Retreat!

I don't know how so much time manages to pass between posts. It's nuts. Sorry about that.

A few weeks ago I attended a stitching retreat hosted by my LNS ... Thread & Eye.  As always it was a fun time with an informative class. I highly recommend these retreats, there is something special about a whole weekend spent doing something you love with a room full of people who love the same thing! So good for the soul.

I arrived later than usual because I had to attend my convocation ceremony earlier in the day. As I walked down the stairs I received a rousing round of applause (I blushed) and tons of congratulations from my friends. Another pretty special moment. My friend Martha had a sign taped to my chair:

What a nutter! It certainly got a good laugh out of me! I kept it on my chair all weekend and I just kept on grinning. 

During the evenings when we don't have class, I worked on some of the projects I brought with me. And I finally have a finish!

This is Welcome Sampler by Kincavel Krosses -- well, a truncated version. I started it as part of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge (31 starts in 31 days) back in 2012. It needed to be done. This will one day hang on the wall of my office, when I get a professor job, that is.

There was lots of stitching, chatting, laughing, and finishing at this retreat (literally -- the class was about finishing ornaments). A good time was had by all.

Turtle Trot - May

I have not been making much progress on my Turtle Trot SAL pieces. I picked 10 pieces that I really wanted to make progress on this year, and I've barely touched them.

I managed a tiny bit of progress on Damask Square by Ink Circles:

I started using a magnifier when I stitch on this one, and it has made a huge difference. However, that means that I don't tend to take it with me when I travel, so progress is limited.

This past Friday, I attended a stitchy night at a dear friend's place. Eight of us crowded around her dining room table and shared a lot of laughs and more stitching than I expected! I brought out a piece that was part of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge of 2012, and that I hadn't touched in years - Welcome Sampler by Kincavel Krosses.

I managed to stitch two Es and start a W. I am pleased with the progress of just one evening. This might just come on my next travels. Fingers crossed it'll be finished this year.

I know the Rules ...

That is, I know the Rules For Life because I've stitched them all! I finally finished this piece by Kincavel Krosses that I started as part of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge in 2012.

Stitched on 18 ct Royal Purple aida by Sassy's Fabbys using white HDF silk by Vikki Clayton.

Now I just need to iron it and take it to the framer's tomorrow.

UCJC Wrap Up

It's hard to believe that 2012 is almost over! What a year ... what an array of projects! I remember last December when I was prepping and kitting up for 31 different projects. The planning was so much fun!

January was a bigger challenge than I anticipated. The frustration of having to put a project down every night and pick up a new one in the morning, the exhaustion from stitching and blogging daily, and the ridiculous pressure I put on myself to make decent progress every day that month. After a while, changing projects stopped bothering me, but I had no clue what I'd stitched in prior days or weeks. It all blurred together.

Throughout the year, I did a pretty good job of primarily working on my UCJC projects and I did finish  quite a few of them. I only had 3 non-UCJC finishes: Music Montage and two Tree of Stitches (one at the beginning of the year and one at the end of the year) with only 2 of those being new starts. I did manage some progress on Drama Queen as well, but only in the latter half of the year.

Let's have a look at what I managed to do for UCJC:

Finishes!
I had a pretty good finish ratio I think. Out of the original 15 projects on my list, I finished 10 of them (one of them was a page finish, but that counted for this challenge).

1. Snowflake - 2009 Ornament (Tor Rhuann Designs)

 
 3. Hardanger - Clover (Mabel Figworthy's Fancies)

4. Tribal Butterfly (Sparklies)

5. NATO Phonetics Subversive Sampler (Kincavel Krosses)

6. Swirly Snow (My Big Toe Designs)

7. Weiniec Korona (Penelopis freebie)

8. Metamorphosis (Ink Circles)

11. Austrian I (Bleu de Chine - JCS Jan/Feb 2010)

13. Diamond Holiday (Mill Hill)

15. Cirque des Carreaux (Ink Circles - page finish)

Out of all 31 projects, I finished 17 projects (two of which were page finishes). The rest of the finishes were:

17. Carolyn's Garden Poppy (Serendipity Designs)

19. Oh Bugger Subversive Sampler (Kincavel Krosses)

21. Catch a Falling Star (Julie Fain - HAED - page finish)

23. For Beauty Kimono (Joan Elliot)

24. Carolyn's Garden Violet (Serendipity Designs)

25. Carolyn's Garden Sunflower (Serendipity Designs)

28. Christmas Eve Flight (thesamplergirl.com)

Abandoned
Around October, I finally had to admit that I hated the pressure of trying to finish stuff for UCJC. I had included a bunch of smalls in my line up, so the challenge would be a tad easier to meet, and I just hated stitching them! I decided to abandon a few of the projects, and I sent them off to new homes around the globe.

12. Stained Glass Pansy (Solaria Gallery)

22. Snowflake Tree (Mill Hill)

26. Imperial Irises (Serendipity Designs)

29. Sapphire Snow (Mill Hill)

In early December, I decided I hated stitching on black fabric, so 31. SK Oriental Courage was abandoned as well.

Works in Progress
While I didn't finish everything, I did put stitches into a LOT of projects. The following projects were worked on during the year, but are nowhere near finished. They will end up on next year's WIP or UFO list.

9. Elizabeth (Mirabilia)

10. Rules For Life (Kincavel Krosses)

18. I Stitch Therefore I Stash (CSC magazine)

27. QS Blue Butterfly (HAED)

Untouched
A few pieces never saw the light of day again after they were started. They have all ended up on my UFO list for next year. I doubt any of them will get touched next year either, but maybe the year after! LOL

2. Fractal 284 Bookmark (Cross Stitch Collectibles)

14. Welcome Sampler (Kincavel Krosses)

16. Woodland Enchantress (Dimensions Gold)

20. Oriental Orchid (Dimensions)

30. Lickle Bit Shy (DMC)

I can honestly say that the Ultimate Crazy January Challenge was definitely a challenge - both mentally and stitching-ly. I am proud to say I've attempted it and done quite well, but I will never do it again. Too much pressure (even if it is just in my own head) and not a lot of room for adding in new and exciting projects. It amazes me how much my tastes have changed over the year, and charts I was dying to stitch before, now bore me to tears. We'll see how many of the untouched ever get touched again!

Regardless, I look forward to another (more relaxed) stitching journey in 2013!!

Thank you all for reading my ramblings and encouraging me throughout. Cheers!!

Page Finish = Happy Dance!

I decided I needed some mindless, non-challenging stitching, so I worked on Catch a Falling Star (HAED) and managed to finish page 2!! You can see the beginnings of a big star!

This one is getting tucked away for a while. Not sure what's next though.

Completed My Heart

Another finish!! This makes 17 of 27 completed for my UCJC.

I took Austrian I Heart by Bleu de Chine with me while I travelled for school, and managed to complete it the day after I got home. :)

While I love the pattern and the finished piece, I think I've had enough of variegated thread for a while. It requires more thought then it's worth sometimes.

I was going to pull out Cirque des Carreaux and put some time into that, but instead I think I'll work on something non-variegated. :)

Stitching and Stash!

My ability to focus hasn't been that great lately, so I've been jumping from project to project. So I have lots of little updates.

First up ... I pulled out a UCJC project that I hadn't touched since I started it in January. I put in 50 or 60 stitches, then got bored. Anyway, my meager progress on SK Oriental Courage (HAED):

Then I pulled out Cirque des Carreaux again (I just love stitching this one!) and did 1/4 - 1/2 a page of stitching.

After trying (in vain) to find a blue silk that matched nicely with the variegated silk I had originially used in my NATO Subversive Sampler (Kincavel Krosses), I gave up and settled on a purple silk that doesn't quite match, but is as close as I can get. It certainly looks 100% better than the 2 or 3 blue options I had (and 1000% better than the original blue I'd used).

In my attempts to find the right blue silk (and because I needed another skein of Hearts on Fire for my Austrian I heart project), I ordered a bunch of gorgeous silks from Carrie's Creations.

From left to right they are: Electric Blue, Foxfire, Graphite, Plum Passion, Slate Blue, and Purple Pansy.

And finally, I am a sucker for HAED sales. During the 35% Hallowe'en sale, I bought the following charts:

Dark Angel

Flash

 Soul of the Masai Mara

Mini Asian Fantasy 3

I have more in my cart because of the 50% sale, but I haven't committed to anything yet.

October WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse time again! Hard to believe we're almost at the end of this year (and perhaps the end of the world)!  :P

A good amount of progress got done this month.

Austrian I by Bleu des Chines (found in JCS Jan/Feb 2010) would have been finished, but I ran out of floss. Just waiting on an order to come in Carrie's Creations and then I'll return to it.

I also put some time into Rules for Life by Kincavel Krosses. I'm liking this one more and more as I stitch it. The border is tedious, but I try to intersperse border stitching and word stitching to make it more fun.

The unfinished pieces on my UCJC list are almost all large projects, and so it feels like a big commitment to choose and work on any of those pieces. I feel like I owe time to all of the pieces I haven't touched since I started them in January. Really I should just pick one and finish it, but that likely won't happen.

I feel ansy - I don't know what I feel like stitching on. I even picked up my UFO Home Sweet Home (HAED) for an hour yesterday, but it couldn't keep my attention. Mostly I just got annoyed like I did before with the colours. (They look NOTHING like what I think they should. It does not do the original artwork justice.)

However, I did pick up SK Oriental Courage (HAED) last night and put in a few stitches. No pics for that one just yet, since there's no noticeable difference.

Admitting Defeat?

When I started the Ultimate Crazy January Challenge 10 months ago, I thought it was a great opportunity to make myself stitch a bunch of the little projects that had been piling up in my stash drawer. Deciding on 31 projects was tough, and I threw in quite a few silly little kits, etc so that I could have more finishes.

What a mistake.

I have felt pressured to complete a bunch of projects that I really am not enjoying, just so I can say "I finished X number of projects." It's stupid. I'm wasting my precious stitchy time on things I really don't care about, don't know what I'll do with once I'm finished them, and that I've outgrown and simply don't like anymore.

So it all stops now.

I will no longer waste time finishing projects just to finish them. I'm going to stitch only on the projects I love and that I really want to complete and hang on my wall. So say goodbye to the Mill Hill ornament kits, the Imperial Pansy kit, and the Stained Glass Pansy. Available to good homes for free!

Now ... back to stitching something that excites me!

Beading Bonanza

Just a quickie post to show a little finish.

This is a Mill Hill Ornament kit called Diamond Holiday. This actually took much less time to do than I had anticipated, although the beading was a little tedious.

Hopefully between now and Christmas I'll find the time to finish it off as a proper ornament. I see felt,  ribbon, and a hot glue gun in my future.

This also marks the completion of my personal goal of finishing half of my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge starts. Hurray!! This is finish 16 of 31. Can you believe it? I might even have another finish or two before the end of the year!

TUSAL and a Finish

It's TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-a-long) time again! Look at all the pretty orts.

This month it's mostly the purpley-blue silk from Cirque des Carreaux and the black silk from Weiniec Kornona (which I finished - yay).

And my latest finish - Weiniec Korona by Penelopis

All I had left to do was the wreath, and it really didn't take long at all. Not sure why I didn't finish it sooner. This is finish 15 of my 31 UCJC starts. Just 1 more and I'll have reached my personal goal of getting half of them done. Woot!

Progress, Framing, and Dyeing!!

For some reason, I just could not put Cirque des Carreaux down. I not only finished the first page, but managed to get almost 1/4 of page 2 done too! I had to literally take it off the q-snap and bundle it away so that I would work on other things. Since CdCx is a multi-page pattern, this counts as a finish for my UCJC! Yippee!

I think it looks great and this picture does a good job of showing off the true colours of the fabric and silk.

I got Jasmine Pixie (by Nora Corbett) back from the framers over a month ago, but I only just got around to hanging it up. I'm pretty proud of this piece, to be honest. It's my first piece that had both fractional stitches and a ton of beads. She's just lovely!

Two weekends ago I got the dyeing bug again, so I popped over to my LNS, picked up over a yard of 32 ct lugana plus a spare piece of jobelan, and went to work! I picked up a few more dye colours as well, so I got to try new things.

I learn a lot each time I try dyeing, and this time wasn't quite as succesful in my opinion. In order to have more pieces to dye, I cut up my yard of fabric into smaller pieces (15x18). As a result, less fabric in the dyeing containers means the patterns on the fabric look different. Important to learn, but dissapointing too. I did get a few decent pieces though.

This piece started as 32 ct ivory jobelan.

I washed it 4 or 5 times after dyeing and colour was still coming out. Red is so hard to dye. :( Definitely not a colourfast piece of fabric. LOL. I almost wish I hadn't washed it so much ... the red isn't as vibrant as I would like.

This piece was originally 32 ct antique white lugana.

This is my favourite piece from this dye session. I'm not quite sure how I managed such awesome mottling with the blue and the teal. It makes me think of mermaids ... hrmm ... might have to go searching for some Mirabilia patterns.

These two started as 32 ct white lugana.

They are pretty, but not overly exciting. Again, I washed out more of the colour than I would have liked. I have a thing for bold, vibrant fabrics I guess.