Carol Harper's articles with the keyword: wips

This month's discussion topic is: "Recap your accomplishments for the year! (Your finishes, your final before/after photos, etc)." 2023 Finishes (not FFO): Below are my three finishes for 2023. First is "Happiness is Handmade" by Durene Jones for Lakeside Needlecraft, finished August 21, 2023.Next is the Halloween 2023 SAL from Stitchonomy, finished October 23, 2023. On the right is the Charity SAL from The Steady Thread, finished December 22, 2023. All were 2023 starts...…

This month's discussion topic is: "Which are your favorite and least favorite fabrics to stitch on?" Favorite is easy - Lugana or Jobelin in either 28 or 32 counts. I tend toward neutrals and white but if a color works with a pattern, I will go with it. Least favorite - AIDA when it's got slippery polyester threads woven in and loosely woven, slub-filled linens. Least favorite color, regardless pf fabric is black... ~~~~~WIPs~~~~~ What I stitched on in July: 1. Fox & Rabbit's…

The topic for this month's discussion is: "Are you a seasonal stitcher? If so, which seasons do you find yourself more productive or less productive?" Not exactly sure what a seasonal stitcher is. I stitch year-round and my productivity is based more on what other aspects of my creative and every-day life are thrown at me... For example, while I TRY to stitch at least 1.5 hours every night, paper crafting classes/events I have signed up for, illnesses (like a "mild" bout of Covid at t…

The topic for this month's discussion is: "What new discoveries did you have in the stitching world this year?" Can't exactly call this a new stitching discovery because I had heard of Sashiko but... there is apparently a variant called Kogin, which originated in the Aomori Prefecture of Northern Japan. And there is an Elizabeth Almond SAL which, of course I had to purchase! I look forward to tackling a new kind (to me) of embroidery! ~~~~~WIPS~~~~~ I actually DID stitch on my Eliza…

The topic for this month's discussion is: Do you prefer Halloween or Christmas stitching? I don't really have an answer for this question. An honest answer would be I don't tend to do holiday-oriented stitching of ANY kind of late. I USED to stitch a lot for both holidays and have a fairly extensive collection of ornaments for both. But, now, I am stitching more SALs than either ornaments or big projects. If there are holiday themes in the SALs I am registered for, then I stitch them.…

This month's topic for discussion is: "Half-year recap: How are you doing with your goals so far this year?" Well, I'm stitching and that is definitely an improvement after two years hiatus! I finished one WIP ("Palm Tree Elegance") in April and dithered about for a month Finally, I decided to get my hand in practice for smaller stitches than called for on that needlepoint canvas so I took out a Michael Powell kit of key fobs and scissor keeps (Beach Huts Scissor Keep X131). It is four pa…

This month's question is: " What stitchy blogs, groups, or flosstubes do you follow and why? " ​OK, The only stitch blogs I really follow (if getting digests each week or month is the same as following) are: ​Pin Tangle - because I used to participate in the TAST challenge (but no longer after creating a pile of shapers nearly six inches thick over 2.5 years) and because I really really like the art blog by Sharon B and the photography blog by her partner Jerry Everard (which lately covere…

The question for this month is: "What is your favorite stitch other than the standard cross stitch?" Well, I'm not sure I have a favorite stitch other than the cross stitch. In fact, I'm not even sure any more that the cross stitch is my "favorite" but... the stitch I use as often as the cross stitch is backstitch, although I'm pretty sure I'm not doing it correctly when I do blackwork. As for how-to, here is the best link I can provide for regular backstitching and here is how to do it (aka the…

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..…

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…

Checking in here WAY late, but I forgot to check on the full moon date! Anyway, the final question for 2016 in WIPocalypse is: "Recap your accomplishments for the year! (Your finishes, your final before/after photos, etc)." So here goes. No photos ... My finishes in 2016 were scant becasue I was working toward finishing two massively BAP/WIPS. • One got finished: the "Tropical Seas" colorway of "Roll Your Own Mandalas", which was completed in August... • The other BAP didn't e…

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…

This month’s theme question is “What online stitching communities do you enjoy?” Well, I do belong to a number of online communities and some of them are stitching-related. I am still enrolled in the Cross Stitch Crazy forum, a closed group which is now more active in private Facebook group. I am active on the Facebook page, not in the Yuku forum any more. Having been a member of this group since the days when it was THE most active group on the late lamented iVillage, I feel that I kno…

I took the birth sampler in last week to be framed and it was ready on Saturday: Husband mailed it off to our niece on Monday and it should be there by now… I am having to force myself to work on this wedding sampler/belated gift. It is all in red on white and it is all backstitch. Each letter has to be started individually so as to not have loose ends showing through, which is using an awful lot of floss. What is more, it is just plain tedious counting. Still, I have finished a third…

Having completed the birth sampler 210920746822434353.weebly.com/my-stitchery-journal/wipocalypse-2016-september-16 and taken it off to the framer, it was time to get to work on the wedding sampler. I chose “Love Is” by X’s & Ohs (by Jo Gatenby). It is the passage from 1 Corinthians (13:4-8a) that I read at my niece’s wedding back in April (before I took a flying header off the podium and sprained my ankle!). I thought it would work in the variegated red DMC floss called for and chose 32 ct w…

The discussion topic for this WIPocalypse period is “Tell us a story about the journey you took through one of your completed pieces.’ Sadly, I can’t answer this as, for me at least, what I stitch doesn’t necessarily reflect a story about me or it’s stitching. It just is/was… It may have traveled with me (usually a needlepoint piece) but that is just in case I am left alone in a hotel room while husband is out on his conference duties and I need something to fill the time if I’ve run out of read…

I set myself a goal to try to have the birth sampler ready to frame by the end of this week. So, once I finished all the cross stitch, I set right in to the backstitching and now have all the basic backstitch and French Knot bits done: All that remains is the personalization, which I will have to chart out before starting. Meanwhile, that wedding sampler (for the wedding last April!) I ordered needs to be kitted so I can start on that. It’s only one color so it ought to move along nicel…

Some progress made this week on the birth sampler, mainly on the single-stranded cross stitching of the grass and waterr, despite one night of stitching foregone in favor of binge watching the last series of "Lewis"! Only three more pairs of animals to stitch (one is started) before the backstitching. Man, do I ever dread that! This coming weekend is going to be a real test of my mojo since there is quilt guild tonight and the Friends of the Library book sale and the Volunteer Firefighter…