But I did squeeze in stitching in the odd moments and here is what I accomplished!
Band seven for the "Mystery Band Sampler" (here is a photo of bands 1 - 7):
Carol Stitches |
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Wondering if week 13 is unlucky... It was for my alma mater's women's basketball team when they got beaten by Rutgers Monday night. And of course, since it was a home game, I HAD to go so that was a night I couldn't stitch... Add in a couple of deaths of friends and, yes, week 13 wasn't a totally good week! But I did squeeze in stitching in the odd moments and here is what I accomplished! Band seven for the "Mystery Band Sampler" (here is a photo of bands 1 - 7): The basic block for the April Crazy Quilt Journal Project: One color and a start on a second in "Reloaded" (I would have been further along but I had to rip out two of the lighter green patches when I discovered I had stitched the crosses in the wrong direction! AAACK!): I have three sympathy cards to make - time away from stitching. Two mornings (EARLY mornings, Thursday and Friday) on the telephone banks for the local NPR station and a play at the University Saturday night will further cut into stitching time. And since the TAST for this week is in (two more stitches) and I have a Bead Journal ATC ornament to begin (it's sketched out and the beads have been selected but otherwise...), but I am anxiously awaiting paperwork from our accountant re income taxes so...it looks like week fourteen is going to be a slim stitching week as well. Oh well, life does sometime interfere!
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Snow today (heavy and with winds so it's drifting - predicted somewhere around 8"), I need to make a casserole for quilt guild Thursday night and we are expecting house guests either Sunday or Monday so stitching won't be a priority this week, I fear. But that's OK because this past month has been a "Stitchathon" at Cross Stitch Crazy and I managed to participate since I had all my February non-stitchy deadlines accomplished when it started. I put in a total of 14826 stitches between February 10 and March 9! Contributing to this stitch count were "Roll Your Own" (part one), "Save the Stitches" (first three blocks), and Wiehenburg Designs' "Mystery Band Sampler" (first five bands)! Basically, this is three non-completion completions since all three are shaping up to be long-term BAPs! Here is the Wiehenburg Designs' "Mystery Band Sampler" so far: stitched 3 over 2 on 32ct Jazlyn (yet more of that "Iris Garden" overdye - I must have liked it because my stash is full of small cuts of it!) using ThreadworX (AKA NeedleNecessities) "Mosaic" - color 1138 (two-plus skeins of which are left-overs from "Kimono-Revisited")! I also got started on the outline for part 2 of "Roll Your Own", called "Reloaded": and while it didn't count toward my stitch count, I also completed my March Crazy Quilt Journal Project block: and made a start on my March Bead Journal ATC-sized ornament: The next Take a Stitch Tuesday stitch arrived in my inbox on Tuesday but I haven't had a chance to do more than print out the instructions. It's time to dig out a new cut of fabric and switch out the threads being used because the current fabric cut is nearly full and I'm not sure the new stitch will fit on it!
Got in some stitching on my Crazy Quilt Journal block for February, where I carried on with some of the Hoffman Challenge fabrics for 2014: and Sharon B came up with a new stitch for Take a Stitch Tuesday: The Eastern Stitch (or Egyptian Buttonhole Stitch), which I tried stitching three ways:
Let's see --- we spent a week surpassing the all-time snow record for January (previously held in the year of the Blizzard of '78): we are now at 50.2" for the month! Heck, we are only 20 inches away from the all-time seasonal snow record (also held in that season of the Blizzard of '78)! And it was another week with bone-numbing wind chills, wind and blowing snow (now they are talking about the Big Chill of 14!): not only are propane users being asked to cut their use, so are natural gas and electricity users! It seems this cold is putting a strain on our now-exporting petrochemical industry! PTHAH! Anyway, Husband spent a great deal of time clearing the driveway (and then himself) of accumulated snow: only to have it blow back over the cleared space. So it would seem to have been a week of staying in and stitching, right? Well, I stayed in, but I didn't increase my stitching output that much. "Roll Your Own" is slow-moving and I seem to miscount as much as I count right so there was a lot of frogging mid-week. But the first mandala is half-outlined: I tried to break up the eye-numbing counting by doing some easier-on-the eyes prep work. I stitched up the basic block for the February installment of Crazy Quilt Project: and kitted out the ATC piece for my February Bead Journal Project piece: I ordered fabric for the Elizabeth Almond "Save a Stitch" blackwork sampler SAL (Gee, that's going to be one BAP!) and I also did a little card-making and a little organizing of my craft space (and by little, I mean VERY little!). Other than that, it was trying to keep up with various housework duties and spending WAY too much time on my iPad playing solitaire!
In addition to keeping on schedule with my bead journal project, I also managed to keep on schedule with my Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2014 block: The focus fabric is the 2014 Hoffman Challenge fabric, which I intend to us in each block this year, along with a lot of solids and maybe even a few of the coordinating Hoffman prints. This is a departure for me in colors (I'm not usually a pastel person) and style (not that much into florals either) but I think trying to to make this work for 12 blocks will be "my" challenge. I decided to limit my thread selection to those which mimic the colors in the print and limit the beads to an occasional accent, rather than an encrusting. I also and started the outlining of the daisy petals on "Ladybug & Daisy" : On the 11th, I sat in on a Funk & Weber webinar on finishing embroidery and, as a result, signed up for four online finishing classes throughout 2014. That totally breaks my resolution to avoid more online classes and deadlines, doesn't it? But if I can get some of those unfinished finishes off that pile and into something displayable or useful, it will be worth it.
The snow is almost, but not quite, gone - melted thanks to a day of rain and two days of near 50* weather. However, there is ore snow forecast for the next four days --- not much, but enough to foreshadow another temperature dip to below freezing, Thankfully, they do NOT think it will rival that below zero weather of the past week. Still, it bodes well for stitching time... |
AuthorBorn in New Jersey, I grew up in Southeastern Ohio. Attended university at Bowling Green State University (B.Sci in biological science, 1964), University of Southern California (M. Sci in biological science, 1967) and University of Florida (Ph. D in zoology, 1971). Archives
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