Progress on Day & Night by Long Dog

I've been working quite a bit on Day & Night and coming to the end of the most time consuming section.  There is only one large motif to do now (on the left next to the house) and then it's just the border and smaller motifs.  I'm on a mission to finish it!
Further down this blog there is a picture of what this will look like when finished, you can see not much farther to go!

Framed in a box

The box was custom made at my LNS and I love the way it turned out!  The design is Sweet Violets by Heirloom Embroideries which I finished in 2009.  This is to be a Christmas present for my mother.

Wedding Sampler finished

On October 23 I finally finished Michael and Julie's wedding sampler.  They were married on September 4, 2009, and it had been a while in the making!  The heart at the top was a challenge with bullion stitches and ribbon embroidery that I'd not done before.  The poem is a custom, I didn't include the words as charted.  It is now framed but it was difficult to get a good picture and also because it is so long!  This is the best I could do to try and not get a reflection.

I now have the problem of getting this framed piece to England!  I've just tried fitting it in our suitcases and it's going to be a challenge to say the least! I don't think carrying it is an option (too big), and so if we can't get it in the case then may have to go with a special box but don't really want to do that.  So, fingers crossed that it makes it across the Atlantic in one piece!

Long time, no post!

Gosh!  Has it really been that long since I updated this blog.  How time flies as you get older!  I see that my last post also coincided with when my summer work hours started and my stitching, and computing, time got messed up.  My stitching time has been limited to weekends for 2-3 months, during the week I've just been too tired to sit down and do anything but read in the evening, and that makes me fall asleep :-)

Anyway,  I've FINALLY got a picture of my WIP.  This is Day & Night by Long Dog.  It's a very colorful design as you can see and easy to stitch.  The only problem is that the chart symbols are VERY tiny and I'm having to enlarge each section, not something I normally have to do. Other than that, so far so good!

You can see a picture of what it will look like finished further down this page.  We go back to regular 8-5 hours on August 16 and hopefully then I will get some time to stitch on weekday evenings.

Altengamme is finished!

As I said in my last post, I ripped out the bottom border and redid it.  Didn't take as long as I thought it would and I put the final stitches in this on Tuesday night.  So pleased to have this finished and now I need to get it mounted on foam core so I can have it framed.

Last night I pulled out another long time UFO, Day & Night from Long Dog Samplers.  I was very tempted to start on Quakers and Quilts but decided to give this UFO a try first.

This is what that one will look like and I'll post my progress when I've taken a picture. At the moment I've done the top border and 3 motifs down on the left border, and one on the right. Long way to go!

Good news and bad news

Well, I finally finished Altengamme last night, whooo hoooo!  That's the good news.  It's finished BUT I am going to rip out the bottom border and do it again.  I made a one row counting error on the left, fixed it (sort of) and figured I wouldn't notice and it would be OK.  Well, I got all the way over to the right hand side and decided that it does bother me.  No one else would probably care or notice but I decided it would always bug me and so I'm going to rip it out and do over.  It shouldn't take that long to do but it will delay taking a picture of the finished product. 

So, stay tuned......

Altengamme update

As you can see, not much further to go!  After tonight, I won't be able to stitch on this until the 18th, when I get back from the conference and convention I have to go to this week.  It's possible I could get something done Wednesday night, we'll see how tired I am! I should finish the started motif and perhaps do another one this evening.  Also, I think I'm going to run out of the green thread so I'll have to make a run to the LNS.  I thought when I picked up the last one I'd got enough but I can't see what I have left being enough to finish.

An interim update

I've been trying to find time to take a new picture because I've done quite a bit more since this picture was taken. Well, it's been a crazy week one way and another, although I have got a little bit of stitching time in.  I've now finished that last large diamond and have done 3 "satellite" small motifs since this picture was taken.  There's not much left to do now, relatively speaking, but I'm not going to be able to stitch on this for a whole week starting Sunday because of travel.  I think I'm definitely on track to finish this by the end of April....whoo hoo!

Still plugging away!

I've now moved over to the bottom left and I completed this diamond and the two small motifs to the right. The small triangle is the start of another motif which will be along the bottom border. 

As you can see, I've started the next triangle.  I was working more on this one last night. While it is centered under the motif above (which is the way it's supposed to be) I discovered it was one stitch closer to the small diamond under the rose flower. After counting and counting I remembered that I had to make an adjustment further up in the design, but because it's been a few years I'd forgotten. Anyway, it's going to have to stay as it is, no one will know but me :-)  As I've mentioned before, lots of chart errors on this design, and some are more challenging to fix than others, but with the random placement adjustments won't be noticed in the finished piece.

Not much further to go now, finishing this is now my top priority!

Finished another motif and row

Another motif is done and it completed the row. This was a nice and easy one although again there were errors.  I hope I used the correct colors because the flower centers had two different symbols, half were for green and the other half for rose, I just did what I thought looked best!

Now I've gone back over to the left hand side to work on the diamond, this will be the last big row and then all that's left is small motifs along the bottom and the border.

The end is in sight!

Finished another motif

I finished another motif last night, this is the last of the large ones. There were some major chart errors in this one. A large chunk of the red "flower" was missing, on all four of them.  Some of the errors don't look obvious until you finish and then take a critical look at it.

I've now moved to the right and I'm doing the last circle motif.  I started this last night and it's moving pretty quickly. It shouldn't take as long to do as the last two.  I think I'll then do a bit of the border and move back over to the left hand side.

The end is in sight!

Here is the one I just completed side by side with the previous motif.

Still stitching!

I'm sorry it's been a while since I updated.  I took this picture last weekend and am just now getting around to updating my blog.  I have a determination to finish Altengamme but I think it will take a while, however the end IS in sight.  I've finished the motif that was shown partially completed in the last photo, and also the very small one under the diamond. I've now moved over to the right to start on the next large one you can see partially done.  I've actually worked quite a bit more on that since the photo was taken.  I will take another photo at the weekend but for now this is it!

Weekend away

I haven't done any stitching since Friday night.  I had to go to a meeting out of town over the weekend; left Saturday morning and returned Sunday evening.  By the time I'd unloaded my car, fixed dinner, and caught up with what had been going on at home in my absence, it was 8:30 p.m. and I was too pooped to stitch!

Anyway, I'm still working on the large motif you can see partially done in the last picture of Altengamme.  I have finished all the green on it though and I have 2-1/2 of the rose colored sections to do.  Should have that done in the next couple of evenings I hope.

I'll post another picture when there is something to take a picture of.

Working on Altengamme by Martina Dey

Started thinking yesterday what to stitch next and I've settled on Altengamme by Martina Dey, which has been a long standing UFO, can't call it a WIP!  My first progress pictures of this were taken in March of 2005, so that's almost 5 years since I started it. My life got busy and I got sidetracked with other projects, and that's the way it went.

Anyway, I found the project very easily but then I couldn't remember where I'd stashed the chart and threads. After looking in several places I found it and set it up.  It takes extra wide rods and my husband made me a frame for my GripIt which accommodates 36" rods.  Did I mention this is one LARGE project!

So, after much setting up I finally got down to stitching last night. I do hope I can stick with it this time. It's really a very easy stitch, only two colors, but oh so large!  There's also quite a lot of chart errors but being a symmetrical pattern they are fairly easy to spot.

So, here's a picture of my progress and also one of what it will look like finished. Click on the picture for a larger view.

Wish me luck!

Quaker Diamonds -- It's Finished!

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I finished this last evening while watching the Olympics.  Wasn't quite sure what to do with myself afterward.  I'm just thrilled with this finish, it's every bit as nice as I thought it would be. It was very easy to stitch and I couldn't seem to stop, always saying "just one more motif and then I'll quit for the evening."

I've ordered Quakers and Quilts and will stitch that as a companion piece, it uses all the same colors. Now to figure out what to stitch while waiting for that order to come in!

Quaker Diamonds mid-week progress

Since the last photo update I've now finished the large diamond (bottom left) and filled in the bottom left hand corner.  Now moved back up to the diamond under the 'N.'  I've been able to do a little more stitching than usual, staying up later watching the Olympics.  Stitching keeps me awake so I don't miss anything!  Will post a progress picture this weekend if I remember.  I have to go away the weekend of the 27th/28th and so I'm hoping to finish this before then.  We shall see!

Not much further to go! Progress after 4 weeks

This is my progress after 4 weeks of stitching on Quaker Diamonds, not much more to do now!  My goal was to finish in six weeks, maybe it will be less. This has been the most enjoyable project to stitch.  I've ordered the Quilts and Quakers which I will do as a companion piece, it uses all the same color threads.

Quaker Diamonds - 3 week progress

Still moving right along on Quaker Diamonds and enjoying stitching it.  The large diamond is going to take a while but should be finished soon.  I'm going to stitch quite a bit today while watching the Super Bowl.

Quaker Diamonds - progress after 2 weeks

I'm having so much fun stitching this design and it's growing very fast. I'm now 1/3 of the way through after two weeks of stitching. At this rate should be done by the end of February but we shall see!

Worked on Quaker Diamonds

Last night I worked on the large diamond near the top and made good progress, should finish that today. Will be stitching this afternoon and watching football......go Saints and Colts!

Will post another progress picture at the end of the week.

Quaker Diamonds progress

This is my latest project and I am absolutely LOVING stitching this design. This is Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor and the large picture is the finished design from their web site http://www.rosewoodxstitch.com/catalog.php?item=165&catid=31&ret=catalog.php%3Fcategory%3D31.

I started stitching last Saturday night, January 16, and this is my progress as of Friday 22nd. So, even though I can just stitch a couple of hours in the evening you can see that it's a quick stitch.

There are LOTS of color changes and to save time I purchased some more #24 needles and keep a needle with each color threaded. Using the pinhead stitch for starting is also helping to keep it neat. Sometimes you have to thread up for just one stitch. I'm going to do the larger diamond next which goes in the center top. I am using the recommended threads as pictured. These are 3-stranded Valdani threads and I'm using all three strands on 28 count Cashel/Fairy dust.

Evening Star by Heritage

Yay!! It's finished, it's finished! Anyone who has ever done a Heritage design will know how tedious they can be sometimes. Lots of "skinny" cross stitches and lots and lots of backstitching, so much that they need a separate chart for it! Anyway, it is now finished and I will try and get it framed soon.

Sampler of Stitches by The Drawn Thread

Well, it took a couple of years of on and off stitching but I finally finished Drawn Threads "Sampler of Stitches." This was a series of 9 individual charts and used many, many different stitches. We did this as an SAL on the Friendly Stitchers Yahoo Group.

Sweet Violets by Heirloom Embroidieries

This is Sweet Violets by Heirloom Embroideries. This was a nice quick and easy finished and very enjoyable to stitch.