Category Archives: Peacock Tapestry

Old WIPs, Tracking, and Stash Enhancement

Isn’t it funny how things change, but stay the same.  Blogging used to be all the rage, then came Facebook and Instagram.  Now YouTube is taking over the stitching world by way of the flosstube posts.

I try really hard to not get sucked in to watching flosstube. I’m trying to limit myself to 2 cups of coffee worth.  I turn it on, and start going through my emails (which I had up to a couple of weeks ago horribly neglected).  When someone says something really interesting, or they get to the “this is what I’m stitching” or “this is what I bought since last time” part I switch over to watching with undivided attention.  😀  I did remember several days ago that I can watch it on my TV, so I may indulge a bit more while I’m stitching.  It’s can be horribly enabling though.

While I like learning more about bullet journaling (my latest tracking love), I can hardly stand to watch the videos.  There is a whole lot of looking at someone’s journal sitting closed on a desktop with their fingers waving around (likened to playing an invisible piano keyboard) while they talk.  That drives me nuts.  So I don’t watch very many of them.

Creating a bullet journal has allowed me to blend stitching, quilting, and journaling into a joint venture!  This is how I’m tracking my Yearly WIP Challenge pieces, where in the past I used Excel.  I do love the convenience of computer programs, but I’m a paper and pencil girl at heart.

One of the things I was determined to do in 2016 was pull out Teresa Wentzler’s Peacock Tapestry – which was started Sept 1999 – and grid it. This was the first TW I ever started. I was living in Japan where I knew no other stitchers and had just gotten internet and ordered the kit.

I pulled it out to take a picture for a group I’m in, and look it’s already gridded. No idea when that happened, but it wasn’t this year. SMH.
2016-09-17-11-17-25-1

I keep forgetting to share my latest stash enhancement item.  It’s Crossroads & Country Roads by Piece by Piece.  The designer, Pam McMahon is a local designer and I love her stuff!  She posted on Instagram that she had a new design out and offered it up there first (I think).  I sent her a message and she popped it in the mail on Monday and it arrived the next day.

2016-10-03-09-12-51

I love that she includes instructions for both sizes.  I love the red and white version, and the smaller quilt is 25″.

I just returned from my trip to Louisiana, and brought back a couple of stitching things.   Main reason for the trip was to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday (which was yesterday).  I also got to visit with my high school best friend and she’s who I went stash shopping with.

2016-09-27-11-35-35

Count Twice Stitch Once by Plum Street

Fleur de Fleur by Alessandra Adelaide

Fleur de Fleur by Alessandra Adelaide

Do Small Things With Great Love by Lizzie Kate

Do Small Things With Great Love by Lizzie Kate

There were a couple more Louisiana related that had to be ordered.

I’ve also started on my Year of WIPs Challenge but that’s a separate post since it’s photo intensive.

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 Stitching Thoughts

I was going to post this yesterday, but yesterday didn’t go as I thought it would.  It started out as any other day — get up at 3 a.m. to watch the Quadrantids meteor shower, go back to bed at 4 a.m., get up at 7 a.m., fall down steps from kitchen to family room, nearly faint from the pain of falling down, while trying to not freak M out too much when I yelled for him….yeah, not so much what I had planned.  Spent as much time as possible getting up and down all day so I wouldn’t get too stiff.  Was shaky all day and very thankful that the worst injury seemed to be to my pride.  Don’t know exactly what damage I did but when I finally came to a rest I was sitting on my butt with my left leg bent out to the side of me.  I heard a loud pop when I fell and was scared to death to move afterward, thus my yelling for M, who was still upstairs sleeping.  In the end, I hurt my right palm, left wrist, left knee, left ankle, and my neck and shoulders were stiff.  This morning I’m stiff, but not feeling anything like I was worried I would be feeling.  I’m moving sort of slow and walking around like an old lady, but I’m up and about, and not going to miss going to my Thursday evening stitchin or to Vegas next week.

Now, for the original reason behind this post:

As shown by my ort jars for 2011, I had several months where I barely touched any of my stitching.  Even then, I stitched more in 2011 than I did in 2010.  I’m hoping, now that I’m no longer working, that I can at least double the amount of stitching in 2012!

For the past couple of weeks while unpacking my stash, I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to accomplish in 2012.  It’s been fun reading what other stitchers are hoping to accomplish and nice to know I’ll be in good company whether or not I succeed.  I think I do better with goals, or rather putting down what I’d like to see happen, on “paper.”  Sometimes I get caught up in the crowd mentality and forget what I wanted to do if I don’t have some sort of written plan to bring me back to earth!

So, for 2012 I plan on:

  • Get back to blogging more frequently.  I stitch more when I blog.  I am a horrible photographer, but I enjoy sharing my stitching just like everyone else!
  • Get back to rotating my stitching and tracking my time.  I know a lot of people think this is too much work but when I was doing it before I felt such a sense of accomplishment and I seemed to stitch more, just like when I blog more.
  • Stick to my WIPocalypes goals and keep my page updated.
  • Post to the Theme-a-licious challenge as often as my rotation works into it.
  • Post my monthly TUSAL.
  • Participate in at least 6 Fair and Square exchanges.
  • Finish out all 6 received Fair and Square exchanges.  I plan on taking advantage of the great finishing tutorials in bloggy land.
  • Stitch 3 Santa ornaments for my Santa display.
  • Take at least 1 stitching related class.
  • Finish logging my charts into my spreadsheet.
  • Start organizing my freebies.
  • Organize my magazine designs.

When I read back over my list I feel like I’ve set an extremely overloaded year for myself and am so tempted to “downsize” that list.

What I don’t plan on doing….depriving myself.  I don’t handle deprivation well.  Just see how I respond when you try to take chocolate away from me — and it never fails that just as soon as I say “I’m not going to buy anymore stash until I stitch ____ number of pieces” someone publishes something I can’t live without. I’m just going to take it month by month. Or maybe, newsletter by newsletter 😉

I have non-stitching goals this year too!  But those, I’m keeping to myself.

I picked up Peacock Tapestry Tuesday and immediately remembered why it became a UFO instead of a WIP.

Back in 1999, when I first started it, gridding was something new to the stitching world.  I didn’t grid before I started it and while I love stitching on it, the backstitching is what got me.  I have requested a copy of the backstitching chart.  I tried to backstitch it Tuesday, but gave up.  Yesterday I started stitching on it, but decided the smart thing for me to do is to grid it.  So, that’s where I’m at.  I’m 5+ hours into it this rotation.  I’ll finishe the gridding during this time, and get some more stitching done, too.  Next time I pick it up I should have the backstitching chart and I’ll go back to that before adding more stitches.

I’m trying to decide whether or not to take it with me tonight if I don’t finish up the 10 hours by then, or to take Hannah Beeby again, since she’s so “easy.”

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 🙂

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...