On a cold winter's night

It is unusually cold here tonight. We have a fire going and I am getting ready to get back to my hummers. I so want to finish that for 2012. I am down to the bottom edge of the design and have started doing the backstitching and fill in of missed stitches. I am pleased with how fast the backstitching is going. I think the end is in sight. This photo is only the bottom half. When I get some of the backstitching done I will add a new picture.  I ran out of 3 colors of thread but Dimensions was very prompt in sending me additional thread. One of the colors I used almost every bit they sent me so the kit was quite short of thread.  I will save up to get it framed for my sister's birthday mid-year. I am looking forward to picking something else up to stitch!

There are several designs on the WIP list that are not making any progress that would love to see some stitching time. I am still working on my organizing so I will be ready when the stitching time comes around. I still have a lot of work to do to get my stitching room in order. It just seems to multiply. I did find out this week at Thursday night stitch a resource to donate my quilt type fabric pieces to that I know I will never use. I don't mind giving it away if someone can use it. I am going to box that up and get it out first. That will free up quite a bit of closet space. There are also some old clothes that need to go to the donation bin as well. That will also open up some space. I have a couple of boxes of older designs that I no longer think I would use that I am going to donate to a local group that holds classes for kids to learn different sewing methods. I have a large rubbermaid box to go to the kids learning to stitch as well. I may take some to the little consignment shop and see if there is any interest. I have a large box of stash that a friend gave me to try to sell for her so I am going to inventory it and put it up for sale.I am going to add some stretcher bars of mine to the list and see if someone that loves them would like to have them. I use a different brand than I used to and the old ones are just taking up space. I can raise some money that way to fund the improvements I want to make.  If I just get all of that done I will have made a huge dent in organizing the area.
I spent a lot of time on the internet looking for ways to organize a stitching room that doesn't involve a large cash outlay. Mine really needs some help. I need to sort my fabric so I know what I have. I would like to be able to sort it by count and shades of color but not sure what to put it in to keep it in order.  am thinking of shallow drawers that I have seen before.  I am going to do an excel inventory for it and print it so I can look at a glance what I have so I don't order what I don't need.  I am trying to figure out the best way to organize my threads and patterns. The threads give me the biggest problem. I am going to get some boxes to organize the patterns in but my over-dyed threads need a better system.  I am not sure I want to go the baggie route but that may end up being the best I can do. Over-dyed ribbon is something else I would love to find a good way to organize.  My DMC are well organized in Thread Bed notebooks that fit nicely on the shelves. I found apps for the phone that will allow me to keep up with the thread inventory (and my Mill Hill beads) so I know what I need in each of the thread categories I use the most. My patterns will go by designers in boxes in the old wardrobe I have in the stitching room now. That way they will be behind closed doors but labeled so I can find the pattern by designer quickly.
I have a lot of project bags so I can get everything I want to work on organized with threads, fabric and pattern to make it easy to move between them as I move through the rotation. I have some nice plastic bags a friend gave me that work well for WIP storage as well.
So, I have done lots of looking, planning and drawing out the changes but not so much of the working on cleaning it up part. I have a couple of things I want to get to add to the usefulness of the room. I am making my list for the garage sale season though I think some of the items will come from Joann's. I want a counter high small ironing board for in there that will fit behind a door until I need it and some larger cutting boards. I am also looking for a table that I can put a cutting pad on that is high enough to use for comfortable cutting and probably to hold the ironing board as well.   My sewing room is a very small area so I have to be careful to leave room to sit and stitch. I have a good chair and an excellent light. So I have a wonderful start. Like my stitching I enjoy planning my space.
Off to get some stitching in. Hope you find some stitchy time in your day.

Still plugging away

Most of my stitching is samplers or smalls, which you probably know if you have been following here for any length of time. I do have a few large picture designs that I want to do, most of them florals. When you live somewhere where Winter is the dominant season you sometimes have to grow your flowers with needle and thread. One of the flowers I have come to love since moving to Alaska is the peony. We have a plant growing in the front yard that through total neglect by me produces beautiful blooms all summer. They make me smile every time I see them. I have quite the collection of peony graphs for stitching. During the last online needlework show I found a peony biscournu to do which seems a more doable size flower to stitcher considering the never ending hummers. I think I will add it to the line up for the new year.
As you can tell I am trying to get organized for next years stitching line up. In years past I belonged to a group online that had a challenge to do one strand a day on a project that was not a regular rotation piece but that you really wanted to finish but were not currently motivated to work much on. That worked surprisingly well for me and I think I will bring it back for next year. I will pull something from the Longgggggggg WIP list to put in that position.
So for rotation the way I have done it in years past I pick 4 pieces to change every Monday. I get most of my stitching time over the weekend. Variations on this included having something different that I only stitched on at my weekly stitch night with my friends. Having a project that I did just one strand a night and then moved back to the rotation piece. I almost always carry a piece with me in my purse for unexpected down time ( I also have my IPod which only has podcasts and books on tape just in case).
I also used to have a piece in my car for travel stitching. If you have even been to Alaska you know nothing is close and drive time can be several hours. During the summer with all that lovely long hours of daylight that is prime stitching time. So I have a little stitching bag I keep in the back seat just in case. Right now there are two smallish Santa designs in there. Sometimes I think I enjoy the planning as much as I do the stitching!

So 2013 rotation as it stands now
Maryland sampler from Heartease
A gift for a friend
Dorothy Walpole
The hummers and then Ann Bowers or Common Grounds by Just Nan
ATS will be my One strand a night piece
Peony Biscournu, then White work sampler, the EGA Piece from the WIP pile for Thursday night
In the car monthly freebies teacups and teapots
Purse piece mill hill moose, then stockings from BBD

So other than the gifts for friends, and SAL pieces the rest are all from the WIP pile. I am committed to getting the pile smaller! I stitch slowly though so it will take a while. And it may not go this way at all as plans are held loosely here. I am more likely to accomplish more if I have decided ahead of time what I want to do as opposed to getting lost in the stash room looking for a WIP I know I have "somewhere". Over December I will tweak the list, dust off the project bags and arrange the current rotation into my big pink stitching bag so it is an easy move from one piece to the next. Of course, I am determined not to start this until I finish the hummers so off I go to pull them out to put a few more stitches in. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have some stitching  time in your day!
Marjo

Wedding design

A good friend got married and I really wanted to do a small piece for her. She has moved away with her new husband and I really really miss her. I wanted to do something nice so I decided to do a Sweetheart Tree design that I thought would suit. The problem was that she used blue for her wedding colors and the kit came with pink threads. With the help of my stitching friends and Cathy at the Inspired Needle I was able to find what I needed to get it as close to her colors as was possible. My framer was able to almost exactly match the blue with a lovely mat and so I was quite pleased with the framed results.  I enjoyed stitching this for her and now that the package has been received I can share this with you.  I deleted their names for their privacy but I must tell you getting the names centered was the most difficult part of the stitching (once I got the colors picked out).
I gave this and a tin of royal wedding tea to the bride and groom as a much belated wedding gift.
The best part of all for me was my friend showed up as a surprise at our stitching group Thursday. It was so good to see her and hear all about her new life. Best surprise of the season for me! I love the group of ladies that welcomed me when I first came to Alaska, they are wonderful indeed. I really appreciate having each one of them to call friend.
Well for me it is back to the hummingbirds. I was able to contact the company since I have run out of three colors of green threads with 34 rows left to stitch. The threads are not DMC  or Anchor and so it would be an obvious change in dyelots. The threads have been difficult to stitch with, breaking and knotting up terribly. I am way over on some colors with multiple strand that will be left over and am afraid that I will run out of two more colors before it is done. That is the reason I usually don't stitch kits unless they are from one of the Sampler companies. I am hoping the threads will come soon as I would like to get this one off the WIP list by the end of this year. Off to stitch!
Hope you find some stitchy time in your day. Marjo

Stitching update

The wonderful group of ladies I stitch with on a weekly basis just had our fall stitching retreat. Two of our number moved away this last year so we were a smaller group than in years past. It was a little sad but we managed to have a lot of fun none the less. We met at one of the ladies' house and she made wonderful soups for us to enjoy after an awesome breakfast. We each brought something to share food wise and as always food was not an issue. We started early in the morning and stitched all day long.

I worked all day on the Hummingbird Kit. I made surprising little progress. I took a ton of other things to stitch and did not do more than bring it out of my stitching bag and look at it. I really want to get this design finished and off to the framers to be ready for gift giving. It will be for the next year not this one. But I will get it done. 

My friend with the only Ta-Da from our gathering.

In getting ready for the retreat, I went through my stash. Yes, well. I am trying to get ready for next year. It is already November  and I have so many stitching goals I get overwhelmed just thinking about it. I am going to continue with the hummingbird kit until I get it done. At the first of the year I am going to try to join the With My Needle SAL and see if this is the year I can keep up with it. Other than that I will stick to stitching from the WIP list. It is a long list. So I was thinking of what I wanted to get done this next year. Several things on the list are past class pieces, some are gifts and others are designs I still love but put down for one reason or another. I still want to stitch them all. So I thought I should deside what other designs I was going to pull from the list to get a little stitching time this year. I am going to do one other new one that is a gift for a friend and will start it as soon as the hummers are done.  The other 2 spots have yet to be decided. I try to do something small  for one of them so I can say I finished something. I am way behind on the BBD stockings and I have more ornaments that I want to stitch that any tree could hold. So much to choose from.  I want to have something small to carry with me for those times I end up with time on my hands and could use it to ply needle and thread. I think it will be the Moose magnet from Mill Hill for my travel piece. Not sure what will round out my rotation but since it will be December by the end of this week I better get it figured out.
Well, off to stitch. It is cold and clear here. Hope you find a warm place to get a little stitchy time in this week.
Marjo

Stitching disappointment

As I cannot seem to manage to get anything finished I really should never buy anything new. When I was in Salt Lake City for training for my new job I had to visit Shepherd's Bush. I absolutely loved it. I spent all morning there on Saturday. It was right before their birthday celebration and the retreat they hosted this year so the shop was full to the bring with lovely stuff. I think I handled everything in there. I did buy a few things there. Who could resist? I sat for quite a while looking at designs that I love as well as some I had never seen before. The result was a modest haul of new stuff to add to my embarrassingly large stash. Sigh. I always think I will not buy anything at least until I get my stash under control but something shiny catches my eye and there I go again. But my vacation is a totally different story.....

I just got back from vacation to see my husband's family. I was so excited to be going to the lower 48. I spent quite a bit of time looking at designs that I wanted, hoping to do some local shopping while we were there. I knew there is a local active EGA group there so I was in hopes of stitching to be seen. Well, nothing to be had. There was one lovely Needlepoint store but no cross stitch. I was so disappointed. This was unexpected to me as there were several stores listed within driving distance but they were all closed or not cross stitch stores. Sigh.
I then turned my mind to Hobby Lobby as there is a Christmas Ornament design coming out that uses a paper mache box from there. Since I have no such animal here I thought I would try finding a Hobby Lobby. Nope, not a one within 50 miles of where we were. Due to family obligations I could not venture farther than that but sadness, no Hobby Lobby either. I settled for getting some DMC at Joann's and that was an epic fail. So, a week of vacation = no stitchy shopping for me.
But we did visit a couple of Amish stores to look a the quilts. Only a few handmade quilts but it was a fun store. I don't think it is run by the Amish anymore but the new owners have kept the old name. It was fun to go through all the same.

Not much stitching got done either....not sure where that week went but I didn't get much done. I am a little farther along but still a good ways left to go plus all the backstitching. I will get this done and framed for her birthday next year I suppose. Well off to stitch.
Hope you have some stitchy time in your week.
Marjo

Back from the framers

I usually save up my money and take a bunch of things in at once to get my items framed. I think it drives my framer nuts but it always seems to work that way.

I joined a SAL a while ago for Sail Away by Shepherd's Bush. I love that piece and had great fun finishing it. Of course I was the straggler in the group, always the last to finish. I love it though and found the perfect frame to finish it.
I wanted to show you a close up of the frame for this one but it didn't come out as well as I would like. It is not brown at all but a grey that has a blue gray outer edge to it.  I may have to use this one again. (Of course that means I actually have to finish something first!)

I enjoy the designs by Blackbird Designs. I stitched this one a long time ago. I read the chart wrong and used the red for the roof instead of the orange color it called for. I didn't catch it until I was over halfway done and a friend who was also stitching it at the same time commented her thread on the roof was more orange than mine. That is when I realized I had used the wrong color. It turned out to be a happy mistake for me. I like the red better.

One of my favorites that I did  is Beneath the Sunlit sky by BBD. The colors with this one were lovely. I love the beach and this makes me smile every time I look at it. The frame is greener than it looks in the photo but no matter how many times I took a picture of it I could not get the true color of the green. I enjoyed stitching this one a lot.  I love the beach. Sigh.
I would use this frame again as well if it is still being made when I get And They Sinned completed.

I also finished a Sweetheart Tree, With This Ring for a recently married friend. I can't post the picture until I get it in the mail to her. I will show it as soon as I know she has received it.

Matchless Grace by Heartstring Samplery. This sweet little sampler was so much fun to stitch. I fell in love with this sampler over the little blue flowers that go in different directions around the edge. I kept all the mistakes as charted as well as I thought that was part of the charm of this piece.

Quaker Hornbook was done a really long time ago. I am so glad to finally get it ready for the wall. The colors are not my usual palate  but they seemed to really work with this and I love how it turned out. The frame came from Brokenwheel Wood worker not from my framer.

So much fun to be able to add some new things to my wall that I so enjoyed stitching over the last several years. I also mailed out two pieces to Jill Rensel to frame because I wanted to see what she would do with the mat for CHS Alphabets. I can't wait. I also sent her the small darning sampler I finished.
Well, off to work on the hummers yet some more. I fear they will never be finished. I am really afraid I am going to run out of thread. The design will just have about 2 inches around it I hope. Not only was the kit short of the poor quality thread it is going to be a tight fit for the fabric as well. I will be glad to have that one on the finish pile for sure.  Well off to it. Hope you have some stitchy time in your day.
Marjo

Updates

I have been busy for the last while as you can tell from my lack of posting to my blog. I have taken a new job, gone to the lower 48 for training and come back to Alaska to start the job and stitching all the time. I have been stitching on the Hummingbird design for the last several months, I am totally afraid if I put it down I will never touch it again.  This is the progress from this weekend.

I still have a good bit more to do on it but I am making progress. I am leaving the backstitching until the end so I can do it while watching TV.

I did get all my pictures back from the framer. I will post pictures of them next time.

Hope there is lots of stitchy time in your day. Marjo