Carol Harper's most read articles

Crested Chain Stitch: I had trouble keeping the stitch straight and of the same width down the chain but at least I figured out how to do it (after frogging it three times!). I could see using this as a crazy quilt seam treatment if I can ever get it even...

I did stitch this weekend... I finished Stitch 71 for TAST on Friday and the June block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project on Saturday. Then I started on the 12 x 12 block I hope to enter in the county fair next month in the category called "Pink"... All the seam treatments are finished and now it's time to embellish.

The final bead was put onto the December butterfly on December 26: Another collection of "blocks" to be finish-finished!

I didn't stay connected at all this past week. I spent the weekend working on challenge #10 for the Compendium of Curiosities #3 Challenge. I even read a book (!!!): the latest Deborah Crombie Inspector Kincaid novel (and it was wonderful!) and started another - a Victorian era historical mystery Called "The Yard". I think my stitching mojo is suffering from county fair aftershock. Nothing appeals to me in my project bag, I don't want to start something new and... so I didn't stitch a thing…

This month's theme questions is "What are your favorite and least favorite materials to use in your stitching?" Well, my favorite fabric to stitch on is evenweave, usually Lugana but often slubby linen comes into play as the Lugana I favor is pretty pricey and I don't always want to put out that much cash for something small and simple, like ornaments. The threads I use most are stranded cotton, usually DMC, because I have most of their colors (there's always one or two I don't have --- isn't…

Well, I managed to “force” myself to try to live up to the goals I posted in the latest WIPocalypse: I stitched! Every night! Not sure it was really enjoyable, but I did get a good bit accomplished, despite a lot of competition from various events in out lives. First of all, over the weekend, I planned out, gridded, and assembled the blocks for October, November and December in the Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal Project for 2015: That took the whole weekend working…

That pesky cold is back again, along with a sprained lower back… Yesterday morning was husband’s high school class monthly breakfast so we had to get up early to get there. And then there was last night — a night football game, kick-off at 8PM. It was televised so each 15 minute quarter lasted an hour (we finally gave up and left at 11 PM, end of the third quarter, when our team was leading 48 - 17). It was warm for November (70 at kickoff) and the President’s Suite was crowded with people…

I was not stitching much in these three weeks, and when I did get back in the “mood”, I got stopped in my tracks with a broken arm! I’m scheduled for surgery on October 25 and have follow-up on November 4 so I suspect I won’t be stitching much in the coming weeks either. This is as far as I had gotten on “Love Is…”: I have had to drop out of an ornament swap and clearly stitching on this sampler, “save at the Stitches” or any other stitchery is out of the question for a while. I can “t…

The question for the month is: "Tell us what you think the ideal stitching retreat would include." ​Well, I have been to a few quilting retreats and paper crafting retreats but never an embroidery retreat so I can't say for sure that I know what such a retreat would require. Like I said, I can't speak from experience other than three quilting retreats, two or three paper-crafting weekends, a card-making cruise (Yes, a cruise, to Alaska!), and a few local guild-sponsored quilt workdays, a…

This weekend is International Hermit & Stitch Weekend for September and I am stitching on "Birds of a Feather", which is here right now: So, in order to have the weekend clear for "Birds", I decided to finish as many of the outstanding small projectsas I could. I did finish TAST week 37 ; I pieced the basic block for the September color palette/crazy quilt journal/bead journal project piece; the Mittens & Mini-Socks for September ( San Francisco Fog ), and the September Stash Bust…

The wrapped coral stitch was this week's TAST:

Another week and not a lot to show for it. Inability to sleep through the night and inability to stay awake during the day probably has something to do with it. Still, I did complete this week's TAST and I stitched on "Puppy Dog", finishing the blackwork fill stitches and getting started on the backstitch embellishments: I expect it will be done well in time to get framed so I can gift it to our Westie-owned neighbor for Christmas! I also got together the seam embellishments for the…

You can tell it's winter here when the two girls (the two black ones at the back) let the boy (the brown one in the front) into the pile! And when the goldfinches are no longer gold: But still, this is early for snow here, and so while this looks pretty the roads are icy, the wind is gusting, and wind chills are really really nasty! Oh, and it's snowing again today! Good stitching weather though! I tend to retreat to my room and stitch with the television on…

I actually managed to squeeze a little stitching in around university awards events this weekend... and finish up the pieces of an ornament meant for a Christmas swap. Here are the pieces I stitched this weekend: and a closeup of the beading on the pieces I stitched during the week: I tried to get a photo of the beaded butterfly body but it is so out-of-focus (my camera isn't meant for utra-closeups) that my computer wouldn't load it!. Anyway, here are all the pieces of th…

I finally got in some stitching this week. My eyes sort of lose focus after a couple of hours, though and so I couldn't do long stretches of stitching. But the flashing and aching eye muscles appear to be a thing of the past (knock on wood). Besides TAST and finishing my May butterfly (have to get cracking on kitting up the June one), I put in a few stitches on the borders of "Midnight Garden": and started a piece for the fair's special category, "In the Kitchen". It's a Casey Buonaug…

This week's TAST stitch was the woven zig-zag chain. Basically, you weave thread in and out of the zig zag chain we did last week! I had some tension issues on my chain which showed up in the weaving but I see where I went wrong and I like the look. This is a keeper!

August's BJP butterfly: Needs to be backed and bound... but nearly there --- Bling it ON!

This week's stitch was the Turkman stitch and here is my sample: Again, it looks sort of, but not quite like, the example in the tutorial...

This week, I managed two more completions --- my November monochromatic orange crazy quilt block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project and the two TAST stitches that were assigned. Otherwise, I tried calculatiing how to place the nine Roll Your Own Mandalas and think I have come up with a plan, using Iris Garden overdyed 32ct linen (even though my husband is no fan of the fabric) and the Tropical Ocean color scheme. The I forced myself to work on two neglected pieces --- the Chinese Coins quilt a…

These items always scared me a little but I needed an "under $10" Secret Santa gift (don't you just HATE those) for the quilt guild Christmas brunch on the 14th and decided I'd try to make a biscornu pincushion as my "gift". After all, if it didn't work, it was only a days' time and two 6.5" squares of fabric form my stash (OK I did buy some thread to match and three sets of buttons to finish it off.). Besides, if it did work out, then I'd be willing to risk embroidered pieces on one. It prob…