Slowly

Remember that neutral print scroll I showed you recently?

I sort of got stuck after a while, as you do, and started another scroll. That one is nearly complete - but I'm not going to show it to you yet. One thing at a time! The happy news is that I've picked this one up and started working on it again.

First, I used the technique I just learned for making hexagons out of folded circles to make a few hexies that may or may not go on this scroll. I've done some additional stitching too, only some of which is very visible.

Those triangles are part of the selvedge edge of what may be the last section of this scroll. It hasn't been stitched down yet. That will either be the last piece of this scroll or I will have to add to the batting strip I'm using as a foundation for my stitching. 

On another front, with the return of some sunshine to our part of the world I'm finding myself thinking about making quilts again. I haven't done anything more than just think about it yet but it's a step in the right direction which makes me feel better overall. James has made a quilt though. 😁

He'd come across a couple of map prints he really liked last year but couldn't figure out what to do with them until he decided he needed a new quilt for his bed. Then he looked for a block/quilt pattern he liked and settled on this Storm at Sea design. It's only the second quilt he's made that was primarily pieced. Of course he did his own quilting (which doesn't show up unfortunately but is pretty basic). He used a cotton sheet for the back. The binding was machine applied but sewn down by hand, by him. This came together over the space of about a week once he'd decided what he was going to do. There were some mis-cuts along the way but it sounds like the process went as smoothly as one could expect. You would be right in assuming I'm one proud mama. 😊

Winter Scroll

About the time Anne Brooke proposed the #12pagesofChristmas book in a tin project (see my SAL post) I knew my Summer scroll was coming to an end. The 12 Pages project wasn't yet clearly outlined. I thought I might like to do a Halloween/Days of the Dead version of the book project but that didn't happen. I'd still like to tackle that at some point. Instead, I began another stitch wrap/scroll. While I started it in late autumn technically, I'm referring to it as my Winter scroll because most of it will cover the winter months here in the Northern Hemisphere. This time I'm using a long, narrow strip of batting for the foundation. The Summer Scroll was stitched on a strip of muslin. 

The first panel is plain muslin with no embellishments. I still don't have any spools or bobbins on which to wrap these scrolls so I left that plain in case I needed it in the future for mounting purposes. Then I went into full autumn mode with this panel:

For what it's worth, all of the pictures in this post were edited quickly on my phone. My intention is to fill the center of that flower I made of lazy daisy stitches with a button. The green sprigs are fly stitches, and I added some seed beads.

The next panel was created around Thanksgiving time (end of November). 

It's actually two scraps from a single print that I butted up against each other. I just used simple straight stitches around the two images and to accent the bush in the foreground of the house. Eventually some beads will probably go into that bit of eyelet lace at the top of the panel. That's a short strip of sari silk peeking out from underneath the lace to help it show up better.

Next up is a circle I fussy cut from one of the flannels I used to make pillowcases for one of our granddaughters this Christmas. It's appliqued onto a piece of wool with some more fly stitches. The roses next to it is a bit of another flannel I bought for a pillowcase cuff but didn't use. It was a good place to practice my feather stitching though. 😊

And still in pillowcase mode, the skelly and candy canes was yet another pillowcase (I made five for her in total). I really liked how the bit of vintage lace echoed the snowflakes in the print. I added the five little hearts to represent all the granddaughters, the pink standing in for the newest addition. There's just basic straight stitching outlining the skelly and canes in the green background and then some white on top of the snowflakes to highlight them. Not sure more will be done to that section.

Next up is a scrap of a print to represent our acquisition of a Christmas tree on top of a print that represents the cloudy, stormy weather we had. Then I found a piece of black velvet onto which I stitched an assortment of beads leading to the star sequins. That's meant to represent the convergence of the two planets into what was known as the Christmas star. Below the star sequins I've attached two feathers my canary dropped recently just to fill the space without doing much to the velvet. 

Finally we have the latest additions to the scroll. I bought a packet of goodies from Tilly Rose some months back, and in it was the piece of fabric I've used to indicate the end of one year and the beginning of the new. It seemed perfect for the purpose as it's appropriately dark for 2020 and lightens up with hope for 2021. I've only just added all the white bits to the right of that. Anne has begun her #52tags project for 2021 (on Instagram and YouTube). Basically the plan is to do a little slow stitching and attach it to a regular shipping tag, one for each week of the year. I'm not participating in the strictest sense of the word but will be watching from the sidelines and probably incorporating many of her prompts in my own work one way or another. In this case, the prompt for the first tag was to restrict yourself to the use of white materials. Starting the new year with a clean slate as it were. I wanted to acknowledge the fact that the annual Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, CA had been cancelled this year due to Covid-19 so I inscribed that note on a strip of muslin to attach to my scroll. The muslin was so thin I decided to rip two strips to layer one on top of the other. At the time I thought I might stitch them together for stability. But I kind of liked the way they flutter. Then the insurrection of January 6 happened. Now that second strip of muslin will be inscribed to that effect. 

And underneath the two flags, more feather stitch practice. 

The rest of the stitching on the white section is just straight or tacking stitches. There are a couple of areas I want to do more on but this is as far as I've come as of this writing. 

Working this way has made me realize I've got more reorganizing of materials to do as the year progresses. That's one of those tasks I dread because you have to make a bigger mess than you already have before you can put things away more efficiently. Which takes time and energy that I'd rather spend actually stitching! 

The End of Summer

I'm referring to my Summer Scroll, (otherwise known as a stitch wrap) bits of which you've seen in past posts. Most recently the length of scroll looked like this:

There's been some detail stitching added since then but more significantly I've added what I expect to be the last two sections.

You can see that I've done some stitching around the rain cloud that was at the end of the strip previously. Then I added a lovely piece of wool followed by black flannel. 

I've wanted to honor Justice Ruth Bade Ginsburg ever since she passed in September. It took some time to come up with the right black to represent her robes. Originally I thought I would embroider a facsimile of a lace collar, her trademark while serving on our Supreme Court. My first attempt didn't look good to me so this has been stalled for a while. Today I dug through my stash on the hunt for something else and came up with this bit of lace. Perfect! The inscription tag is a bit of watercolor paper I cut out with special paper scissors. 

I've dubbed this my Summer Scroll because it was started back in June under the influence of Anne Brooke and Tilly Rose. These ladies created projects to help folks cope with the first covid lockdown in the UK. As usual, I was a little late to the party, not beginning until June. Mine became a sort of visual journal for me personally as well as a place to practice and experiment with different types of stitches and embellishments. I decided to call a halt to it around the autumn equinox as the longer it got the more awkward it was to work on. That also seemed fitting as it had begun around the summer solstice.  Recently I've started a second scroll. I expect it to run through the winter solstice into January and maybe February. I've found this to be a very useful project. It's easy to pick up, there's no pressure, and it's a place to play with my "toys." I bought some wide lace I intend to use on the back of the Summer Scroll to protect the threads from wear and snagging. I want to find a spool or bobbin for the scroll to live on permanently before I sew the lace in place. And there's the question of how to finish the tail end of the scroll when the time comes... 😊

First October SAL - Happy Dancing!

Warning: this is a picture heavy post!

I haven't shared progress on this needlepoint case my friend asked me to stitch for her in quite some time. After I'd done the easy stitching, the large sections of a single color, I got stalled. The last time you saw it, it probably looked like this:

I've been feeling better the last couple of days, able to face the detail stitching that needed to be done. This began life as a kit. I don't think all the colors were included by the time my friend found it in a thrift shop, nor did I have a photograph of the finished project to go by. So once the background was in it required more mental effort than I had to give it. 

I'm delighted to report that I've finally completed the stitching and the case now looks like this.

Yup, still happy dancing a couple of days after the stitching was finished. 😁

I've also added some to my visual journal scroll since our last check in three weeks ago. It's now about 57" long (3.5" high).

Here are a series of close-up shots beginning at the left side. (You may be able to get the images even bigger by double clicking on them.)

In addition to the rain cloud (my hope for rain to wash away the smoke from the wildfires) I put some detail stitches on a few other sections.

I may get out one of my Halloween canvases (needlepoint) to work on for the next stitch along check-in. That will be right before Halloween, on 25 October. I may also cover the completion of this scroll in a Bee, Myself & I post at the end of October. In the meantime, here are the links to the other members of this SAL so you can see what they've been up to lately. 😊

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, MaryMargaret, Renee, 

Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

Stitching Through the Smoke - September SAL

 We don't have any wildfires near us at the moment - thank Goodness - but we have been privileged to be blanketed by the smoke from the fires south of us in Oregon and California. I have never seen higher numbers for our air quality index. Officially we are in the Very Unhealthy category as I write this. Needless to say, I'm staying strictly indoors with all the windows closed tight. And praying for rain to come as soon as possible. In spite of our precautions we're feeling the effects of the heavy smoke cover: headaches, lethargy, itchy eyes and throats, a general feeling of malaise. Two of us are predisposed to asthma. I've had a constricted feeling in my chest off and on. The light outside (and inside, actually) is eerie. Like fog, but brown with an orange cast instead of the gray we're accustomed to. At least the blanket has kept the sun from warming us up to uncomfortably high temperatures like we had recently. If it's not one thing it's another! 

I've been playing with tiny bits of fabric and a variety of size 12 perle cotton threads on my stitch wrap. I think you saw this bit in our last SAL check in although I added a few more straight stitches around the word 'HOT!'. 

This is the next section, with some kantha stitching. 

I added some embroidery to the strip of tea-dyed cotton batting most recently.

I've also added another section or panel since the last SAL check in...

Which is where most of the work has been done this time around.   

It's not done yet but I'm not sure just what else will happen to it. I used a few clear seed beads to secure the lace to the wool felt on the left in the picture. Not that you can see them! That's a button with a hand painted bird on it in the upper right corner. Technically the bird is sitting on a twig painted on the button and I tried to place it such that the twig could be coming off the branch I've outlined with backstitches. In addition to the back stitches I've used feather stitches, blanket stitches, French knots, and straight stitches. Fly stitches secure the 'Hope' label in place.

Avis is the organizer for this Stitch Along. Participants span the globe so our posts go up at different times of the day every three weeks. There's a variety of needlework to be seen, all of it inspiring. 😊

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, MaryMargaret, Renee, 

Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

More Stitching in August - SAL Two

Hopefully I can show you pictures of the needlework I've been doing this time around. 😏

A lot of the stitchers in this Stitch Along do cross stitch. I've shared my needlepoint in the past. I've certainly got needlepoint canvases I could use for this SAL, checking in on progress every three weeks. But lately I've been working on a stitch wrap, a long narrow piece of muslin I'm covering with various pieces of fabric, embroidery, and miscellaneous embellishments as a sort of visual journal. This was the very beginning, back in June:

I might have shown you this section in July...

In August I added some leaves to the flowers I'd put in earlier. The flowers were made with multi-strand flosses in cotton and silk. The leaves were done with a size 12 perle cotton. I found a vendor on Etsy who sells hand painted threads and I have fallen in love with the #12 perle cottons.

I think that patch may be complete now that I've added the sari silk tassel, a bit of tea-dyed ribbon from the Moda charm pack, and more "foliage." 

I also purchased a packet of lovelies from Tilly Rose specifically to use in this slow stitching project. Among them were snippets of Indian kantha cloth. One was exactly the right size to add to my wrap. 

I used more of the perle cotton to secure the kantha patch to my foundation, and then a bit from another colorway to document the weather we've had recently.

I turned a scrap from Tilly into a tiny pocket.

I was coming to the end of my foundation but wasn't ready to end the project so I added another strip of muslin.

Now I can't take a picture of the whole thing in one shot! (Not that I ever could.) The plan is to wrap this around a spool eventually, although that won't necessarily help with the photography. Here's a shot of the back. Sunny has proved that showing the back of our work sometimes makes it easier to see how much progress has been made! 

Here's the link list for the other participants in this SAL. Everyone is working on their own project. As long as my health holds up I'll be catching up on what they've been doing for the last six weeks!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, MaryMargaret, Renee, 

Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

First Stitch Along of August

It hardly seems possible that July has come and gone so quickly and that it's time for another check in for our stitch along group. I've done more embroidery on my visual journal stitch wrap. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to load the pictures I've taken. Which makes this post pretty useless really.

I'll keep trying to figure out how to get my pictures out of my phone and onto this blog. In the meantime, here are the links to the other stitchers in the group. Hopefully they've been able to show their work, which is always fabulous. Maybe in another three weeks I'll have figured out how to get Blogger to show my work.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, MaryMargaret, Renee, 

Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen