OhSewCrafty Blog

Hello friends!  September was a pretty good stitching month, playing Dodgeball (with FB group Semisane Stitchers) definitely kept me on my toes with daily motivation to stitch.  I managed to stay in the game until the 26th, when all 6 of us remaining players were declared winners!  

The month started with Twilight Bridge.  I just can’t seem to put that piece down!  Overall, it got 7 days of progress, or 11 since the previous check in August 24th.  Previous progress:

Now:

I managed almost 4k stitches (in September)!  And actually, a lot more than that, since most is half cross and only counts for half.  The lower right quadrant is just about done, except for the backstitch, which is rather minimal, and I started working on the lower left.  I stitched more sky in the upper right as well.  I just love this piece, it is so colorful, and working on the 18 count aida is great, especially for the cross stitch. I don’t love doing the tent stitch with 4-5 strands in the needle, but it does provide good coverage.  

My big goal for the month was to finish Spooky House.  I worked on it 4.5 days and did not quite meet my goal, even with 2700 stitches.  The longstitch grass at the bottom was pretty annoying, and the DMC 92 (variegated avocado) has a super long color repeat- the second piece I cut was significantly darker than the first.  However, it worked in my favor since the grass on the right side should be lighter, bathed in moonlight as it is.  

At some point I was down to 6 WIPs, so I decided to start Prancer by Nora Corbett.  It’s part of my series killer goal.  I stitched 4 reindeer a few years ago, even managed to frame them, so it’s high time I finished the series, and I do have a frame stashed for the remaining 4.  Anyway, I’m 4 days in so far with about 2400  stitches. She’s stitched on 32 count opalescent Belfast in Pewter, by Picture this Plus, like all my others.   

Save the Stitches came out to play, briefly (about 2 days), I had a homework task to stitch blue, since it’s all blue (except for the metallics).  Previous progress:

Now:

I finished Part 10 and got a nice start on Part 11, excluding metallics, and extended the borders down.  

I worked on Gingerbread Grove for a few days too, mainly for Magical Stitches extra credit.  Speaking of which, I knocked out 9/11 challenges for Book 6, which runs through the end of October.  Anyway, previous progress:

Now: 

That’s over 1200 stitches!  I started adding the metallics, at least the 3 (copper, chartreuse, red) I had in my stash, and made good headway into the second page.  I have ordered the metallics, and this piece will be my major focus in December.  I’m hoping to finish at least half this year, including the backstitch.  And in this pattern, absolutely everything will be backstitched.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to start the backstitch yet because the Kreinik is used extensively and I don’t have it all yet.

Then, towards the middle of the month, I got my first serious challenge in dodgeball.  The opposing team challenged me to stitch 1400 in 24 hours.  It was a weekend, and I had no problem, at all, even earned a few balls as well (so I got 2000 in that 24 hours).  But I wanted something a bit easier than anything I had on the go, for the speed stitching.  So I started Elevenses by Fiddlesticks AU, for my son (he eats like a hobbit).  It also gave me a chance to delve into my small stash of Colour & Cotton fabrics.  So this is Salem cashel linen.  I’ve given it 3.5 days (working on it whenever I was targeted in Dodgeball) and it’s about 90% done.

The piece has hit a little roadbump with color conversion.  “Luncheon” and above, the colors are done as charted.  But “Afternoon tea” was charted in 3401 and it didn’t show well on my fabric, so I chose another.  I had another issue with “Dinner”, I thought 3807 was too dark and saturated a color, so I converted it.  The last line “& Supper) is charted in 522 and I thought blue would be better.  So I started it with 799 and I don’t quite like it, so I’ll be frogging.  

Finally, I could put off Fantasy Triptych no longer, and it worked well for Magical Yr 6 Week 6 HW (supply request).  First Defense against the Dark arts, this project definitely causes me mental stress with the crazy confetti and backstitch.  We needed wormwood for potions, and I posited those bushes growing next to the castle are the absinthe herb.  For the occamy eggshell ingredient, we had to stitch silver or gray, and I had a challenge to stitch blue in another group, so that determined my course to work left into the maiden panel which has lots of gray (the unicorn) and blue (the maiden’s dress).  The final two tasks where related to the love potion and the truthfulness one, and I made it work for both of those as well.  Previous progress:

Now:

So I gave it 5.5 days and got just over 3,000 stitches.  I worked on the border between the castle and maiden panels, and got a good start on the bottom half of the maiden panel.  Thankfully it’s much smaller than the castle panel. I think, maybe, if I keep working on it, and give it the time intended, I might be able to finish the bottom half of the chart this year.  Happily the maid panel is much more interesting to stitch than the confetti-tastic trees in the castle panel.   Hopefully it will be easier to backstitch, since the objects to outline are pretty distinct.  I’m sure the knight panel will be fun to stitch as well.  Also, I created several more blended colors and started filling a second Pako organizer. 

Question of the month: What finishing style have you never tried but would love to do?  I would like to do a needlebook.  While perhaps not necessary since I have a few needle storage items that work great, the needlebook is so vintage and charming.  I’ve never seen a needlebook design that really tickled my fancy, though this one by Faby Reilly might suit.  

Well, the month is almost over, 28 day rotation is finished, and I’m taking some time to catch up on housework and reading, which sort of fell by the wayside when Dodgeball got really intense.  As for October, my big goal is to finish Spooky House, which shouldn’t require too much time, maybe just 30 minutes.  Focus rotations will be given to Fantasy Triptych, Twilight Bridge, Save the Stitches, Spring Bellpull, and perhaps a new start.