Archive for the Category ◊ SALs/Challenges ◊

Life update (and WIPocalypse update of sorts)
Author:
• Friday, June 22nd, 2012

Good goddess, life’s been busy this year.  Work’s been turned upside down due to one of my managers leaving for a new opportunity.  My workload has been… excessive.  I’m trying to stay on top of it and keep my chin up, but I admit that I’ve moved into the burnout phase and am now mulling what I want to do going further.  I know that I can’t keep up at this pace for much longer.  Something needs to give, and I want to nip it before I’m forced to make it give in desperate fashion (read: take any old job to get out of here)

I realized this morning that my WIPocalypse post seems to have disappeared into the ether.  I know I wrote one and had it scheduled to post on time, but I guess in the strangeness of life these days I must have forgotten that ever-important “save” button or something.  I’m forgetting exactly WHAT I wanted to post now that it’s been a bit, though, so I’ll make this a quick one.  After all, the next update’s only in a couple weeks, and I should have a couple of great finishes to share then!

So here we go…

I focused on my Theme-a-licious projects for May in this recap post.  And back a couple posts from that, I have my most recent photo of Witches Wheel.  :)

Floral Bellpull as of 6-1-12 Floral Bellpull is moving right along.  I may have even done a bit more than what’s here, come to think of it, but this is pretty close to where I’m now at.  The peonies are developing nicely despite all of the confetti stitching.  I’m using the “go by color” method with the pinks, which I know isn’t the safest way to work confetti.  It helps me feel like I’m accomplishing a bit more, though, knowing that a color is “done.”

I have to admit that this square seems to be going fairly quickly.  I have True Blood to thank for that – lots of reruns recently, plus the episodes from Season 4 have been On Demand, so I’ve spent some time with (thankfully) non-glittery vampires as I work.  It definitely helps keep things moving.

I plan on making this a bigger focus piece during my Olympic stitching.  Ideally, I’d like to have this square done, plus any backstitching to this point that still needs to be finished, all by the end of August.  That way I only have the final square to focus on, and can celebrate a completion sometime in the autumn.

walk in the woods 6.18.12Walk in the Woods is almost done.  So, so close.   It’s one of my goal pieces to complete this month, and I think I may just get there before the end of the weekend if all goes well.

As longer-time readers of my blog might remember, this piece is the final unfinished stitching piece my mother-in-law left before passing away in 2007.  I finished the other one, Garden Sampler, in 2010.   I admit that Walk in the Woods is a bit off my taste.  I like it, but the colors on it just don’t excite me that much, so it’s been a bit of a slog to get through this one.  I did send it out for a round in the UFO RR 2011, and Kris did an amazing job pushing it forward… to the point that I don’t feel right putting only my and my MIL’s initials on the piece when it’s done.  I may be tweaking the date line a little bit to fit us on there.

This photo’s as of Monday. I’ve made some more progress since then – finishing the acorn motif where my needle is in this picture, adding the leaf that’s missing between M and N, and putting in some of the missing colors on other motifs.   Saturday night may be my big push on it, since Erich will be off doing stuff with the guys.   :)

I can’t seem to find a photo of where I am with my Mira RR, which is my other focus piece for the month.  Needless to say, it’s also almost done.  I had to do an order for beads and Kreinik last week, and now that those are in, everything else will get wrapped up.  Once Walk in the Woods is done, back to the Mira I go, also to be finished before the end of June.

Two finishes in a month.  :)  I can’t wait!

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Wipocalypse Check-in Post #6
Author:
• Sunday, June 03rd, 2012

Hello everyone! It’s time again – how was your progress in May?  Mine was quite productive, and I’m looking forward to doing some serious completion work in June on a number of projects I have sitting and waiting for attention.  :)

Summer has arrived here in New England, which means I can enjoy warm nights with breezes blowing through the house as I stitch.  Hopefully it won’t be too muggy of a summer, but next weekend Erich (my husband) and I will get our air conditioners installed in the first floor windows, so we’ll manage to stay cool.

Important SAL announcements

Auto-Linky Reinstalled - I know several people were disappointed that the autolink feature was not included last month.  It was beyond my control – WordPress did a large update, and the javascript addition to my blog was not yet updated, so I had no control over that.  I’m giving it another go this month, and I hope it will be working well.

Cut off Date for this Full Moon - is June 30th.  Please link your post anytime between now and then for it to count toward the drawing!

Stash box - Lynne and Lea, both of Australia, have generously donated items this month.  Their contributions have been added to the Stash Drawing page.  And the box is definitely not complete!

Upcoming Olympic Stitching - If you’re up for a mini challenge within the Wipocalypse, join me for some SAL fun during the Olympics.  I’m fairly sure I’ll be spending most of my evenings with the Olympic broadcasts on the TV, and that means I’ll have my stitching in front of me.

We all stitch differently, of course, so you can “compete” in one of several events (or more than one, if you wish).  And if you have an idea for a different event, please tell me what you’d think the guidelines would be… and I’ll add it to the list.  The Stitching Olympics will last from 27 July 2012 at 9 pm London Time (GMT) until 1 September 2012 at 10 am London Time (GMT), which when I’ll be posting that check-in post for the WIPocalypse.  If you need to convert to your time zone, an easy converter page is at this link.

The events (all but the last adapted from the originals at The Wagon on Yuku) are:

The Sprint- If you’re stitching smalls or have pieces that are nearly done, push yourself to complete them!

Rotation Relay - You’re like Measi with a ton of WIPs.  Pick a number of projects, then determine your hours that you’ll work on each piece, and do a steady rotation of them, working each project before you return to any in the rotation.  (I’ll be doing a three hour rotation relay, for example… with an unknown number of projects).

Long Jump - if you are trying to finish a giant project with lots and lots of thick stitching this is your category. HAED stitchers… this one’s definitely for you! (Keep track of the 10×10 squares that you complete on the piece.)

Finish Line - Do you have a bunch of stitched projects that just need to be finished into ornaments, smalls, biscornu, etc?  Gather them up and get them done.  Professional finishing doesn’t count, but framing yourself does!

Rings United - For the Olympics and through August, you’ll only do stitches in the colors of the Olympic rings – blue, yellow, black, green and red.

You have plenty of time to decide whether you’d like to participate.  Just let me know on any of my posts before July 25th, and post your challenge on your blog.  This mini-challenge is just for fun.  No prizes, other than cheers from your fellow stitchers.  :)

 

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Please remember that this stitch-a-long is intended to be fun – so if you’re too busy to post, too busy/ill/etc. to stitch - no worries.  Post when you can and share what you have going, even if you’ve only been able to toss a single stitch into it.  It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.  :)

I know some stitchers were having some difficulty with my blog commenting system when signing up, so I want to try to make this a bit easier/more accessible for everyone.  You can check in in one of three ways:

  • Via Auto-link
  • Via comments (make sure you include your blog address!)
  • Via email – to measiwitch(at)gmail.com, only if the comments are not working.  Again- make sure you include your blog address!
Happy stitching everyone!

 

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Theme-a-licious Recap & Monthly Goals
Author:
• Friday, June 01st, 2012

I had a good, productive May for Theme-a-licious.  May’s theme was “May Memories,” a month to focus on pieces that you’d acquired via a class.  I have two of those, both through Stitcher’s Hideaway, and both got some nice TLC time.

First up was Pocketful of Peppermint from Blue Ribbon Designs.  I took this class in October 2010 as my first ever stitching class.  We worked on a related ornament in class that covered all of the specialty stitches.  We received all of the supplies for both ornaments and the sampler, which Belinda went over during class time.  I wound up using my fabric from the kit for ornaments, so I’ve pulled from my own stash to start it.

Pocketful of Peppermint as of 23 May 2012
Pocketful of Peppermint by Blue Ribbon Designs
Stitched on 36 ct Legacy from Picture This Plus
(with recommended floss)

I normally am a center starter with projects, but I wanted to try a different technique and do all of the squares for each motif first.  A good chunk of the specialty stitches are in these borders.  So far I’ve used rice stitch (bright yellow in top left), smyrna cross (green square directly below it), and plait stitch (brown square).  The rest so far are basic crosses.  The plait stitch took as long as all of the other squares put together.  It’s a easy stitch, but just takes a while to develop.  I’m about halfway done with the border squares… should get those wrapped up next round.

The other piece is Four Seasons of Mystic by Jeannette Douglas Designs.  Jeannette taught this piece this past October (2011).  It’s a very pretty, delicate sampler with lots of different stitches and lots of fibers that I’d never used before in class.

Four Seasons of Mystic as of 6-1-12
Four Seasons of Mystic by Jeannette Douglas Designs
Stitched on 32 ct Examplar by Lakeside Linens

This round, I did the vine divider between Spring and Summer and finished the outside border (which is done in wool). I somehow ended off by one single stitch when I completed the border and cannot for the life of me figure out where the missed stitch is. So rather than bounce around, I’ll be working the different seasons in order – at least to start for placement. Hopefully that will pinpoint where the mistake is.

Regardless of the mistake, I’m pretty happy with how the border turned out. There are three separate Lorikeet Wool colors in the border: Highland Garden Lt. on the left, Fallen Leaves in the center, and GT Tahoe Blue lt. on the right. I think I was pretty close with my color match when I changed over each color – the bottom right is the only real “hard” switch, and that’s where I caught the mistake.

I also did some work on a couple other projects, but that’s for the WIPocalypse post later this weekend.  :)

My June plans are going to veer off of Theme-a-licious.  I have a serious itch to complete some projects that are quite close to finishing, but they don’t really match the “Jumanji June” theme, unless you count my office being the jungle.  I’ll be clearing some of these near-finished projects off my plate instead.

* ~~ * ~~ * ~~ *

So, revisiting my goals for May…

My goals for May were…
  1. Work 10 hours on Pocketful of Peppermint  - Yes! (and then some)
  2. Work 10 hours on Four Seasons of Mystic - Yes!
  3. Work 10 hours on Floral Bellpull - Yes!
  4. Try to finish my Mirabilia RR  - Nope, didn’t touch.
So it was a good month. Absolutely no complaints from me.
For June, I’m setting a goal to clear three projects off of my “near done” list.  Doesn’t matter which three, but they’ll come from this list:
  1. Mirabilia RR
  2. Smoky Mountain Cats
  3. Apache Wedding Blessing
  4. Walk in the Woods
  5. Witchy Washy
  6. Elemental Dragons (any one of the three remaining in the set)
If I make that goal, I’ll switch to whatever project is screaming at me!
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Witches Wheel Update & IHSW Plans
Author:
• Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Witches Wheel as of 5-15-12Lots of folks have been checking in with their Wipocalypse updates for May.  Keep them coming!  A few people have emailed me theirs, and I’ll be replying this weekend as I add those links to the excel sheet that I’m using to keep track of check-ins.

I’ve finished my stitching for this round on Witches Wheel. Sorry for the slightly blurry photograph – I took it on the Amtrak train home to Providence tonight, and while I shot the photo in a relatively smooth area of the trip, the tracks between Boston and Providence are a bit bumpy.

Next round I think I’ll focus on filling in at least one of the other faces. My original plan was to do a quarter of the pattern at a time, but I think it’s probably a better idea to work out from the center on this one and fill in each similar motif around the circle to ensure that everything’s balanced correctly.

I’m not sure if I’ll bring any pieces with me for my commutes for the rest of the week. The weather has been quite rainy lately and I don’t want to risk getting anything wet during my walks from the train to work. I bought the new Sookie Stackhouse novel last night, so I’ll probably just inhale that by Friday. :) Next week, though, I’ll bring my Mirabilia round robin with me to attempt to get the rest of the cross stitches complete.

I’ve also been working on Pocketful of Peppermint by Blue Ribbon Designs for the last few days. I’m still in the early stages on the piece, creating some of the border squares. I’d like to do all of the borders first, then fill in each individual square separately. I should have my 10 hours done with that by the end of the week.

This weekend is International Hermit and Stitch weekend. I have a full weekend planned already, so I don’t know if I’ll have much time to stitch. Whatever time I do have, I’ll put into Floral Bellpull and try to push that fifth square forward a bit.

Hope you’re having a great week!

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WIPocalypse Check-In Post #5
Author:
• Friday, May 04th, 2012

Happy May everyone! Can you believe we’re already on month #5? This year is absolutely flying.

I’ve been hearing from several stitchers how they’re making great progress this month, and I’m thrilled that the SAL is working so well for so many people! I’ve had a couple folks ask if I’d be interested in continuing the project next year, and the answer is very likely yes, although it probably won’t quite have the pun-ney impact that it does for 2012 and the whole end of the world. :)

I had the pleasure of meeting Carol from Stitching ‘n Stashing at Celebration of Needlework last week, as well as a few people I’ve known for years on stitching message boards. I continue to be amazed how small the world is, and how these little connections via the internet turn into bigger connections, whether quick in-person meetings, or more long-lasting community like the one I’ve started to form with the women I stitched with that Saturday.

Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to meet more of you over the years!

 

Important SAL announcements

Problem with the Auto-Linky in April – Several stitchers mentioned having trouble with the auto linky form last month. I tested it with a few links, and it was working fine on my end… but I know the internet is full of tempermental things and don’t doubt there were some problems. For this month, I’m removing the auto form. A new update to WordPress this week has some of my blog plugins not working, and the linky form is one of them. So please add a comment – and if that doesn’t work, drop me an email (see the bottom of the post).

Cut off Date for this Full Moon – is May 31st.  Please feel free to link your post anytime between now and then for it to count toward the drawing!

Stash box – I’ve started a page on my blog for a listing of the stash that will be in the drawing at the end of the year. Carol gave me a bag of some great goodies to include, and a couple other stitchers have sent items as well. If you are interested in contributing to the stash box, please drop me an email at measiwitch(at)gmail.com, and I’ll give you my address.  Please read through the information at the bottom of the FAQ for the types of items I’ll accept toward the drawing.  You’ll get full credit for your contributions.  :)

Upcoming Olympic Stitching – a couple of the message boards I belong to are involved in different stitch-a-long challenges for the Olympics, and I think I may adapt some of those as a fun mix-it-up challenge for the summer. If you’ve ever been part of one and would like to recommend a specific Olympic-themed challenge that worked great for you, I’d love to adopt it for the group! Just add a comment or email me.

 

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Please remember that this stitch-a-long is intended to be fun – so if you’re too busy to post, too busy/ill/etc. to stitch - no worries.  Post when you can and share what you have going, even if you’ve only been able to toss a single stitch into it.  It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.  :)

I know some stitchers were having some difficulty with my blog commenting system when signing up, so I want to try to make this a bit easier/more accessible for everyone.  You can check in in one of two ways:

  • Via comments (make sure you include your blog address!)
  • Via email – to measiwitch(at)gmail.com, only if the comments are not working.  Again- make sure you include your blog address!
Happy stitching everyone!

 

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WIPocalypse Check-in Post #4
Author:
• Wednesday, April 04th, 2012

Hi everyone!

I’m going to be away for the weekend, so I wanted to get the check-in post up before the chaos of packing takes over my life tomorrow evening. I’ll be getting my own report up probably once I return on Sunday night.

 

Important SAL announcements

Sad News – It is with great sadness that I  announce the passing of one of our fellow WIPocalypse stitchers. Carol of Carol’s Needle Sketches passed away in March. Her family has asked that I remove her from the participant list, and I will be honoring that request.  I didn’t feel right removing her without mentioning why the change is being made. My deepest condolences go out to her family and friends.

Meetup at Celebration - It feels awkward going into other announcements this month, so forgive me for what may sound like a bit too quick of a focus turn.  If you are one of the many stitchers attending Celebration of Needlework in Nashua, New Hampshire at the end of April, I’d love to meet you!  If you are going and would like to have aWIPocalypse stitch-a-long in person, I’ll be up for Saturday (all day until I essentially drop).  Let me know your email address via a comment below and I’ll contact you to see what your schedule is that day.  If nothing else, I plan on stitching up in the 4th floor stitcher’s lounge in the evening (probably 7 onward), so pop on by and say hi!

Cut off Date for this Full Moon – is April 30th.  Please feel free to link your post anytime between now and then for it to count toward the drawing!

Stash box – A few people have asked me if and when I’ll be accepting donations toward the stash drawing.  The answer is yes, I am – and you’re welcome to send them my way anytime.  Drop me an email at measiwitch(at)gmail.com, and I’ll give you my address.  Please read through the information at the bottom of the FAQ for the types of items I’ll accept toward the drawing.  You’ll get full credit for your contributions.  :)

 

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Please remember that this stitch-a-long is intended to be fun – so if you’re too busy to post, too busy/ill/etc. to stitch - no worries.  Post when you can and share what you have going, even if you’ve only been able to toss a single stitch into it.  It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.  :)

I know some stitchers were having some difficulty with my blog commenting system when signing up, so I want to try to make this a bit easier/more accessible for everyone.  You can check in in one of three ways:

  • Auto linky form (you’ll see that below)
  • Via comments (make sure you include your blog address!)
  • Via email – to measiwitch(at)gmail.com, only if the other two options do not work.  Again- make sure you include your blog address.  I’ll add your post to the auto-linky if I receive it this way to confirm I received it.
Happy stitching everyone!

 

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Late Check-ins: TUSAL and WIPocalypse
Author:
• Sunday, March 25th, 2012

Ever regret taking a week of vacation, even though you absolutely needed it? That would be me. The volume of work that was dumped on my desk during my absence in the first week of March has kept me scrambling all month. Any stress release that was gained on vacation, gone and re-replaced with even more stress.

*sigh*

I won’t go into it much on a public blog, but I’m feeling incredibly overwhelmed and burnt out these days. I’m hoping the feeling will pass, although I’m thinking it may be a permanent situation, and that’s frustrating me a lot.  I just feel that no matter how hard I try, I will never feel like I’m caught up – or at least keeping pace – with the workload I’m assigned.  And that’s sadly taking a mental toll on me.

Due to all of the work craziness, I haven’t had any energy to do blog updates. I have done some stitching, and forgot to update for the WIPocalypse this month.  In a way I somewhat did already do that with my post-Stitcher’s Hideaway recap. So retro-actively, I’m going to turn that into my recap post. No sense in doing photos now when the next recap is approaching quickly, I think.  I’ve been kind of doing the grab-and-go method of stitching this month, and haven’t been switching projects out like originally planned for the

TUSAL 3-24-12My TUSAL jar has gotten a workout over the past few weeks. I took it to the stitching retreat at the beginning of the month, and it acquired not only my own orts, but the orts of some of the women who were sitting next/across from me, including some yarn orts from needlepoint (that’s not cheating, is it?)  :)  The orts from me are from a whole mess of projects, and it’s now sitting at a lofty 1/3 jar full.

 

As I logged in to do this entry, I saw that Rose over at Christmas City Stitcher kindly gave me the Liebster Blog award, which is given from blogger to blogger to share fellow blogs that have inspired and motivated them.  Thank you Rose!  I want to give some thought and a proper blog post to the blogs I’ll be offering the award to, so I’ll update once my brain is in a slightly better, clearer place with the blogs I’d like to offer it to (and come up with things that people don’t know about me).

I have a blogoversary coming up this week – perhaps I’ll do it on the 29th to celebrate.  :)  My blog’s a “tweenager” now.  Perhaps I should do tweeney facts about myself!  Anything in particular you think the world should know about me?  Ask away!

I’m going to kick back and attempt some stitching to relax away the rest of my evening – see you around the blogosphere (hopefully) soon!

 

 

 

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WIPocalypse Check-in Post #3
Author:
• Wednesday, March 07th, 2012

Hello again everybody!

I hope February was a productive month for you all with your projects.  I’ve seen some gorgeous work from so many of you as I’ve been browsing blogs!

Looking forward to seeing what you have done in the past month!

Important SAL announcements

Please Label Your Posts -(just a reminder)  Either with the title of WIPocalypse check-in, a category, or a tag/label you have for posts – so I can find it.

Join Us at the Forum – If you’d like to get to know some of your fellow stitchers and share on a more active basis, come join us over at the WIPocalypse forums!  There’s a weekly Monday update thread, and you can chat about whatever stitching you have going at any time.  There are even several designer-specific stitch-a-longs going on, if you’re looking for people who are working on similar projects for some mutual support.

Check-in Totals – Starting next month, I’ll start adding the number of check-in totals I have per person to the participant page. I’m running a bit behind, but hope to have this up to date by the end of March.

Cut-off date for this Full Moon - to have your post count toward THIS full-moon’s stash drawing credit, you must have it posted no later than March 31st.

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Please remember that this stitch-a-long is intended to be fun – so if you’re too busy to post, too busy/ill/etc. to stitch - no worries.  Post when you can and share what you have going, even if you’ve only been able to toss a single stitch into it.  It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.  :)

I know some stitchers were having some difficulty with my blog commenting system when signing up, so I want to try to make this a bit easier/more accessible for everyone.  You can check in in one of three ways:

  • Auto linky form (you’ll see that below)
  • Via comments (make sure you include your blog address!)
  • Via email – to measiwitch(at)gmail.com, only if the other two options do not work.  Again- make sure you include your blog address.  I’ll add your post to the auto-linky if I receive it this way to confirm I received it.
Happy stitching everyone!
Measi

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Theme-a-licious Recap: Fangirl February
Author:
• Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

So… this month flew by.  February was to be “Fangirl February,” where we stitched on our favorite designers.  I suppose in a way, I did do this with my Wentzler and Ink Circles stitching, although I feel like I didn’t quite do what I wanted to.

Yet I really did.

Meh, I’m too hard on myself.

Anyway – I haven’t done anything else on my personal projects since my last entry on the 22nd, so the photos remain the same.  I’ve focused the past week on a scissor fob for an exchange on Saturday night.  The stitching is done, but I need to put it together tomorrow.  That shouldn’t take me very long.  I’ll post a photo of it on Sunday once I return, since by then it will be heading home with its new owner.  I’m very happy with it.  It was a quick stitch, very cute – and I’ll probably make another one for myself one of these days!

March’s theme is “March Madness,” in which we’ll stitch on a different project every day.  Now… I probably could stitch literally on a different project every single day, but rather than go that insane, I’m scaling it down to a group of “priority” projects that I want to make progress on.  I was originally going to set a schedule, but instead I think I’ll do a daily draw to see what I’ll be working on next from the following projects:

  • Deep Blue Sea (Chatelaine)
  • Floral Bellpull (Teresa Wentzler)
  • BoInk (Ink Circles)
  • My Mirabilia round robin piece from 2011 (my square)
  • Apache Wedding Blessing (Kooler Design)
  • Witchy Washy (Raise the Roof)
  • Why I Love New England (Sampler Needlework)
  • Ye Olde Coffee Shop (Little House Needleworks)
  • Waiting in the wings: Cats on a Staircase (Kooler Design) - if I finish one of the others above

A couple of these are very close to being done, so hopefully I can make some great progress and clear a couple off my list.

Since I’ll be stitching on a different piece every day, I’m also going to attempt to do a daily blog posting all month.  We’ll see how that goes!

******

Today brought some of the first real snow we’ve received in Providence since the snowstorm just before Halloween, and it still amounts to just barely over an inch. Supposedly we’ll be getting more tomorrow – but I’ve also heard it will be mixing with rain, so who knows – it may all be gone by mid-afternoon. It’s crazy how warm and dry this winter has been.  It’s definitely the warmest I can ever remember in my life.  The temperature has been much more like the Bay Area in California – my mom lived in Danville and San Ramon for a number of years when I was a teenager – only without the winter rain that California gets.  I’m a bit worried that this may be leading to a miserably hot summer.  Hopefully not.  ;P

I’m now on vacation for a full week, and SOOOOO happy for the time off.  My brain has really been fried from work, and I just need a big breather.  Tomorrow night I’m off to Stitcher’s Hideaway until Sunday to stitch the weekend away on whatever I feel like bringing.  The winter Stitcher’s Hideaway is an alumni retreat (although first timers are welcome – alumni just get first dibs on seats), and the entire thing is open-ended stitching.  No teacher, no specified projects.  Just come as you are, bring whatever you want to work on, and stitch and chat.  It should be a lot of fun, and I definitely am looking forward to the retreat time.  I’m definitely bringing my Chatelaine – that’ll be my Friday focus project, and I’m setting a goal to finish part one this weekend.  I’m also going to bring Apache Wedding Blessing, since it just needs backstitching to finish, Witchy Washy, and my Mirabilia RR (for show and tell, but I may throw stitches into the final square, too).

After the retreat, I still have a few days off to putter around the house.  I have a couple of house things I’d like to get accomplished – doing a mini-purge of my clothes is one.  Other than that, I plan on just resting and taking time for myself because my workload has just been crushingly insane lately, and I desperately need the downtime.

Happy Leap Day everyone!

 

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February TUSAL Check-in
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• Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

TUSAL as of 2-21-12I had another great month of stitching – lots of different colors this month on several projects. My TUSAL jar has a rather large variety of colors this month, thanks to work on approximately a half-dozen projects (and the inevitable frogging that goes with them).  The blues are almost entirely from Deep Blue Sea – I’m still well-entrenched in part one for the Chatelaine Mandala, and it’s a big collection of blues and teals.

I’d hoped to also include some photos of my updates for the most recent two projects – Book of Ink Circles and Floral Bellpull – on this update, but my uploads from my cell phone are running very slowly.  I’ll get them posted sometime tomorrow.  Maybe I’ll even have a better update for Floral Bellpull tomorrow – I’d love to have the border for square 5 done!

Happy stitching!

 

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My February WIPocalypse Update…
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• Wednesday, February 08th, 2012

Hi to everyone popping on for WIPocalypse browsing! If you read me often, the first half of this post is likely stuff you’ve seen before.

It’s been a good month since my last update.  I gave up on Crazy January (and don’t plan on ever attempting it again).  I returned instead to a few pieces – some of my new starts for this year, some WIPs, and one traveling pattern (which is my first finish of the year!)

All of these photos “pop” if you select them so you can see larger sizes if you choose.

Lizzie*Kate Traveling Pattern - finished 1/29/12Here’s my first finish of the year. This is a traveling pattern by Lizzie*Kate that’s now en route to the next person in the Stitcherhood. I pulled random colors for this. The original called-for colors are much, much softer. Blame it on watching the Winter X Games, perhaps – but I wanted to stitch BRIGHT.  I’m planning on finishing this into an ornament for my tree, dated with the year and the stitcherhood on the back.  I’ll make the backing out of the same fabric and whip-stitch it together, just as I do for most of my ornaments.

 

Floral Bellpull, as of 1-23-12Floral Bellpull continues to progress well. I finished all of the cross-stitches in the Morning Glory square and started on the backstitching. That leaves me with two full squares to go before it’s done. My goal this month is to get the border for the next square stitched up so I can start filling it in during Stitcher’s Hideaway next month. :) This is the big focus Teresa Wentzler piece for me this year – and I’m confident I can get it done. With the glut of TW projects in my WIP/UFO pile, I won’t be starting any more anytime soon. My plan is to start weeding them out one at a time, one year at a time. If I manage to get more done, great… but I really want to get these done and on my walls!

 

Cowboy Cats as of 2-8-12Cowboy Cats is one of the pieces I began for Crazy January. It’s not on any timetable, and since I’m in those starting doldrums, I haven’t quite gotten a rhythm going on it yet. It’s a good commuting piece, but I had it in my bag during a seriously insane portion of last month and just didn’t move it along as I hoped. I made most of my progress on this during one evening when all of the Amtrak and MBTA trains were tied up going out of Boston last month. Three hours of hanging out on a train provides a LOT of stitching opportunity!

 

Deep Blue Sea as of 2-8-12Deep Blue Sea continues to progress. This is probably the best color-accurate photo I’ve managed to get of the fabric. I’m still not done with part one, but I’m getting there. I managed to take this on a few commutes in and out of Boston to push it along, and I also focused on it during a stitch-in at Bush Mountain on Superbowl Sunday. I did soooo many eyelets on Sunday that I needed to take a serious break from it and work on light fabric for a while. I’d really like to get all of part one done by the end of the month. It’s definitely possible, although I’ve set it aside for now – I’ll come back to it later once I’ve progressed some of my pre-2012 WIPs!  I will admit, it’s getting much easier to stitch as time goes on and I have more reference points to line things up.  I did add a little “this way up” arrow to the center of the piece (which will obviously be removed at the end).

I think what I’m surprised about as this center mandala develops is just how BIG the thing is.  I’m used to seeing gorgeous centers for all of the Chatelaine designs on other stitchers’ blogs, but photo size doesn’t quite give a good sense of size reference.  For some reason, my brain was interpreting the photos I’ve seen as only 4 inches across or so.  But no… from the top to the bottom yellow lines is just about the same length as my hand from tips of fingers to the heel of the hand.  It fills up a significant chunk of space on my 11″ Q-snaps!

 

Inn at Fox Run Mill as of 2-8-12Last but not least, I played a bit with Inn at Fox Run Mill today while hanging out in the jury duty pool. The top border is now at its full width. I report to jury duty again tomorrow, so I’m going to fill in the acorns that are missing, the small leaves that are missing, and then carry down from there if time permits.

It’s definitely been a productive month! And next month promises to be even better, thanks to the three-night retreat (and week of vacation!) I have coming up.

Happy stitching everyone!

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WIPocalypse Check-In Post #2
Author:
• Sunday, February 05th, 2012

Hi Everybody!

The past month absolutely sped by – I hope you had a great month of stitching, and I look forward to seeing all of your progress posts!

Important SAL announcements

Please Label Your Posts -A few people checked in last month linking only their blogs, and I couldn’t find a post in January that was labeled for the check-in post.   Please, please PLEASE make sure you have your check-in post labeled with either title, category, or a tag so I can find it to count it.  For those who checked in and didn’t have a post linked, I’ll be dropping a message on a recent post to contact me.

Cut-off date for this Full Moon - to have your post count toward THIS full-moon’s stash drawing credit, you must have it posted no later than February 29th.

***************************

Please remember that this stitch-a-long is intended to be fun – so if you’re too busy to post, too busy/ill/etc. to stitch - no worries.  Post when you can and share what you have going, even if you’ve only been able to toss a single stitch into it.  It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.  :)

I know some stitchers were having some difficulty with my blog commenting system when signing up, so I want to try to make this a bit easier/more accessible for everyone.  You can check in in one of three ways:

  • Auto linky form (you’ll see that below)
  • Via comments (make sure you include your blog address!)
  • Via email – to measiwitch(at)gmail.com, only if the other two options do not work.  Again- make sure you include your blog address.  I’ll add your post to the auto-linky if I receive it this way to confirm I received it.
Happy stitching everyone!
Measi

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Jardin January Wrap-Up/February Goals
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• Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

 

Since today’s the last day of January, it’s time to recap my progress for Theme-a-licious’s January “Jardin January” theme.  I didn’t get anything done beyond what I did last week for IHSW, but still… I made good progress on Floral Bellpull.  I’m happy, although the backstitching is still looming at me.  But hey, it’s a Wentzler piece.  There will ALWAYS be backstitching to do!

I loosely could include my start of Fox Run Mill and Why I Love New England as Jardin January starts too, I suppose, as I was working on borders that incorporated flowers/acorns/etc.  But WILNE isn’t at a floral point… yet.

But still – a good month, particularly since I didn’t set any concrete goals beyond stitching!

So of course, with January coming to a close, it’s time for me to plan the next month.

On Saturday, I mentally went through the events on my calendar for the next four weeks and realizing it may be one of the wackiest, busiest set schedules I’ve had in quite some time where there isn’t a wedding of some sort involved.  I spent part of the weekend organizing my Google calendar, and I think I have everything in order.  Thank goodness for Google calendar, BTW – sharing calendars between Erich and myself is a godsend, even if he probably doesn’t want to see every farking stitching event I have going.  :)

Anyway, part of that organization is figuring out what I’ll be stitching this month.  I have a long weekend with Presidents’ Day, two days (minimum) of jury duty, a stitch-in at my LNS, a Superbowl involving the home team, the Beanpot hockey tournament with my collegiate alma mater, a dungeons & dragons game, and oh – another stitchy retreat at the end of it to celebrate the first weekend in March.

And it’s a short month.  o.O

The theme for Theme-a-Licious is “Fangirl February,” where you stitch on at least one piece by your favorite designer (if you can’t send a Valentine).  That will be influencing my rotation and goals for the month.  Once again, Floral Bellpull will make an appearance since it’s the one TW I really, REALLY want to get done this year. I’m also going to pull out Legends of the Dragons for a little while.

Here are my goals for February:

  1. Finish part one of Deep Blue Sea (exception: any missing colors still on backorder)
  2. Finish border for next square of Floral Bellpull
  3. Scissor fob for Stitchers Hideaway exchange
  4. Work on BoInk
  5. Work on Legends of the Dragons
  6. Put stitches in on one other WIP (any piece)
The only thing on this list that has any sort of time constraint is the scissor fob.  I don’t imagine it will be too difficult since it’s a small piece.  Deciding *what* I want to stitch will be the hardest part.  I’ll likely do some browsing while I’m at Bush Mountain Stitchery on Sunday for the Superbowl stitch-in and then work on it on my train rides and/or my jury duty days next week.
I’ve been playing around with different ideas for my rotations.  Several of the groups I’m in via Yuku or Facebook have stitch-a-long weeks themed to different designers.  I definitely will jump in and out of those if my stitching works with them.  Although I have put some ideas to paper for a set rotation schedule, I don’t think I’ll do that this month.  I’m definitely in the mood for indulging in the “whatever piece is screaming loudest” style rotating with my stitching.
I may, however, do an organized rotation for March Madness next month.  To think of me working on a separate WIP every single day could be HIGHLY amusing.  (it may have to be one of those “post every day of the month” bloggy events, too!)
We shall see.
Happy Tuesday everyone!

 

 

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TUSAL and IHSW recap…
Author:
• Monday, January 23rd, 2012

TUSAL Jar - 1-23-12It’s the new moon – and it’s the first of the year, so it’s time to empty the jar and start fresh for the Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long. :)  I’d been filling my jar for two years, so to see it this empty is a bit… weird.  My orts from the last two years have been put into a baggie – I’ll spread some of them in the yard for the birds in the spring, and others I may use to stuff ornaments or something similar.

My orts this month come from a wide variety of projects.  I attempted (and failed) Crazy January.  I started my first Chatelaine.  I did some work on a couple of my long-neglected WIPs.  The pile of orts will only grow from here!

This past weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, and I decided to focus entirely on Floral Bellpull for the January rendition of IHSW.  I had two goals – finish the cross stitches on the Morning Glory square, and get it entirely backstitched.

Floral Bellpull, as of 1-23-12I completed goal #1 easily. I’m about half-way done with the backstitching. I forgot that the inside of the frame is backstitched, and wound up having to do it twice thanks to a quietly building knot of string that built as I went along (whoops).

In any case, I’m happy with what I got accomplished.  Once Castle is done tonight, I’ll get a bit more done tonight before bedtime.

For the rest of this week, I’ll likely split my time between an adorable little Lizzie Kate that wandered into my mailbox from Jo a few days ago (great for my commute) and either Book of Ink Circles or Seasons of Mystic.

 

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The weekend where ALL of my SALs converge
Author:
• Thursday, January 19th, 2012

This weekend is International Hermit and Stitch Weekend!  Grab a project (or two… or four), curl up, get some stitching done, and share with the world.

It’s kind of like WIPocalypse, but much shorter and even more freeform.  :)

BUT WAIT – It’s also Jardin January for Theme-a-licious, which means that my selection for this weekend fits all of my ongoing SALS at the same time.

I know – right?  It’s epic stitching convergence time.  And at the end of the weekend, it’s time for TUSAL to finish it all off.

What piece is so epic in my stash that it can fulfill all of these SAL’s?  It’s none other than…

Floral Bellpull - as of 1-19-12Floral Bellpull!

Yes, the ongoing WIP that has been ongoing for years, gone out on a UFO Round Robin cruise, and still remains an unfinished piece.  It’s the one Teresa Wentzler I truly want to complete this year – and completing it is actually possible if I sit my butt down, get the needle going, and get to work.

While yes, it’s only Thursday, I’m getting a start on it tonight for the weekend.  My goal is to finish the square you see – which is the 4th of 6 in the bellpull.  I don’t have that much actual cross-stitching left to do in the square, so it’s quite possible I can get it and all of the backstitching completed by Sunday night.

*crossing fingers*

Want to join up in one of the non-WIPocalypse SALs this weekend?  Click on the appropriate button below to follow to their hosts.  :)

tusal

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