Almost Halfway

I got up to the L this week. My husband showed me the nearly complete frame - I think as a hint that he wants me to get this done. I did get most of the M done after this picture, and yes, I'm feeling some pressure. Problem is I'm feeling some pressure on a lot of my stitching to get it done. Once I get to the third line, I'll probably do it all in one go.

Pointy, Curvy, Round, Square?

This week I finished the skeleton of the great big snarl-thing in the final band. I can't decide what shape it actually is. It was somewhat of a challenge to put together, but I did it. The Walsh silk perle has a wonderful hand, but is almost as springy as the Edmar. Anyway, the rest of the band is anchored into this, so I can use it as a starting point.

Before and After

This is how I received Lyn G's block for the Asian Nights round robin. For some reason, the first two people I've worked on both picked Japan. When I think of Japan, I think of Hello Kitty, Sailor Moon and Caramelldansen. Somehow, I don't think that's what -they- were thinking when they made the blocks. Anyway, this top picture shows how the block came to me. It had a lot of potential. I'm not used to working with such bright, hot colors, so it was a challenge.

After a lot of thinking about what others would think was Japanese, I finally came up with an idea for a motif. I made a stream of falling maple leaves down the black. To edge them, I made a fairly simple border. Then, since it's a round robin, I put in the kanji that is supposed to be "friend". I have no clue if that's right or not, but it does at least look Japanese. Now to see if she likes it. I only did one seam because the one I did was soooo long. Didn't want to hog things up.

Unveiled

My husband finished framing this last night. It's crochet lace ... and it was my wedding veil. I used size 40 cordonnet back twenty-one years ago when I made it. He always said he was going to frame it, and he did. Didn't he do a good job?

This is a close up of the lace itself. The pattern is from an old Rita Weiss tablecloth book.

Giving a Finger

Yay, I started on Bibendum himself this week. His finger is up in the air and he's ready for a ride.

A Bit More

I'm halfway done with part 13 in this picture, which was taken a week ago. Since then, I've finished it, so I'm back on track with the group. Part 14 comes out on Wednesday. I'm still really curious about the corners, but I think they're delayed for a reason.

One Huge Flower

Band eight has a great big flower in the middle. I started it this week and finished the upper border of the band. It's coming along a bit. The flower is also upside down. I had my paper upside down when I started, then decided not to frog it, so the whole inner part of the band will be rotated that way. Will be ... interesting, yes?

Another Motif Down

I got a second motif nearly done on the rondel. I'm not going to complete it in time for the Marquoir group, but I did find and order the pattern from the designer. That way, I won't have a half-finished project.

Part Six Begun

At the very top you can see my beginning of part six. I don't know why my husband cut the rest off in the picture, but I promise there's more. This part is a cluster of buildings all on this side of the square. I just hope it doesn't take me nearly as long as part five did.

Light on the Skirt

This week was the skirt's turn to get some work, along with some undertones of the flag. She's progressing downwards fairly well now, and I'm about on the last stripes of the flag. Then it's a lot of browns for the rest of the stitching!

A New Link

If you notice, there's a new link in the sidebar. It's Christmas Ornament Exchange, and I inherited it from Simone D. in the Netherlands, who's guided it through several iterations. If you're interested in a world wide exchange of ornaments of -any- kind of needlework, sign up. The rules are on that site. In the past there's been an average of thirty to forty participants. Wouldn't it be spiffy to receive an ornament from somewhere else hand made by someone who loves needlework as much as you?

Working on K

I'm up to K now, nearly halfway through the alphabet. My husband has everything ready to frame this, so I have to hurry. I might take a day later this week and just finish it. The color doesn't show up as well against the brown background as I thought it would, but I'm not about to frog it and start over.

Bibendum's Brand

I have all of Michelin spelled out now to start Bibendum on his way. The width of the word is the width of the piece. It should move along now ... off to do some black and white.

Another Round Robin Done

I'm doing three crazy quilting round robins this fall, and this is another square ready to mail. I was only the second person to work on this block, and this round robin requires us to use certain stitches every month for seams. Mine was fly stitch. All the fly stitches, including the reverse fly stitch that looks like a braid, were done by me. I'd not realized how versatile a stitch it was until I played around with it! I also did the spiderweb roses on the dark blue velvet. There are still three more people to work on this block. I don't know where they're going to have room.

Three of Four Done

Three corners are totally done now, and only one more to go before I start adding specialty stitches to everything. I feel like my progress is soooo slow, though. Maybe because it is.

Part 12 Done

Speaking of my German stitching group, here's Totales Mysterie with part twelve done. Well over the halfway point now - only eight more parts to go! Now to see if I can finish part 13 before the end of the month.

Nouveau Rondel

This is a blackwork piece I started through my German stitchalong group. I'm sooo far behind, but I decided to start it anyway. I doubt I'll get it done in time. The floss is Vikki Clayton and the fabric is from Polstitches.

Blue as the Stars

I finished my very first temari ball last night. It's also my first seminar finish for this year. I like it. There's certainly room for improvement, but for a first attempt, I think it came out pretty well.

Barb Suess's directions and instruction helped a LOT. I'd recommend, if you're looking to make temari, that you look at her site.

And lastly, this makes my sixth finish on my twenty-five project challenge.

Hairy Time

This week I added some hair to the maiden in the middle. She's coming along again now that I'm back from seminar. I'm sooo close to being able to bead and finish this I can almost taste it.

Left Behind

I didn't get any work on this done at seminar, resulting in me not getting part 13 sent to me on time. I did get some stitched, though, and it's going to be done soon. Lots of border work on this set of four squares.

Finished Five

All the specialty stitches are done on part five! I've been working on this part for almost a year now, so this is a huge accomplishment for me. I think it looks good the way it is, but there are seven more parts to go. I've just heard that Martina's put this design on sale in chart form, so if you want to start, you can. Me, I'm on to part six this week. Houses!

The Lady Returns

It's been over two weeks since I posted anything about the Lady. She didn't go with me to seminar, and so didn't get any work done on her that week. Since then, however, I finished off the first flutter, adding the dark color that was missing at the bottom. I also enlarged the flag with more dark red. I'm back to the rotation, so it'll be coming along more quickly again now.

Turning a Corner

So I'm working on the central motif of the last band now. It's pretty easy to do once you find your first stitch for each of the fleur-de-lis stitches. With them being this large, the canvas certainly fills faster. Maybe I'm farther along on this band than I think!

Japanese Nights

This is one of my round robin blocks, from Sue M. The theme is Asian Nights, and she wanted Japanese. I put in a temari pattern first, but it didn't look good, so I ripped it out and replaced it with ribbon cherry blossoms and scattered beads about. Then I made a sashiko leaf. There wasn't much room between the motifs for an elaborate seam treatment, I went with a simple beaded fly stitch.

Fair Maiden Is Now Truly Finished

Yesterday I taught the last of the four sessions on the needle purse. Well ... I thought I was going to teach about putting it together, but it didn't work out that way. Since I was teaching the finishing, I thought it was high time I put mine together. Here it is closed; I used ribbon instead of twisted wool for the close ties. I like how it came out.

And here is the inside. I also made it so the rings are removable. For me, that makes the piece more functional.

Car Stitching

Last week when my husband was driving, I managed to do -some- stitching in the car. On top of working on an afghan, I did more of the four way continental stitches on Poirot. Never truly easy because of the rayon, I did have to stop stitching on some bumpy areas of the road. At least I got something progressed on the way to Seminar.

More Temari

This was the other temari I started at seminar. We had to make the balls from scratch before stitching. I really like the colors on this one and will be finishing it soon. The design is called maritime stars. It's a combination of kikus

and swirl stitches. I did three panels of swirl stitches at my face to face meeting on Monday, so you can tell they go fast.

I Get a Kiku Out of You

So my first class was temari, and here is proof of what I did on the second day. The star shapes are called kikus, or chrysanthemums, in Japanese. With the experience of the day before, it was pretty easy to do. Each of the star faces of this ball will be different.

This is the beginning of the second face. As you can see, it has a different color from the other one. That's not the only difference - you'll have to see it as it progresses.

And here is the book my teacher Barbara Suess wrote about temari. I bought it at the merchandise day and she was kind enough to autograph it. Her instructions are really clear and easily followed - and she has a new group correspondence course for temari from EGA.

Flowing Heart

This was the second of my two day classes at EGA seminar. It's Heart of Gold by Meredith Willett. It's basic English goldwork with some other metallic threads, and I loved the design outside of it being pink from the time I first saw it. Two students in the class were prescient enough to ask for color changes before the seminar; I was not one of them and ended up with the original. I still like it! So I got some of it done and I really like the look so far. I'll be making some changes as I go - like putting a dragonfly in the middle. This too will go into my rotation soon - as soon as I finish a couple of things.

Berries for Me!

This was my Wednesday class at Seminar. It's called Berries for You! and is a design by Barbara Jackson. I got fairly far in class and she kept telling me I was doing well. Since she told some others it might be a good idea to do some frogging, I guess I really was doing well. The design is pretty and we're using Heathway and Gumnuts yarns on it. This should be a fairly quick finish when it gets into my rotation. I'm looking forward to working more on it.

I Finished Something!

So this week at Seminar, I finished something. Sure, it was almost done when I got there, but between the busy-ness and the new projects, it's amazing I did. See Anda? I told you I'd get it done. I certainly prefer the blue on bottom to the gold that was recommended. There were no new stitches in this last band, just a repeat of several from above. I think it looks pretty good and my husband has decided we're keeping it instead of giving it away.

On the Way Home

Still no picture today, but that will change tomorrow evening. I finished with the Seminar this afternoon and drove five hours to get halfway home. My class, Heart of Gold by Meredith Willett, was wonderful. I learned some and got quite a bit of the project done. I'm going home knowing that I'll finish all three projects from this seminar. Not a bad feeling. After Tuesday, the city returned to normal. Louisville is pretty obviously depressed as a downtown, but there are a few bright spots. It was a safe city to walk in, even if it rained on both my walks today. Overall, the seminar itself was very good. The town - well ... could be better. Next year is Pittsburgh. My husband wants me to go, and I know some about Pittsburgh already - my in-laws live close to there. I'm still deciding. So, pictures tomorrow after I get home.

Almost Three of Four

I'm almost done with the third corner now - it's going slowly at the moment because of all the other stuff (like seminar and sending my youngest to college) I've been doing this past couple of weeks. Things sink back down to normal after Saturday, so I'll have things progressing more then. Today at Seminar I did a crewel piece with Barbara Jackson. It felt good being told my stitches were so good, since I'm pretty much self taught. This will definitely be something I'll finish, and actually finish pretty quickly. Like the temari, it's about half done.

Apology for Yesterday

I'm sorry there was no post yesterday. It's the first day I've missed in a long time! I can only beg off lack of time from spending a long time with a phone problem at seminar. I had a wonderful time yesterday in my temari class and am going to have two very presentable balls by the time I finish them! What more can be asked than learning a new skill and doing well at it?

Part 11 Done

I finished the last of the four squares for this part about a week ago, well enough early to get part twelve today, on time. I haven't started stitching it yet because I'm at Seminar. I'm taking a temari class and have my first ball all done. The marking has always been the sticking point for me on this, and now I know how to do it. Relatives, expect them for Christmas presents. While I was in class this morning, there were still a lot of streets closed downtown and getting in the way of my husband doing the tourist thing. Lots of people on bikes in a race of some kind, he said. Still disappointed in Louisville.

Glacial Progress

Still on the top border of the eighth band, but almost done with it. Not this week, but next, I hope to finish the border. Lots of deadlines before seminar have come up, and I've been working and working on them. Got some stuff done, at least.

Landed in Louisville this evening, and the last thing I needed after a twelve hour car trip was to spend another hour in Louisville trying to get to my hotel. Half of downtown was blocked off and the whole thing was bisected for an Ironman competition. So far, because of that and that there were NO restaurants open for dinner bcause of said competition, my impression of Louisville is less than stellar. Perhaps it will improve when the Ironman competition moves out of town, but you know ... we're to be adhering to a regular schedule on Labor Day tomorrow. Lots and lots of restaurants and shops with notices that they're closed tomorrow in the window. I feel so welcomed. Not.