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!

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.

Christmas Stuff

I am finally here again! It seems as if it has been forever.

Christmas has come and gone, and I still haven't shared photos of some special Yuletide items in our home. I'll share the items today, if you don't mind. At a later time I will share photos from the actual holiday celebrations.


Here's a very special Christmas ornament my dear friend Jenny gave me when our daughter was born back in 1983.



This ornament means "Merry Christmas" in Norwegian, and it was stitched by my friend Janet:


This was also stitched by Janet:


Another gorgeous one stitched by her:


Kathryn stitched these two ornaments. I love how they're simply finished in an embroidery hoop:




Here's a few more ornaments on our tree that I wanted to share today.
I bought this monkey one for my son many years ago:


I bought this one at one of those 'at home' parties. I have no idea what the company's name was.



My brother and his wife brought us this one back from Russia:


This ornament was drawn with pencils by my friend Janet:


Some photos of the tree:




The beautiful nut ring my mom made us a few years ago:



Stockings hung on our antique armoire. We don't have a fireplace, so this works out fine:


Christmas with roses still in bloom:


Thanks for stopping by on this winter's evening.

December

It's officially the holiday season, isn't it? I don't have anything new to share on the stitching front, but I thought it would be fun to share my holiday stockings again.

They're both designed by Donna Kooler, and they were part of the heirloom stockings featured in Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine. I love these patterns, and have all of them in my stitching stash.

I originally wanted to stitch up one for each of our family members, but I've only had the chance to stitch two of them. I doubt I will ever take the time to stitch another one! They were so much fun to stitch, but each one took years. I seem to have even less time to stitch now, so if I were to stitch one I envision that it would take a decade per stocking, and that's just too long to wait! What do you think? I guess I can wait until I retire, but that is years away. It's still something to ponder, however.


I have hung the stockings this year, but here is how they looked during a previous Christmas season:


The Holiday Kitchen Stocking :



Holiday Workshop, before finishing:






Thanks for looking at my stockings,and thanks for stopping by today.