Slow Sunday Stitching - February 16, 2025

 Made good progress on all three of my needlework projects this week.   I'm keeping up with the 'stitch a day' Temperature Stitches, and I will do a picture of it at the first of next month.

The Mead Dragon is also looking good.  I did 1,704 stitches this week, for a monthly total of 3,199 and 42,520 / 94,500 for the project.  That's right at 45%

And where I was last week for comparison.  Everything down to row 142 is complete, more wing and more on the dragon's legs.

The last of the Timberline Santas from Mill Hill is also moving right along.   I got his coat collar, head and cap done, also the white bird and squirrel (except for the french knot eyes - those will go in just before the beading).   Ready to start the tree and sled.

Linking up with the SSS crew (weekly link party here).

Slow Sunday Stitching - February 9, 2025

As promised last week, here's the new Santa.   This is the last of the Timberline Santas; it's the "Norway Spruce Santa".   I'm really looking forward to the beading on this one, his coat has a diamond brocade in beads and the ropes on the sled and tree look like a lot of fun!  This is still more of a "TV time" than a "travel time" project.  I'm just not driving all that much this winter.  

The other project that I'm working on steadily is my Mead Dragon full coverage piece.   Art is by Stanley Morrison, charted by Paine Free Crafts.  It's at 40,776 / 94,500 or 43.15%.  1,455 stitches so far this month.

Where I was last week for comparison.  You can see I got a bit more done on the right-side background, quite a bit of wing fill-in and more of the back hip.  Also did a day's worth of black under the collar area.   I'm still using the typewriter method to choose what color to work on next.  Everything is completed down though row 136.  The wing is odd; there's a lot of confetti, so sometimes when you have a single stitch up higher on the wing, working out the thread gets you 'ahead of yourself' by quite a bit.   But I figure 'all stitching needs completed', so it doesn't really matter where or how I work.   I've seen people work on full coverage in all sorts of ways - strict blocks, diagonal blocks, cross country, complete one color at a time extreme cross country.

Linking up with the SSS crew for the weekly link roundup.

Slow Sunday Stitching - February 2, 2025

Another short update this week - today is both a 'bells play' and a 'read the lessons' week.  I did NOT plan that out well at all!

I did finish and FFO the Douglas Fir Santa (link to the finish post) and got a start on the next one - the Norway Spruce Santa.  This is the third and final Tiimberline Santa from Mill Hill.   I basically just got the floss sorted and the center of the paper set up, so I'll share a picture of it next week when there is something to look at!

And the first month of the "Temperature Stitches" by Sarah, Stitching Mommy is done.  January's specialty stitch was Queen Stitch, which is one of my favorite stitches.  It's very impressive either as a solid filling stitch or as individual stitches like this:

And what the entire project looks like to date:

In addition to keeping up with the one temperature stitch each day and whatever "travel and TV" stitching I manage; my main focus this month will be on Full Coverage February.  I won't post every day like I did last year.  With all the confetti stitches in the background of the Mead Dragon, it's rather slow going and you can't really see the difference a couple hundred stitches even makes!  But I am planning to report each week.  And here is where I'm starting (stats in the January month end post here).

Linking up with the SSS crew (weekly roundup).

Full Coverage Month End Report - January 2025 and Full Coverage February plans

 My Full Coverage pattern is Mead Dragon - art by Stanley Morrison, charting by Paine Free Crafts.

As of the end of January, I have been working on this pattern for exactly one year.  I am 41.61% complete, with 39,322 / 94,500 stitches completed.   The chart down to Row 130 is totally completed.  The green basting is the halfway point at Row 175.

I am stitching this one over one (full cross) on 28 count EZ grid evenweave using the charted DMC colors.

Where I was at the end of December to compare.   I worked on background and wing fill in, plus there's a bit of the back hip starting to make an appearance.  I added 3,230 stitches this month.

Next month is the start of what is usually Full Coverage February.   Collette is having some health issues that impact her stitching, so she won't be doing the full-on event that she's hosted the last few years.   Since I only have one full coverage piece, I wasn't able to do the acrostic or other multi-project challenges, so I'm OK with that.  Like last year, I'm going to concentrate on putting in as many stitches on this project as I can during the month.

I will commit to continuing my "Temperature Stitches" with one specialty stitch each day.  (I'll show it on Sunday since January will be done then.  Each day logs the prior days official high temp.)  I'd also like to put in enough time on the crewel eagle project that I can finish ten hours during the month to complete the first round of my rotation.  But the dragon will be worked on every day for as much time as I can possibly find.

FINISHED NEEDLEWORK: "Timberline Santas: Douglas Fir" by Mill Hill

 Second of the three "Timberline Santa" perforated paper kits by Mill Hill. Designed by Sandra Cozzolino.  I love the little bunny on this one.  So cute.

Next up is the last of the three Santas in this series.  I got these kits for Christmas in 2023 and it will be nice to have all of them on my tree in December. 

This was also my first call for WIPGO for January (#11 - finish an ornament)

Slow Sunday Stitching - January 26, 2025 AND Needlework Changeover for 2025 Rotation #1, Slot #2 (Modern)

 

Very short update today.  While I have been stitching, I've been very scattered, so not much progress on any one thing.   I AM going to call the KC Plaza Stitching Bag done for this rotation.  I just have the last bit of the last half of the last repeat of the border motif yet to do.   I'll get that finished up this afternoon, but it's already noon where I live, and I didn't want to wait to post.  I'm already five hours later than usual!

Keeping up on the daily temperature piece (one specialty stitch per day) and the full coverage dragon.  I'll report on both of those projects next week.   And I'm on the last color of beads on the Santa ornament that is my travel and TV project.  Look for an FO (and hopefully FFO) on that this coming week, too.

Also did a lot of reorganizing around the house, but that means that everything was chaos for a while.  Dela did not approve; she kept sniffing each item and pile and tried to swipe anything that was soft and fuzzy to take into her crate bed.   I think I need to get her some soft toys and see if she will leave them intact(ish).  She likes to chew on bones and rawhides, so that's what I've been giving her so far.  Balls, by the way, were a total fail.   Like I said - she has no idea about how to be a dog yet.  We are getting there, though.

Linking up with the SSS crew.  (Weekly Roundup)

Slow Sunday Stitching - January 19, 2025

Winter weather is still here, with snow on the ground despite a couple of above freezing days this week.   It's going to be bitter today and tomorrow.  The low overnight is supposed to be -5 degrees F / -20 degrees C; that's cold no matter how you measure it!  So, I'm still more or less hibernating ⛄❄❆.

However, hibernation leads to good stitching results.

The travel/TV watching Mill Hill Santa is ready for beads.  All the stitching, including the bits of embroidery, is done.   There are more stitches in one of these than I realized.   I put this pattern into Pattern Keeper (with the limited functionality since it was a photo scan) and it has 1760 stitches to this point.  I can't wait to see how the beading finishes it off.

The other major project is still the KC Plaza Sewing Bag; I'm working on the border on the second side.   Five border repeats for each side of the bag and I'm just starting the third one on this side (8 of 10 overall).  

I've been keeping up on the daily temperature piece and the '100 stitches a day' goal on the Mead Dragon, so look for an update on both of those in two weeks.  

Linking up with the SSS crew as usual (current roundup is here).