Back from the stitching grave! And PUPs! and TW! And WIPWednesday!

Long time, no see!

Of course long time, no stitch, as well.

This past weekend I went to visit some friends and have a stitchy get together.  I'll blog all about that later (tomorrow?  Friday?  I dunno!)   I'll even blog WIPocalypse soon, because I have an actual update (yippee!)  But for now, let's talk about PUPs

PUPs is something my friend Terri said she does with her quilt guild (I could be wrong, don't thwap me if I am).   Their group has Poor Unfinished Projects, and people bring a few to the guild meeting and they have to focus on finishing it over the next timespan.

My stitching group decided to adopt PUPs and (some of us, the deadline isn't for a couple of weeks) put some PUPs up to vote on finishing by next year.    I chose Fantasy Sampler, BoInk, and Freshwater Pearls.    I had intended to finish them up this year, but then house stuff and health stuff and puppers got in the way (I'm not sad about the pupper, because she's great, I am a little miffed about the house issue, because it had to do with someone else not doing their job and I will never hire that handyman again... I digress).   Oh, and Diablo.  I've been playing a couple of the seasons, I SWEAR I'll get to Level 70 Greater Rifts someday!  In the meantime, I'm just having fun being a Necromancer ;)

Back to PUPs...
Here is where the three of them currently stand:

What totally surprised me is that (so far), BoInk is off to a VERY strong lead (5-1), so it looks like BoInk will most likely be my 2018 PUP.    I think that because it was a mystery broken into smaller blocks, I can break it down into nice segments; but I'm super happy I have a reason to focus on it.   To be perfectly honest, I thought that Fantasy Sampler would be the one.

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Which brings me to another topic:  Teresa Wentzler.

The topic was brought up in the TW group on FB that she had taken down all of her dragon patterns from PatternsOnline.   Someone asked her about it in the comments of a recent blog post and she mentioned that she'd taken them down and would not care to discuss it, but used language that pretty much screams "religious reasons."      I'm not gonna lie - I'm super bummed about it.   I do not have a lot of love of religions, particularly not more strict or extreme ones.   I also remember how much she would enjoy talking about her dragon designs and she expressed a great fondness for dragons at various stitching shows where I met her.  I think it sucks.   I had also sold a few charts because I thought "oh well, I can always get them on POL" only... maybe not so much any more.   I did keep the most "important" charts (those I think I have a real shot at doing), but I suppose I'll have to stop drawing on my originals. 

I remember being heart broken when she announced her retirement.    We had a glimmer of hope when she posted a small shot of Illuminata way back when, but I know she's stopped stitching because of her arthritis and she likes to stitch her own pieces (not just design them on a computer), so we'll never see that piece. 

I think when I work on TW pieces, it'll be with a little stab of sadness that she doesn't take the pride she should in some amazing designs.

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And because it's Wednesday, let's end on a positive note with a WIP Wednesday!

Zenia by Mirabilia!
I won't be stitching the "frame" or whatever that was around her.  I just want the witch in a beautiful red dress with a cocktail in her hand.   She's being stitched on Storm by PTP, and I'm liking it so much that I'm thinking I might use it for Red when I get around to stitching her.

#WIPWednesday

I threw together a quickie rug mug from scraps last night.
I was cutting the first 20 blocks (it's a lap quilt made from 40 layer cake pieces) and realized that the leftover scraps would make a cute little piece.

#WIPWednesday with Freshwater Pearls

When you're home all day with some sort of undefined funk (not flu, not sinus, but yuck anyway), you sit on the couch and do nothing.  Except maybe stitch.

So here's where I'm at!:

I sing a song that goes something like this when I'm working on this piece:
"This is the beige that never ends,
It goes on and on, my friend..."
Etc.

#WIPWednesday, Fruit Cocktail Mini Dessert

This is a mini-dessert kit I picked up while diving through some older charts in an LNS in Las Vegas.
I found the Mixed Berry Cheesecake there (which I'd been hunting for a long, long time), so I was happy to pick this one up, too, even though it's not really my color bag.

Unfortunately during exhaustion, or confusion, or whatever, I cut the overdyed threads the wrong way, so the colors don't "turn" right.   the colors were supposed to go from Pink to White to Green to Yellow to Peach (I think?) and instead just go from Pink to Peach to Yellow to Green (I never really go to the white), so it looks nothing like the model, and I'm a bit miffed, but it's small, and not something I'm super in love with in the first place.  I'll live.

I don't have the beads yet, they'll show up while I'm out of town at the yearly board game convention I go to (which didn't used to be out of town - hah), so this is where it's at for now (while I work on Mixed Berry, though not the overdyes yet, I'm going to do the regular silks first and then make sure I cut the threads in the right direction).

So here's this WIP, while I play with another WIP and wait for all of the beads to come for one big bead-nanza.   I'm also debating whether or not I want to frame these or sew them into a hangings.

WIPWednesday

So I spent the snowy (Carolina SnowPocalypse 2017, y'all!) weekend stitching on Dracula and watching Westworld.

Shoulda been cleaning, I suppose, but I didn't.  Hah

Stitched on Sparklies's Aries

It's darker in real life, I just didn't feel like futzing with the camera/picture/settings :)

And just for fun, I was trying to make a collage of last year's works, but I was never happy with it.  I spent enough time on it that I felt like I should post it anyway!

WIPWednesday onto a new TW October "victim"

So I've started Fantasy Sampler.

Here's where it was:

Here's where it is:

Yippee!

I did most of the Lion on Sunday when we had no power (Thanks, Matthew).

Getting my (missing) kreiniks in on Friday, supposedly, so I'm hoping to stitch a bit Sunday.
Saturday I will be at the Spirit of Cross Stitch in Richmond - huzzah!  I haven't been to a show since the very last CATS in Hershey!

WIPWednesday for Egyptian Sampler

More progress!

Next step will be to throw this in bigger qsnaps so that I can bead the whole piece, get the metallic rays of Ra in there and finish off that satin stitch/lazy daisy band.

And I need to figure out where I want to sign it.  I'd prefer to sign it within the piece, not outside of the border.  I'm thinking somewhere in that Osiris/Horus/Isis panel towards the bottom.  Yay!

WIPWednesday!

So technically I wrote this on Tuesday but scheduled it so it would be "official."
I'll be at a gaming convention today through Sunday, so no stitching for me, but I'm hoping to pick it back up on Monday night.

Here's where the block stands now!

Please excuse the parked border threads - I just couldn't be arsed to cut them since everything is already stitched on the border (except the eyelets) and I can just pick up and get moving again pretty easily,

I don't have too much longer left on the over one face and I'm ready to backstitch.  I hope I get to start on the backstitching Monday, if not, it'll wait for the weekend.

I'm also excited about having so much WIPocalypse progress!

September #TUSAL

I'm a little late with my TUSAL update.   I think the late/post-Olympic WIPocalypse threw me off my schedule a bit (I'm so used to giving more time between the two).

Here I am with my TUSAL!

I also have my new TUSAL bottle ready for cutting.  I'm not sure if I'll worry about starting in that one until next year or not.   I think it will depend on ES.  As it's a kit, I will do my usual "dumping of ALL of the threads from the kit," which might overwhelm my poor wine bottle.

Tired of Egyptian Sampler yet?   Well, as it is Wednesday, and I have another update (I really should have gone to bed early last night, but...).  I finished all of the regular stitching in the border, and I'm now working on the backstitching.  I just have the last color (420) to get in there and backstitch and I'll move onto the lily panel.  I probably won't get to it til this weekend, and I'm happy I got as far as I did.

#WIPWednesday and Solo September!

ES update:

(I was here)

This border.  
I'm calling it the Demoralizing Border of Doom.
I notice I perked back up when it was done, but I'll have to get back to it at some point.  As someone who has stitched a lot of TW borders, I feel qualified to say that.  I just can't get a good rhythm with it.   But that corner is done, which is awesome.   I'm glad I did not plan to do just the border first or wait to do it all at the end (like I normally do).

True story, I sing
"This is the border that never ends
it just goes on and on my friends..."
when stitching on it.

I managed to get the papyrus panel & eye of Ra stitched and backstitched on one night, though, yay!

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I'm going to join in Justine's Solo September, because I want some added motivation.
Justine says -
"The idea is that rather than flitting from project to project, you pledge to stitch on just one project (or two if you finish your original choice!) for the whole of the month.  It's a great way to see progress particularly on larger projects or those that you keep putting to one side for whatever reason."

I decided to join in for two reasons:
1.  Why not?
2.  I'm start to lose a little motivation on Egyptian Sampler thanks to that border and lie to myself with "oh hey, I can do this other thing and get back to ES afterwards."  I'm both so close and so far from the end of this one, and I think this will give me that little push to keep on with it.  

This photo is a great "start" picture, because it's the last day of the month and I don't stitch on Wednesdays (usually) because I hang out with coworkers most Wednesday evenings.

I will still update with WIPWednesdays, although Solo September might motivate me to share more milestones/finished motifs/sections.

In the unlikely event that I finish it in September (lots of social things this month!), I will continue with Fantasy Sampler instead of going on to the Mixed Berry Cheesecake small I was going to reward myself with.

FunFact!  ES is my current second oldest WIP (started in 2001).  FS is my oldest WIP (1999).  If I get FS done, all of my WIPs will have been born in the 21st century. .

WIPWednesday

I have two! updates.

One is for the Zelda piece I'm working on at work called Triforce of Badassery (pattern courtesy of SpriteStitch).  I finished the second triangle and can move onto the third.  Huzzah!  I am hoping to get this done in time to get it finished for a friend's birthday and I think I'll make it! (plus, another finished WIP/WIPocalypse item!)

The other is that with my Winnie the Pooh project done, I've slapped Egyptian Sampler back in the home Qsnaps!

I would really like to get it done, though admittedly, I'm not super enthused about stitching it.  I think my lack of enthusiasm is because I've been spoiled on easy stitching - no blending, little confetti, few quarter stitches.  I love TWs and I love them when they're done, but they are more complex than I've been stitching for a while.  I'll be happy enough when have this one done, though.  And I'm hoping that once I 'get used' to TW stitching again, it'll inspire me to work on more (since I have so many WIPs).

Though probably not this weekend, I've been itchin' to videogame ;)

TUSAL and #WIPWednesday

First off I have my orts for the Totally Useless Stitch A Long hosted by Daffycat (button over there in the sidebar).

I have my before/after backwards, but I was so excited about my afterwards!  And while the pictures are not at the same angle, I think we can all agree that there's some definite progress in there.  I have my Tapestry orts, plus the left overs from the Texas kit and the FlipFlops kit (not all that much, really, but yay!)

And for WIPWednesday, have a little Tapestry!

What I'm trying to do is concentrate on the bloom going out at the diagonal in the corner, and then filling in any of the color that I'm working with (so the other blossom motifs grow slowly but surely).  I'll finish the diagonal and then the right side so I can move to the upper middle.  Truthfully, I'm losing interest in stitching this piece - I rarely stitch on large pieces straight through like this, but I'm so close, I'm stubborning my way through it.  I know I'll feel a huge sense of accomplishment when it's done and that's holding me.   I figure it'll take another couple of weekends to finish because I, fortunately, don't have plans for either other than this Friday :)

And for my work #WIPWednesday, I've picked up the Triforce of Badassery again.   I'm off by one row, but I'm just working around it and not frogging, because metallics, UGH.
I'm stitching this on 28ct black lugana with Petite Treasure Braid 01.

This pattern is somewhere on the SpriteStitch site.   I'm nearly 1/3 done!

WIPWednesday

Here's a bit more progress...

It's like a WIPWednesday, WIPocalypse twofer!

So WIPocalypse, with a bonus of being on a Wednesday.  #SUPERWIPWEDNESDAY!!!

I had to look back to see what I've done since the previous one, and wow, am I proud of my progress!

First off, I finished the March installment of Zodiac mystery, and I did a little extra - filling out the zodiac symbols in the frame, and starting on the planets.  I started Mars, though I did not quite finish Earth; our home planet is missing its moon and has a bit of a global warming/missing ice cap/Antarctica problem.   I really do think I might end up stitching 2 signs per month when I'm happy with it, I'll do the current month & whatever the last month is - in April that would be Aries/Sagittarius, which would bump up my finish date a bit:

Pisces!

Moons are done!  Poor Earth.  Poor Mars

I have made TONS of progress with #WWCKD, in fact, I'm almost done!  (I briefly contemplated delaying my WIPocalypse post in favor of posting a finished piece, but that's probably "cheating" right?)

Before:

After, just that bit of corner left!  woot woot!:

I think the hardest part of this is the black on black - all of that black in Capt Kirk (hair, collar, etc). isn't unstitched, it's stitched in black (the only negative/unstitched space is where he isn't, so on his other arm, there's a small splotch that doesn't get stitched).   Stitching black on black is such a total pita, I have a choice between light above, so I can see my stitches or light below so I can see the freakin' holes.  Ew.  Lesson learned.

This month's question:

Do you use hoops, stretcher bars, lap stands or Q snap frames and why?

I use QSnaps.  I have since I first discovered them way back in the day (I have some dated to the early 2000s, so I'm not sure when I found them, but it was definitely a long time ago).

I have never used a hoop.  I tried and I had a lot of issues holding it - I never found it comfortable.  I went through a stage of using scroll frames (I think of stretcher bars as the stationary frames that one would use for canvas work), because that's what was available (and I was not stitching in hand).

I love QSnaps, they're light, easy to use, interchangeable, and adjustable.  I have an entire drawer of them and just grab what I need in the size/s I need them in.  I also like the way they store - as I'm working through my WIPS, when I'm done with them, I just zip them into their bag and move on to the next.  I've never had a problem with them staying in the Qs for too long, and I use a strip of batting so I don't worry about them squishing any beads or specialty stitches.   Since I wash everything, my stitches always floof back up and I have yet to see any lasting impact.

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I don't think I'll be stitching much this weekend.  It's a holiday weekend and on Sunday I'll be hanging out at friends' house to help them unload stuff from a trailer (kit Cobra).   Friday and Saturday I plan on working on some DIY stuff - I'll try to mostly finish (get the wood and clean up done and start painting) my retro-TV liquor cabinet and finish a wood pallet wine bar.   Since I'll have the tools out, I'm thinking of cutting some bottles to make some vases and my new ort jar out of some  (empty) liquor bottles that have been hanging around the house for far too long.

#WIPWednesday

Quilted Needlebooks

Once upon a time, someone who will remain nameless, created a bunch of needlebooks for a get together and I was one of the lucky recipients!

And it was awesome.   I mean, I adore hand made gifts, like any crafter, but this needlebook has been in constant use since I got it.   It has pockets on the front and back, and I keep a pair of needles and whatever threads I feel like in the pocket.   I also have a magnet on the pocket so that the scissors don't move around too much, and just because, really.

I like to either pre-thread a bunch of needles and keep them there for use (on a project that uses a lot of one color) or, if I'm doing something else, I might use part of a thread, tuck it and snip it, and just park the needle with the rest of the thread for later use (I would do this a lot with Thanksgiving Fairy since I didn't want to waste the overdyed threads).

My current book in use.

But what I really decided was that I needed multiple needlebooks, so they could each live with a project forever and ever and I wouldn't have to change out the needles or thread, or even worse, try to function without a needle book.  So I bugged dear friend, she gave me the tutorial link from Sew She Sews and I eventually went to town.

Most of the books are made from my favorite left over fabric materials.

The two Cthulhu fabrics were left over from when I was making bags to use as "Monster cups" during Arkham/Eldritch Horror,  the puppy fabric is left over from a duffel bag I made (it was supposed to be for Mona's stuff when I traveled, but is so huge that I use it for my weekender).  The grey fabric is probably my favorite fabric of all time that I should probably just buy the entire bold of from the quilting store (seriously, so much love)

The wine themed fabrics are just fat quarters I picked up.  I had actually made a 7th needlebook, it had grapes/grapevines as the cover, but a friend saw what I was working on (I was attaching the snaps) and she fell in love, and I'm a sucker, so I gave her that one.

I just did simple lines for the quilting on most of them, realizing one book in why you really, really want to get that walking foot out.   But I couldn't just do a regular stitch on two of them.

On the dog fabric, I just couldn't bear to stitch over the cute Mona-esque puppy face (which ended up there by accident, I didn't even fussy cut or anything), so I went with a diagonal in both directions that left the puppy face bare.

And on this grey fabric, which I'm so in love with, I decided to go a little bit wavy because it seemed to fit the motion of the fabric much better.

So that was my big project for the past week or so.   I "need" to get back to Zodiac Mystery since it's now March (I bet I can finish this month's bit while binge watching House of Cards this weekend), and I was working on a different project at home before that (another box on BoInk), and I just wanted to have the needlebooks for the projects ready.

And just for some fun, here's my #WIPWednesday - he's filling in a bit.

#WIPWednesday - I have a WIPWednesday!

It's not much, really, but it's better than nothing!

We are part of four households that host a game night on Tuesdays.  Last Tuesday was our night to host, but I went home early with a migraine (I think it was weather related, because coincidentally I could not get a hold of my supervisor to tell her that I was going home early with a migraine, because she had already gone home early with a migraine).

I had crashed out and woken up at 6:15ish (people start showing up at 6:30), and I was trying to get tea, drugs, etc downstairs before people showed up for game night, letting my partner give out my excuses (I'm a coward, but it feels weird to say "hi, I'm up and about, but I don't want to game with you guys").

I wasn't quite ready to crash back out, and one of the very few things I can do with a migraine is stitch (if the light's right).   I wanted to work on Thanksgiving Fairy, but realized she was downstairs.  And I definitely didn't want to go downstairs and say "yeah, sorry, I have a migraine, and I can't play with you guys, but I'm totally going to work on crafts," so I needed to start/work on something else.

So I grabbed Desert Sunset II, because it's small, took no brain power, and was kitted up already.
It's an older design by Fireside Originals, and this is what it'll look like finished:

But here's where we are  now:

It came as a partial kit - there are three different custom overdyes in it for use in the sky when blended with DMC/Anchor.  No name brands, no getting extras if I run out, so luckily I hadn't lost any of the threads and hopefully I will have some left overs for when I pass the pattern along so the next stitcher can color match at some level.    I started at the top left of the design, because I'll put Sunset I on there as well.

It calls for Feather Blue (? something like that) aida, which is what I did Desert Sunrise with back in the day; this is the closest evenweave I could find, and while definitely greyer, it should work fine.  I want to keep the size consistent so that I can have all 3 framed together.

#WIPWednesday and Oh, hai!

It's been a bit since I've blogged, and there are two primary reasons for that:

1. New flooring was put in (the whole downstairs!, and the new closet!), which took quite a bit of time and effort (why yes, we all put it in together, I even have a compound mitre saw in the garage now!).
2. There was a huge shake up at work.   Without going into details (because, public blog, yo), everything went what we like to all "tits up" and some "weapons-grade bullshit" was going on. This all started the week of March 9th, and was just recently resolved.  In any event, I have a new job, but at the same place, doing something different, and I'm super excited, because I'm thinking of going back to grad school (plenty of free time, and the state will pay part of my tuition).   So there's that.  

Not that I was doing nothing, I did go to a week-long professional conference, I took a really nice trip to Asheville (Biltmore estate, pony rides, garnet mining, drinking, eating, hiking, good times!).

But, with all the drama and what not, I did not stitch a single lick.   But now things are settled and I was able to take a trip to visit some girlfriends and have lots and lots of fun.  I even bought a few things, not the least of which was a fabric I was much happier with for my bloomin-9patch quilt (I took a quilt class as my awesome local quilt place, and now I can start sewing again! huzzah!)

I'll be a little slow on the pick up for stitching, because I'm also "renovating" the guest bedroom into a guest bedroom/office/craft/yoga studio, which will be known as my "lady-cave."   I've painted, and this coming long weekend I will be putting in the floors.   Then all I have left to do after that is an Ikea run, some organizing, some free-cycling, and to build a murphy bed.  I'm *so* excited!

In the meantime, here's some actual progress I made on my recent long weekend with friends!
Ferret Knot is coming along!

The section I'm working on...

The whole thing!

I need to finish off a band on my RR and mail it off... I have another RR that shouldn't take long to stitch as well.  I'm hoping after all of the work on my room is done, I'll be able to relax with some stitching while watching a movie or something on Netflix.

So I'm alive again!  And should be back to blogging regularly.  I'm a little stressed out from all of the stuff I didn't do, but I'll teach myself to relax about that.   First up are the RRs I need to mail out, and then onto my zodiac mystery/sampler thing, because I really want to get caught up on that.   What I really can't wait to catch up on is my blog reading.   Yay for normality!

#WIPWednesday

No Mira updated this time around, but I got a few lengths in on Ferret Knot.

#WIPWednesday

Last time, Thanksgiving Fairy looked like this:

And then #MirabiliaMonday happened and another thread or two was added.

And here she is for #WIPWednesday (I stitched another thread or two before crashing last night).