a little bit of progress

I have been stitching a little bit on the monthly teacup designs that were out a couple of years ago or so. I collected  them but never stitched them. I stitched this yesterday. There are lots of reflections from the magnifier-  we are adding more light but not that much yet so evening pictures are always after dark. That is the top of the cap and the handle of the cup. I am going to keep working on this tonight. I would love to get this finished and move onto another month. At this rate it would be February's cup. I have also been stitching on Dorothy Walpole, my January 1st start. I am loving this. I decided to move all the way across the top because I wanted to be sure I had cut the fabric correctly.  I was afraid I was too narrow but no, it is good.

I am also working on the monthly January Blackbird stockings. I just picked one up last night. It was great fun and hope to finish it tonight.  I am so enjoying these designs.

Santa by Homespun Elegance is coming along. I have taken it with me to my stitch group but it works for me for late night stitching when I am tired.  I am waiting for the thread to come in for the bag Santa is carrying but I still have plenty to do.
Hope you have some stitchy time this week.
Marjo

Progress of an odd sort

Homespun Elegance Gifts to you

I am sure this will be perfectly clear what I am stitching on this week, or maybe not. I have been working late hours and by the time it is stitching time here at home  I have been too tired to work on small count fabric so I decided to pull out this Santa from Homespun Elegance and put some stitches into it. It is on huge count fabric and boy does it eat up the thread. This is his shoulder (in case you couldn't tell) and there is much more to fill in. I found as I was working on this that I do not have all the thread for it. So another order had to be made. Having to place an order just for thread is one of the biggest aggravations of living in Alaska. So instead of moving on  to his bag of goodies I had to go back to his red coat. I guess I could have moved over the other way toward the beard, I will head there when I pick up later.

Sally Munro Essamplaire

Tonight was supposed to be our stitch night but the weather is so bad we just decided to stay home. I have read all the blogs I follow, looked at all the stores I like online and signed up for the Essamplaire class as well. Just what I need is another project but I have loved the look of this one since it came out in a previous newsletter. Picture is from the Essamplaire website. I enjoy taking classes as I always learn so much and I have always enjoyed the classes from Essamplaire.
I leave you with a picture from my drive home, this female was headed into the hospital stopping for a snack as I was headed home, note the blowing snow out there....that is why I am home stitching.....
Hope you have some stitchy time in your day.

Marjo

New beginnings, progress and a finish too

Dorothy Walpole on V. Pecan Butter 

I was able to find all the parts I needed, get the piece on the scroll rods and spend some time stitching  on Dorothy Walpole. I love it. The colors are great and I am going to enjoy this piece. At least that is how I felt till I actually got the stitches into place and found I just didn't like the color fabric I had gotten. It is way too distressed and way too green for me. I tried to like it and then just decided I needed to find a better color and get on with it so I changed out the fabric and am so much happier with it. I am sad I spent more time messing with it than stitching on it but a beginning is always good.

Mary Wigham Needleprint

I am working on Mary Wigham as part of a SAL on Facebook. It has been much neglected, but even a little progress is a good thing.
 I am also going to try to do something that I used to do to get a stuck in the water WIP going and that is put in just one strand of thread a day into a piece. ATS is the piece I chose and one strand for me will be one length of floss a day. I just feel like if I don't do that I won't ever get it done. And I have to get it done, really I do, I had found the perfect frame for it. I even have the wall space for it. Sigh. I will work on it in rotation but I will also try to get in a strand a day as this is such a huge piece.
My first finish of the year is a BBD stocking from the December patterns 'Merry Christmas'.  I really am enjoying stitching them and can't wait to have them all done. They are an easy travel piece.

BBD December stocking, Merry Christmas

I usually stitch in a rotation by weeks. Recently with my limited stitching time that has ceased to work for me any more. I just try to keep a few active WIP going at any one time and focus on them till I hit a wall and then take another one out of the WIP basket.  It keeps me stitching on that huge pile and makes me happy to be able to put needle to thread as often as I can.


Hope you had time for stitching in your day. Marjo

So what are you stitching on New Year's Day

Happy New Year

Having 2 holidays back to back has given me the unique opportunity to have 2 short work weeks back to back which means I get to stitch a little bit more. I have so enjoyed that. I decided this year I would do a New Years Day start and have been through my huge stash and came up with quite a list to choose from. I chose Dorothy Walpole. I have wanted to stitch that since I first saw the original on the Scarlett Letter website several months ago. I love the colors. I am using the Attic conversion for fabric and silks. I am glad because the fabric that came with it didn't seem right to me. I had to go find scroll rods that would hold it. I love stitching.

BBD Snowy Eve Stocking

BBD Merry Christmas

I did have one last finish for the 2011 round up of the second of the December stockings, and almost finished the third but was just too tired to stay up any more. I will work on it today to try to finish so I can move onto the January stockings. I am really enjoying these little stockings and look forward to having them on a tree for next year.  I am going to continue with my ornament stitching so I always have a small to work on to fill in travel stitching time or just so I get an occasional finish.

I decided last night I really need to take some things into the framers soon. My new to me office at work has totally blank walls and I think I would rather see my stitching there than anything else. I have several that are needing to be done. I think I am going to try mailing some to the framer by the Attic to see  how the cost compares and the quality. I have only found one framer up here that does needlework but choices are limited up here. I will take a couple of pieces to her this week if I can and then wait for the sales the other framer has to try them.
Hope your New Year"s Day is full of stitching.
Marjo

Stitching time

Stitching time always means progress time for me. I have spent a lot of time stitching (lovely!) and quite a bit of time planning what I am going to stitch next.  I always make new year stitching plans but they are always loose plans knowing that if something screams loudly form my WIP basket or the kitted and ready to go basket plans will change. I am close to several small finishes and of course would hope 2 or three of them could be done with any diligence at all by year's end. I would love to have all my current small things done by then so I can start the year with new things from the WIP pile.
I am still in love with ATS and will continue to stitch on it throughout 2012.
I want to start the January BBD stockings so I have kitted them up and they are ready to go. The December ones were such a fun stitch.  I loved them.
I want to join the SAL on the Attic website for Ann Dale. It is another of those really big projects that I love that I want to try to keep up with. Doubt I will be able to but there is nothing wrong with trying.
There is a sampler Facebook group that is doing a SAL on Mary Wiggins and since mine is in the WIP pile I may join them for the motivation.
I would like to see what Ellen from With My Needle has planned for her newsletter stitching. I love the idea that I am stitching along with other stitchers on the same projects. I may join that one depending on the choices.
I want to do a block of the month type design and since I have Anniversaries of the Heart started I will probably stick with that to whittle down the WIP pile. I have several others I would love to stitch already kitted up but I am such a slow stitcher.
Speaking of the WIP pile....I have been looking at the list and decided to take some different types of stitching off of there and see what progress I can make. So for now the list to work on for 2012 is
Anniversaries of the Heart
And They Sinned

Blackbird stockings Jan – Nov

2 sets of Halloween stockings

Scotty Biscornu gift

Whitework drawn thread sampler (EGA class piece)

Crewel confidence (EGA Group correspondence course

Mystery sampler (EGA group project)

Hummingbird kit gift

Common Ground

Santa pillow Homespun Elegance gift

SHT wedding sampler for a friend

Mary Wiggins with a SAL

Bluebird Box by Crossed Wing Collection
The last newsletter from the Attic  put me in the  mood to stitch one of my Darlene O'Steen samplers that has been sitting around for a while kitted and ready to go, either the Proper Stitch sampler or Pinks.  I am drawn to band samplers and haven't had one in the pile for a while. Wonder if I can find it, either one......

5 of these are very small pieces and some are close to being finished so the list is not as daunting as you would think. Of course added to that are two SAL's that will be new starts that are alway large projects. I of course feel free to add and subtract as I go as the WIP list is long and varied. I feel like as long as I am stitching from the WIP basket I am meeting my long term goal to whittle it down.
This year I am doing something really different for me.  Starting in May I am taking a class on designing a needlework casket. I think this will be an ambitious project for me but I have always wanted one and my husband truly pushed me to take this class. I have taken many forms of online classes from the one I took almost 20 years ago that was an online teacher who described in words what our next row of stitches should be because the design software available now didn't exist to the Victoria Sampler Stitcherama I really enjoyed to the online classes offered by Margarit of Essamplaire that I always look forward to.   We will see how this new class goes.

The list of new starts I want to do could be even longer but I really want to finish my WIP pile so I can replace it with all these lovely new starts. New starts that are calling my name right now........

Sweetheart Tree anniversary sampler for my husband and I 

Sweetheart Tree tea box new start
Margaret Cottom by La De Da
6 Fat Men by Lizzie Kate
Elizabeth Hancock
Christmas Garden by BBD.
Winter Wonderland by BBD
Victorine Delacroix by Essamplaire
Dorothy Walpole by Scarlet Letter
Oh, I do so love big samplers.
I have never done a New Year's Start that I can remember but this year one of those might just have to come out of the packet and add their name to the WIP hall of fame. (Famous for not getting finished)
I enjoy planning what I will stitch, mostly I try to get it organized so I don't waste valuable stitching time hunting down the pieces for a project.
Have a safe and lovely New Year's Eve. We will be home quietly enjoying the snow and hopefully a fire. Hope you find some stitchy time. Marjo

Digging out

So, I spent quite a bit of time yesterday working on trying to bring some semblance of order to my stitching room. To call it a disaster area would just be trying to be kind. It is the room where everything get shoved when no one else knows what to do with it. Add to that the fact that I have more stash than I could ever hope to finish if I lived forever and kept both my eyesight and my mind.  Really I wonder at myself sometimes.

I did get quite a bit of work done on sampler for a friend who recently got married. It is just a small sampler but it has given me fits all along. I got help from Cathy @ Inspired Needle to change most of the thread colors out. Then I decided to change the charting of the name, then I didn't like how it looked and spent a good bit of stitching time on Friday taking it all out again. So today I put it all back in and I think I am satisfied with that part. Now I just have to finish it and add the beads. I should have by all rights been done with this thing months ago.  I will show a picture after it is gifted. Maybe. If I ever want to see it again. Which is doubtful at this point.
I am joining a Stitching Challenge on the Blackbird designs bulletin board. I intend to do all the stockings that I have purchased but not stitched yet. So that gives me 12 choices already if you count the Halloween book full of stockings. I also want to work on, and with any luck finish, the Anniversaries of the Heart designs as well. There are several other patterns of theirs I would love to do as well. I bought the Weekend design book and the little sampler in there appeals to me. I hope to be able to stitch that out of my stash. I bought some of the quilt fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop to make a bed runner that is appliqué which is the only kind of quilting I can do. Not so good at cutting lots of straight lines. Mine always end up crooked. I wanted to have a hand pieced item to work on. That way if light is low where we meet to stitch or I am just too frustrated with what I am working on then I have an alternative.

Early in the year I got some towels to transfer designs onto and stitch. I have not done even one of those but I do intend to have one of those in my stitching bag as an alternate to my big projects. I hate to waste any stitching time I might get and so I like to take more than one project with me on our weekly stitch gatherings. I am working on the BBD stockings, some Christmas ornaments and the freebie Tea designs that came out a year or so ago. I am going to work on some of the smaller stitching projects for a while. I want to participate in the two big SAL's this year and actually try to keep up with them.  I think those are really my only goals for stitching this year.  Of course the Attic has announced theirs but due to a death in the family Ellen Chester, WMN, has not announced her choices as of yet so I will have to wait and see what I think as to whether I can complete it or not. I am such a slow stitcher that it is just not realistic to think I can get that much done. Of course other than the SAL there is no real deadline to the stitching. The BBD  group is loose, no pressure so I didn't mind jumping on that. I intend to spend some more time this week putting the stash into more organized sections so I can focus on what I have outlined to stitch and then I can shop my WIP basket for something that is calling my name. I hope to continue to work on my WIP pile to get it completed and then I can shop my stash for some new starts.  Of course all this is subject to change.
So what plans do you have for the new year stitching wise? I am seriously hoping to stay on the wagon for a while. My stash is getting way out of control.  I want to only purchase threads I need to finish things. I should have plenty of fabric to stitch most any sampler I want to stitch. I seem to have used up a bunch of threads lately so I will have to buy some more thread but only if I start something new. All my WIP should have their fibers unless I robbed them.....which is entirely possible. I was looking at my WIP list today and I still really want to complete everything on there. I have already ordered a couple of samplers but from now on it just goes on the wish list and then if get some finishes I will consider a purchase. That is the only way I am going to get this under control. Hope you have lots of stitchy time today. Marjo

finishes, but not by me

 These are a few of my favorite things. Long stitched, finally finished.

Homespun Elegance Merry Stitches

Homespun Elegance 

CHS Quaker Sampler 

These are the finishes I got back from the finisher a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely, absolutely love them and will definitely be sending some more items to her in the future. They are just so fun. I wish I could do this myself but cannot and just need to get over it and move on.