Stash diving & WIP Progress

Every now and again I like to go through my stash of charts, partly just to refresh my memory of what is there, partly to plan for the future and partly just to admire the work of the many talented designers I patronize. During the earlier part of the week, I was troubled with sinus headaches that were edging toward migraine intensity. As a result I wasn't able to concentrate on stitching. Instead, I used my usual stitching time to do a bit of browsing through my stash. Although I stitched three Halloween ornaments from JCS September 2010 last month, I have another four charts for Halloween ornaments that I had planned to stitch but didn't get to. I'll be keeping these charts in my current stitching bag to be stitched in 2011: Blue Ribbon's Halloween Greetings from the JCS issue, Monsterbubbles Day of the Dead also from the JCS issue, The Stitcherhood's Boo Pumpkin freebie and Primitive Needle's By the Light of the Moon freebie. I will be designating 2011 a year of Halloween and fantasy stitching. I have such a heavy concentration of Halloween charts in my stash as well as a plethora of dragon charts ... all of which I love and am itching to stitch. Yes, I know that, according to the Chinese calendar, 2010 was the year of the dragon ... but for me it will be 2011. As for larger projects I'll be slipping into the rotation: I definitely want to work on Cross Eyed Cricket's Sleepy Hollow and Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie as well my four remaining Dragon Dream's dragon charts [Dragon of the Summer Sky, Dragon of the Ice Kingdom, as well as the compass point dragons and the dragon tea party charts], a few TW dragon freebies and a beautiful Celtic knotwork dragon that I bought as a pdf directly from the designer. Then I have a few more Workbasket Quaker animals to stitch before I can assemble my quilt. And then there is Something Wicked and Ghosts and Ghoulies Etui and Zucca and The Goblin Market and ... But all that is for next year.

My current project: The Town Square SAL Clock Tower, by the Cricket Collection. I probably managed 3 or 4 hours of stitching on this today, in between chores and errands. However, I am going to have to set it aside for a little while since I am waiting for some GAST floss in colors I didn't have in my rather extensive stash. I am always surprised when a design calls for a GAST and WDW color I don't have. I tend to have most of the muted traditional sampler colors ... and this design calls for a number of bright vibrant colors not found in the sort of thing I usually stitch. I ordered the floss from Stitchery Row back in late October but they forgot that I had said I didn't mind paying two shipping and handling charges if they didn't have everything in stock. I had asked them to send me whatever they had on hand immediately and the back orders in a second mailing.

Another small finish:

The Octber Bride's Tree SAL ornament. The Quaker Pine Cone is my own design. As soon as I receive more fabric from 123 stitch, I'll get started on designing and stitching an angel in the Quaker style for the November ornament... I don't want to fall behind again with this SAL. I have ordered Workbasket's Quaker Santa for the final ornament in December. It'll be nice to have the complete set.

Weekend Progress Report #44

While I did quite a bit of stitching and finishing during the past week [see recent posts], I didn't do a great deal during the weekend.

I did design and start stitching a Quaker Pinecone ornament for the October entry in the Bride's Tree SAL. I have used Belle Soie silks Cinnamon Silk and Chocolat and have yet to choose a green silk for the pine needles. I'll have to place an order for more 28ct raw Belfast linen on Monday so that I'll be able to stitch the Angel [November] and the Santa [December].

And I kitted up my next piece for the Town Square SAL: The Cricket Collection's Town Clock. I am stitching all the pieces in this SAl on overdyed blue linen in various compatible shades/dyelots and from different manufacturers. I started things on Silkweaver's Starquest and then started using Zweigart's Meditation. But I did have one piece of Starquest left that was the perfect size for the Town Clock. I will stitch all the finished blocks into a quilt for a queen size bed when I have enough. I am envisioning placing The Town Clock at the very center and surronding it with strips of small garden print cottons in log cabin fashion and then some divider strips in either a grey [for cobblestone] or dull red [for brick] to represent paving. Next will come all the public buildings, making a rectangle joined by the same grey or red used to represent paved paths. There'll probably be two rectangles of public buildings. The last and outer ring will be the shops. I can always use some nice LHN or PS house charts to make residential blocks for pillow shams ... this is a long-term project, rather like my Quaker animal quilt-to-be, but I am enjoying accumulating stitched blocks for both quilts and dreaming over them.

Weekend Progress Report #29 & 30

I've been away from my computer for two weeks, so will be combining these two reports.

While vacationing on Maryland's Western Shore, I spent a lot of time doing touristy things:

**a boat trip out of Anapolis Harbor to the Bay Bridge.

**a trolley tour of Anapolis.

**a very lovely three course tea at the Reynolds Tavern, a beautifully restored inn from colonial times, now a restaurant with B&B accomodations on the third floor and a pub in the basement. Highly recommended. Marvelous location at the Church circle in downtown Anapolis, cozy period interior, nicely decorated with plants and antiques and reproductions.

**a four course tea at Royal Tea in LaPlatta. Even more highly recommended. The location is rather unprepossessing, but once inside the 19th century building, the environment is superb. We were unfortunate enough to be seated in a small room with a large and somewhat loud multi-generational group of women who seemed intent on trashing my native NYC when they weren't bragging about their own accomplishments ... a bit annoying and distracting. Why can't people use their "indoor" voices when out in public places. It's a skill set mastered by most kindergarteners ... a pity it doesn't survive into adulthood for so many. Still, the service and the food were wonderful and things improved when the group left halfway through our own meal.

** a daily morning walk along the Herrington Harbor Beach looking for and finding a good bit of beach glass.

**a self-guided two mile nature walk round the Herrington Harbor marina where I say my very first red-winged blackbirds [ a real high] and my first muskrat [not so much].

**shopping in the antique stores and specialty shops and dining in North Beach and Cheasapeake.

**buying fresh sweet corn and cooking and eating it the same day ... and enjoying the local melons and peaches.

**rocking on my front patio enjoying the gardens and watching the butterflies and birds at the end of the day. The highlight one night was watching a parent bird play a complicated game of hide-and-seek with its fledgling in an effort to coax it into flying. I should have brought my Field Guide so I could have identified all the birds I saw in the gardens and on the nature walk.

Even so, I managed to squeeze in some stitching on TW's Autumn Faerie. When last seen [left photo], the border was only half-stitched and section one was barely begun. But after the vacation stitching [right photo], the border is finished except for the beading and section one is filling in nicely with most of the left wing filled in, the apple and leaves in the lower left of the section done. I still need to fill in the left wing completely, start on the right wing and stitch the faerie's skirt before moving onto section two. I tend to backstitch as I finish a section or motif within a section because I like the immediate gratification of seeing parts of the picture become distinct as I go along. So I'll have some back-stitching to do as well before moving onto to section two.