March Stitching Wrap-Up

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.

WIPGO 2023 – Week 10 – Snowball Fight

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!