Yes, the time has come for me to admit that I have hopelessly fallen off my no-stash diet challenge. Thank goodness I’m doing better on my actual weight loss diet than I did on this challenge. I did manage to get 11 projects finished, so I made it almost halfway.

My latest finish was the first shoe for the Hagatha’s Slipper class that I took recently from Margaret Bendig. I finished this part up on Friday night, so now I just need to do it again in reverse for the opposite side.

What caused me to stray from my challenge? Well, once all of the Halloween designs started coming out recently, I knew I was doomed. I *love* Halloween stitching! Here are my latest purchases that I picked up at my LNS yesterday when I was there for our monthly Saturday Stitch.

Click to enlarge

I’m going to leave my 25 Projects page (also linked at the top of my blog) in place. After I make a few purchases from the St. Charles fall market for TNNA coming up in a couple of weeks, I plan to get back on my challenge and make NO MORE purchases until I finish the remaining 14 projects to reach my goal of 25.

Speaking of the St. Charles market, have you seen one of the new designs coming out from Paulette at Plum Street Samplers? I’m not usually much on the whole Adam & Eve samplers deal, but this one is a MUST have for me! It’s called “Garden of Eerie” and cracks me up every time I look at it. What an incredibly fun design!! (Hey Darla, did you spot there’s a vulture on it?! )

Paulette has three other designs coming out at market as well. You can see them on the Kelmscott website since they are the distributor for her designs.

Oh yeah, as long as I’m confessing, I should probably ‘fess up to not sticking with my new rotation plan either. I am actually in the process of reworking it though, so I’m not saying yet that I’m completely abandoning it. I’m playing around with a concept that Terri mentioned to me. Rather than selecting particular designs to incorporate into the rotation, each slot would be a particular theme instead. Here is what I’ve come up with so far:

10 hours on current projects (started within the past 6 months)
10 hours on older projects (started more than 6 months ago)
10 hours on seasonal projects (Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc.)
10 hours on samplers
10 hours on canvas projects
10 hours on “anything goes” project(s) of my choice

I’ll just have to decide if I want to go forward with it. I made it through three slots of the previous rotation I had set up and found myself hating it the whole time. I think it’s the rebellious child in me. I just want to stitch on what I want when I want without some stinkin’ rotation telling me what to do.

I have a couple of floss toss pics to share with you all as well. I think since this entry is already getting pretty long, I’ll save those for another day.

Until next time …

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Ssshhh, don’t tell anyone, but I’m sneaking in from work to make a quick blog post. My DSL modem/wireless router at home died late last night. Until I get it replaced, I’m without internet connectivity at home except for my iPhone. If I can get out of work early enough tonight, I’m going to try and swing by Best Buy to pick one up, but it may not happen. Until I can get around to getting it replaced, you probably won’t see me online as much.

Anyway, on to the main topic for this post. I succumbed to the lure of some new designs I saw online this weekend and ended up breaking my 25-project no-stash challenge. I’m going to try VERY hard to not let this be the first step off a slippery slope and derail my challenge goal completely. I need to finish 15 more projects to complete the challenge, and I’m going to try and stick to that!

Here are the siren-calling charts from French designer Nathalie Cichon of Jardin Privé (translation: Private Garden) that lead to my demise:

My Lady’s Quaker

Gentleman Quaker (alternate version without dog)

Quaker aux Clefs

Aren’t they wonderful?! I saw the My Lady’s Quaker design on Nicole’s blog, and from there, followed her link to the recently formed US SAL blog. There is already an on-going French SAL for My Lady’s Quaker as well. In addition to the photos on their blog, you can also see some of the finished pieces in the Gallery section on the Jardin Privé website. I highly recommend checking out the versions stitched by Monique and Virginie. I think their colorways are absolutely stunning!!

Originally, I was just going to order the My Lady’s Quaker chart. After that, I noticed the Quaker aux Clefs and figured since I was already slipping off my plan, I might as well have that one as well. When I went by the site today to get the link to send to a friend, I saw that Nathalie released Gentleman Quaker today. Well, I naturally had to have him to go along with my Lady, don’t you agree? These beautiful designs may put my new rotation plan at risk in the very first week of existence.

Ok, I need to wrap this up since my break is over now. Until next time …

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Ta-dah! Yep, the Multiplicity piece from the class I took last weekend in La Jolla is finished after only six days. This piece was so much fun to stitch! Now I just have to try and decide if I’m going to attempt to finish it into the actual frame weight or let my local finisher do it instead.

Design: Multiplicity
Designer: Margaret Bendig
Fabric: 18-count white mono canvas
Fibers: Kreinik braids & Rainbow Gallery Fyre Werks ribbon
Click image to enlarge

I really love this color palette! It works really well with the color of my living furniture which is kind of a sage green microfiber. I really wish I could capture these colors better so you could appreciate them more fully. Photographing metallics is a real PITA! Here is a list of the colors I used along with a coordinating reference point in the piece:

Kreinik braid #4002 (Spiced Chai) – Smyrna border
Kreinik braid #4003 (Ginseng Gold) – background of the wicker/basket looking stitch
Kreinik braid #4004 (Earl Grey) – fill-in stitching on the sides
Kreinik braid #4005 (Sugar Cube) – top of the large overlapping stitches on the side
Fyre Werks FT33 (Moonglow) – light color woven stitches in the center
Fyre Werks FT50 (Old Gold) – dark color woven stitches in the center

As I mentioned, this piece was a very fun stitch. I enjoyed it so much that I’m actually considering stitching it again. I think it would be very cool to do it on black canvas using orange & black fibers for a Halloween look. What do you guys think?

Anyway, now that this piece is finished (project #10 on my 25 finishes challenge), I think I’ll be going back to Mary Wigham this weekend.

Until next time …

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Well, my hope of starting the new project I mentioned in my previous blog entry came around sooner that I thought. Initially I said wasn’t going to start this piece until I finished the exchange piece I have due on June 15, but I just couldn’t resist. I started my version of the Mary Wigham 1790 reproduction sampler last night. I’m stitching her on 32-count Legacy linen from Picture This Plus using the recommended DMC fibers.

I’m so very pleased to see how much this SAL has taken off thus far. Jacqueline Holdsworth has done a wonderful job of organizing things on the Needleprint blog. There are coordinators in place for several countries, and many of them have set up sub-blogs so that the stitchers of the various countries can interact more and get to know one another better. The coordinator for those of us living in the United States is Shari. She has set up a blog for the U.S. stitchers which can be found here.

In related news, I was speaking with the owner of the LNS tonight and mentioned I was starting a new Quaker sampler. She immediately chuckled and asked if it was 24″ square. I told it was and then looked at her rather quizzically wondering how she knew. She told me that I was the third person she spoke with today who is stitching this sampler. The other two stitchers had been in the shop today purchasing the fabric & fibers to get started on it as well.

As for the rest of my day, I had a really nice evening with friends. It started out with dinner at a local Mexican restaurant after my physical therapy appointment. After dinner, we all headed over to the aforementioned LNS for an evening of stitching. As always, I had a blast! There’s nothing better than good food, good friends, and time to stitch.

While at the LNS, a couple of us who are taking an upcoming counted canvas class (Plum Blossom Kimono by local designer Margaret Bendig) picked out our fibers since we wanted an alternate colorway. My kimono will be done primarily in shades of green (to match my stitching chair) with burgundy, blue, and gold accent colors. I’m hoping to pick up my kit on Saturday during the monthly all-day stitch at the shop so I can start the homework stitching soon.

I also have to admit that I also succumbed to a brief lapse of willpower in my 25 project challenge. The shop currently has a Lizzie Kate trunk show going on, and all the LK charts are on sale. I ended up purchasing two charts (Fall Crazy and Just Text Me). I’m hopping right back on my no-stash train though! I won’t be purchasing anything else until I have completed my challenge. Promise!

Until next time …

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She’s finished! As always, you can click to biggify, if you like.

Design: Letters from Nora – Madeline Melissa
Designer: Nora Corbett
Fabric: 32-count Waterlily
Fibers: Crescent Colors, Treasure Braid
Stitched 2 over 2 except braid which is 1 over 2
Completed May 27, 2009

I did make several changes from the original chart. If anyone is interested in seeing those, just leave me a comment and I’ll post them.

Update to include my changes:

Hair:
CC Colonial Copper in place of La Tierra
CC Just Rust in place of Hickory Sticks

Skin (changed to better match the red hair):
CC Creamy Peach in place of Cobbled Peach

Wings:
Rainbow Gallery PB10 in place of Cloud
Added RG 032 Blending Filament to the Vintage Violet
Backstitched using RG PB62

Beads:
I did made changes to the beads in her hair & dress, but I unfortunately didn’t write those changes down in my notes and I don’t remember what they were.

This puts me at 5 completed projects in my 25 Project Challenge. My focus will now shift to finishing up my squares for Claudia as part of round 13 of the Fair & Square exchange. I have the main square about halfway finished already. It’s due to be mailed by June 15, so I’ve still got a couple of weeks to finish them up.

That’s it for now. Until next time …

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