I know you've been waiting with bated breath for this next installment in my WIP Walk of Shame. This post finds the Remedial Stitcher counting her counted projects. Mercifully, they aren't legion. I've included counted canvas and my one counted thread, which comes to the magic and lucky number of 13. Wait, that's wrong. One of that number is actually two projects that are kitted and ready, but they haven't been mounted on stretchers yet. So that would actually make 12 WIPs and 2 kits. I'm not sure that's any better.
Here they are, in order of stitching priority (at this moment in time).
This is
Florentine Sampler by Nanette Costa, a design from the ANG Chapter Project Book that I'll be leading for my chapter's January meeting. So I have to finish this soon. I'm working on the background, which is the same basic stitch on the left side of the diagonal as on the right, just flipped and using blue instead of the raspberry. This has been an interesting stitch, as the motif in the upper right was a real problem to position correctly. I think I have it off by one thread vertically, which has made the background stitch around it kind of a pain. I will try to make it easier for everyone to position it properly in January. I used
Cosmo floss for this, which is a six-strand Egyptian cotton floss. It costs a little more than DMC (if you buy it at an LNS and not at Michael's, AC Moore, or Hobby Lobby, where they can charge a much lower price that's closer to the wholesale price for an LNS) but is so worth the price! It's got a very silky feel and sheen and is a pleasure to stitch with.
Tropical Punch by DebBee's Designs is another project that I'll be leading at a chapter meeting in March. The
Potomac Chapter of ANG (PANG) is doing this in four segments over the course of 2015, and I'm starting it off in March. What was I thinking? Sheesh! My part is the central diamond motif, up to the first Jessica border. I chose to make up my own colorway, which is based on the Caron Collection's Cheyenne in Watercolours and Waterlilies. I obviously need to get going on this, so I will try to work on it at least once a week.
The next two are projects that I submitted to PANG's annual Stitching Challenge, wherein we select up to five WIPs that we hope to finish within the next year. It begins anew each March. These were in my list for last year as well, and I paid up $5 apiece for not completing them in the allotted time. So I rolled them over for this year. Sadly, I fear I'll be ponying up another $10 come March 2015, as I don't see myself finishing these this time either. But you never know. They aren't in my current rotation (I say that like I really have a rotation going), as I have other non-counted projects that I need to get to first.
This is
Leaf Collage by Terry Dryden, which was a class offered by PANG a couple of years ago (maybe three?). Terry is a wonderful teacher and I enjoyed the class tremendously. If you get the opportunity to take a class with her, jump on it! I really do like this piece, as it's made up of lots of small, easily finished blocks of stitching. What's my excuse? I have none (hanging my head in shame).
At the 2012 ANG Seminar in Philadelphia, I took a class with Toni Gerdes,
Carnival. I love the different stitches and threads used in this. Well, maybe not some of the threads, but most of them. The colors are beautiful, and it's been a challenge to stitch. That empty part on the left is basically the same elements from the right side just turned on their side and shaped differently. It's a lot of compensation, the bane of my existence. This is what's got me stalled. I know if I just put my mind to it, I can finish it.
Once a month, I've been getting together with the rest of the people who took this class and haven't yet finished it, and we spend the afternoon working on it. It's the beautiful
Imari Collage by Debbie Stiehler. I'm making slow progress, and at this rate it'll take me at least another year, maybe two to finish it. So much unfilled space. Sigh.
Now come things that I should do, want to do, need to do, but am not sure when I'll finish.
A perennial favorite,
Stars for a New Millennium by Tony Minieri gets a little attention from time to time. I'm trying to work on this with a group of women I stitch with every other Sunday (when possible, sometimes more like other than every). I'm nearly done with the fifth square, which I've been working on forever. I'm hoping that I'll be able to stick with it now that I've allocated a specific time for stitching it; I just have to remember and not let other things nudge it aside.
I have to be careful not to let this lovely design fall by the wayside. This is the class I took at the Williamsburg School of Embroidery about two months ago. It's
Spring Refraction by Jane Williams. Maybe I can work on this on the Sundays I'm not stitching Stars. I've decided to rip out the stitching I did in the large circle at the bottom left. That was the first thing I did in the class, and I'm really not happy with the way it looks. I'm going to use one strand instead of two of the Appleton Crewel Wool and try to use the colors the same way I did in the smaller orb at the top. We'll see. Ripping it out may be hazardous to the triangular shape's stitches, which are probably anchored in there. Arg.
Marilyn Owen's
Folding Ort Box is languishing in the corner over there. It reproaches me with the blackwork that needs to be done. Again, I have no excuse. I'd really like to get this done, as I think it'll be very pretty and handy to tuck into my stitching bag when I'm on the go. This was a chapter project in 2013.
I think this is the project that made me realize how wrong it is for me to start these major, large pieces. I love the colors I selected for Pam Gardner's
From Molehill to Mountain, which is both a color study and an exercise in stitch variations. I fear this may become a UFO.
The last installment of Carole Lake and Michael Boren's
Building Blocks series. I have only three blocks to go. I may take this to my Thursday stitching group once I finish the
Florentine Sampler. I can get one block done during the allotted time. Then I can put all of the finished blocks in the binder I bought for them and use it as a handy reference when I'm looking for an interesting stitch for my painted canvas projects.
And because I'm an idiot and never will learn, I added this nice new project to my collection of WIPs just yesterday. It's Janet Zickler Casey's
Moon Pie Kitty. The NOVA Chapter of ANG offered this and another of her kits in a chapter workshop, inviting members of PANG to join in the fun. It's a black kitty. How could I resist? And I'd watched my friend stitch hers and fell in love with it. I may square it off, since I'm not likely to finish it as a large round "cookie" or ornament. It would fit nicely in a boxtop or trivet, my new favorite way to finish my work.
Let's see. What's left?
Right. The two kitted projects. They are
Diamond Delight 8 by DebBee's Designs and
Frankie by Michael Boren. Lovely.
Nuff said.
Last but not least, my one counted thread project.
When I first opened Scarlet Thread in Vienna, I discovered
Millennia Designs, a British needlework design firm that was actually located in Wales back then. They carried a variety of historic cross-stitch and needlepoint designs, things I couldn't find anywhere else. One design that I carried was this
Aubrey Beardsley "Oriental Lady and Cat." I always coveted it and kept one for myself when I closed the shop. I finally decided to stitch it this year, now that I rarely do cross-stitch. I work on it every now and then. There's no rush. It's not going anywhere.
And there you have it. My counted needlework projects. If you made it through to the end, congratulations! Your reward is this:
Kthxbai.
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