Carol Harper's most read articles

A busy week, but not for stitching! After last Wednesday's report from Georgetown, South Carolina, we headed north to Asheville, NC for the American Hemerocalis Society national convention. First day was spent touring the Billtmore Estate: where I bought a little "souvenir" kid to stitch while I waited for the other 300+ people to finish with the gardens and the winery tour: This pretty much wiped out the day. Next day was a bus tour of three gardens, all daylilies, although one ha…

This month's topic for WIPocalypse is "Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!" I'm Carol, AKA ThatYank in NW Ohio, which identifies me and where I am. I'm a retired teacher (community college level) and into many forms of stitchery: Cross stitch, blackwork and needlepoint primarily although I used to do a lot of crewel (MANY full moons ago!) and have dabble in quilting and knitting. My projects at this time are two BAPs: Elizabeth Almond's "Save the Stitc…

Since last week, there was a Cross Stitch Crazy "Stitchathon" and the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, so I did get in some stitching. At this point in time, I am on page five (of six) of "Revenge"... and the outline is nearly 3/4 complete! I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I sure hope it isn't the train coming in the other direction!

It's that time again --- time to check in and confess that it's been ages since I last stitched on anything. I did try on a soon-to-be UFO back in February - all of 50 stitches before my hand, and patience with the backstitched letters, gave out. And all my good intentions have been stymied by lack of motivation. I really don't LIKE that WIP and the other BIG one I have in "progress" is all blackwork which I can't face right now (I KNOW my hand won't stand up to that frame...). I have been conte…

Question of the month: What SAL’s are you participating in this year? Well, for someone who hasn't stitched for nearly a year, I was overly ambitious. I signed up for four SALs, in addition to WIPocalypse! I thought maybe they'd keep me diverted from my BAP UFO/WIPs and allow me to get in some practice on linen/evenweave. SAL #1 is the Stitchonomy Year of SALs . It appealed to me because it came in small installments over a two month period for each SAL, with the first one - "Homel…

Midnight Garden, a blackwork piece designed by Elizabeth Almond: and a close-up showing (barely) some of the beading detail:

"Reloaded", the second mandala in the Roll Your Own series designed by Tracey Horner, is now complete. I stitches it in the Tropical Seas color palette on Silkweaver's Iris Garden (32 ct Jobelin). And here it is next to it's "ancestor" the original "Roll Your Own": Only seven more to go! Next up, "Bride of RYO"! But first, I have to catch up with other pieces!

Another completion! Here is my Crazy Quilt Journal Project Challenge 2014 block for the month of June: As in the previous five months of blocks, the fabrics, trims, floss and beads are all based upon a Hoffman Challenge focus fabric. And after six months of working in the same color palette, I have learned two things: 1) I need variety to keep up my interest and 2) patterns are harder for me to incorporate into crazy quilting than solids and batiks that read as solids! Hey, lesson learn…

This month's question for discussion is: "What newer designers and product creators (fabric or floss dyeing, etc) out there have you discovered and recommend?" Well, given I have taken over two years "off" from stitching, I have to say I am not really following designers/stitching products these days so I haven't discovered anyone/anything new, nor would I dare to recommend any. ~~~~~ In March, we were challenged to do one stitch a day minimum, every day and I decided it would be one…

The discussion topic for this month is: " Half-year recap: How are you doing with your goals so far this year?" ​I'd laugh if it weren't so sad. No progress. Not a stitch. Even my attempts at organization ave stalled out at the bin of DMC floss that needs putting away. I'm really having difficulty getting motivated. Heck, I have even spent several hours this weekend updating out financial records, which I absolutely HATE to do. And in two days, I have brought six months of arrears in my en…

It felt like a really really good week. I got three pieces off my WIPlist (TAST #83, Bling it On! and August BJP butterfly) and actually got in some cross-stitching - and the Ajisai blackwork "Puppy Dog": All other items in my work bag were ignored but since there is an October butterfly to take the place of the August one (and September hasn't even been designed yet!) and an October Crazy Quilt block coming up as well, I'm really no closer to clearing the decks than I was last week.

In this past week, I have completed Stitch #133 for Take a Stitch Tuesday (the Triple Chain): finished the outline for "Bride" in the RYO mandala series from Tracy Horner: assembled the basic block for my October Crazy Quilt Journal piece: and kitted out my October Bead Journal piece. Not bad, considering my ailing stitching mojo and the ever-present frog on"Bride'! I also completed a can't-put-it-down darn-it-it's-a-cliffhanger-ending book by Deborah Crombie ("To Dwell in…

In addition to my weekly wrap-up, this is also report-in day for WIPocalypse! Wipocalypse question of the month: "Am I a Halloween or Christmas stitcher?" Well, I'm not either, really. For a while, I stitched a lot of Halloween things, mainly ornaments. I have several dozen Christmas ornaments that decorate two artificial tress each season. I need more --- one of the trees is a little sparse and I calculate I need about 4 dozen more --- 12 of which are "underway", but these twelve are my…

The question for this full moon was: "What designs or themes do you really wish you could find? What do you think is missing among stitching designs?" Well, I have to say I'm a rather eclectic stitcher and can usually find something to stitch without looking too long or hard (heck, my stash of charts, magazines and books is large enough to net a fair number of $$$ in a garage sale should I ever get around to setting one up). I can't offhand think of anything I can't find... I'm more of the…

It seems a shame to use a blog post to report on nothing but... I haven't done any stitching since I reported in on Sunday about International Hermit & Stitch Weekend. I did do some papercrafting, entering challenge #7 of the Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge and clearing the decks of six unfinished cards from May 30 and the Create 2014 event, and have posted them on my Carol Stamps blog. Otherwise, it's been a mad whirlwind of appointments, catching up with plumbers, building inspec…

Thanks to International Hermit and Stitch Weekend for December, I finally got in some stitchery! I sat down at the sewing machine and stitched together the last three blocks of my 2014 Crazy Quilt Journal Project: All it needs now is a border (or two, quilting and binding! Yeah, right, ALL it needs! LOL I have two other tops in the same stage of assembly --- requiring borders, quilting and binding. Think I'll get them done before the end of the year? Not likely! But at least I made so…

Topic: Pick one of the WIP pieces you’ve stitched on this month, and tell us about your stitching journey with the piece. Well, I have two BAPs that have been ongoing since 2013! The first (which I did NOT stitch on this month) is "Save the Stitches", a blackwork sampler design by Elizabeth Almond. I started this back in early February, 2014 and it is now nearly half completed It was last touched in early April, 2015: The other, which I did stitch on this month, was the series of…

In this month's report, we are to answer the following questions: "What SAL’s are you participating in this year? and If you are participating in the Olympic Stitching Challenge, what challenge are you accepting? What are your goals?" I partially answered these questions on January 7 in the initial blog of the year but I will restate: The only SAL I have on schedule this year is WIPocalypse. However, I am collecting the bands from the Linen & Threads Mystery sampler and I reserve the rig…

My September butterfly for the Bead Journal Project. I call it Autumn Leaves but, as my husband so kindly informed me, I put it on the wrong background. This butterfly has assumed camoflage!

Last Thursday was taken up by quilt guild and the this past weekend was pretty much taken up with paper crafting classes in Michigan, but I did take my travel bag with me and stitched a little on "Palm Tree Elegance" on Friday evening, which was last touched in June when we were in Atlanta!The leopard spot border now has it's second color half done! Then, Monday and Tuesday were taken up by catching up on sleep, visiting the dentist, the optometrist, the grocery store and the gas station…