Another full moon, another WIPocalypse report. Where do the days go?
The weather here is still cold and miserable. At the weekend I only had to put my foot out of the door for a snow flurry to commence. Hibernating until the sun comes back still feels like a very good idea. However, miserable weather or not, the stitching must go on!
The deadline for Turkish Challenge has now moved back a month because our Turkish lady will be in Istanbul on the day of the meeting that we were supposed to submit these. However, I am going to stick to the original date because otherwise all of my other deadlines will get messed up. This is coming on reasonably well, although I do need good light and a functioning brain in order to work on it.
Moving on to Enchanted Garden, Joan Elliott is such a fantastic designer. Even without the backstitch, when I say that this is a rabbit, you can see that it is. I am enjoying this piece, even though it is going to take an awful lot of concentrated stitching to get it done in time.
The usual three blocks on Carnation - progressing steadily towards its deadline. The news on this piece is that I am investing in an Extra Long Frame Adaptor for my work stand. The frame that I am working on is a 27" x 12" frame, so by the time that I get on to page 4, I am going to be right out on a limb, so to speak. The adaptor will enable me to move the frame along so that I can work on the far side of this piece at a point which is both comfortable and stable. So buying stash, but useful stash that will be used immediately, and can be used with all my current and future BAPs.
Right, I'm starting to feel a bit chilled so I'm going to love you and leave you. Keep warm and keep stitching.
Would you believe it - we've had a lovely sunny weekend! Life feels so much better when the sun shines! I bumped into a friend of mine while I was doing a spot of shopping yesterday morning before coming home to stitch, and I twisted her arm. She paints and draws when she gets the chance, and I convinced her that she really ought to abandon the housework and spend the rest of such a lovely sunny day with her art. Hopefully next time I see her, she'll have something gorgeous to show me.
I managed to put in quite a few hours this week, and particularly this weekend, and hope that you like what I'm going to show you. This week I have been concentrating on my deadline pieces and so here they are - closest deadline first.
Turkish Challenge has to be completed by the second Thursday in April - not just the stitching, but also whatever I decide to do with the fabrics that I was given. The first stem and leaves are now complete, apart from the very bottom of the stem which comes below the right hand leaves on the second stem, which is now started.
Carnation has its second anniversary towards the end of May and the hope is to finish page 3 by then. This week took me into row 8 so this piece is going well. Having checked my progress against the actual picture itself, the top of the second little girl's head should start to appear in the next few rows.
Finally, I have made a start on Enchanted Garden, which has to be finished and framed by mid June. What you can see here is the lower part of the rabbit's head and the dark bit on the right hand side is its nose. I think that this is another piece where the back stitching is going to make a big difference.
My Just Nan piece, the Guardian Angels, also has a deadline, but this is not until mid November, so this and Train of Dreams are on hold for the time being. As soon as I get Turkish Challenge done, I intend to bring the Angels back into the process.
Despite the sunny weekend, they are forecasting more cold weather and possibly more snow to come, so please keep yourselves warm and snug - it's hard to stitch with cold hands.
Hi folks, this is just a quickie - I don't have a lot to show having been poorly earlier in the week. I'm a lot better now, but not quite 100% yet.
However, I do have a finish to show you. This is the completed Wheelbarrow Bouquet. Once again the back stitching has made a big difference to the finished piece. I am now putting the rest of this series (another four pieces) on hold while I work on littlest niece's fifth birthday present.
This, Enchanted Garden by Joan Elliott, will, if things go according to plan, be a start to show you in my next post. I'm currently in the process of setting up my thread organisers and putting my project box together.
The only other piece that I have to show this week is Carnation - the usual three blocks. The coming week will take me on to row 8, and I'm still on target for finishing this page before the second anniversary of this piece.
I didn't manage to put any stitches into Train of Dreams, Serena or my Turkish Challenge piece this week. To be honest, I think that I've spent more time sneezing and sniffling than anything else. And now they are talking about more snow! I just want sunshine and warm weather, and to be able to breathe freely! We've also just had a bereavement in the family so there will be a funeral to attend in the near future. I really wanted this year to be an improvement on the last, but so far there doesn't seem to be much sign of it.
Anyway, I hope that all is well with you and yours - keep calm and keep stitching.
Apologies for the late arrival of this update, but I have been out of action for a few days courtesy of a vile cold. Normally I would just grin and bear it, but this particular version has had me off work for two days - I hope to be back in business tomorrow.
As for my stitching, some pieces have done better than others this week. Despite some frogging mid week, the Bouquet piece has made very good progress, thanks to a lengthy child minding session on Saturday while my sister and her husband went to a funeral. I need to finish the current pot, do the third pot and then back stitch it. When that is done, I will take these pieces out of the stitching process in order to concentrate on Enchanted Garden.
Next up is Turkish Challenge. This is one of the pieces which has made less progress this week. My current thinking is to finish the bottom section, i.e. the leaves and stems, before moving on to the flowers. I am quite enjoying working on this linen, although it does require good light and concentration.
Then we have Train of Dreams. This piece was affected by the vile cold. I generally work on Train on Sunday mornings while I do my laundry, and as the cold started to make itself know on Saturday evening and got worse as Sunday went on, there came a point when I had to put this down. However, I did complete one block and get a lot done on the next, so it wasn't a complete failure.
Finally, Carnation. I have a confession to make regarding this photo - normally I take my WIP photos on Sunday night, but this week for obvious reasons, I forgot. On Monday I was bed bound and got no stitching done at all. This morning I had already settled down to stitching before I remembered that I hadn't taken a picture of last week's work. So this photo shows last week's three blocks and a little bit more.
Of the other two pieces that I should be working on, Serena remains untouched. How long does it take before a WIP becomes a UFO? As for Enchanted Garden, I did manage to get the fabric cut and hemmed this weekend. I now need to sort out the threads and decide whether I am going to use a hoop or put it on my lap frame. And, as mentioned above, I'm thinking that I really ought to get my current Bouquet piece finished and take that out of rotation before I start anything else, particularly as I'm not finding time to work on Serena as it is.
Anyway, I am going to call it a night as I hope to be going back to work tomorrow. Wishing you all good health vibes and may the nasty germs stay well away from you.
