Tag-Archive for ◊ apache wedding blessing ◊

Author: Measi

• Saturday, December 03rd, 2011

I realized this afternoon on my way back from a lovely morning with stitchy friends that I never posted the final robin status for my pieces that went out for the 2011 UFO Round Robin. I was waiting for the 2nd piece to arrive to make the post, and then November overwhelmed me.

Summing up before photos – I could not have been happier with the progress that happened… because OH MY GOODNESS they’ve progressed. As in… both pieces are honestly near or in the final stretches.

The 2011 UFO RR was a short one – six rounds. It took longer than expected due to the Canadian postal strike this summer (which seems like ages ago…).

I wound up sending two projects out over those six rounds because Linda, who had Apache Wedding Blessing in round 5, was able to get virtually everything done on it. There are a few tension corrections I want to make, so I requested some of the backstitching in that area not be done yet. Aside from that repair work, it’s all done!

Here’s how it looked when I sent it out in March:

And here’s how it looks now:

I’m so excited to have this nearly done and to be able to give it to my friend Ivanna! (she knows it’s coming eventually… she picked the piece for me to stitch).

When Linda asked me if she could hold onto Apache for a couple extra weeks to wrap it up, I had to come up with a piece for Kris to stitch for a round. I had plenty of pieces, but almost everything was huge Wentzler insanity. I decided instead to send along Walk in the Woods, which is a piece my late Mother in Law started. She passed away before she could finish it. It’s probably the easiest of the pieces I had sitting around, so seemed like a good one to send.

Here’s how it went out:

And here’s how it came back (yes… that’s all Kris!):

I’m seriously in awe at how much she got done in one round!

The spacing of the top border is a bit off – Kris noticed it (I admit… I hadn’t) when she was stitching. She asked if she should take it out, but as those, plus the A, B, E and I were the only stitches my MIL had actually done on the piece, I didn’t want to remove any of them. So yes – the count will be a bit off on it. But on this one, I think it was too important not to mess with.

So to all of the wonderful women who worked on both of these pieces – thank you! I’m so excited that these will be among the first I finish next year. :)

Category: Exchanges & Robins, Stitching, WIP Progress Tags: apache wedding blessing, cricket collection, donna kooler, ufo rr, walk in the woods | 13 Comments

Thursday Thirteen: WIPocalypse planning

Author: Measi

• Thursday, June 02nd, 2011

I actually have quite a few things to post about but have just been really busy, so there may be several blog entries over the next few days. To sum up what’s in store:

It’s time for the Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long update. I had it in my calendar to post yesterday, but between the wild weather we had in New England yesterday (including confirmed tornados in western Massachusetts) and the Stanley Cup game (go Bruins!), I got a bit distracted.
Erich and I started the updating process for two more rooms in our house over the weekend- our bedroom and the bathroom. So story time about that adventure (and some helpful tips for others with old houses) will come this weekend
Updates on the round robin stitching front
Another Caturday post on Saturday. :) Any specific cat requests?
Some gardening updates
Warhammer painting updates
Monthly stitching goals – my updates and my new goals for June
Wanderlust drive musings. It’s summer, which means I start wandering back roads in New England.

I finally got the Google Friend Connect working on my blog (hooray!) so all of you Blogger folks who prefer to follow that way (honestly, I do too… Google Reader is glorious) – I’m up and running. Let me know if there are any problems. You should see it on my sidebar just above the Project: Do Me graphic link.

Today’s entry, though, is for the Thursday Thirteen. A few weeks ago, I made a semi-joking, but semi-serious post about declaring 2012 my WIP apocalypse year. (for those non-crafters, WIP stands for “Works in Progress”). I’m a chronic serial starter with my stitching. I love beginning new projects. I love the journey of stitching projects. But I’m not particularly good at finishing projects. So now I have a glut of them. I’m starting to get the itch to really get through them, too. So what started as a joke is now really going to happen. 2012 will be my project clearing year. :) Any crafty folks (regardless of what you do) who want to join me and use it as a sort of Stitch-a-Long are most welcome. I’ll set up a signup/discussion page in October.

For now, my brain is going to the projects I really, really want to finish. So for this week, here are the Thirteen Projects Riding on the Measi WIP-ocalypse Train. The links go to the Flickr photo set I have for the piece.

1. Apache Wedding Blessing – this is a gift for my friends Ivanna and Joe for their wedding, which um… happened several years ago. Thankfully Ivanna’s a fellow crafty person and understands how these projects can go into a black hole. But all the same, it’s annoying me. Right now I have this out on a round robin to give it some extra oomph, and it does actually look like it’s going to get finished before the end of 2011.

2. Witchy Washy – It’s so damn cute. I want this done and framed on the door to my laundry room.

3. Floral Bellpull – I’ve had this for years, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. I just need to focus on it.

4. Legends of the Dragons – I started this as part of a stitch-a-long in the beginning of 2010, and it just started to fall off my radar as I got into robin stitching. It’s not a particuarly big piece, and definitely doable to finish. Again – I just need to focus on it.’

5. Cats on a Staircase – Right now, this is my longest running WIP. It’s a Christmas stocking. I think I’ve had it going for ten years now.

6. Witches Wheel - I adore this piece. I have a ton of energy to work on this piece. I simply have too many commitments with the robin to stitch on it right now.

7. Walk in the Woods – This is the second of the WIPs I inherited from my late mother in law. The first I finished last year. This one will get done next year. It’s not a particularly difficult piece to stitch – but again, it’s just been a time commitment issue.

8. Astrology Sampler – for YEARS I wanted to start this piece, and when I do – I’ve barely gotten anything done. It’s not a particularly large piece. It’s just stitched on black fabric, which makes it a bit more difficult to work on.

9. Elemental Dragons – Two of the five are done (Fire and Spirit). I have three more dragons to do (Earth, Water and Air). I’ll take getting one done next year, but getting all three done so I can frame the project would be wonderful.

10. Magical Night – I sent this out on a robin in 2010, and the wonderful stitchers who worked on it made tremendous progress. It’s now about half done. I don’t expect to finish this in 2012, but I’d like to make a good dent on what’s left.

11. Egyptian Sampler – I adore this piece and the fabric I chose to stitch it on. I don’t get why I struggle so badly to stitch on it, because I absolutely love it. Hopefully in 2012 I can get into a zone and finish a good chunk of it.

12. Noah’s Ark – this is a piece I adopted from another stitcher. I haven’t done a particularly large amount of work on it since I got it, but I’d like to get some more of the animals around the border done. The problem is that they’re done in petit point, so the work is so tiny and intricate that it goes very, very slowly. My goal for 2012 on this one is to get one of the remaining side borders (left, top, right) done.

13. Book of Ink Circles – I don’t have a photo of my WIP uploaded yet, as it was a new start in May (one of my other entries for this weekend to do). It’s my first attempt at recoloring a design from someone else. It’s a fabulous piece when completed, though.

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll be catching up on blogs this weekend between my own writing. :)

Round Robin Stitching Updates

Author: Measi

• Monday, March 07th, 2011

Lots of Round Robin stitching to update today! I just mailed off two pieces for two separate robins today, and Rachel posted her completed square for my Mira RR. Needless to say, I’m quite bouncy about it!

Today kicked off the 2011 UFO Round Robin. I’m sending out my Apache Wedding Blessing, in hopes that it will get a good kick into gear. Here’s how it left me:

I’ll get it back sometime in October.

Next up is Frog’s piece for the 2010 UFO Round Robin. She has an adorable Noah’s Ark piece. I focused on stitching the giraffes and some of the leaves in the left panel:

Rachel decided to stitch Summer Queen for her square in my Mira RR. Here’s the closeup:

And here’s the full piece as it appears currently:

I think the fabric color will work even better than I’d hoped!

Now off to stitch on Annette’s Mira… I started during the Oscars, but still have a bit to go before the mailing deadline on the 29th.

Happy Stitching!

Category: Exchanges & Robins, Stitching Tags: apache wedding blessing, mira rr, ufo rr | 8 Comments

March TUSAL & Thursday Thirteen

Author: Measi

• Thursday, March 03rd, 2011

My TUSAL jar is getting very colorful, thanks to a lot of retreat stitching last week at Stitcher’s Hideaway. Over 20 hours of stitching in two days alone! But actually, February was another successful stitching month. I managed nearly 90 hours again! Considering the issues that I’ve been wrestling with, that’s exceptionally good. I’m quite pleased with myself.

February’s orts came from several projects, which comprise my Thursday Thirteen this week.

Witches Wheel (Glendon Place)
Witchy Washy (Raise the Roof)
Noah’s Ark – Frog’s piece for the 2010 UFO Round Robin
Apache Wedding Blessing (Donna Kooler)- my piece for the upcoming 2011 UFO Round Robin
Muse of the Midnight Sun (HAED)
Noah’s Ark (Teresa Wentzler) – not the same piece as Frog’s!
Cats on a Staircase stocking (Bucilla/Donna Kooler)
Floral Bellpull (Teresa Wentzler)
Mom’s ornament from January – my orts were stashed in the bobbin box
Annette’s piece for the Mirabilia Round Robin
DMC labels for a number of different projects that I’m kitting up
Orts cleaned out from my sewing box
Orts cleaned out of my purse (hee)

For the non-stitchers reading this thread – what’s an ort? It stands for Old Ratty Thread, and usually is the excess tails from stitching once you don’t have enough thread left and need to bind it off. But it also can be threads that wind up getting picked out by mistake or threads that just look frayed or nasty.

And hey – fellow stitchers – check out my blogoversary giveaway (the next post down)!

Thanks for stopping by!

Category: Memes, SALs/Challenges, Stitching, Thursday 13 Tags: apache wedding blessing, donna kooler, noah's ark, teresa wentzler, tusal | 7 Comments

September 2010 UFO RR – trying to decide what to send

Author: Measi

• Sunday, August 29th, 2010

Another Round Robin has just closed for signups, and now it’s time to start thinking about what I’ll send around. My photos below are about a round out of date… I seem to have misplaced my latest updates on them. But you’ll get the general idea.

I had an initial decision to send Walk in the Woods (Cross-Eyed Cricket). Now that I see everyone else offering up their UFO’s, I’ll do the same and see if there’s any preferred piece folks would like to work on.

All photos pop larger.

Here’s Walk in the Woods:
It’s on 16 or 18 ct. Aida.

I have Apache Wedding Blessing (Kooler Designs), which is for a friend:
On 28 ct linen – a very slippery linen.

Floral Bellpull (TW), which went around on a previous robin:
On 28 ct evenweave

Smoky Mountain Cats (Pegasus Designs), which is a solid sea of blue. No. Not kidding.
On 14 ct blue Aida

Cats on a Staircase (Bucilla), which is a Christmas stocking and my longest UFO piece at this point. My one hesitation on this is that I have a blatant stitching error on it – somewhere along the way, I instinctively switched my stitching direction, so it’s a tad… messy.
On 14 ct Aida

Millennium (TW), which I got from a fellow stitcher who was looking to offload some UFOs. It’s sadly stalled with me, too.
On 28 ct Evenweave

Alternatively, I could send around my restart of Spring Queen (Mirabilia), which had a rather annoying color malfunction with the fabric. That one hasn’t been restarted, but I could put two weeks of work into the gown folds before sending. It would be on either 28 or 32 ct evenweave.

Ones I won’t send…

Egyptian Sampler – because I really do want to do that one myself
Noah’s Ark – most of the remaining stitching is over-one, which I don’t want to force anyone to do
Legends of the Dragons – I’m feeling an itch to work on this again myself
Fantasy Triptych – really big piece, really expensive postage.

Any thoughts?

Category: Exchanges & Robins, Stitching Tags: apache wedding blessing, cats on a staircase, floral bellpull, millennium, smoky mountain cats, spring queen, walk in the woods | 3 Comments

Life, the Universe, and Everything

Author: Measi

• Wednesday, March 03rd, 2010

Where the HECK did February go?!?

(oh yeah… I spent them in front of the TV watching the Olympics and stitching…)

Ready for a long post? I haven’t done one of these in a LONG time. It feels good, actually.

I started this post on March 2nd, by the way, but saved it before heading to lunch and forgot about it. Since I’m still not as familiar with how WordPress will post things, I’m curious whether it will show up before or after the photo I just posted.

Anyway…

Crazy, crazy month. It flew by entirely too fast. BUT – it was productive, in many ways. I’ll talk about stitching in a sec – but I’ll start with the general life stuff.

Erich and I have *gasp* finally gone bowling. It’s a bit of an in-joke, really. I mean, we’ve been together for nine years this May, and we’d never gone bowling. We’d talked about it – and we live within a mile of three separate bowling alleys (although one’s duck pin only, so that may not count), but we’d never gone.

Our best man and his wife thankfully changed that when they invited us to the Sunday morning bowling hangout they’re doing up in Brockton. So… 9:30 on Sunday morning, we’re now hanging out with them at the lanes, bowling a few games since there’s a special to rent lanes by the hour and bowl as many games as you can. Cheap morning – gets us up and moving (and getting some slight exercise, at least!)

We’ve also decided to start doing one other night of bowling per week down by us – the lane in Cranston just down Rt. 1 from us does dollar per game nights on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after 8 p.m., which works perfectly for us. So tonight we’ll go after we eat dinner at home and bowl 4 or 5 games.

I’m still playing pretty badly – the last time I’d been bowling was at the end of high school, and 17 years and about 140 pounds more weight (yeah… seriously *hangs head in shame) have completely thrown off my approach in every way. I’m rebuilding it from basics – right now focusing on the swing itself to get my accuracy, and then I’ll add steps into it. Right now if I do a step-approach, my swing gets thrown off because of the width of my hip, and I swing my arm diagonally across my body just as I do while walking. If I do a stand and swing, I have far better accuracy.

The plan next paycheck is to buy our own bowling shoes – just a few times at the lanes will pay them off (and they’ll be ours, not the worn out rental ones that god knows who has used). I’m seriously debating buying a pair of tri-color bowling shoes… because they’re bowling shoes - it seems like it’s a requirement! I’ve honestly always thought the rental shoes at the lanes were cute in a ugly rebellious sort of way.

So… hooray for hobbies as a couple!

Other stuff… Doctor Who is back on air in the UK on Easter weekend, staring here in the States on Apr. 17th. So my weekends will now be full of geekery again. I’m nervous but excited about the new Doctor. I will miss Tennant a lot in the role, but hopefully Matt Smith is fantastic, too. Steven Moffat is amazing, so if nothing else – I know I’ll enjoy the storylines.

Work’s been busy – quite a bit of overtime lately. Some parts of it are still annoying as hell, but meh, that’s work. I have a job and for the most part, I enjoy it. I work for a good company. The things I do in my job are enjoyable, and most of the people I work with are, too.

Oh… and since I’m in New England, I saw no snow in February. No. Really. All of that crap that dumped on the Mid-Atlantic? Never saw it. We had a decent amount of rain, but that’s all. The first storm that gave Washington almost 30 inches or whatever? The weather forecasters up here actually apologized on air for their bad forecasts because they wound up being absolute duds. Everyone called off school and declared snow emergencies, and we barely got anything that day. Boston even offered to reimburse fines and towing fees for cars that had parked on the street – THAT was how badly off they were!

Stitching Stuff

I’ll get my final Stitching Olympics photos up late this week once I know what our weekend schedule is. The final tally, however – 10 projects worked. I managed to put stitches into all but two of my UFO projects (which I define as anything that has sat untouched for 6 months or more), plus a couple WIPs, plus started a piece for an exchange for the Life’s A Stitch board called “Hush Hush.” That’s due to be mailed out on the 15th, so I’ll be focusing on that piece until it’s done and ready to go.

Two projects are now within a couple hours of finishing – Home is Where the Cat Is (finally!) and Elemental Dragon:Spirit. Both essentially have maybe 90 minutes to two hours of backstitching each. They’re both on my radar for March.

So I’m very pleased… even if my goal list for February went extremely askew:

For February, my goals were

1) Rotate through all of my WIPs and UFOs at least once No. I was a few projects short. But I DID get through 10 projects last month, so I’m very happy with the progress I made.
2) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is So close – I just ran out of time at the end of the month. I’m 4 hours away from finishing, max.
3) Finish Spirit All but the backstitching. So I’m about 90 minuts max on this one from finishing.
4) Put together the individual progress pages on my website One of these months, maybe I’ll get to this. But it hasn’t happened for 3 now. So… yeah. I’ll just focus on some stitching and call a mulligan on this.
5) Finalize my rotation that will start in March Yep.
6) Remember to photograph the TUSAL this month. OMG I finished one of my goals this month!

Seriously though, I’m pleased with what I did this month, even if it didn’t match the goals.

For March, I want to…

1) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is
2) Finish Spirit
3) Get my Hush Hush exchange out on time
4) Get my UFO RR mailing out on time
5) Rotate through my new rotation once by the end of March

Rotation for this month will be:

Hush Hush project (finish and mail by 3/15)
Cats on a Staircase (for Yoyo’s Christmas SAL)
Elemental Dragons: Spirit (will finish)
Egyptian Sampler
Apache Wedding Blessing
Home is Where the Cat is (will finish)
Legends of the Dragons (for the TW board SAL)
UFO Round Robin – Round #1

Ah yes… the UFO Round Robin. I’m seriously excited. Our first mailing date is on March 15th, and it’s looking like it’ll be a fantastic robin. Lots of diverse projects that are going around. We’re stitching as one group of eight, and the robin will take nearly a year before it’s over.

And I’m modding this shindig. Heh. I never thought experience with modding friendship book and slam swaps would come in handy!

I’m sending my Magical Night piece, which I adopted from (I believe) Annette back in 2005 or 2006. Due to the proximity to my wedding, it didn’t get the work hours I’d hoped it would. And since I have a glut of Teresa Wentzler pieces (being insane as I am), I decided sending one of them around was probably the best choice. This one’s probably the least far along – so sending it for a robin will give it a very nice push.

Here’s where it currently stands:

Like I said… it’s not far along. But next year, hopefully it will return with a nice amount of forward progress!

Until next time…

- Mel.

Category: Family & Friends, Life, Work, and all the Rest, Rotations & Goals, Stitching Tags: apache wedding blessing, cats on a staircase, egyptian sampler, elemental dragons, exchanges, home is where the cat is, Round Robins, teresa wentzler | Leave a Comment

Stitching Progress Update

Author: Measi

• Monday, December 14th, 2009

So… I’ve moved on in my rotation again, and with it come a new round of photos. The only one I haven’t updated yet is the ornament I stitched for Jo for the TWCOE exchange. I’ll post that and the one I received sometime this week.

First off – after nearly a month, my energy finally fizzled on Floral Bellpull. I almost got the entire square stitched, but I just needed a break. I managed twenty hours, which is double what my rotation requirement was, so no complaints.

I also decided to put Spirit Dragon away until the new year – I haven’t put any stitches into it for the past three weeks, and instead have been reading on the train. I’ll get back to it next rotation round (when I’ll probably finish it).

My first attempt at my TWCOE ornament was scrapped, although I do plan on finishing it for myself. It’s Teresa Wentzler’s Beginner Whitework Ornament. My chain stitches wound up very off, but for my own tree, I really don’t care. Instead of sending this one, I stitched up Father Winter (another TW pattern).

So that leads me to the current piece in my rotation: Apache Wedding Blessing. This is how it started yesterday morning:

I’m hoping to get the top border done this round so that I can position it better on my scrollframe. The fabric’s pretty cranky and doesn’t want to stay put.

That’s it for now… more later this week!

- Mel.

Category: Stitching Tags: apache wedding blessing, elemental dragons, exchanges, floral bellpull, ornaments | One Comment

Project Planning for 2010

Author: Measi

• Wednesday, December 09th, 2009

With December speeding by, I’m trying to get a sense of the things I’ll be doing project-wise next year. I’d like to get a general plan together before Christmas hits, purely for that part of me that’s a type-A personality.

In my previous entry, I listed the random Stich-a-Longs I’ve joined in some form. Today I put together a full list of my cross stitch patterns (excluding magazines, which are mostly there for reference & round robin ideas). I honestly didn’t think I had quite THAT many pieces in my stash… eep!

So now I’m planning my “attack” on all of it. Obviously I can’t do it all next year. I couldn’t do all of it in 10 years. But I definitely want to make a good push at it, and it all depends on the method of my rotation plan.

Based on past experience, a firm hourly or goal-oriented rotation just doesn’t work for me. Nor does stitching pieces in a particular order. One thing that does work is designating a theme for a slot (a designer, a piece size, or a focus slot, for example). So I’m going to be doing a modified blend of a screaming, hourly, and goal rotation.. if that makes sense.

The rule is that I can stitch these pieces in any order. This will allow me to be flexible for when Round Robins come in and such. I must put a minimum of 5 hours on any one piece before I can move onto another piece. I may stay on a project for as long as I’m feeling in a groove on it – progress in any form is a good thing! I must stitch on every piece in the rotation before making any adjustments, such as included pieces, slot themes, starts, etc.

Right now, I’m thinking about this as my beginning rotation for 2010. I expect to have a decent amount of time for stitching this winter.

TW SAL: Floral Bellpull
Small/Commute: Home is Where the Cat Is (will finish this round)
Small/Commute #2: Elemental Dragons: Spirit
Backstich Focus: Egyptian Sampler
Christmas SAL: Cats on a Staircase
TW/DD/BS SAL: Legends of the Dragons (new start for 2010)
Free Slot: For Round Robin
Open Choice: Apache Wedding Blessing
Open Choice: Astrology Sampler

I’m crazy, aren’t I?

Category: Blog Organization, Rotations & Goals, Stitching Tags: apache wedding blessing, cats on a staircase, egyptian sampler, elemental dragons, home is where the cat is, Round Robins, teresa wentzler | 2 Comments

Planning for the weekend…

Author: Measi

• Friday, December 04th, 2009

I have a lot to get done this weekend. Some of it’s holiday related (getting a tree, putting lights up outside, cards), some of it’s belated autumn stuff (cleaning up the yard before they stop picking up yard waste for the year), and some of it’s stuff I’d planned to do over Thanksgiving weekend but just didn’t get done for one reason or the other (laundry). I’d also like to find some time to relax – play some WoW, maybe do some stitching.

Stitching is going great since I started. I have two slots left on my rotation once I finish my hours on Floral Bellpull tonight. I may actually finish my rotation before the end of 2009!

Here’s where Floral Bellpull started on November 18th:

I started my rotation during our Cape Cod weekend – but also wound up doing a whole lot of frogging (UGH). I’m not sure whether the problems were all present when I took this photo, but I know for certain that small batch of green stitches close to the middle were misplaced (they were a row too high), and caused a whole mess of alignment problems.

I didn’t feel like I was making a lot of progress on this piece, but looking at this photo versus what I have done now, I realize I really have done a nice amount… and all I’ve been doing are leaves. Lots and lots of green!

So tomorrow morning I’ll post the end-of-rotation photo for this piece before moving onto Apache Wedding Blessing, which was meant for Ivanna’s 1st anniversary. At this point, I’m figuring maybe I should plan for an early 10th anniversary present with the rate it’s stitching! I expect to make some good progress on it, though. I seem to be in a good stitching zone lately, so hopefully I can make a push on it.

South Station in Boston is prepping for the holidays this week. The Nutcracker banners are up in full force, as they are every year. This week the annual electric train display has been going up. In years past, it was done on a weekend so I never got to see the building of it. But this year I’ve been able to get the progress pics.

Here’s Tuesday’s shot as they set the supports up:

The black poles are supports for the plastic clear boards (think hockey rink glass) that will surround the display so people can get right up close to look at things.

Here’s yesterday’s shot, with the ground and the train tracks laid:

They were beginning to put the actual trains and the buildings on the display last night, so I imagine by tonight it will be completed. I’ll take another photo on my way out of town tonight.

Off to work – lots of typing to get done today.

Category: Celebrations & Holidays, Life, Work, and all the Rest, New England, Stitching Tags: apache wedding blessing, floral bellpull | Leave a Comment

Happy Friday

Author: Measi

• Friday, April 13th, 2007

Apache Wedding Blessing
Originally uploaded by measi.

It’s so quiet at work today- it’s Friday, before a long weekend, and also the day before spring vacation week starts for Massachusetts school kids. A lot of people must be out of the office today.

After yesterday’s wind/rain/random precipitation storm, it’s also turning out to be a lovely sunny day. I’ll look forward to going out at lunchtime for my weekly trip to the fish hut for some good rich clam chowder (“white,” thank you… the only type that exists in my world) in a breadbowl. I’ll curl up on a park bench with my chowder and Doctor Who novel and enjoy my hour in the sun.

I have hopes to have a productive weekend – I’ve definitely found that burst of springtime energy that is wonderful to embrace after a winter of sluggishness indoors. Erich is off to help one of our friends move from eastern Connecticut back up to Massachusetts. They’re moving closer to family, and only a couple of miles from where Erich and I lived before buying our house. I don’t expect to see much of Erich on Saturday or Sunday, although I imagine he’s coming home to sleep– we’re roughly an hour between each apartment. He took Monday off so we could take advantage of the Patriots Day holiday in Massachusetts to buzz around Providence and Warwick to clean through some errands while everyone else is at work.

And as always, I do have a ton of stitching to do. That will probably be my later evening wind-down activity. The girls on the Unfinished Object x-stitch board picked me as the person to challenge to complete 10 hours on a particular project. And they pick the project I’m working on – which happens to be Apache Wedding Blessing (the attached picture is where I left off).

Whee! It’s Spring!

Category: Rotations & Goals, Stitching Tags: apache wedding blessing | Leave a Comment

Stitching Progress

Author: Measi

• Friday, September 15th, 2006

Apache Wedding Blessing
Originally uploaded by measi.

My computer is finally home from the repair shop! Now I’m able to upload all of my photos to Flickr to show that I am, in fact, making some good progress on my pieces. If you want to see the larger versions, just head over there via the photo to the right.

The piece I’ve been focusing on is Apache Wedding Blessing. It’s stitching quite easily, although I was slowed down last month by having to stitch a large area of light yellow on white – it’s rather hard on the eyes! But it’s coming along very well, and I’m still shooting to have it done for the holidays so I can present it to Ivanna. Now that the weather is getting colder, I’ll definitely be in a mood to snuggle on the couch and stitch.

During my morning and evening commutes, I’ve been working on Home is Where the Cat Is. It’s a small piece that I’ve had for… ages. I bought it in either 1999 or 2000 and somehow never got around to stitching it. In the last couple months, I’ve made great progress. It’s about 85% complete now:

Last weekend, I started preparing for the OTHER round robin I’ll be participating in over the next year: a floral-themed round robin with six stitchers. Stitchers can select any designer. The tricky thing for me was figuring out my layout for each person’s block. I first tried a very basic square-on-square format, but I didn’t care for the result. Then I started sketching. I finally came up with a loosely “flower” shaped layout with five blocks for petals, and the center block for myself. You can see my rough sketch of the layout at my Flickr account.

I decided to stitch the Morning Glory block from Teresa Wentzler’s Floral Bellpull as my center block. It conveniently is the 60×60 stitches I decided upon for each stitcher’s area. In about six hours, I’ve made some great progress on the block:

And finally, Jenni’s piece for the UFO round robin showed up yesterday! Her piece is called “The Mighty Samurai.” Here’s how it looks as received yesterday:

Lots of stitching to do!

Category: Rotations & Goals, Stitching Tags: apache wedding blessing, home is where the cat is, Round Robins | Leave a Comment

Stitching photo day! (updates and SBQ)

Author: Measi

• Wednesday, June 07th, 2006

This is going to be a pretty heavy photo entry. Apologies in advance…

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted update photos of my stitching. And since it’s Wednesday (and therefore Stitcher Blogging Question day), I finally got my butt in gear and took some photos. I’m having some serious problems with blur, though. *sigh*

Anyway, here’s The Castle. As I’d mentioned a month or so ago, the cross-stitches are now done. I’m finishing up the backstitching. The majority of the work I have left to do are the rocks between the castle and the tail. I’m working the spines on the far left hand side (against the white backdrop) right now.

Here’s a bit more detail on the backstitching I’m actually focused on:

For those who read my journal who don’t cross-stitch… backstitching is the technical term for adding lines that create detail. It includes outlining, shade lines, and definition lines between different colored areas. On my Castle, for example, take a good look at the rocks on the left hand side of the image vs. the right– you’ll notice the ones on the left have a faint outline around them. That’s what I’ve backstitched so far. The ones on the right are not yet backstitched (but will be!).

Most stitchers I know consider backstitching to be tedious, but we all know that it definitely DOES make a difference in the finished project. I’m thankfully moving well right now, so I’m plugging along on it while the ability to tolerate backstitching continues.

Apache Wedding Blessing is my other big project right now. I’m stitching this for my good friend Ivanna, who wed in October. I’m really hoping to have this done for her first anniversary…

I got a good 10 hour plug done on this so far this week– anything you see in the top horizontal section was done on either Sunday (most of the day) or last night (mmm… Deadliest Catch). I want to have that section done no later than Friday night. Then I’ll begin working on the bottom half of the left hand column (more of the blue zig-zag pattern, which stitches obnoxiously fast). Once I get the left hand vertical column done, I’ll get that portion backstitched, and then move on to the bottom horizontal panel.

So my projects are moving right along– I can be honest via photos now!

The Stitcher Blogging Questions for this week are photographic, too…

The first request comes from Vashwho is requesting pictures of the back of your stitching… are you brave enough to give this one a shot?

I’m really not afraid of this. I consider myself a very neat (and proudly so!) stitcher.

Backside of The Castle:

Backside of Apache Wedding Blessing:

I’m not sure who actually taught me this, but I learned very early on to keep the backside of my stitching as neat as possible so when I finished a piece, it would lie as flat as possible when put into a pillow or a frame. As I stitch, I honestly do consciously look to make my backside stitching as clean as possible. Most of the mess I may have comes from the backstitching.

The second request comes from Singular Stitches, and she is asking for “a pictorial tour of [the] special place that you go to create your wonderful stitched creations.”

Other than the Commuter Rail train, which I couldn’t shoot spur of the moment… here are my two stitching nooks:

The living room couch (complete in this photo with British stitching mags and the black sheet I’ve been using to cover my legs as I curl up)

And my side of the bed (please don’t skeeve at the wallpaper. It’s from the previous owner… we just haven’t gotten to it yet. The cats love pouncing the big pink roses, though!)

And I think I’ve reached my max space limit for entries today….

Category: Catalanche!, Stitching Tags: apache wedding blessing, castle | Leave a Comment

Almost done!

Author: Measi

• Friday, January 13th, 2006

I’m slowly but surely finishing up The Castle. As of Monday, this is what mine looked like:

I’m working on the final stretch of rocks below the long tail of the dragon now. I’m hoping to get it done by the end of the month. It’s definitely feasible, but I’m thinking mid-February is a definite.

Then all I have to do is the backstitching for the lower half of the pattern… and it’s DONE. (and then I’ll just pick up another Teresa Wentzler and punish myself again… hee!)

Ivanna’s wedding blessing is coming along very well so far. I’ve put about 15 hours into Apache Wedding Blessing (to be known until I finish as “Apache”)– a lot of it watching playoff football.

The shadowing on this piece isn’t as noticeable when I’m looking at it on a hoop, but in this photo, it’s definitely there. With how definited the feather already is, I’m curious to see how strong it will be once I get some backstitching on it!

This weekend, I’ll be focusing more on Apache, but I’ll definitely do some work on both of them. It’s coming along well!

~ Mel.

Category: Stitching Tags: apache wedding blessing, castle | Leave a Comment

Exploring the new home state

Author: Measi

• Monday, July 25th, 2005

Things I learned this weekend–

1) Rhode Island really is a small state.
2) I need to spend time over in Roger Williams Park and take pictures.
3) I will not want for stitching supplies while living in Providence
4) Rhode Island drivers are worse… slightly… than Massholes.
5) Roof patching material stinks to high heaven

On the big news front– our stove finally works (yay!). The electrician, after three weeks of phone tag, finally came over on Saturday morning to replace the plug, but discovered that the entire wire coming from the basement was in very bad shape (the casing was frayed to where we could see the copper… not good). So the wire and plug were completely replaced, and we’re now in business in the kitchen. Mac & cheese became the first official cooked meal in the house.

With a working stove, we finally could justify doing the first official food shopping trip for the house. Stop & Shop was doing some 10 for $10 deals, so we stocked up on side dishes. We decided to do most of our meat purchases at BJ’s Wholesale later this week. Since we have two freezers, we can save money by buying in bulk and freezing it. And since I could have pork chops for dinner half of the week in various styles, I want the ones from BJ’s since they’re very thick (and cook nice and juicy). It was one of those HUGE shopping trips, though. When the fridge in our apartment went dead, we were able to save some stuff, but some stuff didn’t make it. We also just had been winding down food shopping, so while we did bring down a fair amount of groceries, a lot of it was dry, long-term stuff like spices and tea.

I seriously can’t wait to have chicken, rice, and salad tonight for dinner. You have no idea.

After the electrician left, Erich left to play one of the rotating D&D games that he’s involved in with the Boston-turned-Providence crew. I wound up with a long day to myself, but with very little fundage to support doing much of anything out of the house thanks to a huge bill-payment catchup and some splurges on unnecessary lunches at work. I’m currently at a position where if I take any money out of the bank, I’m going to screw myself. (sigh)

So, instead… I spent the majority of the day organizing my stitching stuff. I had (and still have) dozens of skeins of embroidery thread to wind on bobbins and put away. I got through about half of them– I still probably have around 40 skeins to wind. In the early afternoon, I decided to do my one exploration of the day and search for the stitch shop in Cumberland that I’d found on Google months ago. When I mentioned it on a New England stitching group I joined on yahoo, I received some very positive feedback.

I found it fairly easily– no wrong turns to get there following google maps. I clocked it at about 20 minutes from the house, and almost all of it was on a limited access highway. The first thing I noticed about the store was its size. Most supply stores (save a defunct one in Salem that was THE BEST I’ve ever been to) for stitching are very cramped quarters, due to their limited audience. Think front of a drycleaning shop, or maybe a baseball card store (that does not carry gaming/hobby supplies). Very cramped, stocked to the ceiling with stuff, usually with a table in the middle out of necessity… but it makes it difficult to get around. With Heart and Soul is not like that at all. The cash register is in the lobby room of the store, but there are three other rooms. One has gift stuff (Vera Bradley bags, stationery, candles, etc.). The back room is a framing and matting room. But the main room has tons of stitching supplies– kits, leaflets, fabric (cut to order), fibers, beads, hoops and scroll rods, magazines, etc. And tons of finished works on the walls. It was a surprisingly large shop. Most of the patterns were samplers and traditional cross stitch.

I will not want for stitching supplies. At all.

Since I currently have enough patterns to keep me stitching for probably the next five to seven years (and possibly more), I honestly had no desire to buy more patterns on Saturday. I did get the skeins of thread that I was missing in my stash to prep Ivanna’s wedding piece. (I’m shocked at the chart price at the site I linked, BTW… I bought it direct from the design studio last week, and it cost only $6.00). I was only missing a dozen skeins– three of which were duplicates that I had some of in stock, but not enough for the two skeins called for (and to prevent dye lot issues, I just bought two new ones). Now I just need to match fabric from my current stash (which won’t be hard to do), and that project’s ready to start.

After I left the stitching store, I decided to drive back to where my path to Cumberland had veered off of Route 146. I remembered seeing that there was a drive-in theater in North Smithfield. Sara (our friend and real-estate agent) had mentioned that she and her husband had seen movies there, and that it was very close to the house.

Sure enough, just up Route 146, there was the Rustic Tri-View… in business nightly. $17.00 per car load. But it looks like they only do single-feature movies on each of their three screens. We’ll have to give them a try. Mendon is a wonderful place to see movies, but it is one that’s a double-feature theater… so it means it’s a weekend or vacation theater. If Tri-View only has one showing, we can do that on any night of the week.

I headed home after finding the movie theater, spending the rest of the day hanging out on the couch, stitching, and getting a bit of laundry done. Erich finally came home from his game sometime around 4 a.m. I was very glad I decided to sack out sometime around 1.

Sunday morning’s iced coffee run led to a forced round-about way to get home, thanks to a car accident. It turned out to be a pleasant little drive through Roger Williams Park– (which will become a photo essay entry next weekend). Once the weather cools a bit in late summer, I plan on taking some walks over to the park. Until then, the humidity will force me to drive to the park, but then I’ll walk around once inside. It’s only a few blocks away to the entrance, and just so beautiful.

The rest of Sunday was errands and chores. Aside from the grocery and cat supply shopping, we got new keys cut for the house and both cars. Erich’s original set of keys still has not turned up, so it was time to get that issue fixed. And for the first time since living with Erich, I have a key to his car (shocking). Erich patched the soffit over the Florida Room, which my phobia of heights would never allow me to do. We did laundry. We’ll do more tonight.

Thus ends my weekend adventure.

Category: Family & Friends, New England, Stitching, Travels, Wanderlust Tags: apache wedding blessing | Leave a Comment

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