Ink Circles – On Beads and Needles

Wait, What? How’s 2023 Over?

Where did this year go? How have I not updated for 52 weeks? This year has been a complete blur. After the longest winter we’ve had since moving here 30 years ago – it was 69 on the First Day of Summer here, when it’s usually 90+ – to a summer of storms and straight-line winds with downed trees, to a mild fall with no hurricanes, and little rain, it’s been a bit unusual. The joro spider invasion was tamed a bit with the harsh winter – the only bonus of having it that cold that long. The garden was semi-productive, but I’m not sure we got as much as the tree rats did. To be honest, I don’t know how much I will bother with it next year; I don’t much enjoy the level of effort/product ratio. The herb garden is probably my best gardening effort, to the point it all came inside for the winter, so I can harvest fresh rosemary and thyme all winter long.

2023 was a rough year at the vet; after a major surgery and a couple of months, we lost our best kitty, Monkey Do. She was such a good little micro kitty, though she could be mean as a snake when she wanted to be – Salem did NOT like her anymore than he likes Opie. But she definitely became a snuggle cat somewhere along the line, after ignoring us for many years; we miss her walking on us and getting comfortable right on our femoral artery and heating us to boiling point. Rest well, Gravity Cat. And then, a few months later, we made the decision to take Auggie in for his last visit, too – the Cushing’s took its toll on him, to the point his legs were starting to give out on getting him up and down the steps. Those last several months were so hard with him, with the accidents, the destruction he did in his quest for food and water, driven by his disease; but now that he’s gone, the silence is deafening. As much as we miss Sis, Auggie is a thousand times more, I guess because he was just the center of attention every day for 16 years. We think about looking for another – and then we regain our senses.

As for the stitching, there was a lot, the Finishitis was still in full force the first half of the year. When I last updated, I was working on the 3rd piece from Long Dog’s Foursome Reel, which I finished in January – only 1 more smaller piece to go, and this set of designs are done and ready for framing; since I’ve used the same materials for all 4, I’d like to frame in the same molding, but the tiny over-1 miniature may make that hard – we’ll see if #4 ever gets done (since it’s not been started).

#3 on 28ct Shadowbrook from Silkweaver, using Gloriana silks.

And after that was done, I had a quick impulse start-finish; on reddit, someone had posted a completed piece based on Harry Potter, of Snape and Harry and a textbook page on Occlumency. I had to have it – and several others. It’s from a Russian designer & site – was a little hesitant to create the necessary account, but I read reviews for Boosty, and by all accounts, it’s as legit as any other platform for artists flogging their wares, so I signed up, downloaded this and others, and worked on this every moment until it was done. The backstitching in this is extremely intense, but oh so worth it! That illuminated O and the brain diagram – yoiks!

I have 3 others kitted and just downloaded another newly released a few weeks ago; they are all DMC and I have them on plain 28ct antique white lugana – Dumbledore & Fawkes will likely be next. They are all almost the exact same size, so I should be able to frame the same, maybe just change mat colors if they get matted. Watch this space…

After that piece, I needed a break from black and backstitching, so, since Finishitis was still going, I broke out my beaded Growth Rings, and finished that, too. The last half went way faster than the first half did, I guess because I was tired of it languishing. Fun piece, I really enjoyed playing with my beads for this, and am looking for the next thing to convert, though I have a few ideas percolating for doing Tracy’s Garden Stars partially in beads – that biggest motif just kind of screams shiny emerald beads to me, always has since the day she released it.

Ink Circles Growth Rings, on 28ct white jobelan and DB0982V and DB0986M and miles of Nymo thread.

I decided it was time to work on 1 of 2 Chats that haven’t had a rotation since I determined to work through all of them before allowing myself to start another – Mushroom & Fern. I got all the points around the center done and started one of the 8 trees, but put it aside to work on the next piece, below, and just never came back to it like I had planned. What I did took 5 weeks, I think, so that’s a good rotation, I think – and I found my new favorite delica bead, 0027.

Mushroom & Fern Mandala – 28ct Antique Copper jobelan, silks, metallics, and lots of beads.

I was drawn to a new Barbara Ana release, Wildflowers. I took a break from Mushroom because I HAD to; the cat is not black, but dark navy blue. I have a few more of these Barbara Ana’s in my String Theory box, too – normally I don’t do whimsy, but I really like these…

On 32ct Vintage Country Mocha lugana, framed in a HL off-the-shelf.

When I decided I wasn’t going to go back to Mushroom & Fern, I chose to work on a piece I had inherited from my friend Liz – if between us we don’t have almost the entire Glendon Place catalog up to just a few years ago, I’d be surprised. She had Whooligan’s Hangout started, and when she passed away last year, this was in the things her family let our local group go through and claim as we would. So I finished Whooligan’s Hangout, and framed it, and had it hanging on my wall this fall. Thank you, Liz – know that you are missed!

Whooligan’s Hangout by Cheryl Granda of Glendon Place; on the called for (discontinued) Fabric Flair linen w/DMC.

That just barely scratched the Halloween itch that resulted, so it was time to break out some charts from the Way Back – my friend Lisa destashed a copy of The Primitive Needle’s Witches Hollow, so I got the needed WDW threads I didn’t already have (again, Thanks Liz for a good pile of WDW in surprise, Halloween colors), and started Witches Hollow, on 40ct Sandstone – slick freaking Wichelt linen, ugh – but with it being Wichelt, the threads are thin/the holes are big, so 40ct wasn’t too hard to work on (I’d need a 1/2 of 36ct to fit this, so went to 40, which fits length almost perfectly). I got through about 1/3 of it – the chart is hard to see, it’s printed very small, 410 stitches long and 200 wide, but only on 6 pages, and it didn’t copy well at all for my working copy, so I’m referring to the original and online photos a LOT, which kind of made it slow going. I tried scanning it at the highest resolution my scanner has – no help. So I got as far as I could before I needed to give it a rest – it will be one of those in-small-doses WIPs, I guess.

Witches Hollow by The Primitive Needle – WDW & GAST threads on 40ct Sandstone.

I love her use of color and simple shapes; she is still missed, though, fortunately, I’ve still got a couple of charts in the stash to do. There was another on ebay that I almost bid on, but glad I didn’t, as it ended up going for $80 or so; I have way too much stuff in just the Halloween drawer alone to spend that much, even on Lisa’s designs. I wish her family would have continued distributing her designs, though I can understand why they chose not to.

I didn’t hit my Halloween ceiling yet, so I broke out two PN smalls, By the Light of the Moon, and Moon Witch (which was a freebie that can still be found in the usual online places if interested); I managed to find a piece of PTP Heritage at String Theory, so picked that up from Jackie, and got the two smalls done, and framed shortly thereafter in basic black frames (putting UV glass in frames got expensive this year):

By the Light of the Moon by The Primitive Needle

That mostly fixed me for Halloween, though I did have to stash a few charts from Autumn Lane, as well as Kathy Barrick and Tiny Modernist; I got the Autumn Lanes because I have also stashed some gorgeous fabrics from BeStitchMe (Friday Night Fight Night wins) and my Mystic Fabrics FOTM Club from String Theory, and needed a couple of charts to go with 🙂

And then Carriage House Samplings released a couple of charts that I managed to ignore. Until I couldn’t anymore. I have all these great orange fabrics, right, so it was fate that Twisted Pumpkin came out. I have the companion, Stardust, in my box at String Theory, so it’ll go on the other side of this BeStitchMe Pumpkin Patch fabric:

I cannot get a good pic of this fabric – it is not this washed out.

That was it. Except then, I needed to do an ornie for Halloween, because I hadn’t gotten around to doing any MH kits this year, despite there being at least a dozen sitting here, waiting on me. I sent this to my Nebraska kids – now they need a Halloween Tree for me to slowly fill up for them 🙂

While I was framing things, I decided to get my Chatelaine Pumpkin Halloween-y Mandala up on the wall, but wanted to play around with some hand cut matting; it’s small, so thought I could fit it in one of the basic black square frames Hobby Lobby now stocks; started with an 8″, decided that was too tight, went back and got a 12″, which just so happens to fit 12″x12″ scrapbook paper exactly. So I played around with colors and shapes and measurements and geometry, and came up with my own one-of-a-kind matting for Pumpkin – sorry for the bad picture, I didn’t even think to take a picture without the glass in the frame until well after I’d assembled it for the 3rd-4th time.

On 30ct WDW Purple Rain, using called for fibers – added a few additional Swarovskis, because, why not?

Along with all of this stitching, I also managed to keep up with 2 blackwork SALs – the Peppermint Purple and Steady Thread 2023 SALs, like last year’s block a week releases. I picked the most complicated border, I think, for the PP piece, and did it in only 2 colors – Vikki Clayton black for the border, and then my purple Dinky Dyes mystery hank from Market a few years ago for the fills, on 28ct Star Sapphire jobelan – I think it turned out exceptionally cool. For the Steady Thread piece, I decided to do 3D hexes, so the leafy border is a bit ad lib all around to accommodate the added size. The leafy border and hexes are Thread Gatherer and Vikki Clayton silks, respectively, and then all the botanical fills are Carrie’s Threads in purples and greens, on 32ct white jobelan.

And then, because I’ve become a SAL sucker, I caved for the Fiberlicious/Bella Filippina mermaids of the Seasons SAL. I have gotten behind because I had to stop to work on Christmas gifts, but hope to catch up here the first of the year. Here are the first 2 parts, Spring and Summer, completed, and then where I stopped on Part 3, Autumn – on the recommended Fiberlicious 28ct linen using the called for DMC & Kreinik, though I converted all of the MH 11/0s to delicas.

This blue is more accurate than the other pic, but it’s actually darker than shown.

And then it was time for the Christmas carpal tunnel season – between stitching and insanity at work in spreadsheet hell 9 hours a day, I’ve got serious wonkiness in my right wrist that I am trying to sort out with a wrist support and ibuprofen – getting old ain’t for wimps. So, first, ornaments for my sisters and the Nebraska kids:

Then the bookmark for the San Diego kid, he of the Stephen King fandom:

And lastly, for Christmas, Woodcarver’s Santas is my current WIP that I am trying to finish – don’t think it’s going to be done before New Year’s as I had hoped, but it’ll be close. One of my friends on MeWe had completed this last year/year before, and I scoured ebay and found a copy of this, pages from an unknown magazine (back in the old days when they didn’t know they needed to mark most pages w/issue info; people would seriously break up a magazine to sell individual pages? Who knew?) – this was designed by Jane Chandler, who I’ve never heard of, but am glad I was able to find this. On 28ct khaki/sage jobelan, using DMC and Diamante (my add), and there will be bead snowflakes at the end.

Crappy photo – the sparkle from the Diamante is pretty subtle, in the right light, which this is not.

That’s the stitching madness for this so quick year. It took me all afternoon to pull all of this together – I used to write stuff down frequently so I wouldn’t have to remember the whens and whats, but who has time for that these days? I reallllyyyy need to start using one of the many stitching diaries I have…

For 2024, I am NOT participating in the Peppermint Purple or Steady Thread SALs – they weren’t much commitment week to week, but they were distracting, and I feel like my regular rotation suffered as a result. So I have snoozed those pages so I can avoid the temptation. I do have 1 commitment for the new year – Noah’s Sub WILL get done, hopefully prior to May, when our first GRANDCHILD will arrive! The Nebraska kids are expecting on May 4th! I’ll be tripping to Omaha a couple of times during 2024 – will I see white stuff on the ground? Who knows? Meanwhile, Mom-to-be has been baking up a storm for customers in her area – I am actually okay that they are all the way in NE, or I’d be over there all the time to see what she’s got going on in the kitchen 🙂

Work will continue to be tumultuous, I am sure – we are transitioning so many things right now, with our merger with Inmarsat in the UK (PLEASE let me visit the London office for anything – I need to return to my old stomping grounds near Ipswich! And take DH to a Chelsea game, preferably when they are getting beat by my Liverpool Reds or Newcastle), and multiple system modernization efforts that we are in the middle of. I feel like the coming year is going to be a make-or-break for this country, and feel a little more optimistic that sanity is slowly returning – so slowly, but better than not at all. The question is, are we too late, are we too far down the progressive rabbit hole, to make it back to safe footing? I don’t want to live in a 3rd world country, but we are well on our way – at least, us plebes are, the elites won’t ever be affected by these progressive/Marxist policies, will they? Not sure why we have to keep learning the lessons over and over, other than, we’ve effectively erased all of that learning from the so-called curriculum, to our detriment. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to… what, deny it ever happened? Yup. Damn shame we’ve become ignorant by choice. Oh well, I guess all I can do from here is hang on for the ride and try to direct my energies in as positive a direction as possible, while the idiocy surrounds us and maybe starts to eat its own. Pray for Peace, Plan for Shit in the Fan, and Stitch On!

Of Chatelaines and Other Amusements

Well, here we are at the end of yet another year, and as bad as 2020 was, I can’t say 2021 was much better. On the global stage, the world is currently embroiled in a catharsis unlike any previous; civil liberties are being lost on an unprecedented scale, all in the name of “safety”, as the plandemic continues. Division is being pushed by the talking heads, and the indoctrination of the last 30-40 years is finally coming to light. Is it too late to sort out? I don’t know. I just find it so hard to believe that we (the world) have lost all we had gained from the lessons of the past. I could go on with a poli-sci lecture, but I won’t bother – there are too many out there who do it better than I do, and in the proper forum, which this is not. Perhaps the pendulum is swinging back to center for a bit.

On the local front, this year has been quite the roller coaster; weddings, funerals, workplace changes, and just for fun, the never ending construction right out front that was 24/7 over the summer, making sleep impossible. I was officially promoted to the job I’ve been doing for a couple of years and officially stopped the job I’d kinda been doing off and on during that time (which I still do as it suits me and my current duties). We had managerial shifts that had me juggling a department as co-interim babysitter for a while, which was a huge PITA. Get rid of one hat, pick up another, even if temporarily. I am a permanent work-from-homer now, since I don’t actually deal with anyone here, so that is pretty awesome. But – kinda hard to justify a shiny new Mustang if I’m not driving anywhere. I do NOT miss driving in Atlanta traffic on I-85. We did buy boats this year, though – yes, plural. Bought DH a john boat for Father’s day, bought a 20′ cuddy during the summer, and then DH sold his john boat and bought a full size bass boat. So guess where he is when he’s not working? Out on the Most Haunted Lake in the World, chasing the Big One.

We have a new family member – Little Kid got married in August! We got Big Kid home from Spain (with 36 hours to spare, I might add – good to see things haven’t changed much in the 30 years since I was active), and headed to Gettysburg, PA, for a great week, doing touristy things and being part of our son and daughter’s celebration.

The Gettysburg battlefield was a pretty sobering experience; having never been there before, and with our current turmoil, it seems like maybe it ought to be required viewing for everyone who encourages division.

My kids lost their last remaining grandparent in November; my mother passed away just a few weeks after I’d been up to see her. I hope she is at peace and with my brother.

And of course, I stitched through it all – a lot of stress stitching, some deadlines, and actually managed some finishes and finish-finishes! I said last year that I wanted to work through 1 rotation of all of my Chatelaine WIPs before I started another; I didn’t quite make my goal, but I definitely got close, and that works for me 🙂

When I last posted, I had started the 2006 Advent Snowflake; that got done shortly after that post – with more beads than were charted, as I had predicted:

2006 Snowflake by Martina Weber/Chatelaine. On 28ct lugana in Snowstorm from Silkweaver. Miles of silver PTB, DMC, delicas & 4mm bicones.

My next project was Desert Mandala, which was really good to get back to – the colors were just what I needed to get through the January/February drearies. I got the top totem done, as well as the sunset corners and upper borders. The backstitching in the bear was very difficult to see on the chart, so it may or may not be customized 🙂

Desert Landscape Mandala, on 28ct Desert Sky lugana from Silkweaver.

Next, I worked on Hummingbird Lace. I needed to fix the purple hummer that blended in with my fabric, so I added a bit of contrasting backstitch to him, and now he stands out much better. I got the entire inner border completed, including delicas, and got one of the inner lace corners in; that lace bit was riddled with frogs, so that was my indication to put it away again.

Hummingbird Lace, Sparkly Hummingbird, whatever is the “official” name of this mandala. On a custom-dyed 28ct jobelan.

Next, I broke out Deep Blue Sea and did 2 sections (it being the smallest one I have going, 2 sections are pretty quick). Sea horsies, jellyfish, fishies, starfish and kelp! And check out the scallop-shaped stitches on the outer corner! How fun is that?

Deep Blue Sea on 28ct Surf hand painted jobelan from Sunny Dyes fabrics.

I had to take a small break and do a ring bearer’s pillow for the happy couple – you know how I am with those last minute ideas (though this was not entirely last minute – I did plan for it as soon as I knew when it was needed). JBW Designs, pink silk, navy and pink delicas, and pretty damn close to a perfect match to her pink – not bad for having to look her dresses up online and pick from 7-8 silks that I had to audition. I sent the completed stitching to my friend Tricia, who made it into a pillow for me (yeah, not even going to try to sew something this important – me & straight lines aren’t on good terms most of the time). I added a bit of simple lace to finish it up, and the tiny ring bearer did a good job (there were decoy rings on the pillow, the Best Man had the real ones)!

Wedding Pillow, on 28ct white lugana. center modified to add their initials over-1.

Back to the Chatelaines – next came Japanese Zen Moss Garden. The center sand part bogged me down when I started it – I never stop before finishing the center section! But I got the center done, and half of the next inner ring of blues.

Japanese Zen Moss Garden, on 28ct jobelan in Shimmering Pools from HDF by Stephanie.

I needed a break from Chatelaines for a bit, so broke out Growth Rings – my all-bead version – for about 10 days and did a pretty good chunk on it. Next time I get in Finish It mode, this will be near the top of the list.

Ink Circles’ Growth rings, in 2 Delica bead mixes, on 28ct white lugana.

I also did some framing – I had to get 2 done to go to PA with us, so I could get them to their recipients without fear of breakage during shipping – has the USPS NOT destroyed any package recently? Passing Saturn for my great nephew, and mermaid Cara Mia for my great niece. Not shown – a purple bookmark for another great-niece

By the time we got back from PA, I was definitely ready for fall, and Halloween stuff just started yelling at me. So I cranked out Halloween Cat by Satsuma Street in record time:

Halloween Cat by Satsuma Street, on a custom dyed 32ct linen from Silkweaver.

Halloween wasn’t done there – when I got the Halloween tree out, it needed some new Mill Hill ornies, so I did some:

All but one were done & on the tree; the green sugar skull is a good conference call project, up to the beads.

And the Halloween itch still wasn’t scratched, so I broke my deal with myself – but in a good way. I started – and finished – Chatelaine Halloween-y Pumpkin Mandala. I have to admit, despite it being Halloween, this was my least favorite Chatelaine to date (roughly tied with the meadow section of Mushroom & Fern Mandala that about killed me last year). Not sure what, exactly, but didn’t really enjoy the Caron Wildflowers used for the blackwork pumpkins – too thick, kind of obscured the fact that they are pumpkins, but even though i had the same color in silk, I decided not to swap it out, hoping it’d all pull together in the end. I also probably should have used a shade or two lighter fabric, to help those details stand out. But, it’s done and I’m happy with the end result, it’s just not my favorite Chat.

Halloween-y Pumpkin Mandala, on 30ct Purple Rain from WDW. I added a few Swarovskis – it needed more 🙂

THAT fixed me for Halloween. Halloween Cat got framed, but I don’t seem to have taken a pic of it; the mandala may be framed in time for next Halloween.

Next on the Chatelaine countdown, Winter Watergarden. I needed some lighter colors after all the dark Halloween stitching. I managed to get two blackwork corners done, and 2 of the over-1 cardinals. These cardinals are a lot pinker than I thought they would be, but from a distance, they work.

Winter Watergarden Mandala, on 28ct Frozen Fractals opal lugana from HDF by Stephanie.

So I managed to finish 2 small Chats, and worked through a rotation on 5 of the 7 big ones I have going. Not bad! Those, coupled with the other pieces I did, feels like a LOT of stitching; again, lots of stress stitching gong on this year. And that’s not all! I also whipped up a couple of Christmas presents for my sisters, again Mill Hill kits. And then did a very last minute gift for the newlyweds, who don’t have a Christmas tree yet, but when they do, they will have a Christmas Pickle to put on it 🙂

Colonial Jamestown Santa, Celtic Scotland Santa, Pickle

When I went to see my mother, I took some finished pieces for my sister to see – she wants a piece or two to hang in her house. My Birds of a Feather SAL and Celtic Banner will get framed and go to her, along with a By The Bay WIP I’ve had, which matches her decor so perfectly, it’s a little bit spooky – she has a print that is very similar, so I wonder if BTB is a fan of that particular artists too? I finished Meadow Hills a few weeks ago. There are a couple of other pieces I am doing for her – have a hank of black silk from Silks4U for some motif samplers, either a Long Dog or a Vierlanden from Wiehenburg that I have, in red & black. My LD Pandemic red is the wrong red for her house, so that one will stay here (and who knows, maybe get finished).

Meadow Hills from By The Bay, on 28ct Star Sapphire jobelan.

As I was wrapping up Meadow Hills, Snow Queen was hollering at me – it was pretty cold around Thanksgiving, so was in the mood for winter-ish designs. NOTE: I still despise winter. I worked the dress down to the border that contains the Wisper – I blew if off as long as I could, but ended up finishing this section, including the Wisper, before I needed to move on. This thing is HUGE, I haven’t even touched the reindeer yet. And I’m really itching to get beads on it, but as many bugles as are on it, I will probably wait until the end and do them all at once, since bugles aren’t scroll-friendly.

Nora Corbett’s Snow Queen, on 28ct Changeling jobelan from HDF by Stephanie. The Wisper will be fluffed after I get the beads on it, so I don’t miss any.

And with that, I thought I deserved a New Year’s start, a few days early. I was patiently waiting for Martina to finish her Elizabethan mandala when she unexpectedly passed away. Knowing the design wasn’t finished – no instructions for backstitch or any of the specialty stitches or crystal call outs/placement – I bought it anyway. I got the kit from ECC, got a yard of Colonial Parchment jobelan from HDF by Stephanie right before she stopped carrying jobelan (why oh why did my favorite dyer stop carrying my favorite fabric? Fiberlicious it is from here on out, I guess). I figured I’d better get Elizabeth going while I’ve got the brain power to make the choices I’m going to have to make; the way the chart was delivered, takes a lot of back & forth between pages to get it figured out, and it has a lot of too-faint-to-print stuff in it, so I’ve actually had to work on my work computer’s 27″ monitors to blow the flesh-tone over-1 charts up so I could get the middle section started. Way too many flesh tones in this (like 12-14? A lot), but I think you get an idea who it’s supposed to be (if you know English monarchy history at all) even without the ruff and bodice – with seed pearls no less – done yet:

And that is a year’s worth of stitching! Still to see daylight – Tuscany Town Mandala and Mushroom & Fern Mandala, which was the newest start, so good that it’ll be the last to make a rotation. I still have a good pile of Chat kits waiting in the wings – have been waiting a YEAR for 3 threads for the Gothic Arches bundle; good thing I’m fairly patient, huh? Not shown – I also did several jewelry pieces over the summer, though I don’t know why; working from home, I have nowhere to wear any of my pieces now, since fishing on the lake is strictly casual. I had not made an album for jewelry before, just because it’s kind of a don’t care if you see me in person wearing things, but someone at work in another location wanted to see some of my pieces, so I created an album and took pictures of the new stuff and the old stuff.

May 2022 be a MUCH better year than 2021 was. May the world right itself and all the hardships lessen and anger that fills the air dissipate. May calmer heads prevail, and may the propagandists get their due. In the words of one of the greatest books I’ve read, which is now one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, Fear is the Mind Killer; I think we’ve all had enough of the fear these last 2 years. Time to get back to living.

Be well, and Happy Stitching!

Edited to add a better meme that actually includes the last line – kinda important… Dune didn’t have a blue sky, but the words are what is important. If I can find a cool one on reddit again, I will swap again.

Year of the Dragon, Patriots, and Other Things

I wasn’t sure I was ever going to post another update, as my last update created too much opportunity for harassment from the thought police, since being a conservative in America is to be persecuted openly and loudly at every opportunity. Just to be clear, you can shout at me all you want, call me names, tell me how ignorant I am – that tack is definitely NOT going to change my way of thinking. If that really is all the interaction you choose to have, just save us both the trouble and don’t bother, delete this notification and cancel your subscription. If, on the other hand, you want to take personal responsibility for how you react to feelings that mere words can provoke, and can ignore that I may not check all of your social or identity criteria boxes, then please read on for 9 months of stitching updates, and Welcome to my stitchy corner 🙂

On a side note, this blog, and others I had before it, is not really a forum for social debate; this blog is a TOOL used to chronicle events in MY life, through my chosen medium of needlework. It’s not really here to agree or disagree with; it’s to read or disregard as the individual sees fit. There can be no right or wrong for the reader; if you feel otherwise, you may need to seek professional help.

So, DRAGONS (not in chronologically-worked order):

Well, that ol’ Tracy Horner of Ink Circles definitely knows my number; she has released a series of Elemental Dragons, which I of course had to have before they were even released to the wild. I have taken a somewhat literal interpretation of them.

First, we have Elemental Dragon: Earth, which I did on earthy-colored fabric, using organic colored floss – meet Earth on Oh My Moose from Fiberlicious, using Green Tea Waterlilies from Caron:

Next we have Elemental Dragon: Water, done on Calypso’s Cay from Under the Sea, using Gloriana Deep Blue Sea (one of my favorite colors):

Then we have Elemental Dragon: Air, done on Vintage Stormy Clouds, using Thread Gatherer Wild Blue Yonder:

Elemental Dragon: Fire is pending; I thought I had colors picked (PTP Phoenix and a Thread Gatherer silk), but rethought it a couple of times, and am now awaiting the arrival of a different fabric (was going to be WDW Banana Popsicle, which, apparently, is not a popular color, so I gave up waiting for it to be dyed, and have opted for a different yellow). Hopefully it will be started/completed not too far into the new year.

But that’s not all! I then got on a kick to try to locate some of the TW dragon charts that I missed, when I wrongly assumed they would always be around; I scoured ebay and my dragon-collecting friends, and managed to fill in a number of holes. I even found a copy of the Best Of Fantasy Collection #1 book for a decent price, even though I’ve done many of the charts, or owned the leaflets, already – I just wanted to have the book, too. Forget the 2nd one – it’s made of unobtainium, aka $2-400. Nope. So anyway, my friend Paula has loaned me her leaflet for Fortunate Traveler, which I have put a decent dent in:

This is on a piece of 28ct fabric that I got from a friend’s de-stash; unfortunately, I didn’t look at it closely, and the left side is not cut straight, so I am going to have a very narrow margin when I get to the bottom of this. It’ll work for framing, but I’ll have to add fabric to it to stretch it to stitch it. Damn it, I’ve never had an issue with that before, even when I knew I had fabric that wasn’t cut straight (crazy bird lady’s shop, anyone?). Meh, I’ll work through it, eventually.

And that’s still not all! There is a serious dragon theme to this year, as you can see. So of course, my Dragon Quaker had to come out for a spin, in which 2 dragons and a few other motifs made their appearance:

Not a great photo, sorry; you can’t see the sparkle on the dragons at all here, but trust me, they are sparkly 🙂

That’s a lot of dragons for one year!

Next up: PATRIOTS:

Some of you may remember that I had stitched Bent Creek’s Glory several years ago; well, when DH left his long-time job, he forgot to grab that framed piece (it was over his cube wall), and by the time he went back to get it the next day, it had been taken by one of his former co-workers. I hope they enjoy it in good health, freaking thieves…. So I re-stitched it, using different materials. I think the first one was on 28ct monaco, and the threads were all cotton from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe; this time (after I re-bought the chart), I did it on 36ct linen from Vikki Clayton, and used silks from Vikki Clayton and Thread Gatherer. I haven’t gotten it re-framed yet – the To Be Framed pile is mountainous at the moment 🙁

I also saw a small freebie online, 1776, and started it while I was waiting for one of my dragon orders to arrive, so I haven’t finished it yet:

And then, one of the Mill Hill kits in my travel bag begged to be started – Home of the Brave, which is on really stiff aida, which I kept because I didn’t have any other suitable white fabric on hand, and I wasn’t going to wait to order any.

There’s not much left to stitch, I should probably finish it….

Also from the Travel Bag, as my local group has been meeting online via Webex:
started last year when we were still meeting in person, By the Bay’s Meadow Hills, on Star Sapphire jobelan:

Also from the travel bag, though it hadn’t been out for a few years until I started the 3rd piece last year, Long Dog’s Foursome Reel; I am working on the multi-color piece, though am using the same colors I used for the other two pieces, Gloriana Elizabethan Green, Red Clay and Antique Gold on Shadowbrook from Silkweaver in various counts; I’m placing the colors randomly rather than as the chart suggests.

I can’t turn this right side up – use your imagination and know the swan isn’t swimming down a waterfall…

As many know, Long Dog released a freebie on the world this summer, aptly re-titled Pandemic, and of course, I jumped onto that bandwagon with everyone else 🙂 I went back and forth on fabric, first choosing a plain white to go with black silk from Silks4U, but then decided white was too boring, and I really wanted the reddest red I could find. Enter Fall Flame from Fiberlicious:

This is probably one of the prettiest pieces of fabric I have ever stitched on 🙂

Of course, Halloween being my favorite holiday, saw some stitching, even though my walls are jam packed in October; one of the things was an ornament, which actually made it onto the Halloween tree before the end of October:

One of the 2020 Painted Pumpkins from Mill Hill; I have a few more to do 🙂

That tiny ornament didn’t quite satisfy my need for Halloween stitches, so Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow came out, and I finished the center Witch panel, and got the Sinking Ship panel at least halfway done (so much water! These blocks are deceptive!):

When I updated last, I was working, finally, on Lady & Unicorn, with plans to finish a page; I did that, and got a good bit of the next page done, too. This row is not too far from done! Of course, my “not too far” can still be measured in years when it comes to this project, but I am just glad that I can enjoy working on this again 1) when my neuropathy isn’t too bad and 2) the Scarlet Quince stitch app makes this pattern that much easier to manage (I’m not planning to convert to all-device stitching – I work on multiple screens 10-11 hours a day, staring at a screen more is not my idea of a good time).

Where I was the previous update – you will see where the 2 orange threads converge on the bottom just right of center; these are the page boundaries.

Where I ended this rotation. About half of this maid’s arm is the next page, so I have a sizable chunk of that page completed. The Unicorn’s horn can also be seen cutting through that page, the ecru line of stitches from bottom right towards the top left.

I had also posted my finish of Chatelaine’s Secret Victorian Garden; I needed to put all the leftovers from the kit away, but included with the original class files was a small “tryout” design that Martina sometimes included with the older files, which used all of the fibers and delicas used in the bigger mandala. I had it sitting here kitted for some time, so did it in between other projects, so I could finally put all the bits away. On 28ct Sapphire from Silkweaver – not sure what I will do with it yet – box top? Pincushion or ornament? Dunno…

To close out this god-awful year, I broke out another long-kitted Chatelaine “freebie”, from the 2006 Advent gifts Martina released to the support group – the Snowflake! I have dithered over fabric for this for a long time, and despite trying literally every color in my stash, I couldn’t come up with anything better, so here is the snowflake, right at the beginning of the miles of silver PTB, on 28ct Snowstorm from Silkweaver:

I will be adding more beads than charted – because that’s what I do 🙂

And that is what I have been doing when not working all through this horrible year. I don’t think I am alone in saying that I am not going to miss 2020. I don’t know what the coming year will bring, but the horizon looks dark to me – I hope I am wrong, but it feels like we’ve maybe reached the end of … something. Anyway, here’s to the new year, whatever it may bring – may we all have the strength to persevere….