"In honor of “Leap Year,” tell the story of a time you had to make some sort of a “leap” in stitching – taking the chance on a new style of stitching, attending a meetup or class, etc."
I have taken several "leaps" in my stitching...
To begin:
- A room-mate taught me to knit while I was senior in college (56 years ago! AAACK!!). I evolved into booties and then two disastrous sweaters. Although I loved cables, I learned my lesson from sweaters and now I do afghans and scarves! Tried crochet but failed miserably (my grandmother was a star crocheter and tried to teach me when I was a child but it just didn't take) ...
- there was the Erica Wilson public television crewel course sometime in the early 70s where I signed up for the manual (still have it somewhere) and taught myself crewel embroidery. I still have a UFO of crewel work pillows to work on.
- about the same time as the crewel leap, there was the jump to needlepoint when a friend had an eyeglass holder kit she wanted to make for a gift for her mother but was scared off for some reason and asked me to tackle it. I taught myself. And then took a weekend class while at University! I still needlepoint although I now do more than continental stitch (using more complex stitches on needlepoint canvas is now how I roll!)!
- there was when when I was working on a project that required a lot of air travel and needlepoint was too unwieldy to tag on board (I stitched on a frame then), I found this little cross-stitch kit of a cable car in a corner card shop... and I still cross-stitch!
- and blackwork --- how could I forget blackwork, which I discovered mid-cross-stitch! It was all started with a round robin which I still have to complete!
- there was the bead journal project (2010 - 2013), participation in which evolved from struggling to add embellishment seed beads to cross-stitch ... I have to finish the sampler book form bead journals.
- there was TAST (2013 - 2014) where a different "free-embroidery" stitch was offered each week, for two years! I have to finish making that sampler book too...
- there was the crazy quilt journal project (2012 - 2015) which evolved from beading and TAST. Several UFO quilt tops in my stash... All of this resulted in me joining a quilt guild and becoming the guild's webmaster!
But my biggest leap was entering the county fair for several years running! And I won ribbons for my cross stitch, beading and ornaments! I even won an honorable mention for a quilt block!
Yes, there have been classes along the way... LOTS of online classes! And I have attended two quilting retreats and several quit work-days but I have to admit I get very little finished in such meet-ups.
Why so many leaps? Not that I'm adventurous or anything, but I guess I do get bored! So I try something new: something that I saw online or something I saw someone else doing.
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WIPs worked on this month: "Love Is..." on 32 ct white (very loose and slubby) linen (no WONDER I hate this) using DMC variegated threads. On the left is where I left off last month; on the right is where I am right now... It's a struggle!
SALs... were I'm pretty sure I bit off more than I should have if I want to finish any UFS or WIPs.
1. "52 Weeks of Blackwork" by Purple Peppermint; various randomly selected shades of DMC on 28ct tea-colored evenweave. Completed week 9. Week 10 come into my mailbox March 4...
Part 2 of the SAL has been announced but not yet released.
New starts: travelling stitchery: "Butterfly and Scroll" by Dimensions
While on a visit with a friend in Nevada, I sorted threads in the kit and started stitching on the counted stitch chart.