Stitching from Stash in July

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's the end of July already and that means it's time for my Stitch from Stash report.  This is a Stitch-a-Long hosted by Mel of Epic Stitching where we all try to stick to a $25/month budget for new stash acquisitions.  I have three finishes and a new little start to show you, too, but first the stats.

I spent a total of $10.25 this past month,
all of it on this one little chart:

I guess I was just in a patriotic mood.

And, it's very cute!

This month I've been stitching on the usual suspects:  Mates, A Tree by Itself and, currently, 99.  And I stitched and finished...

 ...my Semaphore quilt.  My self-imposed deadline was September 1st for this autumn-colored cutie, but I beat that by a lot!  (That usually never happens around here.)  The bottom part of the quilt that's in the shade shows the quilted fern design a little better.  You can click to make any of the photos larger...

...and here's Nancy Buhl's Flowers from my Needle from the workshop I took in back in May.  This had been my traveling piece, because it was so mindless and small--and it was stitched on 18-count canvas so it was easy to see.  What looks like a frame is really the top of a lovely music box.  All I had to do for finishing was trim the piece a little and pop it into the top of the box.  Easy peasy!  It was fun to stitch--I'll miss it.

Oh, don't worry!  I have another small 18-count canvaswork piece in my stash that's been kitted up since last year and which I'll start the next time I go a-traveling.  This is why the Stitch from Stash SAL is so easy for me.

And finally, finally:  The Long-Lost Pumpkin.  That's not its real name, but that's how I was starting to think of it, since it took so long to get it finish-finished.  Remember this?

If you've looked at this blog at all in the past year, of course you do!  And you were probably hoping never to see it again!  I posted about my June 4th finish of this weeks ago.  It was at the finisher's until the day before yesterday.  It took a long time to be finished--much longer than the three weeks which was promised--and then it was weighted wrong (very lopsided) and the green crocheted stem had it's wire poking out.  It was a mess.  Why would the finisher/store even think that a customer would be happy with something like that?  I had the store send it back to the finisher to be done properly, even though I had wanted to enter it in the Lake County Fair and didn't think that it could be fixed in 10 days' time, which is all the time that was left at that point.  But it was more important to me to get it finished properly.  So I did get a call on Friday that it was done (again) and went to pick it up.  Saturday was the Fair deadline.    Did I mention that it's a 120-mile round trip to the store?  The weighting issue was fixed and the stem was fixed, but overall it was just OK.  To be honest, I probably would have been happier with the result if I had not been mentally comparing it to the stitched model that Debbie (Stiehler, the designer) had brought with her when she taught the workshop last year.  And the store owner did give me a 10% discount for my extra trip.  All I have to say is it's a good thing that paying for finishing doesn't count against the Stitch from Stash budget, even with a 10% discount!

Debbie Stiehler's Autumn Pumpkin Patch.

Yes, it looks fine in the photo.

All's well that ends well, I guess.

Last but not least,

here is my new little start (from stash, natch):

This is Blackbird Design's Bird in Hand.

I seem to be in a bird mood recently.

My friend Anne gifted me the chart a while back.

Yes, I just finished another small piece called "Bird in Hand,"

but that was from La D Da.

This will be just a bird, a branch and a border, no words.

I'm using a dark blue floss instead of the red

which was used on the original model.

The ground is a 40-count piece of mystery linen from my stash.

So that's it from here.

I'll be back in a week or so with 

the Lake County Fair report.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

June Turtle Trot--More Turtle than Hare

Hey Blog Buddies,
Claudette over at BAP Attack is hosting the Turtle Trot SAL.  At the beginning of the year, we were to choose 10 of our WIPs, and then do progress reports on them on the 10th of each month.   This year many of the WIPs that I chose were BAPs that I really wanted to make significant progress on this year.  I worked on five of them this month which, for me, is really good.  We'll start with the "Turtles":

 Here is Ink Circles' 99 as of last month.

And here's my progress this month.  Yes, only one bottle!

And it's the simplest bottle so far.

I'd love to get the second shelf finished by next month,

but I make no promises.

The wolves are back!

Here's where I was last month with Cross My Heart's Mates.

 And here's my progress this month.

His second eye is started,

hiding in plain sight among all the confetti.

I didn't get much time to stitch on this piece this month,

hopefully more substantial progress will be made next month.

 Here is Cindy Valentine's Pristine hardanger table topper

as of last month.

This is actually white, as is the background of Mates, above.

The eyelets in the triangle on the right

were all I did last month.

Here's the progress this month,

another small triangle of eyelets...

...and a start on one of the large triangles of eyelets.

Here's the entire piece, to give you a sense of scale.

There are over 1,100 eyelets in this piece!

If all I do is finish stitching the eyelets by the end of this year,

I'll be happy.

Ah, yes, our old favorite Needle Delights Originals' Winter Logs.
I was pretty close to a finish last month.

And I did finish it.  Woo hoo!

No surprise there, as it's already been documented.

Last but not least, Debbie Stiehler's Autumn Pumpkin Patch.

Here's where I left off last month.

A month ago I decided to spend
the vast majority of my time and effort

on this piece and went straight into "Hare" mode.

Yay--another finish!
I'm really glad this one is done.
All of the smaller sections were 
repeated five times,
and there was so much laying of
4, 5 and even 6 strands of floss
that it was driving me crazy!
If you've never had to lay threads,
I'm here to tell you that it really slows you down!

One last close-up.

It's at the finisher's as we speak.

Hopefully I'll have one more photo, that of the finished pumpkin,

to show you next month.

That's it from here.

Hope you're getting some stitching time in.

Thanks for visiting!

Flowers from my Needle

Hey Blog Buddies,

How is your May going?  I hope you had a good weekend and enjoyed the spring weather.  Or the fall weather, if you're farther south!

I attended a workshop on Saturday hosted by my EGA chapter and taught by Nancy Buhl, who designs canvaswork pieces under the name From Nancy's Needle.  She is a wonderful teacher, and I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop. 

The piece in the photo above was taught, called Flowers from my Needle.

I chose a slightly more autumnal colorway.

 

There was a very nice turnout--we had over 40 stitchers.

 

There were over 40 fabulous gift baskets, too.

In addition, everyone got a door prize.

 

Here is where I'm at with my piece.

It is a simple, small piece that I don't have to think about very much.

There are no laid threads.  I love it!

I wouldn't have needed to go to a workshop to figure this piece out,

but don't tell anyone.

I would love to just keep on working on this piece until it's finished,

but sadly it will have to join a throng of other pieces

on "the back burner."

The pile on that burner is getting dangerously high.

For the past few days, I've been working on

(gasp!)

a cross stitch piece.

It's one of the Prairie Schooler Christmas Strawberries.

I hope to get this one finished today

so that I can get all three of my stitched strawberry pieces

to the finisher, who I hope to see this evening.

I'd better get cracking.

That's it for now.

Thanks for visiting!

April Stitch-from-Stash, a Finish and a RAK

Hey Blog Buddies,
How are you all doing?  I'm kind of excited that I have my second finish in a month, but we'll get to that a little later.  First, my Stitch from Stash report.  I knew going into April that this would be my cheat month because of the Nordic Needle Retreat.  (Did you know that they maintain a rather comprehensive boutique and a wide range of snacks in the hotel conference room set up for stitching between classes?  How is a person supposed to stay strong?)

To refresh your memory, the items pictured above are what I purchased in Fargo.  For full disclosure, I bought a package of floss bags that didn't make it into the photo.  The book and the magnifier/light were a little pricey, but it could have been much worse!

But prior to going to Fargo, I stopped off at my LNS.

Because... Cheat Month! 

Here is a very large, very expensive piece of 28-count pewter Lugana.  The photo doesn't capture how nicely mottled the color is.  The fabric and the Kreinik will be used for the Save the Stitches blackwork freebie found on the Blackwork Journey blog.  I don't really want to start another large piece this year, but this project is calling me.

Then I started talking with Cathy (yes, the owner of my LNS and I are on a first-name basis) about the Prairie Schooler Alphabet charts, and she mentioned that she is having trouble getting one or two of the titles.  They are over ten years old, and I decided not to wait any longer and had her order the remaining five titles that I needed, plus another PS oldie.  Fortunately, she was able to get all of the titles I asked her to order...

I really love all of these charts!

So that's it stash-wise for the month of April.

I can't see that I'll need anything else this year

unless I run out of thread on a WIP or something.

Now for the exciting (to me) news--my finish:

Here is Libby Sturdy's Bejeweled Tree #3

from the pilot class I took earlier this year.
This was worked mostly in Kreinik
with a couple of cards of Neon Rays thrown in.
Blingy!!

(Picture me standing up, shaking my hips and stirring a big pot.

Frightening, no?)

Last but not least, I received this groovy RAK

from Moonsilk Stitches

I love the creepy-crawly centipede fabric,

the nifty ribbon with witches and bats

and the cool skull, cat and skeleton embellishments.

What a fun package!

Thanks again, Moonsilk!

That's it for now.

Thanks, as always, for visiting!

Fargo

Hey Blog Buddies,

First of all, thanks so much for all your kind comments on my last post.  I enjoyed reading every one of them!

As most regular readers of this blog know, I attended the annual Nordic Needle stitching retreat last week with my partner in crime, Joyce.  The weather was much better than last year (a high of 78F on the trip up there!), and they had the same great variety of classes and extracurricular activities that we all have come to expect.

We took two classes.  The first was needle painting and we stitched Trish Burr's Little Bee Eater:

 

We needed a whole bunch of colors for that cute little bird!

Each person taking the class received

a blue-green "nest" (in the upper middle of the above photo)

 which was needle felted by our teacher,

to be used for our orts. 

This is my progress so far.

His claws consist of three bullion knots.

Joyce has already finished her knots

but unfortunately I didn't get a photo.

Doing the long-and-short stitch is a lot more fun that I remembered.

Our other class was a little canvaswork box.

 Each side of the box has a Jean Hilton-esque motif.

The background "icing" is done with Arctic Rays

which goes along with the theme of the retreat: "Oh So Sweet."

Here is where I'm at.

The cupcake needle minder was a gift from our teacher.

Of course there was lots of food,

a bookmark exchange,

a tea towel exchange,

a stash exchange and 

a Christmas ornament exchange.

Despite my best intentions,

I did not get around to making anything

for any of the exchanges.

I did get photos of a couple of tea towels...

Almost every one was stitched in a different technique.

One night there was a a little demo on decorating fabric

with Sharpie markers and alcohol (!)

and everyone had a chance to purchase

an inexpensive scarf and create their own art...

We had a free day, so we took a little trip

to Dakota Fiber Mills, just south of Fargo, to see

Chris and her menagerie of animals.

This is Bert, one of two yaks living there.

 She has quite a few alpaca.

They are just the cutest critters!

She even has a camel (Abraham).

Chris was a bit upset with Abraham

because he had just gone for a roll in the mud

and of course his fur (hair?) would somehow have to be cleaned!

Her dog is in the lower right corner of the photo.

She has sheep and goats, too! 

She hires someone to shear the sheep

(Abraham's hair is combed, not shorn).

Then she spins the fur and hair into roving...

...and skeins of yarn...

I purchased a big skein of sock yarn...

It's 70% alpaca, 20% wool and 10% mohair.

This should motivate me to sign up for that sock class

that I've been thinking about for the past year!

No retreat report would be complete without

photos of new stash. 

Here are some of the freebies given away at the retreat...

And here is what I purchased at "The Shop."

I didn't go crazy--you see there's only one new chart.

The portable magnifier/light works well--

I've already used it!

All too soon, it was time for us to head home.

It's always nice to be missed!

Hope you enjoyed the Retreat.

Thanks for visiting!

April Turtle Trot Update

Hey Blog Buddies,

It's April and the big news is that my friend Joyce and I are going to the Nordic Needle Retreat in Fargo, ND (road trip!).  The festivities begin at 7:00p.m. on Wednesday the 9th, with a Dessert Bar, and end at midday on Sunday the 13th with a Farewell Brunch (yes, there is a lot of food involved).  In between the meals we do a lot of stitching, and I will have a recap for you after the Retreat is over.

But meanwhile, we have the Turtle Trot update, which for me this year means the once-a-month update on the progress of my (ahem) rotation.  So, here we go--first is Needle Delights Originals Winter Logs:

 last month

this month

If I can get the rest of the bottom triangle finished
before the next meeting of my ANG chapter,
I'll be all caught up.

Next, we have Cross My Heart's Mates:

last month

this month

This month's progress doesn't even look like that much to me

because it was at least one hour of stitching

(often longer) every day!
And I should have more done, don't you think?

This couple might not see too much action in April

because they are no longer being worked on every day.

That doesn't mean they've been abandoned,

just that they are going to have to find a slot in the rotation.

(Good luck, Wolfies!)

The piece that has taken their place as the once-a-day, every-day stitch is Debbie Stiehler's Autumn Pumpkin Patch, known informally around here as La Calabaza (Spanish for pumpkin).  I did this switch just a few days ago, so don't expect much.

last month

this month

This is the piece that I really want to finish next.
Each of the 16 sections is stitched five times--
they just switch locations--and it's becoming a little tedious.
I still really like the piece, just want it to be finished!
I need to find my zen place with this piece
and think more about the journey than the destination...

And speaking of finishes, I actually have one this month!

Needle Delights Originals Tangerine Twist:

last month

this month

...and a close up of one of the squares so that you can see the beads.

They are Little Charmers,

and the package had an assortment of colors, finishes and sizes.
All the directions said to do was attach them at random,
making sure that you don't get two of the same beads
next to one another!
This is only my third finish for 2014.
(And one of them was a small piece!)
That's what happens when you devote a lot of time to the BAPs.

Check out Claudette's blog, BAP Attack, 
to see what the other Turtle Trotters have been doing.

That's it from here.
Thanks for visiting!