It's official ....

MARY WIGHAM IS  FINISHED!

Not only is she finished but she's cleaned, pressed and ready for her photo shoot.

 

 Big smiles and major happy dancin' going on here!

February's WIPocalypse projects

It's the second full moon of 2015 already and time for the WIPocalypse update.  I did pretty well on my projects this month.  First up is the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy from Cross-eyed Cricket.  This one went from here

to here

 

 

Secondly, Mary Wigham went from here

 

to here

Unfortunately, Autumn Log Cabin didn't get a single new stitch in it.  But because I did so much on Mary Wigham, I'm okay with that.  Actually, I'm more than okay.  I am tickled pink!  She's so close to happy dance day my feet have started tapping. 

 

 

WIPocalypse update for June

I actually spent some more time on Mary Wigwam for WIPocalypse this month. The flower pot on the left is finished and on the upper right, I started the light blue plant under the rose wreath (see the little arrows).  While in this area I noticed that the yellow flower next to it wasn't complete.  So I completed it. Yay!

And then I decided to pick up Autumn Log Cabin which has been languishing for months now.  I stitched the top 2 oak leaves and their accompanying acorns.  I'm getting ready to round the corner now, making this last border half finished.  Double yay!

 

That's about it for this month's old WIPs.  Hopefully next month will go as well.

A Hermit weekend

I did it.   I hunted down the threads for Mary Wigham and spent a little time on her for IHSW.  I finished the center medallion with the flower and started the flower pot above it.  Woo Hoo!!

And that's about it for the weekend ... stitching-wise that is.

Weekend stitching

Over the weekend I finished stitching the Bling! ornament.  I had planned on making it into the ornament on Saturday but after reading the finishing directions (several times), I decided to add some fray check around it.  I've never cut close on canvas and thought it a good idea to add some adhesive around the edges 'just in case'.   Well, it had to dry a bit and then I wasn't home most of the day Sunday so it still isn't done yet.  Anyways, here she be at this time:

While the fray check was drying, I added the cording to 6 ornaments:

They still need assorted baubles, buttons and bows added but it's a good start to the final finish.  And I tell you this, my fingers were sore (ouch!) after tacking all that cording down.   I really need to learn to use a thimble.

And last, but not least, I put in a few stitches on Mary:

Happy Monday!

Bling! and my Mary

I spent some time on the bling-y Christmas ornament this week.  Only one more section to go and I can assemble it.  This finishing technique will be a first for me but it seems similar to biscornu finishing so I'm hoping it isn't too difficult.  I'll be glad when this one is done.  The silver thread is still bothering my eyes and I'm making many small counting errors.  Most of them I've corrected but a few I'm just letting go.  They aren't that important.

Mary Wigham has an update as well.  I worked on the dark bird motif and the empty one in the middle.  I only stitched the border in the middle because I was anxious to see if the third motif would fit.  There are lots of counting differences/errors from the original and I was concerned.    I changed the size (reduced the width) of the dark bird's border just in case.  And happily they all fit nicely.  Woohoo!

I need to decide what to put in the empty spots on the bottom.  Mary has initials on hers but I decided to change the pattern and leave them off.   There's still plenty of time to decide what to do here.  And it's fun to be thinking about it as I stitch.

A couple weeks ago, I posted some pictures of my pups and I realized I didn't have any current ones.  Bad me!  So I took a few pics of my pack on Tuesday and will  now bore you with a few . . . .

 First up are the papillons.  I think Firefly is the most photogenic little doll.  It was because of that face that I adopted her.  How could I resist??  River is a neurotic little dude but loveable none the less.  Both of my paps are 9.5 years.

Next up is my old fellow, Stormy.  He turned 14 on Sept 13th and gets chilly easily at his age.  He's been a pistol all his life and it's difficult watching him slow down.

And finally . . . . the beagles.   Missy Willow is my oldest beag.  She's 11 now and definitely slowing down as well.   When I adopted her, her whole face was brown, now it's all white.  Willow is auntie to the 2 pups, her brother is their daddy.

.

Shasta is only 6 but one of the laziest dogs I've ever met -- she was born slow.  I hate to see how much slower she'll get as she ages.  Eating and sleeping are her favorite past times.  Shasta didin't want her picture taken outside so she hid out in her crate chewing a bone.  She's mama to the 2 pups.

And now the pups . . . . Meadow is 3.5 and very tiny in stature.  She's a doll.  Since she wouldn't hold still for me, her picture isn't the best.  She definitely inherited the silvering gene from Willow's side of the family.  Her muzzle is almost entirely white already.

Spider is 2 and definitely trouble with a capital T.  It's a good thing he's so cute!  He has a girly collar with flowers on it because he got one of his front legs caught in his old collar.  The collar looped around his neck and under his armpit.  I have no  idea how that happened but thankfully it happened while I was home.  The old collar had to be cut off. 

You can see in this picture the size difference between Spider and Meadow.  He's always walking over her or she's sliding underneath him.  Neither gets offended and it's funny to watch.

Happiness is a warm pup!

September's IHSW

My plan for this month's IHSW was to begin and finish the first part of a new SAL.  Here's what I accomplished:

And, unfortunately,  I'm afraid that's about all I'm going to get done of it.  I got much too frustrated with counting to the next stitching area to continue with this project.  I hate to give up on it so early but that's the way it is :-(

So I switched to Mary Wigham.  I started this one back in 2009 and haven't touched it since the end of 2010.  I can't believe it's been that long.  I took it off the stretcher bars, gave it a good shake to get some of the cobwebs off, put it in a hoop and just started stitching.  Here she is as of this morning:

 

 You can see from the hoop marks where I was working on her.  I finished the lower left motiff, the flowers next to it and the bird medallion near the bottom.  I'm still working on the little yellow flower nearby -- the one that looks so washed out in the picture.  Here's a close up of this area:

There is lots more stitching to do on this piece but I would like to get her finished in the near future (maybe by the end of 2013??).  Wish me luck . . . .

Mary Wigham update and more craziness

I spent more time on Mary over the holidays and managed to get the outside border almost completed:

I wanted to get the border finished before 2011 but it wasn't to be.   She probably won't get much more done on her until after Jan. 15th, when the craziness comes to an end.  I was also hoping to get her completely stitched by the end of January but I'm not sure that's going to happen either.  Oh well.

Speaking of crazy, here's my third selection, another Christmas ornament -- one I've already stitched as a gift and now will stitch for myself:

Until tomorrow .....

what fun!

Happy New Year!

I'm so excited!  I received my first set of squares from the Fair and Square exchange today.  Karen  from Australia stitched Red Berries from Rosewood Manor.  Isn't it pretty?  And the card she sent is adorable.  I love all the little Aussie critters.

Unfortunately, she hasn't received the squares I mailed on Dec 8th -- I hope they didn't fall off the slow boat into the ocean.

Even though I had a cold over the Christmas holiday, it did not turn into broncitis or settle in my lungs this time -- hurray!  And even though I spent a lot of time sleeping because of said cold, I did get some stitching in on Mary Wigham -- hurray! again.

Soon, I'll have the outside motiffs finished.  I have until Jan. 1st to get more done on her before I have to set her aside for the 2011 Challange.  Hopefully, I can work on her every evening after work and be able to get lots more done.

I finished 2 ornaments as little pillows for my nephews this year.   I'm not that good at making pillow ornies but I thought these turned out okay.  The snowman's hanger is a little off center but that's not too bad.  I never made a pillow with hardanger before.  The third piece of fabric kind of threw me but I got 'er done.

I did better with the reindeer ornie, don't you think?

The eyes on this guy just kill me -- talk about a sugar high!?!

I hope everyone has a happy,

safe and healthy new year

with lots of stitching fun!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas now because I'm going to bed for a couple days with a rotten cold :-(

Even though I slept almost all evening and night, I did manage to stitch a little on Mary:

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

A plan

Since I am mostly caught up with Christmas stitching (just one more ornie to finish) and with SALs except one (Mary Wigham), I have picked MW back up and plan to work on her until Dec. 31st.  Hopefully, I can get lots done on her, especially since the dogs and I don't have agility classes until February.  Maybe I could actually finish her, not by the end of Dec, of course, but sometime in Feb .....  hope springs eternal ......

I stitched a little on MW Sunday evening.  Unfortunately,  a very little, since I'm seem to have a cursed cold now.  Here's were I left off with MW in June:

And the arrow marks the little bit I did on Sunday:

Not much, but it's a start .....

Anyway, back to the 'Plan'.  On Jan 1st I begin the 15 day challenge.  And on Jan 1st I plan to begin with The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy from The Cricket Collection.  Jan 2nd I will be at an agility trial so I'll start an ornament.  The easiest one is from Angel Stitchin' -- the reindeer peeking around the Christmas tree.  After that, I'll just start whatever hits me that day. 

I have decided what my last piece will be.   I already stitched it for a friend of mine and want to do one for myself.  It's a beagle puppy in a basket with eggs.  This was hand drawn onto some kind of fabric (unfortunately, not waste fabric) and then cross stitched by a client of my friend onto a jersey as a gift (kind of like paint by numbers).  My friend has a kennel (Echo Run) and raises beagles and, when younger, she used to have egg-laying chickens.  There's no pattern for this piece except the original on the jersey, which makes it difficult and why I haven't done it before now.  The picture is the reproduction I stitched for my friend.  I absolutely love the face on the beagle pup -- it's so sweet. 

Have a good day!

Just a quickie note

Not much stitching going on. I did manage to get some of Symmetry done during the week:

It's fun to stitch and I like the way it's turning out.

I remembered to get a current pic of Mary Wigham.  All the new stitching is in the lower right corner.

 

 

If you make it this far, please say a quick prayer for my stepmother.  She was in a bad car accident last Monday and needs some healing thoughts sent in her direction.  Thank you.

A start and a continuation

While surfing the other day, I came across the blog Solo Brode with a lovely mystery SAL that I promptly joined.   I like the lacey look of the pattern so far.  My fabric is a 28 ct tea stained evenweave and the threads are DMC 390 and 3726.

Last night I picked up poor, neglected Mary Wigham and started stitching on her.  Unfortunately, it's been so long since the last time that I seem to have misplaced one of her threads.  Sigh .... I'm not sure why it isn't in the bag with the other flosses.  Unless, perhaps, I pilfered it for another project?  Who knows.  The important thing is that she's back under the needle.  The lower, right medallion is where I'm stitching now.

Have a nice weekend.

Progress on Mary Wigham

Here she is as of November 13, 2009.  It may look like I'm jumping around but the plan is to do the two sides and make sure they meet at the bottom.  This is the first I've stitched on Mary since Sept.  She's coming along .... slowly .... but surely.

Here are the newly stitched areas up close and personal:

Stitching tragedy narrowly missed .....

Whew!

Last Friday on my way home from work I stopped at JoAnn's to pick up a couple DMC threads for my Harvest Angel.  I was running low and feared there wouldn't be enough of the 2 main colors.  The 3777 was easily found, hooray!  The 977 (or 779 or whatever) was not -- GASP!  There wasn't even a slot for that color!  I double checked, figured I was remembering the wrong number, walked back out to the car (because I left the slip with the numbers on it out there and since it was such a nice day, parked a good distance away from the store's entry), grabbed said paper and returned to the store.  Unfortunately, I had remembered the number correctly and there was no such number there.  I purchased the 3777 and in a state of mild panic, rushed home, called my LNS owner (which is not on my way home but rather a 40 min. drive away) and was told not to panic.  She carries that particular thread and has lots in stock -- horray!  A happy ending!

Even though I was very busy over the weekend doing doggie stuff and mowing grass, I did manage to squeeze a little stitching into my schedule: 

I'm really liking the way Harvest Angel is coming along.  The other piece is from the Mary Wigham sampler.  I started it awhile back and decided it will be my 'in the morning before going to work' stitching.

Good news -- Stormy is feeling much better.  He's not 100% and is still on R&R but he's getting there.

Beginning ....

Hello and Welcome ..... my name is Marcy and this is my blog. Mostly it will be about my Stitchy stuff but I'll probably be tossing in some Doggy stuff and some Flowery stuff if the mood hits me.


Here are some of my recent stitchy finishes:

The above little stumpwork bird was a class taught at my EGA chapter in 2007. Isn't he cute?

This Scarecrow is a Laura J Perin (one of my favorite designers) piece. I stitched him on congress cloth and just used threads from my stash, except for the overdyed thread used for the leaves in the border.

This little guy is called Tirolean Santa. I forget the designer. I was working on him when my young nephews were visiting last year at Thanksgiving. It was fun because they were interested in the stitching process and offered help with designing the snowflakes. After helping me, the youngest leaned over the couch and asked if I would give Santa to them. How could I resist? Of course, I finished, framed and sent Santa to S Carolina for Christmas.

Now I need to make another one for me.

Skinny Santa is one of the few I stitched in red. I just think he is cool looking. Again, I don't remember the designer but it's one of a series of tall skinny Santas. I'm trying to stitch a Santa collection by stitching a new one each year. He's my 2008 Santa.

These 3 smalls have been sitting around in a drawer for a few years, probably since 2004 or 05, just waiting for me to learn how to finish them into something. A couple weeks ago, I decided to bite the bullet and learn how to do this. I'm so proud!

This is the Mary Wigham sampler and you can see I have lots more to stitch. Now, don't think for a minute that this is my only WIP .... it's the only one with a photo. Perhaps I should take pics of the other ones ... it may give me the subtle nudge to get back to them.

And with that thought, I bid goodbye until the next time and in the words of my favorite little ghouls: