Slow Sunday Stitching - July 21, 2024

 I'm kicking off the third round of my basic rotation in 2024 with my Blackbird/Historic piece, "Keepsake" - Loose Feathers #33.   I've put in a couple of hours so far this time around; I finished off the dark upper greenery and have a good start on the bottom set of flowers.  

I'm a little worried that the "oatmeal scone" silk is ghosting on this fabric - the called for linen (R&R "Old Mill Java") is just a touch tanner than the PTP "Tycho" that I'm using.   But in both places that the oatmeal floss used, it's outlined with another color, so I think it will be fine.   The shine of the silk helps, too; in real life, you can tell there are stitches inside the flowers.   

This is destined to become a small pillow about 5.5 inches / 14 cm square.  I need to find a backing fabric from my quilting supplies, because I only have the five flowers to complete before it's ready for finishing.

My travel project is a new start this week.   I finished the Scotch Pine Santa (finished and Fully Finished - post here).   My grandson picked out the next one for me out of my stash of kitted ornaments and chose the "Wildlife Santa" from Willmaur - so back to the animals set.

Just barely started, but it looks to be fun.  No beads on this one, so it will stay 'travel appropriate' all the way to the finish.

Linking up with the SSS crew (this week's roundup is here).

FINISHED NEEDLEWORK: "Timberline Santas: Scotch Pine" by Mill Hill

 First of the three Mill Hill "Timberline Santas" completed.  Scotch Pine Santa

The beading on this was a lot of fun.   Looking forward to the other two, but first I'm going back to the Animal ones from Willmaur.  My grandson picked out the 'Wildlife' one for me to work on next.  He's been checking in on my progress on this one every day that I pick him up from football camp.

This also brings the kitted projects in the stash down to 99 fully kitted projects.  

Slow Sunday Stitching - July 7, 2024

Hope everyone in the US had a wonderful Independence Day, and those in Canada had a good Canada Day celebration as well.  Happy Birthday to our respective nations!

My church traditionally has had a huge (standing room only) service of hymns and prayers with patriotic music and choirs from all over the area and a local VIP giving a speech every year on the Fourth.   The last one prior to this week was in July 2019 and loosing that service was one of the things I hated the most about the pandemic.   Well, we reinstated that service with a great 'bang'.   And the bells played for it.   We played my favorite version of "Amazing Grace" as part of the prelude and then joined the organ, brass and massed choirs for the closing hymn 'Finlandia" with the bells and brass parts written by our director.   Donald is so talented!   The speaker was one of the Kansas Supreme Court justices.  The service was posted on the Grace Cathedral Topeka You Tube. (Hopefully that link works, since embedding did NOT.)

That's the last thing for the bells this season.   We are on break until early September now.   I'll miss ringing, but it's nice to have a summer break.

I had an opportunity to go to a crafting group this week, and even though I have said that beading is not a travel appropriate project, I took my Mill Hill Santa any way since I figured that a quiet coffee shop had a fairly low 'spillage probability', and indeed no beads went astray.   I am the halfway point on the beading with the rest of the 'snow' crystals and the two types of beads in the tree left to go.

I wish the sparkle and dimension of the beading showed up better in a photo.   I'm really liking this one and it's getting close to a finish!

And I also got the SAL section for July completed for the Birdhouses SAL.  See the changeover post for a close up.  I love the way the gull is eyeing the 'catch of the day' with bad intent.  LOL.

Getting July done necessitated moving the Q Snap.  So here's the piece all laid out.  (Pardon the wrinkles.)   Just two more sections to go (August and September) and I sure hope it meets up in the middle!!!   That's always a concern when you work in from the edges! Everybody keep your fingers crossed for me.

Linking up with the SSS crew.

OCTtoOCTSAL - July 2024 Section

 

for July and August on the Birdhouses SAL, we are at the beach!  This month the birdhouse is a beach shack with a star fish, a gull eyeing the "catch of the day" and wildflowers.   I also put in all the rays of the sun.   That actually gets me a bit ahead on the August section, since the solar motif spans both months.   

Some people are 'over' the fence, but I really don't mind it all that much.   Doing just two 'bars', a picket and a post isn't all that much and the rhythm of the white fence really adds so much to the work.   

Full Coverage - June 2024 Month End Report AND Slow Sunday Stitching June 30

 Well, the usual summer slump in creativity has hit 😒.   I was hopeful that being retired would sidetrack that this year, but a combination of household and church responsibilities meant that I've done very little crafting the last two weeks.  Also, there were several meetings about moving my retirement savings accounts out of my employer sponsored plan.  Decisions, decisions......

The one thing I have kept up with is the full coverage project.   The Mead Dragon is at 21.20% with 20,035 of 94,500 stitches completed. 

For comparison, here's where I was at the beginning of the month.

I'm starting to get some color in on the wings and have most of the dragon's head done - so much confetti in this piece, it's crazy!  The background is coming along, too.  I'm doing it 'typewriter method', so at this point I have everything above row 55 fully complete and scattering of colors below that down to row 120 or so.   I am working toward having down to row 100 complete before I move the fabric up.

I'm still putting one length of 'dragon color' in, then the rest of the time focusing on background.  My goal on this is pretty modest, just 2,500 per month, which is a bit less than 100 stitches per day.  Did 2,892 so far this month, so met that goal.   (I'll drop the final count in here when I call it a day tonight.  ETA: 3,076)

On the other hand, tomorrow is the first, so the Birdhouses will be coming out and this project will hibernate for a bit while I work on the July section of the SAL.  Hopefully a new project will kick start the stitching mojo! Linking up with the SSS crew so they know I didn't fall off the planet.......

Slow Sunday Stitching - June 16, 2024 AND Rotation #2, Slot #2 (Modern) Changeover

With a bit more stitching time this week, I put in the remaining five hours in rotation round two on the KC Plaza Sewing Bag.  That finished up the left-hand horse entirely.  I will confess at being a bit burnt out on the over one on 34 count linen by this point.  Hopefully by the time this comes up in the rotation again, I'll be prepared to tackle the other horse!

The "Grandma Taxi" is in full swing this month.   Carl (freshman in high school) has football camp, while Alexis has cheer camp.   I'm happy to drive them around whenever their parents have a work conflict.  It also gives me some one-on-one time with my grandkids.   It's remarkable what a few minutes and a stop at the Dairy Queen drive through can do for everyone's day!  I am so glad that my son and daughter in law decided to settle locally.    

Carl also helped me with some yard work and hauling some things around in the house for me and to pay him back, I got him some practice cleats.  The kid is growing like a weed, including his feet LOL.

Being on Taxi duty meant that I had time to work on my perforated paper ornament while waiting in the pick-up lot - all the cross stitch and most of the back stitch is done.    I even got a small start on the beading at the crafting group that meets on Wednesday at the church.   Most of the ladies are quilters, but all crafts are welcome.

ETA: progress pic

Linking up with the SSS crew

Slow Sunday Stitching - June 9, 2024

This is going to be a VERY quick check in; I am reading the lessons today at church and need to check in early so they know I'm there.    (Also need to make sure the ribbons marking the readings are in the right places in the Bible - I've had that not happen in the past and it's disrupting and embarrassing.)

It's been a good week - feels like I am on a 'stay-cation'.  I've worked a lot in the garden, my tomatoes and sweet peppers are all blooming like crazy, the summer squash are just exploding into masses of leaves and I'm about to harvest my second crop of lettuce (hopefully I'll get a decent batch over the next six to eight weeks before they bolt in the summer heat).  I'm still holding out hope for the cucumbers this year, five of the six plants have made it to the 'beginning to climb the trellis' stage.  So they are already doing better than last year.

And of course there's been crafting. 

I finished up the June section of the Birdhouses SAL on Friday - it's so stinking CUTE.   I love the bee skep birdhouse.   And the watering can was fun to finish.

On the knitting front, the hat is up to five inches (including the ribbing).   I think it needs to be about 6 inches before I start the colorwork so that I can also test the shaping.    It will end up being a stocking hat of sorts if my numbers are correct.  

I'm also working on clearing out my closet and donating old work wear that I don't need any more.  I already have two boxes to take for donation and I'm just getting started on the decluttering!   Trying to get in the habit of getting unwanted stuff out of the house.   Not leaving this stuff for my son and daughter in law to cope with!

Linking up with the SSS crew.