Just a quick little post to show off the last couple of weeks’s work, which makes my Finishes 2015 folder not quite so empty 🙂
First, last week I finished AAN’s 2014 Christmas Tree – it is on 35ct Victorian Red, using Gloriana silk, silver PTB, and 15/0 silver-lined crystal beads – TADA!:
AAN’s 2014 Special Christmas Tree.
I have a frame all picked out – silver w/white linen matting 🙂
Next, I did a small pile of ornaments, my usual spur-of-the moment bit, though I can only show these:
The snowflakes are a DMC freebie, and the Noel is one I found posted on a blog a few years ago. All on 28ct opal lugana, using DMC. The berries on Noel are beads, of course 🙂
And lastly, the Summer Cove is now DONE! Those big green leaves were HUGE! Spring has a lot more smaller bits going on in the same tree, with more color changes, so tedious in another way, I guess. Here it is – I now have Autumn & Summer completed:
Summer Cove from By the Bay. On 28ct jobelan. SHEEP!
So, I did manage to finish a couple of things for the year, but wow, last year was definitely a banner year not to be repeated 🙂 So, that’s the low-hanging fruit done & out of the way – no reason to not break out Sparkly Hummingbird now and get cranking on another over-1 rainbow bird 🙂 Until next time, Happy Stitching!
The countdown to what? Well, several things, actually. Christmas, certainly, though I have that relatively under control, assuming the mail keeps running! How did I manage before online shopping? Oh yeah, I remember – I HATED it 🙂 If it weren’t for picking up an order at JCPenney, you wouldn’t catch me in a maul this year 🙂 And no, that is NOT a typo. Another countdown is my oldest leaving for the Navy; he’s ready to go, but I’m not sure I am ready. I know he will be fine, but it’s a whole other world out there than it was the day I left to begin my service 29 years ago; we knew who the enemy was then, whereas today, it could be anybody – and that scares me. It’s not combatant vs. combatant anymore, it’s combatant vs. ANYONE who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – Paris being a perfect example. My niece and her husband were IN Paris, celebrating their 5th anniversary, on the 13th of November. Like my BFF Cass, we now both have a major terrorist attack to mar our birthdays. What is wrong with the world? Being agnostic, I don’t ordinarily “pray”, but the next few years may hear me doing just that, frequently, as I send my children out there to deal first hand with the bad things in the world; I can only hope we have helped prepare them for the unknown….
On a lighter note, we celebrated Thanksgiving last week, with the usual spread. I will of course amend my usual statement that there was enough food to feed an army, to enough food to feed a NAVY 🙂 Since I suspect neither will be here for the big holidays next year, we are TOTALLY doing the Chinese take-away next Thanksgiving! DH says we aren’t, but yeah, who’s King of the Kitchen? That’d be ME 🙂 Chinese it is!
Homemade half-wheat bread, Apple pie, Pumpkin pie. Not shown – vanilla ice cream & cool whip to go with 🙂
I have done some stitching since I last posted. I completed my rotation of Autumn Fairy, and while I didn’t get nearly as much of her wings done as I’d hoped, I did get a good bit done. I don’t think I can finish her in one more rotation, but I may be close enough that I extend it another week 🙂 Here she is, as of 2 weeks ago:
Joan Elliott’s Autunm Fairy, on 28ct jobelan in Melody from Hand Dyed Fabby’s by Stephanie.
I also made a great bit of progress on my BtB Summer Cove – I am almost to SHEEP! I should be able to finish it soon – if not the next IHOP, shortly thereafter. Which is good, since this will be my ONLY BIG finish this year 🙁 I guess that’s what happens when you set your own bar too high – you trip yourself up 🙂 But in another couple of years, I am going to have a HUGE pile of finishes, I just know it! Here’s Summer Cove – those little blanks are SHEEP!:
Summer Cove from By The Bay, on 28ct jobelan.
At the November PINS, we had our Christmas ornie exchange. I was again spoiled, this time by Jean, who made this wonderful piece for me:
My exchange recipient was the same Jean, strangely enough, and while the piece I stitched came out pretty cool, if I do say so myself, I am rather disappointed at the finished piece; it ended up being slightly off-center, after the glue dried, so I don’t know if I had it pulled so tight that it moved a bit before the glue was completely set, or if I really just didn’t have it centered. This is reallllyyyy bugging the crap out of me – but because I didn’t get it done until the weekend before – and then worked a long week before the exchange, I didn’t have time or energy to disassemble/re-assemble it the way I had intended it to be 🙁 But here it is, before it was quite done (I undid the braid for the bottom tassel):
This design came from the JCS 2000 Ornament edition. On 28ct opalescent lugana. The trim is kumihimo braid, an idea I stole from Jackie 🙂
I think it was a resounding yes that we do the exchanges again next year 🙂 I WILL center my piece better, I promise! Heck, I might even start a week or two earlier, give myself some wiggle room…. Nah, pro’ly not.
November Pepper Haul #3 – why did it take until October & November to get peppers?November Pepper Haul #4. Chili, chicken chili – how I will miss having my own produce department over the next several months. I highly recommend Cajun bells if you want a hot, prolific pepper – you can eat ’em green, and they get hotter as they go red….
So, after I put Autumn Fairy away, and because I am saving Sparkly Hummingbird to work on over the Christmas holidays, the only thing I had left to rotate was Monet’s Water Lilies, which did enjoy the long Thanksgiving weekend. I had actually planned to post an update last week, so took a photo last week:
Monet’s Water Lilies as charted by Scarlet Quince. 2 over 1 on 20ct aida. This is all on Page 1 (of 9).
And, since I didn’t actually get an update done, thanks to EVERYONE cleaning their desks off onto mine before they left for the long weekend, here is what it looks like now, after another week’s progress:
This has extended onto the next page to the right, and onto the next page below (just a tiny bit, like 5 rows down, maybe 15-20 to the right). I shoulda gridded the pages – maybe next time it’s out, if I feel lost where I left off…
So, aside from Sparkly Hummingbird, I have now touched everything in a year, and some of the new ones, twice, depending on where they fell in the Startapalooza 🙂 I plan to continue this same 2-week rotation into the new year, though, depending on when my surgery gets scheduled, I do plan to have a New Year’s Start – probably another Chat, Deep Blue Sea 🙂 Because I am that crazy… This week, I think I am going to work on my AAN Christmas Tree, that should be a pretty quick finish (and then I’ll have 2!), and some other secret stitching. Hummingbird may come out next week, or maybe the week after – we’ll see 🙂
If I don’t post again before year’s end, I wish all of you and yours a wonderful holiday season, filled with peace, joy and love. And stitching, too, of course!
Since I last posted, we’ve had the remains of Hurricane Patricia blow through here and dump rain, and then, just more rain. The sun has not shown for 9 days, and then, it was only out for an afternoon after days & days of rain and overcast. We’ve got minor flooding in creeks in the area, though nothing too major that I have seen. All I know is, I NEED to see the SUN , soon. It seems like it has done nothing but rain this year (outside of July, with it’s record heat), thanks to another el nino cycle, but according to averages, it’s about where we ought to be: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ffc/?n=rainfall_scorecard I think we’ve just had a lot more overcast skies without actually producing much precip – which is kinda why I wanted to get out of Ohio 21+ years ago 🙂 I am, after all, a delicate flower – I need sunlight!
In stitching news, I think when I last posted, I had just pulled out Dragon Quaker, and was getting going on that. I did two weeks on it, and made a good bit of progress, ONCE I got past the tree with the bird in it, which took a whole week, for some unknown reason (I was really tired after work every day, so I will assume that factored into it). But once I got past that motif, I motored on, going over to Page 2 for a good bit, and then down on the lower row of pages, too. I was going to do one of the dragons, but I am still deciding if I want them to be metallic or not, or just the big one in the middle. I have some Glisson Gloss bf coming that I will audition for inclusion, though, as I’ve put it up already, it’ll be the next time it comes out before I really make a decision. Here’s where it stands for now:
Dragon Quaker on 36ct Stirling from PTP, using my own conversion to Threadworx.
I also made some decent progress on my BtB Summer Cove – I am to the water, hill,s and houses. And you know what that means – SHEEP are imminent! I cannot believe how deceiving this series is – those trees don’t look that big, until you get in there and start adding leaves and whatnot, though Autumn’s tree had 5 colors of silk in it, so a little more variation than Summer’s using. But it’s getting there, and as it may be my only finish for the year…:
BtB Summer Cove on 28ct jobelan.
After I put Dragon Quaker away, it was time to choose from the Randomizer – as there were only 3 things left, and I KNOW I want to save Sparkly Hummingbird for time off over the holidays, it was really just a choice between two:
And this means, the next one will be Monet’s Waterlilies again, and then Hummingbird – I will have officially touched ALL of my WIPs this year! Too bad nothing but Summer Cove are going to get DONE, but hey, that’s the price you pay for startapalooza-ing, I guess.
Anywho, I’ve gotten a week in on Autumn Fairy so far, and she is really coming along well, though I admit I’ve avoided the Kreinik #4 French knots 🙂 REALLLYYYY love this fabric from Steph’s Fabby’s – 28ct jobelon in Melody. Such subtle colors, each one reflected in the a DMC in the stitching; I couldn’t have asked for a better fabric (and as this was like the 3rd-4th one I had in the kit, believe me, I tried a lot). I really enjoy working on Joan Elliott charts – such great results without a lot of hassle 🙂 Unlike some of my other WIPs who shall remain nameless {L&U}. Here she is after a week:
Autumn Fairy on 28ct jobelan in Melody from Steph’s Fabbies.
This coming week, I will start on her wings – they will be the most time-consuming part, and if I get to all of the Kreinik bs, probably the hardest part. The bottom of her will be a breeze, next time – and then BEADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that’s the plan for the next little while. I’ll be working on Waterlilies over the Thanksgiving holiday, so hopefully I will see some significant progress there, too. This will be our last Thanksgiving all together before our boys are out in the world – one leaves for the Navy in December, the other next June. That came quick; I remember shipping them off to their first days of school, middle school, high school… Be Thankful, and Happy Stitching!
