Stitching, WIPocalypse, Works in Progress

February Wrap-Up

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What a crazy month! I felt like I was just running crazy all of February and just in a funk. Maybe it was delayed emotion from January’s losses of Carol and Noby, I don’t know. But I just was a big ball of crabby for the better part of the month. I finally took a week off from work President’s Day week since it was also school vacation week here in Rhode Island. That definitely helped a bit. I could have used another week, though. but I have a couple more vacation days to enjoy with Erich and Max at the PaxEast gaming convention later this month.

I don’t know – I’m just a little mentally off. (sigh) Hopefully I shake it soon. I’ve been wanting to do a FlossTube video too… but haven’t been able to since early December due to various illness rounds and rough voices. Maybe I’ll try to get something filmed later today.

Stitching-wise, February was a good month. I finished my WIPGO goals – two days each on Fruits of Plenty, Deep Blue Sea, Bayun Cat, and Dear Rine. I’d hoped to fully finish one of my smalls, but didn’t. But I did get some progress made on some other stitching I was itching to do. The “Stitch What You Want When You Want” philosophy is a good one. 🙂

Onto the stitchy updates…

I spent a good portion of the month focused on The Fruits of Plenty. I really wanted to get the original February portion done. Didn’t quite get there, but I made a lot of progress and I’m very happy. I’m taking a break from it this month to focus on another piece, but I’ll be picking it back up in April.

Fruits of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery as of February 13, 2023 – stitched 1 thread over 2 on 40 ct Antique Ivory linen from Silkweaver in DMC.

I did wind up having to do some frogging on Fruits to start the month – my original heart outline was miscounted. I discovered it as I started to do the blue fill-in pattern… and then discovered it was STILL off as I finished the fill pattern- but it’s even. So I just made a quick adjustment to my fill-in. It won’t affect anything else. And now my “mistake on every piece” record continues to be 100%. 🙂

Of all of the pieces I worked in February, Bayun Cat was the one that I feel most satisfied with. It just moved along, and I feel like I have a good placement of the center of the piece now – the rest should flow nicely.

Bayun Cat by Owl Forest Embroidery as of March 1, 2023 – Stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32 ct Belfast linen provided in kit.

Bayun is tricky to photograph – my camera tends to really wash it out. I had to over-saturate the photo a bit to really get the true color of how pretty and variegated those yellow and orange flosses are. I love the little houses that the cat is curled around. 🙂

Dear Rine got two days worth of stitching for WIPGO, but I confess that I’m just not really feeling this one right now. I managed to get a full circle and a portion done. So… yeah, not a lot. But that’s ok. That’s my whole goal with WIPGO – to just get something into these WIPs. Even if it’s a few stitches. My mood will likely change at some point and then I’ll get into a zone with this one and plug ahead.

Dear Rine 2017 (Dierencirkels) by Rine Oddens as of March 1, 2023. Stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32 ct Poltergeist lugana from Silkweaver with DMC.

I’m working on circles to see what I’m going to be able to fit from the original pattern since my fabric is a different shape than what’s called for. I think I’m going to end up 4 circles short of the full pattern – I think I’ll manage to fit 45 comfortably – 5 rows of 9. Then I just have to decide which of the circles I’m not as interested in stitching. The geometrics I can eliminate easily. It’s the animals that are harder!

The final WIPGO piece of the month I worked on was Deep Blue Sea, and my goodness I struggled! I was fighting the fabric, I was fighting my chart. UGH. I think it’s honestly just because I find the Chatelaine charts a little hard to wrangle. It’s like working on a Wentzler in a way – a lot more concentration is needed to get stuff done.

Deep Blue Sea (Mystery XV) by Chatelaine. Stitched per charted on 28 ct Phantom linen by Picture This Plus in customized mix of silks and cotton threads.

Once I figured out what the heck I was doing, I did manage to move through another quarter of the coral in section 3, though. I’ve left this on my Lowery frame for now. I forgot to finish a little bit of the coral in the top center section. I’d also like to get the straight band stripe done on the left before I put it away to rest for a bit. Depending on how this year continues to go… this may be my focus piece during the summer. It’s one that I really do just need to settle in with for a while to get into the right mindset. Once I do that, progress comes pretty decently.

So that was all of the WIPGO stitching for the month. Goals accomplished – yay! Then it was time to settle into whatever else I felt like working on while I was away for a couple nights with friends. Normally I attend Stitcher’s Hideaway in February. This year I was a bit tight on funds due to cats and kids and all sorts of things, BUT… my friend Christine and I had already reserved our room at the end of the retreat last year outside of the block rate. So I decided to still go up to the hotel to get away, stitch, and just have a mental health retreat to try to shake this funk. It kinda helped, it kinda didn’t. A little drama there… but it’s over and done. Overall, I had a nice time. It was good to spend time with Christine and one of our other friends, Val, who I only get to see a couple times per year due to distance. I do think like with so many other things post-Covid, stitching retreat life is starting to change direction a bit. We’ll see where it leads.

I did a slight bit of stitching on I Love New England, but forgot to photograph a before photo. It wasn’t anything exciting though – about 300 stitches on the border in a straight line. That’s coming up for WIPGO for March, though – and is my focus piece for the month. So I’ll do before and after photos on that for March.

I set a goal for myself to finish the tree limbs in my Temperature Tree for 2021 so I can finally get the leaves on there and finish it. I’m happy to have completed that goal in February!

Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy as of February 25, 2023 – stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32 ct. Dreamin’ Lugana from Silkweaver with DMC 839.

Now I have twelve limbs ready for daily leaves. I have the temperature records written down through the end of October for that year. Just need to get the rest of the year written down, and I can start patching in leaves! The heart gap on the trunk is my own custom addition – I’ll scratch my initials and the year in there. It just felt… right. One of my friends suggested stitching this year’s leaves in there, but I have other temperature charts selected for 2022 and 2023. I don’t mind having it backdated. I’m taking a one-month break for this one, and then I’m going to start plugging the leaves in. This will be a definite finish for this year – likely sometime this summer. I can’t wait to see all of the colors blossom!

Finally, I started one of the other temperature charts I just mentioned. This one’s for 2022. It’s called Temperature Drink Shelf from Kristi DiClemente (KristisCornerNeedle on Etsy)

I will be changing the top “Grab Yo Drank” to “Na Zdrowie” since I come from a good Polish heritage family. I’m going to use the same threads and color chart for this one as I am for the tree for 2021. Here’s my very little start on it:

Temperature Drink Shelf by Kristi DiClemente started on February 25, 2023. Stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32 ct Sea of Fog evenweave by Fortnight Fabrics with charted DMC.

I’m stitching the glasses as I go along that shelf partially to help with the counting. It’s a looooong shelf. Like… 180 stitches long. But once I have one in, it’ll be much easier for the rest of the months!

And that’s the insanity for February. Lots of stuff worked on! Every stitch counts… 🙂

Stitching, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2023 – Week 6 – The Fruits of Plenty

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Week six of WIPGO leads me to one of my truly Big Ass Pieces (BAPs), The Fruits of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery. Aside from my Chatelaine, which is coming up later this month, Fruits is the most intense piece I currently have going. As far as stitching skill goes? It’s honestly an easy piece. But it’s nearly 50,000 stitches in total. And it’s incredibly dense.

It’s also incredibly stunning.

The Fruits of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery. Photo originally from designer’s website.

The photo above is the two-toned version. There is also the option to stitch it in monochrome, in which you’d stitch the heavy blue band in reverse – just the flower scrollwork. I am doing the two toned version in DMC 800 and 840. There were multiple options given in August 2021 for the house you see in the center. I will be doing the windmill option instead of the house above. I may honestly do some of the other options as ornaments at some point because they’re all very pretty!

The Fruits of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery as of February 1, 2023. Stitched 1 strand over 2 on 40 ct. Antique Ivory linen by Silkweaver with DMC.

I realized just as I uploaded this photo that I don’t have one of everything to date for this month. I’ll make sure to do that when I do my end of month progress on it. I will be doing much more than the simple two-night WIPGO allotment on Fruits. My goal is to get the entire February portion, framed in this photo, done.

Fruits was offered as a non-mystery Stitch-a-Long in 2021. The piece was divided into monthly release sections, but the entire design was known up-front. I fell in love with it at first glance. It’s just so complex and elegant. Intense? Yes. But there’s no backstitching or quarter stitches. The entire piece is straight cross stitch. I knew I wanted to do it in a light blue/brown combination, inspired by a thread called Blue Bunny produced several years ago by a European dyer called Nina’s Threads. (I think she has since switched exclusively to yarn). The chart indicates two colors, but I have seen some versions of it on Instagram that have more than two that absolutely work.

Two of my fellow Stitching Sisters of New England members, Amy (Gables Stitcher on FlossTube) and Sharon, completed theirs within or just after the 2021 calendar year. Obviously… I did not. I fully expect this piece to be a long-term commitment for me. This year’s goal is to finish three months. I’m in good shape to complete February soon. I should be able to also get March and April done comfortably. I think keeping it in three month block goals is a comfortable pace for me – and maybe I’ll have it done before Max goes to high school. (hee!)

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

January Stitching Wrap-Up

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Noby (orange) and his littermate Elly (black) many years ago in their younger adult days

The rollercoaster that I’d mentioned in my January 16th post continued through last weekend, and so I’m now behind in updating what’s been going on in my stitchy life. Along with Carol’s passing, we had to say goodbye to the last of our original band of (pre-Max) cats, Noby, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge on Saturday at the ripe old age of 17. It wasn’t unexpected – he had been quite ill for a long time, and we’d been avoiding facing reality over the holidays. I’m glad he’s no longer suffering and that he’s able to run free with his sister and the extended cat family we had. I miss him though – even his annoying, gross habit of sneezing right in my face.

Work has been kinda busy lately too – the usual uptick of meeting preparations seems to be coming about a month earlier than normal. It’s not a bad thing, but I felt like I was caught a little flat-footed the past couple weeks. I made some good headway to get back on track early this week though – so all good there.

With the emotional and work weirdness, my stitching hasn’t been quite as productive the last couple weeks. I’m still quite happy with what I accomplished, though!

Apache Wedding Blessing by Kooler Designs as of January 21, 2023. Stitched 2 over 2 on antique white linen with charted DMC.

I completed both of my remaining WIPGO goals for January in the last two weeks of the month – two days of backstitching on Apache Wedding Blessing, and two days on Mute But Not Silent.

For Apache Wedding Blessing, I focused on the top left corner of the piece – outlining that upper feather and then running the straight line outlines for a couple of the poles. I’m happy with two nights of progress. I may bring this with me to Stitcher’s Hideaway later this month to get a bit more basic backstitching in on the poles on the other side. I would estimate I’m about one third through the backstitching at this point, and then I have a little more tension cleanup work on the left hand side where I originally pulled a bit too tightly. I’ll be fixing that side by simply running a tent stitch over my existing stitches to fatten them up a little bit.

Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten as of January 23, 2023 – stitched one over two on 32 ct Lambswool linen with charted silk floss.

On Mute But Not Silent, I decided to focus on the first of the two large H’s. While a good chunk of the work was double running stitch outlining the outside, I did also add some cross stitches in the center of the structure of the H to give it a bit more dimension. I still need to add a four-sided stitch into the center of each of those circles, and then that H is complete… and I can move on to the next one. These Dutch-style letters are quite ornate! And they don’t match each other – the stitches are put in different configurations, so I need to count almost the entire time.

Even though this is a “murder mystery” piece, I do know what the entire piece looks like. I posted it here on my WIPGO Week 4 post. The mystery will be linking the individual motifs to the storyline so they make sense. Definitely a fun way to stitch a piece – and have a little extra “if you know, you know” behind it on the wall.

Fruit of Plenty by Modern Folk Embrodiery as of January 21, 2023. Stitched 1 over 2 on 40 ct Toasted Almond linen with DMC 800 and 840.

With my WIPGO stitching completed, I decided to pull out a couple pieces that were yelling at me to get some work done and threw them into the option pit for Semi Sane’s “Choose My WIP” challenge.

The first was Fruit of Plenty from Modern Folk Embroidery. I managed to get a little over 1,000 stitches in on this one in about a week of puttering. I’m very happy with the progress. And it will get more in February since it’s a featured WIPGO piece!

I outlined the entire cartouche you see centered here, plus filled in some of the blue at the top of it (where the “2” is shaded in). For February I’m going to try to finish up this section, which represented the February block in 2021. It’s super-intense stitching, so I do not expect to keep up with this throughout 2023. But I’m going to push it as far as I can this year. My goal was a modest three months completion. I should make that just fine.

Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy. Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct “Dreamin'” Lugana by Silkweaver with customized DMC.

For the final week of Choose My WIP, I stitched on the 2021 Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy. I have had a heck of a time overcoming the tree trunks on this one. Not sure why I’m struggling so muich – but I just have hit one of those ruts. I’m sure once I get that final trunk in, this piece will move a lot faster as I stitch in the individual leaves. I’m very happy to have added three limbs onto the tree – just a little more to go! About one and a half limbs!

This piece will definitely get finished this year. I already have a couple of other temperature projects waiting on the wings that I’d like to start – but I won’t until this one gets done. The heart you see is custom. This piece didn’t have a year or initials added in as part of the design, so I decided I’d carve my initials and the two-digit year right into the tree. I’d waffled whether I would change this to 2022 or… since it’s now 2023, the current year. I decided to leave it as a 2021 piece. I already have found a couple other fabulous temperature record pieces that I’ll work for the most recent years.

I will post my WIPGO Week 5 piece tomorrow, even though it’s not Wednesday. For now I need to head to bed… it’s been a long day and I’m wiped out!

If you want to see what else I worked on in January, my weekly updates are here and here.

Challenges/Stitch-A-Longs, Family & Friends, Stitching, Works in Progress

What I Stitched This Week – Jan. 9-15, 2023

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The past seven days have been a heck of a rollercoaster here in Measi Land. I celebrated my 48th turn around the sun on Wednesday with a wonderfully relaxing day off. Then it quickly turned sad, as one of my Stitching Sisters of New England friends, Carol, passed away early Saturday morning. She was older – I refuse to go down the “elderly” road – and had been looking frail over the last few months, but it still came as a shock. So my brain and emotions are all over the place. My stitching circle has had a very rough couple of years between members dealing with cancer, heart attacks, other hospital-related illnesses, two Sisters’ deaths, and the losses of loved ones. Somehow, though, we just keep moving, reminding ourselves to hold each other a little closer in our hearts. I’ve been a bit more distant from the group as a whole lately as I work through some personal emotional/mental stuff. This is my reminder to stop hiding, even when everything in my brain wants me to.

I’d planned on making a WIP Parade FlossTube this weekend, but it’s just not the right time. Sometime soon – once I take a little breath about everything.

(deep breath)

So… despite that rockiness, it was a pretty good stitching week.

ABCs of Parenting by Lizzie Kate – as of January 12, 2023 – stitched 2 over 2 on 28 count cream Monaco with customized DMC colors

I started the week with some work on my ABCs of Parenting by Lizzie Kate, which was the second of my four WIPGO pieces for the month. It also wound up being the focus piece for Week Two of “Choose My WIP” over on Semi-Sane Stitchers on Facebook. I featured it this past week with my “before” photo here. It stitches up pretty quickly, and I’m happy with my WIPGO progress on it. I may put this in as one of my monthly focuses later this year for WIPocalypse, because I could probably get it done easily if I just did a length or two per night on it.

Flying Lesson by Silver Creek Samplers as of January 14, 2023 – stitched 1 over 1 on 18 ct Hazelwood Aida from Fiber on a Whim with charted DMC threads

On Friday night I just felt like curling up with something fairly easy as Erich and I watched The Matrix Resurrections for the second time. I grabbed Flying Lesson by Silver Creek Samplers and threw some green and black stitches in to complete the header text and the very top of the witch hat. I fully expect to finish this piece for Halloween this year. Once I get that witch hat and the moon behind it completed, the rest of it will go super fast. Hopefully it comes up on an early WIPGO month and I can just devote a week to it or something. It may come up next week for Choose My WIP – it’s only down by one vote right now! Maybe I’ll toss it in the ring for Week 4 if it doesn’t win this week. I’d like to get that hat done so I can move on from black floss for a little while.

The Fruit of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery – as of January 14, 2023 – stitched 1 over 2 on 40 ct Antique Ivory linen from Silkweaver with DMC 800 and 840.

I’d originally planned on working on my 3rd WIPGO piece for Saturday and Sunday. After the news about Carol, though, I knew I needed a night to work on one of my pieces that she’d expressed a lot of interest in. Solid color stitching, some basic rows, and nothing complicated. It helped ground me and let me work through my thoughts, both happy and sad, as I stitched late into the night after everyone else was upstairs. On this piece, I added the light blue at the top (where you see the “2” outlined), carrying it down the right side of that brown-outlined triangle. This is the other piece that is currently up for Choose My WIP for week 3, winning by one. If it wins, I’ll be working the blue down to the right (to outline the “0”) to form the other side of the octagonal motif just to the left of my needle minder in this photo. For those familiar with how this stitch-a-long was divided in 2021, it’s the February portion. I have January’s complete and have moved down into April a bit to let that blue Assisi-style band flow naturally. I do plan on roughly stitching the piece generally in month-release order. Where it makes sense to skip around to form a motif across the month dividers, though – I’ll make the jump.

Apache Wedding Blessing as of January 15, 2023 – stitched 2 over 2 on Antique White linen with charted DMC threads

Finally yesterday I started on my WIPGO piece, although I have to admit I’m just not feeling it. It’s one of my oldest pieces and all I have to do is backstitching – a LOT of backstitching – and a bit of fill-in repair where my stitches were way too tight. This was my first piece ever attempted on linen, so my tension was way off in a few spots – and I think that is part of my mental block about getting it done. I’m just annoyed with my stitches in the top left where I first started. I need to add a stitch over the originals to fatten them up here and there, and they’ll look much better. I’ll be doing a bit more work on it tonight – backstitching, and then it will sleep for a while. One of these days I’ll just suck it up and push through the rest of it. For now? No. I’ll just do what my goal was for WIPGO, which was the entire point of my goals. Some of these pieces I won’t be feeling as much. That’s okay. WIPGO will let me at least touch them for a couple days so I can remind myself where I am on everything.

So what’s in store this week? Apache tonight to complete my WIPGO goal. Tomorrow night I’ll be joining Abi Bellastitch on her #StitchYourAlphabet SAL. She’s working ABC Hornbook by the Primitive Needle. I’ll be working Alphabet of Stitches by Morning Glory Needleworks, since I have that fully kitted and partially basted. Wednesday/Thursday/Friday will be Choose My WIP focus, which will lead me into the first 24 Hours of Cross Stitch Marathon next weekend and a batch of “whatever I want” chaos.

A busy week – both past and upcoming! Hope all of you have a good week – see you next weekend!

Stitching, Works in Progress

What I Stitched This Week – Jan. 1-8, 2023

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Every Monday, I’ll feature what I worked on for the past week (Monday to Sunday) to get the bit-by-bit progress shots on my pieces that I honestly think are fascinating. Sometimes those photos are the only proof to myself that I am making progress and that every single stitch counts. This week I’m adding in a extra day since January started on a Sunday.

I’ll kick things off with the annual New Year’s Day start. This year I chose The River by Modern Folk Embroidery. I received this pattern last year in the Christmas season advent box, “The Nice Box” from the Black Needle Society along with the gorgeous hank of overdyed floss I’m using. The model was stitched in red, but oh the floss I got… it’s called River of Life, and it’s nearly identical to one of my favorite fountain pen inks called River of Fire – a mix of jewel-toned jade greens into blues that just… *swoon*. Seriously. I need ALL of this floss. All the time. Give me a giant cone of it so I can do every Long Dog that exists in it.

Anyway – this is my second Modern Folk Embroidery piece in progress. I love his designing – the Quaker and Dutch motifs he uses, sometimes with just a bit of tweaking to make it obvious they’re not pure reproductions but inspirations. (Hey… his Designer Name is exactly what he does!)

The River by Modern Folk Embroidery – as of Jan. 1, 2023 – stitched 1 over 2 on 36 ct Sterling linen from Picture This Plus with River of Life cotton (featured) from Forbidden Fiber Co.

The hardest thing for me was deciding the fabric – did I want to go on dark fabric and let the floss glow, or lighter fabric so I could see it easier? Both effects would be awesome. I decided to go with the lighter fabric, though. I had a perfect color in my stash that was neutral and would let the floss shine – and ultimately, that’s what needs to happen here – the floss color absolutely needs to shine.

I’ve only put a couple hours’ work into this so far. As you can see in the photo – it’s not much. A little bit of the top border for fabric placement, and the beginning of the Alpha. I am going to be doing a modified parking method with my floss on the borders so I don’t screw up my counts. I also want to allow the floss color changes to roll through the piece naturally, so keeping each strand going to the end is ideal. It’ll be practice in color control to keep the pattern moving nicely down the line!

Hyperborea by Owl Forest Embroidery as of Dec. 28, 2022 – stitched on 32 ct Zweigart Monaco with kitted floss.

The next piece I worked on was for week one of “Choose My WIP” over on Semi Sane Stitchers. This game is held four months out of the year (Jan/Apr/Jul/Oct), and has four rounds per month. A couple days before the start of each official stitching week, participants post two or three projects, and all of the other active participants can vote which piece they prefer – the piece with the most votes is the one you must put at least 500 stitches in during the weekly challenge. My winner for week one was Hyperborea by Owl Forest Embroidery.

Hyperborea by Owl Forest Embroidery as of Jan. 6, 2023

I hoped to get the entire Owl done, but I had a bit more difficulty counting that wing than I’d expected. Still – I managed to get about 600 stitches in over three days and called it a success. I do have a miscount on the head – I forgot an entire row of stitches. BUT… it’s not going to affect anything else around it. Easy to adjust for, so I’m leaving the error. Part of the reason I’m a bit hesitant to rip is because this was a fully kitted project – from Russia. So I don’t want to be scraping for the floss at the end if I’m running low. If, at the end of the project, I feel like correcting it and have the supplies… fine. But it honestly isn’t a big deal here.

The final piece I worked on this week is my Week One WIPGO piece, The Colonial Sampler. My starting photo is in that post, so no need to rehash it. This one really doesn’t photograph easily due to the fabric color, so I’m going to leave the photo a bit bigger so you can see the detail better.

The Colonial Sampler by Betsy Stinner – as of Jan. 8, 2023 – stitched on 32 ct natural Belfast Linen 1 over 2 with charted silks

I completed all of the Band #11, which included cross stitches, satin stitches, and Smyrna crosses. I also completed Band #12, which is the tiny row of light yellow Greek Cross directly below it. It was a very satisfying couple of days to know that I made specific progress by finishing full bands!

And that was my first week of the year. Stay tuned for more updates next week!

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