Stitching Wednesday: 09/06/2017

I've been working mainly on 2 projects over the last week.  I finished up a 6-day rotation on my Star Weaver, and needed to move my frame, so I took the opportunity to grab a current picture of it completely off the bars.

I'm planning on working on this after I finish up my current rotation project, which is my Under the Sea SAL - September clue.  This month we've finally reached the bottom of the piece.  The motif is a super cute sea turtle but also includes some of the sandy bottom of the image.

This is my day 1 progress, and again, I'll be working on this for 6 days and plan to get this clue finished up completely.

For the first 6 days of September, I worked on my Desert Mandala Chatelaine.  I've done all the cross stitching in the center section.  I have a bit of backstitching to do for the coyote and hawk, but otherwise the center piece is done.  I plan to work on the remainder of the floral border in the hope I can get that finished up when this comes back up in rotation in October.

If you are interested, I'm also doing a vlog-style chronicle of my work on this piece, discussing the different threads and techniques used in this design.  The videos are available via my YouTube channel (along with my normal knitting-themed and more general xstitch-themed podcasts).

Stitching Wednesday - August 30, 2017

Whew!  Life has intervened in the last couple of weeks and I missed last Wednesday entirely!  I've been quietly working on some stitching projects tho, so let me catch you up on things.

I put in 6 days' worth of work on my Chatelaine, the Desert Mandala pattern.  I'm still working on the first section, which is the center of the design.

I'm stitching this with the called-for threads, DMC and various hand-dyed silks, as well as some Petite Treasure Braid.  It's stitched on a 28-count Jobelan from Picture This Plus in the colorway Calypso.  I added in the trunk of the tree, another one of the sunset colors and extended the lightning bolt down.  I also finished the interior (magenta-colored) border, and the 1 over 1 coyote howling at the moon.  I'm really enjoying this project and it'll be coming back out for another 6 days over the first week of September.

Next up, I finished the second in a pair of holiday ornaments from Hands On Design.  This is Serenity and it's a companion piece to Solitude, which was featured as a finish a couple of posts ago.

I stitched this 2 over 2 on a hand-dyed Wichelt Jobelan fabric called Twilight Mist.  The floss is mostly Gentle Arts Threads, but I did replace one color with a sparkly Petite Treasure Braid (the snowflakes and the letters), which I like very much.  I also FFO'ed this with a scrap of cotton fabric I had in stash. 

I also worked for 6 days on Block 4 of Village of Hawk Run Hollow, which is the boarding house block.  I finished up the house (except for a bit of backstitching on the curtains) and the fence this rotation, and I started on the signpost there on the right.  I'm hoping when this comes back out in September that I'll be able to finish up this block!

This one is being stitched 1 over 1 on a 22-count Hardanger from Picture This Plus in Legacy using the DMC conversion provided for in the pattern.

Finally, I'm working on Star Weaver, which is the storykeep sized piece with artwork by Tom Cross and charted by Heaven and Earth Designs.

I've got a couple more days to work on this and I am really trying to get a page finish in!  This would then complete page 2 of 3, and I'll have just 1 more page to finish this one up.  This is being stitched on 28-count Monaco, 1 over 1 with DMC threads and a wee bit of Petite Treasure Braid.  Absolutely loving how this one is coming out!

I decided that I'm going to do the Year of WIPs 2018 being hosted by Melanie at the Soulful Stitching Facebook group.  I've got several things that were Maynia starts in 2017 that I'd like to get finished up in the next calendar year and I think that'll help motivate me to do that!  More details on that as we get closer to the year's end.

Stitching Wednesday - August 9, 2017

Good progress on Shoot The Moon (mini) this rotation.  I am almost finished page 5, and this means I started the ribbons in the fairy's hair. I have perhaps 50 or so stitches left to finish up page 7, and I'm through pages 1-3 completely, so I can move my scroll frame up a bit before I work on this next time - which will be September.  Pattern is charted by Heaven and Earth Designs with artwork by Lee Ann Seed.  Stitched 1/1 on 28-count evenweave I hand-dyed in a gradient colorway called Dusk.

I then worked on my Under the Sea SAL from Lakside Needlecrafts, with artwork by Durene Jones. The clue was actually pretty quick to stitch this time - and added a manta ray to the group. I had budgeted 6 days to work on this, but I finished it up in only 3.

This is being stitched on a 25-count evenweave from Lakeside Needlecrafts.  It's a printed ombre'd fabric in watery colors that was an exclusive for this pattern/SAL.  Four more blocks to go!

Since I have a couple of extra days in this rotation, I'm going to put in a few days' work on Star Weaver from HAED, and then Sunday I'll start back to work on my Chatelaine so updates on both of those next week!

Stitching Wednesday - August 2, 2017

I spent a solid 6 days working on the Desert Mandala from Chatelaine and was really happy with my progress on this piece.

This is about a quarter of the center medallion finished.  The center is worked with DMC and Petite Treasure Braid, and the outside flower motifs are worked in various hand-dyed silks.  There will be the addition of beads once I finish all of the cross-stitching itself, but I want to wait to add those so they don't get snagged or moved around too much.

For the first 6 days of August, I'll be working on my Shoot The Moon project, charted by Heaven and Earth Designs, mini size with no background.  Artwork by Lee Ann Seed.

I'm stitching this on a hand-dyed 28-count evenweave in a gradient colorway (light to darker purples), using DMC Black (310).  I've gotten the top 3 pages done - page 3 in the top right hand corner actually has no stitching in it, so that was fast, and I'm halfway through page 4 and have worked a bit on page 5.  Hoping to get to the point I can place the upper edge of the fairy figure during this rotation, but we'll see how I go along with it.

A few more days of work on this and then I'll be switching to my Under the Sea SAL for days 7-12 this month.

Stitching Wednesday - July 26, 2017

A fun week of stitching things.  I worked on Village of Hawk Run Hollow, block 4, for my 6-day rotation on that.  I'd say I'm perhaps just under halfway through the block?

This will be the town's boarding house and while I haven't stitched the modifications on this one for personalized details, I will be changing up the sign to reflect my Gram's name.  This one is on hold then until August.

Yesterday I then started the final 6-day rotation for July, which also was a new start I've been saving to work on as a birthday treat for myself (technically tomorrow, the 27th, but I'll be working on this for 6 full days as well) - Chatelaine's Desert Mandala.

Not a great photo as it's a download off the Chatelaine site of the mockup, but this is what it will look like when it's finished.  I'm stitching mine on a 28-count hand-dyed Lugana fabric by Picture This Plus in the Calypso colorway.  I thought all the desert-y colors would really pop off this fabric.

I've started in the center at the tree and lightning bolt. The colors are plain DMC threads and the silver bits is sparkly Petite Treasure Braid.

I'm really enjoying working on this so far - lots to keep you interested and fun to watch the picture take shape.

Stitching Wednesday - June 28, 2017

At some point, I will finally be caught up on the bulk of my deadline knitting projects and can perhaps show y'all some of the knitting things, but until then..... I bring you Stitching Wednesday.

I've got a handful of projects on the go and I'm participating in the Ivory Needle Challenge, which is to work on 5 projects with some focus, dedicating 6 days each month to work on those.  So while I am doing that, I'm also spending a bit of time on some other projects that I'd like to get finished for various reasons.

First up, right now, my 6-day rotation (which will take me to the end of the month on June 30th) is working on Village of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings.  I've finished blocks 1 and 2 of the 12-block pattern, and I'm working on block 3.  I'm making some tweaks to the originally charted design, and adding in some family information from my mum's side of the family - my grandmother's family, many of whom still live in Centre County, Pennsylvania.

These blocks take a deceptively long amount of time.  The brickwork/stonework sections in this are amazingly time-consumptive, but I'm plugging along on it.  I've got the city hall building bricks and foundation left to finish, the flag, the birds in the upper left-hand corner, and then I have to go back through and stitch in the lettering in the sign.  I'm not 100% sure I will have this finished by the time Friday comes and it moves out of rotation, but I'm putting some time in on it every day.

I've also been working on a full-coverage piece: Star Weaver with artwork by Tom Cross and charted by Heaven and Earth Designs.  This is one of their "storykeeps", i.e. bookmark sized pieces, so it's relatively small (ish) for a HAED.  I finished page 1 up earlier in the month and since I'm focusing on finishing this one this year, I'm trying to put in an hour or so on it in the evenings when I can.

After slogging thru almost an entire page of mostly the same color, I'm finally on to some different colored blues and am going to try to get at least to the middle of this page by the end of July.  The entire design is 3 full pages and then 1 row of approximately 720 sts or so to finish it up.

Finally, I've been working on a Mill Hill kit, the Pike's Peak Santa a bit here and there.  I've just finished all the plain cross-stitch parts, so I've got beading left to finish up on this.

Planning to gift this to my DH as an Xmas gift this year, and I think I'll be able to get it finished up over the next month and have it ready to go when we get to the end of the year.