No new stitching

Due to my increase in pain and having to be in bed I haven't stitched anything. Since I have to shift positions between sitting up and laying down every 15 to 20 minutes, stitching just can't happen. I wish I could figure out how to stitch laying down (on my right side) it would make it a lot easier. Instead I've been reading.

Since everyone seemed to enjoy seeing a picture of the gold dragon I stitched, I thought I'd toss up a couple more pics of older designs I have done, just so you have something pretty to look at since you loaded my page. :)

Love Home Joy

Designer: Ursula Michael

I saw this design in the June 2005 issue of "The Cross Stitcher" magazine. I started stitching it when I saw it again while I was re-reading my magazines and finished it on July 12, 2006. It took me two weeks and it was my first sampler. It captured me somehow and I ended up stitching for hours every day until it was done. I loved the way the greens and blues worked together. The pic isn't great though.

Good Neighbors

Designer: Paula Vaughn

I finished this in 2001 after 18 months or so of stitching. This was difficult to do beacuse I did it on 18ct Aida. I hadn't tried evenweave at that point and my one earlier attempt on linen drove me batty. But I wished I had tried evenweave because there were a lot of 1/2 and 3/4 stitches on this piece and over 2 threads make those stitches so much easier! This is the one piece of my stitching that I have no clue what happened to it. A former friend of my son's had looked at it and said his mother would have loved to receive something like that. I told him I would teach him to stitch then put it back in the storage drawer. Well the next time I went to pull it out, it was gone and I have not found it anywhere. I figure that boy stole it because he did steal other things (video games and toys from my son), which is one of the reasons he is no longer my son's friend. Eventually I will stitch it again, it was a very enjoyable stitch and I figure it will be even better (and easier) on evenweave.

The Castle

Designer Teresa Wentzler

I finished this piece, on aida, in 3 months. I started in Dec of 1998 and finished in Feb or March of 1999. The only reason I finished such a complicated chart so quickly was because I was bedridden so I stitched all day long, every day. I gave this piece away to a friend of mine and she still has it to this day and still loves it. I bought it as a kit, and as usual (in my experiences anyway) for a kit I ran out of thread. Luckily it contained and was charted for DMC so I just pulled the appropriate colors from my small stash (was small then, not anymore!) and finished it.

Hopefully I will have some new stitching to show tomorrow. I will be in bed again, but I am able to sit up longer before having to lay down, so hopefully I can stitch on something!

Finally I stitched tonight!

I took a few days off from stitching and focused on trying to get myself onto a schedule for household chores now that my depression has been relieved. I haven't felt this good in a very long time (it has been a year which is a long time) and I am enjoying feeling better! I've been focusing on getting back into control of my house and straightening things out, cleaning and all that. So I haven't been stitching this week.

I did stitch tonight and worked on Christmas Dreams. I realized that I seriously miscounted when I posted that it was time to switch back to the Quaker. I posted that I pulled out Christmas Dreams on the 7th, but the date of the post was the 14th and for the life of me I can't remember if I had stitched on it for that week, or if I had just looked at the wrong date on the calendar while writing the post. So to try and settle it I chose not to swith and kept Christmas Dreams out for this week. I didn't stitch until this evening. I worked on the blank area where his hair/sideburns meet his beard and filled most of it in. All that is left is the second blue color that marks the curls which I hope to finish tomorrow. Then I will return to the bottom and continue working on his beard. Sorry but I didn't get a picture.

After a couple hours on Christmas Dreams I pulled out Woodland Fairy by Teresa Wentzler. I haven't stitched on this piece in a very long time. I had started it for someone I considered to be a very close friend and whom I loved a great deal. Suffice it to say that my love and trust were badly misplaced. When I realized that, I lost the desire to work on this piece and that was 4 years ago (it was already a ufo). It has been languishing in my stitching drawers as a UFO. I decided to stitch it for myself instead! As today is Thursday it is UFO stitching day on the yahoo group Friendly Stitchers ( a great group that I really enjoy!) so I pulled her out and put in a couple threads. The progress isn't noticable from the last picture I took so I didn't bother taking another one. I did enjoy working on her though so maybe I'll do a bit more on her this weekend. Here is my last progress pic of Woodland Fairy, just so there is at least 1 stitching picture on this post LOL

I only have 2 UFO's and they are both Teresa Wentzler designs. The Woodland Fairy and Stroke Of Midnight (Cinderella). I love her designs, but they are complicated and take a lot of attention to keep from making major mistakes. The end results are fabulous and worth all the aggravation of stitching them (at least I think so). Here is a picture of The Guardian, a gold dragon of hers that I did. The border (an intricate Celtic Knotwork pattern) didn't get stitched because I damaged the fabric, but the dragon itself is just gorgeous!

Clickable to enlarge for detail

I then pulled out the Quaker for a short while and added the letter "B b" to the alphabet at the top of the page and graphed the change in year from 2006 to 2010. I didn't take a picture of this either, sorry.

On Sunday I will be rotating back to the Quaker and before I do I will take pictures of Christmas Dreams and Woodland Fairy to show my progress.

Thank you for the comments, I really do apprecaite them. They mean a lot to me and I read every single one.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

It is time to rotate back to the Quaker piece. Here is a picture of Christmas Dreams as of March 20, 2010. I didn't get as far as I wanted to but I did get quite a bit done. I focused on filling in the areas above Santa's face, and his beard (which forms the crescent moon shape). I miscounted on the blue (which outlines the waves/curls in the hair) on the right side. I will pull those stitches out before putting this away for the next two weeks.

I can't believe it has already been 2 weeks since I started the rotation. But my blog says I switched to Christmas Dreams on the 7th, so it has been 2 weeks and tomorrow is time to rotate back to the Quaker piece.

On Friday I got some stitchy mail! I ordered a few Quaker charts and here they are:

A Quaker Halloween Sampler by: Cherished Stitches
A Quaker Christmas by: ByGone Stitches
I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm by: Heartstring Samplery

I love these three charts and can't wait to get them done. I think they'll make a beautiful set hanging on my wall together!

Thank you for the wonderful comments, they mean a lot to me and I appreciate every one!

Well that's it for stitchy news for me. Enjoy your stitching!

WIPS on Parade

Here is where I left off on the Quaker when I switched projects for the next two weeks. I am really loving how this is looking!

Here is a closeup of the stitching on this piece. It is being done 2 strands over 2 threads on 28ct Jobelen.

On Sunday March 7 I pulled out Christmas Dreams to work on it for the next two weeks. I have made more progress than I thought I would. Then two days stuck in bed resting my knee gave me lots of time to stitch! I also did some stitching while I was at my doctor's office today. This is still in my hoop because I plan on doing some more stitching tonight.

This is really taking shape now! It is going to be gorgeous! When I am done with the blue version, I hope to stitch the red version on the gold dusted aida but I have to get the chart flipped so that when I make the wall quilt, both Santa's will be facing each other. I think its going to look great!

I ordered a few new charts, quaker designs. I can't wait to get them. I wasn't sure I would like stitching a Quaker design but I really love it! The mini-finishes helps keep my interest up, and the way each medallion/motif looks crisp and clean just looks great!

Well that is it for me for today.

Happy Stitches!

Time To Rotate The Stitches!

A while back I tried doing rotation stitching. This is when you set a time table to switch projects. I tried a 2 day rotation. I think I lasted all of 2 weeks with it. I also got seriously depressed so instead of just altering the rotation timing, I stopped stitching for the most part.

I used to stitch only one project at a time because I worried that I would never finish anything if I had more than one on the go. Finally I started having 2 wips: an easier one for stitching when I was in a lot of pain or otherwise unable to concentrate solely on a complicated design (Teresa Wentzler) and a larger project for those times when I could focus better or had more time. I continued to finish projects and realized that I liked having more than one on the go because it allows me to choose which one to do within whatever my current circumstances are. Also having more than one on the go allowed me to take breaks from the larger projects without having to give up stitching completely. Being able to do that helped me to keep my interest up on my projects, which of course resulted in faster finishes on larger designs than I was getting stitching one at a time.

Some switch projects after so many hours spent on a project, some go by months, some by days etc. Whatever works best for the individual stitcher.

I was reading a friend's blog (Peggy) and she uses a weekly rotation. She stitches on one project for a week, then switches to a different one for the next week. Of course there is leeway should something come up like a wedding sampler or the need to stitch a birthday card. But this sounds like a better chocie for me than the other rotation schedules I have read about. I do real well stitching on a piece for a week or 2, then I tend to need a break and either stitch a different project or not stitch at all. So I figured I would give a weekly (and consider making it a 2 week ) rotation a shot. If it doesn't feel right to me I'll just go back to what I have been doing, stitching whichever of my wips strikes my fancy on that day. lol

When I stitched last night (well really early this morning, 3-6AM couldn't sleep) instead of working on the Quaker, I pulled out Christmas Dreams. I, once again, really enjoyed stitching on it and made some decent progress. Due to the time I didn't take any pictures but I will try to put one up later today or tomorrow.

Stitching A Quaker

I am still working on the Quaker sampler and am close to finishing the first page. There are 4 pages in the design. I had a visit from the nasty old frog while stitching the rabbit and ended up having to pull it out and do it over, but I ended up getting it right. I am still enjoying stitching this piece a great deal!

Here is a pic as of March 6, 2010:

What do you think of the color changes? I don't want to overwhelm the piece by doing a lot of color changes, but so far I really like the additional shades. The roses are done in dark for the stem/leaves, and light for the blooms. The quilt square motif is done with dark in the center and medium for the triangles. The rabbitt and owl (at bottom unfinished) are done in dark with the heart between them done in the medium. I think the few changes give it some depth and interest and as long as I don't switch colors too often it will look real good!

Daughter Stitching and Quaker WIP

My daughter Sam started a cross stitch of a Care Bear; Cheer Bear specifically. She decided to stitch it for her cousin (My niece) Bridgette. She had all the main stitching completed. All that was left was the little bit of snow at the bottom of the piece and adding Bridgette's name, so I went ahead and finished it for her since she is leaving tomorrow to go to Wisconsin and it is possible she will not be returning. She is moving in with her boyrfiend. She took a stitching project with her but didn't have enough room for Cheer Bear so I offered to finish it for her. I got it done just a little bit ago. She did a marvelous job! The back is very neat, her neatest back yet! Bridgette has seen it as well and she points to the bear and says "bear! Mine!" LOL

Here is a picture of the completed design.

Cheer Bear With Tree Lights

© M.C.G. Textiles

I have done a bit more on my Quaker sampler. I decided to go ahead and put some color changes in it. So I chose 3 shades of reddish pink: 3831: Dark, 3832: Medium, and 3833: Light. So far I think the subtle color changes have added to the beauty of this piece. I continue to enjoy the heck out of stitching this design. I guess my feeling that I would really enjoy stitching samplers was a true one. I remember how much I enjoyed stitching the Love Home Joy sampler a few years ago. I got into it so intensely that I finished it within 2 weeks by stitching every single day, almost all day long. I loved the mini-finishes that occured with each completed motif. I loved the way each motif blended with those around them and how the colors worked so well together. This Quaker doesn't have the obvious color changes that the Love Home Joy sampler had because I am stitching the Quaker with 3 shades of the same color, whereas Love Home Joy was stitching with different shades of blue and green. I am really enjoying every stitch I put into this piece and I want to stitch all day long! Sadly I can't stitch all day long because things such as laundry and cooking have to be done LOL

Anyway here is the latest wip picture of my Quaker Sampler:

I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for stopping by and leaving comments. I enjoy every comment made and they make my day brighter and happier! Thank you all!