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.
I find it hard to believe that it is WIPocalypse time already - where has January gone to? However, life has just about returned to normal and I'm starting to get back to a normal level of stitching. The only WIP that I have not made progress on this week is "Serena", one of Just Nan's Angels, which is part of a project that I am stitching for my Mum. I am not too fussed about this because the deadline is mid November.
First up, progress on Bouquet part 2. Although the wheelbarrow is not yet finished, I have stitched the first pot and there are some leaves coming in. The combination of colours on these pieces is very strange, but the back stitching does seem to make a big difference.
Next up is my Turkish Challenge piece. I'm still working on the leaves, but where that stalky bit is, there will be eventually be a flower.
According to my WIP photos, it has been three weeks since I worked on my HAED piece, Train of Dreams. We had a lovely sunny morning today and I got in a couple of hours on this between loads of laundry. I am pleased to report another finished block (top right) and progress in a couple more.
Finally, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. I am delighted to report that row 6 of page 3 is now complete. Most of this row was confetti heaven, but the first few blocks of row 7 look to be fairly straightforward, thank goodness.
I would have like to have got more done this weekend, although I spent Friday (my day off) working solely on Carnation. However, I was in desperate need of a haircut, then I had to reschedule my shopping session to accommodate Dad, and then today I took my nieces to the theatre. We saw "Why the Lion Danced?", a children's play for the Chinese New Year. All three of us enjoyed it very much, but it has meant less stitching time.
The challenge for the week ahead - finish the wheelbarrow, continue working on the leaves of Turkish Challenge, complete at least one block on Train, stitch my usual three blocks on Carnation, make some progress (no matter how small) on Serena, and sort out the fabric for Enchanted Garden. I have called it a challenge rather than a plan, because I may well end up with littlest niece for a sleepover on Friday night, so no guarantees.
May the Full Moon shine her blessings down on you and yours.
Evening, and apologies for the delay in posting. I have spent the last two nights doing emergency babysitting while my sister and brother in law dealt with my eldest niece's brief stay in hospital recovering from an asthma attack. She is home now but it was worrying at the time.
Unfortunately I don't have a lot to show for my hermitting and stitching weekend, or for the week that preceded it.
I wasn't exactly laid low but I was in some pain and thereby distracted from stitching by a gum infection for which the dentist gave me a short course of antibiotics. On top of that, I spent most of Saturday entertaining my youngest niece, which was fun but exceedingly tiring. However we did manage to reach a decision on what I am going to stitch her for her 5th birthday in June.
This is "Enchanted Garden" by Joan Elliott, a chart from issue 98 of Cross Stitch Gold. Apologies for the photo - I couldn't eliminate the glare off the magazine page. Littlest niece wanted fairies and I am reasonably happy with this - it is not too cute or too complex to achieve in the time frame. Despite being a Joan Elliott, there is no beading or metallic threads. The finished piece will be framed rather than turned into a cushion.
I did manage to get a few extra stitches in on my Turkish Challenge piece, but I really need to get a grip and use my lunch breaks more profitably. At the moment I keep getting distracted by other people's stitching blogs.
Finally the usual update on Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. Last week's three blocks were full of confetti - that is another Chinese lantern starting to show behind the rose bushes. To be perfectly honest, I am more concerned about getting my three blocks a week done on this piece than any of my other deadlines. This is my BAP, this is the piece that my mother takes seriously, this is the piece that makes me feel that I really can achieve something worthwhile. I am not saying that it is perfect - there is the occasional stitch in the wrong colour, the back is more like a carpet than a piece of stitching, but this piece is the special piece.
I have booked the day off on Friday - I need a duvet day and the first full moon of 2013 is on Sunday so a WIPocalypse post is just around the corner. I am going to have a lie in and just potter and stitch.
Wishing you all the best for better weather and peace to stitch in.
Evening, folks! Well, I don't just have my first finish of the year to show you - I also have two new starts!
I finished the backstitching on the watering can bouquet, which actually looks better than I thought it would. Unfortunately I then discovered that I had actually used the wrong colour thread for the dark pink down the left hand side. However it was too late to change it and I don't think that you would really be able to tell if I hadn't mentioned it.
Having finished the watering can bouquet, I then moved on to the next of the six bouquet charts. This will be three pots of flowers sat in a wheelbarrow. This is the barrow part of the wheelbarrow. Again I am not sure of some of the colours, but will try to use the right colour threads this time!
This is my second new start - in fact it was only started today. This is 'Anenome', otherwise known as the Turkish Challenge. It is being stitched two over two on 36 count white Edinburgh linen. The chart says to do it one over two, but the fabrics that will be used with it are so dark that I thought that it would need a bit more oomph.
Carnation is moving along quite nicely - the usual three blocks were finished by Friday morning due to their lack of confetti. I am now on row 6, and another two weeks should see me on row 7. The top of the second little girl's head should start showing up in the not too distant future - something to look forward to.
I have nothing to report on Serena or Train of Dreams. This is because I have had an interesting weekend. Yesterday Mum and I went to the early showing of "Quartet", a film set in a retirement home for musicians starring Billy Connolly, Maggie Smith and Pauline Collins. I thoroughly enjoyed it despite being the youngest member of the audience! We then went to visit a friend's son's new house - I'm jealous of the amount of space he's got but not the location. Then we had a late lunch in a local tea shop before going back to my parents to sort Mum out with her emails.
Early this morning Mum and I and a friend went to Leicester in Mum's car to the fabric shop where I spent so much money on threads last time. I was a lot more restrained on this occasion, but did buy four pairs of embroidery scissors at £2 a pop. After we got home, I took Dad shopping. We got down the road and round the corner before I realised something was wrong with the car. I had a completely flat tyre! Having called my breakdown service, it turned out that there was a screw in the offending tyre so now I need a replacement. The spare was put on quickly enough for me to get my shopping done, and then Mum rang my mobile to say that she had accidentally bought another dolls house on Ebay and needed to go and collect it in the local area. So she and I went and collected this dolls house, then I came home and started my Turkish Challenge piece while I did the laundry that I should have done this morning!
Maybe I should have stayed in bed today, it being the 13th!
I intend to sign up for International Hermit & Stitch Weekend next weekend but will be spending part of it with my youngest niece trying to sort out what I am going to do for her 5th birthday in June.
I finished the backstitching on the watering can bouquet, which actually looks better than I thought it would. Unfortunately I then discovered that I had actually used the wrong colour thread for the dark pink down the left hand side. However it was too late to change it and I don't think that you would really be able to tell if I hadn't mentioned it.
This is my second new start - in fact it was only started today. This is 'Anenome', otherwise known as the Turkish Challenge. It is being stitched two over two on 36 count white Edinburgh linen. The chart says to do it one over two, but the fabrics that will be used with it are so dark that I thought that it would need a bit more oomph.
Carnation is moving along quite nicely - the usual three blocks were finished by Friday morning due to their lack of confetti. I am now on row 6, and another two weeks should see me on row 7. The top of the second little girl's head should start showing up in the not too distant future - something to look forward to.