I'm out of clever titles...

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...for March Madness. At least ones that won't make even me groan as I type them. I've been doing pretty well with working on something different every day. I only broke my "rule" twice: Both times were because I was so tired/braindead that I couldn't think of doing anything except relatively mindles. So I knit on the Medallion Capelet. I have now finished all three medallions! Here's a "blocked/unblocked" photo:
I get it now: Blocking gooood.

Speaking of blocking, this will look a lot better once it's blocked ("Branching Out" from knitty):
There is a glaring mistake right now, but I've already restarted this so many times that I'm just going to sew up the hole!! I really need to put in a lifeline. I'm probably going to tempt fate until the next repeat.

Here are shots of some more progress that's been happening since last time I checked in...Moss Creek's "Autumn Jewels":

The sad progress on Britty Kitty's Poinsettia:
Yes, I believe that's the second time this month for that, but I did something else that day. I also started my surprise ornament, but no pictures of that. =)

This looks impressive, but it wouldn't if you saw where it was before this month. =) Victoria Sampler's "Heirloom Christmas Sampler":


The "Where's Waldo?" of today's post...can you find the start I made on Ellen Chester's "Quaker Turtles" in this picture?


Thanks to my stash, I was able to start LaBroderie's "Shakespeare's Garden" with DMC Flower Thread on a Silkweaver Summer Fun Pack fabric pretty much the same as the Light Mocha Cashel called for, only with beautiful subtle variations.
By the way, I ironed the fabric before I started, because it had been in its little plastic bag for years, and it was very creased. I have now promised myself that I will always iron fabric before I start. Look how great it looks! And it was so much easier to line up in the Q-Snaps! I immediately violated this rule when I started the Quaker Turtles. =) My rationalization is that I'm going to cut the fabric apart and make it my travel project as soon as I finish that darn Pear (excuse my language...it's on 35 count).

JiffNotes
More madness...but the good kind now.

Smalls SAL August 2017

No idea what the Smalls SAL is all about? Click the graphic above to learn more (and see lovely smalls from others!)

I finally had enough daylight and patience to finish sewing up a felt pear I started quite a while ago.

It's definitely not the neatest job, but I learned a lot while doing it, and hopefully it won't take me so long to do the accompanying partridge that I forget it all!

Yup, that's right...this is a 12 Days of Christmas set! Will it be done by this Christmas? Not a chance! =)

February 2017 Smalls SAL Check-in

No idea what the Smalls SAL is all about? Click the graphic above to learn more (and see lovely smalls from others!)

This is going to be a replay of a finish from Focus Finish February...I finished this soutache embroidery snowflake ornament.

I can't wait to work on the other two in the series; they are much "fancier". I didn't know how this one would turn out since this was my first foray into soutache. Now that I have conquered one, I'm sure I can do the others!

I really thought I was going to have a different small finished for February ("there's ages between the Theme-Tas-Stitch check-in and the end of the month!"). Hahahahaha.... Hopefully these pieces will turn into a March small finish.

Hmmm...looks like somebody got the lens cap shadow in the shot again. "Somebody" really should take some photography classes. Or just pay more attention!!

Theme-Tas-Stitch Focus Finish February

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It is with great excitement (although also great lateness) that I post my first Theme-Tas-Stitch post of the year! 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. I gladly said yes, because if there's one thing I like better than a themed SAL, it's one I'm not responsible for running! =)

This month's theme was Focus Finish, and I had grand plans, let me tell you...Grand Plans. I had a whole list! However, I forgot that Loopy Academy starts up again this month and I'd be casting on and knitting like crazy. So I modified my list to include one old WIP I wanted to work on (Curios by Kathy Rees) and a list of small things I thought I could finish. I finished one. =)

This is the soutache embroidery snowflake I started last month:

I forgot to include something for scale. It's pretty small; about 3 inches (7.5cm) in diameter. I can't wait to try making one of the other two in the kit; they are much "fancier".

Another small thing on my list was this pair of socks. They were so close to being finished, and I was all ready to Kitchener stitch the toes this past weekend. When I went to get my yarn needles, they were gone! I looked "everywhere" twice, but to no avail!

I finally gave up and took this picture to show I missed the finish line by a toe (bad pun!) Of course, I found the needles TODAY.

So that was the "Finish" part, now for the "Focus" part. This is how far I got on Curios:

I love that zig-zag motif in the center! It's my favorite so far. By the way, thank you for all the good suggestions on my squirrel canvas. I'm still mulling that over. Carol suggested I find out if there is a stitch guide available. Unfortunately, I have no idea who the designer is, and I don't know if the friend that gave it to me does, either, because she got it from a "de-stash" group. I do have a couple of canvas books, so I will pore through those.

Next month's Theme-Tas-Stitch theme is March Madness!! You all know this is one of my favorites...I looked back in the blog, and the first March Madness I recorded was 2008, but I referred to loving it "last year", so that means 2007. That was even before Theme-a-licious, when I was just doing themes with my "local" stitch group ("local" is in quotes because some of them were in Florida =).

Ahhh...meeeeeeemories, like the corners of my miiiiiiind.... *ahem* Sorry for that song break. Anyway, March Madness means stitching on something different every day I stitch. I may not be able to do that this year, but I'll do my best. And you know what ELSE March Madness means??

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The return of the SCOD!!

(Sparkly Compote of Decree, where I draw a slip of paper to tell me what WIP to work on.)

JiffNotes
Stitching themes are back!! I managed to finish one thing this month, but I guarantee it'll be worse next month. ;)

Gifted Gorgeousness February

It's once again time to show our progress for Gifted Gorgeousness, a lovely stitch-along hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. Gifted Gorgeousness is all about stitching on things we've been gifted (or possibly that we *want* to gift). You can click on the graphic above to find out more about it.

I have stitched on two things this month for GG. Last month I was really close to finishing Dragonlet 11 from Jennifer Aikman-Smith's 12 Dragonlets of Christmas (which were gifted to me by Bonnie at Bonnie's World since I don't do facecrook). So now he is finished!

I may take a little break before I tackle the last two (yes, TWO...I'll let you stew in mystery for a while if you don't already know why there are two ;) The constant color changes and tons of backstitching make these not my favorite thing to work on, but honestly the worst thing is the fabric. I will never use Brittney again!

Fabric is not a problem with my other GG project: Shakespeare's Garden by La Broderie. This chart, along with the specialty fibers and embellishments, was gifted to me by my friend Cathy (no blog). I'm stitching it on a beautiful Silkweaver solo.

So that's it for this month! I'm looking forward to making some major progress on Shakespeare's Garden this month!

October Smalls SAL Check-in

I've made it to October!! This is the 10th Dragonlet of the 12 Dragonlets of Christmas.

Doesn't he look so JOYFUL??!? This is how I feel most of the Christmas season, except when I get stressed about shopping or remember how stupid cold it is! Can you tell he's leaping? He was meant to be leaping over the number 10, but as I have a plan for finishing these that involves numbers...well, more a vague inkling than a plan...I'm leaving all the numbers out as I stitch them. And believe, me, I'm grateful for the reduction in backstitching...this little guy wasn't bad, but on some of the others, it seems like the backstitching takes about 1/3 of the total time!

September Smalls SAL Check-in

Yes, I know it's October!! I am a little really late checking in for September's Smalls SAL. But maybe a cute little dragon will help you forgive me?

Continuing the 12 Dragonlets of Christmas series I'm doing, September gave us 9 dragons dancing (well, thankfully I only had to stitch ONE)! I'm disappointed you can't see the sparkles in her tutu!

How graceful do you think dragon dancers are? Light on their claws, or more like the hippos in Fantasia??

August Smalls SAL Check In

I'm up to the eighth day of Dragon Dreams's Twelve Dragonlets of Christmas. Instead of maids milking, though...

we have dragons crying over spilled milk. It's kind of hard to see what's going on, I think, but there are two dragons there...the spiller and the...spillee. Have you all heard the saying, "Don't cry over spilled milk"? I looked up the origin of the phrase, but no one is really sure where it started. One theory is that since fairies love milk, spilled milk was considered an offering to them. If you scolded someone for spilling the milk, you'd be seen by the fairies as stingy and bring bad luck on the house!

I personally think that the dragon on the bottom was just going to enjoy a nice milk bath a la Cleopatra and is holding his ears to try and block out the sobbing dragon on top. Way to ruin a relaxing bath with all that blubbing!

July Smalls SAL Check-in

I'm continuing with Dragon Dreams's 12 Dragonlets series...this month, it's Seven Swans-a-Swimming...

...or IS it? This little dragon is suited up for Summer; perfect to stitch in July, even though I have not set foot in a pool since June! I love this month's take on the 7th day of Christmas!

For more smalls, click the banner at the top of the post!

June Smalls SAL Check-in

I'm still on track with the Dragon Dreams 12 Dragons of Christmas (technically, they're the 12 Dragons of 2012, but you know we like to keep things current around here...yeah...don't look at my post count for this month).

This is the first month we're not stitching the number of critters that are represented...thank goodness!! Imagine how small they'd be by the time we got to twelve! I made a couple of changes...for the bigger question marks, I did over-one Xs for the dots. This was mainly so I'd have some way to end threads! I also added the big question mark on the right, because I'm not stitching the numbers. I have a vague plan for that, but so far I haven't been able to find what I want while shopping. Hopefully I won't regret my decision!

For more lovely smalls, click on the banner above to visit Stitching Lotus.

May Smalls SAL Check In

I'm still keeping up with the Dragon Dreams Twelve Dragonlets of Christmas.

I think this little guy is all tuckered out from singing "FIIIIIIIVE GOOOOOOOOOOOLD RIIIIIIINGS!!!" You have to sing it like that, you know. It's a law. The only change I made was to stitch the rings in two shades of Kreinik (202 and 002HL, I think) rather than the one shade and a bright yellow DMC that was called for. Because I didn't want "fool's gold" rings...there are no fools at Christmas. =)

To see more lovely smalls, visit Stitching Lotus's site by clicking on the banner above!

Marching into Madnes

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I thought I'd post an update of what I've been working on during March Madness so that my month-end report wouldn't be so long it would require a couple gallons of Gatorade for anyone to make it through.

So, the day I got back from vacation, all tired and sad to be back at work, the Sparkly Compote of Decree decided I needed to frog.

Because that's where Magical Night is at this point. I backstitched the wings in the color called for, but I had changed the fabric to a darker shade, so it didn't really show up very well. So, I'm in the process of ripping it all out. I got a good bit done.

Next, Ye Shall Prosper came up.

 

This is the pin keep from the set, and I did some boring chain stitch. This is actually an older picture, since I got so little done, it seemed kind of pointless to take a new one!

Les Rubans was next. Here's a shot of the whole piece:

And the bit I did:

That bit is part of a ribbon that I've already finished one section of...so it will look a lot like this when I'm done with it.

Whew, that's a lot of stitching so far. Let's take a quick break while I announce the theme for April!

April Showers

What pieces can you find in your flood of WIPs that include water? Rivers, lakes, oceans, or rain (and anything that lives within).

The idea for this theme actually came from two people! SoCal Debbie and Shebafudge, but since Shebafudge gave us February's theme, the prize is going to go to Debbie this month. Debbie, please send me your snail mail address!

And now, back to the Madness...

Next, an old class piece came up, a Christmas drawn-thread border piece.

This is just the smaller class piece, but I did almost get one whole side done. The picture doesn't show how sparkly it is...all the stitching is done in DMC stranded metallic floss.

Obviously the SCOD was still in a Christmas mood, as the next thing it spit out was this Partridge in a Pear Tree.

It is possible that I've only worked on this piece during March Madnesses Past.

Continuing the theme within the theme), this Hearts and Flowers ornament was next.

It's a 3-sided ornament, and once I get the middle peyote band done, I will have to learn brick stitch to do the six top and bottom panels!

You'll see the rest of the projects I worked on on April 1st! (No foolin'!)

JiffNotes
In case you missed it amongst all the pictures, the theme for April is April Showers!

February Smalls SAL Check-in

So far, I am two for two in stitching smalls! And speaking of two...

Two turtle doves. (This is the second in the Dragon Dreams 12 Dragonlets of Christmas series.)

My inner extreme literalist adores this.

January Smalls Check-in

Today is check-in day for the 2014 Smalls SAL...and...you guys, I actually finished the (very small) small I set out to make!! It's the first Dragonlet of Dragon Dreams' 12 Dragonlets of Christmas. And I shall show you, in a stunning display of the magic of backstitching!

Before:

Cute blob, eh? There's a tree, but what's going on there??

After:

D'awww...it's a cute lil' dragon trying to fulfill his daily fruit requirement! I love how my wacky French knot makes the partridge look vaguely alarmed...like he's super glad the dragon's not ALSO trying to get his protein for the day.

Theme-a-licious No-Xs November Wrap Up

I was really hoping to have this finished, but I am slowly getting there.

 

Southpaw Stitcher asked who designed this. It's Emie Bishop (Cross 'N Patch). This one is called Eight-Pointed Star, and it's from the 1997 (!) Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue. It's charted for red and green, but I'm using some Hand-Dyed Fibers. The light blue actually has metallic gold painted over it in some spots. I think she did a series of these, so if I find any more, I'll do them in the same colors.

I also made more progress on my stumpwork piece.

 

Just a couple more leaves (one done and one in progress)...kinda boring, but it's progress!

We're almost to the finish line! And speaking of finish lines...

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Detritus December

It's the end of the year...are there some projects you thought you'd have done by now? Let's take a walk down memory lane and start the new year with a clean plate.

Ornament Theme
your choice--or do some ornament finishing

So what's in your WIP pile that you can finish off this month? I personally need to do a LOT of ornament finishing. I am sure I have double-digits of ornaments that are stitched but not "ornamentified"!! I also need to finish up that hardanger ornament. I will have to search to see what else is close....

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So how was No-Xs November? Did you enjoy going off the grid? Please add your link below (to your wrap up post), and visit some other Themers if you can (everyone loves comments and encouragement!) We'll check-in on December 15th to see what you're wrapping up.

Theme-a-licious Jubilee July Wrap-up

All in all, I think I did pretty well this month. I had planned on letting some projects go, but I didn't get around to rifling through the stash. There was a lot of celebrating going on, though.

For Independence Day, I worked on Long May She Wave (or, I should probably call it, "Long May She Work on It", since it's been in progress so long)...

Dancer helped me celebrate "Christmas in July"...

Starting to look like he (she?) might be a deer some day.

I actually got my ornament done this month! It's been far too long since I was stitching on a squirrel, so I had to make this little guy.

And finally, this month marks the 20th anniversary of when Michael and I met. We were both cast in a musical called "Late Nite Special", about a girl who works at a community theater...and rib shack! We took our publicity photos at Colonel Poole's BBQ, so we gathered there before heading back to watch a recording of the show. I hadn't seen it for quite a few years, and it was fun and embarrassing to see it again. =)

By the way, Colonel Poole's is worth the trip. Despite the over-the-top decor, it is some of the best barbecue I've had, and the fried pies are OUTSTANDING.

My character in the show was called "Opie", which was short for "Ophelia". So, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of "Late Nite Special", I give you Ophelia in sweater form.

It's unblocked...there will be more photos later. =)

Now it's time to fly on to...

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Airborne August

What's that soaring through the air with the greatest of ease? It's the things with wings on your WIPs!

Ornament Theme
angels or birds

This month's theme is another one that's pretty forgiving. For instance, I'll be working on Dancer...he doesn't have wings per-se, but he CAN fly, of course. I haven't even begun to think about my ornament choice!!

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So how did your Jubilee July go? Did you let some projects go? What did you celebrate? Please add your link below (to your wrap up post), and visit some other Themers if you can (everyone loves comments and encouragement!) We'll definitely do a check-in post this month...so look for it on August 15th when we'll see how you're progressing!