September Wrap Up

Hi guys! Back with some good progress this week. :)

I kept stitching on Ann Barson Loughbro, and I got a good chunk of the verse in:

It looks weird with those half sentences, but that's the direction my needle wanted to go, and my qsnaps really aren't very big (I use 8x11). So next time I pick this up, I'll finish off the right side. But I'm really loving this so far. I have no idea what that golden motif at the bottom is supposed to be, but I've decided it's a deformed apple. I don't think it's grapes, but maybe? Or a leaf? I dunno. Let me know if you have a better suggestion. :)

In the evenings, I focused mainly on Luna because I wanted to knock out page 13. And I did!

I am so thrilled with my progress on her. I just hope I can keep it up and finish off this row by the end of the year. (I think I can...) The night I finished this page there was an odd coincidence with numbers. This was day 303 of the project; I had to finish off the last 33 rows to finish page 13; and it took me 33 days to stitch this page. That's a lot of 3s! But I had fun stitching this page, and I'm almost done with the moon. Page 14 changes to a slightly lighter sky, so I'm looking forward to some new colors too. :)

For October, I'll be pulling out Crystals and Crows for the monthly challenge in Full Coverage Fanatics. I was just shy of a page finish last year. While I'd love to finish off pages 2 and 3, that's probably totally unrealistic. So we'll just see how far I get. Until next time, happy stitching!

Year of Starts #9

The year is just flying by, isn't it? Welcome to Fall (for the northern hemisphere)! :)

Last week I continued working on Jinn, yet another neglected HAED, but also one of my favorites. I just love the colors in this one! I could stitch those background swirls forever, which is probably a good thing since it's most of the design. This session was a little challenging with the confetti, but I think I made some decent progress on page 2:

It just looks so cool! I love the way those colors blend into one another, and how the same gray can look purple or green or brown depending on the colors surrounding it. I think I'm through the worst of the confetti, so I should make better progress next time around.

For the year of starts, I picked up a new to me chart from Plum Street. This is one of her reproduction samplers called Ann Barson Loughbro 1837. I've only spent four days on it so far, but here's my start:

This is on 40ct Light Exemplar, stitched with a mix of Classic Colorworks and GAST. I really enjoyed stitching those little motifs. They stitched up pretty quickly. I thought that third motif was a crown, but since it was asymmetrical, I determined it was a lamp (like, for genies?). Then I noticed there's another one farther down the row, and yes, it's supposed to be a -symmetrical- crown. But I already had the stitches in and I like the variegation, so I left it. It's one of those instances where the original stitcher made a little mistake, and the designer chose to chart it in. I think that's cool, but I wish I had noticed it sooner.

I also loved stitching that border. I vacillated for the longest time, wondering if I should stitch it in the called for white or a darker color. At the bottom, the border actually switches to gold (I guess Ann ran out of thread) and I thought that might look nice. But then I thought It might be too heavy for such a small design, and I'm liking the lacy look of the white. (It shows up better in person.) The design is super simple and beautiful, so I didn't need to look at the chart to stitch.

My favorite part about this chart, though, is the verse. It might be a bit morbid, but I like that it speaks of death as a great equalizer. If you can't read it from the image, I'll copy it here:

Hark from the tomb a doleful sound
My ear attend the cry
Ye living men come view the ground
Where you must shortly lie
Princes this clay must be your bed
In spite of all your towrs
The tall the wise the revrend head
Must lie as low as ours

Nice, huh? And she was 11 when she stitched that.

Well, that's all I got for this time. Hope you're enjoying the transitioning seasons without too may allergies. Happy stitching!

Nantucket Girl

Oh my gosh you guys! I was so busy last weekend, I completely forgot to post! Not that what I post here is earth shattering information or anything; it's just been a while since I've been so busy.

So what did I work on? One of my dozens of wips crying out for attention? Nah! New Start! :)

Seriously though, I'd been looking forward to this one all year, a planned start for September 2nd. And here it is, Nantucket Girl's Sampler by Plum Street:

I absolutely love the verse on this! And those motifs are so charming. This is a fairly big chart, but I think it will stitch up relatively quickly. I've already moved the qsnaps, so here's the first and second bits of progress:

I'm stitching this on Lakeside Linens 40ct Porcelain with DMC, though it's charted for NPI silks. I so wish I could splurge on the silks for everything! (Maybe when I win the lottery...) I worked for six days on this and managed just over 2,000 stitches, though I wasn't able to complete the first part of the verse. Those letters take along time to stitch, even though they look so quick. Still, I'm happy with how it's looking so far. The only thing I might have changed would be the lightest green on the plant. The conversion calls for 3013, but I think 3053 would look a bit better (slightly darker). I just didn't feel like ripping.

It's also interesting that the model picture differs from the chart a little. For one thing, the model left out those two fish by the title (accidentally on purpose?). Second, I don't think the model stitcher put in that "V" accent in the plant holder. That might have been the chart's fault; it's pretty small print, and those symbols really blend together. I had to frog a bit of the black flowers due to a misreading of symbols, so this chart definitely calls for attention to detail.

That's all I got for this week. At the moment I'm working on Jinn (from HAED), but I'm also planning another new start on the 18th. Glutton for punishment? That would be me. Until next time!

August Wrap Up

August has been kind of a tough month for me. There's been a lot of pressure at work and a lot of rain that makes my joints ache and stitching difficult. But I'm glad we're into September now, and I'm looking forward to working on some of my Fall projects.

Last week I pulled out one of my HAEDs, an newer start called Mini Dandelion. I just fell in love with this chart when it was released last year, so when it was released as a mini, I snapped it up. Here's the full pic:

And here's my progress for the week (nevermind the messy threads):

This was a total impulse start in December last year when I knew the last thing I needed was a new start, but it felt good at the time, so I went with it. I'm doing this in tent stitch on 28ct Monaco, which is not my favorite fabric. It seems really stiff, which is better for avoiding tent stitch lines (that weird warp your fabric can sometimes get) but harder to get needle and thread through. But he's just so cute! For now I'm just enjoying stitching all those blues.

I've been so tired this month I barely managed my two columns on Moon Indigo, but finished off the second one on the last day of August:

I have officially hit the sky on the other side of the moon, so that makes me feel like I'm really making progress even if it doesn't look like it. I won't be done with the moon for a few more columns, but then I'll just have one partial page of sky to get through and the row will be done! I'm thinking I may keep her as my focus for this month so I can finish off this page. :)

Have you been missing my Temperature charts? I've got August all done, so here's how they look:

The yellow shows the days of heavy rain, which came as a relief after all the heat of the first half of the month. The ornament chart has begun the round of alphabets, which is quite fun to stitch after all those squares. We've already begun the downward slide into fall temperatures, and I'm hoping to see some greens by the end of September. We'll see. The average temperature for August was 87.4, which was almost the same as June's average.

That's all I've got for this week. Next week I'll be working on yet another new start (yes, I'm a glutton for punishment). I'm also thinking hard about what I want my New Years start to be -- a sampler? a HAED? something old or brand new? I've got a list of candidates, but I'm having trouble narrowing them down. Anyone else thinking about next year?

Sarah and Ginger

Last week I kept my needle occupied with Sarah Spurr and managed to finish the top portion of the border -- which took me something like 9 hours to stitch -- and also managed a good chunk of the alphabet. Those letters really stitch up quick so it was hard to stop, but I finished off a thread halfway through the W and had to call it quits:

Last week I mentioned stitching the cream color in the border with 712, but it wasn't showing up very well. I switched to 3865 and like that much better, but I decided to be lazy rebellious and leave the 712 in anyway. And I'm glad I did. It actually blends in rather well, and isn't distracting the way I thought it might be. Now I feel like I have a secret about this piece, and it just makes her all the more dear. :)

My full coverage focus project for this month has been Ginger Nova, which is one of my more neglected pieces. I remember last time I put her down, I thought the confetti was a bit too much, so that feeling of stitching as a chore kept me from picking her up again. But after stitching on her again, it really isn't that bad after all. Maybe I've just grown accustomed to confetti? Or maybe after working on Kabuki, Ginger was a breeze. In any case, I managed my 1200 stitches for the month, which finally completed page 1 (plus a small start on page 2):

I guess I'll keep it short and sweet this month. So until next time. Happy stitching!

Summer at Cherry Hill

Hi all! Back again with meager progress to show from last week. :)

This time I worked on Summer at Cherry Hill by With Thy Needle and Thread. I fell in love with this pattern a couple years ago, so it's a shame I don't have much done on it. This was my first project on 40ct, which took some getting used to, but I think I'm starting to hit my stride with this piece. Here's a reminder of what the pattern looks like and where I left off last year:

There was a lot of stopping and starting some days, so I don't feel like I made a ton of progress, but I counted 1,111 stitches added. That was enough to finish off the top portion and move the qsnaps down a bit. Here's where I ended up:

This really is a fun project to stitch, even if progress is slow. Next time I pick this up, I'll tackle all those bees floating around.

Since Saturday was the 18th, I started something new: Sarah Spurr, by Kathy Barrick. I've had this in my stash for a while now, so I'm glad to finally have started it. I'm working on the very boring to look at border for now, which is coming along nicely:

I'm stitching this on 40ct Burch linen, which is a nice color, but apparently not dark enough for all the DMC. The conversion for the white is 712, which is a nice cream, but invisible on this fabric. I actually have some stitched in the top left corner. (Really, I do!) I had planned to use 3865 instead, but it looked so glaringly white when I picked it up I thought I'd give 712 a try. Now looks like I'll be frogging a bit. Oh well. :)

Guess that's all for now. Next week I'll keep working on Sarah, and hopefully stitch a border you can see. Until next time!

Quaker Compass

Last week I worked on Quaker Compass by Rosewood Manor. I can tell my rotation is way too full, because I really should have worked on this more than once this year. But anyway. I totally forgot to take a "before" picture, so I'll just treat you to a photo of the whole piece so far:

It's over a quarter done! (Small milestones, you know.) This round, I worked along the top and finished off that motif with the dark chevrons around it, then started the one next to it. I also completed the crown (if you can see that light color) and all the smaller motifs to the right, then filled in a bit of the central compass border. Not bad for a week where I was so tired I could barely see straight. :)

That's all I got for this week. Short and sweet, huh? Next week I'll be pulling out Summer at Cherry Hill, from With Thy Needle and Thread. I'm also planning my new start for the 18th, which will be a Kathy Barrick design called Sarah Spurr. (Really looking forward to that one!)

Speaking of future plans and Kathy Barrick, there is another Hawk Run Hollow SAL starting up October 1st. I might jump in this time with the Christmas at HRH chart, which might be my favorite (though Village is a very close second). So if any of you need an excuse to start another BAP, here's your chance! :)

All right, I'm done enabling you. For now. Until next time!