Lady & Unicorn – On Beads and Needles

Spring Has Arrived!

At the time of this writing, the world is in the grips of the COVID-19 outbreak, WHICH IS A VIRUS THAT ORIGINATED IN WUHAN, CHINA, which makes it of Chinese Origin. It’s ALWAYS Identity Politics with some people, and actually stating that a virus originates in China is MUCH worse than the same statement about a virus that originates in the West Nile region, the Ebola River region, the Middle East’s respiratory syndrome, etc., though I have no idea why. So for all the people who like to play identity politics, I am well aware that YOU are the ONLY people who are allowed to express your opinions, which you do, loudly and frequently, and everyone one who disagrees with you is WRONG – we can’t be DIFFERENT, we can only be Right or Wrong. The only time we can be different is when using the color of someone’s skin to differentiate between victim and aggressor, which, by the way, happens to ALL colors in the right circumstances – it’s HUMAN nature, since the dawn of man. Someday, when this identity politics fades into a dark chapter in our history, I hope people realize that there are no RACES based on skin color, there are only tribes based on geography, and that we are ALL the HUMAN RACE and we ought to start acting like it. What we call it doesn’t change the fact that we are all hunkered down because of something that began in China. I hope when we come out the other side of this – and we will – this sets this country on the road to independence from that country. Unbelievable that this country allowed its leaders to put us in this position – never again. And also unbelievable the state our MSM is in – 90% should be held accountable for idiocy and panic. IF you do not believe free speech is a right, or that it only applies to YOU, feel free to never read my writing again. Strangely enough, I don’t write for YOU, I write for ME. Considering the fact that the opening paragraph of MY blog post was basically just a way for me to put the time-frame in context, which will mean something to me later when I read back on it, I don’t know why you think your opinion of it matters – you are NOT a contributing author, this is not a collaborative effort. It’s a freaking needlework blog, folks! If you read all this other stuff into it, wow, are you exhausted from all the leaping? But yet, you don’t block me on FB – why, so you can continue to share your dislike of any statement or opinion that runs contrary to yours, in a public forum where you will gain the attention you so clearly crave? So you can continue to show the world your mental and moral superiority? Piss off.

Onward and upward….

So, last time I updated, it was fall. We didn’t really have much winter this year, thankfully, though the weather has been less than desirable here because it won’t stop raining; for every day of light – I won’t say sunshine because most days that aren’t actually raining at some point are still overcast – we have 5-6 days of rain and heavy overcast. This is why I left Ohio, folks – the only state in the union that gets less measurable sunlight than Alaska. I’d like to get a garden in this year, but we have to completely overhaul the old one, which means we 1) need to be able to go buy the things we need (wood, fencing, dirt, etc.) and 2) it needs to be dry enough to be able to get up & down the hill to where the garden lives. The one day of winter we had, I will admit, was kind of pretty, though the one day was definitely enough.

In stitching news, when I last updated, I had just started Primitive Needle’s Wicked Alphabet; that was a pretty quick stitch, and I finished it before the middle of November.

I am never going to be able to get portrait photos to show correctly on this blog – tired of trying. Primitive Needle’s Wicked Alphabet, on 36ct Thunderstorm from Silkweaver, using HDF Rubbed Black and a few colors from a DD Bits Bag for the colors.

After I completed that, I decided it was time to get Secret Victorian Garden out and get her done. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, though in my defense, when the kids were here over the holidays (Big Kid +1 for Turkey Day, and both Big & Little Kids +2 for 2 weeks at Christmas), we were doing other things – Big Kid brought a bunch of games with him, so when they weren’t out – which was a lot of the time, they actually were at the house more than not – we were playing games. I thought for sure I could get SVG done by 12/31, leaving me clear for a new start on the 1st, but, I was late, by 3 days! So close! But I did finish her and these pictures will never show you the real sparkle, especially the 36 cantaloupe bicones in the center!

Secret Victorian Garden from Chatelaine. On 28ct pewter jobelan, using all but 1 called for silk (the outer border’s charted color disappeared, so I swapped for a slightly darker silk), and I swapped some of the bicones for slightly different colors, most of which were not around yet when this was designed years ago.

That blackwork corner was maddening until I found the rhythm – the last 3 corners went much faster, the 4th practically stitching itself.

I will put a few more detail shots in the SVG Flickr album, just for gee wiz 🙂

I don’t seem to have taken any photos over the holidays – hmmm, that’s a first. Well, we had them, kids all around, food to the ceiling. The Lego fairy was good to me, and DH got a new smoker and a roll around toolbox, so maybe the red handled hammer doesn’t have to live outside anymore 🙂 It was good to have all the kids here, especially as Big Kid and his fiance are off to Rota, Spain this month for a couple of years; our grand-cats are staying with us while they are away – I’m sure their pictures will make a future update 🙂

So, on the 4th of January, I was able to have a new Chatelaine start – Mushroom & Fern yelled loudest! The middle was awesome – pretty blues, a ton of beads. But then, the outer ring, called “the meadow” – wow. This was quite possibly the most difficult, labor intensive, frustrating bit of stitching I have ever done! I am not good with what is essentially free form embroidery in a counted stitch environment. And layer on top of layer. And then, French knots, 2 in the same space a regular X would occupy, so one on one thread, one on the other. I was never so glad to finish a section, holy crap! I even had a time-out, in the form of a surgery, in the middle of it; when I was recouped enough to be able to sit for any length of time, I powered through it and started the bigger inner border before I called it and put it up. It’s going to be worth it in the end, but wow, I did not enjoy that section much 🙁

Mushroom and Fern Mandala by Chatelaine. On 28ct Antique Copper jobelan, using all called for fibers and beads. Wait until you see the big crystals that go in the middle!

While I was recovering from surgery, I was able to sit for a bit and stitch with my tabletop/lap stand that I use for travel stitching. I needed something simple to work on, so I dug out my Prairie Schooler WIP from my travel bag, Bump in the Night, and finished it:

Bump in the Night by Prairie Schooler. On either 28 or 32ct Lambswool jobelan, using ye olde 3371 by the yard!

And that didn’t quite slake my thirst for PS or easy to work projects, so I did a few PS Ornies:

From the Trick or Treat Leaflet. 2/2 on 28ct Lambswool jobelan.

The two headstones are form All Hallows Eve leaflet, and the Skeleton is from Bump in the Night; these are all 1/1 on 28ct Lambswool jobelan.

And lastly, the 2nd ornie from Bump in the Night, this 2/2 on 28ct Lambswool jobelan.

I have some wool from WDW coming in my String Theory Market order to use to finish these ornies 🙂 Along with my Primitive Hare and Ink Circles haul – never going to get it all done, but it’s fun trying 🙂

When I put Mushroom & Fern up, I was really feeling the call of L&U, so I got it out, to see if I am actually able to work on it with my neuropathy; so far, it’s going okay. I have signed up for the Scarlet Quince stitching app and have been slowly transcribing the progress to date to the app. I am not sure if I will 100% convert to stitching from my tablet for this or not – I’m using it now to find the confetti, and marking it done in the app & paper both, but perhaps once I am caught up in the app with the reality, maybe I can break the paper habit. I don’t have a convenient place to put the tablet at the moment – too heavy to put on my frame, and if I easel it, and put it on the arm of the couch, that may work when I am in a fresh area and can work in landscape; right now, I need it in portrait, so I can see basically 80% of the page I’m working on. And the stupid Galaxy I’m using can’t be plugged in unless it’s flat – the cover I have it in has the charging port on the bottom and no hole in the cover to get to it – what idiot designed that? But, since it was old when I got it (my 15 year prize for work), I took what I could find. We’ll see how it pans out – I am NOT buying yet another device for this.

There were a lot of holes from the rabbit down, to the left to the instrument. Now, I have the flower to the left and above the head-shaped void, and then I can fill in her head, arm & bodice, and this page (10?) will be complete, leaving only 1 and a partial page left on this row.

I will complete this page, and however much on the next, before I put this up again – however long it calls to me 🙂

That’s the stitching news from here! Next time I update, hopefully we will be well on the road to recovery from this China mess, and my garden overflowing with produce – yay peppers and cucumbers! Until next time, Happy Stitching and BE WELL! Be KIND to each other! The world is already a mean place to be, without us tearing each other down on a never ending basis. Spend more time looking at the beauty of nature, and less time looking for things to be offended by.

Old pic- won’t stop raining here long enough to bother going outside with the camera…

A New Year’s Update

Well, it’s 1/3 of the way through January already; the last several weeks have been a blur. I’m not going to go into details, but just know that I’ve been sidelined these last couple of months with a new medical issue; suffice it to say, ladies, do your SELF EXAMS every month! It’s important! Moving on…. Christmas came & went – we were lucky to have both boys home with us over Christmas! It was lots of back & forth to the airport (63 miles one way), and fortunately, not too many delays coming or going – the weather saved itself for this week, I guess. They got to see their friends, and the 19yo did a lot of sleeping, which he hasn’t gotten to do since he left for boot back in June. We all went to see Rogue One in 3D IMAX – great movie! All things considered, a great Christmas. As the 19yo will be heading to the UK after he finishes school, this was likely our last Christmas together for a while. He will be not too far from where I was back in the day (RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge near Ipswich, Suffolk) – I guess that means DH will finally get his trip to see Chelsea play 🙂 We are still waiting to see what the 23yo’s first assignment will be…..

Stitching wise, I was working on Lady & Unicorn before I had to put everything down for surgery; I didn’t make a lot of progress, despite having it out for about 3 weeks – I left myself lots of holes to fill in the last time, so I did my best to get them filled; not much progress to the right, but a lot less white showing:

Scarlet Quince’s Lady & Unicorn: Sense of Hearing (sm), 2/1 on 22ct aida, using DMC (98% blended colors). Pages 8 & 9, I think…

For comparison, see it side by side with the last update in its Flickr album, here.

I also had an impulse start, and finish – I was too wrapped up in stuff to concentrate on L&U, and a Mill Hill kit jumped right out of my travel bag and onto my floor stand. TA-DA – Wild Blue Cat, a Laurel Burch design:

Mill Hill Kit Wild Blue Cat, by Laurel Burch, on PURPLE linen! I also have Red Cat, and one of the dog designs, too – and a mug with the Wild Cats 🙂 (ignore the grid under the photo – it’s laying on my cutting mat, which I didn’t think would show through)

We had our Christmas exchange at our November PINS; I forgot to get a picture of the gorgeous ornie I received (again – the photog can’t remember to be the subject, apparently), and my recipient has not been there to get hers yet, so it’s now living in my car. Since I have no idea if she reads this or not, here’s a couple of links to the stitched piece, and the finished item.

I was also able to go to IHOP on the Thursday between Christmas & New Years, and made a bit of progress on my FNN Field of Sunflowers, though I did have to take out the WRONG color I put in the last time I touched it and put it back in correctly:

Field of Sunflowers by From Nancy’s Needle, on 18ct mono canvas, using all called-for threads. Still dislike the shred-tastic RG metallic, but it’s gorgeous!

And last up for 2016, my ort jar at the end of 2016:

A Christmas present that I ordered after Christmas arrived the other day – I finally broke down and ordered some new stretchers for Chatelaines, these from Judy Odell’s Just A Thought. I got the two BIG sets – Large & Medium, as well as both sizes of side bars. I hope to use them on a Chat soon, since I haven’t touched Deep Blue Sea or Hummingbird in last year’s rotation. Here are the stretchers:

And lastly for this update, another impulse start & finish, this time a Chatelaine – who knew you could have a Chat done in 2 weeks? You can when it’s a bell pull 🙂 This is Mini Mystery I, which was a series of small castle designs; I have 3 of them to do, all on 4″ banding in 28ct white linen. These are older designs, so some of the Thread Gatherer silks are discontinued (TG did do a special lot of some of these this past fall, at special request of the Chat FB group, so I did get one of these oldies). This was a fun design – just enough of each little part to give me a bling fix, and a cute small, which has bell pull HW on order:

Chatelaine Mini Mystery I – first of 3 in this series for me 🙂

I liked this so much, I started the next one last night! Yeah, we’ll see how that rotation works out this year…

Well, that’s the news. I’m not going to do the usual recap and goals for the coming year; until I get this medical crap done, I’m kind of making things up as I go (or will until I return to work, in some capacity, on 1/23). Maybe I’ll do something more structured later, or maybe not – who knows? Until next time, Happy Stitching!

A Labor Day Update

Load 2 is in the washer, kitchen has been cleaned up, the top layer of dust was knocked off of flat surfaces, and I just loaded a bunch of cross stitch photos from 2008 & 2009 up to my Flickr albums; hopefully other than plowing through 2 more loads of laundry, and getting chicken & veggies ready for the grill later, my laboring is about done for the day. Time for an update.

First up, the last rotation finally saw Lady & unicorn come into the light, and over a couple of weeks, I made pretty decent progress on page 8, which, considering I left myself off in confetti hell the last time I stopped, the fact that I did nearly half the page is a good thing. Here’s the 2nd row as it appears now:

Scarlet Quince's Lady & Unicorn: Sense of Hearing (sm) - done on 22ct aida, using 2 strands (all blends). This is Page 8 of 25. — Scarlet Quince’s Lady & Unicorn: Sense of Hearing (sm) – done on 22ct aida, using 2 strands (all blends). This is Page 8 of 25.

Here’s a detail of the area I worked – above the instrument over to the right, including a BUNNY 🙂 At least, I think it’s a bunny 🙂

L&U_8-30-15DTL

It felt good to get such a big chunk done. I was ready to put it up, though – it is very brain intensive, in the groove or not.

I made some progress on my By The Bay Summer Cove – we had the August PINS, and I made it to IHOP for a Thursday night. It doesn’t move very fast, for it only being a few colors, but as soon as I get one more giant leaf done, I’ll eventually get down to the water & hills.

By The Bay Summer Cove - on Waterlily or Star Sapphire jobelan. — By The Bay Summer Cove – on Waterlily or Star Sapphire jobelan.

So, after I put L&U away, it was time to go back to the Project Randomizer for Pick #12:

ProjectRandomizer_pic12

And after a week, in which I didn’t have brain power to do a whole lot a couple of nights, I am making good progress on Page 3 (of 4) – I have done a LOT of the border, and have completed 3 bands, working on a 4th. Here’s the overall, in all of it’s wrinkled glory:

MLI/Told in a Garden Celtic Banner - on 36ct Days Gone By from Silkweaver, using DMC and Caron Waterlilies (instead of Wildflowers). On Page 3 of 4. — MLI/Told in a Garden Celtic Banner – on 36ct Days Gone By from Silkweaver, using DMC and Caron Waterlilies (instead of Wildflowers). On Page 3 of 4.

And then, a detail of the area I’ve been working – the band over the blackwork area down:

CB_9-7-15_Page3Top

And that’s the news from here. I will keep working on Celtic Banner the rest of this week. We are finally going to the beach for a few days, so won’t know what comes after Banner until later. Glad fall is on it’s way – I am over the humidity, and hope we have fall for a few weeks this year, and not immediately launch into winter. On that note, Happy Stitching to everyone!