Weekend Progress Report: August 5, 2012

I generally start my Christmas gift stitching in July but I didn't quite make that deadline this year.  But that changed today.  I have made a small start on Wentzler's Woodland Angel Christmas Stocking which I hope to have completely stitched and assembled and ready for my grandson by Christmas of 2012.  It's been awhile since I worked on a Teresa Wentzler piece so I expect to enjoy the complexity and fine detail that is her trademark.    There is always a point, usually midway through a TW project, that this same once-so-appealing-to-me complexity becomes anathema, requiring a short stay in a suitable rest home for stressed out stitchers.  But that should be months away.  Whenever it gets to be a little bit too much for me, I'll switch back to The English Band Sampler which is also a complex project but in a completely different style.  I figure alternating between the two pieces ought to keep me fresh and motivated.  But I have kitted up a few small Christmas ornaments, as well - just in case I need a shot of instant gratification.

And speaking of The English Band Sampler, here is  a photo of recent progress on it.  This current row is a breeze after the recent fussy work with the Queen stitched strawberries of the previous row.  Currently, I am working on completing the rest of the cross stitching in this row though I did do a bit of the satin stitching while waiting for my car to be serviced.  There are also a few other specialty stitches, an Algerian eyelet and some fern stitches, that will be a nice finishing touch.  Part II is made up of two rows of elaborately stylized floral motifs.  I haven't done much of this sort of stitching.  Oh, there have been a few sampler borders that incorporated
stylized flower motifs but nothing this dramatic.  American floral motifs seem quite restrained when compared with the English ones. The photo on the right shows the whole band as far as I have stitched it.  If you look closely at the olive green [DMC 732] divider, you will note that I have stitched a good bit of the satin stitch fill between the cross stitching.  It made perfect waiting room stitching: same color floss, repetitive stitches, no need to fuss with charts and floss boxes.  And the photo on the left is a close-up of the floral motifs that will ultimately fill the entire area and will be filled with varying lengths of vertical and horizontal satin stitching. This is turning out to be an interesting piece and a bit of a challenge.  At least it is not boring.

Finally, some recent stash enhancement.  I purchased copies of The Proper Stitch and the JCS Halloween 2012 issue.  A quick glance through The Proper Stitch revealed a treasure trove of information for anyone who loves samplers and specialty stitches.  I just know I am going to love delving into this book at my leisure.    I also bought a set of those needle ID cards and tucked them away in the VB pencil case I use to store all my needles.  The cards will come in handy to identify all the stray needles that have been separated from their proper packets.  And I got the remaining skeins of WDW and GAST I needed for stitching Primitive  Needle's Thy Needle.  Only the JCS Halloween issue was a disappointing waste of money.  None of the ornaments appealed to me and the larger pieces fall into two categories so far as I am concerned: [one] far too similar to things I have already seen and stitched or [two] just too silly for words. I find the whole experience of paging through this issue similar to my disenchantment with the recent JCS Christmas ornament issues.  I haven't purchased any of those for at least three years now: pretty much a matter of been there, done that reactions to the designs.  The one really bright light in this recent stash enhancement venture was the speedy service: I ordered from A Needle in A Haystack [Alameda, Ca.] on aFriday morning and had the items on the following Monday morning.  You just can't do better than that!

Most of the day I have spent reading in bed while convalescing from a minor ailment.  I like Robert Parker's Jesse Stone novels and am nearly through with Night and Day.

Moving Right Along, Not!

I decided that this week I would concentrate on two projects till Friday and my next day off rolls around.  They will be Lori Birmingham's The Jacobean Elegance Afghan on the home front and Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie as my travel piece.  Then on the weekend, I would revert to the afghan alone.  If I am to have the remotest hope of stitching and lining the afghan in time for Christmas giving [to my Mom], I will need to complete another 17 blocks by mid November.  That's a little less than two blocks a month.  Still, I'd like to do a bit better than that since I would also love to stitch and finish Christmas Stockings for my two grandchildren.  A third grandchild will be arriving in late September, but until I know the sex of the new baby I am not even going to consider a stocking for him/her.  Christmas 2013 will be soon enough for the new baby.  So with these three Christmas projects in mind, I need to put on a bit of a push. 

BUT ...  There hasn't been much at home stitching going on so far this week since I have had to work till nine Monday and Tuesday and will do so again today.  All I have managed is a bit of lunchtime stitching on Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie.  I have filled in all the leaves on the tree, put an urn beneath the plant stitched on Sunday and got a start on the grave stone.  There are still two or three birds, a squirrel, a heart, a sun and the rest of the memorial to stitch.  Did I mention that this block is very busy with all sorts of motifs?  And typical of primitive designs the motifs are placed without any reference to reality or common sense: the solar disc and the half moon and the stars are all beneath the tree canopy and there is a heart floating in mid-air.  With all that in mind, here is a progress photo to compare with that of Sunday's post..

Challenge Progress: Holly & Hearts

Now, clearly, I am violating all the rules of a true Crazy Challenge. I am not frantically changing projects daily for the first 10 or 15 or 30 days of the year. I am not posting progress photos on a daily basis. I have not joined WIPocalyspe or any other formal challenge group, nor am I posting photos on a group site. I am just doing my own thing. And there is a logic underlying my challenge madness. I had wanted to attend Sue Donnelly's Alumni Retreat in March or the Sturbridge Retreat in early summer but I decided I can't justify going on another Stitcher's Hideaway, much as I love them, till I have completed at least a few of the class projects I have been accumulating since I first discovered CATS in 2005. This is not to say I have never completed a class project. I have, truly, I have! All of the Stitching Banquet projects from CATS 2005 and 2006 are done. However, that being said: nothing else has been finished. A look at my Class Projects sidebar tells the whole sad story. But 2012 is the year all that is going to change. Currently, I have this image of myself as Marley's Ghost from A Christmas Carol, but instead of money boxes and deed cases shackled to my ankle, there are all these projects, dragging at me and causing me to stagger and stumble. Of course, being a neat and tidy stitcher, all the projects are safely sealed in Zip-Loc bags to keep them pristine as I drag them behind me in ever more tangled and twisted numbers. But, finally, the time has come to eschew denial and to start managing my Stitcher's ADD and develop some coping mechanisms that will allow me to re-enter the mainstream stitching community. I fully intend to finish enough of the old projects so that I can attend the October Stitcher's Hideaway with a clear conscience. Well, that's the plan anyway. So for some progress photos. When last seen, Row 13 of Holly and Hearts was stitched. Since then, I have added the Rhodes Hearts, Long Stitched Squares and Tacked Lattice Stitches to this area and I have been doing the beading as I go along, carefully rolling my linen with flannel as I work with my scroll bars. This is another form of self-gratification and self-motivation: it really pleases me to see the piece come alive and makes me wish to continue to the next row and the next and the next. I am wondering now how I ever put this piece down. [Of course, I put it down because, at the time, something even shinier caught my eye ... but that jackdaw mentality is something I am working on, thank you very much]. I have also reached that stage of the project where I start dreaming ahead, wondering how I am going to frame the piece. Should I go very Baroque with an elaborately carved frame in winter white touched with silver and a winter white matte? That would complement the piece quite nicely. Or should I keep the frame very simple, possibly green in color and select a matching green matte [both the color of DMC 500] and showcase the design with the contrast? That might work. Or should I go for something in between? I have a feeling I am going to really enjoy my next visit to the framer. Still, all that's several weeks in the future. For now, here is what Holly and Hearts looks like with several more rows completed. First, a photo of the tracery heart in all its beaded and bedazzled glory. And next, a photo of my progress on the alphabet rows. I am really not liking this alphabet. The instructions indicate it is to be stitched "over one" which is not entirely accurate, given the height and width of the letters. Furthermore, since this is a back-stitched alphabet, some of the stitches slip under the linen and have to be teased out and restitched. The only way I seem to be able to keep everything on the surface of the linen is to stitch every other stitch and then go back and fill in the blanks. Tedious and I am still not satisfied ... the letters just don't seem as well defined and crisp as they should be. And securing ends on the back of the linen is a nightmare. If I weren't so far along I might consider putting in a monogram in larger lettering ... heck, I still might do just that. A lower band in the sampler has space for the year in large numbers, so a monogram in letters sized comparable to the numbers shouldn't be at all out of place. The more I think of it the more I like this alternative. I guess I will be frogging this evening ... or maybe not. I'll have to think about this a bit more. Opinions from readers are welcome ... just leave a comment.

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND

A HAPPY AND HOLY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY READERS.

This is a piece I stitched quite some time ago from a magazine chart. It was before I got serious about noting designer and fabrics and fibers, so I am afraid I can't give you any data on the piece, except that it was stitched on black aida, probably 18 ct. Lord, I haven't stitched on aida in nearly two decades, so this piece is quite old.