Carol Harper's most read articles

The finished piece is 15" X 18" on 24 ct. pale blue Congress cloth (24 ct), using various ThreadWorX, DMC (cotton, rayon *and* metallic) and Carrie's Creations (Black Cherry) threads and several shades of Kreinik #8 and #12 braid. The color scheme is called "Electric Blue" with the purple is my "spin" on the original thread collection. It was a Shining Needle Society on-line class from John Waddell which started last December 1, 2011. Now to figure out how to finish it...

Despite having a week full of obstacles to stitchery (dilated eyes on Tuesday, absurdly early risings on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday), all of which made it impossible to focus properly on anything requiring counting and acute vision, I did manage to complete the weekly stitch for Take a Stitch Tuesday and the last mitten for "Mittens & Mini-Socks" early in the week! For International Hermit and Stitch weekend for April, I tackled the following works-in-progress, and while I didn't finish a…

Getting ready for National (and International Quilt Day), I was trying to clear the decks of several pieces in progress as well as pack for a guild work day. I managed two completions on Friday, the 15tth! The first was a very small sample of the TAST Stitch #58, woven detached Chain: Not at all difficult and, given time, I would have played around a bit more with it. Second was the eleventh mini-sock from Janet Perry's Mittens and Mini-socks class. It's called Mt. Fuji: I used…

Spring finally sprung (or is it sprang?). Despite two-plus inches of very wet heavy snow, which crushed the daffodils which had only been in bloom one day last week, the daffs and the tulip tree have recovered... It truly does look like spring in our front yard now! The birds are nesting, some even using the bird houses we have installed, although this robin has an unique approach to the concept: Our neighbor has even started mowing the lawn! A clear sign of a seasonal change.…

This past week saw the first snow to fall here in over 300 days! We got about half-an-inch on Christmas Eve, two inches on Boxing Day and as much as another inch last night. It looks a winter wonderland outside! From the front door... And from the back door... If I didn't dislike snow so much, I'd say it was a perfect start to winter this year! Stitching this week included the completion of TAST2012 with the Knotted Cable Chain stitch and the completion of lesson 10 (Sweden) of…

With my new glasses (fitted on Wednesday), and the left eye still bothering me a little, I decided to do something that didn't need a lot of "focus" --- I stitched up the last seven "base" blocks for Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2103: And I plugged away at the May block so I could squeak it in under the wire: Still have a May Bead Journal Project piece to stitch which, clearly, given the date, isn't likely to be done on time. And "Midnight Garden" sits idle as does the 2012 Color Pa…

Last week, I was fighting the cough to beat all coughs, but after my WIPocalypse summary showed how little I had accomplished in the past month, and with International Hermit and Stitch Weekend being this past weekend, I determined to get some finishes and clear the decks of at least some of the items that have been "cluttering" my growing WIP list since the first of the year. So, in addition to the weekly TAST, i stitched on my August Crazy Quilt Journal Block (and completed it), stitched on…

It's been a busy, if disorganized, week for me but I did complete a few pieces and made some progress on some WIPS... The completions were: "Red Thai Mandala", "Vintage Kitchen" from "Color Through the Ages", and stitches 56 and 57 (Sailor Stitch and Sailor Edging) from Take a Stitch Tuesday: Progress was made on my Crazy Quilt Journal block for March --- only beading to go, I think: I completed Lesson Three in the "Encrusted Crazy Quilting Class" (I am now officially behind a…

Stitch 53 is the Herringbone Square and Stitch 54 is the Laced Herringbone Square. I decided to make a border line, using the laced herringbone square every other stitch:

This week sucked, stitchery-wise, as there were all sorts of "interruptions"! Monday waiting for the furnace inspector to come, Tuesday "Girls Night Out", Thursday quilt guild meeting, Friday an appointment with a general surgeon about my esophageal reflux, Sunday a luncheon where husband was elected to the Board of Friends of Wood County Parks - all of these interfered with my stitching schedule. Still, I did get some stitching done over the weekend for International Hermit and Stitch Weekend!…

A week of "catch-up and I actually got to a point where I was caught up on EVERYTHING but "Sumptuous Surface Embroidery! I played with a design for part two (color) of the exercise: The fabric I chose is an overdyed from Silkweaver which I have had for ages in my stash --- it's 32 ct linen but I don't think that will affect me as I'm used to that fabric and I love the feel of the piece. The color palette, influenced by the fabric, will be shades of blue and green with touches of yellow a…

We've been given a break to catch-up --- and if we are caught up, we are to take 3 – 6 of the stitches we have have done so far and create an interesting visual piece that will encourage new hands or busy hands to learn and to “catch up”. In other words create some eye candy for those who are falling behind, either because of busy lives or because they are new hands. So here is my attempt at eye candy --- using French knots, fly stitch, feather stitch, running stitch, satin stitch and b…

As promised, I worked almost exclusively on "Birds of a Feather" and its border speciality stitches. In all 288 individual detached chain stitches (AKA Lazy Daisies): Next step - metallic stitches in the border --- Just couldn't face that last night so I moved on to finish up a "tree" in the "Home" sampler: Doesn't look like a lot of progress on either piece but it was over seven hours of stitching. And over all, the stitch count for the week-long Stitchathon at Cross Stitch Crazy…

First check-in for 2017 and not a very happy one, I fear. I tried to stitch on "Love Is..." an Xs and Os design, in mid-January after being given the "all clear" from my orthodpod and my occupational therapist that I could continue on doing my hand exercises on my own. But I failed miserably in being able to hold my q-snap frame for more than a few minutes at a time. Maybe it didn't help that the word I chose to stitch was chock full of French knots (which I hate, especially on linen) but then..…

Last week, Sharon B issued a challenge, the first for 2013's TAST, to use any four of the following stitches in an original project: Herringbone square, laced herringbone square, back stitch, straight stitch, detached chain and French knots. I did laced herringbone squares and added detached chain stitches to make flower heads, scattered a plethora of French knots about and made two droopy flowers (at bottom) with pale blue French knots) and detached chain leaves, and attached all with b…

This week, I caught up on the pale blue fan stitches in the border for "Birds of a Feather": Completed the latest assignments of Color Trough the Ages and TAST 2012, picked fabrics for the November Color Palette Challenge : and started on the last 13 sections of "Kimono - Revisited" (got three sections done in three hours!): I also went shopping for a new project (a class online called "Stupendous Stitching") but failed miserably in my quest for basic supplies (Michaels has…

Since this week included a WIPocalypse report, there isn't a whole lot new to report today. But I did get in more stitching on "Birds of a Feather" --- past the half-way mark in the dark blue in the center:

(funny, I usually like backstitch in blackwork but the light oclor of that gray is driving me nuts) another completion of a small piece... It's lesson 11 in the "Color Through the Ages" twinchies by Janet Perry, and uses DMC 310, 3706, 5282 and E677. I THOUGHT I was electing a silver metallic but when I started stitching with E677, it turned into a pale pale gold. Since ripping out DMC metallic is a PITA, I decided to leave it even though it isn't really Art Deco in feel any more.

Knowing the issues I had with many of my entries (I knew that some didn't really fit in with the category I entered them in and others had some major technique issues which could result in them placing out of the running) , I held off until today to actually go see for myself how I did with my nine fair entries (although my husband did check them last night and called me with the results so I wasn't surprised). Anyway, here are the results, and the photographic evidence! First place in the…

I didn't get as much done as I had hoped this week --- mix in a damaged rotator cuff (i'm on massive doses of ibuprofen in the hopes that it will allow it to heal without further intervention) , Girls Night Out on Tuesday, quilt guild on Thursday, and a crafting weekend with my friend Mary, there was little time for stitching. It won't be much better this coming week either since we have house guests all weekend and two of hubby's dinners (one Master Gardener's recognition and one Black Swamp Ho…