Stitching all the things

 October has been a month of many fun needlework gatherings. Courtesy of Zoom I was able to attend a gathering at Winterthur Museum where there were several lectures and live panels that we could send in questions to the panel and they could respond. It was great to someone like me who love the history of stitching but is fairly isolated from that type of education where I live. I have also been able to attend several meetings of a Sampler group I below to in another state and I love it. I have gotten to meet a bunch of people that I had seen their names in the newsletter and have people to stitch with that have similar interests in samplers. I have an absolutely lovely group of ladies I stitch with in Alaska that meet most every week to stitch and chat. Even though many of our members have moved away we discovered Zoom and once a month we get together whoever can join in and chat. It has been wonderful for us to be able to do that. I am blessed I know but it has been fun to expand to different types of stitching as well. I am also attending another presentation by a group call Relics in situ online who offer lectures in regards to needlework. This one offered a small kit of one of the projects for I got that from their Etsy shop. It is all very interesting to me. This is the kit I am getting this time.

I am also joining in for two classes with the Shining Needle Society an online educational group. One is with Catherine Theron and it is a strawberry purse piece. and the other is an annual Christmas ornament that is offered by Barbara Jackson and it is a Colonial Pineapple ornament. I will share a picture when the kit arrives. None of these kits are large and they give me a break from the really bigger designs I always gravitate toward. 

My focus piece continues to be Mary Wigham. I so want her on my very small Quaker wall. Once I realized it was on 45 count linen and not 40 it made sense to me why I was struggling a bit since normally I don't have any issue with 40 count linen. 45 is a different ball of wax for me and I have to be sure I am counting the threads correctly. This is where I am currently. I love it. I love the feel of the fabric, and the colors of the threads. I can never get quite the right colors in my photos but in real life the colors chosen by the Attic Needlework ladies are just lovely. I wish I had started a needlework notebook for keeping details way longer ago but moving forward I will be able to look all these things up. 

So I am having ongoing issues with blogger. I found that as I was updating the links and lists on the sideline that someone had imbedded in my list of blogs I follow a non stitching link that I did not subscribe to. When I went under my tools to delete it that blog was not on the list but the link was definitely there when I went back. I tried cleaning up the list but that one persisted at the top of the list so for now I have deleted it because it was not a blog I wanted linked to my blog in anyway. I will add that feature back on once I figure out how to make sure that doesn't happen. My apologies to anyone who clinked on a link and went to a non stitching related blog that I did not subscribe to.

Back to rotation update. I am continuing with the current rotation until the end of the year with class pieces thrown in and will update with pictures as I go. Hope you have some stitch time in your day. Marjo

Trying again

I am focusing on trying hard to get my WIP count moving down to the current astronomical number to a more manageable number and to get them finished. The current very loose rotation I am working on is And They Sinned spurred on by so many recent finishes or near finishes from folks I follow on Instagram. So this is where I started this rotation in April. I have worked on it on and off until yesterday when I decided it was time to move on. 

and this is where I ended up: this is the end of the first page which is equivalent to 2 regular pages for most charts. 

The next thing I have in my rotation is Mary Wigham from Needleprint. I have been working on this for a really long time but it is slow going. I love it, I am just a slow stitcher. 

This is where I am starting back on Mary. The colors of the linen in any of my pictures is much grayer than in real life but the thread colors are pretty true to life. After going back to old posts about Mary I realized she is on 45 count and has been a WIP for far to long so she was my focus piece for Sampler September. at the end of September this is where I ended up. 

I have also been working on The Bluebird Trail by Crossed Wing Collection. The linen is their hand dyed option for this design and I think a couple of more of their designs. It is the perfect rendition of the sky in my humble opinion. 

But there is far too much gray to be stitched but no ever going to get finished if I don't keep working on it. My good friend just finished her's and it is beautiful. This will stay in rotation next year. I have got to get some more progress on this one. 

Fall in my little corner of the world comes quickly and leaves even quicker. We are full on headed to winter up here with cold mornings in the 30's and not getting out of the 40's most days. It is beautiful though. 

My stitching with friends piece. This is a freebie from JABCO if you bought the buttons. It is the December teacup of 12 months of teacups. There is also a series for teapots that I got offered as kits from Drema from Needlecraft Corner. She often has little kits offered on her site and since my stitching friends and I always had tea when we met it only seemed fitting to get these kits. She has quite a few SB kits of their freebie designs and many others. Great for quick stitches to fill a bowl or decorate with, I think this will be a stand up when I finish it. 

A picture taken by a friend from her house of the Knik Arm and Sleeping Lady in the background. The sky has given us several dramatic sunsets this year. 

This is Anniversaries of the Heart by Blackbird designs. Second on Valentine House. This is my Friday off the Grid floss tube stitch. I usually only stitch on it when I am watching Caroline. Since she posts daily but for only a few minutes while she is at the cottage it gets some frequent work but not long periods. 

I started an old chart that I have had in my stash for a very long time for High Tea and the #HRHsal2020 with a group on Instagram. First new start all year so I felt that it was okay to have one new start this year of only stitching from stash. Like many people (at least I don't think I am the only one) I have more stash than I will ever stitch. I have sold a lot of it and continue to weed out what I know I will never do and just keep the ones I love. Still have way too much but slowly getting my stitching room into someplace I can sit and stitch. 

and lastly my lone knitting project. This is my first attempt at a shawl. It is the Wellington worksock shawl by Sam Lamb. It will be bordered in a color other than the called for creme. 

Well until next time I hope you have lots of stitchy time in your day. Marjo

No excuses, just progress. (Picture heavy)

I am trying my best to update my blog to be current with what I am working on but let’s face it. I just can't keep up. 2020 has not been kind and my needlework, now more than ever brings me just a bit more joy. So in an effort to share where I am and what I am doing, here we go. Last year was the year of gift stitching,  and I literally spent the year working on Wedding gifts for two couples very dear to me. I let the brides - to - be pick the patterns and that is what I stitched last year. I am not a very good deadline stitcher- my life does not lend itself to that very easily- but I made great effort to stay on task and I got it done on time and delivered before the weddings. By then it was end of 2019 and about all I stitched after that was Christmas ornaments. I did however makes lots of plans of what I was going to stitch in 2020.

My Big Toe Design The wedding Sampler

Kooler Design Co. Wedding Sampler

I have so many WIPs that I decided that no new big starts until the WIP pile was decreased at least a little. Lofty goals for someone like me who is a slow stitcher. I am however very stubborn and have so far resisted any temptation to start something new. I have a few to share. These are all long ago started, still very much loved and now they are finished. First up is Alpine Garden from
The Drawn Thread. This was long ago started (reallyI have no idea) and I made a mistake with the top tree line and into long term timeout it went. I finally pulled it out and finished it in 2020. One of my next finishes was Random Thought also by The Drawn Thread. This just needed me to finish the hemstitching in order to be done. Blogger will not let me upload that picture so that will have to be next time.

Alpine Garden by The Drawn Thread

For some reason blogger is giving me fits with uploading photos so I will end with these two small finishes. April from the ladies at Shepherds Bush; the second is a Little House Needleworks Ornament Pine Tree Inn. 

For now I will close and hope this finds you well. Take some time time to put needle to thread and see you soon. Marjo