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!

Wipacolypse July!

I finished Spring Knotgarden today over my lunch hour!  Yay!

Spring Knotgarden

After I finished part 9 of Window I last week, I kept on and stitched part 10.  It's kind of nice with a Sticklounge SAL to be a little unconcerned about finishing.  The top is the same as the bottom, so I haven't even bothered printing off the new parts.  AND, if I'm almost current.  Part 11 was released mid June.

After finishing part 10 of Window, Spring Knotgarden has come back out.  I'm so close to a finish, I can almost taste it!  I just have to stitch the flowers in the corner and finish that last eighth of parts 5 and 6.  So close!

After I finish this, hopefully Monday or Tuesday, I'm going to pull One Nation out of the WIP drawer.  The last time I put any stitches into it was the end of June last year.  Since the 4th of July is this week, some patriotic stitching is appropriate.  Even better if I can push this much closer to a finish.  It's been a WIP since May 2010.  That's long enough.

Wipacolypse - June

I'm starting to get very close to a couple of finishes this month.  Yay!

Instead of swiching to Deep Blue Sea when part 6 was released, I've kept Spring Knotgarden out.  Last week I finished the third corner of parts 5 and 6.

I'm still working on my box for the box finishing class too.  It's all stained and the bottom half is lined.  I think I need to pull up the bottom and add some glue and a little weight while it dries, but I think it will look pretty cool when it's finished.

Since I finished that third corner of Spring Knotgarden, I've been working on Chelsea's square again.  I guess, the goal is to have all the squares done by the end of the month so they can be made into a quilt and sent off to Chelsea's mom and husband by the anniversary of her death next month.  This little square has definately reinforced some of my HAED stitching preferences.  I prefer 1x1 full cross on 28 ct fabric!  I'm hoping sometime in the next week or so will see this finished.  I'm ready for it to be finished.  I haven't been able to work on a HAED other than this this year.  I would really like to spend some quality time with Lust!

Now, since we just got home from our semi annual chicken butchering, I'm going to find the Aleve, find something cold to drink, put my feet up and stitch until I need to make supper.

Later!

Memorial Day

I hope everyone stateside is having a great three day weekend!  My little family has taken time to remember all those who have served our country.  Both my maternal grandparents served as did my paternal grandfather.  My husband has also served.  THANK YOU!

Onto the stitching!

I've been stitching away on Spring Knotgarden since Tuesday.  Last night I finished parts 5 and 6 on the second corner.

Just two more corners to go!  But, One Nation has been whispering so it may come out tomorrow.  Wait and see!

IHSW - April

Well I didn't get as much hermitting done as I would have liked but there was some progress made.  I finished the entire right side of Spring Knotgarden.  Then I put it up for a bit.  

Friday night, I tea dyed a piece of Monaco.  You can't see it very well here, but it turned out very nice.  Very mottled.  It's for my box top for the box finishing class I decided to do something simple.  This will be the letter S.  I started the stitching yesterday morning and with any luck, I should be done stitching tonight.

Spring Knotgarden and a box

I finished my first corner of Spring Knotgarden tonight.  The bright pink is one I subbed for the much more subdued one that started in part 1.  But I think I like it.  To me, spring is all about bright colors after the blah of winter.  

Now, three corners to go.

I'm also taking a box finishing class.  You start out with an unfinished box as seen here.  You end up with a finished box that is lined with fabric inside and has a piece of needlework mounted on top.  

I found these boxes today at Hobby Lobby and picked a couple pieces of fabric while I was there.  I think I know what's going on top, I just need to get it stitched!

Ho hum kind of day

We had some excitement yesterday.  The weather man was putting the mid west in high threat severe weather all day yesterday and into the evening.  Thankfully, we didn't see anything worse than thunderstorms though lots of people did.  As far as I've heard today, no one was injured or killed.  All their "stuff" can be replaced.  Experience talking here folks.

After finishing part 4 of Deep Blue Sea, I pulled Spring Knotgarden back out.  The last time I worked on it, I have finished half of a corner of part 5.  It's not much, but it's progress.  Saturday, I finished the other half of that corner.  Leaving me with this

Then I pulled Chelsea's Gift out for a little while which turned into this afternoon before I put it down.  I'm making pretty good progress every time I work on it.  There is just a huge amount of confetti here.

Then out came Lust.  I put in a couple of strands this afternoon, but I can't seem to get into her again.  I thought if I worked on a block of solid color, I would have an easier go but nothing.  I would like nothing more than to see another page stitched but I guess it's not going to happen...for now.

So, Spring Knotgarden is back and I'm working on part 6 of that same corner which is going well.  With any luck, I'll see part 6 for this corner done and I'll move onto the next corner this week.  

Crud!

Last Friday, I had to pick Jakob up from school early.  He wasn't feeling good.  So what does any boy who loves his mom do?  He shares his crud.  Um...thanks?!  So, since I'm feeling really cruddy, I'm staying home today and possibly tomorrow.  We'll have to see how I feel in the morning. 

I thought I would share some pictures.  Window caused some problems.  I tried to get the next part without having the parts done that carry over into the next pages.  The list mom's wouldn't let me get away with that.  Don't know why.  It made me very unhappy for a couple of days and killed the fun I was having with it.  But finally, I did finish enough to make them happy and got the next part.  Here's part 1

Then I pulled out Spring Knotgarden.

Here's where you can really see the pink I changed in part one POP in the rhodes stitches that work around the corner.  I'm happy, but geez, this little bit repeats 8 times.  So it got put away again for a little while. 

Here's where Window is now.  I just finished all the "lead" in part 2 and will be stitching some red shortly.  I've got to pick out another movie first.  That's the problem with staying home sick and no cable.  You have to pick out new movies several times a day instead of just picking a channel. 

A WIP update and a finish!

I finally finished part 4 of Spring Knotgarden Sunday.  Almost didn't make it though...that last repeat almost did me in.  I persevered though and here's the result.

 Here's a closeup of the upper left corner.  I'm very happy with how the colors in the leaves blended together.

Tonight I finally finished the final part of Purple Garden stitched with the Sticklounge group.  To celebrate, I pulled out Petit Sampler which has not had any love for a while.

I almost forgot!  Welcome to my new followers!

Spring Knotgarden update

I finished the top half of Spring Knotgarden part four last night.  It is so sparkly in person!



I've also added Caribbean to my conversion page.

More Spring

Ahhh.  It's almost midnight again and about the only time of day when the house is quiet.  I don't have boys of the small variety or their larger variations wanting something from me.  I have time to stitch and to post pictures on the internet...of the stitchy variety.

Loved the blackwork!

Now, I've been working on Frosty Knotgarden again.  I have another corner with the dang roses finished and I've started on another side of repeats.  Maybe I'll get one done before I get bored of repeats again.



Conversions

I can't post an update pic of Spring Knotgarden yet since I seem to have left the camera cord at home, but I thought I would share my conversion from the charted colors to HDF.

I left all the DMC alone. 

Waterlilies
Sea Moss WL 128 - Steelies 2447
Frangipani WL 187 - Attar of Roses 1221
Iris WL 209 - Dark Wisteria

Edmar Rayon Iris
IR 311 - Dragon Claw

Thread Gatherer Silk 'n Colors
Dark Forest SNC 089 -Old Maid of the Forest
Golden Pines SNC 181 - Befrogged (I happened to have a little golden pines, this is really close)
Young Asparagus SNC 251 - Victorian Mint
Marsh Grasses SNC 252 - Cactus (this is an old color that is no longer available.  It was a custom color (3165/3151 thru the mini forum at HDF)

Gloriana
Winter Brook GLO 071 - Examplar Salty Sea

Thread Gatherer Silk Perle
Meadowgrass SP 10 975 - Underbelly (premium silk)

Dinky Dye Silk perle
Mint Ice DD P 008 - Mermaid Blue 2309 (Premium silk)

Dinky Dyes Silk
Lemon Sherbet DD 12 - Lt. French Artichoke

Hopefully pictures will be coming tonight!

Spring Knotgarden

Wow!  You don't know how good you've got it till you go somewhere it's worse.  The heat index here in Southeast Nebraska has been 110+ for the last week or more.  Wednesday, we headed to Oklahoma with a short layover in Wichita Kansas.  It was still hot there but it was after 9 when we got there.  Thursday, we went to Stillwater Oklahoma and tracked down an airplane that Ed wanted to get pictures of so he knew how to paint a model.  Yes, he is that kind of geek.  We also ate at Eskimo Joes and purchased the obligatory tee shirts at their store.  By the time we walked out of the restaurant it was over 100 degrees.  But it's a dry heat...yea right.  That doesn't turn me into a sweat ball any slower.

We eventually made it to Ed's folks' house.  But we were hardly there.  Between going to the "farm" so the grown up boys could play and going to Ed's sister to visit her pool so the littler boys could play, I know exactly how hot it is there and I did my best to hide from the heat in the a/c.  I mean really, when you're sitting in the shade not doing anything but a little stitching, should you have sweat just streaming down the small of your back?  I don't think so.

But we survived and have arrived home.  Now I have loads and loads of laundry to catch up on during the week.  But before I start that, here is a picture of Chatelaine's Spring Knotgarden through part 2.  I am 3/4 of the way through part 3 but didn't want to deal with moving the q-snaps with limited room going down a bumpy 2 lane highway.

Part three will probably be shown tomorrow. 

Now, time to go throw a pizza in the oven for supper and go face down those loads of laundry and move the q-snaps!

Last weekend I finally framed this little cutie for Joshua.  I stitched one of these dragons for both boys for Christmas and Jakob's has been sitting around because the glass was broken when I opened the package.  I just had to get a replacement piece of glass, pull the old one out and pop everything back in.  Then, in the interests of keeping everything fair, I framed Josh's too.  I think he's a little cutie!

Since I finished part 5 of Winter Watergarden, I started on part 2 of Spring Knotgarden.  This is as far as I got before I started hearing the call of another piece.  It's ok though.  This one doesn't have another part come out till July 1.  This way I don't get really bored with all four repeats this month. 

I've also changed my mind on a couple of the colors I orginally converted some of the silks to.  SNC 181 Golden Pines turned out to be really close to Befrogged.  I had a little of the SNC from a previous project and was very happy with the conversion.  Most of my conversions are done from pictures on my computer screen, but it's kind of nice to have the colors in hand.  Anyway, the Befrogged is the main leaf color for this part.  The other color is the stems.  This one started out as HDF Amber Waves and you can see it in the stems and leaves around the outside of the center pond in part one.  I really didn't like this color for the stems in part 2.  I came back with a custom color from the mini forums at HDF called Cactus.  It's got some nice varigation and seems to work much better with the colors of the flowers.  I'm still debating whether to frog the stems in part one or just leave them be.

 This is what was calling.  One Nation by Bygone Stitches.  I'm slowly making progress!

 Today, I pulled some silk to do a floss toss for Lizzie Kate's One Hundred Years.  It looks like a quick stitch.  I have none of the called for colors but went with similiar HDF colors instead.  I was drawn to the Be series of colors for this one.  My conversion is

Crescent Colors/HDF

Caterpillar/Beseeded

Cocoa Bean/Bemoiled

Ye Olde gold/Bewooded

Sampler Threads/HDF

Chives/Befrogged 

And here's my floss toss.  The fabric is what was left after I cut a piece for another project.  Don't remember what color it was right now though.  Butter cream, maybe?

Now, while my little boys are at a neighbor's house playing and the bigger variety is at a friend's house, I'm going to pull One Nation back out and see how far I can get tonight...while I think about what to make for supper.  I'm sure they'll all come home hungry!

Later!