Homespun Elegance, Mill Hill, WIPocalypse, Works in Progress

WIPocalypse – August 2018

2015 WIPocalypseI managed to avoid a lot of my other crafts for a while this month, and got a bit more progress under my belt for my cross stitch WIPs. Reviewing my year’s goals last month lit a bit of a fire under me, I think, and got me to focus on ticking off a few more items if I could.

The first thing I did was to find three smaller, older WIPs and finished them all off … that means one more  done on my list!

“Starry Snowman” ornament by Homespun Elegance
from 1998 JCS Christmas Ornament issue
Stitched on 28ct Cashel linen (colour putty??)
with recommended DMC threads

Sue Hillis Design-Spool Ornament

“Spool Ornament” by Sue Hillis Design
from 2007 JCS Christmas Ornament issue
Stitched on 28ct antique white Cashel linen
with recommended DMC threads
All I needed to do was to add the buttons and it was finished!

A small Hardanger design I did myself

After I did that wee burst of quick finishes, I decided to go back to Mill Hill’s Three Kings and put some serious progress into this one over one weekend.  I intend continuing on this one now until the two kings are fully finished – I only have a couple more stitches to do on the right-hand king before starting the back-stitching and then the beading. It’s not the easiest fabric to stitch on at night, so it’s more of a weekend project while I have a bit of daylight to work with.

How it looked when I started (ie where I finished during the last session):

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And how it looks now … I can’t wait to start adding the beads to this and seeing this piece really come to life!!

Mill Hill-Three Kings

Now on to the monthly question, and review of the year’s goal progress to date – it’s been fun ticking a few items off the list finally. I can’t see me reaching many of these goals by the end of the year, but I’ve made more progress this year on goals that I ever have I think … it’s been fun!

26 August – Which is more satisfying to you and why – the process of stitching a piece, or the finish?
I think it’s more the process of stitching than the finishes themselves, but in saying that I do love to see the final stitches go into something as well, especially if it’s been a tedious project that I’d kind of fallen out of love with. It’s still all about the ‘process’, though, in the end.

Rosewood Manor, WIPocalypse, Works in Progress

WIPocalypse – July 2018

2015 WIPocalypseOops, I totally forgot to post my July WIPocalypse update. Time for a quick catch-up before the August WIPocalypse is due!!

While I’ve been really busy stitching during the month, there hasn’t been a great deal of progress done on my actual WIPs, so not too much to share.  I managed a bunch of canvaswork new starts (and finishes) during the last month (see my previous blog post), and a bunch of crochet (my latest learning craze) … cross-stitch, sadly, has been taking a bit of a back seat.

I did, however, manage to do a wee bit more work on Quaker Diamonds … enough to complete the entire bottom section of the chart, and managing to tick one more item off on my goals list for the year, woohoo! This is how it looked at the end of my last WIPocalypse post:

Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor 24Jun2018

And how it looked at the end of June:

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After I finished the bottom section, I moved on to spend a few hours on Mill Hill’s Three Kings.  Not a lot of progress was done, because it’s difficult to stitch at night, but it’s getting closer and closer to finishing off the middle king, and getting ready to do some beading very very soon.

How it looked when I started:

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And how it looks now:

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Now on to the monthly question, and review of the year’s goal progress to date – it’s been fun ticking a few items off the list finally. I can’t see me reaching many of these goals by the end of the year, but I’ve made more progress this year on goals that I ever have I think … it’s been fun!

Half-year recap: How are you doing with your goals so far this year?

Cross stitch and embroidery

  1. √ Starfish by Mill Hill – DONE √
  2. √ Red by Mirabilia (in a blue conversion) – DONE √
  3. √ Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor – 20 hours (ie two rotation slots) or two larger motifs completed – DONE √
  4. Red Lace Sewing Case by The Drawn Thread (X not touched yet)
  5. Egyptian Garden Mandala by Chatelaine (X not touched yet)
  6. Quaker Christmas II by ByGone Stitches (X not touched yet)
  7. When Witches Go Riding by The Prairie Schooler (X not touched yet)
  8. Three Kings by Mill Hill/Jim Shore – finish two of the three kings in the centre (X in progress)
  9. Progress on three other UFOs/WIPs, yet to be decided (X not touched yet)

Other needlework WIPs:

  1. √ Flight of the Bumblebees by Ruth Schmuff – DONE √
  2. Hearts & Berries by Marg Low (X not touched yet)
  3. Make a Christmas Wish by Marg Low (X not touched yet)
  4. Travel Cord Buddy by Michelle Marvig (X not touched yet)
  5. Stumpwork (X not touched yet)

New starts:

  1. √ Start (and hopefully finish) at least two canvaswork projects – DONE √: 1) Earth Spirit by Northern Pine Designs; 2) Holiday Square by Laura J Perin
  2. Start a new HAED (X not touched yet)
  3. Choose a project (or two) that has specialty stitches – eg hardanger, band sampler (X in progress)

Crochet

My goals here are much loftier than the cross stitch goals – but probably important to keep the impetus up while I’m learning so that the lessons I learn are more ingrained into my brain cells!

  1. √ Finish my striped blanket – DONE √
  2. Make at least one (hopefully different) granny square or other blanket square every week (X not touched yet – will not complete)
  3. √ Complete at least three months crochet projects from “Crate Crochet” – DONE √
  4. √ Make a coffee cup cuff – DONE √
  5. Small granny square pincushion (X not touched yet)
  6. Make a shawl (X not touched yet)
  7. Start an Atlanticus (mandala) blanket (X not touched yet)
  8. Restart my Spice of Life blanket (X not touched yet)

Quilting

  1. Make some small pincushions (X not touched yet)
  2. A very simple goal here of starting a queen-sized bed patchwork quilt for myself (X not touched yet)
  3. Maybe start my Piece and Plenty quilt (X not touched yet)
  4. Maybe start my The Blue Collection quilt (but highly unlikely) (X not touched yet)

 

Canvaswork, Finishes, Laura J Perin, Needle Delights Originals, Uncategorized, Works in Progress

A canvaswork stitching spree

I’ve been on a recent canvaswork roll – a couple of smaller projects started me on the way to getting my canvaswork bug back in a big way, so I’ve been putting a few larger projects onto stretcher bars and making some good progress. I’ve really been enjoying getting back into the swing of things 🙂

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“Holiday Square” freebie by Laura J Perin
Stitched on 18ct mono canvas
with recommended threads
Finished 15 July 2018

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“Medley Miniature” (kit) by Anna-Marie Winter
Stitched on 18ct mono canvas
with kit threads (silks and metallics)
Started 15 July – Finished 16 July 2018

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“Double Delights – Charbleu” by Needle Delights Originals
Stitched on 18ct mono canvas
with recommended threads
Started 16 July 2018 – Finished 22 July 2018

As well as these smaller finishes, I’ve also made significant progress on another Laura J Perin design, Seaside Blues … I’m really loving stitching this one sooooo much, the colours are truly stunning and right up my alley!!

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Blue Ribbon Designs, Christmas Ornaments, Finishes, Lizzie Kate, The Little Stitcher, Uncategorized

Finishes from earlier in the year

Oops, for some reason I forgot to post the following Christmas ornament finishes from the start of the year … bad, bad blogger!!

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“Warm hands, warm heart” by The Little Stitcher
from 2017 JCS Christmas ornament issue
Stitched on 32ct Vintage Belfast linen
with Gloriana silks instead of DMC
Finished 3 March 2018

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“Frosty Friends” by Blue Ribbon Designs
Stitched on 40ct hand-dyed Newcastle linen by Countrystitch
I chose random silk threads to use instead of the charted threads
Finished 25 March 2018

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“Very Merry” by Lizzie*Kate
from 2017 Just Cross Stitch Christmas ornament issue
Stitched on 32ct Lambswool linen by Wichelt
using my choice of threads
Finished 25 March 2018