Lining it Out

I got most of the tendrils done this week. The knotted Portugese stitch 9darker wool) looks good, but it has a nub at the beginning from the way it starts that I don't like. I had to be careful to not pull the whipped stem stitch very tightly to make it smooth, else it was pulling up and out of shape.

Knot Takes Shape

After only two sessions stitching on it, you can see the knot taking shape now. The outer edges are where the lighter yellow ends. I've worked on it some since the picture was taken and hope to work on it again before next Friday - unless I decide to finish up either the zodiac calendar piece or Dazzle before then.

New Calendar

This piece is just weird, and I'm learning exactly how much muscle memory I have invested in stitching. All the stitches are backwards. I guess the person who started it is left handed or learned that way, so we all have to do it the same way to make it look good. I'm doing Ares because it looked like the next one that needed to be done. Right now, I have this round robin, one more, and supposedly one in the post to me. I -will- catch up.

Stitchy Goals for 2008

I'm not one for resolutions, but I am a great fan of goals. Planning is good. Feeling guilty because you took something out of order or strayed off a straight line for half a minute is not. These are things I hope to accomplish with my stitching in the new year. As I complete them, I'll update this post. They're not in any real order, just the order in which I thought of them in the past few days.

1. Complete the Medieval Town Mandala. I started it in May of 2006 and have been working steadily on it since then. It's about time it was done.

2. Work two pieces that have been languishing for over a year into my rotation. Both are quite a ways toward completion. One is The Traveler by Teresa Wentzler. The other is a Barbara and Cheryl house.

3. Finish Crewel Choices. This has an actual deadline of the end of January.

4. Finish Celtic Knot. This one also has a deadline of the beginning of March. It's for my in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary.

5. Complete an ornament a month. It doesn't matter the method. Just make an ornament each month instead of bunching them all up at the end of the year.

6. Complete the Take It Further Challenge. This means incorporating whatever the challenge is into a piece every year.

7. Complete, on time, the two GCC's I've signed up for that start in the next couple of weeks. One is the 17th Century English Sampler and the other one is the Swiss Sampler.

8. Make a new stocking for my husband. His got fused together in our last move and it's not well finished. He needs a new one.

9. Complete Lady of the Flag to be raffled for charity.

10. Make significant progress on the Chatelaine pieces I'm working on that are not specificially listed otherwise in these goals.

11. Complete Midi Mystery 2. It was started in July of 2006. About time I got it done.

12. Make one goldwork piece.

13. Stitch Velo Bibendum for my husband. I haven't made anything specifically for him in a while. It's time.

14. Make myself a purse. I don't have a single item of stitching that I wear or carry with me that's completed.

15. Stitch a design created by my daughter Tory.

I think that's probably more than I'll actually finish, but it's good to be ambitious. I'll finish some and at least start others and it'll get done eventually. What are your goals for next year? Do you have something you have to/want/would love to finish? What about starting something new on the first? I know a lot of people do that too.

Island Home Complete

It's taken me a couple of months, but I did finish the Island Home project I set up for the test meeting of the ANG online chapter in formation. Overall, I think it came out pretty well. The best part is the house itself. I nailed that down perfectly with the look and stitch selection. With the fields, I made some poor selections on stitches.

What would I do differently if I restitched it? I'd not use the medallion stitch on the top field. The coverage wasn't that good and it just looks flat. Same with, I'm sorry to say, the water stitch. I had great hopes for it before I did it, from the write up it was given in stitch of the month. It has too much of a regular vertical flow for me. I'd also change the color of the alternating scotch stitch hill, though I like the nubby texture it gives.

One Side Done

Finally, one of the sides of part three is done! It's taken a while - I think because there are so many partial stitches and very few blocks of color. I still have quite a few specialty stitches to put in, but I'll be doing that after I get all four sides stitched. The fabric color is really making things pop and it takes the order and adds a bit of flair. Now on to side two.

Over the Halfway Mark

This week I got over the halfway mark on part five. I feel really good about the progress and still love the overall design. I think this is the biggest part to do, overall, since it's for corners of a -lot- of stitching. Once I'm done with all the corners, I get to start the houses. I'm looning forward to that.