Slow Sunday Stitching - May 12, 2024

It's been a good week for stitching.   I had a couple of online meetings last week that gave me some stitching time on my travel piece.  It's getting very close to the start of the beading.   Just that darkest tree color and the backstitching of the plaid on Santa's coat and bootlaces to go before it's no longer a travel project.   Mill Hill ornaments "Northwoods Santa: Scotch Pine" kit.

I spent my 'house stitching' time the first few days of the week finishing up my monthly SAL.  This round took 7.5 hours - it's one of the smaller sections.  The little trio of 'birdhouse condos' is so cute, though.

With the SAL done, I then switched back to the Blackbird Designs "Keepsake" piece.  At five hours total on the project, I'm 3/4 of the way done with the basket.  Good progress all around!

Linking up with the SSS crew (current round up).

Wish me luck this morning - bells are playing a really 'stretch' piece for us.   "Now the Green Blade/Sing We Now of Christmas"  arranged by Kevin McChesney (link to a YouTube of a high school choir performing it, though we aren't going quite that fast).  Lots of percussion technique! 

OCTtoOCTSAL - May 2024 Section

Back on track for the SAL this month.  We are in Spring in a big way - Tulips and Forget me not flowers with a robin perched on top of the trio of 'condo birdhouses'.

And look at the tiny bugs!  They are SO CUTE!  Though the "got an 'A' in biology" part of my brain objects to only four (out of six) legs showing on an insect.  Let's just assume the middle pair is tucked in under her wing covers, shall we?

The picket over on the right is over the page break, so I'll get to the back stitch on it next month when I finish it off.   You can see lots of gaps in it - the next flower is a clematis vine climbing over the fence.
 

Slow Sunday Stitching - May 5, 2024

This week's stitching was divided between two projects.   Monday and Tuesday, I worked on the new Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers - #33 "Keepsake".   I am using the kit silk floss, but downsized the linen to 40 count.   I met my goal of getting to the halfway point on the basket.  The skipped stitches make an interesting secondary pattern (and yes, that's what the chart shows.   I'm trusting Barb and Alma - as much as it bothers my natural instinct for order to have an irregularly scattered pattern!)

The first of the month fell on Wednesday, so that means it was time for the Birdhouse SAL to come out.   And it's well under way.   I really only have the actual trio of little 'birdhouse condos' and the robin perching on top plus some back stitch left. 

 Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitching Crew (current link party).

Full Coverage - April 2024 Month End Report

 

The Mead Dragon (Art by Stanley Morrison, Charted by Paine Free Crafts) got 4,018 stitches in April - well over my goal of 2,500.  That brings me to a total so far of 13,526 stitches out of 94,500 or 14.31%.

Here's where I started the month for comparison

I got a little self indulgent and put in the black 'wing tips' on both of his wings.   I'm still working one strand of color on the dragon, one strand of DMC318 (to color complete that problem symbol that doesn't outline well in Pattern Keeper - 506 stitches left) and then a few strands of background.  I don't want to get too far behind on the black/navy/grey.   I'm working on the fourth row of squares across, working pretty much according to the typewriter method, working from upper left across and down to find the next unworked color.  Once I've worked that 'next unworked stitch', I hunt around for other stitches in that color and just work out the thread wherever it takes me with the goal of avoiding any sharp edges that could put a tension line in the work.   

Thank goodness for Pattern Keeper.  I resisted moving to electronic charts for a long time, but I love this app.   And I'm being very careful to back up at the end of each stitching session and keep two days of backup in Dropbox.   

There's still a long way to go

Slow Sunday Stitching - April 28, 2024

The stitching mojo has roared back with a vengeance.  As a consequence, there's a new start in the Historic slot of my needlework rotation:  "Keepsake" by Blackbird Designs.  It's Loose Feathers #33.  I got this as a kit in the original Old Mill Stitchery release in 2008.   I'm using the kit floss, Belle Soie by CC, but have swapped out the 30 count linen provided in the kit with 40 count "Tycho" by PTP in order to reduce the size of the piece from a 7 inch square box topper to a (aprox) 5x5 inch/13 x 13 cm pillow.

I got the fabric set up on the scroll rods and the base of the basket started yesterday.  My goal is to get to the center of the basket before I need to switch projects to work on the SAL on the first. 

That cranberry silk is so lush in both color and texture.  It's been a while since I have had the opportunity to stitch with silk and I do love the way it works up.

May I also point out that this start gets me down to 100 kitted projects! (plus 6 partially kitted)

That's a significant milestone since I know of several flosstubers that have that many WiPs (let alone what is in their stash)!  Is it time to buy more needlework stash?   Absolutely NOT.  There are some big projects on that list!  And I still love all of them and want to stitch and finish them.  

Linking up with the SSS crew (this week's roundup), who keep me accountable (and occasionally enable me).

OCTtoOCTSAL - April 2024 Section

I was a little slow getting started on the April section of the Jardin Privet Birdhouses SAL  But I got there in the end. 

This month there's a large "sampler house" birdhouse, a rather cartoon style duck and little brown wren perched on the picket.   I watched a flosstube by Colette (@highwaystitcher) and she really didn't like the duck.  She replaced him with a copy of another bird from somewhere else in the piece (Colette's flosstubes 115 and 116 talk about her struggles with the duck).  He actually rather grew on me as I worked this section.   Some of the birds are realistic (though very stylized), but some are whimsical.   And I'm OK with that.

Slow Sunday Stitching - April 21, 204

 It's been a tough week.  Two deaths in my church family, both unexpected.  One of our ringers discovered last week that she was in the final stages of an aggressive cancer and she passed on Wednesday morning.  The funeral was yesterday and the bell choir played.  It was hard, Darlene was one of our founding members.  And I feel for her kids.  Her husband is in the early stages of dementia and she was the primary caregiver. I don't envy them the next few months. 

Our director did an arrangement of Amazing Grace that omitted her bells in a setting with the base bells doing a funeral toll throughout.   It was beautiful and went well.  We also put together a small tribute at her place in the choir; nobody but a fellow ringer would notice her upturned bells "at rest".  And we wear black gloves to ring, so hopefully someone looking at it without that knowledge would understand the intent.

The other death was even worse.  I'm not going to give details, because the police inquiry is ongoing, but it happened just two blocks from my house!  

In spite of tragedy and funerals and the garden getting started, I did have a good stitching week.  There were a couple of quarter end video meetings where my camera was off, so I got some time in on the current perforated paper Santa.  The cross stitch part is coming along.  There's still  a couple of tree colors, the second mitten (shows through the tree branches), and a cardinal perching on the top of the tree to go before I get started on the beads.

And I'm very close to finishing the current month section on the Birdhouses SAL.  Just the rest of the fence backstitch and neat little wren perched on top of the right hand picket left to go.  Look for a changeover post later today.  (ETA: That post is here.)

I'm going to be puttering around in the garden after church and healing my soul with growing things.  Linking up with the SSS crew here.