Finished!

Last weekend was a loss as far as my stitching was concerned.  This weekend...I have a finish!!

April Wipocalypse

Another full moon another Wipocalypse posting.

Last month, I was working on Coat of Arms band sampler.
Page 19

Page 20

Then I decided to make sure my original measurements were right...and not so much.  I'm short fabric so I'm trying to rearrange (in my head right now) and decide which row(s) I'm going to skip to make this fit on my fabric.

This month, I've been pretty focused on Chatelaine's Medieval Octagon

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

First quarter of part 6

I'm actually a little further than this.  I've got everything in the second quarter stitched except what's in the gold square.  I'm hoping to finish that tonight and get started on the next quarter.  I'm getting so very close to a finish on this one.  

Then I think I'm going to pull out Nightshade.  

My goal this year is to stitch the next page which will complete the row since I'm not stitching the black background.

Measi's question this month is What do you listen to while stitching? (via Jo)

I'll listen to almost anything or nothing at all.  Most evenings, you can find me parked in the living room in front of the TV whether I'm listening to what's on or I'm watching something else on Hulu or Netflix.  I also turn on the radio and stitch away as I don't have to pay any attention to whats happening on TV.  Many evenings, I'm at ball practice with my oldest.  I'll watch to see what they're doing and I'll have the radio on in the car.  Other evenings, we'll be outside on the patio.  The chickens talk to themselves and I'll just enjoy the quiet.

MO part 5

When Martina released the parts of Medieval Octagon, she released parts 5 and 6 together.  Since the right and bottom medallions are listed first on the instructions page, I'm going to call them part 5.  And last night I finished the bottom medallion.

I've started the upper left wedge and I'm hoping to finish this by the end of the month.  That's 12 days.  So 4 wedges, 12 days and lots of beads.  There is a weekend and half, three track meets and four baseball practices in there too.

More MO

Here is the right medallion.  I've flipped it so the flower is outside again.  

I've printed the chart for the bottom medallion which is my initials as well as the provided alphabet and figured out my placement.  Now I just need to decide if I'm going to stitch the background over two and fill over one around the letters or stitch it all over one.

Part 4

Part 4 of Medieval Octagon had some issues.  I stitched the first section without problems until I realized I had used the wrong color for the jessica stitches.  The same color as the blackwork was charted.  But I decided I liked the purple there as it kind of brings the purple from the border into this section.  So it stayed.  Then I didn't like the yellow backstitch on the birds. 

So it was changed to the color of the blackwork.

Much better.

I finished part 4 yesterday and started the right medallion from part 5.

MO

I finished the medallion I was working on Tuesday night.

Which left MO looking like this.

Then I started part 4.  This is just the upper part of the panels with blackwork.

Medieval Octagon is back

My mojo took a short break last week which meant this medallion took all week to stitch up.  I thought the flower faded into the background too much so I used the same blue metallic to backstitch it.  I'm still debating backstitching the rest of the flower in gold to continue with the same look from the flowers surrounding the medallion.

I started this medallion Saturday and almost got it finished last night.  Hopefully, tonight I'll get it finished.  I have flipped this one.  The chart shows the flower being on the inside.  

March WIPocalypse

It's been a while since I've participated in Measi's WIPocalypse.  But there's no time like the present, right?

Since my participation score for this year, so far, is 0, I thought I would update my progress since the beginning of the year.

I started off this year with a new start.  Who doesn't?  This year's new start was Sea Witch from HAED

I finished the first page 

I love how those colors POP against the black background.

Then, I pulled out Mill Hill's Glory and Honor.  This was the second time I've stitched it.  I left off the border this time around though.  Here's where I left off last year

And here is my first finish of 2016

After my finish, I decided on another new start.  This time it was Chatelaine's Medieval Octagon in colorway 1

Here's my progress so far

Then I pulled out The Loneliness of Autumn from Love Thy Thread

Before

I haven't managed to finish page 3 but I needed a break from the confetti.

Current

Right now, I have Coat of Arms band Sampler out and am making pretty good progress.

Before

page 16

page 17

page 18

I'm hoping to finish this row of pages by Sunday night.

Measi asks a question each month.  This month's question is

Do you use hoops, stretcher bars, lap stands or Q snap frames and why?

I'm pretty exclusively a Q snaps at this point.  When I started stitching many years ago, I used a hoop.  That's what Mom used and that's what she taught me to use.  Over the years, I've used the split dowel rods and hated them.  I've also used Lokscrolls from Artesan Designs and absolutely love them, but so many of my projects are too big for them and they get really bulky to deal with.  My favorite Q snaps are 11" square.  I have a homemade grime guard over them and I have a bag that goes over the bottom of them for my HAED Super Size design.

Medieval Octagon part 2

Last weekend was very quiet at our house.  If it hadn't been so windy, we may have tried doing something outside; but it wasn't so we stayed inside for most of the weekend.  In between loads of laundry, I worked on Medieval Octagon.  Saturday, I finished the lower right blackwork.

Yesterday afternoon, I finished the lower left.

Here is everything through part 2

After I finished this, I put it away and pulled out Loneliness of Autumn but I couldn't settle down with it.  I only managed about 150-200 stitches in about 4 hours so I gave up and read a book for the rest of the evening.  I think I'll try again tonight but if I can't get into it, I'll probably either go back to Medieval Octagon or go through my WIPs and see if anything else catches my attention.

Blackwork update

Part 2 has stitched up fairly quickly.  I did make a fairly big change in it though.  Martina charted the upper right and the lower left parts in a couple different shades of gold.  I decided I wasn't fond of that as it made the piece look kind of choppy.  So I changed the blackwork in those two sections to the same color as the upper left and bottom right.  I think the result is more cohesive, IMHO.

upper left 2/21/16

upper right 2/23/16

overall 2/23/16

I'm happy.

What are you all stitching?

Part 1

Yay!  Here's part one of Chatelaine's Medieval Octagon.

I made a good start on part 2 and finished the upper left side yesterday.  

Onto the left

Last night, I finished the bottom 1/8th of Medieval Octagon.  Before I called it a night, I outlined the last 1/8 on the left.

Bottoms up!

I've been working on the bottom of Medieval Octagon this week so you get silly post titles.  :)

Halfway through part 1

Late last night, I finished the second side of part one of Medieval Octagon.

On my way into work this morning, I started debating with myself about continuing with this or pulling out Lonliness of Autumn. 

Side 2

I've been making steady progress on Medieval Octagon.  

2/2/16

2/4/16

I did make a couple of changes.  The vines up the side were supposed to be in WL Jade, I think.  I accidently did them in my conversion from WL Emerald.  I decided I liked my oops well enough I would leave it along and noted the change so all four sides will be the same.  I also changed those blue flowers.  They were supposed to be outlined in WL Emerald.  I wasn't excited about back stitching blue with green.  So I checked my stash and found a PTB in a dark blue.  I think it's PB08 which gave my flowers a bit of pop to go along with all the gold back stitching.  

Medieval Octagon Mandala

I started Chatelaine's Medieval Octagon after I finished Glory and Honor.  I'm stitching on 28 ct antique white Monaco.

I didn't get as far as I would have liked over the weekend, but I still made pretty good progress.  Tonight, I'm hoping to get those flowers and stems backstitched and start on the upper part of the triangle.  The oval motif comes in a later part.