Fruit Bellpull

Fruit Bellpull, a photo by loves2stitch2 on Flickr.

I first saw this piece back in 2001 or so, and I HAD to have the pattern. After much searching, I bought it from a stitcher on the Teresa Wentzler Bulletin Board. It's Teresa Wentzler's Fruit Bellpull. Like all Wentzlers, there are lots of blended threads.

I started it in 2002, and I wish I'd worked on it more often. I do need to pick it up more often!

Do you have any old WIPs? Can you relate to what I've done with this piece, and a few other projects of mine? Any suggestions to help me get it done?

I used to rotate pieces, and that did seem to help in getting more done on all my WIPs. These days I just don't have time to get much done at all stitching wise. How can I find more stitching time?

Thanks for visiting today, please help me out!

TUSAL update

It's that time again! It's a TUSAL update. That's the Totally Useless StitchALong that I'm happily a part of this year. It's sponsored by Daffycat.

It has been a wonderful month, but there was only a bit of time for stitching, and that happened yesterday.  Here is the latest progress in my little ORT jar:

I'm still working on Paula Vaughan's Wedding Ring Bouquet, and in this piece there's a lot of ecru and white.
Here's a better look

 

I would post a progress picture of the piece, but I don't feel it's changed much since this picture was taken:

Finally, a few peeks of our cats, dog,  and the patio. I love summer evenings!  It's very hot here in the daytime, but in the evening it's quite nice in the backyard!




Thanks for stopping by today!

Stitching a Bit- WRB

I finally sat down and stitched a bit, working on  Paula Vaughan's Wedding Ring Bouquet. I started this one almost 8 years ago! That's incredible, I guess, although I do have WIPS that are even older than this one. It's done on 22 count hardanger fabric as that's what was handy at home here that one evening  I started it.  I know that the style is a bit 'dated' for most people, but I like the soft, muted colors of it.

Here it is, last time I took a photo:



I worked on the quilt, in the bottom right corner of the design and so you can barely tell, but here it is now:






I'll work on it again soon! I MUST have at least one finished piece of work this year, right?

Thanks for stopping by today.  What's your oldest WIP? Have you worked on  it lately?

Stitching Goals?

Christmas Eve


Last Year's Post-Christmas Mess


Tomorrow night we'll be celebrating the new year--hard to believe it, this one has flown by so quickly.

I have taken my Christmas decorations down, and they're all thrown in one corner waiting to be put away. I don't like to leave them up too long after Christmas. I guess to me I feel like, "It's over, time to move on." Do you take your decorations down right away, or do you wait until after the New Year's holiday?

I have never been one to set stitching goals. I really admire those who do it, but it's just not in my nature.

This year, however, I do vow to finish this piece:

Mirabilia's Summer Queen

There's only a bit of beading left to do, and few patches here and there of stitching. I also noticed that some of the beading needs to be redone. I'm just not happy with how those beads on her head are looking.

I also should finish this piece. I only have a bit left to do:


Oberlin's Minnesota Sampler

I've had these WIPS for far too long ,not to mention several others. I've had an afghan I haven't finished in years and years. It's ridiculous, I think I started it in 1990!!!!


Granny's Attic Afghan by Sue Hillis, with Sam Hawkin's patterns thrown into it

Not to mention Paula Vaughan's Wedding Ring Bouquet, which is pretty well underway:



And the beautiful Fruit Bellpull by Theresa Wentzler, which is barely started:


I'm kind of tired of seeing them unfinished, really, and I don't usually feel that way about any WIP...even if it's very old. Each Christmas I vow to make ornaments for the upcoming year, and I never seem to do it. Hopefully this year will be different, but I won't hold my breath. I'd also like to do a bit of surface embroidery this year, and must figure out a way to factor that into my stitching time. I have a huge pile of iron-on patterns that seems to grow and grow, without any progress in the actual embroidery done! Does that happen to you?

Do you set stitching goals? Do you find you reach them each year? What sort of goals do you set? I used to rotate my projects to try and get more done on them. Maybe I need to go back to that method. Please do share, I would love to know how you do it.

Thanks for stopping by today! Happy New Year to you and yours!

Finally, A Stitching Update

I am delighted that I had the chance to STITCH a few evenings ago. Instead of beading on Summer Queen, I decided to work on my neglected Minnesota Sampler. It comes from Oberlin Designs.

Last time I took a progress photo of it, it looked more or less like this:


Now it has progressed to this point:


A few details/close-ups:





If you want to see more sampler photos, check these out:

Flickr Photo Set

I just need to finish the border on the outside, write the state's name, and add a few more touches here and there. Maybe I'll have a finish this year after all?

Thanks for stopping by today.

Summer Queen WIP Beading

I finally had the chance to stitch yesterday! Hadn't picked up a needle since early April.

I finished the white at the bottom of Summer Queen. Here's my progress photo from April:


I worked on beading for several hours yesterday. I am so, so slow to bead. I haven't yet finished the piece, but here's the latest with the beading mainly showing:






I wish the beading looked more even, but it is what it is.


Thanks for stopping by today!

Summer Queen Update

I've been busy working on Summer Queen this week. Seems like time to share an update here.

Last time I posted a photo of it, it looked like this:



The annoying thing on this one was that I thought I was practically DONE, until I noticed an entire lower section hadn't been completed.

Now it looks like this:







So I just need to finish the white patch in the middle, close to the bottom--and then also I need to complete the beads and a bit of outlining. The beading is a bear to me, but I'll get through it.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Summer Queen WIP

I finally decided it was time to just take out my stitching and STITCH, even though I really had so many other things I needed to get done. I also thought it would be a good idea to pull out my Summer Queen (Mirabilia's design) since I hadn't worked on it since last May!

The hard part of the whole process was that the last time I worked on this piece I didn't properly mark my chart copy, thus it took some time to figure out where I was on the chart.

I only have a small section of the Queen to complete, and there was a time I thought I was DONE until I discovered this small section at the bottom of the design.

Here she is, before I worked on her:


Here she is now, after a bit of work yesterday and also last May:





A few more photos:







One more that shows its size:



I plan on stitching some more this week, and hopefully I will finish her sometime this year.

Thanks for stopping by here today.

Wedding Ring Bouquet WIP

I've been working on a project I started about six years ago. I actually started it 'on a whim'. I had the 22 count hardanger in a drawer, and I'd bought Paula Vaughan's pattern at a close-out sale somewhere. It's her "Wedding Ring Bouquet".

 

It looks like I'm close to being done, but the work goes slowly since it's being done on 22 count fabric and in parts there are lots of color changes.

I apologize for the color quality of the fabric. It's an ecru color and not green as it appears in the photo.

Here it is with some small scissors, so you can see the size of the entire design:


A few more views:





I wish I had more time to work on this one, and get it done.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Country Skies

We recently returned from a trip to my husband's home state. While we were there, I did just a tiny bit of stitching. Here's the latest photo of my wee bit of progress:



And a close-up of the canoe:


I moved the canoe from a different part of the original chart since my husband did a lot of canoeing in that part of Minnesota when he was a teenager. I am enjoying working on this relatively simple project after some of the other ones I've stitched.

Tomorrow I'm starting three weeks of classes. I'm looking forward to getting this coursework completed! I hope to find time to stitch in the evening, but we'll have to wait and see.

I wanted to share some photos of our recent trip. It was a beautiful, relaxing time.

We took these photos after we left the city airport and headed towards our rural destination:




When you live in an urban area as I do, you simply can't believe the beauty you see in the midwest's open skies. The folks who live there seem rather amused at our ever present camera, but we truly marvel at the beauty we see there and we try to capture it on film.

A few more from our trip:






Finally, a photo my husband took of an old abandoned farmhouse. Our son-in-law also took some of this one, and he got treated to three ticks jumping on him and snuggling up to him after walking through the thigh-high grass. Good times!

It's interesting to look at an old house like this, and wonder how it once must have looked in its glory days of so long ago.



Thanks for stopping by today!

A New WIP to Keep Me Busy

I truly have been in a bit of a stitching slump since finishing my sampler in early May. I decided to work first on Summer Queen, but I only put in a handful of hours on that project. I haven't even bothered with a progress photo as so little has changed since the last photo was taken. Life has just been too busy to stitch, but maybe I need a big switch to something less demanding.

So with that in mind, I'm switching it up completely and working on Oberlin's Minnesota Sampler. Here is how it looks now:




I will take a progress picture after I've worked on it for awhile. I'm still winding down from work, and I'm glad it's summer!

Thanks for reading my blog, everyone. It's great to see people checking this little place out,and it's so interesting to see how you arrive here from all over the globe. Thanks for loving and appreciating needlework the way I do. It's great to find kindred spirits, isn't it?

I'm so behind on my blog reading, and I've missed reading all of them. I will have to get caught up a bit, a little at a time.

I'll say goodbye for now with an oldie but goodie. This is a pocket I stitched on a pair of shorts. I did this when I was a teenager, so let's just say it's very, very old. I don't think I could handle all that work on denim at this point!

Take care and thanks for visiting here today.

New WIP----A Royal Lady for Reacquaintance

Hi everyone!

Thanks for the wonderful comments regarding my recently finished House and Garden Sampler. I still haven't had the chance to take it to our not-so-local LNS for framing. Maybe someday soon? Each weekend thus far has been filled with fun activities with family and friends, so for that reason alone the framing will have to wait!

This upcoming weekend a lifelong friend is flying into our area for a visit, so again the sampler framing project will be on hold. She's a great friend, but she doesn't share my love of crafts and needlework, nor has she ever done either thing. We did both have home economics in eighth grade though, and I remember sewing up some cute smock tops in flame stitch patterns. (It WAS the 70's!)

It's funny, very few people I know in my daily life have seen my needlework unless they've been to my home. Even then I don't point it out on my walls, and actually few seem to take note of it.

It's one of those things that few people seem to 'get'. I'm grateful for all of you who take the time to read this blog. Thanks for sharing my love for needlework and all things crafty! You've touched my life with your kind words and spirit.

I am again working on Mirabilia's Summer Queen. The funny thing is, I thought I was just about completely done with her in the summer of 2007. I then realized I had a bottom section that was completely neglected! I've worked on her for about two hours in the last few weeks, so I don't have any new progress pictures yet, but I promise you that I will soon. Here she is though when we photographed her way back when. If you've seen these photos before, I apologize. I don't think I've talked about her here for a few years, so perhaps I'm safe in digging this stuff up again.

A full view: (I only have the bottom to finish!)



Some close-ups of her:




Perhaps because the piece was sitting so long, I noticed that a few of the beads are coming out of her head area. Sigh. I need to redo them sometime soon. My stitching shouldn't be that weak, should it?

Thanks for stopping by here today, and thanks for appreciating the needlework I do.