Pattern: "Blessings & Kind Wishes" Loose Feathers #31
Designer: Blackbird Designs
Fabric: 36 count "Legacy" linen by Picture This Plus
This week I got a little more done on the Just Nan class "Butterflies, Blossoms and Bees" than I thought I would. And I finished off the ten hours in the rotation with the completion of the outer third (other than the beads).
In addition to finishing off the butterflies and the backstitch in gold on the wings and the double running antennae, I got the eight 'two-color satin stitch' flowers done. There were also the centers and stems of a couple of beaded flowers on each side plus the tiny butterflies in the corners made up of two Smyrna Cross stitches and three tiny backstitches. So stinkin' cute!
The kitchen appliances get here a week from tomorrow. I can't wait. Movers to get the beds will happen tomorrow and the couch, bookcases, etc. will happen next week - in the days after the appliance delivery. I'm so over this whole thing. I've been unpacking as it goes, so at some point, there will be more at the new house than at the old house and I'll hopefully feel 'moved'. Right now, it's all up in the air.
What am I going to be working on while things are all over the place? Well, I'm going to keep working on my two daily pieces. And I'll set up and start my "Christmas in July" piece. It's Blackbird Designs "And to all a Good Night" Loose Feathers #11. This one is out of print and not yet included in one of the books. A lot of people have it as a 'unicorn' chart. It will be a framed piece or possibly a wall quilt, so I'm using the kit materials.
SSS crew link up for this week is here.
Happy First Sunday of the month to everybody, and that means a look at the two daily projects.
June's Temperature Log specialty stitch of the month was a 'triple rice' stitch. Ordinary rice stitch is a standard cross stitch over two threads with over one tacking stitches across each leg. This triple rice stitch is a 6x6 cross with three tacking stitches on each leg - 3x3, 2x2, 1x1. (For the record, you can also do double rice, which starts out with a 4x4 cross, with the tacking stitches 2x2 and 1x1.) This was a nice, easy to memorize stitch and was placed in a very regular grid. So, this month was very easy to do.
Good month again on the Mead Dragon full coverage piece. I'm managing to still keep up with #WIPintoshape with Andrew @theRunnerStitcher. I am adding his marathon training numbers to my own 100 stitches a day goal. And I met those goals every day this month, though I did have to net my numbers once when church and family obligations happened to synch up with a high-count day.
I stitched 4,515 stitches on this piece this month. That brings me to 25,645 stitches year to date and 61,738 on the piece in total = 65.33%. I'm now working on row 217 and I moved the fabric up. There's the very tiny hint of where her tail will wrap around the drinking horn.
Ten hours on the Floral Tote has made substantial progress. There is still the large central bouquet yet to do and then I do want to line the piece and maybe do a zipper top so that I can use it as a project bag.
The lining will protect the back of the embroidery as well.
I have had the living room, dining room (those two are the green second from the left on the bottom row) and kitchen (the tan right above the green) repainted, and some minor updates done on the main bathroom. Plus got some of the floors redone on the first floor (see behind the paint sample brochure - century-old hardwoods and so pretty). The big renovation is to get the laundry moved up to the main floor mud room from the basement.
I've been thinking about this move since before COVID but ended up renting the big house out at the urging of my daughter in law. That was mostly because I was still working full time and didn't have the band width for a move, but I've discovered that I'm not happy being a landlord. When my current renters had a family emergency that caused them to break their lease early, I took advantage to finally move in myself. I'll get my little house updated over the next year or two and get it sold. I discussed which one to sell with my son, my grandson and my sister and we decided to keep the 'family house'.
It will be nice to eventually have a dedicated sewing space, though it will be rough finished for a while. There was a flood in the second-floor bathroom above and both rooms are currently just untaped drywall. I can live with that - one of those walls will be covered with peg board and have a big cutting table covering most of the space and there will be a design wall covering another. Getting the upstairs bathroom done is priority, even over getting the little house ready for sale.
In addition to getting all my books packed up, the main focus this week was the surface embroidery on the Floral Tote. I am almost at the ten-hour point. I'm hoping to have a changeover post later today or first thing tomorrow. I think I can probably finish that bottom section of three flowers, which will leave the main central flowers for next round.
I've also been keeping up with both the daily temperature log and the #WIPintoshape challenge piece (which is my Mead Dragon). I'll take end of month photos this week and share next Sunday.
The next focus project will be the Just Nan "Butterflies, Blossoms and Bees", which will finish this rotation. But needlework may be scarce and scattered for the next couple of weeks after the Independence Day holiday. I'm going to focus on the daily goals only, plus finishing. And I do have a planned start for "Christmas in July".
I'll keep reporting in, if only to prove I haven't been lost under an avalanche of packing boxes LOL. Checking in with the SSS crew (this week's round up).
