2011 WIP Challenge

I decided to try to the up for a challenge WIP challenge this year. Only I'm tweaking it a bit and only starting out with six projects. If I complete these six by June 21st I will then add six more to the stack, once those six are completed, I'll see what three projects look promising for end of year finishes. I always start challenges and SALs with so much hope. This year I'm being realistic. I have pictures of my first three WIP, the weather has been much too dreary here to take pictures of the other three. So I wanted to post this now before I changed my mind and when I post again I will have the most current pictures of all six projects, and maybe have my full fifteen projects decided upon. This is Jane Atkinson by the Scarlet Letter. According to my records this piece was last photographed on February 23, 2009. I love Jane, truly, madly, deeply and would love to finish her early this year. Not sure that will happen, that over 1 verse is a killer. I'm stitching Jane on 36ct Flax linen and using good old DMC. The colors are much brighter than what you see in the picture which is part of Jane's charm.

Above you see Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie. I had hoped to finish this project before the end of this year but as you can see that ain't happening. I know I have stitched more on this block but can't seem to find a picture. This photo was snapped on July 28, 2010. I'm stitching Black'd Skie on 40ct Vintage Pear and using the Pure Palette Silks. They are awesome to stitch with.

And Long Dog's Sonne Spotte Rounds out my top three. I'm using a mix of GAST and DMC and stitching on 36ct creme brulee I believe. This picture was taken on April 15, 2009.

The other three projects that will be seeing lots of action the first part of 2011 are Handwork's Frances Eden, Scarlet Letter's Emma Lerch and Long Dog's Moulin Rouge.

I'm looking forward to this WIP challenge and hope I can keep up my mojo and get these projects completed by June. Unless something unforseen happens I can see this as a very reasonable goal.

Ye've Plundered My Heart(with apologies to Sue Hillis)

On Sunday I started cutting out all the different red fabrics I've been gathering up for the past year or so, one fat 1/4 here, one fat 1/4 there and I ended up with a pile of 4 inch squares and some 4 1/2 or 5 inch strips. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do with the strips. I'm thinking maybe a pillow or two. Or if I don't have enough squares I can cut them up for more. Yes I'm aware that some of the reds clash, I was just buying the odd red fat 1/4 not really paying attention to the reds actually matching, if they don't work in this quilt I'll find another use for them, really. The fabric will not go to waste! Once my wrist feels a little better after the hours of rotary cutting I'll tackle my white fabrics. I have some skull and cross bone fabrics in red, black and gray and the intention was to sneak the odd block in on the quilt, hence the quilt name, "Ye've Plundered My Heart" totally ripped off from the Sue Hillis cross stitch design of the same name. I may still add one sneaky skull block just to add some quirkiness to the top but I'm thinking that the skull and cross bone fabrics might be good for the back of the quilt. I can pick up more between now and when I get to that point so I might just have a patchwork work back of assorted skulls. Yeah, I'm 12, OK.

In the cross stitch department I started The Primitive Needle's Salem Remembered:

And from the Island of UFOs I picked up Sonne Spotte. Sorry the picture isn't any better. Next time I'll just focus on the area of stitching I'm focused on.

That's it from here. Next time maybe a quilt top, or not!

Hard Core

There are times when chocolate cake for breakfast is the only reason to get out of bed:

The craziness of the past week just dissolves into a gooey chocolate faint, faded, just on the tip of your tongue memory. The best place to hide the crazy:

One version of the recipe for the Texas Sheet Cake can be found here:

The Pioneer Woman Cooks!: The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever.

This cake has been a family favorite for years and it's truly the best chocolate cake ever!

Monday, a week ago, I got some bad family news. The phone call that my dad was in ICU. Prognosis was not good. (He's home now, so things weren't as bad as everyone thought). In the mailbox I found a package:

Inside was this very wicked cool pincushion from Kwilty Kim--Threadheads Unite! Does she rock or what? It really brightened a very dark couple of days. Thanks Kim, I am so honored! By the way Happy Birthday!

The new pincushion will get its maiden voyage on the Dresden Plate quilt I plan to start piecing pretty soon from the assorted fabrics you see below.

Here's my progress as of today on Blackbird Designs Beneath the Sunlit Sky:

I'm waiting on GAST Antique Rose and Grape Leaf.


Here's a Sonne Spotte update:

I'm truly, madly, deeply in love with this bit of needlework. It's joy, plain and simple. Yes, I'm a dork but I don't care. I tried to take some close up shots of the splashes of color but the sun was too bright and no matter where I stood my shadow seemed to cover it up. I gave up. Trust me it's unbelieveably beautiful.



This big guy has set up housekeeping in the tree outside my kitchen window. The web runs from tree to ground. Lives in a mansion of a web let me tell ya. There would have been a photo of the web but one morning at 4am while attempting to quietly chase the dog I ran right through it. I guess I'm lucky the critter doesn't now live in my hair. ICK!

Scary Friday the 13th!

Okay Friday the 13th isn't so scary, you haven't met my kids! Tonight we are doing the whole Friday the 13th movie marathon. I bet we're the only ones that thought of that!


Old School:

The other day I went to the library in search of some fresh audiobooks. What I found on the shelves were all the books they had on tape. Fine with me but my family was going nuts with me blaring them from the home stereo. I decided to dig around in the garage and see if I could find my old Sony Walkman. No where to be found. I must have trashed it when I discovered the joy that is the iPOD. So I pop into the store who shall not be named in search of a cassette walkman. I felt a lot like Brendan Fraser's character, Adam, from the movie
Blast from the Past (1999). Believe it or not as you can see in the above photo, I found a cassette walkman! Never expected to find one. I was very, very excited. I forgot how much I missed the sound of the tape swooshing through the reels of the cassette player. Comfort let me tell ya.

What was I doing while listening to a book on tape? Why working on Sonne Spotte.

I'm trying to get as much of the outline cross stitching done as along as I can stand it so I can save the filling in for times when I don't want to pay a lot of attention to what I'm stitching. I'm so addicted to this piece of needlework it's just wrong. I don't want to put it down.

I didn't work on it last week because of out of town family visiting. Here are a few random shots:

The child wanted me to take a picture of her with a fry in her mouth. I thought she was Julie the Mermaid but no she's just Laney at dinner. She performed a whole water ballet at the pool where she was Julie the Mermaid, the spousal unit was the evil mermaid monster who turned good when he was under the spell of her powerful mermaid dance. No, really.

Number 1!

My niece said to my middle son as I was taking this picture, "Come on Jack, scoot closer, pretend you like me for a minute!"

Sweetest baby girl in that room!

Inside the Lines

A few days ago I started Long Dog's Sonne Spotte:

Doesn't the picture above look kind of like the page of a coloring book? It's the first thing I thought of as I started outlining the the motifs.

Here's a little taste of color. Not much because the sun was not out the day I took these pictures.

I can see me getting pretty obsessed with this particular piece of needlework. The design is beautiful. Here's a link to the design:

http://europeanxs.com/longdog-/LD20.jpg

And here is a picture of a finished Sonne Spotte. The stitcher is Stitchmaker Lori. Her finished Sonne Spotte made me want to start this ASAP.

Image of Sonne Spotte by Long Dog Stitched using 32 ct magnolia by Lakeside Li

I am stitching mine on 36ct Creme Brulee linen using a mix of Gentle Arts Sampler Threads and DMC. I didn't have all the GAST so instead of waiting to pick up the colors I don't have, I just decided DMC would work just fine.

We've been busy with visiting family this week and having a blast.

I also started Midsummer Night Designs A House by the Sea. I have a made a teeny tiny bit of progress on that. I started it on a whim hoping it would be a quick stitch because I'd like a finish every once in a while.

I'm also getting ready to start the first of 12 Christmas ornaments for an ornament swap this year. I want to get a head start on those, although I really should have started back in January. I was just so over Christmas at that point that the thought of stitching an ornament made me want to puke. Now I'm ready and am going to pull out the JCS Ornament issues and spend a day or two deciding what I want to stitch from those for the swap. Also an excuse to rootle through the stash and see what ornament charts I have forgotten about having.

July 4, 2007

Happy Fourth of July if you are in America, Happy Wednesday whereever else you may find yourself!

My only two patriotic pieces. The pillow was made by Danielle of The Peacock's Feather. I was her swap person for a summer swap on the Needle and Thread BB years ago. This pillow is one of my treasures. The picture, stitched by moi, is Americana by Kathy Barrick-Dieter of

Carriage House Samplings.

That's Polly Prissypants in the background. I thought the pot of flowers might take away from the sand that is my backyard, sand and no beach, that hurts! But because of the heat and our drought, the flowers aren't so perky. Fortunately we seem to have fallen into a weather cycle of the afternoon monsoon, I'm loving it, grass is starting to grow, I haven't had to waste electricity running the sprinkler system. I think it's a waste anyway but my neighbors appreciate the greeness that is part of my lawn, but I've only been running them in the front yard as you can tell from all the sand in the back.

If you're in the USA I hope your day is filled with cookouts, icy cold watermelon, and lots of family love. We have family on the way down from Memphis, they're hoping to arrive before tonight's fireworks specatacular. I'm attempting to get the laundry off the table and kitchen floor mopped.

Coming soon:

Pictures of my current WIP, not 13th Colony Bay for a change but Long Dog's Sonne Spotte. Not familiar with the design, check it out here:

http://europeanxs.com/longdog-/LD20.jpg