Slow Sunday Stitching - January 12, 2025 AND Needlework Changeover for 2025 Rotation #1, Slot #1 (Historic)

We got more snow - a total of 18 inches / 45 cm!  Every time we get more or less shoveled out, we get more winter weather - ice again last night (sigh).  I'm already SO over winter.

Good crafting time though!

I finished up the ten hours on my Blackbird Designs project that's in the Historic slot of my rotation.   "Blessings and Kind Wishes" - Loose Feather's #31.  I got the top three lines of lettering on the left, and the entire wreath on the right top quadrant completed.  I even established the very top of the right-side zigzag border.

And where I started this rotation for comparison.  (Fabric color is truer in the picture below).

Next time up, I'll do the scene of the storks on their nest inside the wreath and try to do the center line of the lettering with the clusters of eyelet grapes on both the ends. There's a lot more stitching in this little sampler than it first appears, and that's not even considering the house that fills the bottom right corner entirely!

Next up is the Plaza Sewing Bag - the upper border on the second side.  The first side took about 15 hours, so I expect this round will take about the same - maybe a bit less because the basting is already done on this side.   Each repeat of the border scrollwork motif is indicated by the vertical yellow basting.  I've got nearly an hour in on this round; rice stitch is SLOW!

I've kept up so far on both the 'temperature stitch a day' and the goal of 100 stitches per day on Mead Dragon.  There won't be pictures on those until the end of the month, but at least there's some small progress every day.

The travel project got another movie and a couple of episodes of Murdoch Mysteries; I should probably just acknowledge it as the winter 'TV watching project' since I'm not driving in the mess outside unless I absolutely must - therefore no actual 'travel' stitching has occurred!  It is now at 1,300 stitches.   The bottom half up to the scarf is done other than beads and a few detail stitches.  Next up - Santa gets the rest of his scarf, a head, and a hat!  Then there is the tree he is carrying and a bird perched atop it.

Linking up with the SSS crew (this week's roundup is here).  Dela and I are hunkered down and enjoying the snow days.   Though she doesn't think highly of the snowplows; they were working on our street last night and she woke me up barking at the noise and had appropriated the bed in the time I walked out to the living room to see what was going on😏.

Slow Sunday Stitching - January 5, 2025

It wasn't a white Christmas Eve, but the Twelfth Day of Christmas sure is!   The Midwest US has a winter storm in progress.   Further west, there's a blizzard, but here we got about a half inch (a bit over a cm) of ice first with 'freezing rain and winter mix" most of the day yesterday.  There's about an inch of snow on top of it with four or five more forecast, so I'm not going anywhere today.   There's a pot roast in the crock pot and plenty of stitching to do!  (ETA:  More snow than originally forecast; the blizzard made its way east to us and we ended up with 14 inches / 35.5 cm!  That's the third highest single day snowfall since the weather service started keeping records in this area in the 1880s!)

Taking a look at what I accomplished this week, the FFO first.  I finished the knitted hat.  Peppermint Candy LOSY Hat (link to my Ravelry page).  The color is a bit dulled out in this picture because the light yesterday was terrible (see note on winter storm above).  Colors in last weeks in-progress picture are much closer.

And even though I didn't do much in the way of travel stitching out and about, my grandson and I did watch a couple of movies this week, so the current Mill Hill Santa is up to 730 stitches.  14 count perforated paper means I do not need magnification to stitch, so perfect for TV watching as well as car stitching.

And the first item up in the first 2025 Rotation is the Blackbird Designs "Blessings and Kind Wishes" Loose Feathers #31.  I was going to work on more of the border but decided I probably should put in some of the lettering on the left side just to be sure of my count.  I am glad I did; I ended up having to fix a couple of the leaves, which would have thrown off the bottom of the wreath.  All fixed now and I'll alternate lettering and wreath for a while.

When I got to the big star, I was disappointed to notice that my skein of WDW "Basil" was more grey/green/brown than the cover photo showed.  It had very little purple at all, so for the star and the grapes, I'm substituting WDW "Amethyst".  The brighter purple makes me happy.

Linking up with the SSS Crew (current round up).   Stay warm (or cool depending on what hemisphere you are in) everybody!

2025 Needlework Rotation

A New Year means that it's time to reset the needlework rotation.  

The needlework stash stands at 99 kitted projects (link to detailed stash list) with NOTHING partially kitted!  I finished kitting up all the partially kitted stuff in 2024, with the caveat that if I end up doing a conversion on one of the Mira's that I'll get new floss and beads and that I may swap out the fabric on a couple of other pictorials. 

I finished 16 projects last year, with 8 being old projects that were on my WIPGO board to FFO.   All finished stitching was either framed or the finishing was done!   This is a major accomplishment compared to prior years.  

I still have 34 items in the "under the bed box", so I'm doing another WIPGO "finish and frame" board with ten old projects on it - 2 or 3 slots each.   

I'm carrying over six projects into the new year, which is my max.

Travel Project - Mill Hill and Willmaur perforated paper Santas.   Designer is Sandra Cozzolino.  Currently working on "Timberline: Douglas Fir".  ("Scotch Pine" is finished, and "Norway Spruce" is in the stash and up next.)  Currently have 375 stitches done.

Monthly SAL - "Temperature Stitches" by Sarah Stitchin' Mommy (Etsy).   Have the frame done and ready to start the January daily stitch as soon as we have a verified high temp for Jan 1.  One specialty stitch a day for 365 days.

Pictorial - "Mead Dragon" charted by Paine Free Crafts, art by Stanley Morrison.  Full Coverage.  Starting the year with 36,093 of 94,500 stitches or 38.19%.   Started this project 1/31/2024, estimate it to be a three-year project.  Hope to give it a lot of attention in Full Coverage February next month.

Historic - "Blessings and Kind Wishes" by Blackbird Designs.  Working on the second section of the outer border.

Modern - "KC Plaza Stitching Bag" by Wildflower Cottage Creations (local designer).  Class project to match my guild smalls.  Halfway through the border scroll work, with all the beads and metallics to go.   Then a lot of handwork for the assembly.  I need to finish the stitching and beading by the end of April because I have a SAL in this category that starts in May.

Not Counted Thread - Vintage crewel "Majestic Eagle".  I just have the pine needle sections left to do. Want to finish this year.

I'm still going to use a ten-hour timed rotation on the main projects, but I'm going to try to do the daily temperature piece and 100 stitches on the full coverage every day.  Travel/TV project will be erratic, as usual.

FINISHED KNITTING PROJECTS - October / November / December 2024

Knitting finished in the last few months of 2024

Destashification Slouch Hat

Musselburgh Hat

Foggy Summer Morning LOSY Hat

LOSY in a Hurry  

Links go to my Ravelry projects page

Slow Sunday Stitching - December 29, 2024

 Hope everyone had (or is having) a great holiday season.  Bells played for the early service on Christmas Eve.   My grandson came with me to it, which was nice.  He even helped break down after the service, which was very appreciated by the older gentleman who does that for the bell choirs. 

My usual needlework rotation has fallen pretty much by the wayside this week.  I've been watching various floss tube videos doing "daily temperature" pieces.  One designer whose work I really like is Sarah, Stitchin' Mommy (link is to her You Tube channel).  The piece she designed for 2025 is all specialty stitches and I just couldn't resist any longer.  I love doing specialty stitches!  She released the pattern on Christmas, I bought it right away and got the borders done by this morning!

Each box is one month.  Each day will have one larger specialty stitch with the color determined by the day's verified high temperature.   Eastern Kansas (which is where I live) has a huge temperature range, so I chose the color palette that ranges from 110 F/43 C high to -10 F/-23 C low.  I may not need those two extremes, but we have gotten both that high and that low in the last 5 years.

Pretty plain and uninteresting so far, but Jan 1 will start with Queen Stitches.  The birdhouses project last year got lots of nice comments, so hopefully you all will like another monthly project.   I'm planning on updating on this one the first Sunday of each month.

Also been working on yet another LOSY hat and got it from the brim to the start of the crown decreases this week.

Linking up with the SSS crew (current roundup).

Slow Sunday Stitching - December 22, 2024

 Merry Christmas to all the SSS crew who celebrate.   And it's the solstice - days will be getting longer now!  (at least in the northern part of the world).  

My mother knit me this stocking when I was a newborn and I still hang it every year.  And here are some Santa's to celebrate.

Black Forest Santa

FFO of the Feline Santa I showed last week

Linking up with the SSS crew.

FLASHBACK NEEDLEWORK - Black Forest Santa by Willmaur

 

Found while getting the ornaments out to trim the tree.   The "Black Forest Santa" by Willmaur.   Stitched in approximately 1999.

I've decided that after I finish the Timberline Santa set, that I'll do ornaments honoring my grandparents.  This one will be for my maternal grandmother: Alice Koenig Castor 1883-1966).  Her family emigrated from Germany before her birth, came through Ellis Island and after a brief stop in Pennsylvania with relatives, claimed land and homesteaded in Dickenson County, Kansas where she was born.  She was born in a sod house and ended up seeing people in space!

She taught me how to embroider, quilt and sew.  My Featherweight sewing machine was originally hers.