Farewell to 2013

It's almost midnight, and time for the ceremonial dumping of the ort jar.

Times Square may have a Waterford crystal ball, but I have beautiful threads (and a bent thumb tack) cascading into the waste paper basket at midnight.

As a needleworker, I'm much happier to be here, with embroidery in hand, than out with the madding (and maddening) crowds.

Happy New Year to everyone--and a brand new year of projects old and new!

If at first . . .

I finally got a relatively un-fuzzy picture of Eve in the Garden:

This has been a very soothing piece to stitch, simply working tent stitch according to the chart. I love the shading used and will be using these colors again.

Today we decided to go see the latest installment in The Hobbit movie series. I am still of the opinion that Martin Freeman, who plays Bilbo, is the best reason to see the movies. Other than his performance, I think the movies are overly long and overly fond of using orcs at every possible moment. I loved what Peter Jackson did with The Lord of the Rings, but The Hobbit, not so much. I felt the same with the way George Lucas handled Star Wars. My geek comments for the day . . .then there was a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up oysters for a very late lunch of oyster stew . . .and now we're back home and fed. Dinner may be late.  Or it may be cheese and crackers and fruit.

I had thought about taking the Christmas tree down today, but I feel like this poor tree hasn't had enough time to be appreciated, so it's staying up for at least another day. I know I'll have to work late tomorrow, so it may be New Year's Eve before we pack this Christmas away. Mother used to say Christmas comes if you're ready or not, and this is one of those years when I didn't feel like I was ready. My Christmas mojo never appeared. I never felt like it had time to appear.

That, however, is going to change in 2014. One of my online friends and I were chatting about some of the gorgeous trees we've seen on blogs this year, amply adorned with handmade ornaments. We both have stitched ornaments, but nothing like some of the trees we've seen this year.  Well, said she, if we both stitched--and finished--at least one ornament a month, that would add at least a dozen to our own displays.  Is this, said I, a challenge?  And then she triple-dog-dared me. (If you watch "A Christmas Story" every year, you know why this is such a challenge.) So I am adding a finished Christmas ornament, at least one a month, to The Overly Ambitious List.

I have lost my mind.

Coloring inside the lines

For the last couple of days, I've been filling in the colors in the cartouche in Tricia Nguyen's Eve in the Garden of Eden.

I'd show you a picture, but for some reason, every one I took has been blurry. I'm giving up for tonight.

But it's going really well, and I love the colors. I'm definitely using some of them when I start the panels for my casket.

Ann Lawle from Scarlet Letter

I stitched in the framework for Ann Lawle's first band last night:

This is going to be my Scarlet Letter sampler for 2014. If I stitch a band a month, I'll have the sampler finished by the end of the year. I say that now. Some of the bands have more going on than entire projects I've worked in the past. Even more than projects I have going on now!

This band is worked in cutwork. The original had birds which are upside down to the rest of the sampler. That has always bothered me until I decided to stitch them right side up--after all, my house is not historically accurate to the 17th century, nor are the materials I'm using to stitch this sampler.

I did realize as I was nearing the end of the framework that the proportions of the design, according to the written directions, are different from the way the model for the reproduction is photographed. I also realized that the way the cutwork is charted won't fit the way the directions indicate that it should. I heaved a sigh, then decided I could make it work and, even better, could make it work without ripping out what I'd already done. As far as I'm concerned, that's a win-win situation. However, you won't see the solution until the very end. I don't like to cut threads until I've finished the rest of a sampler simply because it makes the linen wobbly. My stitches look better if my linen is taut, so I wait to do cutwork until the end.

Today, though, I'm in the mood for color, so I'm going to work on filling in some of the sections in Eve in the Garden of Eden. It's my last day of vacation . . . sigh . . .after the week-end, it's back to work. No more playing in the stash until all hours . . .but since working pays for my habit, I am thrilled to have a job!

The Overly Ambitious List

Since we had had our Christmas get-together on Sunday, and Dearly Beloved had to work, I had Christmas Day to myself.

And what, I said to myself, would make this a perfect Christmas if I can't have family around? (Keep in mind that I spent about an hour on the phone with the Big Kid and The Flash on Christmas Eve--The Flash kept popping out of bed to announce that he needed a snack or a glass of milk--then spent probably longer than that with Baby Girl on Christmas Day.) Well, for a needleworker, the Perfect Christmas is spent with needlework and music and Christmas movies on DVD.

I think I mentioned several days ago that I had an overly ambitious list of projects I want to stitch in 2014. So yesterday I went stash diving to make sure I had all the parts and bits for some of the things on the list together.

And it includes:

This is the beginning of the framework for a canvas piece call "Journey," which was a cyberworkshop taught by David McCaskill for ANG a couple of years ago. At the time, I was not feeling the love for canvas. I had stitched the center medallion and put it aside. When we had one of our "water events" last month, it floated to the surface. Last night, I started working on the rest of the framework for the design and enjoyed it quite a bit. So it's in the rotation.

Ann Lawle will be my 2014 entry in Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year. I think I'm going to spend this afternoon setting up the outline for the cutwork section at the top. Once it's started, I can move into the polychrome bands below. I've found it better to wait to cut threads until the majority of a sampler is embroidered.

Lovely Hannah Thornbush, started as one of Essamplaire's online classes but now available as a kit (don't say I never enabled anyone!). I do love this sampler and can't remember why it was pushed aside, but this may be its year to see a completion. I think I'm about a third of the way along.

If I manage to finish Hannah in a timely manner, I'll go back to Examplarery's Mary Atwood, which is about halfway to the finish line.

I have three online classes which have either just started or are starting, and I want to at least get them framed up and ready to go before I head back to work on Monday. From the left:

A Knot Garden by Catherine Jordan, ANG Cyberclass
Jacobean Splendour's kit from the cyberclass currently taught by Alison Cole
Child's Play, by Jane-Ellen Balzuweit for Shining Needle Society

Two different sets of smalls from Jackie du Plessis. I had originally planned to put only the Fair Maiden's Work Bag on the list, but then the carrier and accessories for the Pocket for Posies needle case arrived and that was it, no question at all.

My resolution on smalls this year is that it can't go in the finishing basket when the embroidery is done. It has to be finished. Period. Hopefully, although it isn't formally on the Overly Ambitious List, finishing will also be accomplished this year.  Again, if I'm very efficient in my needlework this year, I will add Betsy Morgan's Toy Chest and Ellen Chester's Lady's Work Box to the list.

The barest bones' beginning of Eve in the Garden of Eden from Tricia Nguyen. I also need to add the small designs from the first Cabinet of Curiosities kit to the list, but I'm going to work on this first.

Morning Has Broken has not dropped off the face of the earth, it's going on next year's list as well.

All the strawberries are stitched in, but I still haven't pressed out that big crease in the middle.

Originally, after I managed to get all the outline for the border finished over Thanksgiving, I had visions of working all the strawberries and flowers and birds and bees in the outer edge before Christmas. Then I was going to embroider the middle during my week off from work. Best laid plans . . .between going to Williamsburg and taking three classes, decking the halls, baking and cleaning and doing all that other holiday prep along with working some long days, I didn't get much needlework done.  OK, said I, I will get that border embellished while on vacation, then work on the center after the New Year.

Well, that didn't happen either. I had Issues with Spiral Trellis. I occasionally do have issues with Spiral Trellis, but normally, if I am alone and can get my rhythm going, I can do a creditable stitch. For some reason, I could not get my tension right and had some kind of loopy, loose, ridiculous looking blob instead of a nice, neat Spiral Trellis.

Baby Girl suggested that perhaps the fact I started this part of the design at 10:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve could have had an effect.

She is probably right, but I think I was looking for an excuse to go stash-diving.

Anyway, these are the projects that have taken up residence in the stitching basket, which has returned downstairs. I'm not saying I will be able to avoid temptation or be led astray by other pretty faces, but this is what I'm starting the New Year off with.

Merry Christmas!

Best wishes for a wonderful day!

A little more Christmas . . .

Just when I thought my Christmas was pretty much over, this arrived!

Oh, such pretty colors . . .

Last spring the Swan Sampler Guild offered a class with Jackie du Plessis. While you had to be present to take the class, they also made another class piece available for "away-Swans".  I ordered the Pretty Posey etui at the time, but Jackie also made a set of accessories available to go with it. If you were very lucky and quick to respond, she had a limited number of carriers available. I was lucky and (as I pretty much always am when Jackie's projects are available) I was quick to respond.

And today, everything arrived, beautifully packaged as always.

My ambitious list of projects to work in 2014 just became more ambitious.

And I am almost giddy with anticipation!