IH&SW Report for March

  I didn't get to spend as much time stitching this past weekend as I would have liked.  It was my turn to host our weekly stitch group on Monday so I really had to do some prep for that.  Cleaning was right at the top of the list as well as baking so Sunday was pretty much a wash.  So to make up for that, I included Monday's stitching progress in my report  too.  Don't know if that is legit or not but I wouldn't have had much to show otherwise!!
  All of my hermitting  time was spent with Dorothy.  The big plans I had to finish the current sections and move on to another project never materialized.  I did however, manage to finish up the candle flame band I was working in Rice Stitch.  Yeah me!!

I did change to color of the deepest gold in this band.  It was supposed to be the same color as the dividing band directly below and I just found it to be too dark for the colors around it.  Lightened it one shade and I like it much better!!  Now do I change the dividing band to the new color as well or do I leave it alone??

  So that 's where I am now.  I think I am going to continue with this, getting in the over one verse (Lord help me!) and the bargello band that comes next before I put this one away.  Hopefully, I can get that much done by the end of the week because Ann Bowers is starting to jump up and down for attention and I would like to see her finished soon!!  Ambitious I know but having goals is a good thing!!

Hampered by Stitcher's ADD

  I have been experiencing a huge  bout of SADD lately.  I think I have worked on at least 6 projects since the last time I posted and not gotten much done on any of them.  I don't think the 5 pieces in the rotation is working for me, or maybe it's the actual pieces I am rotating.  Or, maybe it has nothing to do with the stitching at all and it's really the weather.  Spring one day, winter the next makes things confusing for one and all!
  I did manage to get this month's assignment for the Snooty Parrots finished.  But for all the wonderful things I'm seeing posted on Facebook by the others in this group, I can't say the same is true for me.  It was a real struggle to get this part in and I am not looking forward to the next section either.  I am hoping that changes by the time it comes back up in the rotation. This is a large piece and it would be a shame to hate it all the way through!   Anyway,  here is this month's assignment.

  I put it on my large scroll frame and that seemed to make the stitching better but the motifs on multiple pages, front and back, are still hard to work with.  I was trying not to make copies of the pages since that defeats the purpose of the two sided printing but I may have to bite the bullet on that one!
  I worked on both of the Long Dog samplers in my rotation but the mystery sampler is going to need some color adjustment and I discovered this pretty early on so no pics of that one right now.  I also worked on Pot 4 Dickie but it is on 45 ct linen and the progress is so slow it doesn't look much different so no pics of that either.  The Lizzie Kate I am stitching for my soon to be DIL saw some stitching time as well but it was during stitch group; need I say more??!!
  The piece that has received the most attention is Dorothy Walpole.  I have worked on her pretty consistently in the evenings and although not as far along as I would like, enough progress has been made to show.

   Marsha charted the candle flame section in Algerian Eye stitch, one that is not my favorite for various reasons not to be listed here.  I read somewhere that  on the original sampler, this section was actually stitched in Rice Stitch, so I decided to do the same on mine. I really love the way this looks but it is very time consuming and taking much longer to finish than I had allotted.  I plan to keep plugging away until I finish both the candle flame and the over one verse above it.  Since it is IH&SW this weekend, and the Hubs is going fishing all day tomorrow,  I hope to wrap this up and maybe even get some work in on something else too!!
   Last, but certainly not least, I picked up some framing today!  I finally got the piece that Tommye gave me for my birthday framed.

   It is similar in size to one I stitched several years ago and I decided to put it in the same frame so I could hang them together.  Love the way this turned out!!  Now I just have to decide where to put them and as Tommye can attest, I am terrible at that!!
  So that's it for now.  It is a beautiful day here in the burg.  Trees and flowers are starting to bloom and it is a warm, sunny day. But I heard the weather man say this morning that winter returns on Monday so I guess we better enjoy it while we can.  Who's up for some stitching outside??!!

I'm Rotating as fast as I can!!

  The beginning of the month is always busy, with board meetings and  guild meetings, etc. so I don't get as much stitching done as I do later in the month.  I have been working on the pieces in my current rotation this past week and although progress has been made, I can't say  any 'assignments' have been completed this time.
  After I finished this months part of Quaker Medallion Sampler, I picked Snooty Parrots back up and worked on that a bit. I got a little cranky about the way the chart is done and put it away before the assignment was done. (Let me just say this, I appreciate when someone is trying to save paper.  But when a motif is cut in half and the continuation is on the back of the same page and there is no way to line up the parts to make sure you are counting correctly, that makes me cranky.  I know, I could make a copy of one page to line up with the other but doesn't that defeat the purpose of the 2 sided chart??!!  Just saying..)  So, this is where it stands now.

Snooty Parrots by Barbara Ana
40 ct. Lakeside Meadow Rue
with listed threads

  I still have an enormous floral arrangement to stitch before I finish for this month.  I plan to go back to this next but right now I am working feverishly on this!!

Dorothy Walpole by Scarlet Letter
40 ct. Lakeside Pecan Butter
with DMC threads

 Poor Miss Dorothy has been lying about for more than 2 years now.  I started her shortly after she was released and got just the vine in around the  left corner before she was put away.  I got her back out for Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year and got as far as the red symbol in the middle before she was relegated to the back of the closet again.  She was on the list to finish last year and I couldn't make it happen.   (Flamestitch Sampler is in this same boat but we won't go there just now!)  She is back on the list for this year and since she is in my current rotation, I actually have hopes of seeing her finished this year!!
  I have been working on the satin stitch alphabet this week.  I wasn't too sure about it when I first started, the single strand of DMC seems sparse in some places but I work under magnification and things look different when they are 3 times bigger!!  To the naked eye, it doesn't look too bad!

  I would like to get the over one verse, which is the next section, stitched before I put her down again.
     I still have 2 other pieces in my rotation to work on this month and I need to get to them soon.  I'm starting to think rotating 5 pieces is nuts!  I am much more comfortable with 3 but I guess sometimes we need to get out of our comfort zones!  Then again, I may get caught up with Dorothy and just work on her until I can't stand it any more!! We'll just have to see what happens.

Good Weather for Stitching

   It had been cold and snowy here of late so several of my regularly scheduled activities have been cancelled.  I have wisely used that time to stitch, rather than all of the other things I could have been doing, like cleaning or laundry or onerous things like that!
  I finished my Olympics Stitching piece last Thursday.  I didn't get it done within the allotted time frame but almost!  Here is the completed With Thy Needle and Thread's Needleworker's Sampler.  Not pressed yet but I promise it will be by the time it is framed.  I did leave the little one stitch berries off the vines without the flowers.  I thought there were too many and found them distracting.  When I tried to decrease the number, it just looked funny so I left them off entirely.

40 ct. French Vanilla Swirl w/ mostly listed threads
I really like the way the borders vary!

   Then, since it wasn't the end of the month yet, I pulled out a long lost UFO to work on.  This is Elizabeth Hancock by Little House.  She had languished for way too long! I started her in a SAL that Vonna was hosting I think back in 2010  but only had the vine in the corner started when I put her away.  This is where she is after a few days work.

45 ct. Exemplar by Lakeside Linen
w/ mostly listed threads

  I've also worked on my SAL rotation and managed to get this month's Quaker Medallion assignment finished already!

(None of the linen colors are showing up well on my photos today!  Not sure why, it is an overcast day and I did take them in front of a window.  You would think that would work well!!)
    So, I am continuing to work on E. Hancock and the Snooty Parrots SAL. And  I still need to work Dorothy Walpole and a Long Dog (both SALs) into my current rotation! I am pleased with how all of this rotating is working right now but I am concerned about how well the addition of more samplers into the mix  is going to work.  I may need to stitch something to completion before I become overwhelmed and lose my mind!! We shall see.