Good Bye to 2021

In just a few hours, it will be time for the ceremonial dumping of the ort jar.

I made my goal of 21 in '21--I actually completed 23 projects this year. Does that mean I get to count two of them for my 22 in '22 goal?

I tracked things a little differently this year. I've kept lists of completed projects for years, but I decided to also track the number of projects I started as well. I also tried to work on things that were WIP's or UFO"s. I did not say I couldn't start anything brand new, but at least I worked on some older projects.

There are 18 projects in the WIP/UFO list, and I finished 13. In no particular order:

Golden Accessories, Thistle Threads

Emie's Etui, Betsy Morgan

Strawberry Sewing Purse & Accessories, Theron Traditions

Tend Thy Sheep, Merry Cox

Imperial Gold Queen Stitch Needle Case, The Examplarery

Teeny Tiny Strawberry Hornbook, Theron Traditions

Strawberry Needle Case, Theron Traditions

ABC Strawberry, Tristan Brooks

Pineapple Strawberry, Tristan Brooks

Ode to Jane Austen, It's Fine-ally Finished

Stitcher's Envelope, Theron Traditions

Rebecah French, The Essamplaire

Christmas Sampler ornament, JCS Ornament issue (date not remembered)

There were 10 projects in the brand-new project category, and I finished 8. Again, no particular order:

A Needlewoman's Work Tray, It's Fine-ally Finished

Christmas Spirit Etui, Betsy Morgan

Holbein Strawberry, Periwinkle Promises

Spring Roundels, Tristan Brooks

Tudor Embroidery Sampler, Gutter Lane Embroidery

 Elizabeth Miniature, Amy Mitten

Christmas is Coming Etui, Tristan Brooks

Be of Good Cheer ornament, Tristan Brooks

I also stitched two small bargello designs for my former employer, which brings the grand total to 23.

Tomorrow I plan to start a brand new project, and I have two of the carry-overs in the pile by my chair. You'll see them on the first.

So Happy New Year to one and all!  May 2022 be better and people's hearts become kinder!

Last Finish of 2021!

 I didn't get this done before Christmas, but Betsy Morgan's Christmas Spirit Etui is finished before the end of the year!

Just in time to pack up with the rest of the Christmas decorations until next year!

Working Away

I was putting little bits and pieces together, joining Parts A to Parts B to make Parts C which will then be turned into Part D for Betsy Morgan's Christmas etui--and I got very tired of not having anything actually finished. 

So I skipped ahead and put the scissors fob and scissors sheath together.

That still leaves all the parts that make the box to put together, and I do have a needle book to assemble, but at least part of the set is done.

And I feel a sense of accomplishment.

 

Ten Years in the Making

For the final Sampler Sunday in 2021, I have a finish!

In 2011, Margriet Hogue of The Essamplaire offered an online class for Rebecah French, a reproduction of a sampler stitched in 1802. Rebecah was nine years old at the time.

Of course I signed up to take the class, and I have worked on it, off and on.

Obviously, more off than on.

But now, after ten years, Rebecah is finished!

I love everything about this, the delicate little birds perched among the flowers, and the wild, twining stems--but I think my favorites are the two Dr. Seuss trees. I mean, this whole thing looks like something a 9-year-old would do.

So now I need to decide on what will become the new Sampler Sunday project, which means a bit of stash diving. There are two front-runners in contention, but there are several others that are calling my name. I have a week to decide.

This doesn't mean I've stopped the construction on the Christmas projects I have strewn about my worktable. I do plan to continue to work on them this week.

So, I am heading upstairs to rummage in the stash. Nice way to spend the day after Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

 

Construction Zone

I spent yesterday doing most of the prep work to assemble Betsy Morgan's Christmas Spirit etui.

There are now way too many little stacks of stuff on my work surface.

I still have to make twisted cords--four of them--and do a little embellishment for the lid, but I think,  before I do those things, I want to sew some parts together. Having all these bits and pieces floating around makes me just a tad bugnutz crazy. No reason to make that state of mind worse!

Puttering

 I've spent the last couple of days puttering around, so this is all I managed to do on this Sampler Sunday.

I do plan to work on this a little more tonight while watching reruns of All Creatures Great and Small, so there could quite possibly be more to see tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to decide if I want to start a new project on Christmas. Dearly Beloved and I will have a quiet day. He will have his nose in his new book (shh, don't tell), and I'm sure I could find something to do. Then again, I'm starting a major new project on New Year's--that's already been decided.

So maybe I should aim to finish something before the end of the year. I believe I'll think about that.

Another one

 Not long after I finished Barbara Jackson's Christmas is Coming Etui, I discovered that she had posted the finishing directions for Be of Good Cheer.

So I finished it.

I'm trying to decide if I want to finish a couple more ornaments (I haven't forgotten I promised to show how I do that) or if I want to work on something entirely different. I'm thinking about doing something entirely different, at least for the week-end.

Or I could spend time with the issue of Inspirations that just arrived. This poor publication sat for weeks on a container ship, then onshore waiting to be unloaded, then had to travel to the distribution center, and finally passed through the USPS system. It was a delight to finally hold it in my hands. 

There are four projects in it that I want to stitch. I don't need to add anything whatsoever to the stash or to my list of things I'd love to do. The temptation is real, though, and hard to withstand.

And that's why I have a stash that would choke a horse.

Slowly, slowly

I thought I was going to knock out the assembly of the tray to Barbara Jackson's Christmas is Coming in a day.

I was wrong.

But, on Day Three of the assembly process, it is complete!

I fear that I am slowing down in my old age. I need to figure out how to speed up if I'm going to get my stash stitched in the next 385 years.

Sprigs

 Sampler Sunday seems to roll around faster every week. I am not complaining, just thought I would mention that Christmas and the end of the year are barreling down like speed skaters in the Olympics.

I have flowers, with more to come.

I am almost through with this side. There are similar flowers on the other side, and very Seuss-like trees on both.

Dearly Beloved has started calling it a Psychedelic Sampler because he says that everything has a very Peter Max-like vibe. I think the colors in Petter Max's art leaned toward the primary ones, and this is more muted. And if you remember Peter Max, well, I think we've all just dated ourselves again.

Be of Good Cheer

When your cookie baking extravaganza is derailed when your oven doesn't heat (apparently it needs a new thermostat, and we hope that particular part is available and not sitting on a container ship somewhere), you have to find something else to do.

So you stitch.

And another ornament is ready for the assembly part. As this is a class, I'm going to wait until the finishing directions are posted so I can do it correctly.

Today, by the way, is Mother's 94th birthday, so we went to visit her. I asked her how old she was and she said, "75, that's old enough."

I disagree. I need another 385 years to stitch everything I want to.

Santa Claus is Coming!

 Well, actually, he has arrived, at least in the form of this year's ornament from Barbara Jackson for Shining Needle Society.

Now, I was planning to put the tray for Barbara's Etui together. Actually, I planned to start that yesterday, but it took me longer to clear things from the Tudor project away than I expected. I had to add the leftover threads and metals to the stash for future projects. I needed to clear out the project bag and decide what I wanted to keep and what I needed to let go. 

And then I got distracted by the stash while I was doing all that.

I need to stop making lists of things I want to stitch and just stitch it. All of it.

Anyway, I had decided to work on assembling this morning, but my old workplace requested some product testing, so instead of working on my stuff, I started working on theirs.

Tonight, though, I believe I need to put at least a few stitches into Santa.

I think I'm done

 I think I'm through with the Tudor project.

I could put a stitched outline around the center motif in addition to the crimped metal band--at the same time, I think I may have enough glitz. I'm going to leave it sitting up in the frame across the room for a couple of days to see how I feel.  At the moment, I feel like I'm through.

In fact, I feel so much like I'm through that I'm planning to put away the "stuff" that accumulates as you work a project. Because there's been so much metal in this one, that means my goldwork tools need to be stashed as well.

The plan after finishing this was to start assembling things this afternoon. The plan has changed. I think I need a nap.

Two Turtledoves?

 We have had our Holiday Extravaganza! When you combine Thanksgiving, two December birthdays, and Christmas into one weekend, you have a lot of cooking and baking and eating. Then you have recovering from cooking and baking and eating.

It was all delightful. 

Despite two solid days in the kitchen, I was able to stitch just a little bit, and there are now two birds on the bottom of the Rebecah French sampler.

Tomorrow, I think I'll finish the Tudor project, and then start doing some assembly. I also have to bake cookies to take to Mother on Friday. The Saint informed me that cookies would be better than cupcakes because of the icing factor. I didn't ask for details on what the "icing factor" means, but I have a dreadful feeling I know.

Almost there

 Only one more step, and the Tudor project will be done!

My center motif is . . . slightly . . . different. Somehow, I managed to turn the pattern a quarter turn when I was ready to transfer the design, and that meant that I needed to move the flowers around a little. What can I say? It's an adaptation.

I need to add trim around the edges of the center motif, and I may add some surface stitching on either side of the applied trim.

And then I'll get down to putting some things together. And decking the halls. And baking cookies. Christmas is only a little over three weeks away.