Challenges/Stitch-A-Longs, Stitching, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 31 – Bag Ladies

2 Comments

You know when you have that project that has been in your stash for eons – for so long that you were pretty sure you’d already started it, but when it came up in your WIPGO project list – you discovered that no… you had never put a single stitch into it?

Just me? Oh.

Bag Ladies by Sunset Designs (designed by Braldt Bralds)

This kit has been in my stash forever. Pretty sure I bought it when it first came out because… cats. Naturally. Also pretty sure I probably picked it up at a Michaels or Joann’s, because by the time this was published, I don’t think the store in Arlington, Mass still existed and I hadn’t discovered other stores thein. This kit was published in 1999. At that time I was still too afraid to try stitching on linen – so anything Aida and cats? Yep… bring unto me.

My stitching has come a looooong way since then, hasn’t it?

Well – I still enjoy some classics. So despite having not started it, I decided not to swap it out with another piece in progress and just dive in. What the heck – I’ve been pretty good this year with starts. And I just had two finishes last month (that I know I haven’t posted yet… they’re coming!). Time to treat myself with an easy-to-see one and go “Old School.”

Bag Ladies as of August 1, 2023 (not started). Will be stitched with threads as charted on 14 ct light blue Aida.

The greenish tinge you see at the top right of the photograph isn’t on the fabric – it’s the reflection of a green poly envelope like what I used to keep all of my WIPs and kitted projects in before I discovered zipper pouches. I’m now in the process of moving anything that’s fully kitted out of the poly envelopes because they have gaps. I’ll use the poly envelopes only to keep multi-part charts together going forward.

I have absolutely no timeline to finish this one. It’s kinda funny that it was not only not started – it’s been on my WIP list for years! No idea how… but it’s going to finally be started now! 🙂

Challenges/Stitch-A-Longs, Stitching, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 30 – What Remains

2 Comments

When Blackbird Designs designer Barb Adams died in 2021, a stitch-a-long was organized online for anyone who wanted to participate. I’d never stitched a Blackbird before, although I’d long loved the designs. I just hadn’t jumped in yet. This SAL seemed like the correct opportunity. I chose, like several other stitchers, What Remains. At the time it was an exclusive chart to Traditional Stitches in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to celebrate their 20th anniversary. It’s since been released to a wider audience.

What Remains by Blackbird Designs – apologies for the slight warp in my leaflet image!

I have to admit that I’m a little self-limiting with samplers. I’m not really interested in doing verse work that’s overly religious in reproduction samplers (a very limiting issue of mine – totally self-created). I tend to lean toward motifs such as in this particular Blackbird project, rather than the bolder, broader motifs (such as birds) with more detail. I always associate that with French style, but I don’t think that’s quite accurate. I guess I have more of a primitive preference?

Anyway, I loved the soft colors in this one and how it resembles a reproduction without actually being one. I purchased my copy direct from Traditional Stitches along with fabric and floss. I started my version on July 8, 2021 – only four days after Barb passed.

What Remains as of August 1, 2023 – stitched 1 over 2 on 40 ct Straw linen from Weeks Dye Works with charted floss.

The fabric doesn’t photograph true to shade. It’s a mustardy dark yellow that’s deliciously autumny and almost has that tinge that’s just past peak color when yellow starts darkening before turning to brown. It’s quite a bold fabric, rather than the more raw color that it appears in the photograph.

I’ve been fiddling with the start of the border to get my bearings. I plan on doing the top and left side just for perspective placement, and then I’ll work the center motifs before closing the border up – just in case I need to make adjustments (because it’s ME and I never quite do any project perfectly).

I have no timeframe to finish this one – it will finish as it’s meant to be done.

Challenges/Stitch-A-Longs, Stitching, Uncategorized, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 20 – Quaker Compass

No Comments

I purchased Quaker Compass either the year it was released, or the year after, while attending Celebration of Needlework. Karen Kluba had her booth set up at the retreat with all of her gorgeous models, and I fell in love with it.

Quaker Compass by Rosewood Manor (image is a little warped from the cover of my chart, sorry!)

Quaker Compass oddly represented a compass when I started it – a journey I had no idea I was about to partake. I started it over the 4th of July weekend in 2012. A couple weeks later, I learned that I was pregnant with Max. That compass definitely represents more than I thought it would!

I was itching to use Threadworx’ variegated floss on something, and decided that Quaker Compass would be my attempt. I grabbed the large skeins of #1157 and decided I would work the large motifs in the Threadworx, and then start working smaller motifs with a mix of the Threadworx and DMC solid floss colors featured in the variegation.

Quaker Compass by Rosewood Manor as of May 1, 2023 – stitched 2 over 2 on 36ct Sterling linen by Picture This Plus with Threadworx #1157

Quaker Compass was put on hold for a bit once Max was born because I wanted to get his birth sampler done. Little did I know that the boy variation of To Have a Child was charted in the same colors as Quaker Compass. I’m doubly glad I decided to do this one a bit different. Will it work? No idea. But since purple and green are my favorite colors – I’ll be happy with it even if it’s a hot mess of color.

I have no real timeline for this one, but I think once I get the full outer border done, it’s going to move quite quickly since the other motifs surrounding the central compass are quite small. It’s my quirky, completely untraditional Quaker sampler. I can’t wait to see how it looks finished.

Challenges/Stitch-A-Longs, Stitching, Uncategorized, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 19 – Jazz Sampler

No Comments

One of my bucket list items is to eventually learn how to do Hardanger embroidery. I’m getting there – I took the plunge in 2021 to cut threads for the first time, but I need to do some practice scrap work to figure out Dove’s Eye stitch and some of the other wrapped bars.

Enter Victoria Sampler charts… which are well known for their use of Hardanger at the bottom of their band samplers…

Jazz Sampler by Victoria Sampler (Thea Dueck)

In 2014, I received a copy of the Jazz Sampler by Victoria Sampler as a door prize at the Stitcher’s Hideaway Winter Escape retreat. It also included the floss pack. I loved the piece, given my love of music, and knew that eventually I’d want to stitch it. Not quite yet, though. At that time Max was only a year old, sleeping was still a luxury, and I was just barely able to stitch my basic stuff – Hardanger was not in the cards!

Fast forward a couple years, and I thought it was time to get it going. I had fabric ready to go, had project bagged it (the “now it’s official” move), and I had it in my “will start in January…” batch. But then it didn’t happen… and didn’t happen… and didn’t happen.

Finally for the #NYE12x12 (New Year’s Eve 12×12 stitch-a-long) in 2021 hosted by Just Keep Stitchin’ on FlossTube, I decided to just get it going. Didn’t matter if I only put a few stitches in. It needed to start. With the basic outline of one house, it was underway before the ball dropped in Times Square.

Jazz Sampler by Victoria Sampler as of May 1, 2023. Stitched per instructions on 28 ct ecru evenweave with charted silks.

I feel like getting this first band of houses done will be the hardest part until I get down to all of that cutwork. I always struggle with the first batch of motifs in any project before I get into a groove on a piece. Jazz Sampler will move quickly into a series of less intense bands. The people are fairly blocky with color – not as many color changes to progress as there are with these houses.

And if I don’t feel comfortable with the Hardanger by the time I get to the bottom? Well… I can always leave it off. 🙂

No timeframe for finishing this one – I imagine it’ll fly pretty quickly once I get into the groove on it. I’m not quite there yet, though.

Challenges/Stitch-A-Longs, Stitching, Uncategorized, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 18 – Love to Stitch Box

No Comments

This week’s WIPGO brings us to a project I took as a class in 2018 at Celebration of Needlework. Jeannette Douglas was there, and it was the first time I can recall seeing her since my fun class in Mystic in 2011. The Celebration class was for her Love to Stitch Box – one in a series of little compartment groupings that she has designed and published over the years.

Love to Stitch Box by Jeannette Douglas

Our class kit came with everything to finish the project – including the box tray. Like my Four Seasons of Mystic years earlier, everything was tidy and well labeled and easy to read. If you ever have a chance to do a class with Jeannette – do so. She is an absolute gem and a wonderfully relaxed, welcoming teacher.

I started my piece in class with everyone else and had a happy little acorn done. It quickly stalled after Celebration because I was focused on completing Four Seasons of Mystic. My rotation at that time had organized into “try not to have more than one design by any designer going at a time,” due to the glut of Wentzlers I had stacked up in progress. So Love to Stitch would have to wait – Four Seasons was the project in rotation, and I could get back to Love to Stitch once it finished in 2018.

But then 2019, my energy was drawn to finishing two other big projects – Max’s birth sampler (To Have a Child- Rosewood Manor) and Teresa Wentzler’s Floral Bellpull. And then the Steotchalong grabbed my attention to stitch on the Golden Girls mystery. And suddenly it was 2020.

And… well, we know what happened there.

I picked the project up again in 2021, and quickly made work of most of the main Love to Stitch square. I finished everything but the border. I was convinced that I would get it all done that year – so much so that I actually dated the piece. (that was arrogant of me!)

And then it sat again as I plowed through some other pieces.

Love to Stitch by Jeannette Douglas as of May 1, 2023 – stitched 1 thread over 2 on 32 ct Legacy linen from Picture This Plus with charted silks

Between WIPGO and Stitch Maynia, my goal is to get that border done. The stitching on the other pieces for the box will not be as intense. If I can finish up this one, I’ll be very, very happy.

Hoping to have this done by the end of the year or early next year at the latest. And then the finishing will begin… 🙂

Close Menu