WIPocalypse 2015 – July

This month's topic: Reality or Fantasy. Which do you prefer to stitch? Figures or Abstract? (this question comes to us via Jo) I like both, but I do admit I'm more choosy when it comes to figures. My religion doesn't "allow" us to decorate our homes with art that portray people or faces. So I tend to lean more towards faun and flora. Which is really hard for me, because that limits me on the type of patterns I buy (for now, i.e. until I move out and get my own place). Some of you will ask: What about the Mirabilias you're stitching? I argue that those don't count since you can't really distinguish their facial features (kind of like Amish art if you've ever seen it). As for abstract, I love geometric/symmetric patterns. I don't have any patterns in my stash like that but I still love it. In any case, for me, what really drives me towards a pattern is COLOR. I love bold and bright, pastels, dark. It doesn't matter, if it's well used it will attract my attention. It's too bad I don't know enough about color theory to do it myself.

Still nothing on Bramble and the Rose.

	No Update
Ink Circles - The Bramble and the Rose

I finally finished stitching all the leaves. I've been really neglecting this piece because of them. Now I have just one more color to stitch on the tree and I can finally move on.

Mirabilia - Tree of Hope

Update: Due to the fact that it was Canada day yesterday, I ended up working a little bit more on Tree of Hope.

I want to thank Marcy for her suggestion on how to stitch with Waterlilies. Here it is for those who would like to try it:

I cut 2 of the same length of my over dyed floss. Pull off one strand from each length and combine the 2 for stitching. It makes a soft tweedy effect that I like better and doesn’t take any extra thinking or planning.

I still haven't touched Tracery Dragons.

	No Update
Teresa Wentzler - Tracery Dragons

I worked on Fantasy Lace at the beginning of the month and then neglected it for the rest of the month. But then on Saturday, I took it out and powered through all those button holes to finish them in time for this post (by the way, at the time when I'm writing this it's Monday and I haven't actually finished them. Let's see if I can make it happen). It's very tiny (sorry for the bad picture, it was cloudy yesterday), but you can see the stray thread. Unfortunately, I ran out of the #5 perle cotton and wasn't able to finish the border. I'll be getting some more this Friday (I hope).

Satin Stitches - Donna's Fantasy Lace

Pretty Little San Francisco took up much of my stitching time. It went from being my take-away WIP to my main WIP. I have about two hours of stitching time during the weekday and I think I spent pretty much all of it on San Fran, but as a bonus last Wednesday was a holiday for us in Quebec. That's an entire day off work to stitch. Despite that, I can't believe how much I got done since the last WIPocalypse post.

Satsuma Street - Pretty Little San Francisco

All in all I'm very satisfied this month :)

Pretty Little San Francisco

I've been very bad at posting on my blog. I'm looking at this month and I only posted twice (this will be the third). I'll have to do better. It's so much easier to just post a picture on Instagram these days and just keep stitching.

Funnily, I wrote the last post because Carla wanted to see what Pretty Little San Francisco looked like. Here is where it was on last Tuesday.

Last Wednesday being a holiday for us here in Quebec, I was able to put in more stitching time. I would love to say that I shared the time equally with all my WIPs... but that's not true. Pretty Little San Fran took up all that time. So much that by the time Friday came, I was this close to being done and then the worst thing that could happen happened. I realized that I wouldn't have enough of the last color to finish it.

I immediately called my sister who was still out and asked her to pick some up for me. Unfortunately, she was no where near the craft store, but promised that she would ask our dad to take her to the one near us on the way back home when he picked her up.

My dad passed by the craft store before going to pick my sister up, but unfortunately they didn't have it. They had all the colors before and after but not the one I needed.

So Saturday, I got myself out of the house to the Michaels near me and luckily they had some. I bought that thread and a bunch of other that I though were running low (don't want this to happen again).

And here she is all finished.

The original plan was that I'd be stitching the cities I've visited with the name of the city and date I went there at the bottom. I wanted them framed in a hoop to hang in my room. Unfortunately, because of my fabric count choice (it's a mystery fabric of which I have three pieces) it won't fit in a 10" hoop and a 12" hoop is too big for the fabric. So the only other choice I have is a plain old square frame (I'm leaning towards white). And as it happens with most of my finished projects, this is going into the finished pile until I am ready to do the actual framing (by hand).

Right now I'm trying to decide what to work on next. I wanted to start on the Estense needlebook kit, and even took it out, but I found that some of the threads might be missing. I should have it figured out by the end of the week.

Update: I forgot to include a link to the pattern on Etsy. It's by Satsuma Street and you can find the pattern here. Now that she's done Hong Kong, I'm crossing my finger she'll do Seoul too :)

Update by Special Request

Carla of Alaska Wolfpack was asking about Pretty Little San Francisco, wondering when I would post another update. Here you go Carla :)

I've been really enjoying stitching this, especially when the bright blues and fuchsias showed up. I especially love stitching on it outside in our backyard. The colors are beautiful in the sun.

Like my nail polish? I bought it after starting the row of painted ladies and just had to use it the very next day :)

WIPocalypse 2015 – June

This month's topic: Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in summer or winter? I try to stitch a few hours each day, but I will admit I get more done in the winter than I do summer. Living in Canada, we get a lot of snow in winter and more often you'll find me at home staying out of the cold. I really dislike snow, so no winter sports for me. In the summer, I try to go out when it's nice outside even if all I feel like doing is staying at home and stitching.

Still nothing on Bramble and the Rose.

	No Update
Ink Circles - The Bramble and the Rose

Very small update on Tree of Hope again. I've tried to stitch on in a bit each week without success. For now I'd rather stitch on other things.

Mirabilia - Tree of Hope

The dragons have still not made an appearance.

	No Update
Teresa Wentzler - Tracery Dragons

This is what I've been preferring to stitch. Fantasy Lace got a lot of attention this month. The cable stitching and satin stitched lines are all done. I'm now stitching the flowers that go under the cable stitches. I have half of them left to do and then I can move onto the button hole border.

Satin Stitches - Donna's Fantasy Lace

A bit more stitching on Pretty Little San Francisco. This is my go to piece when I feel like cross stitching something simple. But again, I didn't spend that much time on it.

Satsuma Street - Pretty Little San Francisco

In my defense, I was pretty busy this month. I worked on a small "crewel" practice piece for myself.

And I had a two day class with Hazel Blomkamp and went stash crazy.

I went stash crazy again that same week and decided to learn knitting again. I started and finished a cowl in two days.

WIPocalypse 2015 – May

My post is very late as I was waiting for the question of the month, which is: I would like to know if you look for LNS’s when you travel. What is the favorite shop you've ever found? The answer for that is a definitive yes. I'm from Montreal, Quebec and there are not a lot of LNS available near me, so I do most of my shopping online. When I know I'm going to be travelling out of Montreal, I look for shops in the area and make the time to visit. So far I've been to:

• San Francisco's Needle in a Haystack I was there for work and took a taxi to get there. I have a co-worker who goes ever year and I make sure to place an order for pick up (link).
• Cochrane's The Stitching Corner and Edmonton's The Craft Connection, both excellent shops if you're in the area (link to what I bought).
• Toronto's Gitta's, I went there for the first time last year and bought lots of stash. I actually went a day early to ensure I'd be able to go there.
• Sweden, I didn't really find any cross stitch stores near where I was staying, but I did visit knitting stores. See, I don't only look for needlework stores. I make sure to look for crochet and knitting stores as sometimes they have a small needlework section.
• South Korea (x2), when my sister went I sent her on a mission to bring me back stash :) and when I got the chance to go I did the same (link).

I don't have a favorite shop, all the ones I've listed above were amazing and the ladies who worked there were very patient with me as I spent hours deciding what I wanted. As far as I'm concerned, walking into any needlework shop is like entering heaven. I do try to prepare a list before going so that I don't overspend, but I like to make one impulsive buy at each one.

Now onto the update pics.

Still nothing on Bramble and the Rose.

	No Update
Ink Circles - The Bramble and the Rose

I didn't stitch a lot on Tree of Hope. Just a few leaves.

Mirabilia - Tree of Hope

The dragons have still not made an appearance.

	No Update
Teresa Wentzler - Tracery Dragons

I did a lot of stitching on Fantasy Lace. This isn't a really nice picture, but you can see the border of Kloster's is done. There is one more border to stitch around it, this time buttonholes. I'll get to that once I finish all the cable stitching and satin stitches that goes inside this layer.

Satin Stitches - Donna's Fantasy Lace

Gelati al Cioccolato has been "finished" finished. It's now hanging off my bed's headboard until I figure out a nicer way to display my finishes.

Gingerbread Girl - Gelati al Cioccolato

I did end up pulling out my pulled thread Miniature Ornate Carpet kit. I not only worked on it, but I also finished it. You can find more details in my previous post here.

Karen Dudzinski - Pulled Thread Miniature Ornate Carpet

I worked a little on Pretty Little San Francisco when I had my cold, but not much since.

Satsuma Street - Pretty Little San Francisco

WIPocalypse 2015 – April

I think I've re-written this post at least three times. I was planning on publishing it early, then I was going to schedule it for April fourth. None of that happened obviously as this post is now a week late. The reason for that is because I was away in CUBA! It was my first trip down south and I had a lot of packing and organization to do. A friend of mine was getting married and decided to have her wedding there. The wedding was AMAZING. They had it on the beach and the pictures look gorgeous. I was actually worried that I wouldn't enjoy it as I was going alone and I don't like sitting all day doing nothing, but I really enjoyed it. I was never alone and everyone was really nice. I met a lot of people I hope to stay in contact with :)

So onto WIPocalypse. This month's topic: Which specialty stitches do you love doing on projects? Which do you dread? I think my favorite would be the Satin stitch, I love how it looks and feels. Which stitch do I dread: French knots. Although I am getting better at them, so I don't dislike them THAT much. What I do dread are stand alone specialty stitches. You know the kind, where there is nothing around it to anchor and hide the thread. I'm OCD about the back of my fabric. If I can't figure out how to stitch something neatly I start fretting and procrastinating. It's one of the reasons Castle in the Air took so long to finish (and why the beading still hasn't been started).

No update on Bramble and the Rose. This is normally my travelling project, but I decided not to take it with me to a humid climate. Especially the dyed thread and fabric.

	No Update
Ink Circles - The Bramble and the Rose

I did more stitching with the Caron Waterlilies. I'm now stitching with the paler green thread.

Mirabilia - Tree of Hope

The dragons have still not made an appearance.

	No Update
Teresa Wentzler - Tracery Dragons

I got more work done on Donna's Fantasy Lace. I've finished the four corners and will be starting the outer border soon.

Satin Stitches - Donna's Fantasy Lace

SAL Dentelles is done and officially off my rotation.

Brodeuse Bressane - SAL Dentelles

All the stitching on Gelati al Cioccolato is also complete. I was going to try to do the finishing before I left, but after looking at the instructions... I  wasn't up to it. I'll see if I can do it this week.

Gingerbread Girl - Gelati al Cioccolato

Unless I break down and start my Ricamo Estense kit, this will be my next small to be worked on. But for now there is nothing new on it.

	No Update
Karen Dudzinski - Pulled Thread Miniature Ornate Carpet

I also added a new WIP. Satsuma Street's Pretty Little San Francisco. This is the project I took with me to Cuba. I didn't stitch a lot, I was only adding a few stitches every day. Too busy playing at the beach :)

Satsuma Street - Pretty Little San Francisco