Indefinite Hiatus

I feel bad about this but I've decided to go on an indefinite hiatus.

I haven't felt much like blogging for a while, and I haven't been commenting for even longer. My stitching mojo is also at an all-time low.

I hope that I'll be back sooner than later, but I think it's better to wait until I get back my enthusiasm rather than continue half-heartedly and run the risk of becoming completely disinterested.

I may post the occasional finish, but I haven't made up my mind about that yet.

Stay in stitches,
B.

August Wrap-Up

It's a blue moon!

For the

I knocked off two WIPs: Maple Leaf and Japanese Octagon Box.

Maple Leaf was my Theme-a-licious piece for Altius August, where I interpreted "embrace the Olympic motto" as embrace the Olympics and be patriotic. Next month is September Smalls, for which I have no plans.

Goals for August:
1. Finish Japanese Octagon Garden. Yes!
2. Restart Maia. No.
3. Finish Maple Leaf. Yes.
Pipe dream: Make a new general use bag since my current one is getting ratty. The inner and outer shells are done. I just need to attach the straps and stitch it together.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Started Cirque des Triangles.
2. Started Sweeping Cobwebs

Goals for September:
1. Work on Ganesha.
2. Work on my Granny Stripe blanket.
Pipe dream: Finish Sweeping Cobwebs.

Pictures Ahoy!

And I've done as much as I'm ever going to on Japanese Octagon Box, so let's call that a finish shall we? I made so many random changes on this. I left off the golden flowers because I didn't want to struggle with the overlay backstitching in a metallic business. I used the provided DMC conversion (which Martina warns is not quite equivalent) so there are parts where you can't really tell that there are different greens involved. I have no idea if this is true for the "proper" threads NPI and gloriana. But I can live with it. I left out the beads just under the upper Rhodes stitches. I replaced all the beads in the bottom 8 motifs with a light purple metallic. I'm rather fond of the cherry blossom(?) tree. But those over one birds were so not fun. When I was putting this away to be framed in the future I was a bit disconcerted to realize that I don't have much space left in that drawer.

Title	Japanese Octagon Box
Designer	Chatelaine
Start date	February 29, 2012
Finish date	August 23, 2012
Total time	91.25 hours
Fabric	32 ct white lugana
Floss	Mostly the DMC conversion, a couple of Dinky Dyes
	and Kreiniks that I didn't note down *is sheepish*

Hermitting Away

I spent the weekend plodding through more of Tulip Praise. I'm getting just a little bit bored with it, but I only have to fill in the purple bits in the top an middle lines to finish this month's part so I'll probably keep going.


Tulip Praise
25ct antique white lugana

August TUSAL

Now with extra red! It's mostly from Maple Leaf. The bright yellow is frogging from Tulip Praise after I decided to switch out the yellow for purple.
That's Something Wicked by La-D-Da in the background.

The Podium At Last

Altius August is about embracing the Olympic Motto and elevating your mind by learning something new. I embraced something vaguely Olympic-related and ignored the rest.
If you're wondering what a maple leaf has to do with the Olympics, well, aren't we all just a little extra patriotic around the Olympics? So here's my version of waving the flag ;)

I thought since I was stitching with a metallic thread on an opalescent fabric that it would take me a while to finish. It actually went by pretty fast. I used 2.5 spools and maybe 1/10 of a bead packet. This is going into my "to be framed" drawer (which at this point is just ridiculously full, but probably not going to decrease any time soon). I'm not sure how well you can see the sparkles in the fabric and the floss, but rest assured. It's shining with patriotism ;)

Title	Maple Leaf
Designer	Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks
Start date	July 31, 2012
Finish date	August 15, 2012
Total time	16.75 hours
Fabric	32 ct opalescent white lugana
Floss	Kreinik 003, MH 3049

A Late Start

I started this yesterday, so it totally counts as a WIP for this month's

So. The Olympics. See, I'm not a sporty person. The most athletic thing I ever did was play chess as a teen. I even managed to get out of mandatory gym class in high school. All this means that I'm rather apathetic towards the Olympics (sacrilege, I know). I don't really watch any of it. Occasionally if someone else in the room is watching something I'll watch with them, but I don't go looking. I do rather vaguely follow Canada's medal count.

Which brings me to the matter at hand. I know that there's a fair amount of people either starting something new for the Olympics or stitching something patriotic. So I decided to stitch something patriotic for the Olympics. (I was going to start on Friday but my fabric didn't arrive). I'm going for subtle but I don't think it's as subtle as I think.

Alessandra Adelaide Needlework's Maple Leaf. I'm stitching it in Kreinik 003 on 32 ct opalescent white. It is incredibly shiny.


Maple Leaf
32ct opalescent white lugana, Kreinik 003
When finished it will look like this (only, more shiny):

July Wrap-Up

I got a very late start on Jolly July. I was originally planning on working on the Christmyth ornies (as per the suggested Christmas theme), but then I finished them earlier in the year and I had no idea what to do. I actually skipped the previous theme-a-licious update. But then I decided to tackle Sleepy Hollow and finished it, so that was all good.

The original plan for Atlius August (learn something new) was to work on some of Hardanger projects. Instead I've decided to embrace the Olympics ;D

Goals for July:
1. Keep up with Tulip Praise. Sadly no. I was having colour issues, and although those have been sorted out I don't really feel like working on it for now.
2. Finish Legends of Dragons. Yes!
3. Finish all the cross stitching on Palm. Yes. In fact I finished Palm.
Pipe dream: Finish Japanese Octagon Box. No. I'd say I have about 15 hours left in it though.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Finished Palm.
2. Started Maple Leaf
3. Started Maia

Goals for August:
1. Finish Japanese Octagon Garden.
2. Restart Maia.
3. Finish Maple Leaf.
Pipe dream: Make a new general use bag since my current one is getting ratty.

Fi-neigh-ly Done

What can I say? I have a weakness for awful puns ;)

There are lots of changes in this, and I can't remember most of them because this was before I made extensive notes. I know that I made some change in the border somewhere and had to shorten the tree. The moon is not made of Caron Waterlily, it's made of DMC 745. The metallics are not what are called for. The bottom of the jacket is purple instead of green. There's only one bead colour instead of two. I'm sure there are more things *shrug*

Title	Sleepy Hollow
Designer	Glendon Place
Start date	August 30, 2010
Finish date	July 27, 2012
Total time	130.25 hours
Fabric	32 ct Thunderstorm linen
Floss	I used the provided DMC conversion

A Long Overdue Winner

This weekend was devoted to getting all the backstitch in Sleepy Hollow done. Now I've just got all the beading in the border to go.
Sleepy Hollow
32 ct Thunderstorm
And the end of the backstitch means it's time to announce the winner from my 2010 contest to guess the hours of backstitch! It took me 28.5 hours to finish all the backstitch: 7 hours in 2010, 8.5 hours in 2011 and 13 hours this year. Which means the closest guess was Annie with 25 hours (the highest guess). Apparently folks were somewhat optimistic about how fast I could stitch. Of course, considering I promised to send the winnings out by Halloween 2011 I was clearly the delusional one LOL! Drop me a line Annie and we'll see about those winnings...

July TUSAL

This month's TUSAL features a lot of frogging. You can see a tiny bit of the yellow at the ton. There's a lot more yellow and green under it. I'm playing around with different colours on Tulip Praise. This has served to reaffirm my inability to pick colours on my own.
That's The Runekeeper Saga by Dragon Dreams in the background.

With A Little Help From My Friends

16 hours of backstitch later, I'm done Palm!
I've mentioned the story of this piece several times, but a quick recap: When I moved houses in July 2010 I brilliantly packed all my stash away and then had several hours of nothing to do. I also had a Dimensions kit available, so I started it. And then I unpacked everything I put Palm away. Then I participated in a UFO Round Robin and sent Palm out. The ladies made such a big change in it that I knew that a determined push could finish it off. Of course, it still look me a while to get around to finishing it, but I could never have done it without all the RR ladies! *hugs*

And because you can't make out much of the detail in that picture, here are some clickable close-ups:

Title	Palm
Designer	Dimensions
Start date	July 10, 2010
Finish date	July 12, 2012
Total time	No idea how many hours the RR contributed, but I put in 38.75
Fabric	16 ct khaki aida
Floss	As provided in the kit

If Only I Could Use One of Those Leaves as a Fan

I've been plodding away at Palm. It came back from a UFO RR looking like this: And once I got all the cross stitches and half stitches finished it look like this. I was being incredibly lazy, hence the atrocious photo. I almost ran into trouble with one of the greens in that upper border. I stitched the whole thing, looked with relief at the single strand I had leftover and realized that I'd done the stitching in the wrong direction! And it sas half crosses in an area of more half crosses so it would've been really obvious. So I had to carefully frog and reuse the thread. And since this is an older kit some of the threads aren't the hardiest things around. I'm not sure how to describe it, but they sort of untwist and stretch and then pull apart. I was absolutely terrified that I would run out. Luckily it all worked out, but you can bet I was extra paranoid about direction for the next few hours!

Trio of Dragons

Another

Another finish!

Legends of the Dragons was my 2010 New Year start. It's now midway through 2012 and I've finally finished it! It's a three-parter with each dragon designed by a different designer. All three are now out of the business (although I believe Jennifer of DD still occasionally puts stuff out for retreats).
Magic by Dragon Dreams was the first one finished. I remember being very gung-ho at that point. I was going to stitch a dragon a month and finish the whole thing in 4 months. Ah, those were the days... I finished the border next. I was going to use an overdyed since I didn't want to tackle the border (it's all TW), but I never managed to find one I liked that was in my budget. So I eventually sucked it up and stitched it as charted. I'm glad I did that. And then it was Teresa's Wisdom. This is where I got stalled. I can't remember why, but I probably wasn't in the right mindset for a TW. That was a long hiatus. I didn't touch it during all of 2011. And then one day I just had to finish it. And the last one is Majesty by Black Swan Designs. Looking at my numbers this took the shortest time to stitch, which is surprising because I thought it would have been Magic. I was a bit nervous about the lettering because it's over one. The last time I had to stitch a small over one part in a larger design it didn't turn out too well. Too much puckering. But this turned out excellently. I owe everything to my Q-snap. And the fact that I stitched all the lettering over two days.

Title	Legends of the Dragons
Designers	Black Swan Designs, Dragon Dreams, TWDesignworks
Start date	January 1, 2010
Finish date	July 4, 2012
Total time	102.5 hours
Fabric	28 ct antique white lugana
Floss	As charted

June Wrap-Up

Jumanji June was excellent until the 15th, and then I stopped. But this happened so it's all good.

July is Jolly July dedicated to Christmas stuff. I actually finished off my Christmas pieces back in April, so I'm somewhat undecided on what to do...

Goals for June:
1. Finish The Great Escape. Yes!
2. Start Tulip Praise. Yes.
3. Work on Legends of Dragons. Yes.
Pipe dream: Finish the "Wisdom" Dragon. Yes. I'm actually almost done "Majesty" as well.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Finished No Late Knight Snacking.

Goals for July:
1. Keep up with Tulip Praise.
2. Finish Legends of Dragons.
3. Finish all the cross stitching on Palm.
Pipe dream: Finish Japanese Octagon Box.

Summer Blahs

I'm blaming the hot thunderstormy weather for my severe case of ennui. Here's another piece that's getting somewhat close to the end. And I still haven't picked up that Kreinik for Legends, which I need for this as well.

Japanese Octagon Box Panel
32ct white lugana

No Biting

No Late Knight Snacking by Dragon Dreams is done. It's a bit ironic that I stitched this because I'm a major midnight snacker. Pretty much every night there's a cookie, a piece of cake or a handful of chips on the schedule.

Before the backstitch: After the backstitch: And my favourite part:

Title	No Late Knight Snacking
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	April 23, 2012
Finish date	June 20, 2012
Total time	16.75 hours
Fabric	18 ct white aida
Floss	As charted

June TUSAL

I can't believe that we're already at the 6th new moon of the year.
That's Out For Coffee by sodastitch in the background.

Brightly Coloured

This week was pretty good since I finished the first part of a new SAL. This is Tulip Praise by Kathy Bungard of Gracewood Stitches. I'm stitching this with the Sticklounge group and it'll be one part every 15th for 10(?) months.
Tulip Praise
25ct antique white lugana
This is very much not my usual style but I thought it would be a nice change. I've also decided not to join the new StitchSpecialist SAL since I've decided I'm incapable/uninterested in finishing hardanger, however enthusiastic I am when starting.

I'm going for a bright almost primary coloured piece. It's half crosses on 25 count so that interesting effect you get when there are noncontact slashes should show up. The colours are all DMC and except for 310 and 444 I can't remember what they are (too lazy to go look). But this is definitely the palette I'll be sticking with.

I had a "I guess my mum was right with all that keep your room clean and put stuff back where you got it" moment. It was horrifying. (j/k I love my mum, but my idea of a "clean house" in no way meets hers). I went looking for a Dimensions WIP since I felt like working on it. I found the chart, the working copy, the WIP, but not the threads. I have no idea where they are. They're not in the threads drawer, they're not mysteriously on the floor in a bag. Presumably they'll show up, but for about five seconds I could just hear my mother's "I told you so".

In more cheerful news, I'm close to finishing No Late Knight Snacking. Legends is still waiting for me to get to the LNS.