Tale of a Shooting Star…

C’est fini!

It took me a couple of hours, but I finished my Heart Tuffet a couple of days ago. I had envisioned a finish for this one and I think I managed to carry it off quite well, if I don’t say so myself. When I first saw the design, I knew it wouldn’t be a biscornu with that heart in the center. Because the design was square, I immediately thought of doing a mattress pincushion finish. Even though I had never done one before, I had an idea of how I could construct it fairly easily. From there, my vision included pulling the centers together like you would with a biscornu, except this one would get pulled together by stitching around the square in the center of the design over which the heart is stitched. I had a feeling that it would produce a really neat effect this way, if everything came together as planned. It turns out, my vision was an accurate one and it worked out just as I had hoped it would. Nary a catch anywhere, honestly. I didn’t bother looking up how to construct a mattress pincushion because I had an idea in my head of how to do it. I just Google’d it and looked through a couple of tutorials and it turns out that I constructed mine in a very similar fashion to other people. I actually saw some instructions that gave me an idea of how to do mine better the next time. I enjoyed this type of finish so much that there will definitely be a next time.

Well, I’ve bored you enough, so here is the content that you are really more interested in – the pictures!

First up in the first contest photo, so it’s a montage of the 3 photos I selected to keep. The photos following it are the individual close-ups:

And then the second contest photo (of the opposite side) and its component close-up shots:

Tomorrow’s post will be about some lovely squishy gifty mail that was waiting for me when I returned from San Francisco. I need better lighting in order to show the colors properly, so hopefully I’ll be able to capture some in full daylight tomorrow, as my thank you post is well overdue!

It’s time for another contest from Thea Dueck of The Victoria Sampler for the members of the Victoria Sampler Yahoo! group. This time the design is called Heart Tuffet and the deadline to submit a picture of your finished piece is April 1st. She always gives us plenty of time and I inevitably leave mine until close to the end.

I chose the overdyed floss, two coordinating colors of DMC (though the design only calls for one coordinating color) and fabric before leaving for San Francisco. I even got to start on one side of the piece while we were there. I just realized that I didn’t add the four beads called for in the design. I’ll have to take a good look at it, but I don’t think I want to clutter up the piece, so I may skip them completely. We’ll see; it may take a little experimenting before I come to a decision on that point.

I have mostly decided on a finishing technique for this one and it’s one that I have never done before, so this should be interesting. I have my own ideas of how to do it, so I’m not going to troll the ‘net for instructions. I’d prefer to wing it. I’m anxious to see if some of the ideas I have for this will pan out. As long as I don’t completely destroy the stitching in the process of monkeying around with the finish, then I should be in good shape. I should have the finish done by the end of the weekend.

Oh what, you’d like to actually see the stitched pieces? 😉 As usual, I had to fiddle with the colors in Photoshop. The thread colors are pretty close, but the fabric is a little off. It’s actually Ray of Light lugana, which is a pale yellow.

Here’s the top:

And I reversed the color scheme for the bottom:

I already know that I’m not going to win, based on a few of the photos that have already been submitted to the contest, but I’m hoping to make at least a respectable showing. Besides, it’s a good excuse for me to stitch and get something done; it’s not really about winning for me.

Airports and airplanes, that is. I took a quick trip out to San Francisco last week for work. We arrived Sunday afternoon, with the hopes of catching up with a friend from college Sunday night, but we had left the house at 2 AM and were absolutely exhausted when we got in. We hit the hotel restaurant for a late lunch and then pretty much slept until Monday. Seriously. We had planned to go into the city on Monday, but Terry felt unwell and I had a headache, so we spent the day in the hotel. Tuesday was a full day at Big Red, I mean Oracle, with a riverboat dinner cruise that night which I ended up having to skip because I was feeling feverish and nauseous. Wednesday saw another 6+ hours at Oracle and then off to the airport to wait for our red eye flight. I was awake from 6 AM Wednesday until 1 or 2 PM Thursday, when we finally arrived home, not counting snooze time on the planes. It was a brutal trip and I’m still paying for it headache-wise, but it was well worth it from a professional standpoint.

So, anyway, the point is that I spent a good chunk of time in airports and airplanes while flying out and back. The cheapest flights went to SFO by way of Atlanta, which extended that time even more. Yes, I could have gotten a direct flight, but it was excessively expensive and I was paying for Terry to fly out with me, so a couple of hundred dollars made a difference. The worst part was arriving at SFO Wednesday evening, expecting to be able to get our bags checked in, scoot through security and then get a relaxing dinner and hang out near the gate. Not so much, it turns out. Air Tran must only run red eye flights out of SFO, so the desk doesn’t even open until 8:30 PM. That really sucked. We had to walk over to the international terminal to find a food court and hang out there for a couple of hours and then back to wait for another 2 hours in front of the Air Tran desk. Bah. Lessons learned, though!

As far as stitching goes, many of you remember the Just Nan Butterfly Heart design that I stitched multiple times in colors of the rainbow back in 2008, right? Unfortunately, the purples that I had picked out and stitched early on in that project were dusty and the remaining colors that I chose later did not work with the purples. I started a new purple instance back then, but put it down when I realized that the shading between the 3 (sequential) floss colors in the DMC line was not subtle enough. Well, prior to leaving for San Francisco, I decided that this would be a perfect design to travel with (as it had been in the past), so I ripped out all of the old stitching (more than 50% of the design) and kitted it up with another set of purples to try. I guess the third time is a charm because it worked out well this time. I started the design on the plane out from Atlanta to San Francisco and ended up finishing it in the SFO airport before leaving to come home.

Now I just need to choose some fabrics to piece my 6 rainbow colored instances of this design together into a bellpull. I guess I’ll have to gather up the pieces and take them to the nearest Joann store when I have some time.

I have another finish to show today. I stitched a hardanger card for my mother’s birthday. This one is the February edition of Nordic Needle’s hardanger card club from 2010. Their kits included the design, card and pearl cotton #8 equivalents. Needless to say, I didn’t want to do the weaving with pearl 8, so I’ve been slowly buying the pearl cotton #12 or floss equivalents to go with each kit. I have less than half of them kitted up to date. I’ll have to do some online purchases to fill in the blanks.

This is the first one I’ve actually stitched out of the 12 kits, though I do plan to stitch them all and send them out for various stitchers’ birthdays. Eventually.

Here is the card and a closeup of the hardanger section. I chose a pale yellow fabric with which to back the hardanger section, so the picots don’t show up very well. I hate picots. Truly. Hate. Picots. And, as you will see, the woven section of this design consisted primarily of picots. Ugh.

My other finish to show off is long overdue. It is my framed The Sweetheart Tree round robin. I picked it up weeks ago, but getting a good picture of it has proven to be difficult. I had to do some fiddling in Photoshop to get the colors a little closer to the real hues. It’s still not perfect, but I would have to put a lot of time into it in order for it to be precise and even then the colors still might not be exact, so I’ll settle for what I have.

This counts as my final Not-So-Crazy January Challenge finish, as I got it to my framer at Michaels just before the end of January. On a side note, I actually saw my framer at Michaels when I was in the other night and she joked that I didn’t have anything with me to be framed. No, I’m actually all tapped out until I finish some other pieces. That is really hard to believe, but fantastic to be able to say!

Anyway, back on topic. Here is the framed round robin:

I hope that you are all having a wonderful weekend. The temperatures here are quite nice today, although we are lacking in sunshine. The clouds don’t surprise me, as we are expecting rain storms to move in for tomorrow. Just in time for my cousin’s bridal shower. At least we’ll be inside!

You didn’t think that just because January is over, I’ve stopped finishing, did you? 😉
I have two finishes today and will have two more finishes when I feel like cutting the mat board and working on them. I’ve picked out the backing fabrics for both pieces, at least.

At any rate, here are the two entries that I stitched for Anna‘s challenge back in August 2009. I made them into a pillow. I thought I was pretty clever about the seam, since the sides were two radically different colors. I backstitched each side with a color that matched the fabric and then whipstitched them together with invisible thread. It was a pain working with the nylon stuff, but I think that the result was worth it, even if you can see it in the pictures.

The design is a freebie – Swirlygig by Bent Creek. Click on the link to Anna’s challenge to find the link to the design because, frankly, I’m too lazy to go back and look it up. 😛

My second finish is the old castle that I stitched when I was very young. I have no idea where the design came from or anything else. Just that it was filthy (I had to wash it), has a corner cut out of the fabric and that the colors are bright and obnoxious. But I wasn’t about to throw it away. I found a pre-made frame at Michaels, but the cut of the mat didn’t quite work for the piece, so I cut my own. My first mat! Don’t worry, it’s nothing to be impressed with. 😆

Speaking of Michaels, I stopped on Thursday night and my round robin wasn’t ready, but I got a call yesterday saying that everything was ready to be picked up, so I’ll need to drive out there at some point in the near future. I try to pick things up when my favorite framer (Kathy) is there because she likes to see the unveilings of finished framing jobs. We had our college diplomas framed, as well. It will be nice to have them out of the closet and hanging up in our office after 13 years!

That’s it for now. I have 3 new starts lined up, so I should go do some stitching. Poor me. 😉

1. Paw Prints by The Stitchworks –
    Finished!
2. Hardanger Embroidery Emery Cushion by Roz Watnemo –
    Finished!
3. Crystal Pink Pincushion by Lorri Birmingham –
    Finished!
4. Nantucket Basket Topper “Butterfly” by Lorri Birmingham –
    Finished!
5. Blue Rose Teacup by Lorri Birmingham –
    Finished!
6. Heart to Heart (teacup) by Lorri Birmingham –
    Finished!
7. Jingle! Tin Topper by Just Nan –
    Finished!
8. Jingle! Biscornu by Just Nan –
    Finished!
9. Happy Wishes by Shepherd’s Bush –
    Finished!
10. Sarah Belle Scissor Case by Lorri Birmingham –
      Finished!
11. Sarah Belle Needle Keep by Lorri Birmingham –
      Finished!
12. Butterflies & Hearts Decorative Tin Cover by Lorri Birmingham –
      Finished!
13. Sweetheart Decorative Tin Cover by Lorri Birmingham –
      Finished!
14. Sweetheart Decorative Tin Cover by Lorri Birmingham –
      Finished!
15. Star of Wonder (Punchneedle) by Homespun Elegance –
      Finished!
16. Barnabee’s Quest by Just Nan –
      Finished!
17. A Very Merry Summer by JBW Designs –
      Finished!
18. Acorn Nantucket Basket Topper by Lorri Birmingham –
      Finished!
19. Irish Needle Roll by Lorri Birmingham –
      Finished!
20. October Birthday Needleroll by The Victoria Sampler –
      Finished!
21. Celtic Ice by Ink Circles –
      Finished!
22. Peace on Earth by Indigo Rose –
      Finished!
23. Angel Heart Ornament by Charland Designs –
      Finished!
24. Heart and Flowers Scissors Fob by Twisted Oaks Designs –
      Finished!
25. Christmas Hearts Bellpull by The Victoria Sampler –
      Finished!
26. Butterfly Scissors Fob by ??? –
      Finished!
27. Pagoda Pincushion by Lody Steward –
      Finished!
28. Hearts & Flowers by The Sweetheart Tree –
      Finished!
29. Friendly Frosty by Mill Hill (Tiny Treasured Diamonds series) –
      Finished!
30. The Sweetheart Tree Hearts Round Robin –
      Dropped off at framers, so it counts as a finish.
31. Holiday Hounds Stocking by Dimensions –
      Finished!

To refresh your memory, here is my original challenge statement:

My Not-So-Crazy January Challenge of 2011 is to take 15 finishes from your waiting-to-be-finished pile and finish-finish them. They can be framed, made into ornaments, sewn into bellpulls, hand-stitched into biscornus, whatever strikes your fancy. My goal is to clear out that finishing pile in which some pieces have been languishing for years. If you choose to frame any pieces, you can either complete the framing yourself by the end of January or take them into a framer by the end of January, your choice and either one counts.

I totally knocked this challenge out of the park! I started by finishing more than 15 pieces in less than 15 days. I originally pulled 26 pieces out of my waiting-to-be-finished pile and I have finished all of them. In addition, I had two pieces that I had finished stitching at the end of the year which I added to the mix. I then pulled another piece out of the waiting-to-be-finished pile, found one hiding in the basket near my stitching chair and decided to add cording to Phoebe’s old stocking, which has now been repurposed into a generic dog stocking.

That’s 31 finishes total. One for each day of the month. I cannot tell you how ecstatic I am to have not only cleared out a significant chunk of my waiting-to-be-finished pile, but to have so many more pieces to display! I have to figure out where to put them, but that’s such a pleasant quandary in which to find myself. I have literally been jumping up and down. Well, more like happy dancing, I guess.

Here is a photo of all of the finishes (minus what I put away and was too lazy to retrieve just for this photo, plus the piece to be framed, etc.):

And here is what’s left of my waiting-to-be-finished pile:

The dusty purple butterfly at the top right can be finished into an ornament at any time; you can even see the paper template next to it. I need to complete a slightly brighter purple butterfly that will meld better with the others and then I will either make them into a bellpull or save up for an expensive framing job. The castle at the lower left is one of my earliest stitched pieces and I actually just purchased a little pre-made frame for it; I just need to cut the mat opening a little larger. The purple purse… I don’t know; maybe it will go to whomever wants it? The Pennsylvania heart is waiting for its companion New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland hearts which will all be made into a wall hanging or framed. The cherry blossom needlebook in the bottom left corner just needs to be finished. So, there are really only 3 remaining pieces waiting to be finished. That, my dear readers, is how I spell success!

More finishes to report today! These were all completed by last night.

1. Paw Prints by The Stitchworks –
Finished!

[Edited: The flanges look a bit wonky because the pillow portion is so fluffy and the flanges end up flopping down.]

7. Jingle! Tin Topper by Just Nan –
Finished!

10. Sarah Belle Scissor Case by Lorri Birmingham –
Finished!

27. Pagoda Pincushion by Lody Steward –
Finished!

30. The Sweetheart Tree Hearts Round Robin –
Going to the framer tomorrow (just in the nick of time; the last day of the challenge)!

Full piece

My heart

Sylvie’s heart

Cathy’s heart

Catherine Michele’s heart

So, there you go! 31 finishes! I still want to see if I can sneak in two additions before the end of the day tomorrow, so I’ll hopefully have one more update and then I will do a full recap of my challenge results on February 1st.

Sorry I’ve been MIA. Lots of personal stuff going on, but I’ll save that for another post. I haven’t been totally slacking in the finishing department, though.

1. Paw Prints by The Stitchworks –
Started stitching into a flange pillow. Front and back piece and sewn, just have to hand sew the opening closed on each. I also made the cloth covered buttons for the front. Close to a finish on this one.

7. Jingle! Tin Topper by Just Nan –
Ironed on the interfacing, but it scorched. *sigh* Fortunately, I think it scorched outside of the area that will show once I’ve laced the piece to the board. Must. Buy. New. Iron. For. Interfacing.

16. Barnabee’s Quest by Just Nan –
Finished!

22. Peace on Earth by Indigo Rose –
Finished!

28. Hearts & Flowers by The Sweetheart Tree –
Finished!

30. The Sweetheart Tree Hearts Round Robin –
This is an addition to the list, but has been in my to-be-finished pile for years. I decided that I could afford to get it framed, so I just went for it.

I took the unfinished (it just needs the charms added) piece into Michaels and picked out two mats and a frame. I couldn’t find the charts and charms for the hearts that had been stitched on the piece, so I was extremely frustrated. I finally found them the next day, with Terry’s help, after going through all of my stash for the second or third time. So, all I need to do is attach the charms (which I plan to do tonight) and take the piece in. In the meantime, the mats and frame have been ordered so they can just pin the piece and pop it in once everything arrives. I’ll be taking the piece in on Monday, so it will just barely make it into the end of this challenge.

31. Dimensions Holidays Hounds Stocking –
Another addition to the list, I decided that Phoebe’s old stocking could really use some cording (after seeing how much it spiced up Barnabee’s Quest).
Finished!