Taj Mahal Update

I got in some good stitching time last night and this afternoon on my Taj Mahal. I have completed 79 total hours of stitching on it. Here’s my latest progress pic as of this afternoon.

I just love the fibers used in this design. All of the different silks are so yummy to work with and just pop so much on the fabric, as do all of the metallics. Photos just do not do this piece justice, IMO.

Stitching Update

Since I’ve been focusing so much lately on my weight loss & fitness journey, I haven’t provided a stitching update in quite some time. I am still stitching, but obviously not as much since a lot of my free time is now spent either at the gym or in the pool.

I have finished a couple of pieces since my last update. One is the very first painted canvas piece I ever attempted. It’s an ornament called “Lilie’s Quilt Corner” from SHEAR Creations. Here’s a pic of my finished piece (as always, you can click any of the photos below for a larger view):

I also finished another cross stitch piece as well. It’s the Halloween design from the La Petite Holidays series by Curtis Boehringer. I made a couple of fiber changes from the charted design. I used an over-dyed fiber for the jack-o-lantern, and I used a combination of DMC 310 & black Wisper for the cat.

I’ve put in a big more stitching time lately on my Taj Mahal Mandala Garden by Chatelaine. I’d forgotten just how much I love this design until I picked it up to work on it some more. Here’s my latest progress pic at 72 hours of stitching time:

I’ve also been taking the opportunity at the last couple of stitching Sundays at my LNS to learn some new techniques. I’m learning to do Hardanger, and I also learned how to stitch a plaid design in needlepoint. Here are a couple of pics:

In one last bit of stitching news, I have decided I am clearly a stitching masochist. As if I didn’t have enough BAP’s (big ass projects) already, I picked up the supplies for yet another one. It’s Nova by Genny Morrow Designs. The chart book calls for using 18-count canvas, but I’ve decided to stitch mine on 24-count Congress Cloth instead. This project will also be my first experience with using scroll bars.

Well, I guess that’s it on the stitching front for now. Until next time …

2007 Year in Review

Ok, so I know it’s a few days early, but 1) I don’t think this list will change much in the next 2 days, and 2) we were discussing on one of my stitching boards how we all did at meeting our stitching goals for 2007, so it got me thinking about it. Honestly, I didn’t even remember setting any goals for this year until I went back and searched my blog from this time last year. How pathetic is that?!

For 2007, I set a lofty list of 19 goals for the year. What the hell WAS I thinking?! Given that I’d forgotten that I actually did set some goals, I was surprised to see that I actually met just over half of them by completing 10 of the 19 items. Two others were actually halfway completed. If I had remembered setting these goals, I probably would’ve gone on and gotten those finished to knock them of my list.

Here’s the list with those items I actually completed indicated in bold:

2007 Goals:

1. Go on a stitching trip to Paris with Terri!! - got cancelled due to my back surgery
2. Finish Anything is Possible (Blue Ribbon Designs)
3. Finish Rosemarkie (Long Dog Samplers)
4. Finish B is for Bunny (The Sweetheart Tree)
5. Participate in one of Legacy Quaker Quarterly exchanges
6. Participate in ornament SAL
7. Participate in ornament RR
8. Finish remaining rounds of Quaker RR - unfortunately, still have 2 pieces to go
9. Start Taj Mahal (Chatelaine) - currently about 1/4 finished
10. Start Sampler Gameboard (The Drawn Thread) - currently about 1/4 finished
11. Start Home for the Holidays (Shepherd’s Bush) - started & finished
12. Start Moonlit Garden (Blackbird Designs) - currently about 1/3 finished
13. Start Quaker Samplings II (With My Needle )
14. Start Le Quaker a 6 Mains freebie (Le498/AMAP) - currently about 1/5 finished
15. Start Bunny Scissor Fob (Twisted Threads)
16. Start Old World Santas (Prairie Schooler )
17. Take at least 1 stitching class - actually took several this year!
18. Sort through charts and sell/trade things I know I’ll never stitch - only sorted them thus far
19. Frame at least 2 finished pieces - half finished, I got 1 piece framed this year

Here is a bit more of my 2007 Stitching Year in Review:

WIPs & Finishes:

Beginning 2007: 8 WIPs
New Starts: 41
Finishes: 26
Retired: 3 (knew I was just never going to finish these)
End 2007: 21 WIPs

So, given that I didn’t do so well in meeting my goals for 2007, and my current excessive number of WIPs, I have decided to only set a single goal for myself in 2008. With the exception of my traditional New Year’s Day new start (more on that later) and my Fair & Square exchange piece due in late February, I will not start ANY new pieces until I have finished 10 of my current WIPs. I’ve never had as many as 21 WIPs going before and that’s just TOO many, even for me.

I think one contributing factor to the excessive number of WIPs right now is that fact that I learned to needlepoint in 2007. So, not only do I have cross stitcing WIPs, I have needlepoint WIPs as well. I need to get a better handle on them though because I don’t want to let my WIP pile become so large that I find myself constantly shuffling all the WIPs in and out of rotation and nothing is actually getting finished.

I mentioned my traditional New Year’s Day new start earlier. This is something I’ve actually done for many years, so I’m going to do it again this year in spite of my no new starts goal. I’ve not decided definitely what project will be my New Year’s Day new start, but I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to 4 possibilities (in no particular order):

1. Winter’s Tale (Shepherd’s Bush)
2. Prairie Sampler (Little House Needleworks)
3. Acorn Hill (Little House Needleworks)
4. A Chill is in the Air (Homespun Elegance)

The LHN designs are calling me because I LOVE Diane’s designs and these are stitched with my new favorite silk of choice, Belle Soie by Crescent Colors. I have the charts & fibers already and more than enough fabric options should I decide to select one of these designs.

The Shepherd’s Bush design is calling my name because I think the little snowman is just adorable! There also just seems to be something fitting about stitching a snowman this time of year, even though we don’t really get snow here in SoCal where I live. He’s also stitched all in silk, but with AVAS and Waterlilies. This design came fully kitted, so he’s ready to go should he be the selected design.

The Homespun Elegance design is calling my name, quite honestly, because the colors in it are so amazingly yummy. I saw the chart at my LNS and, while I thought it was very nice, it didn’t really call my name. Unfortunately for me, I turned it over and saw all the wonderful autumn tones in the Crescent Colors cotton that came with it. Given that my LNS was having a 35% off all kits as part of their moving sale at the time, how could I NOT get it really? (Work with me here ) This is another design that I can assure you that the photo simply does NOT do the colors justice. They are divine!

So those are (for now) my finalists for my New Year’s Day new start. I may end up having to do a floss toss of each in order to ultimately make a decision. If you’d like to tell me which you’d one you would choose to stitch, just leave me a comment. You never know, it might help me make up my mind.

I wish each and every one of you a very happy stash-filled 2008! Happy stitching.

I’m still here

Sorry I haven’t updated in so long. The past month has been a bit rough for me both physically and emotionally. I’m hanging in there though. There’s going to be lots of little updates in this entry just because it’s been so long since I’ve updated. Sorry for not giving more details on things, but if you have any questions, just ask in a comment or email and I’ll get back to you.

On the stitching front, I’ve done some more work on Taj Mahal. Here is my latest progress pic at 66 hours of stitching time:

I’ve also been stitching on The Token by Long Dog Samplers. I don’t have a progress pic on it yet because I’ve just started working on it. I’m stitching it over 2 on 40-count Vintage Basketweave Lakeside Linen using Vikki Clayton’s Kodiak Bear 5141 (formerly Wenge). I really love how it’s looking so far. I’ll try and take a picture soon.

I’ve also been learning needlepoint/counted canvas. I’m really loving it! It’s been a nice change of pace from cross stitch and I love all the texture you can create with it. I have an ornament happy dance already and will soon have a sampler finished as well. Here are a couple of pictures: (I’ve actually done quite a bit more on the sampler, but this is my most current pic.)

My next project is going to be a Halloween piece called Pumpkin Patch. It’s an absolutely adorable piece with 3 pumpkins on it and a glow-in-the-dark moon done in a big Jessica stitch. Here is a picture of my fiber toss and canvas for that piece:

I got lots of goodies from the birthday exchange I’m in this year. Rather than posting a lot of individual pictures, I’m just going to post a link to that album in my photo gallery. I did get one other gift from Wendy, but I’ve not gotten a picture uploaded yet. She set me several skeins of overdyed fibers. There is also a picture there of the package I sent to Jenny for her birthday earlier this month. Here’s the link:

Birthday Exchange Album

Lastly, on the medical front — I had my latest appointment with my neurosurgeon yesterday. He finally got the MRI films from the orthopedist and had a chance to review them. It turns out that not only do I have one herniated disc in my neck, I have two! I also have a pinched ulna nerve in my right elbow that’s been causing all the numbness in my right hand. So, I have the joy of needing two surgeries. If at all possible, he’s going to try and do them both on the same day. He will do the spinal fusion first and if everything goes normally and there are no complications, he’ll do the elbow surgery after that. I’m not sure yet exactly when it will be, but it shouldn’t be too long. It will take 7-10 days for the approval from the insurance company to come through and then we’ll schedule an actual date for the surgery. He said I should expect a recovery period of around 12-14 weeks. I’m trying not to let myself be too anxious about it, but it’s hard not to worry when one knows they’ll be going under the knife.

Well, I guess that’s it from me for now. Happy stitching!

Taj Mahal at 20 hours

Ok, so I haven’t been doing so good on my rotation this week. I’ve been enjoying stitching on Taj so much that I’ve just kept going with it. I’ve loved this design for several years, but was so intimidated by it. Now that I’m actually it, I love it! Of course, most of the specialty stitching is yet to come.

Here’s a progress pic taken at 20 hours of total stitching time;

Happy stitching!

January Wrap-Up

Wow, it’s hard to believe it’s the end of the month already! Doesn’t it seem like Christmas was just last week or something? Given that it is the end of the month, I thought I would post a wrap-up of how my stitching month went.

Total Hours Stitched: 101
New Starts: 10 (yes, I took full advantage of Guilt-Free January)
Finishes: 6 (Pictures of each are in my 2007 photo album)

• Anything is Possible
• Home for the Holidays
• Winter’s Eve
• 2 squares for the Katrina Quilt project
• QQX12 Exchange

Here are my latest WIP photos for my various projects I’m working on now. All of these projects other than Rosemarkie and Celtic Christmas were January starts.

Taj Mahal Mandala (Chatelaine Designs) - 13 hours stitching time - I have done an additional 3 hours of stitching on Taj Mahal since this pic was taken.

Rosemarkie (Long Dog Samplers) - 60 hours stitching time:

Sampler Game Board (Drawn Thread) - 12 hours stitching time:

Moonlit Garden (Blackbird Designs) - 9 hours stitching time:

Le Quaker a 6 Mains (Broder Ensemble/Le 498/AMAP) - 13 hours stitching time:

Celtic Christmas (Lavendar & Lace) - 35 hours stitching time:

A Christmas Wish (Blue Ribbon Designs) - 5 hours stitching time:

I also learned a new finishing technique as part of the Quaker Quarterly exchange on the Legacy board. I mailed my exchange piece today, so once I know the person has received it, I’ll post pictures and more information about that. All in all, I feel I’ve had a very successful stitching January.

Ok, I’m off to stitch now. Happy stitching!

WIP Updates

I’m happy to report that my rotation plan is working well so far. I’ve been sticking to my guns and making sure I work at least 2 hours on the daily focus project before I pick up something else. Here are a couple of WIP updates from my stitching over the past few days:

Taj Mahal (Chatelaine Designs) - 5 hours of stitching:

The flash really washed out the fabric color and sparkle of the braid, unfortunately. The fabric is 32-count Ray of Light Belfast linen from Zweigart. The DMC equivalent would be 746.

Moonlit Garden (Blackbird Designs) - 5.7 hours of stitching:

I went to the January meeting of my sampler guild last night. It was a really fun meeting and it sounds like there will be lots of great projects coming up this year. Some of the teachers lined up already include Merry Cox and Tricia Nguyen. I also paid for my kit for the March meeting which will be My Stitching Chair Necessaire by Hillside Samplings.

This year also marks the 15th anniversary of the guild. In honor of that event, one of the members designed a beautiful tri-fold scrimshaw holder for us. I got the kit last night and it’s just so beautiful. Now I just have to figure out when I’ll have time to stitch it. Here’s a couple of pictures. The first shows the front when it’s folded, and the second shows the outside when it’s unfolded which is why the alphabet panel is upside down. The inside is lined with a beautiful goldish silk with little pockets for the various pieces of the scrimshaw set.

In other news, my new TV arrived yesterday! What a difference from my 10 year old 27″ television. Thanks for the input on getting the HD service. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like it will be practical for me right now. My apartment complex uses a shared dish for each building and they’ve not yet upgraded them to HD-compatible dishes. If I want the HD service, I would have to get written permission from the complex to have a personal dish on my balcony and would then have to go through a DirecTV installer to get the dish and DH DVR receiver. They would also require a 2-year commitment for the service, and since I’m planning on moving out of this complex this year, it just doesn’t seem to make sense. I don’t want to lock into a long commitment and then end up in a complex that has cable instead of satellite.

I hope everyone is having a nice week! I’m off to work on my Gameboard Sampler since it’s Tuesday. Happy stitching!