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

WIPGO 2023 – Week 12 – Halloween Candlestick SAL

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My final WIPGO piece for March was started last year on October 5th for the #13StitchesofHalloween Stitch-a-Long (SAL). It had been an individual SAL the year before with mystery releases, but I decided to just collect the charts and stitch on my own time.

Halloween Candlesticks SAL, designed by Jenny Barton for Lakeside Needlecrafts.
(bad angle is my fault)

This piece is a little cutsey for my normal stitching taste, but sometimes… you just need to embrace the cute. I saw someone’s piece as they started the first candlestick, and just loved the backstitching detail on it against this fabric. Once the animals at the bottom were revealed, I was sold.

Halloween Candlestick as of March 1, 2023, stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32 ct Pumpkin evenweave from Fabric Flair with charted DMC.

Such an amazing start, eh? I’m sure it was one of those nights where I was running late but needed to get SOMETHING started for the day… so I tossed in a couple dozen stitches and called it a day. The fabric is very hard to photograph, but the photo above of the finished piece is pretty accurate to the color. My piece is nowhere near as dramatic as it’s appearing in the photo. What appears as white is definitely more peach.

Anyone who knows me and my stitching probably picked up on the center gridline. I don’t grid very often, but I was having a heck of a time counting to the center on my own due to the mystery nature of this SAL and how the sections reveal themselves. The grid is just a basic ten by ten square count across the page. I did the long way first by folding the fabric in half, started the line where my fold was, and carried it across. I then used that count to find the center and place the vertical line. Once I get that center candlestick a bit more solidified, I’ll be pulling my gridlines because they tend to drive me a little nuts. Some stitchers swear by them, but I always find myself fighting them.

I have no specific timeline for finishing this piece – it’ll likely just be a seasonal piece until it’s done. Expect it to come back out for October as part of my #13Stitches stash. 🙂

Happy stitching everyone!

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

WIPGO 2023 – Week 11 – Celestial Medley

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Continuing my March WIPGO pulls… this week brings me to Celestial Medley from Sudberry House. This leaflet has three small celestial patterns, but the only one I’m stitching is the one called Celestial Shaker Box. All three were designed by Donna Vermillion Giampa. This is an older leaflet, from 1997.

Celestial Shaker Box from leaflet cover

I adopted this piece alongside several others in 2017. It was partially stitched, and I’ve added on about the same amount as what was originally completed when I received it. It’s on white 28 count evenweave – a really nice thick evenweave – and stitched with the charted colors.

Here’s where it starts for March:

Celestial Medley (Shaker Box) as of March 1, 2023. Stitched 2 threads over 2 on 28 ct white evenweave with charted DMC.

Most of my work to date has been in yellow, so I’m going to mix it up and work on that blowing cloud in the upper right. I don’t expect to complete this piece this year. Despite its smaller size, it’s a slow stitch with a ton of confetti, it’s solidly stitched, and the pattern isn’t the easiest to read due to age. When I do finish it, I definitely plan on making it a top of something – but the shaker box it’s featured on in the photo is away outside of my pricing range. I’m thinking maybe one of those metal cookie tins, if the sizing is right. It could make for a handy little doodads box for my altar accessories.

Until next time… happy stitching!

Stitching, Uncategorized, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 10 – Snowball Fight

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Anyone who knows me well, whether in stitching or just in general, knows my love of Dragons and all things fantasy. One of my very first attempted pieces was Teresa Wentzler’s Castle, after all! On the less blended version of dragons of the same era, there were the adorable chubby little dragons by Jennifer Aikman-Smith, designing under the name Dragon Dreams.

Snowball Fight by Dragon Dreams, featured in Stitchers World magazine in January 2002.

Snowball Fight is a project I adopted many years ago, long before my accurate record-keeping about my projects. My first photo of it is back in 2012, so I’m going to assume I adopted it a couple years before that. Sadly I don’t remember who I adopted it from. (sorry about that!)

Regardless of the actual date – it’s definitely an older piece in my stash, and it really doesn’t need to be. It’s not that big. Like so much of my stitching… momentum just kinda died for a while with motherhood. But that’s the beauty of stitching. It can be picked back up at any time.

The version of the piece that I adopted is on a piece of 28 ct evenweave. It’s not exactly the color that I would have chosen as a fresh start… I probably would have done something closer to the original blue you see above. But I picture the background color in the version I’m stitching as the inside – or a rock wall near – a dragon’s cave. It’s a couple of dragon kids playing in the snow, as all kids in colder climates love to do. Who knows if Momma Dragon was making sure they stayed close to home and took this “photograph” against the rocky cliff?

Snowball Fight by Dragon Dreams as of March 1, 2023 – stitched 2 over 2 on unknown 28 ct evenweave with charted DMC. (White streak on the fabric is sunlight, not actually part of the fabric dye).

The last time I worked on this, I got most of the work you see here done on the right-hand dragon. It’s a decently quick stitch with a mix of DMC, satin thread (for the tail) and some fluffy red whisper thread for upcoming scarves, which I’ll do last. This is a possible finish for this year. I’m probably about 2/3rds done at this point. I’ll have to see where I’m at after a couple nights of focus on it – probably this upcoming weekend!

Until next time… happy stitching!

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