tapestry – On Beads and Needles

Life Interrupted – an Update

So, just to get this out there in the open, if the Zombie Apocalypse kicks off in the winter, just go ahead and punch my ticket. 50 hours without power, or more importantly, HEAT, during last week’s ice storm just goes to prove that I need a couple of weeks of warm weather to hone some much needed survival skills. Like being able to move. And think. So when the reports start coming in of the unknown illness sweeping the world, I will be heading southwest. As far as you know. And when we do have a fire going in our ornamental fireplace, I will NOT fight with a dog for the prime spot. You know who you are, Lucy…

And NO, there is NOT enough money to get me to live in or near Boston – if I ever get up to visit Cass, it will be in August! Same for people in Minneapolis 🙂 Hey Winter! BITE ME!

In stitching news, I went through most of last week with NONE – I had needle in hand when the power went out Monday night, didn’t pick up a needle again until yesterday, after I finally fought off the 4-day stress headache enough to manage it. IF I had had those other 6 days to work on Water Lilies, I am pretty confident Page 1 would be close to half-way, certainly past the 1/3 mark – it goes so much quicker than L&U 🙂 But, all things considered, I did well on it in basically 9 days – I think I have about 1600 stitches into it, give or take:

Monet's Water Lilies, charted by Scarlet Quince. On 20ct ivory aida, using 2 strands DMC. — Monet’s Water Lilies, charted by Scarlet Quince. On 20ct ivory aida, using 2 strands DMC.

Speaking of Scarlet Quince, LOOK:

One of the dogs from the Cluny Tapestries :) — One of the dogs from the Cluny Tapestries 🙂

The only other thing I’ve worked on the last couple of weeks is my new travel project, which is from a Stoney Creek leaflet I got from one of my friends here, as she was cleaning out things she’d completed. I wanted to make a piece for our band director, kind of a trade of my art for the art he’s given to me and the Kid all these years. Of course, this assumes it’s done before graduation in May 🙂 Here is my small start on Beautiful Life, from SC Book 443, on 32ct ivory jobelan, so far using the charted DMC (GlissonGloss silks to come):

Stoney Creek's Beautiful Life. — Stoney Creek’s Beautiful Life.

And that ends the Startapalooza for 2015. I am now back up to 18 projects (not counting the travel bag). From here until the end of the year, at least, I will be doing a timed rotation, 2 weeks per project (except maybe Tuscany or Desert, which will be worked until I finish a part). Today, I created the Cross Stitch Project Randomizer:

Cross Stitch Project Randomizer, copyright K.L. Rife :) — Cross Stitch Project Randomizer, copyright K.L. Rife 🙂

The very first draw from the Randomizer… actually got tossed back in, as it was Dragon Quaker. And Draw #2… went back in, too, as it was Water Lilies. So… Draw #3, which is what I will work on next, is:

The project for the next 2 weeks (or more, because of what it is) - Tuscany Town Mandala! — The project for the next 2 weeks (or more, because of what it is) – Tuscany Town Mandala!

If I rotate every 2 weeks, even allowing these 1 or 2 projects that may take more than 2 weeks to get to a stopping point, I should be able to touch EVERY WIP this year, including all of the new ones again 🙂 So see me on 12/31 to see how that plan actually pans out 🙂 Assuming power outages are done for the year, of course. Until next time, Happy Stitching, and THINK SPRING!

Holy Icicles, Batman! An Arctic Update

Some may have noticed that I apply the descriptor “Arctic” to any number of things that imply temps are not at my optimum operating range (80-82 F), but this time, I mean it! According to local reports, this is the longest stretch of below-freezing weather in 30 years (or, a decade longer than I’ve been here). Okay, I know that what we’re having doesn’t really compare to points north, but considering building standards vary by region to account for local norms, suffice it to say a deep freeze – even without precipitation of any account – is just as bad here as it is in places where the thermometer reads even lower and the snow drifts are to the eves. And, did I mention, I freaking HATE winter, and moved south for a reason? At least, unlike all those winters in Ohio, it won’t stay cold for months & months; it will warm up here, and get cold again, and warm up, and repeat 🙂 But I’m still over it….

A picture from LAST January, when it wasn't approaching single digits (or below 0 with the wind chill, which DOES count)... — A picture from LAST January, when it wasn’t approaching single digits (or below 0 with the wind chill, which DOES count)…

In an attempt to stop dwelling on the fact that my feet are cold, here’s the stitching report 🙂 As I had a good case of barometer head again last Thursday, I did not go to IHOP, so the only thing I worked on all week was Lady & Unicorn. This is where it was when I updated last week:

After another week, which included a couple of good days of 8-10 hours on it, it now looks like this:

And though I didn’t quite complete Page 7, I did do enough on surrounding pages to now be officially over the 1/3 mark – and it only took 7 1/2 years! 6 1/2 if you don’t count the year it never got touched 🙂 Here is a picture showing the chart – 3 pages that I’ve been working on in this section; the brighter yellow is what I’ve done the last 2 weeks:

Pages 7, 8, and 12 - the bright yellow from the middle over is what I've done this time around. — Pages 7, 8, and 12 – the bright yellow from the middle over (including all the ones & twos in the middle of the purple & blue areas) is what I’ve done this time around.

Here it is by the numbers:

Lady & Unicorn: Sense of Hearing (smaller) – 318 x 410 = 130380.

1 full page of chart: 95 x 74 = 7030 stitches per page. Pages 5, 10, 15, & 20 are only 95 x 22 = 2090.

Calling #7 complete (the remaining blanks balanced by what I’ve done on 8 and 12, above), that is 6 full pages and 1 partial end page, for a total of 44270+. One third of 130380 is 43460, so you can see, I’m past that! WooHoo! It sure doesn’t feel like it though 🙁 I will be much happier when I reach the halfway point 🙂 And hopefully the next 1/3 won’t take another 7 1/2 years, though, to be honest, losing a year when I didn’t touch it, and then the first 18 months I wasted trying to get parking to work for me seriously skew the numbers. I hope. The Lady and her pipe organ are the simplest elements on this entire row of pages; when I get down to the next row and over to the right, the Unicorn will also be relatively simple – but there’s all kinds of confetti hell between here and there 🙂 So we’ll see how the next third goes….

Post Blizzard 2011. That's a layer of ice that makes that snow so shiny :( — Post Blizzard 2011. That’s a layer of ice that makes that snow so shiny 🙁

So, now that it’s back to the old grindstone and vacation is over, I’ve put up L&U for now. It’s time to work on the first of those items on my To Finish list, Iris Fairy. It ought to be a downright cakewalk after plowing through a couple of thousand stitches (maybe 3000+?) on L&U 🙂 Also, our 21st anniversary is Saturday; we’re going to dinner, but other than that, it’ll be a quiet day as it usually is (as we continue to recoup from year-end & holiday hooha). Until next week, Happy Stitching, and stay warm!!

A President’s Day Update

President’s Day, yet another day without school (mine had Friday, off, too, for Teacher Work Day), and no mail, so my PTP FOTM will probably be delayed by a week. But the trash picked up, so everything’s good 🙂 The mail was running last week, and brought my kit for Beaded Dragonfly Tile – look at all of the beads:

Beaded Dragonfly Tile, on 28ct black jobelan.

I am going to try to make this a reward for finishing Mary Wigham 🙂 We’ll see how successful I am…

I can’t believe that February is more than half over and I don’t have a finish of any kind yet 🙁 But I am getting closer on PS Knock! Knock!, which saw a good bit of progress on Thursday night and then during our monthly conference call on Friday:

On the downhill side :) — On the downhill side 🙂

Now if only I could say the same for L&U; I worked all week on it, and changed colors a zillion times, but it’s really hard to see all of the holes that got filled in – and finally, I had to leave the filling-in for some solid areas of color, such as they were. Still haven’t figured out exactly where her face will appear, but I do have a head-shaped blob begun, so we’ll see what it looks like in a week 🙂 Here’s where it is now:

The confetti-hell known as Lady & Unicorn, page 7.

And just for reference, here it is with the chart page – see all of the purple scattered all over? That’s what I did, even if you can’t actually see it:

The purple spots are this week's efforts - still lots of holes that need filling... And I have added the Rabbit & the Unicorn to my stash? I AM out of my mind... — The purple spots are this week’s efforts – still lots of holes that need filling… And I have added the Rabbit & the Unicorn to my stash? I AM out of my mind…

So this week, I will continue on with L&U, see if I can’t work through her dress and maybe move over to the organ, which will be a slight break from the confetti, as that back portion there on this page only has about 15-20 symbols in it 🙂 I would also like to finish Knock! Knock! this week, if I need to do a little time on it in the evenings before breaking out the beast. We’ll have some interruption this week with the arrival of long-overdue new furniture – new living room and dining room 🙂 The dogs will be happy to have new stuff to sleep on 🙁 Which means, there’s at least a week of painting that has to be done sometime in the near future, before the sauna season is upon us again. Yay me 🙁 On that note, Happy Stitching this week to everyone!