Still No Deer

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When last I checked in for March Madness, I was enjoying stitching on Prancer so much, I didn't really want to move on...

...so I didn't. The giant stocking and 80s-bridesmaid-dress-style bow are now done. Could an actual deer part make an appearance soon?? Any bets?

I was reading one of the "Top Five Tuesday" posts that Tiffstitches does and saw that one of the things she wants to finish this year is the "H" by Nora Corbett. Hey! I have that chart! I kind of had to buy it, since the name of the design is "Heather". =) So, we decided to do a little SAL on Wednesdays. We start next week!!

I had the threads, though I substituted the skin and dress colors. I went diving in my stash and came up with a piece of fabric that is almost exactly the same color as the Waterlily linen that is recommended (I actually had Waterlily, but stitching on those Wichelt linens is no fun for me). It's Squall from Sugar Maple Fabrics. Does anyone else have a small, deeply treasured stash of SMF?? I almost didn't want to use it, because then I won't have it anymore!

I have really been enjoying the Spring flowers (and Daylight Saving Time!!! Hooray for leaving work when it is still light!!) The pollen, not so much. I believe the pollen count here today is over 3500. Yes, three-five-zero-zero...not a typo. A coworker was visiting from Boston last week and when I told him the count was 1800, I thought his eyes were going to fall out of his head. I've pretty much felt like a zombie this week, although last weekend was worse; I think I actually had a virus!

But, hey, the pollen is worth it!

JiffNotes
That's Prancer up there, I swear it is.

Theme-Tas-Stitch, March Madness Edition

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What is Theme-Tas-Stitch, you ask? Kerry was inspired by the Theme-a-licious SAL I used to run and asked to continue the theme-ing tradition, and she's doing brilliantly! There's a theme every month that you can build your stitching plans around. Click on the picture above for more details!

This month's theme was March Madness, a particular favorite of mine! Guided by the Sparkly Compote of Decree and the slips of paper I draw out of it, I try to stitch on a different WIP every single day in March! I always end up skipping a few days (the perils of having a full-time job). In case you missed my previous posts (because putting all those pictures in this one post would be too much!), here they are

• First March Madness update
• Second March Madness update

And now, what I've been up to in the past week or so! We left off with me drawing a "nice, big" project to work on...but it's actually a set of smalls!

Ye Shall Prosper by Moss Creek Designs

Squirrel! I really did not get much done here; just some chain stitch outlining. But if I waited until all the fun stitching was done before doing the outlines, I would never assemble these. The two small squares will be a tiny pin pillow, and the other two pieces will make an acorn-shaped scissors case. I need to do the back of that. The needlebook is already stitched, and then I just have the front and back of a thread bag to go and I'm done!

The SCOD gets "moods"...last time, it was in a yarny mood. Well, this time...

Spring Garden Gate by Moss Creek Designs

it was in a Moss Creek mood! Two projects in two days! I managed to get all the lupine flowers (the blue ones) done...they are double-sided buttonhole bars. I really had to use the magnifier. But you're not allowed to look that closely at them. ;)

That brings us up to March 17th...

The only thing I can remember about this hardanger piece is that it's an ornament from the JCS 1997 ornament issue (and I'm too lazy to go look up the name and designer!) I swapped the DMC floss for some random Hand-Dyed Fibers. I got a good bit done after I figured out which way I was travelling....

March 18th we saw Beauty and the Beast AND went to the Ballet, so I did not have time to stitch at all!

March 19th:

Peacock Tapestry by Teresa Wentzler

At the rate I'm stitching this, I will be done when I am 237.

March 20th I drew a magic blank slip (allowing me to choose!)

Prancer by Mirabilia

Still no deer colors!

Now I am really torn because I want to figure out a rotation (and I really just want to stitch some more on Prancer)...but I drew a slip out of the SCOD, anyway, just to see what it would say...and Spring Quakers popped out. That would be really fun to stitch, too...hmmmm....

Next month's theme is April Showers: "What pieces do you have that contain water? - It might be rain, river, sea or lake - see how many stitches you can make!" I am golden here. Especially when I remember that snow is just frozen water. ;)

JiffNotes
Even when directed by an inanimate object, I still can't make up my mind on what to stitch....

Gifted Gorgeousness March 2017

What is Gifted Gorgeousness, you may ask? It's the brainchild of the lovely and talented Jo at Serendipitous Stitching, who invites us to celebrate gifts we've been given that we are stitching on (or gifts we're stitching for others). If you're up for seeing more eye candy, click on the graphic above and visit Jo's link up post!

As my birthday is the end of February, you may be thinking I'm going to show you all kinds of stitch-related gifts! Well, I at least have one:

This is some of my haul from my wonderful spouse, and you'll notice the beautiful Jane Nicholas book at the bottom. My husband told me, "You already have everything I'm giving you, just not these versions." Yes, I have T-shirts and stumpwork books (even ones by Jane Nicholas), but of course I need MORE!

And now, for the rest of the post, I will use the largest shoehorn that I own, as I want to show you what else has been happening during March Madness! My shoehorn is that the Sparkly Compote of Decree gives me the project I'll stitch on each day.

We left off last Tuesday. Wednesday, March 8th, the SCOD wanted me to work on a scarf that I frogged during the Lottlympiad. *ahem* I really should clean out the SCOD! So I picked the socks I took to Disney World in case we had decided to see the new Rivers of Light show, which would have required an hour wait. =)

Woo hoo! Happy Dance! March Madness has given me a finished object! Well, two, actually. I'm wearing them right now and they are quite comfy. =) The sock pattern is named Björk, but I called the project "Swan Feathers". Why? Well, when I think of Björk, I think of only one thing...

...wait for it...

March 9th the SCOD coughed up a slip of paper with a project that I could not for the life of me find, so I picked this related project (sea-themed, like the one I was supposed to stitch):

This is an EGA nametag for my chapter I was supposed to have stitched a looooong time ago. Good thing I am a remote member!

March 10th:

Keep a Secret by Just Nan. I could probably have this finished soon if I just concentrated on it! I'm assuming I put it away because I couldn't see the over-one stitching, but now that Daylight Savings Time has given us the GIFT of more light, I could get back to it....

March 11th:

Sanctuary by The Drawn Thread. This was plagued with problems when I picked it up. I wanted to start the trees on the left, but I seem to be missing JUST THAT ONE COLOR of NPI silk! Fine, after a fruitless search, I decided to just do the trees at the top. See that one pathetic tree trunk? Yeah, that's because I stitched all the trees before I realized I was ONE STITCH TO THE LEFT. I couldn't fudge it because there's a corner tree, and I would have had to fudge all four sides and corner trees similarly. *sigh*

March 12th: This was a Sunday, so I was hoping for a nice, big project to work on. Instead, I got a paltry little knitting project. I drew again (I do that occasionally and switch days). ANOTHER yarny project! I drew a third time. Finally, a stitching project!

And then, it turned out that with church and errands and other commitments, I didn't have time for a nice, big project, so I worked on the knitting, anyway. The Sparkly Compote of Decree is looking mighty smug in that picture, wouldn't you say?

March 13th: No stitching. Apocalyptic day!

March 14th:

The SCOD, in its yarny mood, gave me the oldest (and only) crochet WIP I have. A friend kindly taught a few of us to crochet using a cute little acorn bag. According to Ravelry, that was 2009!!! After doing two rounds in what I thought was single crochet but turned out to be something I made up, then ripping and doing one round correctly, I decided I really hate crochet and I frogged the whole thing today! So now I have the gift of spare yarn....

Well, my shoehorn is starting to bend under the strain, so I will leave you wondering what project the SCOD has given me today...it's the nice, big one I drew for on Sunday!

A Week of Mice and Madness

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If you're participating in Theme-Tas-Stitch (or you've been around here for over a year), you know that March means March Madness. And that means that I try to stitch on something different every day of the month! I don't always succeed, because I don't always get to stitch every day, but on the days I do get to stitch, I draw a slip of paper out of the SCOD (Sparkly Compote of Decree), and it tells me what I stitch that day. March first brought me this beauty to work on...

This is Toccata by The Drawn Thread. I only got one little square done, but, hey, that's pretty good for a work night.

March 2nd we went to see Phantom of the Opera at the fabulous Fox after work, so I got no stitching done that night. (My one-sentence review of the show is that if you saw it in the 90s, don't bother, because this production is much scaled down and misses a lot of the iconic staging moments.)

The next day, I told the SCOD to go take a flying leap, I was working on my first Loopy Academy project, Spliced (qualification: must be a two-color-per-row project):

I did not get all of that done, but I did get a lot of it done. The next two days I did not stitch at all, because I had better things to do...

We went to Disney World for my birthday! It's the first time in a while that I haven't been there on my actual birthday. That's OK; I still got the button, and the Dapper Dans sang "Happy Birthday" to me. =)

The Flower and Garden Festival was going on at Epcot, so that park was just beautiful.

Sometimes the Festival starts just after my birthday, so although some of the topiary displays are up, we don't get to enjoy other aspects of the Festival, like the fabulous food booths!

I tried to convince Michael that the cheese strudel with berry compote was terrible and I should just eat it all so he didn't have to suffer through it, but he didn't buy it. =)

Our second day, we got up early and hustled over to the back entrance of the park (we stayed at the Swan, so we were able to walk...and a big shout out to my Falcons for being in the Super Bowl and getting us a three-for-two deal there!) We wanted to be there at "rope drop" so we could speed-walk over to Norway and be in line for Frozen Ever After!

I didn't try to take any photos during the ride because I just wanted to enjoy it. The wait time can balloon up to several hours, so getting there early is your only hope if you can't get FastPasses (and we made the decision to go down too late to get them). We only waited about 10 minutes! We really enjoyed the ride and talked about how cool it is to go on a brand new Disney attraction...it's a treat that doesn't come along every day!

I'll end my pictorial review with a pair of dragons, because: DRAGONS!

China pavilion topiary at Epcot...

Maleficent "float" at Magic Kingdom.

On the way home, I knit on my second Loopy Academy project, Sinnesfrid.

I'm still not 100% sure about this color...I wanted a bright Spring green. Sometimes I think this is it, and sometimes it looks weird to me. It really changes color with the light.

That doesn't quite bring us up to today, but here's the last picture that was in the camera, from Tuesday:

The SCOD coughed up a blank slip of paper, which means I get to choose! So I picked a project out of the Drawer of Shame...it's a drawer in our coffee table where I keep stitching supplies like scissors, needle minders, stitch markers, etc. But it also contains various random small projects that get stuffed in there for one reason or another. I decided to stitch something from there to help clean it out...I wasn't sure what all was in there! I found a few ornament kits that were not started, an ornament with one side stitched, one side unstitched, and one side completely missing (along with the fibers!), a bead kit, a stumpwork ornament whose directions I'm sure I packed in a box somewhere, various other things, and this. This was pretty much the only started thing in there that had all its bits together! It's going to be a PEACE tree by M Designs. If I have enough fibers left to complete it. I have my doubts...

The madness will continue! Stay tuned...

JiffNotes
Disney World got in the way of March Madness, in the best way possible, but I still got a lot of stitching done!