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.

A start delayed

For the past few months I have not had my usual raging, all-consuming stitchy bug. It's been a struggle to motivate myself to stitch. Back in early February, I became insanely excited about a Facebook SAL I found that is being hosted by Northern Expression Needlework. It's a 24-part SAL with a part released at the beginning of each month. I joined 6 months into the SAL. It's called the Learning Sampler and is chock full of specialty stitches.

The designer recommended using The Silk Mill silks (which I'd never even heard of before) and I could not resist! I immediately picked out my colours and ordered the silks from Europe.

The orginial design suggests an ombre range of colours, but I decided to go bold with the bright blue for the letters and and the two greens for the alternating bands. The off-white/cream is for the borders.

The silks are gorgeous! The smoothest, sleekest, shiniest silk I've ever worked with (and I work with silk often). Thankfully someone on the FB page had warned me how slippery this stuff is, and it certainly is slippery. Craziness … but SO pretty!

I started this piece with gusto, but in my head it was nowhere near this huge. Even after buying the massive piece of fabric (stitched over 2 on 32 ct lugana) it didn't register with me. It wasn't until I started stitching that I realized that I'd signed up for a huge, huge project. That realization kind of killed my bug. And the piece got set aside for a while.

Finally, after the rejuvenation of last week's stitchy get together with some friends, my bug is partially back, and I tackled this piece again. I was determined to finish the letter A. (I still need to finish B, C, D, and E and the top border just to complete part 1.)

Now that I have the desire to work on this again, I don't have the time. Story of my life!

Turtle Trot - February

It's time again for the Turtle Trot SAL -- working on a list of 10 WIPs that need some love and that I post about on the 10th of every month.

I only worked on 4 of them in the past month:

Catch a Falling Star (HAED)

On January 10th

On February 10th

Ciara Blue (Blackwork Journey)

On January 10th

On February 10th

Damask Square (Ink Circles)

On January 10th

On February 10th

Wise Wisdom (Stoney Creek)

On January 10th

FINISHED!!!

One down … nine to go. :)

Turtle Trot SAL - January

Last year I didn't participate in any SALs (I think the Ultimate Crazy January Challenge, the WIPocalypse SAL, and the TUSAL in 2012 burnt me out a little). This year I decided to ease myself back into the swing of things by participating in the Turtle Trot SAL hosted by BAP Attack.

I've chosen 10 projects, both older UFOs and newer WIPs, that I would like to make slow and steady progress on this year. These pics are the most up-to-date available for each project.

1. Baked Alaska (Glendon Place)

2. Catch a Falling Star (HAED)

3. Ciara Blue (Blackwork Journey)

4. Damask Square (Ink Circles)

Side note: Damask Square was my New Year's Day start for 2014. This is the first progress pic of it. It's stitched over 1 on 28 ct black lugana using white HDF silk.

5. Drama Queen (custom chart by Skitzzzzz)

6. Elizabeth (Mirabilia)

7. Home Sweet Home (HAED)

8. Lickle Bit Shy (DMC)

9. Welcome (Kincavel Krosses)

10. Wise Wisdom (Stoney Creek)

Double the starts

So I did a little something silly for IHSW -- I started two new projects! (I know, I know. I already have a kajillion on the go, what the hell am I thinking starting more? Trust me, I squash that little voice often!)

So my little stitchy group got together on Friday night and most of us started an "A-maze-ing Dessert" from Glendon Place as a sort-of SAL. There's a Pumpkin Swirl, a Tiramisu, a moldy Plum Pudding (aka Plum Pudding done in greens instead of purples), and I started Baked Alaska.

This is my first time using Dinky Dyes silks and so far I am liking them very much! Others in the stitchy group have also found them a joy to stitch with. There's just something about quality silks!

The group hadn't really seen each other since before the summer, so more talking than stitching got done. I'll have an actual progress pic when there are more than 10 stitches to show off.

I also started another project -- can anyone guess what it might be?

Both of these projects are done in silk - I forgot how lovely stitching with silk is! I'm tempted to start a few more things now. LOL

Bits of progress and a finish too!

My attention has been kind of scattered this week -- very busy with school, so I don't have big chunks of time to stitch. That tends to make me project hop!

First up, is my newest project Birds of a Feather by Nancy's Needle. I am really loving working on this piece, and the progress attests to that. I've managed to finish the inner octagon already!

I can't bring myself to work on Cirque des Carreaux again quite yet, so I pulled out another piece that is a simple, mindless stitch - Rules for Life by Kincavel Krosses. I think I made some great progress on this piece too. (Maybe doing a quick rotation is the way to go for me ... who knows?)

And finally, I started and finished the April design for the Song of the Weather hardanger SAL hosted by Mabel Figworthy's Fancies.

And the first pillowfront for my nieces is fully stitched. Now I just need to find the time, fabric, and motivation to make the actual pillow.

March was a Nightmare!

So I've been trying to keep up with the Song of the Weather hardanger SAL over at Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. Over a week ago, I put my fabric onto my new 12" millenium frame and away I went. It started out okay ...

(See the pretty new squissors I got? They are wonderful for snips in close quarters!)

However, once I got past the cutting and wrapping, I encountered the basque knots (the outer double border). Well, I couldn't get them right to save my life! I cut them out 3 times before I finally got them done. They aren't that pretty, but they're done. I hope I never have to stitch another one.

The French knots went smoothly (thank goodness) and they look nice and plump done in a perle #5. I think this design has all of my least favourite stitches -- basque knot, Queen's stitch and wrapped bars.

I did the first two designs with my fabric on a q-snap and now that I've put it on the millenium frame, the fabric doesn't seem to be behaving the same way. Not sure whether it's a result of the extra tension or the crappy stitching I did.

Back to Drama Queen for a bit I think. I've been missing it!

My First Retreat

Just got home from my very first stitching retreat. It. Was. Awesome.

It truly felt like Christmas - I stayed up late the first night talking, laughing, and stitching, then got up early the next day, stayed in my jammies, and went running out to the main room to stitch again. It was better than Christmas because it didn't end after one day!! Big shout out to my partners in crime - Caroline and Tracey!!

So much progress - oh my gooses!

The first night I worked like a madwoman and completed page 4 of Drama Queen. That's 6 pages completed now or 32, 582 stitches or 42.2%.

I stitched every day from 8am till 2am - barely stopping for meals. It was a blast! I will admit that my attention wavered a bit, so I changed projects frequently. Luckily I brought quite a few with me. The only one that didn't get any love while I was at the retreat was Elizabeth by Mirabilia. She'll come out to play once I have a few other WIPs finished.

Definitely made some progress on Cirque des Carreaux. I think I've finished about 2.5 pages of the 6.

I finally put a few more stitches into Rules For Life by Kincavel Krosses. I love this piece. I'm hoping to finish it sooner rather than later.

I had a few new starts as well.

I started Ice Blossom by Just Nan and it was a bit of a disaster. Not only was I stitching white on white which is challenging, but I was converting the recommended threads to HDF silk and DMC perles. I did quite a bit of frogging, and I still have more to frog because I stitched one part without the sparkly metallic it needs. *sigh* It looks okay though. I like the textural differences I've added.

I also started Sunflower Bee by HAED for my Dad (he doesn't know about this though). I gridded the first page and put in 100 stitches. It's 88,900 stitches in total, so bigger than Drama Queen, but I'm stitching it on 28 ct white lugana so it should be roughly the same size. No idea when I'll actually get this one done, but the chart is full of big blocks of colour for the first few pages. It should be an easy stitch for now.

I also managed another start/finish!! I worked on the February design in the SotW hardanger SAL from Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. I didn't follow the directions for colours and I changed the beads to French knots (I can just see the beads being ripped off by my nieces within hours of getting it), but I think it looks pretty good. I forgot how time consuming woven bars are to do! It felt neverending. I also found the bead edging stitch to be fairly difficult and quite annoying. I referred to it often as the "stupid stitch." It turned out all right in the end.

Overall, the retreat was amazing. I am dead tired, and yet I feel refreshed, re-energized, and more like a real person than I have in a long time. It was good to take a few days for me without any guilt and with little thought for school and my responsibilities there. I didn't even check email!! (I dread going to check it now though.)

I've already put in my deposit for the October retreat!!

Another new finish

I had every intention that this year I would work on my big pile of WIPs and get it down to a more manageable size. So far this year all I've really managed to do is start (and finish) new projects!! I'm ridiculous. This is the third start/finish of 2013.

I tried to resist, really I did, but in the end I caved and joined in on the year-long hardanger SAL over at Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. I'm a little behind because I joined late (almost the end of January) and had to wait to visit my LNS to kit up. There are 12 designs (one released on the first of every month) and I've decided to stitch them in groups of four and make them into pillows for three of my nieces for next Christmas using their favourite colours.

I have only tried hardanger once before in January 2012 as one of my starts in the Ultimate Crazy January Challenge. It took a bit to get used to but they really do stitch up pretty quickly. This one is stitched on 25 ct white lugana using DMC 797, 799, and white in perle #5, perle #8, and regular cotton floss. I started and finished January last night (I gave up a lot of sleep for this one).

I'm not a fan of the tulip or leaf-like satin stitch motifs, but I LOVED stitching the star in the center. I also tried colonial knots for the very first time (normally I just do French knots which I finally "mastered" a few years ago). I had a hard time making the colonial knots without staring at the diagram for wrapping the thread, but all eight of them went off without a hitch. I think they look pretty good! I loved doing the lazy daisy (also called detached chain) and herringbone stitches. Those flowers turned out really well. I think they might be my favourite part of this design.

I still need to do the February design, but I'll be taking that with me to the stitching retreat next weekend. I can't wait!! Weeeee!

Metamorphosis Progress

My stitchy time is severely limited this month, so progress is slow, but I do have a little bit to share. I've finished the first four motifs on mini Metamorphosis (Ink Circles).

I've actually finished a little bit more, but it's back on the q-snap and I'm too lazy to take it off for another picture.

Aren't the blues pretty?

Surprisingly, I'm getting bored working on such a simple pattern and I'm craving a little HAED confetti. But I really should finish this one sooner rather than later, so I'll keep at it for a little longer.

I've also done another stupid thing (stupid as in I don't need more things on my to do list, not that the thing I am talking about is stupid). I joined a hardanger SAL over at Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. A bunch of people on the forum I frequent (crossstitchforum.com) joined in (it started January 1st) and the progress pics I've been seeing have been just lovely! For an extremely reasonable £3, you get access to a new hardanger design on the 1st of every month for the entire year.

Long time readers of my blog might remember that I first tried hardanger a year ago as one of my starts for my Ultimate Crazy January Challenge 2012. Mabel's designs are very pretty and the instructions are wonderful - even for a complete novice like me! That one turned out beautifully.

While I resisted as long as I could, it was inevitable that I'd cave and join. I don't know why I try to kid myself. Anywho, the January pattern is now in my hot little hands and I just need to pop over to my LNS and pick up some fabric and threads. This is another reason I want to finish Metamorphosis ASAP -- I want to work on some hardanger!

Another update might just be right around the corner!