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Caught Up At Last!

10/29/2013

Sort of! There are still three online classes/stitchalongs I haven't started yet but I do have the Bead Journal Project all caught up! The missing beads arrived yesterday and while their "matte" patina is a little more matte than the ones I started with, I don't think they stand out to much as different! Presenting the "Halloween Butterfly":

This butterfly's November and December relatives are all kitted up and ready to go so I should be able to keep on track for the rest of the year! Woo Hoo!

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2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-Three

10/28/2013

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Another week and not a lot to show for it. Inability to sleep through the night and inability to stay awake during the day probably has something to do with it.

Still, I did complete this week's TAST and I stitched on "Puppy Dog", finishing the blackwork fill stitches and getting started on the backstitch embellishments:

I expect it will be done well in time to get framed so I can gift it to our Westie-owned neighbor for Christmas!

I also got together the seam embellishments for the last two blocks for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project and the fabrics and beads for the last two Bead Journal Blocks (still waiting for the delivery of those last few purple beads for the October block so I can't claim to be caught up yet...), although I have done nothing with them since.

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Take a Stitch Tuesday 2013 - Stitch #86

10/25/2013

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This week's stitch was the Turkman stitch and here is my sample:

Again, it looks sort of, but not quite like, the example in the tutorial...

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2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-Two and IHSW for October...

10/21/2013

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This past week (and this International Hermit and Stitch Weekend) were spent on catch-up projects.

I started the week - and ended the weekend - by stitching away on the blackwork "Puppy Dog":

Most of the weekend, however, was spent on my October Bead Journal Project butterfly for October and I ALMOST finished it. Would have, too, if I hadn't run out of purple beads! Here it is so far, waiting for a bead delivery from Mill Hill, stitched on one of the Halloween fat quarters I got at quilt retreat last weekend:

If it weren't for those pesky ten or so beads, I could have claimed to be caught up! AAARGH! As it is, there is still "Roll Your Own" to start and the online classes from Janet Perry on background stitches and on stitch guides to complete as well as Take a Stitch Tuesday that can occupy my time this week while waiting for the mail!

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WIPocalypse 2013 - October

10/18/2013

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For October 2013, the WIPocaplypse themes are: Designer – Ink Circles, Style – Autumn, and Colors – Black and Orange.

I do have some Ink Circles in my to do bag --- 8 different mandalas along the same theme, with pone more to come --- an online class called "Roll Your Own". But while I've chosen my color scheme and kitted it out, I haven't started stitching yet.

Autumn is my favorite season and I have stitched autumn-style things before but nothing this month (or this year, for that matter). However, I did consider my last BJP butterfly autumnal so maybe that qualifies.

As for a black and orange color scheme, I am working on some blackwork. No orange though... just black!

Since the last check-in, I have been trying to catch up with my stitching schedule and have completed the following:

TAST - Spanish Feather Stitch (rather poorly), Siennese Stitch, the Spiked Knotted Cable Chain Stitch (again, rather poorly), and the Raised Cup Stitch (yet again, poorly)
Bead Journal Project - my August and my September butterflies
Crazy Quilt Journal Project - a red monochromatic block for October
a wall hanging made from the 12 blocks of the 2012 Color Palette/Crazy quilt Journal/Bead Journal Project challenges:
My quilt guild retreat challenge block, "Bling it On!" which won the prize for best use of embellishment at retreat!

My current stitching WIPS include:

the blackwork "Puppy Dog" from Ajisai ,

a cover for a fabric book (which will be made from my 2010 Bead Journal Project squares)
a Chinese Coins quilted throw - top in progress

Closer to being caught up but not quite...

I've barely unpacked from quilt retreat, laundry that took a couple of days, I have five ATCs to complete for a swap and one Halloween card for a challenge, my friends and I are taking the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 class together (and we are already behind on that), and my satellite stopped delivering HD channels to my DVR so I have to sit around today and wait for a service call (and hope it is in the cable, NOT in the DVR, because if it's the latter, I will lose quite a lot of programs I had yet to watch, not the least being four Shakespeare plays form the PBS "Great Performances" series). Still unstarted on the stitchery front are the "Roll Your Own" mandalas by Ink Circles (that theme-related online-class), a background stitch journal by Janet Perry (another online class), a stitch guide practicum by Janet Perry (yet another online class), and my October Bead Journal Project butterfly! At least the November Crazy Quilt Journal block is assembled and ready to go next month!

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Take a Stitch Tuesday 2013 - Stitch #85

10/16/2013

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This stitch, the Raised Cup Stitch is the latest in the Take a Stitch series of tutorials.

My attempt is somewhat pathetic --- I have trouble seeing the stitches and am not sure but that I made my knots too tight and too close together. The second one, a little smaller to start with, was an attempt to make it flare by doubling the number of second row stitches, Didn't work; just got taller, but it looks better than my first attempt. Oh well... Yet another on this page of stitches that needs a do over...

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2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-One

10/14/2013

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After finishing the September BJP and the October Crazy Quilt Journal blocks early in the week, I spent a day gathering together projects to take to the quilt guild retreat and then the weekend working on them and a little bit more.

Retreat was entitled "Bling It On!" and was held at Our Lady of the Pines, a retreat center run by the Sisters of Mercy in Fremont Ohio. There were forty guild members there, elbow to elbow in one of the center's meeting rooms, which you might think would not be conducive to quilting but there were a lot of pieces started and finished in this weekend, as well as two demonstrations and (for some, not for me) shopping trips to nearby quilt shops. No television and very few bars for the phone or the tablet made for a time with no interruptions, while the beautiful grounds (some 65 acres of gardens) gave one respite from sewing when needed. And luckily, the weather held!

I cleared the decks of a one project and got a couple more started. The completed project was my 2012 Color Palette/Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal Project wall hanging:

It needs a hanging sleeve and a label but, otherwise, it's off my to-do list! Woo Hoo!

Really, all if needed was batting, backing and binding as I had already pieced the top, but after some consideration, I bailed on the binding idea and simply did an envelope backing like I did for my 2011 BJP wall hanging back in January of this year!

One of the favors at lunch the first day was a kit for a very small grandmother's flower garden flower. I stitched mine together:

and after looking it over, realized it matched perfectly with a blue fabric I had brought with me as possible sashing and backing for another planned quilt. So, I decided to use the flower and some blue and chocolate fabrics to make a cover for my 2010 BJP squares, and turn the lot into a book. I hand appliqued the flower to the blue and layered it with batting and chocolate fabric to create the cover.

I need to stitch the 12 beaded pieces to a "spine" that I can stitch to the cover and I will have something that I can display those blocks in, once it has been truly "embellished". This is truly just a work in progress right now --- I have to search out the online reference I had discovered for making a book... and then I will get back to work on it. Meanwhile, it's on the back burner.

The other project I worked on was that "Unstarted Project" that was proposed at one of my first quilt guild meetings - a Chinese Coins lap quilt. I had already stitched a strip set at Quilt Work Day September 14, from which I cut three 5.5" strips before I left. When I got to the retreat, I cut some 1" blue strips to edge each strip and some 5.5" chocolate to act as sashing. When sewing the first blue strip to the pieced strips, I found that one had been mis-cut which meant I had to shorten the pieced strips by 6 ". This necessitated a design change, with top and bottom borders, which I had not planned on doing. Still, by the time retreat was over, I had four pieced strips ready to assemble for the top:

Oh, and my "Bling it On!" challenge block? It won "best use of embellishments" at retreat!

One other accomplishment (for me) this weekend: I managed to drive over an hour to a place I had never been before (*and* back) and NOT get lost! For me, who hates to drive and who can get lost in a closet, that is a minor miracle!

After arriving home Sunday afternoon, I fed three demanding cats who claimed to be starving to death, unpacked my car, and immediately fell asleep catching up on email. Later that night, I took out "Puppy Dog" and put in some time on the second page of the chart:

Now, it's laundry time, the fridge needs cleaning out an the beds need changing out, and I have to kit out the October BJP. Luckily, I won some Halloween-themed fat quarters at retreat so one of them is bound to work for my October butterfly...

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October Crazy Quilt Journal Project Block

10/10/2013

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The last of the monochromatic reds:

Experimented with "ribbon embroidery" although it doesn't work as well with the ribbons I had as it would have done if I had had silk ribbon but... there is a dragonfly more (or less) "after" the one described by "Let's Learn Embroidery's" Twisted Ribbon Dragonfly (My grosgrain would NOT stay twisted! The ribbon that did - a sparkly dark red, would have looked fabulous BUT it wouldn't go through the fabric so I had to settle!). It doesn't stand out as much as I had hoped it would... live and learn, I guess.

Now, on to getting ready for quilt guild and guild retreat and to kitting out the October BJP!

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Catching Up!

10/8/2013

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My September butterfly for the Bead Journal Project. I call it Autumn Leaves but, as my husband so kindly informed me, I put it on the wrong background. This butterfly has assumed camoflage!

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2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty

10/7/2013

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I made a particular attempt this week to start catching up with various deadlines so, after stitching a few days on the blackwork "Puppy Dog" - and completing the first page of fill patterns:

I kitted up and started stitching on the September 2013 Bead Journal Project butterfly:

and began embellishment of the October Crazy Quilt Journal Project block:

In addition, I started getting "go bags" together for a crafting night with my friends in Toledo (we are working through the Tim Holtz "Creative Chemistry 102" online class which starts this week) and the quilt guild retreat (which meant cutting 5.5" strips from the strip set I stitched up at quilt work day in September and pulling together all the fabrics and notions I will need for a weekend of quilting, as well as adding backing and batting to my "Bling it On!" block).

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<<Previous

Caught Up At Last!

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-Three

Take a Stitch Tuesday 2013 - Stitch #86

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-Two and IHSW for October...

WIPocalypse 2013 - October

Take a Stitch Tuesday 2013 - Stitch #85

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty-One

October Crazy Quilt Journal Project Block

Catching Up!

2013 - Reconnect to My Stitchery, Week Forty

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