TUSAL Time & Canvaswork Crazies

Well, the calendar on the wall indicates that today is the new moon, which naturally means that it’s time for this month’s TUSAL:

 

The jar certainly took a respectable jump this past month – mostly because I seem to have come down with a case of Canvaswork Crazies….  Ever since I finished Golden Reminiscence I’ve been on a tear through canvaswork projects of old.  I’ve even finished one of them:

 

 

Triangulations

by Anna Marie Winter

Stitched on 18-count White Mono Canvas

with Kreinik Silk Mori, Silk Serica, #4 & #8 braid, Paillettes & Mill Hill Beads

 

This was a class piece from the CreativFestival at some point in the last few years.  I really love this piece and don’t know why I didn’t drag it out sooner to finish it.  It’s just pretty, pretty, pretty.

 

Then, since I had an urge for more canvaswork, out came this piece:

 

This piece is called Solitary Flight and again, it’s a piece by Anna Marie Winter that was taught at the CreativFestival at some point in the last few years.  I’m working my way through the background in a braided fence pattern in 5 strands of Silk Mori.  It’s highly soothing and repetitive.  I have a bad case of waste knot-itis and I really need to trim and bury ends…..  (Although if I leave them, I’ll soon be stitching over them and they’ll bury themselves – much less work for me!).  Once the background is done I’ll be stitching a gorgeous dragonfly over the background.  You can see the finished piece here (scroll down a bit – it’s partway down the page – and I really, really want the 5 fans kimono & the golden kimono now…. Reflections is in my stash already….)

 

I think I’ll head back to the stitching chair for a little more time with Solitary Flight’s background…..

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s day has swung round again – no doubt the florists and card companies are jumping for joy today.

 

I’ve been working a little bit this month – but not much at all in comparison to this past fall.  I’m enjoying the time off, which I’m spending with a needle in my hand.  Here’s what I’ve been working on (sorry for the wrinkles – I’m still without decent iron – hoping to remedy that situation in April at the spring CreativFestival….)

 

First up – LoTD:

 

 

I finished backstitching Majesty and worked on the border for Magic.  It’s slow going, but I’m still enjoying it.

 

Then I dug this old WIP out of the pile – and finished it in less than an hour…..

 

This is from a class I took at the CreativFestival back in 2009.  It needs to be finished into a needle roll and there’s a little pattern darning to do on the edges yet, but the stitching is complete.  It’s so pretty!  It’s from Dragon Dreams.

 

Heather passed on a kit that she started, but was unable to finish because the fibres are all wool – and she’s allergic to it.  We have extraordinarily similar tastes in things, so I was quite happy to be the recipient of this little kit.  I’m about half done:

 

It will finish into a needlebook when it’s done – but I’d better finish the stitching first!

 

And then, because my resistance was low (not that it’s ever particularly high when it comes to starting new projects…..), I started this:

 

This is ‘Love them or eat them’ which was a class taught at last fall’s CreativFestival.  Another Dragon Dreams piece.  I couldn’t take the class, but Jen was kind enough to let me buy an extra kit from her.  I really wanted to start this when I first got it, but kept resisting.  I finally gave up.  I’m enjoying the stitch – need to dig out more DMC 890 for the dragon’s tail – I managed to run out. 

 

Then, after spending so much time making little x’s, it started to get to me, so naturally, I picked up a mostly-finished canvaswork piece and polished it off:

 

Golden Reminiscence

by Carolyn Mitchell

Stitched on 18-count sage mono canvas

using Caron Antica, Waterlilies, Impressions, Soie Cristale, Watercolours

 

The colours in this piece aren’t really ‘me’ at all, but I did enjoy the stitching.  The Antica (it was used for all the sashing on the outside of the design) just about killed me.  Antica rates right up there with DMC metallics for ornery-ness as a fibre.  It looks to be a knitted metallic, so if you catch it wrong, it unravels…..  I caught it wrong more than once.  I’m not counting the exact number of times, but let’s just say that the ORT jar got fuller this month because of it.

 

Being winter, I have my bird feeder up to keep the little feathered friends happy (and provide some entertainment for Mojo, the stone deaf cat)…..  Last year I had a female cardinal that took up residence on my windowsill and loved to watch TV.  Imagine my surprise when, a year later, she has shown up on my windowsill again:

 

(I had to turn on the TV to get her to stay long enough to catch a picture of her – if the TV isn’t on, she lands, looks in then takes off again.  If the TV is on, she’ll stay for at least 5 minutes before flying off again….)  I never would have thought that she would remember the window ledge and TV watching a year later….  We’re trying to decide upon a name for her, since it seems she (and her hubby – he doesn’t ledge-sit though) have adopted us.

 

Well, that about sums up things in this little corner of the world.  Hope you’re spending the day with someone you love!

First TUSAL of 2012, a finish, a gift & some progress

Well, that about sums it up…..

 

It’s the first new moon of 2012 and that means time for the first TUSAL post of the year.  I dumped out my ORTs from 2011 so my jar is pretty empty:

 

It has a good amount of ORTs in it – but not because of excessive stitching – more excessive frogging…..  Remember my New Year’s start?  It looked like this a couple of weeks ago:

 

And I thought I was doing quite well for only having worked on it for a few hours……  And then my good friend Froggy stopped by….  I discovered (much to my dismay) that I am completely and totally incapable of counting.  For some reason, this is news to me.  Despite repeated illustrations to the contrary, I persist in this odd belief that having a degree in Mathematics enables me to count.  It does not.  Just sayin’……

 

So I discovered that the entire border from the pink quaker-ish flower on the left, all the way around (counter-clockwise) to the top most pink quaker-ish flower at the top was off.  By one lousy thread.  Not one stitch, but one thread.  I discovered this issue shortly after I took the above picture.  Soooooo – all the border got frogged (I couldn’t fudge it no matter how I tried)….  And my ORT jar got fuller.

 

But this project grabbed me ‘round the middle and after all the frogging (and ordering of replacement fibres), I fixed my error and finished it off in no time at all!  Here it is, all pretty and finished:

 

Moon Garden – Loose Feathers #8

by Blackbird Designs

Stitched on 28 count Raisin Cashel hand-dyed linen by Picture this Plus

with recommended GAST fibres

 

I am totally in love with this piece.  It’s not my usual style at all, yet for reasons unknown, I fell in love and stitched it up in record time (frogging aside!)…..

 

I didn’t abandon all my other projects for Moon Garden – LoTD got some attention too – Majesty is all backstitched now:

 

And I’m moving on to Magic – but I’ll stitch the border first!  I worked a little on CdC as well, but didn’t make enough progress to take a picture.

 

(BTW, sorry for the wrinkly, dark pictures – my beloved Rowenta iron bit the dust in the last couple of weeks and I only have an iron that likes to spit crap all over fabric at random and I won’t put *that* near my stitching….  I’m on the hunt for a replacement iron….)

 

And just last Friday, I was lucky enough to spend the day in the company of Heather and we had a little adventure together.  We headed off to the Bata Shoe Museum and wandered around there (fascinating place – I never thought that much about shoes before but their evolution and cultural differentiations were really quite interesting) and then had a wonderful lunch at a Japanese place.  It was a lovely time spent with a friend.

 

Now Heather and I usually exchange Christmas gifts of some nature every year but it seemed like everything conspired against us so we couldn’t wrangle some time together before this past Friday.  It was probably just as well in the end though – I had ordering issues (I swear some of what I bought for Heather came via outer Mongolia or some other far flung destination rather than North America….)….. 

 

Heather spoiled me rotten, rotten, rotten this year.  Here’s what I found in my happy possession:

 

(it was so pretty and beautifully wrapped that I took this picture, then stared at the contents for about 20 minutes as I didn’t want to rip any of it open!  Heather sewed the bag – isn’t it wonderful?)……

 

Finally giving into temptation, I tore away all the wrappings to find these lovely goodies within:

 

 

lotion and body wash and hand sanitizer!

Then I found this:

 

the yummiest smelling soap I’ve ever come across (smells just like a shortbread cookie!)  Yum!

Then I found this:

 

 

Notecards and a note book (need coffee!!!!!!! Well, at least one in the morning to get my eyes open anyway…..)

 

AND then (yes, there was *more*):

 

Isn’t that the most adorable little snowman?  My youngest DS tried to make off with it, but I rescued him.  And a skein of a gorgeous Thread Gather Silk….  Yummy!

 

Aren’t I the luckiest thing?  Thanks so much Heather!  I love every little thing!

 

Well, that about sums up my last couple of weeks.  Work is picking up steam again so time may be tight – I hope to spend some time with my needle though!

Happy New Year & Last TUSAL for 2011

Well, well, well, here it is 2012 and nary a post for the last month of 2011.  All I can say is that it got pretty busy over in my neck of the woods, and I got pretty lazy in the posting department.

 

I did know I needed to post my TUSAL update on Christmas Eve and I had good intentions.  However, DH conspired again to make things challenging.  Remember when I started posting TUSAL updates last January?  And I had to do a major retrieval of my ORTs after hubby threw them out?  Well, I didn’t have to do a garbage retrieval, but I did have to go on a seek-and-find mission to figure out what the heck he’d done with my ORT jar…..  My hubby kindly did a ton of holiday decorating this year – and tidied up the mantel where my ORT jar was living….and put it…..  Well, that took some figuring out.  I tried all the logical places, then went to the illogical and found it on a high shelf in a box in a closet that I almost never open since I don’t put things in that closet anyway….  It’s generally next to empty….. Yes, I could have asked him, but he’s been on conference calls all day, so it’s hard to interrupt and ask where my ORT jar is hiding!

 

Needless to say, ORT jar has been found, and picture finally taken.  The ORT jar isn’t sitting in its usual locale due to Christmas decorations, so it had to pose for its beauty shot elsewhere this month:

 

 

Not a bad amount of threads in there overall. Now I can dump it out and start again for 2012.  Some of the threads added this month are from sewing rather than stitching.  Sadly I had a major catastrophe on one thing I was sewing as a gift for a friend and now need to start over again.  And no, I’m giving no other details.  She reads this blog!

 

As to what else contributed to the jar this past month – mostly I’ve worked on this:

 

 

(yes it is both blurry and crooked – me and the camera aren’t getting along today)….  All that is left to do on this block is the backstitch on the dragon.  It looks so pretty and I’m looking forward to moving on to the next block.  It stitched up pretty quickly too.

 

And for the first time in many years, I decided to allow myself a New Year’s start.  I don’t typically do this as there are certainly enough projects around here that need attention, but I had a real urge to start something that I’ve wanted to stitch for ages and ages:

 

 

This is the start of Moon Garden by Blackbird Designs.  It’s not my usual style, but something about the dark linen and the soft colours of this piece got me hook, line and sinker.  I saw it on someone’s blog and fell in love.  Then I haunted e-bay to find the chart (it’s Loose feathers #8 and hard to find) and paid more for it than I probably should have.  It has languished in my stash fully kitted for at least a year and a half.  It’s stitching up really quickly and I’m really loving it so far.  I’m stitching it on a 28-count PTP fabric called Raisin.

 

Back to the stitching corner!

TUSAL Time Again….

I seem to have missed the new moon by a couple of days.  I thought I entered the correct date in my todo list, but I guess I didn’t.  Oh well!  Better late than never, right?

 

Here’s the ORT jar as it stands today:

 

There haven’t been a ton of additions from last month as I really haven’t had much time to stitch.  Work has been crazy busy, to say the least.  I’ve worked every day in November except 3.  Even my fellow scientists have commented that they’ve been unusually busy this November.  Needless to say, by the time evening rolls around and I might have time to stitch, I’m often too tired to manage it.  It’s hard to put a needle through the correct hole when your vision is too blurry to be sure which hole to put the needle through!  On the up side, I only work Monday and Tuesday this week and then I’m off until Dec. 5th and after that, I don’t work again until January!  I’m looking forward to some time off – mostly so that I can finally recover from the seemingly endless series of colds I’ve had since the end of September.  I’ve lost my voice twice and gone through enough tissues that I think I should be sponsored by a tissue company.  I have started to feel better in the last couple of days and I think I may be back to ‘normal’ in another few days.  (normal is in quotes because who really knows what normal is?  Most of the time I figure normal is just a setting on the washing machine…..)

 

More pictures, you say?  Okay – here’s what I’ve finished since last month:

 

Snowman Kisses

by Cherrywood Design Studio

Stitched on 28-count Cashel ‘Blue Frost’ from Enchanting Lair

using DMC and GAST

 

I can’t help but smile every time I see this little piece.  Now I know how snowmen can kiss and not have their heads roll away on them! 

 

CdC has received a little bit of needle time:

 

 

Not nearly as much time as it should be getting, but I’ll get back to it soon.

 

Last night I couldn’t settle to work on anything, yet I really wanted to stitch.  So, I rummaged through my stitching basket and this piece caught my attention and decided to come out to play again:

 

This is my Legends of the Dragons.  I am totally in love with this piece and always have been.  I started it ages ago as a SAL on the TWBB, but for reasons that make no sense, I stopped working on it.  So, it’s back out and I’m going to work on it some more.  I really needed a good dragon fix.  Doesn’t everyone?

 

The day after Halloween, I came home from work to find this little vignette:

 

Looks like Mojo is cuddling up to Hazel – maybe she heard Hazel calling ‘here kitty, kitty’?

Cue the band….

Because I actually finished something!  Look:

 

Halloween Rules by Lizzie*Kate

Stitched on 32-count Chestnut linen from Wichelt

using recommended Crescent Colors, GAST & WDW

 

I liked this piece from the first moment I saw it online.  Something about the tombstones at the top caught my eye and hence my needle.  I still wish the skeleton looked like a mummy, but I’m learning to live with it.  I totally hated the linen!  Felt like sandpaper in my hands.  But, I bought this project all kitted up and that’s what came in the kit.  I have no idea what I’ll do with this now that it’s finished.  At least it’s done before Halloween!  Here are a few close-ups:

 

Last weekend was my weekend to run away to Gananoque and help with running a fabulous retreat.  I always have a ton of fun running this retreat and spending the weekend with a great group of ladies.  I keep hoping for more time to stitch at this retreat, but it just never seems to happen – there are always tons of other things that I need to do!  It’s hard to mind too much though – I’m having far too much fun!

 

But, Saturday evening I finally did manage to put needle to fabric for just a little while….  CdC came out to play and I knocked off another motif.  Here’s a picture of the whole thing so far and a close up of the motif I finished:

 

 

Still loving this piece!

 

And then because I have the resistance of a gnat, I discovered some lovely new patterns at retreat (that’s a whole ‘nother post!), I had to start one of them:

 

This is an adorable piece from Cherrywood Design Studio called ‘Snowman Kisses’.  I’m stitching it on a piece of 28-count opalescent linen from Enchanting Lair called Blue Frost.  It’s turning out so darned cute!  I’m using the DMC conversion mostly, except for the pale blue colour that is used for some of the snowflakes down the side.  The DMC recommendation was far too bright for my tastes and clashed horribly with the linen, so I’m using the recommended GAST (Huckleberry) for that.  I didn’t even have to go rummage in the stash heap to find the GAST – for reasons known only to the heavens, when I got home from retreat, a skein of Huckleberry was hanging on my floor stand, just waiting for me to start stitching.  Isn’t it funny how that happens sometimes?  Maybe it only happens to me…..

 

I’m late again getting my ORTs posted for the TUSAL…..  No matter how many reminders I set up for myself, I seem to be unable to put camera, ORTs and computer together on the right day….  Anyway, here’s this month’s addition to the ORT jar:

 

Halloween is only a couple of days away and I have slowly been putting out all my decorations.  I admit to being slow getting things out this year because of one thing that’s so hard for me to look at:

 

 

There’s Hazel ready to greet the trick or treaters, but she’s got no Callie on her lap to keep her company in the meantime.  It’s the first year in many where I look over at Hazel and don’t see my furry friend trying hard to get Hazel to pet her.  You can see a couple of previous years of the Callie and Hazel love-in here and here.  I still miss Callie.

TUSAL Time

Time has managed to escape from me again.  How does that keep happening?

 

My electronic to-do list told me that today was TUSAL day, so I hauled out the camera and managed a picture for this month:

 

Another good quantity of additions to the jar this month.

 

Here’s what I’ve been working on for the past month….

 

First up, an actual finish:

 

Season of Love

by Country Cottage Needleworks

Stitched on random 28-count hand-dyed (unsure of dyer)

with recommended DMC/WDW/GAST

 

This piece is from last year’s sneak peek ornament issue (at least I think it is – I’m not entirely sure!) from JCS.  I started it ages and ages ago and it just languished in the WIP pile.  It finally got some time and attention over the last month.  It turned out larger than I expected – not sure how it’ll look when it gets ornament-ified.  *shrug*

 

And I’ve been making some progress on Halloween Rules as well:

 

 

Close ups of the finished blocks….

 

The whole shebang so far.

 

I’ve only got 3 blocks to go before it’s finished.  I only have one little issue with the patterns – why does it say mind your mummy, but there’s a skeleton in the picture?  Oh well!  I still like the piece.

 

Work is starting to ramp up for me now.  My first presentation of the school year is this Friday.  I’m looking forward to getting back to work.