Category Archives: Haiku

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!

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 😉

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