April 2009Monthly Archives

Woo Hoo! I’m only four days into my new 25 project challenge and I can already mark one off the list. I finally got around to stitching an ornament kit that I received a couple of years ago as part of an ornament round robin. This piece was a lot of fun to stitch and took no time at all.

The design is called “Christmas Joy” and is from Little by Little Design Co. This design appeared in the 1998 Just Cross Stitch magazine ornament issue. The design is also now available for purchase individually.

The original piece called for DMC fibers and 35-count Dark Espresso linen from R&R. When Nancy kitted this for the round robin, she used Vikki Clayton’s silks in place of the DMC. She also included a piece of her own tea-dyed 36-count linen. I think it all looks really lovely together.

As I promised earlier in the week, I have a couple of other photos that I want to share that are of a project stitched by Lorraine, one of the ladies who comes to the monthly open stitch at my LNS.

Lorraine visited an art showing at a local gallery a couple of years ago. The artist created his works by using small squares of varying colors and textures to make up the overall appearance of the piece. I know I’m doing even remotely doing justice that what he does, but I’m just not sure how best to describe it.

Anyway, after seeing the show, Lorraine was inspired to do something like this on a needlepoint project. She found a cross-stitch pattern for a Harlequin that she really loved (Mystic Stitch’s Black & White Harlequin) and used it as a basis for creating her own needlepoint masterpiece made up of smaller squares of varying colors, textures, and stitches.

After roughly two years of stitching, Lorraine recently finished the piece which she affectionately referred to as her “thinking project”. Here is a pic of the whole piece followed by a close-up pic of the face which shows the detail the project involved. As always, click to biggify:

It’s been a joy and simply amazing watching Lorraine as she worked on this piece. I can’t even begin to imagine undertaking such a task at my age and Lorraine is in her mid-80′s! I definitely want to be Lorraine when I grow up.

Until next time …

After being inspired first by Missy Ann last week, and again by Annette yesterday, I have decided to put myself on another stash diet challenge. I won’t be purchasing any more stash until I finish at least 25 projects.

Here are my rules:

• No stash purchases (exceptions outlined below) until 25 stitching projects have been completed. This includes charts, fabrics, canvases, scissors (gulp!), etc.
• Effective start date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009
• Exceptions:
  1. Open orders (Lizzie Kate ABC Lessons [LNS], three remaining charts for Lizzie Kate’s Boo Club [LNS])
  2. Letters from Nora “M” when it is released (pending I like it, of course )
  3. Class kits (already have a couple lined up for this summer)
  4. JCS ornament issues (Halloween & Christmas)
• Fibers needed for any of the projects I’m working on during the challenge are permitted, but any fibers not immediately needed for a project are not.
• I should have more than enough needles to get me through my 25 projects. In the event something should happen and I don’t, purchasing needles is also allowed.
• Trades are acceptable – based on already owned stash

I’ll be adding a new tab along the top of my blog to track my progress for my 25 project challenge. As I finish pieces, they will be added to the list. My sub-goal is to really try and get some more of my WIPs knocked out as well. It would be great to not only curtail my stash spending a bit, but to also make some progress on getting my WIP pile down to a more manageable level.

Some of you who have been reading my blog for a while may remember that I did a variation of this challenge last year. That particular challenge was to not start any new pieces until I had finished 10 of my WIPs. So, in many way, that challenge was a bit easier than this one is going to be because 1) I didn’t have to curtail any stash purchases, and 2) I didn’t have to finish nearly as many projects. I decided to push myself a bit further this time so that it wouldn’t be quite so easy on me. Wish me luck!

As promised yesterday, I do have some more photos to share. Since it’s been so long since I updated my stitching-related photos, there are still more even that what I’m posting here today, so I’ll try and get the rest up in the next day or two. The ones I’m sharing today are of some new stitching goodies I got. As always, just click on the image to see a larger view.

Bunny Thread Drops:

My friend Cindi gave me these as a belated birthday gift. She actually gave me two packs, but I only photographed one of them. I think they are absolutely adorable.

New Scissor Fob:

The fob was made by my friend Cindi. I purchased the little cup charm and letter beads when I went to Disneyland for my birthday. I just handled them off a few weeks ago to Cindi and asked if she would make them ointo a fob for me. I think she did an amazing job! As soon as I got it from her on Saturday, it went right on to my Dovo Centennial scissors. I know she peeks in on my blog from time to time, so if you see this, thanks again, Cindi!

Speaking of Cindi, I also snapped pictures recently of a couple of her finished stockings. She did the needlepoint toppers and then sent them off to the finisher to be made into the actual stockings. They are simply stunning and these photos do not do them justice. Check out those tassels, too. WOW!!!

Well, I guess that’s it for this update. As I said, I do have a couple more pics to share, so be on the lookout for them in the next couple of days.

Until next time …