OhSewCrafty Blog

At the end of March, I finished my chalkboard ornie, and started my 2017 framing: Mediterranearn Mermaid, Voyage at Sea, and Beacon and Daybreak.  I also restarted Winnie the Pooh, to no avail (blogged here) and worked on Titania. March is a long month. 

Previous progress on Titania:

After 4 days (including 1 day in April)

I worked on the skirt & bustle, and started adding some greens (the leaves).  She is a big lady!  I am near the bottom of the chart, though.  

On April 1, I picked up Fire Goddess by Joan Elliott.  Previously:

After 7 days:

 The bottom half of the chart is almost finished.  There is one more color to stitch on the bottom left and another on the top left.  After that, I will do some backstitching!

Next up was the Castle by Teresa Wentzler. Previously:

 After 9 days:  

I stitched the dragon wings, helpfully the right one is cropped and thus involved fewer stitches!  The wings are absolutely chock full of blending filament, tweeding, and quarter stitches, so it was slow going.  I also got a start on the dragon neck and head.  Finally I backstitched the castle walls, turrets, etc. My fave is the center tower with the brightly kit windows.  Check out the buttress!  I am getting really excited about this piece now that the end is approaching. There will be extensive backstitching on the dragon- 9 separate instructions and I have ordered the metallic fibers needed for that.

April 15 was beginning of Jessie Marie’s birthday SAL.  It was a daily rotation challenge but I managed to fit some of my pieces into multiple days.  The Maiden and the Unicorn, and Dasher, had 1 day each but in both cases it was only backstitching, and not worth photos, sorry.  I spent 3 days on my Mll Hill Christmas village project and stitched more border plus a good start on the Toy Shop.

I worked on Titania 1 day (pic above).  I spent 4 days, including after the SAL, to restart Winnie the Pooh yet again, blogged here.

On the 25th, I started a new ornie and learned hardanger!  I’m using Kreinik #8 braid for the needle weaving and I ran out so the project is on hold for now (more is on order).  Right, so, it was fun to learn a new skill and I loved cutting and tweezing the threads.  Who knew?  Still, I don’t think hardanger is my thing, per se.  But now I feel confident to tackle handanger where it appears in certain patterns, and that’s a great benefit.

The last 3 days of April were devoted to Castle again (pic above).  So, a big push in April was not quite enough, apparently.  My plan is to give it a 5 day rotation in May and perhaps I will be able to finish. 

Question of the Month: What projects are in your UFO pile?

I have one UFO: Merlin & Arthur by HAED.  I stitched about a page when I started it, back in 2006 or something (prior to my recordkeeping, anyway!), and set it aside, demoralized by stitching 30 shades of brown.  It’s a lovely pattern and I’m sure I would enjoy other areas of the chart more.  Perhaps I’ll get back to it next year.  Or maybe not.  That huge chart requires more patience and dedication that I have in my present circumstance, with my small child around.  That aspect of my personality is dedicated to him, which is as it should be, IMO.

Plans for May include Stitch Manynia, May 1-15 where I will make 5 new starts and work on 10 WIPs. After that, I will work on Castle, as mentioned, Dasher, Toy Shop, and Winnie the Pooh.