a slippery slope to start on. Of course, some of them are so old I may have lost the patterns and stuff, so we'll see. But I feel better, 1 more down.

Once I got that done, I started and finished a Christmas ornament for my SIL. Obviously a very quick stitch, but lots of fun nonetheless.

Next on the list is to revive my Kissy Cross mystery sampler. At least I hope, right now I can't find my fabric - oops!