Spring Garden and Stitchalong

My daffodils out the side door are always early to bloom. They have a mostly sunny, eastern exposure beside a brick wall which absorbs then radiates heat. They're almost under the warm air vent from the dryer.

The daffodils in the front yard are in the shade so don't get the sun's warmth. We had a couple of inches of snow two nights ago and because it's not been above freezing, the snow hasn't  melted. The rabbit(s) have already nibbled on the tulips on the front right as can be seen with one ragged, bent-over leaf.

 

I've been binge-watching 'ER' on Netflix; I've watched 32 episodes (25 from Season 1 and 7 so far from Season 2). Only 299 (!) episodes to go. The show ran for 15 seasons with most seasons having 22 episodes.

With my nifty new 5.0 magnifying glasses I've been able to stitch in the evenings while seated comfortably on the sofa whilst watching TV. Part 3 of my Spring Garden Biscornu arrived in my mailbox today. I finished all of Parts 1 and 2 last night.

Part 3 is almost exactly the same as Part 1, just rotated clockwise 90°. I'm using colonial knots and since I'm stitching on a light green fabric, am using Blanc for the bee's wings. I'm curious to find out of there will be a beehive on every corner... stay tuned.

A Craft Day

Note: this mistakenly didn't get posted when I composed it a few days ago. Sorry it is out of order.

I didn't have anything pressing planned for today so spent part of it on this project.

First, I ironed the freezer paper onto the felt pieces for the Garden Bowl Fillers. Then the pieces were separated into the respective bags for the three 'pillows'. The watering can, 

beehive, 

and flower pot.

They're all ready to be cut out.

A New Start/Stitchalong, A WIP, and Binge-Watching

I signed up for Stitchonomy's 'Spring Garden Biscornu' stitchalong which started this week. The instructions strongly urged the use of Aida but I'm using some evenweave and am stitching 2 over 2. There are 21 colours in the legend. I'm substituting about half of them rather than buying new skeins for only a few stitches. Yesterday I got started on Days 1 and 2.

There are 8 segments to the top piece (two triangle segments are shown) and 8 segments to the bottom piece. Oops! I missed a couple of stitches on the beehive.

Because of all the changes in colours, this little bit of stitching took hours. 

Also, there are supposed to be backstitched stems for all the flowers but the designer didn't provide colour keys for them. I took an educated guess for the white wing backstitching. Considering how adamant she was about the size of the fabric (much larger than I used), and using Aida (which I didn't), I'm surprised she didn't include complete stitching instructions. Update: I just received an email with the explanations for the backstitching colours.

All that being said, I think it will be a very cute biscornu when finished.

I had a look at a bunch of my UFOs/WIPs in preparation for my 4-day stitching blitz at the upcoming guild retreat. I realized I don't actually have that many cross-stitching projects on the go as I originally thought, I have several whitework projects which I abandoned for various reasons - a couple of which I may take to the retreat anyway.

I pulled out this Bees in the Greenhouse project and have done quite a bit on it this past week.

I miscounted the sizes of the squares many times and did a lot of unstitching but I'm on the right track now. I'm substituting several colours of flowers and bees to make them more to my liking. There is one major mistake that I may or may not fix as it would involve a lot of unpicking stitches. I could conceivably get all the stitching finished at the retreat now that I'm stitching at night whilst watching TV, thanks to my new 5.0 magnifying reading glasses that I got on Amazon. They eliminate my need to sit at a table and peer through the magnifier on my lamp.

Also in preparation for the retreat, I cut out all the little felt bits for the Garden Bowl Fillers. I had previously printed or traced the reversed designs onto freezer paper and ironed them onto the felt.

I'm taking all my DMC floss to the retreat to get started on the appliqué process.

Speaking of watching TV at night; after getting hooked on 'The Pitt', I thought I'd go back and watch 'ER' on Netflix. I've been watching several episodes at night and just yesterday started season 2. Holy moley, back in the 90s, seasons were over 20 episodes long! And there are 15 seasons (1994 - 2009) for a total of 331 one-hour episodes! It catapulted Noah Wyle, George Clooney, and Juliana Margulies to fame. I do remember watching the Season 1 episode when a woman dies while giving birth under Dr. Greene's care. I even remember that I watched it at a friend's place in New Jersey before flying down to the Caribbean to board a Windjammer cruise ship (schooner) for March Break 1995. It's funny how my memory works sometimes.

I heard lots of wind while in bed last night or this morning. I was shocked to see 2" of snow on the ground when I rolled up the blind in my bedroom this morning. The wind has died down but it's still cold out there - minus 3C and minus 11C with the windchill. Scooter has gone out for a run. Brrr.

I got my taxes done yesterday and paid what I owed. I need to call a couple of places to tell them to take a higher percentage of withholding tax in the future. I hope to owe quite a bit less next year.

I think I'm Finished

I put a push on the last few days to get this finished.

I still need to take a good look and see if I missed any bits. Will order a frame, too. I tried to find the order for the frame for Winter Rose Manor but I must have tossed those emails. I just wanted to check that the dimensions are right and the I order the same style frame.

I do most of my stitching on 40ct fabric with one strand over two threads (20 stitches per inch). This is largely because I prefer not to stitch with two strands and have to 'railroad' to get the crossing stitch to lie flat. On the 40ct fabric, I need magnification most of the time but find it somewhat annoying to use the magnifier in my lamp. I had been using 3.0 magnifying reading glasses but never saw anything stronger than that on any racks of glasses at the pharmacy or dollar store. However, on a recent Fat Quarter Shop FlossTube episode, 5.0 glasses were mentioned. I had no plans to purchase the Lori Holt specs from FQS but found a couple of pair on Amazon. They arrived yesterday and worked very well for the last bits of this project.

Two modifications I did:

1.    For all the 'berries' on the border, I did Algerian eyelets instead of the 4-stitch clusters. I prefer the look of them.

2.     I also used DMC Blanc for the snowflakes so they'd show up a little better.

I keep rummaging around my office for more abandoned UFOs or FOs that I might fully finish. Another project I would like to start is Merry Christmas by Hobby House Press:

I have appropriate fabric in my stash. I just need to decide what floss I'll use. DMC 115 has the right dark red but there is also a lighter, brighter red in the variegation that I'd rather not use. Meagan and Kim recommended a substitute colour but I don't remember what it was. I'd like to settle on something before the upcoming retreat.

Odds and Ends

I have continued to work on The Light of Winter - even at stitching yesterday. I didn't make any errors that had to be 'frogged'. Am feeling more confident that I can get this finished by my birthday later this month. (Actually, I just noted one boo boo - a misplaced stitch that will need to be removed - no biggie).

The Quilter's Cupboard is offering a class on wool felt appliqué soon. I was concerned that the kit I wanted to work on next would be sold out so I headed up there this afternoon to get it. It came with the pattern

and all the required quantities of wool to complete all three bowl fillers.

They have lots of models on display which motivate us to make purchases. I also like that they make the effort to kit up many of the projects. I'll be transferring the patterns onto freezer paper sometime soon as I'll definitely be working on this project at our guild's retreat the weekend after Easter.

I finally ordered the frame for the Drawn Thread 'Stars' project I stitched back in 2019. I enjoyed learning the specialty stitches - three sizes of stars and leviathan stitch and using the different hand-dyed yarns.

I also took a look at how I would finish the 'K is for Knitter' piece I'd finished stitching in 2020. The Victoria Sampler kit had been given to me several years before that. 

I was going to frame it as is but noted the hemstitching all around in the photo on the cover of the pattern.

After reading and re-reading the instructions for the hemstitching, I finally figured out how to do it so have added this to my 'to be fully finished' pile. I may even have the bell pull software in my stash somewhere.

One of our Monday morning stitchers is in the hospital and her birthday is tomorrow so I paid her a visit this afternoon after visiting the quilt shop.

Lately, my little bears have been providing a lot of comfort and enjoyment for some of my friends who just needed a little 'pick me up'. I'm convinced they also have some therapeutic powers. Today Rusty went to live with my friend.

Here's the gang before Rusty took his leave. Rusty is on the far right. The perspective is a bit off - he's really not bigger than most of the other bears.

We'll miss you, Rusty, but know you will doing great things in your new life. To quote a  famous saying by Roman poet, Catullus, 'Ave atque vale' - 'Hail and farewell'. 

More About Wool Felt Appliqué...

Many folks fuse the wool pieces to the background with an iron-on fusible product. When I took my first wool felt appliqué class, the instructor just had us baste the pieces in place with sewing thread using big stitches which were easily removed later. This also allowed the felted piece to be a bit puffy, adding a bit more dimension. However, I prefer to staple my larger pieces in place - a tip I picked up from a YouTube video. The staple holes were easily blended back into the felted wool afterward.

For really small pieces, I just use a dab of craft glue to keep them in place for stitching. 

I cannot recommend micro-serrated scissors more highly. The blades 'grab' the wool and pointy blades allow for very precise cutting. I used the bigger scissors for cutting the pieces out and the smaller ones for more detailed cutting. I always have a pin cushion handy to hold the needle when not in use (i.e. when cutting more thread). It saves me the panic of losing the needle somewhere on my work surface or having it stick to my clothing or fall on the ground.

As I may have mentioned in a previous post, I use a freezer paper method to transfer my pattern to the wool pieces. Freezer paper is a thin parchment paper with a thin wax coating on one side. Basically, I iron a piece of freezer paper onto a piece of printer paper, shiny/wax side against the printer paper, using the 'wool' setting on the iron. Then I trim any excess of the freezer paper to the borders of the printer paper. This is done to give the freezer paper some firmness to go through my printer.

Then print the pattern(s) onto the freezer paper, reversing the image in the printer's software settings if necessary. The orientation is particularly necessary if transferring printed messages.

I then cut out the pattern pieces well outside the printed edges and peel the printer paper off the back of the freezer paper piece. Then iron the pattern piece onto the wool making sure the waxy side is on the felt.

Then cut out along the exact printed line. You can keep the freezer paper attached until you need to use that piece, then easily peel it off. That piece of freezer paper should work for multiples of the same piece.

When fully finishing, I use Fray Check around the edges of the thin homespun that the kit provided with the backing. It dries clear. This would also work with a flannel backing. 

I was so pleased with how quickly I was able to stitch and fully finish these three little pillows! 

Now I want to get this nifty kit - Garden Bowl Fillers - by the same designer - Heart to Hand. I have seen models and they are so cute! 

They could be displayed from spring to fall, too!

But before that, I need to finish the embroidery and fully finish the little sunflower quilt I started at the retreat. 

On A Roll...And a Bit of a Digression

I finished the sheep yesterday. I would have preferred a lighter brown wool background which would have made the legs show up a bit better.

Instead of the called-for white dots on the sheep, I opted to do chain-stitch swirls. Am happy with that choice. Colonial knots were again used for the pink flower 'buds'. 

Then we had the photo shoot on the kitchen counter.

and then in their natural habitat (the kitchen table).

I'm happy to display the pysanky - Ukrainian Easter eggs - I drew almost 20 years ago. A couple were autumn-themed, possibly from the Martha Stewart website long, long ago.

We were instructed not to blow the yolk and white out of the eggs - they were raw when drawn. After a few months, they'd just dry up and the yolk would rattle around inside. However stinky gases would also be created. I couldn't put them out when we had Ollie, our last cat, as he liked to bat them around and often would pitch them off the table. They really stunk when they broke - pee you! 

These are most of the ones that survived.

One of my former colleagues, Shelley, did an after-school tutorial on drawing them. We had a local supplier of all the materials, Mrs Salmers, who sold her wares in her husband's barber shop in downtown Oshawa. Of course, I had to have 'all the things' and still possess all the dyes and kiskas. I found several step-by-step patterns on the Internet and still have a couple of books on the subject.

Back in the aughts (2000s) Skip, Scooter, and I visited Vegreville Alberta to see the world's second largest Ukrainian Easter egg.

It's 9m (31ft) long and 3 storeys high, weighing over 2 tons. It is a big attraction 100km due east of Edmonton along the Yellowhead Highway in Alberta. 

According to Wikipedia it is made of aluminum, and composed of  1108 congruent equilateral triangles, 524 concave hexagons (3-pointed stars), 3,512 visible facets, 6,978 nuts and bolts and 177 internal struts. To me, the most remarkable feature is that it is perfectly balanced to work like a wind vane - rotating depending on the direction of the wind.