Finish #5 for 2013

About 1am today, I finished the final mystery from Sticklounge.  Unless something drastic happens, the group will close at the end of June.  I've had a lot of fun stitching what was offered over the last three years.  Just to reminisce, I think I'll pull some pictures back up.

and finally there is the last mystery

Now, Dorothy is back on the q-snaps so I'm going to go pour a hot cup of coffee and work on the bargello band for a bit.

2012 WIPocalypse

Since this is my last post for the 2012 WIPocalypse, I thought I would share some before and afters of my WIPs.  I didn't get as many finishes as I would have liked, but I did make progress on most of them.

1. Chatelaine's Spring Knotgarden finished 7/3/12

Before:

After:  

2. Chatelaine's Watergarden about half done  

I don't think I even touched it this year.  Here's the top gate.

3. Petit Sampler (with Sticklounge) finished 2/12/12

Before:

After:

4. Bygone Stitches One Nation about half done 

Before:

After:

5. Mirabilia's Garden Verses might have to restart

Didn't even touch this one much less make up my mind what I want to do with it.

6. Chatelaine's Summer Knotgarden part 3,4,5,6 in progress

Before:  There was a little more done, but not much.

After:

7. Stained Glass Window (Sticklounge) finished 12/5/12

Before:

After:

8. Adriana B (Sticklounge) finished 3/20/12

Before:  

After:

9. Christmas tree skirt (kit) approx half done

This one hasn't seen any love either, though I did pull it out of the bag and look at it at one point.

10. Chelsea's block   finished 6/16/12

Before:

After:

11. HAED Lust third row of stitching page 14 completed

Before:

After:

12. Chatelaine's 2012 Mystery Deep Blue Sea part 7complete

This was a new start so there's no before picture.

After: 

13.  1900 ABC (Sticklounge) part 19/24 complete

Before:

After:

So, I didn't make as much progress as I would have liked, but since I'm no longer an OAAT stitcher, I think the progress I did make is pretty darn respectable.

Now on to the 2013 WIPocalypse!  May it bring you many stitchy finishes and may the frog stay far, far away!

Window again

Last night, I finished page 15 of Window.  Now, it's just page 16 and the center.  I'm still debating the color for the center.  I pulled some silks this morning to see if any of them will work.  There's a dark red/black combo that may work or I grabbed a bunch of browns and one called Embers for something a little different.  Don't know if it will work or not, but I thought it would be interesting and I would take a look see.

Sticklounge has a new project starting December 1 that I've signed up for.  I really, really, really, want to get Window finished up first though.  The new project is Iris by Von Nolda von Hezewijk.  For some reason I love these art nouveau designs.  Ever since i stitched Adraina B from the same artist.

This style of design makes me think I should pull Ink Circles - Love Letters and Chatelaine's Art Nouveau Sampler out for a new start next year.

  

A finish!!

I've crossed another WIP off my Wipacolypse list!!  Adriana is finished!! Yay!

 

Chelsea's Gift, Adriana and Deep Blue Sea

I got lots of stitching in this week.  

After I finished part 4 of Adriana and while I waited for part 5, I pulled out my block for Chelsea's gift.  This is one block out of 20 for this chart from HAED.  It's being tent stitched on 25 ct Lugana.  I've tried tenting before but didn't really care for it.  This time around I've discovered that while tenting is much faster than completing each little x, I have problems with my counting.  At least more trouble than normal, lol!  

Anyway, I got this far by Thursday night.  Before was only a couple hundred stitches.  It seemed like half of those had to come out though since I had miscounted.  

When this comes back out in mid February, I'm looking forward to some of the bright colors in this piece.

 

Then to take a break from the tenting, I pulled Adriana back out.  I finished part 5 this afternoon.  Would have been done sooner but almost everything in this part has some kind of backstitching.  It definately makes those edges sharper against the fabric though.

 Lastly, by not least, comes Deep Blue Sea again.  Martina released part two today and I printed it off as soon as I saw it.  This is the top edge complete.  From here to the right edge are little over 1 starfish and some beading.  I'm hoping to be able to have this whole part done by the end of the week.  

Wish me luck!

 

IHSW!

I joined Joyce's SAL this month with the hopes it will keep me motivated!
After I finished part 1 of DBS I've been stitching on Adriana again.  This one is getting very close to being done with just two more parts to go.  The backstitching is a bear but it really makes everything pop!  

Now, I've got to go pull out Chelsea's gift and get some done on my square.  I've been slacking!  I think in part because it's being tent stitched and that is not one of my favorite things to do.  But! I will persevere!

Adriana

In the midst of Christmas preparations, I've been stitching on other things too.  I just finished page 3 of Adriana that I'm stitching with the Sticklounge group.  This one works really well for a travel piece since it is stitched on 28 ct.  I've found that I have problems stitching on higher counts in the car. 

Please ignore the tax forms in the background.  This time of the month is really slow for me so I'm getting ready for sending out 1099s next month.  I also take really long lunches and stitch....and my boss is fine with that.lol!

I finished part 2 of Adriana last night and sent this pic to the Sticklounge mods for the next part.  This one already has four parts released so I need to get moving on it a whole lot faster! 

I 'm also going to be stitching a page of Chelsea's Gift with 19 other stitchers from a couple of BBs she belonged to at the time of her death earlier this year.  It will be assembled as a quilt and sent to her husband and mom.  Quite the labor of love for a very special stitcher.

Anyway, I got my fabric in the mail yesterday from Peggy in Belgium (Thanks Peggy!) so I just need to go through my DMC and pull what I've got so I can see what I need to pick up.  I think Michaels has a 25% off entire coupon out and they just gave my $5 off my perchase with my rewards card.

I think for right now though, I'm going to pull Winter Watergarden back out today and see if I can get part 9 done.  Part 10 is easy too.  Then it would just be part 12 for a finish!

Little birdies

This isn't the best picture, but I finished the upper left corner of Winter Watergarden last night.  Hopefully, the upper right will be finished tonight.


Ineke, my new WIP with the carrots is called Adriana B.  It's a new one I'm stitching with Sticklounge but you can also get it here.  Hopefully those little motifs don't look so much like carrots after the other side is done! lol

Since last weekend was a long weekend, we took the boys out to see my parents.  You'd think since they're only 100 miles away, we'd get there more often.  Doesn't seem to work out that way though.  First thing my dad shows me is a floor stand he's working on.  I sent him a link about two years ago of what I was interested in.  It was just a little bitty picture on the website.  But, he's been working on one.  He just can't decide how I'm going to be able to attach my fabric to the huge dowell he bought to go with it.  

Sunday, we went to the Nebraska State Fair.  We hadn't gone since it moved to a more central location in the state last year.  Heck, we hadn't gone in years when it was in Lincoln.  These are my favorite handsome young men riding the ferris wheel for the first time.   They had a ball!  It's too bad that ticket prices are so high.  They could have ridden more rides!  

We also walked through the Open Class exhibits.  I was terribly dissappointed by the entries.  I guess next year, I will have to get motivated and get some framing done so I can enter lots of stuff!

Here's the other ride they went on.  If you look closely, you can see Jakob's green shirt!  Josh is right beside him. 

This project started out as a travel project.  There is no way I was going to be able to stitch over one on 28 ct fabric riding down the highway.  So I had this one all kitted up and ready to go.  When I checked my e-mail a little while ago, the announcement had shown up that part 2 is due to come out so it seems I'm just in  time.

Since I finished this part, I pulled Winter Watergarden back out of the black hole all my WIPs reside in and finished beading part 8.  I've started one of the little birds on part 9 but haven't gotten very far yet.  For the most part part 9 is 2 little birds and a bunch of back stitched leaves.  Shouldn't take very long to stitch them up and move onto the next project.  That will probably be part 8 of Purple Garden.  That one just goes through part 9 so it is very close to being done. 

I should probably go stitch!