2012 WIPocalypse-The January Edition

WIPocalypse-January Edition

2012 has gotten off to a very slow start for me, at least in the needleworking/crafting portion of my life. But my mojo has finally kicked in and I found myself working on Sarah Elizabeth Brooke from The Scarlett House. My intentions had been for this project to my last finish for 2011 and as you can see I was no where close on December 31st. I had also thought that my needlework would be less wrinkledy in 2012 but my iron has gone missing so I stretched and flattened as much as I could. I am stitching Sarah Elizabeth using DMC and the Crescent Colours conversion for the grass area.

Sarah Elizabeth Brooke

The Scarlett House

DMC & Crescent Colours

36ct Vintage Light Examplar

A new start for 2012, in an attempt to get more seasonal stitching accomplished, is Prairie Schooler's February:

February

Prairie Schooler

DMC

32ct Lambswool

Not much progress but I still have a good bit of time before February 1st.

I hope everyone has a very successful year of stitching and success can mean finishing that BAP or squeezing in a few stitches whenever there's a quiet moment.

Thanks to Measi and Measi's Musings » WIPocalypse: Basic Info I hope to make significant progress on many older projects and add some new into the mix. I also hope the challenge encourages me to blog a bit more in 2012.

Keep your fingers crossed that my iron shows up between now and my next post which hopefully won't be a month away.

Gettin' Freaky With Fancey

Earlier this month I finished Pineberry Lane's Fancey Blackett and the Harvest Dance. I love Fancey. She's embracing nature, the squirrels, and just celebrating the joy of the harvest season. I imagine her kitchen is well stocked with herbs for the cauldron and her witch's brew. It's a cozy place, fire going, the scent of sage in the air, a nice harvest stew bubbling on the back of the stove, her Book of Shadows open on the rustic table, bread rising on the counter, and cat or two or five curled up in nooks around the large room. And Fancey, why she's excited waiting on her friends to drop by so they can celebrate the Turn of the Wheel and sharing a Blessed Samhain.

Fancey Blackett and the Harvest Dance

Pineberry Lane

mystery linen-I think it's a 30ct R&R

DMC

I also had another finish this month, Hands To Work's My Beloved Tennessee. I've been feeling a bit homesick recently and this chart called to me. Even though I spent most of my life trying to get out of Tennessee, it's home, it's where you will find all my family and occaisionally I miss it so much it hurts. I love Florida but over the last couple of years I realize more and more that I will never be a true Florida girl, I will always be a Tennessean.

My Beloved Tennessee

Hands to Work

32ct antique white linen aged by me

DMC

Future Projects

With the beginning of the 2011 holiday season my mind is drawn to 2012 and all the projects I hope to start and WIP I want to finish. 2011 so far as been a bit of a fail. I haven't had near as much stitching time as I would like and my project finishes have been few and far between. I know it's not a race but there are so many things I want to stitch, I want to "Stitch all the things!" Totally taken from this Hyperbole and a Half post, scroll down to see "Clean all the things!"

Hyperbole and a Half: This is Why I'll Never be an Adult

These days I spend a good bit of time sorting through charts, making lists of future projects, supplies needed, and then squealing when I've kitted something up and it's sitting there waiting on me to put in that sacred first stitch.

There are so many people that don't understand the call of needle, thread, fabric, and a crisp new chart, I feel very sorry for them but then again they may not understand why sticking to the kitchen floor doesn't bother me in the least and they just love the smell of Pinesol and Soft Scrub. Hmmm, no I still feel sorry for them. Give me a comfy spot and some good solid hoop time and I'm a happy girl. I do get concerned at times that one day I'm going to wander into the kitchen for a little snack and the floor will refuse to give me up. Now that I think about it maybe I should keep that bottle of Pinesol within reach.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Halloween. May your pumpkin patch be sincere and may the Great Pumpkin shower you with gifts.

She Blogs!

I think I remember how to do this thing called "blogging". Over the last few months I kind of ran out of things to say here on the blog. Do you ever think "that blogging thing is kind of pointless" I think I just felt I didn't have much to contribute so opted out for a bit. You know a summer hiatus, I love that word, so very tv.

I have been doing some stitching. Not as much stitching as I would like but my current project is The Scarlett House's Sarah Elizabeth Brooke. I've been dying to stitch this since Tanya acquired the sampler. My great grandmother is Sarah Elizabeth and Brook without the "e" is a family name. I was destined to stitch this sweet sampler.

I got a new camera and am still learning. Michelle is right, the best camera in the world is no help if you don't have an eye for the shot. I kept these simple and used the light box the spousal unit put together for me a few weeks ago.
I decided to go with DMC instead of Belle Soie so my sampler is a little different than the one you see pictured on the chart. I wanted to start Sarah sooner rather than later so I pulled the DMC, unkitted a piece of 36ct vintage light examplar, and jumped right in.

I did tweak the DMC conversion a touch. The flowers in the border are stitched with DMC 304 instead of 3721. I wanted a deeper red and I'm very happy with the 304.

I also swapped out the color for the house. Instead of DMC 355, I decided to go with DMC 347. Again I wanted my bricks just a little redder.

It's been so long since I blogged, I do believe all pictures can be clicked on to make bigger.

I tent or half cross stitched the verse. It was such a relief to discover that the over 1 in a half cross is not a nightmare. I've had Jane Atkinson in progress since 2009 I believe and part of the reason I quit working on her was the over 1 verse. I just couldn't face it, the thought of it made me sick to my stomach. But thanks to Sarah and just doing it, I can now face over 1 but only as a half cross. I think if I were forced by the stitching police to do a full cross at this time, I'd just have to stick my needle in my eye.




Last weekend Tropical Storm Lee dropped in for a visit. He came bearing(baring?) the gift of much needed rain. He was also kind enough to stagger the showers that there wasn't even a lot of flooding around here. I could go for a few more weekends just like that. I like being in the house. No guilt about not going anywhere, I'm actually being a good citizen by staying home. Really!

Here are some boats in the mists. OK the ghost boats are really in the pouring down rain but I love the eerie feel. Ghost Pirates! Check out South Park's Halloween Ghost Pirates episode with KORN. One of my favs. I think you can view it at South Park. If not there, then I'm pretty sure it's on Netflix.

Here are some surfers. I don't normally criticize surfers for surfing during a storm because that's their thing. But I noticed the guy in the middle was kind of teaching the chick here on the left. And sorry dude, a tropical storm, even one as whimpy as Lee is not the time or the place to teach someone to surf.

That's about all the news from the Redneck Riviera. I have a few more projects going and maybe I'll have a finish in a few days. Or maybe not!

Thanks for reading!

The Happs

The title is kind of misleading as not much is going on around here. But I did make this cover for my Nook: The Original Padded Nook/ Nook COLOR/ New by BirdifulStitches I highly recommend this pattern. The directions were easy to follow, any wonkiness or poor quality is all on me.

Nell, my Nook, stored in her handmade padded cover. Much nicer than the tacky crochet thing I whipped out when I first got her.
These are the pockets. I made a few mistakes but it had nothing to do with the pattern or the instructions. It had every thing to do with my sewing machine being possessed and I think I told it to "Suck My D___". Use your imagination. It's one of my favorite lines from The Hangover and as the Spousal Unit says, "It's funny because I'm a girl". Of course, the sewing machine, every the nasty ho, told me it was thinking about getting it's bartender's license. I know makes no sense but I was terribly frustrated that day because of an uncooperative piece of machinery.

Here's the full frontal view of the inside of my Nook case. I'm so glad I finally got around to making this. I've had the pattern forever. I'll make another one as I figured out my machine issues and am more comfortable with the process.

I've been working here and there on my WR2107 Pokey Dots Throw. I'm attaching blocks as I make them. Sure it slows down the fun part, the block making, but when I'm done, I'm done, well I'll have to add edging but the blocks will all be together. No hours and hours of putting them together when I'm already sick of it.

This is my progress such that it is on Lisi Sloboda 1828 - Cross Stitch Pattern. Sorry my pic isn't better Margaret. I'll take another one when I add a few more colors. I'm converted the DMC to HDF and decided I'd use those instead of the WDWs as charted.

All crafting has been slowed considerably due to the stack of books you see in the pic above. Our library system has it's kinks. Sometimes you can request 20 books and they come in one at a time weeks apart, other times you get all of them at the same time. That's what happened to me. I'm trying to read through this stack as fast as possible. I don't enjoy pressure reading and it's my one complaint about the library but what does one expect for $0.

We have been in the middle of a major drought. Storms reach the Florida/Alabama border and run north instead of east. These clouds were a happy sight last Saturday. I hope I was able to catch the weird bright green of the water. I honestly can't tell on this old computer.

Hope everyone is enjoying these early days of summer. Thanks for stopping by!

Cool Waves and Dark Waters

I've had a productive day or two. I managed to finish crocheting an afghan started many months ago. Just in time to welcome in Summer. DOH! I also pulled out a HAED project, Dark Waters. I'm actually stitching a triptyche of art, but started with the bottom piece, Dark Waters, an ocean of mermaids, there's a center which is just water and sky and the top piece is a sky full of angels. Not a lot of progress on Dark Waters, I'm trying to fill in areas of confetti which is wonderful for the detail of the piece but doesn't really show much for several hours of stitching. But I love this art and it's going to be freakin' awesome when completed. If it's ever completed that is.

Here's my Cool Waves throw stitched with the same exact colors as in the magazine because I'm unimaginative that way, actually I love these colors and I had them all right here in the stash so I went with what worked. Please ignore where Pineapple the cat has clawed up my wicker. She's evil. This pattern is from a Crochet Today special issue, Quick and Easy Gifts. The yarn is good old Red Heart.

I have more afghans planned, some using the exact colors from the magazines because I'm trying to deplete the Red Heart stash and mostly because I happen to like the colors the original design was created with. I suck at the color thing, when I attempt my own interpretation it's usually catastrophic, at least to whom ever is unfortunate enough to gaze upon it.

This is my current progress on Dark Waters. I love the detail in the fish to her left. That makes the confetti stitching so worth it. Yes, my fabric is dirty and believe me, over the next ten years of stitching on this I suspect it will get even more dirty. Such is the life of a slow work in progress.

Have you seen Tanya's new designs? Head over to The Scarlett House and show her the love! They are wonderful!

Hope everyone is able to spend many hours with the little X this weekend! Especially the Americans who have a long weekend, that's 24 extra stitching hours!

What are your stitching plans?

M. R. M.

Or Mouline Rouge Monday:

Mouline Rouge

Long Dog

40ct Lambswool Linen

DMC 498

This sampler was started years and years ago. I love it and can't really say why I haven't been showing it love all this time, ok, I've got the attention span of a gnat and other more exciting projects screamed louder. It kept getting bumped lower and lower in the WIP pile and was forgotten. I have to say I'm lovin' my Mondays spent with this sampler. It's a nice change from what I normally stitch and it's entirely possible I'll finish page one next week.

My rotation as it stands now is:

Monday- Mouline Rouge

Tuesday-Miss Lila

Wednesday-Heaven and Earth Designs, I have several going and I miss them.

Thursday-Wild Card-Anything Goes Jane Atkinson Reproduction Sampler(another one started several years ago),Abécédaire Berthe Dupont - 18 Trésors de boites à couture Trésors de boites , Lisi Sloboda 1828 - Cross Stitch Pattern and any other number of projects that I have started and strikes my fancy.

Friday-Freebie Friday I'm working on a free sampler from a French site, Berthe Dupont:

Le site des Trésors de boîtes à couture click on blog, and check out Berthe Dupont, there should be the most recent part on the first page(or see link above) I am also participating in HAED Freebie SAL, working on QS Curl Up With a Good Book and the half year SAL is about to begin and I will be stitching SK Rapunzel.
Saturday/Sunday-Sonne Spotte

So far this is holding my interest. There's enough variety to keep me entertained and it's loose enough that I can pull out other projects and mix it up a bit.

Also On My Mind:

Crochet. I've fallen in love with several designs from this book:

Lily: Pattern Book Preview - Bright Ideas

My friend Pam scored it for me at Hobby Lobby, yay, to not having to order online!

I want to make some cushions for the wicker on the front porch and I'm loving the Sunburst pillow, the Hexagon Pillow, the Graphic Pillow, and the Pinwheel. I also want to make the rug for the area inside my front door. I'd call it an entry way but it's basically a 3x3 hunk of linolium. I'm thinking I'll do the background in brown and make the dots yellow, orange, lime and aqua. Would love to do the white but I'd have to wash it every five minutes. It would be brown before the first day is over, so I'll start out with where it would end up anyway. I have a huge bucket of Sugar & Cream and Peaches and Cream and all kinds of kitchen cotton so I can do a stash dive for supplies. I'm kind of wanting to order some of Knit Picks Dishie(Dishie Yarn Knitting Yarn from KnitPicks.com). But I have way too much kitchen cotton in the garage to order any at the moment.

Anyone watching Game of Thrones on HBO? OMG we look forward to Sunday nights so much now. I didn't expect the Spousal Unit to like it, it's not his normal show but he's addicted more than me. We discussed downloading the HBOGO app on the computer so that we could watch next week's show early and decided that if we did that we wouldn't have anything to look forward to next Sunday. I'm also listening to the book from Audible.com. For every four hours of TV show, I'm listening to about 9 hours of book.

Hope everyone is doing well and getting lots of stitching done!

Tuesdays With Miss Lila

Or Revisiting the Whole Rotation Thing

I'm not much of a rule girl. I follow them because that's what one is supposed to do and it only took one ticket for not wearing a seatbelt to make me buckle up(but it still annoys me that in Florida people on motorcycles can choose not to wear a helmet but me, in a car surrounded by metal, am forced to wear a seatbelt and I don't want to hear all the benefits, I get it but I think helmets should be required on motorcycles if I have to be attached to my car, just sayin'). Anyway, I have started a new rotation that I don't expect to last very long because I'm a rebel at heart but if I can get some time in on each of these projects for a just a little while before breaking my own rules I might see some genuine progress.

Tuesdays are for CHS Miss Lila's House. I have an Aunt Lila and you'll be hearing more about her later on. Yeah, I know you are all on the edge of your seats!

Miss Lila's House

Carriage House Samplings

32ct black linen dyed by moi

DMC

I'm so very ashamed of the stitching you see below:

I have frogged this area four times. I have changed hoops, tried stitching in hand, used a Qsnap. Nothing will make this area look nice. The little X is going funky on me here. I am now referring to this house as the Amityville house. I'm pretty sure I'm going to wake up any morning and find it surrounded by flies. Check out the Amityville Horror movie if you don't know what I'm talking about.

I will admit that this linen is a cheap 32ct that I dyed myself, it's obvious that I got exactly what I paid for. I plan to frog one more time and also switch to DMC that hasn't been bobbined, just in case that is the cause of all my woe. I do love this piece, because as I mentioned I have an Aunt Lila, my Mamaw's oldest sister, so she is technically my great aunt and I loved her a lot.

Has anyone else ever had this problem when stitching 2x2? I can't remember a time when I have struggled this much trying to get the little X to cooperate.