January Almost Gone – an Update

I can’t believe February is only a few days away, already! Which means Spring is that much closer, but as we haven’t really had *w%$&^@* yet, I’m not looking forward to February 🙁 Especially since the northeast is getting pounded with a blizzard right this very minute 🙁 🙁

So, last week was a complete blur; it was JanFest Georgia High School Band Festival at University of Georgia. Which means, Tuesday night, there was a preview show at a school 40 minutes from the house (which I didn’t know I needed to drive the Kid to until, oh, that day around lunch). Then Thursday at 7 p.m., our Wind Symphony opened the festival to rave reviews at UGA (65 minutes from the house). And then the Kid did the actual clinic weekend, being placed with a guest conductor, Colin McKenzie (which, being an Outlander fan, was kinda funny), and that band performed Sunday afternoon at UGA again. I have taken video of all of the pieces played over the week, I just have to find & download a file converter program to make the huge MOV files into YouTube-friendly MP4 files. This is the McKenzie Band:

University of Georgia JanFest McKenzie Band.
University of Georgia JanFest McKenzie Band.

So since I knew last week was going to be jam-packed, I finished the first over-1 hummingbird on Hummingbird Mandala, and put it up for the time being. I did have to frog a bit of the over-1, which is never fun, but even worse, I broke a thread of my fabric 🙁 So I had to patch it (couldn’t replace the whole thing without undoing more over-1 – so I improvised); am hoping the teeny tiny knots I used to patch don’t show up on the end product. Anyway, glad the first one is done, and hope the next 3 go easier. NOTE: There are lots of beads NOT on the flower yet – I may do them when I do the other 3 flowers, or may wait until the end when I go back to put the little bugles in around the middle. Here it is:

Chatelaine Hummingbird Lace Mandala - on a custom0dyed piece of 28ct jobelan, using mostly the recommended threads (some converted to HDF).
Chatelaine Hummingbird Lace Mandala – on a custom dyed piece of 28ct jobelan, using mostly the recommended threads (some converted to HDF).

When I put Hummingbird away, I got out Dragon Quaker, and tried to get some progress in on it the few nights I was home this past week. I picked my Threadworx colors based first on what I wanted the dragons to be – the Center dragon got his color, and then there are 2 other dragon colors; then the rest of the symbols, I just randomly assigned a color number. I ended up choosing 36ct PTP Sterling for this – I had floss tossed on a couple of different colors, and this one really did it for me. Considering I only had a couple of nights, I think I did pretty good getting 3 motifs and a letter completed in a week:

Dragon Quaker, by Martina Dey of Stickideen von der Wiehenburg. On 36ct PTP Sterling, using my own conversion to purple & teal & grey Threadworx colors.
Dragon Quaker, by Martina Dey of Stickideen von der Wiehenburg. On 36ct PTP Sterling, using my own conversion to purple & teal & grey Threadworx colors.

And lastly for this update, I am THIS CLOSE to finishing Mill Hill Believe; I have 2 more letters to outline, and then it is time for BEADS! This one sure seems to have taken forever – I thought for sure I’d have it done for Christmas, along with Polar Bears; I wasn’t expecting it to be so solidly stitched, I guess. Anyway, hopefully next time you see it, it’ll be done!

Mill Hill Believe - on the perforated paper that came in the kit.
Mill Hill Believe – on the perforated paper that came in the kit.

And that’s the progress for the last couple of weeks. The next new start is Joan Elliott’s Autumn Fairy, so check back in a week or two to see how far she gets 🙂 After that, it’s only SQ Monet’s Water Lilies to finish up Startapalooza 2015! And then I guess I should work on a couple I didn’t touch last year, huh? Until next time, Happy Stitching to everyone!

8 thoughts on “January Almost Gone – an Update”

  1. I can’t tell from the picture that Hummingbird was patched. Believe looks great and I’m looking forward to seeing it finished.

  2. Hummingbird Mandala looks lovely! Ann BOO to the thread going – I can’t tell it’s been patched so I don’t think you’ve anything to worry about – whew! You say you didn’t have much time for stitching, but you screamed through it anyway :-). Well done for the kids and their band appearances – you must be very proud of their achievements.

  3. Hummingbird Mandala is such a beautiful project. And wow, the hummingbird itself is completely over one. Looks gorgeous. Nice progress on the other two projects.

  4. I love the colors for the Dragon Quaker! The hummingbird is amazing; I hope the others go a bit easier. Believe is looking great -and it does look pretty solidly stitched for a Mill Hill.

  5. Love the hummingbird over one! Those have such great detail. Those are great colors in the sampler. And the Mill Hill are always more time consuming than I think they will be. I bet the bands sounded awesome.

  6. you recovered from that fabric hiccup splendidly, I could never tell.
    and the hummingbird looks so nice! I can’t wait to see your progress on this mandala, my favourite start so far!
    BELIEVE is coming out so well, you make me want to get back to my MH kits, I know they always take me more time than I expect.
    wonderful progress on the Dragon Quaker, I LOVE it!

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