WIPocalypse Check-In – March 2012

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Heather

Behind again. No surprise, I know.

During the past month, I’ve made a little bit of progress on my WIPocalypse projects. I finished up Gingerbread House, did enough of Bargello Basics for me to return the pattern I borrowed (pictures eventually), and even worked on the border of 12 Days of Christmas.

12 Days of Christmas by Joan Elliott (WIP)

The fabric is actually a white linen of some sort, but the light here is a little weird today. We’ve been getting warm weather, but with fog and heavy clouds, so it feels damp even though it is pleasant. Anyway, the inside red border is nearly done! I’ve still got to stitch gold on the inside and outside of it, and stitch the entire outside border. Sigh… I still have a lot to do.

 

In other, unrelated news, Google Friend Connect has been shut down. It appears that it still works for people with blogs hosted by Blogger, at least for the time being, but it was shut down for the rest of us on March 1st. I don’t really know what this means for bring traffic to our blogs, or for being able to read blogs through Blogger’s monitoring service. Personally, I’ve always preferred to subscribe to blogs through the RSS feed, and leave out the middle man. I hope you are all still here and reading my blog. Believe me, I’m still reading your’s. 😉

 

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March Stitching Blogger Question

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Heather

Oh, March, you are a changeable lady. So far this month we have had two wind storms, a lovely warm day, snow, and heavy rain. Goodness knows what the rest of the month will bring! I just hope that the weather will be nice for our flight on the 24th, and that Air Canada won’t have any part of their staff on strike. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for things to see or places to shop in St. Thomas or San Juan, please let me know. We will have about eight hours in both ports, but don’t plan to stray too far from the ship. The beginning of April is going to to busy for me, and I really want to return from the cruise rested, not worn out.

On to the stitching!

This month’s Stitching Blogger Question from Lee of Lake Stitcher is:

Do you participate in exchange or RR stitching? Why or Why Not?

I don’t take part in round robin stitching for a couple of reason. First, I stitch opposite from most people. While I could easily turn all the pieces I get 90°, I’m afraid someone who got my piece wouldn’t notice and I’d get back something that looked a wee bit off. The second reason is that Canada Post is very expensive. The least I can expect to pay to ship something to the US is about $6, and within Canada it would be around $7. So, if I had to mail out, say, five or six times, I’m look at $30+ in shipping costs. And, unfortunately, there is no tracking across the borders, there are long delays at customs sometimes, etc. It just isn’t worth the hassle.

I used to take part in exchanges. Sure, there was still the same problem with mailing the package, but at least it was only one package I had to worry about, and my love of exchanges totally made up for the stress of mailing. I’d really love to do another exchange sometime soon. Anyone?

 

Now for one last subject change: today is International Women’s Day.We may be lucky in terms of equality here in North America, but there are women all around the world struggling for basic human rights, let alone equality with men. I hope that the husband and I are doing a good job for teaching the little man that neither sex is inferior. Although, he says Momma’s kisses heal hurts better than Daddy’s. 😉

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Little Brown Sweater

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Heather

I’m starting to think that I should just stick with knitting socks.

Last week I finished up a sweater for the little man, and I’m not overly happy with the results. I think it is partly a bad yarn/pattern match, but also the pattern itself was just a little to simplified. The round yoke is not really something I like the look of, and there is no shaping what so ever in the sleeves. But, I suppose it will work well enough for a playtime sweater, especially since he will likely grow out of it before the end of the year.

Wee Gol Pullover

The yarn is Knit Picks Comfy Worsted in colour Hawk. The pattern is Wee Gol Pullover, available on Ravelry, Etsy and Craftsy.  (The Hot Wheels trains were provided by the little man.)

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Theme-a-licious – March Madness

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Heather

You know what they say about the best laid plans. In February I had planned to stitch Teresa Wentzler’s Think Snow as part of Fangirl February. Unfortunately, I still had my January project, Gingerbread House, to finish. So, yeah. Thankfully, this morning I put in the last few stitches:

Gingerbread House by Teresa Wentzler

Phew! This design nearly kicked my butt. I haven’t stitched from a hand-drawn chart in a long time, and it was much more difficult than I remember. I’m sure that I wasn’t helping myself by working from a photocopy (I like to use working copies since the little man loves to drive his Hot Wheels over everything). It was stitched using DMC as per the pattern, on Tourmaline hand-dyed fabric from Enchanting Lair (which is currently on sale). I’m probably going to finish it as a box top.

The theme for March is March Madness, with the suggestion what we work on a new project every day. Well, I’m not quite ready to be that mad. lol! Instead, my goal is to finish TW’s Bargello Basics by March 6th, which will be an act of madness for sure! After that, I plan on taking part in Sock Madness on Ravelry. I probably won’t make it past the first round, but it doesn’t hurt to give it a try. And, if I make some good progress on my current projects, I may just try to get caught up on my TWs and stitch Think Snow and To Everything There is a Season (my design for March).

At the end of the month, Mr. Silverlotus and I are going on a seven day cruise. Along with trying to figure out what to wear, I’ve been thinking really hard about what projects I want to take. I’m leaning towards Joan Elliott’s 12 Days of Christmas, a pair of simple socks, and a lace shawl to knit. I’m sure I will change my mind a hundred times before we leave, and ultimate end up with exactly these projects. But what bliss it will be to get away for seven days and have nothing at all to do but relax.

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Pretty as a Peacock Once Again

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Heather

Finally, a cross stitch finish for 2012!!

Alphabet Peacock Sampler by Lynn B

This is the Peacock Alphabet Sampler by Lynn B, and the chart is available from her etsy shop. It is stitched on fabric from Enchanting Lair. I believe the colour is Heritage. Either that or Parchment. The silk is Caron Waterlilies in Peacock.

This was a really fun and quick design to stitch. I’ve never stitched anything larger than an ornament all in one colour, and I had a much more enjoyable time than I expected. I’m really looking forward to stitching more monochrome designs in the future. (Yes, technically this isn’t a monochrome design, but you know what I mean.)

If you are wondering about the title of the post, I used “Pretty as a Peacock” the first time when I posted about my finish of Just Nan’s Keep a Little Secret. You see, even though blue may not be my favourite colour, I do have a weakness for peacocks.

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TUSAL – February 2012

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Heather

Another new moon, and another Totally Useless Stitch Along post. This month I have a valid reason for posting late: one of my uncles passed away very early yesterday morning. Although I hadn’t seen him for many years, when I was younger and through my teenage years he was a very big part of my life. I spent a lot of time at their home, and even showed dogs with my aunt at many dog shows around Ontario. (We showed schipperke, whom I adored.)

As sad as I am, life goes on. As everyone always says, he is in a better place now and he really did live a long, full life.

 

TUSAL - February 2012

This month my jar is filled with ends from Sheldon, some perforated paper from goodness knows where, and a little bit of DMC from…

Gingerbread House by TW (WIP)

Gingerbread House (which now just needs the windows done and the backstitching) and

First Dragon Encounter by Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams (WIP)

First Dragon Encounter by Jennifer Aikman-Smith, which I took as a class at the Creativ Festival a year or two ago. I think I am going to rip out her skin though, as it seems just a bit too pink for me. I know Jennifer said she had trouble with her first choice since DMC had shifted the colours, but I’m not sure this one works either.

Anyway, if you’d like to know more about the TUSAL, check out DaffyCat’s blog here.

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Craftsy Blocks of the Month

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Heather

I have been meaning to learn how to quilt for quite a while now. But, well, I’ve already got enough on my plate and I also didn’t want to have to splash out for a class and a bunch of supplies. Believe me, I was thrilled when I found out about Craftsy free quilt block of the month class. Sure, I still need to buy a few supplies, but no where near as many as I expected, and the class was free. Who doesn’t love the word free?

Firstly, I needed to decide on fabric. After much poking around on the interwebs, I eventually ordered the McKenize fat quarter pack from Freespirit Fabrics, and settled on black for my background fabric. (I got a great deal, of course, on both.)

McKenzie fq pack from Freespirit Fabrics

Honestly, it took me along time to work up the nerve to give the blocks a try. The videos for the class are superb, but my sewing skills are only just sufficient. But, yesterday morning I screwed up my courage and got to work on the four blocks that have been released so far.

Asterisk Block

The finished size on all the blocks are 12.5″ square (I got a nifty ruler to finish them off, on sale). And, even with my inability to sew a straight line, I managed to get all my blocks the right size.

Wonky Pound Sign Block

I’m also pretty happy with my fabric choice. The black and pastels look really great together.

Balkan Puzzle Block

My corners aren’t turning out too well, unfortunately. But, I think my finished product looks pretty good.

Good Corners

Occasionally, I luck out and get a really nice corner, like the one above. But some times…

Bad Corners

I end up with something like this. Yikes! And, take a good look at this last block:

Chunky Chevron Block

What happened in the middle there? Those seams are so far off! Thankfully, I was able to square the block off to 12.5″, so no real harm done, I hope. And, if I’m still unhappy with it at the end of all of this, I will just redo it. I’ve got lots of fabric!

 

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