Three in One

These blocks are from the Whatever Goes round robin sponsored by the CQ Embellishers group. Sandi sent three small squares to work on. They're to be part of a larger quilt. The top three pictures are of the blocks before I worked on them. There are two more people to send to before they get back to Sandi, so I couldn't do too much.

These three pictures are of the blocks after my work. The only "special" thing worth noting is the dark flower on the all blue block. It is part of the trim I bought in Plovdiv and seems to fit there perfectly.

Lining Up

This too was worked on twice this past week. I'm sooo close to the halfway point that I'll reach it next time I work on it.

Getting the Blocks Done

I go away again for a week on Tuesday next, and have company for two months after that, so I'm trying to get all my round robins mailed out before that. Yes, I'm trying to be organized and prepared. Wonderment! This is Laura's CQI Do Your Block. She's making a quilt for Project Linus, so no beads or other really froufrou embellishments.

I decided to challenge myself a bit more with it and use only one kind of floss. I used a rainbow colored Threadworx, and did a bit with it. The seams and four flowers, plus a heart in the middle. I think it looks bright and cheery for a regular quilt. The blocks were sent on on Saturday. I hope Laura approves.

An Ollllld UFO

I don't think I've worked on this for five years previous to last week. It got added to my rotation with the finishing of Berries for You! It's Church Street from Barbara and Cheryl and I'm about a third of the way done. I did black on the door this week. It felt good to get back to it. I have a few more UFO's to add to my rotation as I finish other things.

Spring Mystery Revealed

I finished the Spring Mystery from Tam's Creations on Friday. I think it looks really good. I've not decided whether to make it into a pillow or let my husband frame it. I only finished it a month after the scheduled finish. That's somewhat of a record for me. See the Stars is caught up and I'm working on catching up Zentangle. Currently, I'm back to two parts behind, but I'm stitching it today. All of these are through the German Marquoir group on Yahoo. I'd like to thank Elke and Susanne for obtaining permission for us to work on such great projects!

Getting Tire-d

Bibendum was one of the pieces I got to work on twice this past week. For some reason I stitched more on things. I got through my whole rotation plus again about half. Anyway, he's got both tires started now and the end is beginning to get obvious.

Green Swirls

As you can see, I did some of the lines and some of the egg again. I like the way the swirls look different from the side on the egg. Anyway, the big thing is progress is being made.

A Line on the Blue

I've stitched on this twice now. There are over forty points across - I think that's all the way around the bag. So far, I've found that I really need good light to work on it, but I like the feel and colors of the Tentakulum. I wish it was easier to find and had more colors.

Band Nine Done and Ten Started

I finished band nine this week - only bands ten through twelve to go, though band ten at least is pretty big. I've started the tenth band, and as you can see, it's a bit weird in design. To me, the top border looks like those aliens from Space Invaders. Anyway, it's good to feel this is progressing somewhat quickly.

Rita's Autumn Block Done

This was Rita's block before I started work. I also worked on her summer block in another round robin. I believe she's putting the four seasons together in one project.


So I did one biiig motif and a couple of seams. The motif is out of Appleton's wool and Sheep's Silk from Thread Gatherer. I made it a kind of leaf sampler, with leaves done in several different stitches. I hope she likes it.

Starred, Part Six

The next part doesn't come out until the first of July, so I'm all caught up with one of my stitchalongs. Yay! The blackwork on this is poorly charted and hard to follow because the designer picked the wrong kind of line to show it. That's the hardest part of the piece. I love the colors I picked, and I think it'll be very pretty when finished.

I Did a Block

This was another do your block round robin piece. All the blocks were mainly yellow and had the goldfish in the middle. The theme was oriental.

I decided to go floral and I did the vine with the purple flowers, then filled in the rest. The charm in the lower left corner is from a chain of charms I bought in Split, Croatia last year. The colors were perfect for the block and the size was just right, too. I hope the owner likes it.

A Bit of Brown, a Bit of Cream

So this week I only worked with brown a little bit, mainly at the tops of the two brown buildings. I filled in some of the overdyed cream in the central building, too. I'm beginning to see the end of this side's cross stitch. Maybe by the end of July?

All Berried Up

This came up on the rotation a day after I blogged it, and I just decided to complete it. I did! I love the way the threads laid so well and the design's one I like. All the stitching's done; now I need to make it into a needle case. Hurray, another finish!

Kneed a Lift?

Bibendum's knee is done and I'm getting closer to finishing. Next to start are the tires. They're pretty big, and are the most that's left for stitching.

Another Block Home

Thank you Wendy, Ati, Gerry and Lisa! I love my purse-to-be. Now it's up to me to make it into the purse. I have a lot of things to finish and I want to make a dent in them. I'll probably be taking time next week to do it. This has got to be one of them. It looks sooo neat!

Camelot's Done

I finished this more quickly than I thought because the last six pages were all one stitch. I did it while I was waiting for my hair color to set. The stitch is a Hilton double fan double and it's the middle one. I still want to redo this in blue, but I think it came out pretty well in the pink. Two of the dodecagon ornaments are now done, but instead of starting a third, I digressed to the Bargello Bag. I'll get back to the ornaments soon.

Left Side Done

One of the things I like about crewel is that it progresses so quickly. I've already completed the left side of the needle case and there really isn't all that much left to do on the right. I'm thinking that next time I take it out, I'll just complete it. I love the way it's turning out.

A Bargello Start

I actually finished Camelot this week (yay! post soon) and so was able to start another project. This one is Bargello Medley Bag from The Gift of Stitching issue 35. I bought the kit and the colors look much better than in the pictures in the magazine, even though those look really nice. It's my first time using Tentakulum silks. My only problems so far are with the directions. It's easy to tell that the designer isn't used to putting together bargello designs. She has the whole area colored, which makes it hard to see the actual pattern you're supposed to stitch. Luckily, I've done bargello before. If I hadn't, I probably would have given up. Anyway, I'm really happy to have a new start and I hope this one goes well.

Part Six Tangled

I completed part six of Zentangle this week. I think I'm a bit more than halfway done with it now. I'm still two parts behind the others, as part eight was released last week. Once I get Tam's mystery done, I'll catch up more.

Some Gold for the Middle

I finished up all the cross stitches on this and have now started on the specialty stuff. There are lots of bits of gold, so I started with them. With these workshops, the biggest part of the stitching seems to be in the first month's directions, so I should be coming close to completing this, too. Of course, I haven't even started the rice stitches this workshop is supposed to be about yet.

A Teaching Temari

In October and November I'll be teaching temari to my local embroidery guild. This is the pattern I chose. I made the temari to show at the June meeting to start the sign ups. They're pretty excited. The October meeting will be making the mari itself, and then in November we'll mark and stitch it.

This is just a view from another angle. I think I did a pretty good job of it.

It's a Claw!

In this picture, at least, the outline of the second egg looks like a claw to me. I've decided to do one needle-ful of thread on the connecting lines and one on the eggs each time for a bit, so there's some progress on each. For such simple lines, those are a lot of stitches.

Already More Than Half Done

It feels good to have a quick little band after the last few. This one's already almost done. Yay!

It's Not Brown!

I got to add some non-brown to the houses this week. It's all outline right in the middle, but the whole thing took my requisite two needles-ful. It was nice to do something non-brown. I believe I go back to brown this week...

More of the Same

All one color this week, and all under the flag again. It's the light gold and I did two strips of it. That area of the skirt is looking pretty close to done, though.

Go West...

I've started the W for west now, and got a bit done on the point to it. Things are coming along.

Leafing Out

I stitched both leaves on the left this week; this project goes so quickly and every time I work on it, I feel I've accomplished something. Especially working with the Gumnuts, it's a pleasure to be crewel. I didn't like it nearly as much before I discovered this yarn.

What to do With an Old Container

This tin originally held a watch for one of my sons. It's not quite square, and I saved it because I thought it'd be useful some day. Some day came. I signed up for an altoid tin cover exchange with Crazy Quilting International. And so - I covered it!

The top is all one piece because I picked out the blackwork pattern before the tin. Then I found the tin to fit it. I didn't buy anything for the project except the two pieces of ribbon around the outer edge.

The inside papers were marbled by me a few years ago when I did it on a regular basis. This particular set has always been one of my favorites.

And here is the tin from the side. I really like the effect of the two layers of ribbon on it. I hope the person I'm sending to likes it too.

A Blackwork Star

I have an altoid tin swap due on the 30th. This is the base I am working from. The group is crazy quilting, so this is going to be pretty different from the others, but I liked this star and it turned out bigger than I thought, so - no other fabric pieces around it. There's going to be more embroidery, though. Anyway, fabric is a scrap from somewhere and thread is Vikki Clayton's perle 12.

This is coming along pretty well. I'm halfway through part six now and the latest release was part eight. Since it comes out every three weeks, I should be catching up. I still like this despite stretching myself and using colors I normally would never pick.

Got Some Gold

I added gold to the middle and finished off all the cross stitches there. Now to just finish the border and I'll be ready for the specialty stitches!

A Rather Bright Temari

This is the third and last temari for Kosovo. That sounds like some kind of clothes drive, doesn't it? Oh well, it's the end. This one is very different because I used the Bunka thread I got from tentemari.com in Japan. The Bunka thread is soooo different from anything else I used. It's a nylon chainette (that surprisingly doesn't ravel, thankfully) and doesn't lay like perle.

The reason the colors are so different on this one is that I had ordered two assortments of the thread - one variegated and the other solids. This used one of the variegateds and three of the solids. You'd think in an assortment of eight colors, some would like ... be compatible. They weren't really. So I decided to go Mexican.

It came out better than I feared, but it's certainly not like any of the other temari I've made. I wonder if that's a good or bad thing.

One Band Done, Another Started

When I last worked on this in March, I was a bit fed up with it. I'd separated the strands of some Soy Silk and was using them for the border. It shredded like crazy, no matter how short I made the strands. So when I was in Kosovo it got laid aside, and it just got back into my rotation last week. I buckled down and did the last of that border. I'll never repeat that experiment, either. Band eight is officially done, and band nine is started. It's a very small band and I hope to finish it in a couple of weeks. Only three more bands to go after this one!

Another Temari for Kosovo

This temari is also going to Kosovo as a gift. It's a simple four division with six squares embroidered on. I like the colors, and I think the blue variegated gives a bit of class. Unfortunately, one of the squares is a bit off, but oh well... it still doesn't look bad.