2017 WIPocalypse wrap up

So here's the yearly wrap up for the WIPocalypse, which isn't as much as I expected originally, but a new job, move, house projects, etc. will do that to you.  Which is to say, yes, it's less than I expected, but I'm certainly not upset about it.

I always use WIPocalypse for existing WIPS (as of  Jan 1) only, so that left this original list:

1. Epic RR
2. Fantasy Sampler
3. Deco Spirits  - TINY bit of progress!
4. Desert Sunsets - PROGRESS!
5. BoInk
6. Freshwater Pearls - PROGRESS!
7. Celestial Dragon
8. Stained Glass Zelda  - Progress.... of a sort?
9. Fortunate Traveler 
10. Enchanter 
11. Chinese Dragon 

My goal was to finish at least three of these, I was looking at Desert Sunsets, Freshwater Pearls, and Fantasy Sampler as my big three finishes, but I finished none ;) 

That's not to say I didn't get anything done, I did get a few things finished/done/framed, and they're in the "Finishes" tab, I just don't consider them part of my WIPocalypse SAL.

So here at least is the progress:

Deco Spirits - I started on the Air block.  that's it!  But it's something ;)

Desert Sunsets:

I started approximately here with one:

I finished it!

And I started and got a good bit done on the second (excuse the fuzzy photo, I'm too lazy to take another).

I'm absolutely confident that I will finish this one this year, mostly because I want to pass on the patterns to a friend.

Freshwater Pearls saw the most amount of progress this year, from this:

To this:

I might get this one out of the way this year, we'll see.   

And I decided to not continue with Stained Glass Zelda.  I did not get very far on the piece, and I'd like to keep the fabric for future use (hey, I use good fabric, no reason to waste it, and there's not enough done on the piece to bother adopting it out, imo).

So until next time, which should be in about a week! :)

Triforce of Badassery, Framed

I finally got around to framing Triforce.

It was a gift for a friend's birthday, so it seemed a little inadequate to just hand it over.

I special ordered the frame to fit, I wanted a plain black frame, no mat, because I really like how simple the design is.

I decided to not glass it, as I think it would take away from the metallic.

And, of course, I used a black foamcore so that it stayed as dark as possible.

Since it was a fairly easy piece to frame, I went ahead and did it myself.  It's properly pinned and laced (to keep the extra fabric behaving).

I threw it up on my entryway wall to take a quick picture. I'm happy with it.  

September WIPocalypse

It's time for WIPocalypse again!  Hosted by Measi.

I have a lot to show off for September, which is awesome!

First off is Egyptian Sampler.  The last time WIPocalypse saw it, it was here:

Overview of the whole thing, minus the little bit in the border that I got done

Just showing the bit of green in the border that I had gotten since the previous "overview"

And now we're here:

And I had ended with Triforce of Badassery here:

Completed two triangles

This is how far I had gotten on the third triangle

And finished it!

And lastly, I have been working on Desert Sunrise II at work occasionally and it was here:

And now it's here:

I went ahead and went all the way across the top.   The top corner left dark thread is a blend of the fiber made for this piece blended with a dmc.  You stitch a certain pattern to get the effect (which I don't think worked out super well on that first section, so I decided to get the just-DMC portion finished in the sky.  I think if I can fill it in, I can make the pattern more apparent.   And I stitched the cactus in the middle just because.  It gives me a nice anchor/break to work around.

I think I've done pretty well for this WIPocalypse.   I need to sincerely thank Justine for her Solo September, because without it, I don't think ES would have gotten so much progress.

The only thing I'm a bit miffed about is that the frame I ordered for Triforce was super late, so I couldn't give it to my friend for his birthday.   But that's OK, I'll get it to him one of these days.  I have everything I need to frame it, so I'll work on it tonight.

I'm hoping by next WIPocalypse I'll have a TW finish and maybe progress on another.  I'll be taking part in TWOctober as an added push to get another WIP out of the pile.

Triforce of Badassery (SpriteStitch)

May I present:

Triforce of Badassery from SpriteStitch.  
Started 12.24.2014
Finished 8.27.2016
Done all in PTB 01 on 28ct black lugana

For some reason, my phone does not like this gold.   Sorry about the various colors, I gave up trying to color correct everything, because I was just making things worse.

The PTB wasn't bad to work with at all - I used 2 strands for everything.  I didn't loop, I had my needle in the middle of the thread so I could use it down to it's last bit and it seemed to keep the metallic thread under better control.     It doesn't lay so flat or pretty, but the sparkle is worth it (and it's a gift to a non-crafter, so I'm not too worried about being harshly judged).

I think I'm just going to frame it in a plain black frame with no mat, because it should look good like that (no glass, either, I generally prefer glass, but I think too much of the texture/sparkle will get lost).

This is my 5th WIP down from the beginning of the year, so I'm feeling pretty good about what I've done this year, and now I'll get back to Egyptian Sampler (I was so close to being done, I brought this home to finish it off over the weekend).

August WIPocalypse!

I think I'm one of the few WIPocalypsers that didn't Olympic stitch, but I still got a lot done... just not as much on my WIPocalypse pieces (Darn you, Tapestry and Barbarian Pooh!)

I have been working a bit on Triforce of Badassery at work.  My September "free time work" project will be genealogy, so I'm hoping to get this finished quickly and work a bit on Desert Sunset before the Labor Day weekend.

I was here:

And now I'm here, finished the first two triangles, working on the third, all in PTB 01:

I made progress on my EPIC RoundRobin.  I finished up the last two bands that I needed to do, now the only thing I have is to do a band on my own RR and it will be done (I'm so tempted not to and declare it "finished," of course).

Belinda's

Melanie's

And I finally got Egyptian Sampler in the Qs.  I'm always amazed at how freakin' slow TWs are, and this border is fussy as all get out on this one (I can't quite get into a good groove with it).

I started here:

And now I'm here (after several evenings of stitching):

It's like TW is taunting me.  Not only do I pick up a TW after forever, but I'm literally stitching almost nothing but quarter stitches with blended threads.   "Did you miss me?" taunts my TW piece.  "No, did you misssssss me? Muahahaha!!"

The progress is also a little skewed.  This was part of a UFO-RoundRobin at some point, and whoever did the left side papyri was one thread off at the top, so I had to frog them all and start over.  I noticed it when I went to start the fourth papyrus motif and saw that it didn't match up (on linens I always try to use two points of reference since the slubs and general variety of thickness sometimes throw me off).   I traced the mistake up all the way to the top.  Oops.

I'm one color away from being done with those 5+6 papyrus motifs so I can start with the eyelets and then I'll backstitch all of it.   I'm actually starting to look forward to the backstitch at this point.   I'll do the Papyrus panel next.    I'm hoping to post on WIPWednesdays for this one, because I feel like if I keep seeing progress, I'll be happier.  I think once the backstitch starts getting in there and makes it look more polished, that will definitely help.

I've stitched TWs before, I'd just forgotten how much slower they are.  I'll get over it, but I might go straight to Fantasy Sampler after I finish this one, though, instead of stitching something easy between them, just so I don't spoil myself again.

Question for the month: Have you ever read any fictional books that involve embroidery? If so, give us some recommendations?
I'm sure I have, but I don't really remember any all that well.   I do keep all of my reviews on Goodreads, but embroidery isn't a category I've ever used (I kinda wish I had, now).

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And for some non-WIPpy fun, I had a piece of evenweave left over from the Barbarian Pooh piece that will be the exact size I'll need for Not Today.  Only it was white, which is not what I want to stitch this piece on, but I had left over coffee, soooooo...

I spritzed it with some foaming bleach cleaner, let it dry in the sun, rinsed the heck out of it and I am so happy with the result!

I'll only have a little over half an inch on each side of the design, but I'm going to finish it into a bellpull anyway, so I don't really need the extra.  I serged it so the pieces won't ravel any further.  I can't wait to stitch and finish that piece over the holidays.

WIPWednesday

I have two! updates.

One is for the Zelda piece I'm working on at work called Triforce of Badassery (pattern courtesy of SpriteStitch).  I finished the second triangle and can move onto the third.  Huzzah!  I am hoping to get this done in time to get it finished for a friend's birthday and I think I'll make it! (plus, another finished WIP/WIPocalypse item!)

The other is that with my Winnie the Pooh project done, I've slapped Egyptian Sampler back in the home Qsnaps!

I would really like to get it done, though admittedly, I'm not super enthused about stitching it.  I think my lack of enthusiasm is because I've been spoiled on easy stitching - no blending, little confetti, few quarter stitches.  I love TWs and I love them when they're done, but they are more complex than I've been stitching for a while.  I'll be happy enough when have this one done, though.  And I'm hoping that once I 'get used' to TW stitching again, it'll inspire me to work on more (since I have so many WIPs).

Though probably not this weekend, I've been itchin' to videogame ;)

TUSAL and #WIPWednesday

First off I have my orts for the Totally Useless Stitch A Long hosted by Daffycat (button over there in the sidebar).

I have my before/after backwards, but I was so excited about my afterwards!  And while the pictures are not at the same angle, I think we can all agree that there's some definite progress in there.  I have my Tapestry orts, plus the left overs from the Texas kit and the FlipFlops kit (not all that much, really, but yay!)

And for WIPWednesday, have a little Tapestry!

What I'm trying to do is concentrate on the bloom going out at the diagonal in the corner, and then filling in any of the color that I'm working with (so the other blossom motifs grow slowly but surely).  I'll finish the diagonal and then the right side so I can move to the upper middle.  Truthfully, I'm losing interest in stitching this piece - I rarely stitch on large pieces straight through like this, but I'm so close, I'm stubborning my way through it.  I know I'll feel a huge sense of accomplishment when it's done and that's holding me.   I figure it'll take another couple of weekends to finish because I, fortunately, don't have plans for either other than this Friday :)

And for my work #WIPWednesday, I've picked up the Triforce of Badassery again.   I'm off by one row, but I'm just working around it and not frogging, because metallics, UGH.
I'm stitching this on 28ct black lugana with Petite Treasure Braid 01.

This pattern is somewhere on the SpriteStitch site.   I'm nearly 1/3 done!

First update o' the new year!

So, like any insane stitcher, I spent the new year holiday stitching (mostly).

What's really funny is that we've got a weird work schedule going on right now.   Last week, we worked Monday, Tuesday and Friday (Christmas Eve and Christmas day we had skeleton crews, which didn't include me as I wasn't on the rotation for those days).   Then we had the weekend, and this week we have another Monday/Tuesday/Friday work week.  Except that I was on the rotation for New Year's Eve (Wednesday).   I work the holiday like I do any weekend I'm working (again, we have skeleton crews for the weekend which we rotate).

So I worked Monday, Tuesday, and half day Wednesday.   So Wednesday felt like the weekend to me.   And I didn't work yesterday, so today feels like Monday.  Only it's Friday, so I only have to last 8 hours.

So happy Monday, Friday, New Year!  (hah)

This was what I worked on for New Year's Eve.    It's another Zelda piece, so I definitely have a gaming theme going on.    I'm doing it as a gift for a friend, and I'm doing it in all Petite Treasure Braids.   Unfortunately, though I calculated out the stitch count and I know it should fit on a fat quarter, it looks like this fat quarter is too skinny to finish it off (oops, should have measured the fabric).   I'm currently thinking of how to rectify it without just starting over.  (again, it's from SpriteStitch)

Please excuse the dog hair.  White heavy shedding dog (that likes to sit with me while stitching) + black fabric = fail.   Plus, a little bird told me he found her using this as a pillow (/lesigh)

The count so far?  2 cards of PTB for the triangle.
There should be two more triangles.

And here's the progress I made on the Stained Glass Piece:

I was going to do the black and then color everything in... but then I remembered how much I hate moving my qsnaps around (I'm just really lazy), so I thought I would do the black of a motif/area and color it in... and then I discovered that even though I have approximately 3 bazillion skeins of DMC, I managed to not have three of the colors for that little medallion.   I don't even know how that happened.  Thankfully Michaels is next to my park and ride lot.

At FIRST I was really unhappy with the coverage, but when I hold it out, it's fine (forest/trees).   But then I read Leonore's genius idea to do the black as full x's, since that part of the design isn't actually the stained glass and I'm giving it some serious thought.    Though when I look at it like this, I'm fairly happy with it.   I think I might fill in the rest of that corner and then make my final decision.

I'm occasionally having to pick out a stitch here or there, because I've been working on linen/evenweaves for so long, I just automatically stitch over two and skip a hole now and again.

Spurred by the fact that I knew there was a lot of black involved, and I'm tired of buying black floss (I'm looking at you, Ferret Knot), I bought a 500gm cone of black DMC.   The 100gm cones come in a lot of colors, but as far as I can tell, I can only get the 500gm cones in a few (black, white, red).  But I really just needed it for the black anyway, so I Primed it.

And, finally, I did decide to go ahead and start on the CloudsFactory Zodiac mystery piece.    I got not just January's part, but the whole frame as well, and I like getting that all stitched (if anything, just to make sure I've got my stuff centered right on my fabric), and I'm not saying that I had to frog, but if I didn't have to frog, I'd have 6 of the 12 circles done instead of 3.   And I did decide to throw all of the satin floss out.  I was so unhappy just a few stitches in, I decided to switch to regular floss. I'll get that pic eventually.

But here, have a picture of Mona, the shedding white-haired wonder, hard at work on New Years Day.

Oh, AND I had fun updating the blog.  More pages and things ready to roll for 2015!

New Year New Start

Happy New Year!
I worked yesterday, so guess what I'm doing today?

New Year New Start!

I thought I deserved a new, large WIP (it was difficult to keep it at one, because I've managed to kit up three now, which tells you how it is I end up in the predicament of too many WIPs!)

Stained Glass Zelda (Windwaker) from Sprite Stitch - stitched 2 over 1 (tented, because I wanted the slightly hazy effect you get with stained glass, not the pixilated full crosses).  On 25 ct Lugana.  I'm gridding as I go (maybe)... I'm not a gridder (I actually find it confusing, which is ALSO why I'd be gridding every 20 instead of 10), but this thing is farkin' huge.  I could probably use the help.

In fact, at 286*426, I think it qualifies as my first BAP.

Here's what it'll look like(ish) when it's done: