A Spooky SAL in Memory of Lisa Roswell

I've heard some very sad news.  Lisa Roswell of The Primitive Needle died when her car was swept away in flood waters this weekend.  In her memory and honor, several members of the online stitching community are organizing a "Spooky Stitch-Along" for today, Tuesday, March 1.  Halloween was Lisa's favorite holiday.  I don't currently have any Halloween-themed patterns, so I'm searching right now for just the right one to stitch.  If you would like to join us, please do so, and spread the word.  Let's turn this tragedy into an opportunity to celebrate the things that the people around us love.

http://cyberstitchers.com has several free patterns - search "halloween" and you'll come up with 8 pages of patterns.

I've decided to stitch this and this, and finish as a biscornu.

Help me decide please!

So there's a FB SAL event for the last week of December. I signed up for it, and now I need to decide which UFO/WIP I'll stitch! Should I work on:

Emma's Garden - design by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum. This is my 2nd time stitching this - I'm making them for my best friend's daughters. I have the tedious part left on this one, but it really is almost finished. But it's the tedious part left, lol.

The Dark Sorceress - (unknown designer) this is Pixie's lady from the 3 Ladies exchange. I put her aside a long time ago when I realized that the project was started too high on the fabric (not by me!), and that, while my section would fit, the final section that Pixie would finish would not fit. I've decided that I will go ahead and stitch the rest of my section and let her figure it out. *evil laugh*

The Advent Calendar - I've stitched 8 days. Should I start working on the final 16, or should I give myself a break?

There's a poll on the side - voting open through Christmas day - and I promise I will do what you say! :)

SAL updates

For those interested in the Book of Ink Circles SAL, we'll be setting aside Sunday as our "BoInk" day. I know Rebekah and Julie are ready to go. I received my fabric last week, and have my threads, so I'll be ready to start March 1!

Here's the update on Emma #2 - the "before" picture is in my Saturday update. I'm trying not to post tons of pictures because I know it makes the page load slower, and it makes each post longer. Anyway, I only put in about 6 hours of the weekend on this cute little monster. I was working on leaves, but I was going cross-eyed, so I finally had to pull out a nice bright pink and do some flowers and ribbon. It looks like I accomplished more that way! As I said last night, the only thing that kept me going on this was knowing that other stitchers all over the world were pushing through on WIPs.

New Stitch Along opportunity

I think the best way to finish a goal is through accountability. One of my goals for 2009 is Ink Circles "Book of Ink Circles" (click to see stitch count and pattern revealed so far). This pattern is being revealed one portion each month, and for people who've been in on it since the beginning, it's a SAL. For those of us who discovered it late, it's another project to add to the "someday" pile, lol.

So I was thinking, what if I had a SAL partner on it? I'm planning to start it the first part of March. Is there anyone who wants to stitch along with me on it? Pick a day to work solely on Book of Ink Circles, and post our weekly progress? What do you think? Anyone interested, please post a comment here.

Thanks!

First finishes of the year

So I have 2 finishes already for the year, and I can't post either of them! One is a Christmas gift for DH - since he wasn't able to come home for Christmas, we're celebrating with him next week, wrapped gifts under the tree and everything. Since I made the girls their main gifts, I made one for him, too.

And, I've finished my TTE scissor fob - I just need to put it in the mail on Monday, early, but it's international, and I want it to arrive as close to the date as possible.

I'm making good progress on Hallie's scarf - I've finished all the little color blocks, and I'm going to start putting it together tonight. I'd like to have it finished before she goes back to school on Monday - there's another chance for snow.

Otherwise, all is quiet here. I should be able to get to the last part of the SAL this week, as well, so watch for another couple of lessons on a variation on the star - the Ship. It's very cool, and I'll be using it to accent my piece.

I have a 6 year old!

My older daughter turns 6 today. She loved her puppy picture. She opened it, took one look at it and ran over to give me a hug.

My aunt gave her a kit of beaded snowflake ornaments - like in Oriental Trading. She's sitting at the dining room table right now, putting them together. We did one together, but I was getting sleepy, and she's cruising on her own, so I'll let her.

No new stitching to share. I haven't had a chance to follow my ship instructions (to make sure they make sense) or to take pictures, so I hope to do that this week. The last installment of the SAL will come after Christmas, I think. I've put my SAL aside until I finish my projects. I have one more motif to stitch - I'll work on that tonight when our company leaves. Then I'll spend my afternoons at the sewing machine until all is finished!

I don't think I'll finish the anniversary gift by the 15th - I've only completed 9 half lines. So I think they'll get a card, and I'll finish this the way I've really wanted to for a long time. I've wanted to stitch a "family tree" sort of thing for them for a long time, so I'll incorporate it into this AAN freebie.

Hardanger SAL pattern part 8b

Here is option 2 for you. Like I said, it's slightly different. This is actually the first one I drew, and I think it's the one I'll stitch. There will be one more motif to place in the voids next week, then we'll move on to working in the cutwork, and we'll be done! What? Finished? 2 weeks? Is it possible!?!

Hardanger SAL pattern part 8a

This is option one for you. As I was working on this a couple of weeks ago, I decided to go 2 slightly different directions. So look at them both and decide which you like better.

Remember - one square on the chart represents a 4x4 thread block. So if you choose to do these as large cross-stitches, you will count up 4 and over 4. Or you could do smaller stitches to make blocks. The choice is yours!

9 hours of driving in 32 hours...

I'm tired! Mom, the girls and I went to my cousin's wedding, 300 miles away. We left at 10:30 Saturday morning, arrived a couple of hours before the wedding, and had a great time with family and friends. Hallie lost her first tooth at some point during the reception - we think she swallowed it. Fortunately, the tooth fairy is able to break into locked houses and leave notes and money on the bathroom counter, even when we are not home. ;)

On a stitching note, I managed to do buttonhole edging on about 1/4 of my SAL - 2 lengths-worth. I worked for less than an hour at the hotel, so not too bad.

The next part of the SAL will be posted tomorrow. I'm too tired tonight. I drove over 2.5 hours of the 4.5 hour trip each day, and the last leg of the trip out of the mountains was all through fog and freezing temps. I'm gonna veg on the chaise, watch college football games from this weekend on the DVR, and probably not stitch anything tonight!

SAL WIP through week 4

Time to go back to working on Christmas presents. I'm heading to my cousin's wedding this weekend, so I may bring the SAL to work on.

Hardanger SAL pattern part 7

Last week was cutting, this week we'll do Algerian eyelets. On the pattern, they are represented by a dot in the middle of a square. Remember that each square represents a 4x4 block of fabric threads.

Hardanger SAL pattern part 6

Sorry for the weird layout - this is directly from my Google Docs, and it's reading it as a spreadsheet instead of an image, so I don't think I can resize it. Everything is symmetrical and "mirror-image", so you should have enough information to complete this week's work. The black marks represent where you will cut threads. Remember to pretreat the bases of the Klosters with a fray preventer before you cut.

I'll be working on how to transfer the rest of my images to my new computer, obviously that is a need! And I hope I can figure out the scanning problem. It's mostly just inconvenient, but I'd gotten used to just scanning stitching instead of having to photograph it!

Hardanger SAL week 6 is coming

This will take more figuring out before I can post. I transferred my pattern to Google Docs before I set up my new computer, and my CD did not take all the back-up info, so I have to figure out a way to get the information from the old computer (still in my living room) to the new one. Also, my new computer talks nicely to my printer when I want to print, but I guess it doesn't speak the same scanner language, because I can't scan things. GRRR!!

Hardanger SAL pattern

I did some major work toward finishing the pattern for the SAL. The problem I'm running into is that the chart is in 1/4th scale, basically, and it makes it hard for me to clearly draw other motifs in. I would understand them, but no one else would! And while I have a lot of things to stitch, I have a hard time designing. My design bug only kicks in when I'm about to run out of projects. So I forced it last night, and I think I'm happy with it. I have some other things I want to put in, but I'm still not sure how to draw them. Anyway, the next part of the pattern will be unveiled Sunday afternoon. Is anyone else stitching along with me?

Hardanger SAL week 5

Buttonhole edging this week - blue and gray squares. The gray squares are the outside corners. If you need a tutorial, you can search under the "buttonhole" labels on the left side of the page. I'll give 2 weeks to finish this, since I'm swamped with other projects.

Hardanger SAL week 2

Here is the next piece of the pattern. Remember, last week's part of the pattern is in pink, and the new part is in black.

The squares represent one Kloster block - 5 satin stitches over 4 threads. Pivot in the shared corners. Any questions, ask!

SAL week 1

Okay, so I can't wait until tonight - I'm posting in the afternoon so I can get started!

Welcome to week 1! This is the top center of the design - leave at least 8 fabric threads above for buttonhole edging (coming much later).

Each week the new part of the pattern will be in black, while the previous sections will be in pink. This will allow you to see the whole thing being unveiled, and allow anyone to "catch up" without searching the whole blog.

Edited to add: I realized I didn't explain something about the pattern. The squares are Kloster blocks - 5 satin stitches, 4 fabric threads high. Remember to pivot at the corners. It is easier for me to represent the Klosters as squares than individual stitches. When I get to the center part, squares will be cross-stitches, and I realize this can get confusing to cross-stitchers who are used to reading cross-stitch charts.

SAL starts next Sunday night!

Here's your shopping/stash-search list:

Pattern stitch count is 188 down by 216 across.

I did the math for you - (thread count:finished design size)
22: 8.5" x 9.8"
28: 6.7" x 7.7"
32: 5.8" x 6.8"

You'll need a full skein of perle cotton (probably size 5, unless you do a higher thread count, like 32-count, then you'll want to use size 8) and a ball of the next size down. Your color choices. Remember, in Hardanger the idea is to let the design "sing", so fewer colors are better. It's nice to do have your main color (satin stitches) be a contrast to the fabric, while the filling stitches are nearly the same.

You also need very sharp scissors!!!

I should be done with my 3 Ladies RR round 4 by the end of this week, and I'll be stitching along with you. This is a brand new pattern, I've had it kicking around in my head and on paper for about 18 months. I'll be unveiling it in pieces starting next Sunday night. The first page will be at the top center of the design, but be sure to leave at least 8 threads above for buttonhole edging!

If you have any questions, ask away!