Ink Circles – Page 3 – On Beads and Needles

Iris Season – an Update

Lots of rain earlier, with some heat and sun recently, equals:

and:

And since I posted last, I also have a finish, FINALLY! Winter Woods is now done, and I have to say, of all the Mill Hill kits I’ve done, it’s the one I am the least impressed with, unfortunately. I just wish the beads were a little more showy – if it weren’t for the cardinal button, it’s just 17 shades of ecru. But, it’s done, and it’ll still be nice when it gets a frame and comes out for Christmas & winter.

Mill Hill Bead & Button - Winter Woods. Done as charted on perforated paper. — Mill Hill Bead & Button – Winter Woods. Done as charted on perforated paper.

Last time, I had pulled Growth Rings from the Randomizer. I got a pretty good bit of progress on the left side, though there were a few nights I was too tired to do much. Still, any progress is good. This is where I left it:

Growth Rings by Ink Circles - 2 colors of Miyuki delicas on 28ct white lugana. — Growth Rings by Ink Circles – 2 colors of Miyuki delicas on 28ct white lugana.

The next draw from the Project Randomizer was:

RandomizerDraw7

And despite my efforts, I STILL did not get the wings completely done, though I am very close – and I got miles of the backstitch in, on the wings and elsewhere, so that’s good. The top half is almost completely done (aside from beads):

Jaon Elliott's Autumn Fairy, on 28ct Harmony from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie. — Joan Elliott’s Autumn Fairy, on 28ct Harmony from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie.

And since I finished Winter Woods, my travel project became, just for something a bit easier and NOT ecru, From Nancy’s Needle Field of Sunflowers, which has seen a few nights at IHOP and the April PINS:

Counted Canvas Field of Sunflowers, by From Nancy's Needle. — Counted Canvas Field of Sunflowers, by From Nancy’s Needle.

And that’s the progress for the last few weeks. This week, I am working on a secret project for my fall exchange, so no pictures of that until after. I will also pick the next rotation project when I stop on this project (I may have it done in a week, or not). And in other news, my Sailor is home on leave this week and part of next – we have a full weekend planned, with Saturday at the Renaissance Faire, and Sunday at DH’s next BMX race – assuming, of course, the weather holds (it’s looking good so far – but since it’s run by computers now, it could change drastically between now & then). He’s been out in San Diego for the last few weeks, waiting for his second school to start. I am hoping the corporate mothership will afford me a plane ticket to come out for a few days this summer “for work”, so I can check out the left coast with the Sailor for a couple of days 🙂 The Other Sailor leaves for boot camp in just a little over 4 weeks. IF his brother doesn’t tell him all the horror stories in the next 9 days, I think he’s ready. Well, having been there myself, you can’t actually be “ready”, but you can be prepared, I guess. And then it’ll just be me, DH, and the Zoo. Wow, that went fast….

Until next time, Happy Stitching!

Another Year in the Books

I can’t believe another year is over! They just get faster and faster. While the beginning of the year started out cold, it’s ending up very wet; we are about a foot over our yearly average rainfall, and no end in sight, really. Record heat in July coulda used some of this precip, though what we got in September & October really did wonders for the pepper patch 🙂
Haul #3

Since my last post, which had my AAN Christmas Tree and my BtB Summer Cove finishes, I started a Mill Hill kit for my travel project – Winter Woods. I was definitely not in the mood for either Dragonflies or my Stoney Creek Journey piece, so MH Kit it was – and the only one of several in my bag that had a working copy ready to go. A couple of nights at IHOP got me to this point – some of which is very hard to see as the threads match the perforated paper almost EXACTLY:

Mill Hill Beads & Button kit Winter Woods.

My main project for the last 2 1/2 weeks has been Sparkly Hummingbird (or Hummingbird Lace as it is also sometimes referred to). Of course, a few nights it didn’t see much time – too busy doing holiday stuff 🙂 But I did finally get the right-side Hummer in, got the beads all in for it and the top one, and also go a start on the flower on the left side, so I’ll be very close to starting the over-1 Hummer on the left the next time this comes out:

Chatelaine Sparkly Hummingbird, on custom-dyed 28ct jobelan, using most of the called-for fibers (some converted to HDF).

Since it is after Christmas, I can also show some other ornaments that I finished, which went to my sisters 🙂 An Ink Circles kit, using 40ct linen & Carrie’s silks, I actually made one for myself this time, too 🙂

I am actually going to start a new project for the New Year; because it’s me, it’s another Chatelaine – Deep Blue Sea. This will put me back up to 4 Chats in the rotation 🙂 Here’s the floss took I took way back when I kitted this up in 2012 (yes, it’s been yelling at me for over 3 1/2 years!):

Chatelaine Deep Blue Sea floss toss - a custom-dyed 28ct jobelan in Surf from Sunny Dyes Fabrics, along with silks & metallics and lots of beads, including a selection of Swarovski pearls to show up in oyster shells :) — Chatelaine Deep Blue Sea floss toss – a custom-dyed 28ct jobelan in Surf from Sunny Dyes Fabrics, along with silks & metallics and lots of beads, including a selection of Swarovski pearls to show up in oyster shells 🙂

And speaking of the rotation, I am planning to stick to the 2-week (or longer as needed) cycle, and have Ye Olde Project Randomizer all loaded for 2016 and ready to go:

ProjectRandomizer_readyfor2016

So, we’ll see what this new year brings. With one Kid currently in boot camp and another preparing to go later this coming year, there will be many changes this year. Hopefully DH & I have the ability to deal with it all 🙂 Happy New Year to All, and Happy Stitching!

October 21st? ALREADY? Jeez….

This month has FLOWN by – and in some respects, I have NOTHING to show for it. In others:

This was just the first big pick - I've still got 30-40 out there, trying to survive the frosts (weeks early this year) to ripen... — This was just the first big pick – I’ve still got 30-40 out there, trying to survive the frosts (weeks early this year) to ripen…

Work is chaos, as usual; lots of moving parts, lots and lots of e-mails that no one can keep up with, and very little forward progress. But it is what it is, I guess. I just wish I had some help; it seems that a lot of people have decided that they don’t have to worry about being accurate because I can fix anything they mess up. But that seems to be ALL I am doing, to the detriment of my actual work, which I can’t get to at all some days. My frustration level continues to grow – and no relief whatsoever in sight. The more I ask people to step up, the greater they slack. At some point, it’s really not going to be worth my time anymore – life is too short to spend 10 hours a day herding squirrels….

Hot Air Balloon Festival this past weekend :) — Hot Air Balloon Festival this past weekend 🙂

In stitching news, there’s not a lot to show this time, as I spent a week working on my Christmas exchange piece – the stitching is done, now I can spend a couple of weeks thinking about finishing. Before I started that, though, I did complete another week on Ink Circles’ Anatolia, and completed the row I was on the last update:

Anatolia on 32ct cream linen, using Carrie's cottons. — Anatolia on 32ct cream linen, using Carrie’s cottons.

I’ve seen this done on several rather striking fabrics – a red, a burnt orange, and a dark blue. But I am quite happy with my “plain” fabric, so you can really see the colors in Carrie’s Threads shift and change. And as some of these colors have multiple skeins (one of them has 32 yards!), there’s going to be a LOT of thread in it some day 🙂

My By the Bay Summer Cove didn’t see any action last week, but I did make a bit more progress on the Giant Green 734 leaves the week before – getting closer to those sheep:

Please ignore wrinkles & shadows - and I fixed a tiny leaf that apparently I didn't bother to notice was the wrong color last time... — Please ignore wrinkles & shadows – and I fixed a tiny leaf that apparently I didn’t bother to notice was the wrong color last time…

And, because, you know, sometimes I can’t help myself, I was FORCED to get out my pile of Prairie Schooler kits and start a small one, one night when I was too tired to think about the other projects I was supposed to be working on. In my defense, I did finally poke holes in my walls (been 2 years since I painted, I guess they aren’t “new” anymore), and hung all of my Halloween things up. And every night at dinner, I look over at the 3 PS pieces I have framed, and well, the 3371 called my name, and I started the extra piece on the back of When Witches Go Riding:

When Witches Go Riding back cover piece - on 28 ct Lambswool jobelan, using 3371! — When Witches Go Riding back cover piece – on 28 ct Lambswool jobelan, using 3371!

Since it’s square, I think it’ll be a flat fold one day… And that’s all I can show for the last couple of weeks. The next pick from Ye Old Project Randomizer, which I got out last night, is:

ProjectRandomizer_pic15

So check back in a couple of weeks (or, whenever I get around to posting again), and see if I manage to get anywhere on this one! I did pretty well the few days I had this out at the beginning of the year, but I wasn’t as tired then as I am right now 🙂 Until then, Happy Stitching!