May Achievements & June Goals

Goals for May:
1. Start something new. Yes, Sapphire and Namaste
2. Stitch on both UFO RRs. Well, I stitched a bit on one and not at all on the other

Goals for June:
1. Stitch, finish and send out Denise's winnings.
2. Stitch on both UFO RRs.
3. Finish something. Anything!
4. Leave comments (since I don't think I left a single one in May).

Well, at least I met one goal.

Mission Complete

We at the Organization would like to congratulate the 28 agents that completed the previous mission. (A special acknowledgment of Agent Jo who submitted her paperwork 2 minutes before the deadline)

TSCESR (The Sub-Committee for Evaluating the Submitted Reports) was unable to reach a consensus on the most suitable candidate for AWMSCTM ("Agent Who Most Successfully Completed The Mission"), and the final decision was determined by TR (The Randomizer).

Agent Denise please contact your HRR (Human Resources Representative) in order to fill out the requisite paperwork in triplicate.

We, the management, wish to congratulate all agents who completed the mission and would like to remind each and every one of you that you are a valuable member of the Organization and that there is no "I" in "TEAM"*

*Note: Management has no comment regarding the fact that there is a "ME" in "TEAM".

Conflict

I refer to my posts this month where I'm either wailing about the disappearance of my mojo or showing off something new.

I'd make claims about stopping, but today's post featuring my 9 hours of stitching over the last 3 days that make up the May Long Weekend showcase both:
I have a new start
And considering that I've previously stitched ~ 30 hours in 4 days, 9 in 4 is a bit of a fall.

I'm not a September baby. I don't think I know anyone who's one. I don't care for my fairy (May), however I think that Mirabilia's newest fairy makes for a pretty good Emerald May.


She's actually titled September's Sapphire Fairy, but I don't see how that fits since (to me) sapphires are blue (except maybe the obi but that's black-blue not sapphire-blue).

I love that green kimono and the blue-black obi. I'm leaving out the wings and haven't made up my mind about the trailing vines/fronds/things.


September's Sapphire Fairy
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan
Since the green kimono is the main attraction I thought I'd get some of the black-blue out of way first. Imagine my shock when it turns out that one of the major colours is 3371, Nora's favourite brown! Not a colour I was expecting! If you squint at the model you can tell that there's brown, but at first glance? No way!


PS. I'm glad so many people are enjoying my giveaway. And if you haven't entered why not?

A Mission

As hinted at previously, I present my 200 followers giveaway. And since I'm in a bit of a silly/funny mood it comes with a mission...

Your mission should you choose to accept it:

1). Go online and find a picture of Prairie Schooler's "Sweeping Cobwebs". Alternatively, check your stash!
2). Look at the rightmost frame and pick your favourite of the six motifs
3). Decide whether you prefer a pincushion, pinkeep/scissors holder, or a small bag
4). Let me know in the comments
5). Feel free to tell anyone you think is interested in playing along

This message will be locked on the 25th of May at 4:37 pm Central Time.

Good luck!

Ponderous Ponderings

Rebekah very generously RAK'd me with "No Late Knight Snacking" a few weeks ago. This is such a cute chart (like all Dragon Dreams) and I can't say enough how much I love this new addition to my stash!


Ages and ages ago Nancy held a giveaway where everyone was a winner. Fast forward to last week(?) where I received these two lovelies in the mail! I just love the one with the birds.


My brief bit of stitching mojo has faded again. This is somewhat worrisome since I have two UFORR pieces that haven't seen a stitch. One's due to go out at the end of the month. That's still two weeks, but the way my stitching's been going?

This hasn't stopped me from planning a few more projects...As of now I have the following fully kitted and ready to start:
Egyptian Sampler - TWDesignworks
Deco Spirits - Mirabilia
Lily of the Valley - Nora Corbett
Cinderella - Mirabilia
Celtic Autumn - Lavender and Lace
Cirque des Triangles - Ink Circles
Cirque des Carreaux - Ink Circles

And when the charts arrive I'll have "Sweeping Cobwebs" by Prairie Schooler and "September's Sapphire Fairy" by Mirabilia ready to go as well.

Anyone up for a SAL? A semi-serious one with a prize for the winner? We can try to mutually inspire each other. Any of the kitted ones (except Celtic Autumn) or if we've got a WIP in common? I need some sort of boot to prod me...

New Things

On the day that I feel like grabbing a needle and starting something new Blogger goes down. There's some sort of lesson in that.


Namaste
32ct white Lugana
Originally I was planning on stitching this on a linen band so that finishing would be easy. Then I realized that I had to special order in the linen, or that I could just use part of a fat quarter and sew it finished.The quicker way won.

The plan is to stitch all the black first and then finish off motif by motif.

It's About Time

No, the mojo is still MIA. I'm talking about my last giveaway (that one in January), which I finally assembled and sent out last month.

Add in that Kathy had completely forgotten that she'd won, and my note had gotten buried...


That's actually the first pincushion I've ever made. It's dead easy and I'll definitely be making more.


You can't really tell but the back has a pocket.


Making this was an interesting experience and I'm very glad Kathy likes it (she has a ton more pictures on her blog) and I definitely learned a lot which will be useful, since I see that I have 200 followers.

TUSAL May

When the mojo is slow and you aren't really looking at any blogs it's just a lucky chance if you remember the New Moon;)

April Achievements & May Goals

Goals for April:
1. Finish and mail out Kathy's winnings. Done, now if CP would only deliver...
2. Stitch on the UFO RR Done.
3. Finish Compassion Done.
4. Finish Cool Christmas Done.
5. Stitch a themed small for my pinkeep collection Considering I've only finished 1 of 12, maybe this plan isn't working out so well...
6. Stitch Butterfly Bellpull Technically I did stitch for about 15 minutes before I scrapped it.

Unplanned things:
1. Undid Butterfly Bellpull since it didn't interest me anymore
2. Started Crimson Cross 2

Goals for May:
1. Start something new.
2. Stitch on both UFO RRs

This month started out very well, and then I lost my blogging/commenting mojo last week. My stitching mojo has slowed down, but it is still alive.

Fewer goals for next month since I'm waffling about exactly what I want to do.

A Way That Works

Since finishing Something Wicked I've felt like working on just about all my WIPs. So a quick touch-everything rotation may in order.

I started Autumn Winds last February, but didn't get too much done. As it can out:

When I put it away:


Autumn Winds
28ct antique white Lugana
I think the main problem was trying to figure out how to tackle her. I know lots of folks go block by block for HAEDs. I though about doing that but I find that there's always one or two stitches in the next block and the block after and it seems silly not to just finish those off too and within a few symbols I'm wandering all over the place.

But I've come up with a strategy that works:
I pick one 10x10 square.
I pick one symbol.
I highlight every instance of that symbol I think I can reach without making a counting mistake regardless of how many blocks this traverses.
After I've stitched that symbol I colour it in with a different colour highlighter.
Then I go back to my original block and pick another symbol.
Repeat until all the symbols in that block are done.
Then I look for the next block that has an unstitched symbol and go on.

This way I get to wander all over and still finish things off block by block. As of right now I have 4 blocks done, and since there's only so much over one I can do without going crazy it's time for something else.

I think I'm going to grab How Does Your Garden Grow (in the Dark)? and see if I can figure out what blues I want to use...

Wicked Enjoyment

A brief frustration with symbol confusion drove me away from Spring Queen. Let's just say that the symbol key has an upside down triangle and a right side up triangle and leave it at that.

I switched over to Something Wicked with the vague idea of finishing off the text...and just finished the whole thing.


While I think this spiderweb is adorable, I wonder how a shoe that is being worn can gather it! I guess it's just magic.


I'd like to once more express my love for these cool stripy socks! IRL all my socks are the exact same black one. I bought out every pack in the store. No need to match and it doesn't matter if the laundry monster eats one ;)


In the real world spiders give me a start and while I don't head for the nearest weapon, I prefer to keep my distance. However I adore cartoon spiders and enjoy looking at spiders that are separated from me by glass/cage/etc. I am also very pleased that they have the correct number of limbs!

Title	Something Wicked
Designer	La D Da
Start date	March 19, 2011
Finish date	April 21, 2011
Total time	18.25 hours
Fabric	32 ct Peach Whisper Belfast lugana
Floss	I used the provided DMC conversion

How Things Change

First off let me just say that I am shocked, shocked that it's already the third weekend of the fourth month of the year! Seems like it was Christmas just yesterday.

I initially pulled out Butterfly Bellpull since I was planning on finishing it this month, but two hours of struggling with the too-stiff fabric and the realization that I can live without this design later, I frogged the whole thing. This is a momentous occasion since this is the first piece that I've started and then unstarted. Previously I just hoarded everything by saying "The right time will come". Perhaps there is hope for me yet!

I decided to put a few stitches into Spring Queen...which turned into several hours with her. For some unknown reason I really feel like working on her so the plan is to keep on going.


Spring Queen
32 ct White Lugana
In what can only be the universe's absurd sense of humour, we has snowfall yesterday.

Pale Colours

Another UFO RR piece :)

This is Arthenice's (not sure if she has a blog, I haven't managed to find it...) Angel of Spring by Lavender & Lace.

This was an interesting experience, since before I got it I was really looking forward to it. And then I got it and didn't want to stitch on it. Mostly because I had Apache Wedding Blessing arrive almost the same day and it was so much more colourful.

I struggled with the wings. Even though they have lovely venation from afar, close up it just looks all white, so I kept putting it aside. I eventually buckled down and once I got to the ribbon I didn't want to put it down!

Lesson learned: stitch the colours since I enjoy them a lot more!

Other lesson: The L&L angels are not for me. Way too pale. Admittedly only Grace and Hope were vaguely on the list, but since they're mostly white they're departing said list.

As it arrived:


As it goes out:

Questions for More Experience Hands

Having spent a great deal of time coveting round pincushions I decided that since the universe had not mysteriously gifted me with one, I should make it myself. Despite never having seen one in real life I read some tutorials, looked at some pictures and went ahead.


The result is somewhat dubious and raises some questions I'm hoping someone out there can answer:

1. How do I get the seam to be the same size? I'm having trouble since it's not a straight line but a curve.

2. How do I get the arc of the circle to be smoother? So that it actually looks round instead of having bits that stick out?

3. Is there any way to get rid of those puckers or do all round pincushions have them?

Any other tips to make it look better?

I've already learnt that I need a much longer piece of thread to wind around if I want the pincushion to be divided into sixths.

Overthinking Things

This is one design I knew I had to stitch as soon as I saw it making the rounds last year. Cool Christmas, found in the 2010 JCS Christmas preview. I'd never heard of the designer, Fresh Thread Studios before and they don't seem to have a home page, just a Facebook one...

I really like the non-traditional colours of this piece. But part of the overthinking is the realization that that sun is too big! There is no way a sun shining from behind a tree can be that big.


And those are some massive presents, specially the skinny ones since they're half the size of a tree. (Or the tree is really tiny, but when you take into consideration the size of the sun...)


But it still adds up to a cute finish.

Title	Cool Christmas
Designer	Fresh Threads Studio
Start date	March 27, 2011
Finish date	April 10, 2011
Total time	9 hours
Fabric	32 ct White lugana
Floss	DMC as charted, except for 3848 in place of 3812

Are Those Canadian Geese?

First installment of yet another UFO RR.

This is Measi's Apache Wedding Blessing designed by Sandy Orton for Janlynn.

The repetition of the border was very soothing and the changes in the feathers/stones wasn't too bad. I did my standard hours on it and finished a ton more than I ever imagined!

As it arrived:


As it goes out

TUSAL April

Ack, I almost forgot. And after a day filled with TUSAL posts too!

Red Dragon

So I eventually solved my mini slump with most of the suggestions offered. I took a short break. I bought some stash. I started two smalls.

I just finished off Dragon Dreams' newest freebie Compassion. I think I'll also stitch up Hope and hang them together.

As always, before backstitching:

And after:

Title	Compassion
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	March 28, 2011
Finish date	April 2, 2011
Total time	10.75 hours
Fabric	32 ct White lugana
Floss	As charted, except that I switched the Kreinik to #28

March Achievements & April Goals

Goals for March:
1. Finish and mail out Kathy's winnings!!! Soon, Kathy. I promise.
2. Stitch on the UFO RR About 2 hours each.
3. Finish Celtic Spring No. Issues with deciding the purple metallic
4. Stitch a themed small for my pinkeep collection No for the second month in a row. This themed pinkeep plan isn't doing too well.
5. Stitch on The Runekeeper Saga Finished it too!

Unplanned things:
1. Started Something Wicked
2. Started Cool Christmas
3. Started Compassion

Goals for April:
1. Finish and mail out Kathy's winnings.
2. Stitch on both UFO RRs
3. Finish Compassion
4. Finish Cool Christmas
5. Stitch a themed small for my pinkeep collection
6. Stitch Butterfly Bellpull

The start of March was excellent, what with Runekeeper Saga being finished, but I lost my steam towards the end. I think it's because I can't find a good audiobook... In April I will be between jobs, so tons of time (most of which will go towards finishing up a bunch of online classes) but there should be lots of time to stitch. Crossed fingers...

BORED!

SO BORED!!!

I haven't felt like stitching a thing this week. Spring Queen is beige, I can't figure out what purple I want for Celtic Spring, there's too much black in Something Wicked, Why Hoard Gold? has Marlitt threads, the blue and grey from How Does Your Garden Grow (In The Dark)? look the same, Autumn Winds is over 1, etc etc!

So I dragged out my charts and stared at them all. Then I threw them all back in the drawer.

So I thought I'd start something new (again). But nothing I had kitted appealed to me. I don't want to start Celtic Autumn since I haven't finished Spring. I don't want to start another Mirabilia. I really don't want to start a Teresa Wenztler. I don't have any small pieces of leftover fabric suitable for a small. I don't want to cut into any of my larger pieces of fabric in case I find a larger design that might fit onto them.

Maybe I'll go to the store and kit something else up and not start that either.