Category Archives: WIPocalypse

It’s my first WIPocalypse check-in!

I haven’t stitched as much as I’d like to so far this year, but it’s because I’m finally painting my sewing room!  Almost everything has been packed up, moved, and unpacked as we finish an area.  We’re doing it in bits so I don’t become overwhelmed by the messiness of it.

I started with this

2015-01-01 10.43.16

I switched the glass doors on the right to my fabric cabinet on the left and moved the solid doors to cover my cross-stitch fabric.  The quilt fabric was too long and I’ve spent the past couple of days refolding all of this to get back in my cabinets.

2015-01-01 11.59.51 2015-01-01 11.59.42

Here’s where I was when I went to bed last night:

2015-01-04 18.05.22

My goal for the year is to sew during the day, and stitch during the late afternoon/evening, with reading thrown in every now and then.  I usually read during a lunch break and if I’m by myself while I’m eating breakfast.  If I go by how things went the latter part of last year, I know there will be some days that I need a break from sewing and I’ll just sit and stitch all day, or I’ll need a break from both and sit and read all day 😀

I’m beginning with 5 stitching and 5 quilting goals to start out my WIPocalypse.  I have a page here.

As to stitching, the plan is to work exclusively on Lizzie*Kate’s Unseen Things mystery until completed, then start working on And They Sinned.  My sewing will also include finishing out the two Sam Sarah items from last year into bell pulls. I’m sure some time during this year I’ll be adding things to my WIPocalypse stitching list.

Here’s the last photo I took of Unseen Things.

2014-12-29 15.32.33

This was taken December 29, 2014, and is the first part, minus the small bees on the right.  I have since moved on to part two and will make sure I have an updated photo on the next check-in.

My first quilting project is to finish my Phoebe’s Flower Box quilt.  It needs borders, to be quilted, and then the binding.

2014-10-24 12.25.40

As with my stitching, I know I’ll be working on other things in addition to those on my list and will be adding them as necessary.

I’m linking up today with Measi.

Slowly but surely the year comes to an end

I feel the need to be domestic, and yet there’s barely anything for me to do!  I cleaned the house really well before we left for CA since I knew we’d be tired when we got home.  There were no decorations so that didn’t need to be dealt with.  All that has left me to do is laundry and the daily clean-up in the kitchen.

All that spare time means I’ve been catching up on my blog reading and that might have gotten me into some trouble 😉

It’s been fun seeing what everyone is planning for 2015.  I mentioned to Mister this morning that I can’t believe it’s already been 15 years since the world was freaking out about Y2K.

My own plans to date have included my going back to 101 things in 1001 days and I’ve set up my page.  I don’t know what version I finally published because I caught myself waking up at night thinking “oh wait!  I want to do this too!”.  But it is what it is and I’ve left myself some breathing room as far as my quilting and stitching goes.  It’s probably cheating but I can’t imagine trying to create needle and thread goals for 2 3/4 years.

Speaking of those goals, I’m going back to participating in WIPocalypse.  I wish I still had my old lists so I can laugh at myself.  My lists were so long that I scared myself from getting much done.  I wasn’t quilting at the time either.  Since the guidelines have changed and quilting is included, I’ve decided to try it again, but this time around I’m starting small and building.  It contains 5 stitching things and 5 quilting things.  I’ll be posting the list next week.

For now I’ll leave you with the list of movies I watched all day while stitching and doing laundry:  A Christmas Carol, Meet me in St. Louis, Elf, A Lion in Winter, and Trading Places.  Quite an eclectic Christmas season selection 😉

Surprise!

Happy fall, y’all!  I cannot begin to say how many times I have sat down to write, then got distracted by something else.  That something else has usually been stash that needed to be sorted, catalogued, or put away; and, sometimes, stitched on 😀

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of my last day as an employed person.  This past year has seen so many changes in my life and they must have all been pretty good because as I sit here writing this I cannot think of any horrible thing that has occured.

I have traveled more this past year than in many years combined, both near and far.  I am looking forward to where the 2nd year of my “retirement” takes me.  I have also stitched and quilted more than I ever have and am having a blast (when I’m not feeling guilty about it).

The next phase of my crafting is about to begin with my framing some of my own smaller finished needlework.  I have been gathering the equipment needed, and even have some frame moulding.  It’s now just a matter of getting over my “what if I mess it up” jitters and make that first cut.

What have I been doing since my last post?  This!

Carriage House Samplings’ “Americana.”

CHS Americana 5/25 - 6/9/12

Little House Needleworks “America”

LHN "America" 6/9 - 6/17/12

Sheepish Designs “Betsy”

Sheepish Designs "Betsy" 6/17 - 6/25/12

Blackbird Designs “America”

Blackbird Designs "America" 6/25 - 7/8/12

I had intended on stitching patriotic designs all the way through until September 11, but changed my mind and decided to go back to my other WIPs.  Soooooo,  I also finished Mary Wigham

Mary Wigham finished September 1, 2012

Mary is at Attic Needlework being framed.  I don’t remember off the top of my head when I started her and I didn’t stitch on her exclusively, but I did track when I worked on her.  It took me 51 days to stitch her.  I converted the recommended DMC to Gentle Arts Sampler Threads.  There are a lot of memories attached to her 😀  The Olympics, test driving new cars, attending a stitching weekend with Attic Needlework (wait until you see what I’m working on from that!), Mister starting college, a trip back to California to see Son and visit Melissa and see Darla.

I took a reading break after Mary Wigham them picked Dimples Designs’ “Haiku” back up on September 17th.  I originally started it January 2004 during a Guilt Free stitching sprint, put him away for a long time, picked him back up the beginning of this year, and put him away again.  I am very near to finishing it but have to make myself stitch on it since there are other things I want to be working on.

As you can tell I sort of gave up on WIPacolypse (and Theme-a-licious).  Not the stitching, just the checking in.  I am one of those people who can’t keep up with moon phases — hard to believe I’m a moon child — and believe tracking should be done from the 1st day of the month to the last day of the month.  I am continuing to stitch on my WIPacoplypse pieces though since they’re pieces I love and want hanging on my walls.  I know 2012 is not quite over but I’m keeping in mind already what I want to accomplish in 2013, and I’ll probably maintain some sort of WIPacolypse type list and intersperse it with smalls since I have so many and I want to work on my finishing skills.

The only other thing I really want to have finished is the stitching on Fairy Moon.  If all I have left to do is bead by the end of the year I’ll be a happy stitcher.  She will be going to a framer and I’d just as soon not have her sitting around after I finish her because how I want her framed will probably cost me a fair bit and I don’t want to spend that money until after January since right now I’m spending my money on furnishing the house a bit more.  I’m installing a new chande over the dining table and at the top of the stairs, buying new furniture for the family room, and rearranging some of the other furniture.  I’m also getting ready to paint the downstairs powder room and I want to get my piano refurbished if possible.

So.  There you have it!  I’ve made a couple of changes on my stitching page but all in all I’m a happy person!

May’s report, June’s goals

Before I get started I need to give a huge public “thank you” to Melissa. Right after the first of the month my blog decided to take a nosedive. It was a PITA in the beginning.  By mid-month I could no longer post any photos and as the month wore on it turned into a catastrophe. I couldn’t even log in. This past week I threw myself at her feet and begged her to help me. She was kind enough to get it straightened out for me. It was not an easy fix, and I think I owe her my blogging life.

A lot went on in May for me, but because I couldn’t access my blog in the past couple of weeks, I’m sure I’ve forgotten more than I remembered.  I settled the lawsuit I brought against the woman who hit me last year; we’ve been having record heat here and M and I have been thoroughly enjoying our pool; I got Hannah Beeby framed and she’s hanging all by her lonesome in the middle of my family room wall (I haven’t unpacked my other large pieces yet); I have finally settled into the perfect routine for me and because of it am getting a ton of guilt-free quilting and stitching accomplished; I started walking consistently.  That’s all I can remember right now!

My goals for May were fairly simple and I accomplished more than I thought I would:

  • Get the rest of my fibers put away (DONE)
  • Get started sorting my fabric (DONE)
  • Get back to rotating on:
    1. Petite Mexican Sampler (finish it?) (FINISHED IT)
    2. Fairy Moon (YES!)
    3. Haiku (DIDN’T TOUCH IT*)
  • Continue with Rose Quaker and Mary Wigham on their respective stitching days (YES*)
  • Piece 4 more quilt squares (YES)
  • Finish quilted stitching bag (my Theme-a-licious project for May (NO)

*I forgot when I set my monthly goals that Memorial Day was coming up.  Last year Jean published in the Attic Needlework May 2011 newsletter that she stitched on patriotic pieces from Memorial Day until September 11th.  I have a lot of designs that contain the American flag, or are otherwise patriotic, and I thought this was a wonderful idea.  Last year I chose 2 medium sized designs and it took me until about the 2nd week of October to finish the 2nd one.  This year on Memorial Day I started Carriage House Samplings’ “Americana.”  I’m very close to finishing it…perhaps just a couple more days of stitching.  I have a second design pulled and will probably have no problem getting it finished before September 11, and then I’ll decide what to do next…continue with patriotic stitching or get back to my rotation.  For now, though, I have stopped working on my rotation and I skipped yesterday’s stitching on Rose Quaker.  I still haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to work on Mary Wigham today/tonight at Thursday stitchin.

While I had my stitching bag down for my Theme-a-licious project for may, I did work on my other quilt class projects.  I keep forgetting to bring my stitching bag upstairs to make those few stitches!  It sits by my chair holding my project bags and waiting to be loaded with my other odds and ins I take to stitchins.  It’s happy where it is!  LOL

I do have WIPacolypse progress to share but that will have to wait for another day as I have places to go and things to do today 😀

What do I want to do in June?

  1. Finish sorting my stitching fabrics.
  2. Get started sorting my quilting fabrics.
  3. Continue with my patriotic stitching.
  4. Piece 4 quilt squares
  5. Work on Haiku for June’s Theme-a-licious.
  6. Paint my bedroom.
  7. Buy new bed.

My quilt class ends in June.  I have enjoyed it so much and have gained confidence in reading patterns, choosing color, and piecing.  I’ve purchased fabric for a small table top size quilt and am looking forward to starting it after I catch up with the rest of my quilting.

M finally heard back from the Veterans’ office at the university and has started his registration process.

The puppies are still providing great entertainment and love and are staying relatively healthy.

I have a long weekend getaway planned with Karen and am really looking forward to it.

 

April Report

It’s been a rather fun month for us.  We’re continuing to settle in.  The weather has been excellent and we’ve been spending a lot of time in the pool.  We purchased a new BBQ and patio furniture and are spending our mornings and evenings on the patio.  I figured out this morning that our WiFi is strong enough out there, with all the doors and windows closed, that we’ll be streaming our iTunes and satellite radio out there so I’m going to start stitching out there in the mornings.  This makes the puppies happy since they love running around chasing birds, lizards, and each other.

I’ve spent a bunch of time playing in my room.  Still a long way to go but at least now I can sit at my workstation and sew.

The most fun has been working on my WIPocalypse pile while watching baseball and hockey.  Before I show my WIPocalypse progress, I’ll share a picture of Harley from last night’s hockey game.  When the Coyotes score, there is a howl played over the loudspeakers.  We, M and I, have started howling with it and the puppies have taken to joining in.  At the end of last night’s game we were howling and I got a snap of Harley doing her Coyote impression.  I know I’m biased, but she’s so darn cute when she does it.  Her little howl is so high pitched and “soft” you have to really listen to hear her, but you can tell she puts her whole heart behind it.

Now, on to the stitching:

Finished Hannah Beeby!

Got a whole lot done, then undone, then done on Petite Mexican Sampler:

I had completely finished the tree on the right when I discovered it was one stitch over on the right 🙁  It had to be frogged and put away since I was so upset.  I have picked it back up and will definitely finish it in May.

I don’t normally participate in stitchalongs since they feel like obligation stitching to me but two Facebook groups I’m on are having stitchalongs on designs that I already had planned on starting, so on Wednesday last I started Rose Quaker.  It feels like a quick stitch and I’m loving the colors:

It was very tempting to keep going but I wanted to start Mary Wigham for Thursdays.  I had messed up on Petite Mexican Sampler on Tuesday, and I let her sit screaming next to my stitching chair while I stitched on Mary Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I am loving the subtleness of the colors and I think GAST Salmon, the top motif, is my new favorite color.

Hannah, Rose Quaker, and Mary all definitely qualify for April’s Theme-a-liciousness, too!

All that stitching has left me with a full TUSAL jar for April.

You can see the different layers 😀  I’ll be adding a bit more to it this afternoon, to finish out the month with Petite Mexican Sampler stitching.

 

Starting over. Sort of.

Ack.  I’m so far behind in catching up I’m not even going to bother.  Suffice it to say, I have been consistenting doing needlework of some sort since my last check in.  When it has not involved the sewing maching, I have faithfully been working on my WIPocalypse stitching.

Domesticity:

I packed everything in my stitching room, back up and moved the boxes to the guest room.  We gutted the closet, spackled it, painted it, and moved the shelf units back in.  I’m in the process of loading it back up, but am determined to organize while I do so, so I don’t put it off any longer.  It looks like this:

The designs are in their proper box and they’ll be cataloged later.  As you can see, none of my fabric has been unpacked because right now, as I type this post, my work table looks like this:

The fibers in the front in ziplocks are Anchor.  I’m leaving them ’til last because I haven’t decided how I’m going to store them.  The white box in the middle is not quite full of various fibers that I’ve been sorting (which is the mess you see, minus the
Weeks), and I’ve already sorted one of them.   That table needs to get cleared quickly so I can drag my sewing machine back out.

Quilting:

1 sampler quilt needs a bit more quilting, then the binding (which is ready to be attached).
1 quilted tote needs (still) 6 or so stitches in one of the handles to be completed.
1 quilt has been started (intermediate class started last week and I’m piecing the blocks for it).

Stitching:

Since I’ve been going back and forth to quilting classes, and have quilting homework, I haven’t wanted to try to keep up with my rotation so I’ve been focusing on one easy piece.  As of last night (4/15/12) Miss Hannah Beeby is now finished!

I’ve pulled Petite Mexican Sampler out and am going to focus on it for a bit.  My quilting classes will be over in June (I think) and until then I guess I’m going to be a one-at-a-time stitcher.  Fairy Moon is screaming my name from the guest room right now, but she’ll need lots of beading so I’m putting her off.  I’m still determined not to start anything new until I finish 2 projects, no matter how tempted I’ve been lately 🙂

In addition to all of the above we have been doing other bits and pieces of decorating in the house.  We I have a list of must-haves for the house that includes more painting, furniture, decorative items, and my stitching.  I will be taking Hannah with me Thursday night to get her framed.  I’ll take another piece in when we gets finished depending on how long she takes.  I would like to do one piece a month.

We’ve also been doing some stuff in the yard.  Right now M is digging up the oleanders, one at a time, in the front.  7 down, 3 to go.  The yard looks so much bigger now and we’ll be filling in some of the space with more pleasant to use desert plants.  In the back we have 2 varieties of tomatoes popping out all over the place, flat leaf parsley trying to take over the pump house wall, oregano, cilantro (in 2 different places), rosemary,  pickle cukes, crook neck squash growing in, and have been enjoying salads with home grown lettuces.  The lemon tree and mandarin tree both have fruit and we’re waiting to see if our little lime tree is going to have fruit this year (it had a hard time this winter and is only knee high).  I also planted a peony tuber that is doing well.

A bump in the road

M starting putting his training bike together yesterday.  At first, after working for 3 hours on it, he thought his shifter was broken.  I found this out when he came in the house and announced that he was going to have to get a part-time job to replace it.  I know nothing about the prices of individual bike parts.  I do know that he’s spent close to $9,000 on his official race bike.  I can only image what they would cost if he wasn’t building them himself.  When he starts talking about it I tell him I don’t want to know.  Anyway, he disappeared back into the garage and came back awhile later to tell me that he thinks he has figured out what was wrong and now he could use 17 of the 18 gears.  His words “crises averted.”  Ummm, okay.

I finished up my 10 hours on Haiku yesterday.  He’s starting to look like a chubby chickadee!  He’s a lot of fun to stitch, but I’m thinking of moving up to stitch on the cherry blossoms next time around.  Here’s my before and after pictures:

Haiku - 1/7/12

Haiku - 1/9/12

This means that I’ve worked on 3 of my WIPocalypse projects in this reporting period 😀

Next up is Harmony by Serendipity Designs.  I knew there were about 10 stitches in it, and I thought it was older than Peacock Tapestry.  When I got everything out there were a couple of surprises.  I originally started it November 23, 1997, making it almost 2 years older than Peacock Tapestry.  I also discovered that I only cut the fabric to give it 1 1/2 inch margins on each side.

The design is 3 charts stitched together on one piece of fabric and because I’ve cut the fabric so close I don’t want to take any chances on stitching in the wrong place.  I’m also thinking I need to start at the bottom and stitch my way up since the bottom portion stitches all the way across the width of the fabric.  So, I have pulled out what I already stitched, serged and ironed the fabric, and now I’m gridding it.  The gridding will probably take up my whole 10 hours since it’s almost 50″ long.  After I finish gridding, I’ll have to sew on some muslin so I can get it in my QSnaps.  Twice during the gridding I’ve thought of taking it out of my current rotation, but that would accomplish nothing but my picking it back up at a later date; and, I really still love the design; and, I really want to get my old WIPs finished, so I’m plugging along. Working on it is progress, right?

I’m leaving for a long stitching weekend in Vegas tomorrow.  I’m definitely taking Hannah Beeby and Harmony, if don’t finish out it’s rotation time today.   I’ll have to decide tomorrow morning what else to take.

Moving right along

Still stiff from Wednesday’s tumble but am thankful that’s all that has shown up.  It’s still rather uncomfortable getting up if I’ve been sitting (i.e. stitching) for a long time, or first thing in the morning when it’s time to come downstairs.  I’ve ditched the slippers for now and am even more cautious than before.  I hate falling.  I’ve always been afraid to fall.  It’s why I only went snow skiing once in my life.  I don’t know why it kept me from it since I used to ice skate, and water ski!  Oh well.  More cautious on the steps.

I finished up my 10 hour rotation on Peacock Tapestry yesterday.  I finished the gridding Thursday evening at my weekly stitchin, then put it away until I was home and better able to concentrate.

I’ve decided to take Hannah Beeby out of my rotation and make her my stitchin piece until I finish her.  The chart’s easy to read, there are only 3 colors, and the fabric is 28 count, making her easy to stitch on, and not mess up, while enjoying the company and conversation at the stitchins.

But, back to PT.  When I picked her up again yesterday, and started stitching, because of the gridding I found a couple of small stitching mistakes that would have made it very interesting when it came time to backstitch.  I made great progress on it, even with the little bit of actual stitching I did.  I did something wrong with my camera when I took the before picture, so there’s only an “after” this time around:

Peacock Tapestry by Teresa Wentzler

The Great Spreadsheet spoke again, and now I’m working on Haiku by Dimples Designs.  I started this during one of the Guilt Free January’s I participated in.  2004 to be exact!  Here’s the before shot of the little stinker:

Haiku by Dimples Designs

The stitching is going rather quickly.  This is the third WIP that fits into the Theme-a-licious-ness for January!

I’m getting a lot of stitching done but I know it will slow down when I start my quilting class in a couple of weeks.

I’m making slower progress on one of my other yearly goals (which I didn’t publicize).  I want to become more familiar with all the technology I own!  I made a tiny step by changing my tabs up top to drop down (I’ve had this blog for how long and didn’t know I could do that?)   Part of my problem with it all is that I don’t understand the terminology.  I figure if I could master the latin of law, I should be able to better handle technology terminology.  Right?  We’ll see 😉

2012’s first stitching report

Petite Mexican Sampler

Petite Mexican Sampler - 1/2/12 - 10 hours

The colors in the 2nd photo are a little washed out.  The gold borders shows up better in real life 🙂  It’s fun to stitch now that I’ve figured out the secret to using the silks (dampen them and make sure to use my stitcher’s lotion).  I did have to frog a couple of times because the chart has an “x” next to a “+” so now I know to pay better attention 😉

Next up is Peacock Tapestry.  I’m using a random generator code on my spreadsheet and it has spoken.

I still need to put my Santa collection away and take down my stitching tree, then M and I are headed out to a movie and the home improvement store, so the stitching will have to wait until this afternoon.  He needs some stuff to get his bikes stored, and I’m hoping it’ll take him most of the afternoon to get that sorted so I can stitch guilt free.

I’m almost finished with my 2012 stitching “goals” list so I’ll probably be posting that tonight.

Before I forget, here’s my Christmas present from M.  I love the ideas I’ve been getting from Pinterest!

And here’s where it went

I’m in the process of moving my linens from upstairs to the closet next to the dryer, so don’t judge me 🙂

Same old, same old

Slowly but surely it’s getting there.  I am very tired of unpacking (have I said that already?) but we’re down to the nitty gritty.  Yesterday we got the extra linens unpacked and sorted, the 2 final wardrobe boxes unpacked (I need to sort through for the giveaway box), my quilts put up and some more shelves arranged.

Vietnam Vets picked up several boxes this morning so our garage is less cluttered, I feel good about not throwing perfectly good “stuff” away that I no longer wanted or needed, and now I have room to declutter more!  I think they come through the neighborhood once a month.  I do know they mail out notices with collection bags about 2 weeks before they pick up.

I hung the first things on my office walls yesterday.  My new 2012 Anne Taintor calendar (which is already marked for 2 needlework related getaways), 1 stitched piece, and 2 prints I was given as a going away present from the paralegal job I had in South Carolina 20+ years ago.  I also finally got my desk cleaned off (I was starting to pile everything on it that didn’t have a place to go), filed for unemployment, and just continued the organization march all around.

I have not finished Christmas decorations!  😕  I feel like I’ve been going in 3 different directions at the same time during my day.  I need M’s help but I hate bothering him when he’s working on a different part of the house.  Tomorrow is the deadline for me though since Son and Girlfriend are coming early Saturday morning.  Besides, who wants to be decorating on Christmas Eve?  Next year 🙄 I’ll have more time, and know where my decorations are.

Today I start my goodie baking.  I’m making Pecan Pie Muffins to take to the stitch-together at the Attic tonight.  Besides the fact that I think they’re delicious, this will be my first time at the stitch-together and I’m hoping if I bring them they’ll like me 😉  In addition to the muffins I’ll also be baking chocolate chip cookies, peppermint sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, and oatmeal raisin cookies.  I doubt I’ll get them all done today, but that’s probably a good thing so I won’t be tempted to eat them all today.  I’ve decided to just stick with cookies this year so I can tin them up and send a bunch home with Son and Girlfriend.

I’m still plugging away on HoHRH in the evenings, but I’m ready to put it down for awhile.  I’ve been trying to tell myself that each block is a different design but that’s no longer working for me.  I am just NOT a one-at-a-time stitcher.  Yesterday I found the watch I use to time my 10 hour rotations and just got plain old giddy!  Of course, I haven’t used it in so long the battery is dead, but that will be taken care of tomorrow 😀

Tonight, and probably for the rest of the year, I’m switching stitching projects.  I’m going to take my much neglected Hannah Beeby.  I started her March 2008.  I noticed this morning that she was never added to my WIPs list 😕  Might explain why she’s been neglected, and also is just one more proof that I have way too many WIPs.  Good thing I’m participating in the WIPocalypse (which, BTW, is up to 245 members!).

I’ve updated my Retirement countdown ticker.  M has more definite information on his orders so what you see over there —–> is when his retirement is official.  He’ll be headed to California on January 20th and returning home on January 31st or February 1st.  I’m so happy he’s taking some of his leave time to surf with his friends.  He probably won’t be going back to California until some time in June.  That’s a very long time for a surfer to be without his surf.  I know he’ll be filling in that time with more running tho.  He’s not planning on doing any triathlons in 2012 (he’s volunteering for the Phoenix Ironman)  but is planning on a marathon or 2.  He hasn’t put on his running shoes the whole time he’s been here and I can’t ever remember a time during our 30 years of marriage that he’s gone this long without running.  At least when he starts back his knees and ankles will be healthy!

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