Stitching – Page 7

WIPGO 2023 Week 26.5 – A Stitcher’s Sampler

July 14, 2023 1 Comment

Since there are 6 WIPGO projects for July with #13 called (the traditional Bingo “free space”), I have extra entries. This is the first of the extras. The next will be posted in two weeks!

Celebration of Needlework in 2018 was a big year for me. That’s when several of my current WIPGO pieces were purchased, started, or inspired. A Stitcher’s Sampler by Primitive Hare is another one I acquired during that retreat. As I mentioned in my And They Sinned entry… Celebration is not easy on the wallet – in the most joyous stash-collecting way.

*A Stitcher’s Sampler by Primitive Hare*

Ten years ago, this type of piece probably wouldn’t have appealed to me – but I’ve been growing fonder of samplers in recent years. Plus bees in any form now are an affectionate thing, since Max’s childhood lovey is a stuffed bee plush. Mr. Buzzy still hangs out on his bed every night, although not quite as close to him directly as when Max was younger.

I purchased A Stitcher’s Sampler directly from Isabella, the designer, alongside several other designs that year. This is the only active one so far. It’s stitched entirely in one color (Garden Gate by Gentle Art), and on one of Primitive Hare’s fantastic aged/distressed linen colors.

I started mine as part of the #12×12 New Year’s Eve SAL with Just Keep Stitchin’ in 2021. Since that night, I haven’t touched it.

*A Stitcher’s Sampler by Primitive Hare as of June 28, 2023 – Stitched 2 threads over 2 on 35ct Olde New England linen by Primitive Hare with GAST Garden Gate (charted).*

With the exception of the bees on the top and bottom, there isn’t any particular dense stitching in this sampler. I have no timeline to complete this one, but I imagine once the bees are in… this one will stitch up decently quickly. Perhaps a finish for 2024? Time will tell. I’m also debating if I’ll backstitch the needle next to the word “with” or if I’ll stitch a real needle – one of my worn ones – to the piece as a momento.

Stitching, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 Week 26 – Witchy Washy

July 12, 2023 1 Comment

I define my legacy WIPs as anything that pre-dates Max’s birth. Witchy Washy by Raise the Roof Designs definitely fits into that category. It almost was scrapped due to an accident with iced coffee in 2013.

According to my notes, I started Witchy Washy on May 11, 2010. It’s one of the oldest pieces I have a specific start date noted – likely about the time I realized that it might be a good idea to keep records on my work. I remember when I first saw it at the store… with the wording on the cover “Did you ever think you would cross stitch a BRA?!?” Yep, that sold me. I’m weird that way.

The purple and green (my two favorite colors… especially together) swirly bra honestly was fun to stitch.

I was moving right along on this one – it was well over 3/4 done when the iced coffee incident occurred. Nothing extreme – I tipped over my obligatory iced Dunkin Donuts on the table at the library. And a bit of coffee got onto my piece. Unfortunately – the flosses weren’t colorfast, and there was some leeching onto the fabric. I was so upset. I decided to just put it away for a while to decide how I wanted to proceed. Once it dried out, I put it into my finished pieces roll to keep it safe. It sat there. For years.

Last year I decided to pull it back out and decide what to do. I realized that the leeching wasn’t quite as bad as I thought, and an additional button would easily cover up most if not all of the stained fabric. Since there are already several buttons on the finished piece, what’s one more?

*Witchy Washy by Raise the Roof as of June 28, 2023 – stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Manhattan Myst cashel by Dyeing4U with charted threads*

My fabric is a delicate lilac color. I wanted to go purple because Halloween and witchy and all that – but the light purple just seemed to fit the slightly more feminine laundry theme. The bleeding, by the way, is just above the basket. You’ll see some orange there. I’ve bought an extra cat button to put into the basket. Cats do love baskets – especially baskets of laundry!

Witchy Washy is now on my super active list, and I am planning to get this one done by the end of July. With the 24 Hours of Cross Stitch Marathon coming up next week, I may be able to wrap everything up except for the buttons. 🙂 It will be a nice legacy completion to cross off the list for 2023!

Stitching, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 Week 25 – And They Sinned

July 5, 2023 2 Comments

It’s now July – and this month is the month that #13 was called… so I have SIX… yes, SIX WIPGO projects to work on. Thankfully it’s also a month with a 24 Hours of Cross Stitch Marathon, so I’m not that concerned. I’ll be plugging right along with these through the month. But because I have six projects – there will be a couple of Friday editions of WIPGO Weeks this month, on the second and last Fridays.

To kick things off… we’ll go with the Biggest of Big A** Projects I have going – And They Sinned.

Do I tell the story again? Oh sure… let me tell the story again about how this insanity came about. 🙂

And They Sinned has been on my bucket list of projects for well over a decade. I’d seen a couple completed versions in person, and was just amazed by it. It was always shoveled into the “someday…” bucket, though, with no plan for when I’d actually start working on it.

In 2018 I was at Celebration of Needlework in Nashua, New Hampshire as I try to be every year. One of the great things about that convention/retreat is the shopping mall – a collection of about 12-18 vendors, varying by year, for stitchy needs. It’s soooooo easy to break your stitching budget there!

Anyway… in the back corner of the shopping mall, the boys from Needleworkers Delight were set up with a large booth full of wonderful fabric to peruse, feel, and drool (not literally) over. And in the back, back corner of their booth was a small table with high count fabric. Including a couple cuts of 56 count, labelled at approximately $16 each. One was white, and one was cream.

Now – at that point, I had barely ventured into 40 count. Something inside me screamed that I had to have this piece of 56 count – just to say I had it. At at $16? It was a bargain for how much stitching could be fit upon it. So… it became mine.

Later that day while sitting in the circle of my local stitching friends, sharing all of our purchases and laughing at the occasional person jumping up to go back into the mall to go get something someone else had shared, I pulled out the piece of 56 count to show Abi Bellastitch and Amy (Gables Stitcher), who I both know via offline stitching. At some point in the conversation, I sarcastically said “I wonder if And They Sinned would fit on this?”

Well… we know how sarcastic comments something develop — look at what happened when I made that about the WIPocalypse in 2011.

Phones came out, stitch counts were checked and calculated… and why yes, it would fit on the piece of fabric I bought! Clearly it was fate!

Over the next few months I acquired a copy of the pattern and the charted floss. And They Sinned was my New Year’s start for 2019. Originally I was trying to work on it as a Sinning on Sundays piece, but that didn’t work particularly well. Now it comes up in normal rotations and I try to get whatever done that I can.

*And They Sinned by Exemplar Dames as of July 1, 2023 – stitched 1 over 2 on 56 ct antique white Zweigart linen with charted threads*

I’m currently battling the Cloud of Doom – which will connect those two grey swirls together into one mass below the angel. It’s a hefty block of stitching…. well over 3,000 stitches. Once I get through that, it will loosen up again for a while.

Obviously absolutely no timeline to finish this. I just want to finish it someday. And then present it at the fair. Because it’s insane. 🙂

Stitching, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 24 – Down the Danube

June 28, 2023 No Comments

I’ve fallen a bit behind on my WIPGO posts, so doing these after the fact in July (oops!). Apologies for that! I’ll be backdating these entries to fit where they’re supposed to go in the sequence.

Down the Danube by Jeannette Douglas is a piece that I never was meant to have. It was an exclusive for attendees of a Christmas market cruise down the Danube river in 2016, and is not for sale at any shop. I didn’t attend that cruise. Yet here I am, stitching the piece because now it has become a memorial to a lost friend.

Two members of my local stitching group, Becky and Sandy, went on the cruise with Jeannette and had a wonderful time. They stopped at several towns along the Danube river for sightseeing and market shopping, and then spent the nights on a river cruise, where they met their fellow stitchers and likely got more chatting than stitching done… because that’s how retreats always seem to go. Jeannette gave each of the attendees a full kit of Down the Danube as a souvenir.

And then in 2017, Sandy died unexpectedly.

Months later our stitching group helped her family clean out all of the stitching and crafting supplies – with plans to distribute amongst ourselves, and then to take the rest up to Celebration of Needlework to the freebie tables to give away. Sandy’s stash was divided, and along with a couple other pieces (including a Wentzler), Down the Danube came to me. I was just finishing Four Seasons of Mystic, and I had the closest connection to Jeannette among the folks in my group, so it just made sense.

Sandy had thrown a few stitches into it, but had barely started the snowtops on the mountains at the very top. I put a few more in, but then became busy with Astrology Sampler and Max’s birth sampler… and so it quietly sat and waited.

*Down the Danube by Jeannette Douglas as of May 31, 2023 – stitched one thread over 2 on 32ct Belfast Smokey Pearl with kitted threads*

I haven’t progressed too far and already have an error in my count – I made the top ridge of the mountains one column too wide. Thankfully it’s about at the halfway point, so I shouldn’t need to pick out too much. I think I’m going to fill in the house on right and then move with a better sightline rather than just do the mountaintops for my second attempt at it.

I have no timeframe for finishing this one. It will be a memory piece for Sandy, and will hang alongside the other pieces on my wall when it gets finished – exactly when it’s meant to be finished.

Stitching, WIPocalypse

June 2023 WIPocalypse Check-In

June 25, 2023 No Comments

Hello everyone!

Summer has definitely arrived here in Rhode Island. It’s quite warm and muggy, and we’re in the middle of an unsettled weather pattern where it’s either blazing sun or pouring rain, and not much in between.

Max’s last day of school was Friday, so he’s making Big Plans for the summer to fit around his day camp schedule. I’m trying to tell him not to make too many and just enjoy being a kid… but kids don’t understand the glory of unscheduled summers since they’ve never known anything else.

My stitching continues to go well this month. I’ve been stitching on I Love New England as my daily focus and reached my goal for the month of getting all of the small letter text into the piece. Now I can relax and work on some border for a bit while I catch up on some other stitching I wanted to accomplish. I’m still uncertain how I’m going to work next month – I may not do a daily focus as planned on one piece, and focus instead on pushing a few pieces forward that honestly I could get done before the end of the summer.

Upcoming One-Month Challenges

July will be another one-month challenge month. As always it is optional, and as always, remember – it’s just one stitch a day. One often leads to more… and you’ll make great progress! Every. stitch. counts. If you can’t join us for this month’s one-month challenge, the next one will be in October.

I want to get a couple of small house chores done so I can slack off and stitch all afternoon… so time to get moving. Have a lovely rest of the Memorial Day weekend if you’re in the US, and enjoy your June stitching!

Until next time,
Mel.

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Important SAL Announcements…

Question of the Month: Half-year recap: How are you doing with your goals so far this year?

Next posting date: July 30, 2023

Topic(s) for next time: Which are your favorite and least favorite fabrics to stitch on?

Need all the basic info about the SAL? Go here for all details for 2023!

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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. If you miss a few months, not a problem – just jump back in when you’re back with us! It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.