July Stitching

Whenever I go down the rabbit hole in my craft room I vow to finish some WIPs.  Well this time I am making it so.   I decided to spend all my cross stitching this month on those WIPs.  For the most part, I pulled out projects that were at least half done although some only had the stitches placed during a meeting.  Get ready…….lots to see with what I have been doing the last few weeks. 

Ye Old Crow, by Heart in Hand.   Stitched on 32 count, PTP Carnival from stash.   Changed vines to wrapped back stitch, changed leaves to Kudzu, changed pumpkin to Toffee.  

Perforated paper snowflake.   This is stitched on metallic paper with a Kreinik-like fiber.  Most monthly EGA meetings we have a small project that introduces a new technique, fiber, stitch, etc.  This is one of those.  

Mill Hill Santa  I have no idea where this came from.  You know how sometimes “stash’ just comes to you?  Well he landed in my lap from somewhere unknown.  Almost all the stitching was done so I had very little to stitch and then add the beads.   

Christmas Etui from a Betsy Morgan class.  This is a pre-stitch for the class in the spring of 2020.   I stopped working on the this when the class was canceled.  I had only stitched the birds and the tree on the left panel.  (Oops!  I see one birdie needs some legs.) One small down and the rest of the project to go.   Hmmmm, maybe I could make this project my December stitching focus.  

Thread Painting EGA Class.   I had the pansy stitched.  I added the stem and leaf this week.   I am thinking I might mount this on an oval box lid....... Hopefully I will be able to pull out the ripples when I lace it.  

O Tannenbaum  Also an EGA project I was able to finished and get out of the UFO basket.  I added the beads and changed up the tree from what was charted.  

A guild project from  Christmas in July 2021.   Stitched and ready to finish!

Last, My Stitchers Heart from Hands on Design.   Oh the shame……this was 95% completed and then I stopped!   I had started stitching the scissors fob, the last of the smalls I had to do, over one instead of two.  For whatever reason,  I put the project down and moved onto something else. 

This last one didn't get quite in the rotation but was pulled out of the basket and now on my immediate radar to work on. 

Terri Bay Lotus Box, yes, another EGA project.  Seems I start of lot of these EGA projects and don't finish them.  This was intimidating to me until I got going with it.  Before I can get back into it I need to review where I was, what I was doing and I need some alone time to do that.  It was supposed to be done in all white but I have changed the blackwork to blue.  I used 28 count mystery linen instead of the called for 25 count Dublin.  You have to stitch this design twice; once for the inside and once for the outside so it is only about 40% complete.  I’m setting  a goal for myself to get it done before our first EGA meeting of the year in September.

It feels so good to (partially) empty out that WIP basket of some of the niggling little half finished projects.   It was a 2021 goal of mine to have fewer WIPs/UFOs on the list by December.  Hopefully by the end of the year  I will not have added too many more to that basket.   Truth be told, I have just moved them from the UFO basket to the FFO basket but it is still progress.   

I am continuing to add to my hexie collection.  I'm getting there.   I have two more fun hand work projects in the line-up to work on with my sister when we are done our hexie quilts.   Because we are each working  on our own quilts it is giving me incentive to keep at it.   A little sibling rivalry to keep me motivated.  I have added even more since this photo was taken.  Right now it measures about 36 inches by 28 inches.   Lots more to go!

And when I wasn't stitching I was launching a one woman annilation of the spotted lantern flies in my yard.   I found that a 50/50 mix of Dawn and water in a spray bottled works well.   They seem to like the Tree of Heaven weed/tree that sprouts up in the brush behind my property.   I have been spraying the bugs with much amusement to any who can see me I am sure.   They little buggers jump off the tree toward me and I jump and swat.   Between spraying and pulling all the new growth of Tree of Heaven, I think I have the upper hand.     Of course I come back inside, dripping with sweat and feeling all creepy crawly.  On one particular day, I decided to take a swim.  I go to change into my swimsuit and there is a soapy DEAD  bug in my bra.   Trust me, I can't make this stuff up.

Labor of love stitching.   I have been adding sergeant stripes to my son's uniforms.   

And this happened.  I went out needlework one  Thursday morning and came home to find our 35 year old  Lucky Charm tree was gone.   See this link for the story of the tree. We had called our tree guy to take the pine tree down because it was getting bigger and bigger and blocking access to the back yard, it drops an incredible amount of needles into the pool and during the last few wind storms we thought it was going to go over.   This provide so much more screening that I realized for blocking my view of the neighbors and the street view of my pool.   It seems so bare now.  I feel exposed!

It may seem like I did a lot but it was really just a bunch of little bits of stitching here and there. That and I saved it all for one long post.  It is good to get these off the half-done/half-baked list.  Thanks for stopping by. Stay healthy, stay safe and keep on stitching.