Not Just Stitching

I've been having trouble posting to Blogger recently. It seems as though the connection times out, or something. I decided to try posting through the "Blog" feature on Photobucket. I hope it works!

Last night, I assembled my partner's For the Birds exchange gift. I'm very happy with the way that it turned out, but of course I can't share any pictures yet. I hope my partner likes it! I spent most of the evening putting this little thing together and didn't do any other stitching afterward. Instead, I plopped down on the sofa and watched "The Todd" (it's what BF & I call my favorite soap... One Life to Live) on Soap Network. Yep, I admit it... I watch soaps.

I also make Soap. Recently I've been tinkering with melt and pour soaps, which isn't technically "making" soap. It's simply crafting pre-made soap into pretty bars, adding color and scent, and so on. It's extremely easy and a lot of fun, but my real goal is to learn to make soap from scratch. That will come soon enough. For now, I'm still playing with molds, scents, and color. It started with a small kit from A.C. Moore. The next thing I knew, I was ordering more soap making supplies from Soap Crafters.

My current favorite is the Sun Face, made from one of my new molds. It's scented with citrus and vanilla. Yummy! These are just a few of my recent creations.

I also wanted to share some pictures from my garden, where I've been doing so much work this year. Unfortunately, I didn't get very good pictures of my roses, thanks to the rain. I waited until the last day of our trip to snap pictures of the roses, and by then they had been rather beaten by the downpours from the previous day. The Peace rose is one that I'm particularly proud of this year. It was really struggling at the beginning of the season. I didn't even expect it to survive, but I decided to try to nurse it back to health. It's still not in prime form, but it is alive and blooming.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love to photograph flowers. It started a couple of years ago, on a trip to Charleston. Last Saturday, after a rain shower, I found the perfect subject in the form of a creamy off-white lily. This was one of the survivors from some bulbs planted last year. So far, it's the only one that has bloomed. But sometimes, you only need one.

Long time, no blog

Has it really been WEEKS since I've blogged? I don't know where the time has gone! I did attempt to post an entry last week, but my computer ate it, and I didn't have time to write it all up again. I don't feel as though I've been all that busy lately. I just haven't been terribly motivated to do anything on the computer. Staring at a PC all day at work has a way of dampening my enthusiasm for doing anything online at home.

I received a beautiful exchange in the mail last week from Laurie. The theme of this exchange was "For the Birds." Isn't the pinkeep gorgeous? Laurie also included some other wonderful goodies. I felt so spoiled! :) The stitching & finishing on the pinkeep are just wonderful. The photos really do not do it justice.





I've been stitching quite a bit lately. The stitchathon earlier this month was successful, and I finished the stitching on Robert's Stocking. I still need to add the embellishments, which I have not yet purchased. Here are the before & after pics:



I also took an updated picture of Big Girl Panties. This project isn't my usual style, but the kit made me laugh every time I saw it at the store, so I finally
gave in and purchased it. Little Blackwork and Spanish Geometrical Sampler have gotten some attention as well, but I haven't taken any update photos yet.



We spent the weekend in the country and didn't return until yesterday afternoon. BF took care of the mowing, while I busied myself with some roses that I had ordered from Jackson & Perkins. My dad had grown roses for the last several years of his life, and I've inherited them along with the house. They've been neglected for the past couple of years, and this year I've put quite a bit of effort into saving them. They still don't look great, but they are steadily improving and I have more survivors than expected. Over the weekend, I planted 5 new ones. They were "bare root" plants, which meant that they arrived essentially as twigs and a root ball with no dirt attached. I had to soak them overnight before planting them on Sunday. And, wouldn't you know it... Sunday was when the downpour hit. I was in the midst of pulling weeds and planting the last 2 roses when the rain started. I wasn't willing to give up though, because the roses simply *had* to be planted. So there I was, in the POURING rain, frantically trying to get my plants into the ground. I was soaked to the skin and quite muddy by the time I finished. Thank goodness there were no video cameras!

PIG Progress

Okay, so Persian Iris Garden has an unfortunate acronym, but that doesn't detract from how much fun it is to stitch. I finished part 2 of my little PIGgie last night. The photo isn't the best-- I think it suffered from bad lighting. The camera batteries were on their last gasp, so I wasn't able to play around with it too much.

I missed one stitch at the bottom. Unfortunately, I didn't notice until after I snapped the picture. I'm now ready for installment #3, which will be coming on July 1.



With PIG finished for the month, I picked up Big Girl Panties and worked on that for a little while last night. No progress pic on that one though-- it will have to wait until I recharge the camera batteries.

We're off to the country this weekend. There will be lots of yard work, but I'm sure I'll squeeze in some time for stitching, too. This weekend is the 24-hour challenge and I'll be participating. My goal is to finish a project for an upcoming exchange. I have three exchanges coming up in the near future. The three exchanges are spread over a six-week period, with one going in the mail every two weeks, so it should be totally manageable.

Still Stitching

I'm still stitching, but I haven't been posting much. I've been in a bit of a blogging funk lately, for no particular reason. There is a bit of job stress in my life right now that is coloring everything else. Nothing major-- just an office move-- but it will affect my commute in a negative way, and I'm already at my limit on the amount of time I am willing to spend in the car every day. I haven't decided yet whether I'll stay at my current job, find something else, or simply take some time off for a while. I guess I will wait to see how bad the new commute is going to be.

Things are moving right along on the stitching front. My stitchathon project for May was Spanish Geometrical Sampler. I worked on it from May 19 - 21. We were in the country taking care of yardwork, so I didn't get much stitching time. Even so, it was nice to get back to that project and I did get a few stitches in here and there.

Here's what it looked like before:



And after:



My kit for Persian Iris Garden arrived. I'm happy to report that it was worth the wait. :) The colors are just gorgeous and there are TONS of beads and crystals. I started immediately, and I finished Part 1 on June 1.



The pattern is released in monthly installments, so I finished Part 1 just in time to start Part 2. No pics of that yet-- I'm waiting until I finish that installment. It's nearly done and most likely will require just one more stitching session.

Edited!

I had to delete a previous post, from May 17, due to an "oops" on my part. Most of it is re-posted below, with some editing to remove the photo, and certain other details. ;) Thanks to the ladies who commented on that item. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and I think it will be enjoyed by the recipient.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and commented on Castle Sampler. It means a lot to be able to share my work with other stitchers. Sure, BF oohs and ahhs appropriately, which is wonderful, but it takes another stitcher to fully understand the hours and work that go into those large projects.

I haven't yet picked up another big project to work on, even though I have several already started. Instead, I've been focusing on smaller stuff for the last several days.

Those of you who stopped by between May 17 - 20 know what I was working on, and finished. Everyone else is going to have to wonder a bit longer. The object in question is a gift for a friend, who I didn't think was online. But I got an email from her this afternoon. Now, I don't think she has ever visited this blog, but I'm not taking any chances.

I'll have some cute little updated pics soon.

SBQ - Week of 5/17

This week's SBQ is from Jenna and is:

Lately, it seems that many stitching bloggers have experienced a loss
of their stitching mojo. Have you ever lost your stitching mojo? If
so, how did you get it back and how long did it take?

My stitching mojo has been okay recently, but I have lost it in the past. How I've gotten it back depended on the cause, and the depth of mojo loss. If it's something that has happened because of life events, I simply wait it out. For more generalized cases, I do the following:

- Check out blogs. There's lots of inspiration out there.
- Browse an online shop. Also inspirational.
- Fondle my fabric stash.
- If none of that works... go stash shopping!
- Start something new. Nothing's more exciting than a piece of virgin fabric, waiting for that first stitch.
- Finish something old. I think most of us have some nearly finished projects that got put aside for one reason or another, and a Happy Dance is one of the very best motivators.
- Assemble a FUFO. Sometimes this is a nice alternative to stitching.

And ALWAYS, above all else-- stitch every day!! Even if I don't feel like stitching, I always put just a few stitches into one of my projects. It may not be much, but it's that many stitches closer to a completed project, and it keeps me in the stitching habit.

HAPPY DANCE!!!!!

I did it!!! I finally finished Castle Sampler! :) I actually completed it on Tuesday evening, but I've been too busy this week to take a photo or post until now.



I've also continued working on Little Blackwork this week. I really like how this is coming along. So far, my favorite bit has been the little frog. Isn't he cute?

Pictures!

First, the ornament UFO that I finished last weekend. This is Reindeer Garden, by Threads Through Time.



I had hoped that I would have finished Castle Sampler by now, but it still isn't done. I was a bit tired of working on it this week, so on Thursday I started Drawn Thread's Little Blackwork. I'm stitching this one on a Silkweaver Solo using medium-dark blue silk thread. This made a nice break and I was back to stitching Castle Sampler again on Saturday. I'm extremely close to a finish on that one. So close, in fact, that I've decided not to take another update photo until the grand Happy Dance.

Home Again

I feel like I've gotten way behind in my blogging. Things have been pretty hectic lately, starting with our trip to the country. There were piles of things to do out there, and we decided to stay until Tuesday afternoon. We did lots of yardwork, followed by dealing with some administrative stuff to get the truck legal once again. I simply needed to get a county sticker and have the thing inspected, but of course the county offices are not open on weekends, and that is normally the only time we're out there. That's one of the difficulties in having a second residence-- tending to certain things often requires days off of work. I don't know about the rest of you, but there are other ways that I'd rather spend my "vacation" time. ;)

I'm still trying to decide whether or not to hire a service to take care of the lawn. Part of me thinks that would be the sensible thing to do, but the other part of me (and the one that's ruling right now) actually enjoys puttering around in my own yard. Even so, I'm not sure it's something that we'll be able to stay on top of on our own. BF is a doll and always pitches in on whatever needs to be done, but it's a 1-acre yard with lots of trees and stuff to mow around. Besides the grass, the assorted flower beds and other landscaping also need attention. We managed to get quite a bit done, but there is still a lot awaiting us on our next trip out there.

I literally attacked the rose bushes last weekend. I don't know the first thing about roses, but I figured that something had to be done with them, even if it was the wrong thing. They were my dad's babies, and they have been sorely neglected since his illness and passing. If I had any sense, I'd get rid of the largest bed of them in the back yard. It would be one less thing to mow around. But I have a sentimental streak and really hate to see them let go. So I weeded the beds, pruned the bushes way back, dug up the soil, then fed & watered them. Now I'll just wait and hope for the best. With any luck, I'll have some pretty blooms this summer.

Stitching? What's that???

Okay, so I did manage a few stitches here and there in between weeding, mowing, and running errands. I had hoped to finish Castle Sampler by now, but I simply haven't had the time, or the energy. I did manage to finish the last bits of over-one stitching this past weekend. I guess that counts for something. I still have to do the bits of pink in the border, but that's all over-two and should go fairly quickly. I haven't started on that bit yet, as I was tired of working on the border. I switched to the three motifs in the lower right corner. Not much left now, and it looks like a Happy Dance may happen in the very near future. Stay tuned.

I also had a small happy dance over the weekend-- I finished the ornament UFO that I recently unearthed in an old JCS magazine. It turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. :)

Meanwhile, I am still waiting for my Persian Iris Garden kit to arrive from European Cross Stitch. It seems that there has been a delay with some of the threads. >:( The first pattern installment was released while I was out of town. I printed everything off and looked over the pattern as soon as we got home on Tuesday. The first installment isn't too large, but there is a lot of beading and quite a bit of metallic braid. I hope the kit arrives soon-- I'm getting really impatient to start this!!!

Well, I've certainly rambled. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I have some updates, but haven't had a chance to take pics and upload them just yet. I'll be doing that over the weekend.

Alphabets and Old Frogs

I started my Thursday evening stitching session by working on Castle Sampler. I managed to get all of the over-one stitching in the top border done. It's a small accomplishment, but progress nonetheless. It didn't take terribly long and I could have made some progress on the remaining bits, but I decided to put it down for a bit. The over-one areas aren't bad to stitch, just very fiddly and I don't have the eyesight (or patience!) for it after a day of staring at my office computer.

Here's how the blocks look. I still have to go back and put an over-two stitch in between the green over-one stitching. Actually, the worst part of the over-one stitching was the tiny little bit inside each letter block. Each one was five stitches-- done in three different colors, in typical TW fashion. The results are terrific, but doing confetti stitching over one is NOT my idea of a good time! LOL

That takes care of the Castle Sampler update. Now it's time for Old Frogs.

I've been trying to stitch one Christmas ornament each month this year, and so far I've kept up, more or less. I hadn't yet started an ornament for April, and I was ready for a break from CS last night. So I pulled out my stash of JCS ornament issues and found a forgotten ornament that I started back in 2000.



I KNEW there had to be a reason that I had stopped working on this-- it was nearly finished, and had been tucked neatly inside the magazine, where it spent the last 4 1/2 years. It looked fine to me, so I decided to finish it. After stitching a very little bit, I realized why it had been sitting for so long. I had somehow miscounted by ONE STITCH (isn't that usually the case?) and didn't realize it until I had nearly completed the ornament. Not being a big fan of frogs, I simply put it away. And then I forgot about it.

This really bothered me. It's a pretty design and has enough work in it that I really don't want to start over. So I got out the scissors, and I frogged. And frogged. I had to frog all of left side from the bottom of the red motif up. I think I've removed all of the mistakes and am now ready to finish the stitching. :)

We're heading to the country for the weekend. We'll be staying a bit longer this time and won't return until Tuesday. There's a lot of work to do out there, so I'm not sure how much stitching time I'll have. I'm optimistic though, and will be taking a few projects along to keep me occupied.

Back to Scheduled Programming

I started back to work on Castle Sampler last night. At the moment, I'm still focusing on the over-one bits in the border, so it's slow going. The stitching is so tiny that it is sometimes difficult to tell that I'm making any progress at all. But if you look very closely, you'll see the bits that I stitched between the letters in the top border. There are two shades of green (3363 & 3364), so I've been stitching all of one, then coming back to do the other. It seems to go a wee bit faster that way. Of course, I still have to come back and do the over-two stitches in between. It's such a lot of work, but the results are nice.

My 100th Post

I was beginning to get burned out on Castle Sampler, so I decided to take a break from it over the weekend. Instead, I worked on, and finished, Pumpkin Harvest by The Trilogy. HAPPY DANCE!!!!! This was my first ever "primitive" design, and it was a lot of fun to stitch. I don't think I'd want to do this type of pattern all the time, but it was certainly nice for a change and I'm sure it won't be my last.

Edited to add: OOPS!! This was NOT my first primitive design! I realized it last night when I went to bed and saw my completed Bent Creek lighthouse hanging on the wall. I wonder what else I've stitched that I've forgotten about? LOL

S-L-O-W Progress

I'm still working on Castle Sampler, and it is extremely slow going at the moment. For the past few days I've been focusing on the backstitching on the border and the over-one areas. It's making for some VERY slow progress!

Questioning my sanity

I'm still working on Castle Sampler, trying to finish it before the start of Persian Iris Garden. I'm mostly working on the backstitching in the outer border, so there really isn't any progress worth showing yet. Maybe in another day or two.

In the meantime, I'm starting to wonder what I'm getting myself into with the Persian Iris Garden online class. Challenge #1 is the fabric-- 32 ct. black Belfast. I've stitched two other projects on black fabric in the past. The first was a Cross My Heart leopard on 16 ct. aida (I hadn't learned about linen back then).



After I finally completed that design, I swore I'd never stitch on black fabric again. Then I decided to do TW's The Castle on black fabric. This time I used 28 ct. jobelan, which I found much easier to work with than the black aida.



Challenge #2 is the beading, for which there are two options. The first option has only 1,788 beads. The other option includes beaded corners (the bit with the irises) and uses 4,432 beads. I like beading and all, but that's a LOT (!!!) of beads. Realistically, this isn't much more than Angel of Love, which I stitched years ago for my mom. It had 4,110 seed beads, so I should be able to manage with 122 more.

What's daunting is the thought of all those beads on BLACK fabric. Combine that with the sheer size of the design (293 x 293), and you can see why I wonder what I'm getting myself into. Still, I love a stitching challenge, so I'll be anxious to start this one. Hopefully I won't have to wait too long for the supplies!

SBQ - April 19

This week's SBQ is from Jenna:

Do you do obligation or deadline-based stitching? Why or why not? If you do, do you tend to get in over your head and why?

Yes, I do obligation/deadline-based stitching. I only recently got back to it, after a several years long hiatus. I stopped doing it a few years ago because life got in the way and I felt unable to meet deadlines. But I found that I missed participating in exchanges, so this year I decided to try it again. So far, I've done three exchanges this year, and had great success with each of them.

However, the only obligation stitching that I participate in now is for exchanges. I don't do round robins or "theme" projects that demand a certain genre, design size, fabric, etc. I've participated in one or two of those types of projects, and have found that I had to really force myself to finish the projects. I need more freedom in my stitching choices, I guess. My reasons for participating in exchanges is easy-- I love giving and receiving stitched gifts. It's particularly nice to send a stitched gift to someone whom I know will appreciate it.

I occassionally feel like I'm in over my head as mailing dates approach. I like for each exchange gift to be just right, and I often have trouble settling on a finishing technique. As a result, I find that I sometimes have to really push myself at the end to get things in the mail. Even so, I haven't missed any deadlines and have had a wonderful time in all of my 2006 exchanges.

Weekend stitching... or lack thereof

The weekend was great, very productive. I didn't do a lot of stitching, though. This was the monthly stitchathon weekend, but I had to squeeze stitching sessions in between everything else I needed to accomplish. There simply wasn't enough time or energy.

My weekend started with a drive to the country on Friday evening. Normally we don't leave until Saturday morning, but this time I had some bank business that needed to be done, so we had to leave on Friday. I came home from work, cooked dinner, cleaned a little, packed a little, then jumped in the car. Most of Saturday was spent between the bank, DMV, and yard work. All of that was followed by some quality time in the jacuzzi, which didn't leave much time for stitching. Sunday was Easter dinner with family, followed by the drive home. Again, not much time for stitching.

I had intended to work on Robert's Stocking over the weekend. The stitching is nearly done, and it works up so quickly. I thought it would be a good project for the weekend, as well as a nice break from Castle Sampler. But when the time came to work on it, I just couldn't get motivated. So I pulled out Castle Sampler and worked on it instead. With such limited stitching time, I didn't make a lot of progress. Still, I am inching closer to a finish on this one. Here are the Before & After pics:



And now, a gratuitous picture from the country. This is my little breakfast nook, one of my favorite spots in the house. We have a very pretty formal dining room out there, but I like the breakfast nook, with it's view of the mountains. On the table are some flowers that I picked on Easter morning. They were for my aunt, along with the crystal pitcher, which had belonged to my mother. The tablecloth is cross stitched, but not by me. It was passed on by a friend of the family. I don't know who stitched it, or when, but it is quite old.

Happy Dance!

Last night I finished Seaside Sampler, by Stranded by the Sea. Time for a Happy Dance! This brings my total finishes to 10 for 2006. With any luck, I'll also finish Robert's Stocking and (maybe, just maybe) Castle Sampler before the end of the month.

My Next Project

I did it!!! I signed up for my very first Chatelaine on-line class. These designs have always appealed to me, but this is the first one that I've just HAD (!!!) to stitch. Which one?? Why, Persian Iris Garden, of course!

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love artwork or designs that have a Persian influence. The moment I saw this design, I knew I would be stitching it. It's just so... ME!! Believe it or not, I didn't sign up for the Yahoo group immediately. The project doesn't begin until May 1, and I thought it would be torture to join the group months before the pattern, or even the materials list, was released. So, I waited.

The materials list was released while I was on vacation, and I sent my payment for the group early this week. I also promptly ordered the materials (including the extra bead pack for the corners) from European Cross Stitch. Unfortunately, my package won't be shipped until at least May 1, so I won't have the materials on the day that the pattern is released.

I'm anxiously awaiting my start on this project. I even have "music to stitch by" picked out (something by Kayhan Kalhor, most likely). It's going to be a long wait!

In the meantime, I'm trying to finish Castle Sampler-- hopefully before Persian Iris Garden arrives.

Stocking Info

Carol, I read your question about Robert's Stocking, and completely forgot to answer. Sorry about that! The stocking pattern is by Shepherd's Bush. I've been amazed at how quickly this one has worked up. I'm hoping to finish it this month, with Sophie's Stocking to follow later this year.

A Little Happy Dance

I actually finished this over the weekend, but didn't have time to post until today. It's Partridge & Pears, by Prairie Schooler, from the 2005 JCS ornaments issue. I had intended to finish this in March as part of a SAL, but I ran out of time, so it was my first finish in April instead.

My next April finish will be Seaside Sampler, by Stranded by the Sea. This was also a stitch-along project. It was a 24-hour SAL, and I didn't quite finish it in time. (Do we see a theme developing here? LOL) I think it was a bit ambitious for a 24-hour project. It works up quickly, but it measures 5" x 5", which is a bit more than I can generally find time to stitch in a weekend. It was a lot of fun trying though, and it will definitely be completed this week.