January 2010

My blog's a wee bit dusty. Quite a few dust bunnies around the stitching and beading supplies also. I'm hoping to change that this year.

As I was getting the decorations out for my 2009 Christmas tree I decided to take pictures of all my handmade ornaments and then I decided to decorate the tree in just the handmade ornaments. It's a slender tree and there were enough ornaments that it looked good, but of course more would look better. So I decided I was going to make an ornament a month in 2010.

Strangely enough the next morning while talking to my beading, stitching and just generalized 'cohort in crime' buddy I found out she had decided the same thing. We decided it on the same evening and it really wouldn't surprise me if it happened on the exact same hour and minute, either.

Somewhere along the way I also added five beaded stars a month. One star only takes two hours provided everything goes smoothly (and when does that ever happen, come on there's always one or seven knots, spilled beads and crawling around on the floor hunting for the dropped needle). So obviously one star a month didn't seem like much whereas sixty stars at the end of the year would be really *wow*.

Since I'm setting goals why not add one more, to document the ornaments and stars on my blog.

My January ornament:

January stars:

And a third January project:

This is a skinny herringbone rope bangle bracelet. It's made with size 3 cube beads in brass and gold lined crystal and size 11 brass triangles. I don't particularly care for the color but I am pleased with the two new techniques I learned (4 bead herringbone and connecting the two ends so that you don't need a clasp).

Oakhaven Sal

part 1

Not a good stitching week.

Stitched and unstitched on Opus Magnusson this week. I was stitching the scallopy blue line that goes the entire way across the top of the piece and only had two scallops to go when I realized I had a mistake two scallops back. Ripped it out and restitched it. The next day (Wednesday) something niggled in my brain telling me to check the rest of that line. So I did and I found three more mistakes. Had to rip out all of Monday's and Tuesday's work plus about an hour of Sunday's. Went on to put two more strands in and ripped the first one out to due a large loop on the back. Decided to call it quits for the night. Thursday I put three strands in and then realized that on Sunday I didn't read the color chart right. Decided to give stitching a break for the rest of the week.

Today I'm stitching on Celtic Christmas. It's going fairly well. I did find a mistake from the last time I stitched on her. It really isn't noticible so I'm ignoring it. I need to kit up the project for our Jan. EGA meeting so the rest of this week will be spent measuring, cutting and wrapping. Hopefully the frogs will be long gone by the time I'm stitching again.

Poor neglected blog

The latest picture of Boink. I've actually managed to stay up to date with stitching this. That's a first for me. My start for the New Year is Long Dog Samplers' Opus Magnusson. So far it's been a fun and easy stitch. I kept it out for this week and then next week I'll start back on my rotation. Two days of Celtic Christmas, three days for a random wip and then one day for the Peppermint Twist SAL. Still waiting on the pattern and fabric for the SAL.

June 7, 2008

Part 4 of BoInk is finished, and I'm through stitching on it until the next part is released. A lot of the SAL members have stitched the whole border, but since I have trouble counting past five (and somedays just counting to two seems to be a problem), I'm stitching the border after I stitch the design.

I finished the top of my biscornu yesterday. I think that might have been one of my goals for March. And today I started on the bottom. For the bottom I'm just doing one of the tiny little squares in each corner. Hopefully I'll finish that tomorrow because I want to start this:

This arrived in the mail today. I can't believe I behaved myself and worked on the bottom of the biscornu instead of starting this. Once I get the first row put in I'll be using this as my commercial stitching while I watch So You Think You Can Dance. The commercials are so numerous and long that it wouldn't surprise me if I finish it while only stitching on it during the commercials.

Happy stitching everyone!

June 1st, 2008

BoInk as of 5/18/08. The design for the empty square was released this past Tuesday. I have it all stitched except for the light blue. Haven't found the blue that says 'I'm it!' and after stitching small bits of about a dozen or so different blues I'm about ready to go back to my original pick. Took last week off from BoInk to finally put my first word in on the Lizzie-Kate double flips. Forgot to take a picture, but it looks like all the other dreams, didn't change a thing on it. My goal for this week is to finish the squares and cat on BoInk and then hopefully next week I'll get some work done on Celtic Christmas.

BoInk

Part 3 is finished. I'm finding this piece extremely addicting! It's also making time disappear. I start stitching and all of a sudden it's two hours later and it's every time I work on the piece. This is also the only piece I'm working on (except for when I'm waiting at the doctors, my traveling piece is Damier). Normally I get a little bored with a piece after 5 or 6 days of stitching on it. And then there's the fact that I'm not even sure if I find the piece visually attractive. It's a bit busier and more colorful than what I usually like. BoInk is turning out to be a new stitching experience for me.