Stitching, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 16 – Live on Little

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For the past two years, I’ve been attending a stitching retreat in Troy, New Hampshire at The Inn at East Hill Farm. It’s held the first weekend of November – so past peak for the autumn color, but still early enough in the crossover to winter that the weather shouldn’t be too iffy. The farm is honestly just perfect – completely isolated with bad cell service that forces us to unplug for the weekend. Home cooked meals, beautiful scenery, lots of animals to visit on the property – including fresh eggs to bring home right from the coop. Both years as I’ve left, my reaction has just been “OMG, this was exactly what I needed.” And I totally want to just book a couple days there to get away and relax on my own!

This past year, several attendees decided to start on Live on Little by Plum Street Samplers as an ongoing SAL for a personal keepsake of the retreat.

Live on Little by Plum Street Samplers (via the pattern photo)

It’s a perfect New England-ey sampler, although East Hill Farm is not by the sea. It’s also a very involved sampler. Tons of stitches, lots of solid stitching. And there are a bunch of color changes to show the bricks in that house! It has a hidden secret, though – it’s a fabulous piece to bring to retreats. There is a ton of fill-in stitching to do that, if set up properly at home, will allow for easy stitching while chatting with others at the farm table with almost minimal counting.

Quite a few of us were debating changing the verse on it. I was among those at the retreat, although I admit that it’s growing on me… so I may just stitch it as charted. I have plenty of time to decide. This piece will be with me for a long time!

Live on Little by Plum Street Samplers as of April 1, 2023 – stitched 1 over 2 on 40 ct Old Massachusetts linen by Primitive Hare with charted threads.

The above progress is what I started at the farm last November. It was a decent start for a few hours of stitching before the light waned and I needed to switch to a project with larger crosses. I noticed as I was returning on that white line of the roof that I’d screwed up my stitches somewhere and not crossed over two. Since I’m so early in the stitching, my first order of business for April WIPGO will be to fix that row. This piece is just too big for me to have a counting error like that and leave it so early. After that, I’m planning on continuing down with the brickwork of the house for a bit just to get the width of the house correct. By the time The Farm comes around in November, I’ll have the framing the top of the house so I can focus on filling in roofing during the retreat.

This is definitely going to be a slow-progress piece, and truthfully I count on it being one of those pieces I bring out at each retreat just to work on for a bit for fill-in. It’ll be a nice little memorial to time spent away stitching with friends.

Stitching, Uncategorized, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 15 – Winter Welcome

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One of the biggest reasons I love the boxes from The Black Needle Society is their new-to-me stash suppliers. I love receiving patterns, floss, fabric, and all the fun doo-dads from sources I’d never heard of. Even in the wild world of the internet, these new discoveries are thrilling. I feel like it has helped expand my stitching world considerably.

One of the new designer introductions to me came via the “Nice” box for the holidays in 2021 – a fully kitted project called Winter Welcome by an oddly named designer called Park Hopper Bart.

Winter Welcome by Park Hopper Bart. Photo from front of pattern.

Winter Welcome was kitted with the called for standard DMC floss and two colors of DMC Etoile (black and white), along with an absolutely beautiful piece of linen called Winter Berry from Fortnight Fabrics that I wish I had more of just to have. It doesn’t photograph well, but it’s the most delicate color that I can only describe as close to periwinkle. My piece of fabric is impossible to get to hue on screen.

It’s a very cute little piece – simple, straight forward, but with just enough whimsy to make it catch my eye for the holidays. This is my style for December. I’m not really into the Santas or anything bold and in your face. Obviously the religious-themed patterns are not my thing either. I like the small, quiet, delicate patterns for the holidays. I’m drawn to the rarely found quiet – that “all is calm, all is bright” concept. This little piece captures a glistening of that.

Now… that said… that Etoile thread? It’s most definitely not going with the calm atmosphere. I rarely need a floss threader to load a needle – but this stuff? Yeesh. It does not want to behave. Even with the threader. It snags, it bunches, it will not stitch evenly… so this fairly simple pattern is taking way longer than I’d like. The final glittery snow effect is honestly lovely and worth it. Just slow. At least this time I can ignore how much I don’t care for stitching in white because it always makes my stitches look wonky. Here? The floss is just adding to the wonky and I’m going with it.

I started to get into a bit of a rhythm with the curling vines by using more of a sewing technique to work the thread, so I’m hoping I can push forward a bit faster moving forward. The key is, I think, to allow this thread to create the bumpy texture. Don’t try to flatten and railroad it like regular DMC floss. It just won’t behave that way. This is a mindset floss that just needs to be embraced for the cranky nature it holds, and it will provide the pretty. (much like my cranky calico cat, Leia). Actually… I have the perfect description of this floss. It’s persnickety (or pernickety for those of you who speak English English).

Winter Welcome by Park Hopper Bart as of April 1, 2023. Stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32ct Winter Berry linen by Fortnight Fabrics with charted threads.

I already know that I’m probably going to finish it in the trendy in-hoop style, wrapping the hoop with some glittery ribbon appropriate for the holidays. This one will absolutely be finished this year. 🙂

Stitching, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 14 – Book of Ink Circles

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Book of Ink Circles, often called “BoINK” on blogs, was a free piece offered by Ink Circles on their website back in 2008. I remember quite a few folks stitching it back then. Folks made some alterations to the corner designs, and there were lots of color changes. Like so many pieces that have a popular season, this one seems to have quieted down, and I don’t really see any progress posts about it anymore.

Book of Ink Circles (BoINK) by Ink Circles – image from designer’s website.

I began mine sometime in 2012, but I don’t have a specific date. I’m stitching mine on an older cut of 28 ct Thunderstorm linen from Silkweaver from my days in the Fabric of the Month club around 2005/2006. I know the original palette is likely inspired by all of the bright colors in The Book of Kells. It’s a little too varied for my personal tastes though. So I’m planning on toning it down. I keep changing my mind on my colors, though. I think that’s a typical problem with Ink Circles pieces. I swear I have about 10 different colorways selected for Cirque des Cercles!

BoINK by Ink Circles as of April 1, 2023 – stitched 2 over 2 on 28 ct Thunderstorm linen by Silkweaver. Custom colorway.

My outline for the squares is being done in Gentle Art’s Cinders. It’s a beautiful red-black thread with little pops here and there of bright red, just like the embers settling down in a dying fire. I had a bad miscount that required fixing last year. That is now complete and I’m moving forward. I’m just under halfway done working the outlines of the piece. Part of me is itching to start that upper left square, but I really do want to finish the frame first – just to get a fresh, ironed photo of it before I start adding in each of the patterns. This piece feels like a stained-glass window to me, and I want to fill in each window, just like the original SAL did.

My goal this month is to get the top right “cat” head back on, which was one of the things I had to frog off when I corrected my counting. After that I’m going to continue down that center column of squares to ensure I keep everything balanced from the center out. I think now that I have the foundation of the top half, it should be much easier to keep everything counted going forward.

I have no timeline for completing this one. Eventually this will probably be a fair submission just because it’s a pretty wild, unique piece and different than most things offered at the fair. I feel like it’s one of my goals to submit non-traditional stitching to show that cross stitch is just as wild in its themes as quilting is.

Until next time,

Melissa

Stitching, WIPocalypse, Works in Progress

March Stitching Wrap-Up

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The past month is a bit of a blur for me. The super busy season that I normally have at work in the spring arrived a month early in early March, rather than mid-April, and it took me by surprise. It’s not a bad thing – it means that I should be able to enjoy the warmer weather a little more and settle into summer project work a bit earlier than normal. And I will definitely look forward to that!

Because of the unexpected work load combined with the expected break for PaxEast, my stitching went a little slower in March. I still got a decent amount done, though – and I’m happy with my progress. Still steadily working toward some yearly goal accomplishments.

I Love New England by Sampler Needlework as of April 1, 2023 – stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32 ct antique white linen with charted DMC.

I Love New England was my focus piece for March for the WIPocalypse. While I didn’t manage to stitch on it every day, I definitely completed more than the “one stitch minimum per day” on it, so I’m pleased at the progress. My goal had been to complete the inner “small” lettering. I have about… ten words left? What slows it down a bit are the sneaky one-off color changes in the words. But still – I’m getting there. I don’t know that I’ll have this piece ready for the fair this year as I’d originally hoped, but it will definitely be ready for next year.

My goal for this in April is to get that small lettering done.

Celestial Medley by Sudberry House as of April 1, 2023 – stitched 2 threads over 2 on 28 ct antique white evenweave with charted DMC

I only spent a couple days on Celestial Medley this month, and it was spent in confetti stitching of the blue cloud on the top right. Really happy with my progress on this one. The chart isn’t the clearest, due to its age. It’s a hand-drawn one with very small symbols. Next time I stitch on it, I’ll finish that fill-in and then move back over to the yellow moon on the upper right. Eventually I’ll have to figure out what I’m going to mount it on when I finish it. I don’t know if it will be large enough for a standard metal cookie tin, but that’s the idea I’m going with for right now.

Snowball Fight by Dragon Dreams as of April 1, 2023 – stitched 2 over 2 on 28 ct unknown evenweave with charted DMC.

I figured out why I stopped stitching on Snowball Fight last time I’d worked on it – I was off by a row with that dragon’s wing on the right. So aside from starting a little bit of the snow they’re standing on, most of my two days of WIPGO were spent frogging and correcting that wing. Thankfully not that many stitches, but it took me a bit to figure out why things weren’t matching up! (I apparently failed at counting to two… seriously.) I wasn’t really feeling this one since it’s getting to springtime, so back into its project bag it goes for a while. I’ll give this one another whirl in autumn.

I didn’t stitch at all on my fourth WIPGO piece, Halloween Candlestick SAL. Like Snowball Fight, there’s frogging to do. My tiny start wasn’t even correct (UGH!). And after frogging Snowball Fight, I decided to just get back to that one later. I’ll get it done this month at some point!

And that’s all I did in March. Hopefully April will be a little more productive!

Until next time,
Mel.

Stitching, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 13 – Early Americans

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April numbers have been announced, and a whole new month of projects is on my plate! I have another month of variety to stitch on, which makes me happy. First up is Early Americans by Little House Needleworks, which was released as separate patterns. I am doing the entire 9-part series as a single 9-patch “quilt.”

Early Americans – John Hancock by Little House Needleworks (original photo from pattern).

I have completed Block 1 – Betsy Ross and Block 9 – Molly Pitcher. I did a blind draw to decide which square I’ll be working on next… and the winner is John Hancock.

Early Americans by Little House Needleworks as of April 1, 2023 – stitched 1 thread over 2 on 40 ct Granite Dust linen by Silkweaver with charted threads

Early Americans was my New Year’s Day start in 2020. I feel like that was an age and a half ago! How little we knew what was coming, eh? Crazy! I am not normally a huge Americana stitcher. I have quite a few charts in my stash, but I’m not one who needs to do a ton of patriotic stitching. I don’t know… it just feels like a bit of theater, perhaps.

However… I am a huge fan of history, and I greatly appreciated that there are an even number of women featured among the men in this piece. So often women’s roles get ignored in history. I had a piece of linen that closely resembled the stitched sample, and I always love the subdued color scheme of Little House Projects. This one therefore broke my Americana-avoidance instincts.

I loved the look of the individual little pillows, but for this one, I wanted to put them all together on one piece – so a nine-patch quilt it is. I love how many Little House – and Country Cottage – series work up this way, giving the stitcher a bunch of different options for their finishing decisions.

I started with the individual squares once I completed the Betsy Ross square so I could get a sense of the finished size. It’s really not that big, especially on 40 count. The Betsy Ross square stitched up quickly… but Molly Pitcher and that huge house did not. John Hancock is a lighter square, though. I might be able to get it done this month while playing one of the stitching games on Semi Sane Stitchers.

This one is a long-term goal piece. I have no time line for completing it, but look forward to eventually doing so. Once this is complete, I’ll likely put another Little House 9-patch into my rotation. I love her primitive style!

Happy stitching,
Mel.

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