Monday 19 January 2015

January IHSW recap

This past weekend was IHSW, and although I didn't make it to the video hangout with my girls (Felix was sick, which caused a bit of chaos with my plans), this was the first time since....I don't even know how long that I feel like I actually did acomplish the whole hermit-and-stitch-thing. But before I go into length about what I did and didn't do this weekend, I have to start of by posting this picture of my progress on Dark Force, since I've been teasing said girls with it all week:


Here's ten blocks in, so if I want to make my year-goal of one block a day, I still need to catch up eight blocks (already managed one more today). But here's the details: I spent most of last monday preparing my fabric and putting this grid in (I need to get this finishing line stuff...I used normal sewing thread for this page, and I think I will have to cut it out in the end because it keeps mingling with my stitching). I started stitching the next day, and did one block each on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, I managed a whooping four blocks (either I had a massive run or those were somehow easier than the others, I'm not sure yet). On Saturday morning, I got up early and finished one block before poor sick Felix was even up. Then I took a break (as I had just finished the first column, there were no loose parking-threads anymore, and I could take DF out of the snap) to stitch the third week of Stacy's Mystery Band Sampler - one row of modified sheaf stitch in pale yellow. The color doesn't show too well in the photo, but it's lovely in real life!


We then went to have lunch at my grandparents, and when we came home a pleasant suprise was awaiting me: My missing floss had finally arrived! So I spent the rest of the afternoon bobbinating (with Felix' help) and preparing my brand new needle organizer. I think I will have to buy another one soon, and maybe a second 8" Q Snap, so I don't have to take DF out all the time. After that, I put in the missing stitches on DF...there were only a few I had to leave out due to missing colors, but it made a world of a difference! I think this was when I finally fell in love with this project.


On Sunday, I stitched another block on DF, and a second one after a break for an other project: My friend Magical has started an 'Ornament of the month' SAL with little ornaments she designed based on birthstone colors. The first one is just brilliant, and I just had to make them! Thanksfully, I had all the colors needed in my stash (three shares of garnet), and I also had a piece of white 18ct aida that Carla sent me last year that just happend to be big enough. So I measured it, and cut it into twelve pieces of an appropriate size - I'll be doing those in hand, since I would have to put my q snap too close to the border of the fabric to comfortably work on it, and using small bits the fabric keeps more stiff than when I use the whole thing in hand, which is also quite unhandy. I finished the innter part of the design - Magical offers different ideas for how to finish the ornaments, and also four variations of an additional border to make them a bit bigger. I thought I wanted to do one of those, but than I liked the inner part so much I decided to keep it this way. I don't know how to finish them anyway (I love her idea of making them into a garland, but then I just saw this awesome twelve sided biscornu...), and I can still add the border later should I need it. So, this is my first finish of the year - and isn't it gorgeous? I love the blackwork like backstitching!


As for watching, we actually sat down to watch Hangover 3 on friday evening, sooner than expected - I liked it, the story was actually quite different from the others, and I got the feeling this was really meant to be a trilogy. Poor giraffe, though! :(
Then we did something we meant to do for a long time, since neither of us really watched it before, and we wanted to give it a go: We started Star Trek: The Original Series. Only one episode so far - the show has aged quite a bit, and Felix can't handle great doses of old stuff very well, but I can see where the whole fandom is coming from I think, I liked it and hope we'll watch more soon.
Then there was more NCIS, of course - S11, E10-19. There's a new character now to replace the one that disappeared, and I think I might really like her.
I also watched a bit more Castle when I was left to myself (Felix had some work to do) - S1, E3-6. I like the dynamic that is developing between Castle and Beckett, I'm looking forward how that will keep going through the seasons!
We didn't watch it this weekend, but I realzed I forgot to mention last time that we also saw Groundhog Day - Felix is slowly making me catch up on all the classics I missed, but this one, I picked myself. It was hilarious, but I'm kind of missing an explanation for the whole thing... (The title of this one is much more funny in German, by the way - it's something along the line of 'And everyday, the groundhog salutes' :D)

So that's it for the weekend, I'll keep working on DF until I caught up with the date, than slowly try and add other stitching stuff to my diet again - I really need to get cracking on CTC I guess...

34 comments:

Becca said...

Awesome start!

I don't know if you can get it where you are, but I use a brand of thread called Sulky for my gridding. It slides right out. (I think it's usually used for machine embroidery.)

wenhkc said...

I use bright pink fishing line for my gridding. It's easy to pull out but sometimes the ends can poke you. I love NCIS and Castle too. But I haven't yet warmed up to Bishop yet.

Caitlin D said...

DF looks great! Yay for finally getting that darn missing thread. :-)
That needle organizer is great. I only use one needle at a time so it wouldn't help me much but I really want to get their floss organizer!!
I have an obsession with NCIS, but I'm still not sure I'm okay with the newbie. I loved Ziva too much.
Castle is a great show. Their dynamic only gets better with time. :-)

Magical Mystery said...

You got so much done on Dark Force! well done! and the ornament - so wonderful to see it - and so nicely done too! I love your idea of using it on a 12 sided biscornu! what a great way to use them :D

Deb said...

Lovely stitching!!
Ahhh, I wish Ziva wold come back......

katjakay said...

You've done so much already!!! I'm glad to hear you like the needle organizer, I've been thinking about getting it.
My brother is a trekkie, so I grew up on the Original Series, Next Generation, books, comics, movies, etc. Though my personal favorite is Deep Space Nine.

Merlynn said...

Gridding is the worst part, keep courage ! :)

Kate said...

very lovely projects!!

Bea said...

You had a great weekend - love that small finish.

rosey175 said...

Wow, I just got nifty ideas for better gridding reading the comments here! Never would've thought about fishing line. Your first ornament looks great and the Dark Force is coming along nicely.

Linda said...

Lovely stitching Lenore.

Linda

Leonore Winterer said...

Thanks! I've hear of Sulky before, but never seen it around. I will have to look into that more...

Leonore Winterer said...

I only have tranparent fishing line, and obviously, that wouldn't work too well for gridding. But maybe I can get colord ones somewhere, I'll have to check.

I kind of like Bishop...she's cute, and intelligent, and she LOVES to eat - that was an instant plus with me :D

Leonore Winterer said...

Thank you! I blame the german custom's office once again, they always take ages to handle stuff.
I started using several pre-threaded needles at once when I worked on Angel of Frost, which had lots of blended colors (so much hassle to put them away) and alternated between them in quicck succession. I bet the floss organizer is really neat as well!

I loved Ziva too, a lot. But with Bishop being married, I don't really see her as a 'replacement', because that romantic/sexual tension that was there between Tony and Kate/Ziva is missing. It's a whole different team dynamic now, and while I still miss Ziva and wish she would make a reappearance, I think Bishop fits in great as well.

Leonore Winterer said...

Thank you! I loved stitching the ornament, and I think the twelve sided biscornu would work for them. There are so many designs that really 'need' an ornament-like finish, but for those more ornamental/geometrical shapes, a biscornu finish should work perfectly. I can't wait for the next one!

Leonore Winterer said...

Thank you! Me too, she was such an awesome character...

Leonore Winterer said...

I think the needle organizer would work really well with TWs, I think I'll get a second one to use for PT when I continues stitching that.
I've only seen a few episodes of Star Trek as a child, together with my mum and later my step dad. Don't remember which series those were from, but I seem to remember it was Picard and not Kirk.

Leonore Winterer said...

That's why I decided to do it pagewise...doing the whole piece at once would have driven me crazy!

Leonore Winterer said...

Thank you!

Leonore Winterer said...

It didn't quite go as planned, but I can't complain. Stitching time is always great :)

Leonore Winterer said...

Thanks! I hope those ideas will help your future projects :)

Leonore Winterer said...

Thank you, Linda :)

Suz said...

I see that someone got to it first, but I would second Sulky (metallic) - I have it in a few different colors to make it easy (depending on the design/fabric). I love that it can't be pierced and slides out very easily.

Love the ornament!

Shannon Meyer said...

Looks like you got quite a bit of stitching done!! Good luck with your goals for Dark Force:)

Marcy said...

Very pretty finish. Those BAPs are very intimidating to me ... good luck with your goal. It's looking great.

Carla - Alaska Wolf Pack said...

Alright my love, Groundhog Day is actually a Pennsylvanian German holiday that is on February 2nd every year. The lore is if the ground hog comes out of it's hole in the ground and sees it's shadow then winter will last another six weeks. If it's cloudy or he doesn't see his shadow then spring comes early and fine. Punxsutawney Phil is real and so is the town the movie takes place in :D

You have the same idea I did about the finished stitching on the ornament. I liked it without any fancy border and it came out so cute! DF is really coming along and I love that you are doing a block for each day of the year!

Leonore Winterer said...

Sounds great, only I really couldn't find it anywhere around here...I'm going to try easy count guideline, which looks just like red fishning line, and see how that works.

Thanks!

Leonore Winterer said...

Thank you! So far, I'm staying right on track and catching up...

Leonore Winterer said...

Thank you! They are intimidating to me as well, but after all, it's just one stitch after the other...right? Right?

Leonore Winterer said...

Oh, I LOVE that trivia lesson! I just found out that the date is also a catholic church holiday, and there are german sayings about badgers and bears seeing their shadows on this date and another 40 days of winter afterwards. I wonder how i became a groundhog after that!

Your ornament is soooo cute and tiny, mine is massive in comparison! I hope I can keep to the one block a day, you know how stuff keeps getting in the way...

Magical Mystery said...

True :) Next one is the 6th of February. quite a wait still.

Leonore Winterer said...

That long? Oh no! I might need a new start in between to survive the wait ;)

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Great progress on the DF, you will be caught up in no time.
I'm of an age to have watched Star Trek with the original cast. You should look up a spoof song called Star Trekking Across the Universe for a really funny thing to watch with Felix.
I'm doing a similar thing with my 12 year old son, we are currently working our way through all four series of Blackadder.

Leonore Winterer said...

I'll keep that in mind and check it out, sounds fun!