Carol Harper's most read articles

Blocks 8 and 9 of the Elizabeth Almond blackwork SAL, "Save the Stitches" are now completed (except for beads, of course)! While I had allocated IHSW for the blackwork piece, I also fit in a couple of other tasks as well. I started on the second part of lesson 1 of the Funk & Weber finishing class on hemstitching, by prepping a 12 x 12 piece of Aida for folding the hem with mitered corners and then hemstitching. If I actually get stitching done on this, I will only be two classes behin…

First of all, I finished week thirty-nine of Take a Stitch Tuesday - the Knotted Buttonhole Stitch: Here is the page with the September stitches: And I also stitched the September installments of "Kimono- Revisited": In all, a pretty productive week, I think!

I haven't touched "Birds of a Feather" in over two weeks, and TAST - week 41 is barely in progress. It's been a busy week off the needle and all I have accomplished, really, is completion of a Mitten & Mini-Sock. But I can share the latest update on "Kimono-Revisited" which I caught up on October 8:

This is a Hillcroft House design --- a name shield based on interpretation of the meaning and origins of a name:

What I have to show here isn't a whole lot different from what I reported for WIPocalypse but there has been progress in two projects... The inner border of "Red Thai Mandala" is now complete and that pesky hard-to-see DMC318 blackwork is finished~ YAY And I put some buttons and beads ontp the February Crazy Quilt Journal Project block --- heart shaped ones becasue February, although not an "orange" month (let's face it, if I do yellow, orange and red monochromatic blocks this year, N…

Another stitch I really enjoyed once I started on it:

Today we are to “ Introduce [ourselves], [our] projects, and any goals [we] have for the year!” OK, well, I’m Carol, a retired environmental scientist and community college instructor, who took up stitching in graduate school (in Florida). I started with crewel, began needlepoint when a friend asked me to complete an eyeglass case she had bought, and moved on to cross-stitch while living and working in San Francisco (needlepoint and crewel were too awkward to work on when traveling and I was…

WIPocalypse (August 20) This month's themes were: Designer – Long Dog, Style – Smalls, Colors – Blue and Red. I have never done a Long Dog design. Don't think I even own one. I suppose my TAST, BJP and Purple Daisy could be considered "smalls" --- for me, they are, anyway. As for blue and red --- not a stitch in either color! So much for themes to keep me stitching! My only completions during the past lunar cycles were TAST - Zig Zag Chain, Woven Zig Zag Chain, Vandyke Stitch, a…

All of my stitchery done this week was done this weekend, which also happened to be International Hermit and Stitch Weekend for September. In addition to tackling the week's TAST assignment on Friday and visiting the Needlework Show on Saturday, I made a concentrated effort to work on "Bling it On": which is now ready for beads, and on the August BJP butterfly: which now has an outline in place. No completions but I am getting closer...

As I expected, to very early mornings on Thursday and Friday, working the phone banks for fundraising at the local public radio station, and a football game Saturday afternoon, pretty much wiped out my weekend stitching. Basically, all the time for stitching was Sunday when I: finished binding the challenge block for the quilt guild retreat this coming weekend: and got three-quarters of the way through the background on my October Bead Journal Project:

This week's stitch was the Chained Cross Stitch and here is my version:

I put in a few hours on Friday night to get this August Crazy Quilt Journal block done: It looks unbalanced to me (that peacock is too "horizontal, maybe?) but maybe, when assembled with it's 2103 compatriots, that will cease to be an issue. Not caught up but it feels good to get something completed!

Wondering if week 13 is unlucky... It was for my alma mater's women's basketball team when they got beaten by Rutgers Monday night. And of course, since it was a home game, I HAD to go so that was a night I couldn't stitch... Add in a couple of deaths of friends and, yes, week 13 wasn't a totally good week! But I did squeeze in stitching in the odd moments and here is what I accomplished! Band seven for the "Mystery Band Sampler" (here is a photo of bands 1 - 7): The basic block fo…

Well, aside from the finishes posted earlier this week (TAST, "Birds of a Feather" and Mittens & Mini-Socks "Sea and Sky"), I have no works in progress to show you... I haven't touched the Michael Powell "Home Sampler" since Novemebr 30 so it's on the agenda for this weekend's International Hermit and Stitch Weekend! Look for photos on Monday!

Besides catching up with TAST, finishing the piece for the fair ("The Taco Sampler") and taking nine finished pieces to the framer on Saturday, I did squeeze in some stitching as well this past week. I managed to get the main part of the outer borders done for "Midnight Garden", as well as some of the black cross-stitched elements in the middle border: Ready for blackwork! I also put together a 12.5" block (12" finished) for the "Pink" category for the fair. It needs embellishment b…

This month's question is Which floss (or color of floss) do you absolutely adore and want to stash constantly? I'm not sure how to answer this one as I don't really stash floss for color reasons. I BUY floss for color reasons --- that is, I NEED that color for a project and it isn't in my stash. ​OK, I said I had a stash of floss and that is true but it does come back to my reason for buying. I do have a habit of wanting EVERY color in a floss type (e.g Anchor, Gentle Arts, Dinkie Dyes,…

Like in 2012, I'm not that happy with my completion rate for 2013. Finishes were (not necessarily in order of finish): An Elizabeth Arnold blackwork design "Red Thai Mandala", the only hold-over from 2012, as it was started on December 30, 2012 )won a blue ribbon at the Wood County Fair in 2013) An Elizabeth Arnold blackwork design "Midnight Garden" A Casey Buonaugurio design, "The Taco Sampler" (won a third-place ribbon at the Wood County Fair) An Ajisai blackwork design "Puppy Dog" Ja…

I really didn't expect to have anything to report on this weekend since we were expecting 7 house guests this weekend but, at the last minute, after a mad rush Saturday morning inflating air mattresses and sorting sleeping situations, we got a phone call saying they weren't coming until NEXT weekend! Down side --- all that panic for nothing. AND a possible addition of two more to the guest list. Up side --- seven sleeping arrangements sorted, the guest rooms are clean and ready, and I had time t…

Another WIPocalypse check-in where I can't report a single stitch placed in fabric. This wrist is taking longer to strengthen that i had expected! The question of the month is: "Which designer’s projects do you absolutely love, but are too intimidated to try?" ​Not sure I'd call it intimidated. More like reluctant. I have the complete series of charts for the cats by Kats by Kelly (no longer being produced in cross-stitch; despite the promise for more in 2016 on the website, there weren't…

I just couldn't face that June beaded butterfly so I decided to try a change of pace, especially since I was traveling this past weekend (went to a stamp expo with two friends) and needlepoint is easier for me when traveling, Of course, I didn't count on the extremely bad lighting in the hotel room but I did finally get this far with "Purple Daisy": This is an email class from Laura J Perrin, with the final goal being to "messy bead" the center of the flower...I'm far from finished with les…