Fabulous Feather: So Many Colors!

I love all the colors in this piece! Unfortunately, I've now finished the most colorful portion, so I've decided to take a little break from this WIP. So say goodbye to Fabulous Feather for now!

Added to my list of audiobooks for my English class that I've listened to while stitching this is Anne of Green Gables. :)

Fabulous Feather

From the Jan. 2013 issue of Cross-stitch and Needlework Magazine

Started January 3, 2013

Happy stitching!

Fabulous Feather: The WIP Saga Continues

I continue to make progress on Fabulous Feather, which is looking a lot more like a feather now! I'm in a Young Adult Fiction course, so I've been listening to Ragged Dick, Little Women, and Tarzan of the Apes while stitching this. :) The relevant details: Fabulous Feather, from January 2013 issue of Cross-Stitch and Needlework Magazine, started January 3, 2013.

I've also joined the bandwagon with the adult coloring trend - I love coloring mandalas with colored pencils! Here's my first completed one. :)

Thank y'all for your well wishes and kind words regarding my grandmother's health - she's doing better now and continues to get stronger! Happy stitching!

Fabulous Feather: From UFO to WIP

It's been a whirlwind since I came back from camp. I had a bit of time at home - primarily spent unpacking from a summer at camp and packing for a semester of college. Then we drove up to New York to move my brother into college - he's a freshman this year! It took two days to drive each way, so it was a bit of a tiring trip. Then I moved into school, and I've finished my first week of classes! I've had some time to stitch, since I can listen to some of my school books as audiobooks while I stitch.

Here's the progress I've made since coming back from camp. I'm not sure why I was so drawn to work on this piece, which had been almost untouched since I started it as part of the Crazy January Challenge in 2013. I suspect it's because my grandmother, who is the intended recipient of this piece, has been sick lately, and she's been on my mind. Hopefully I can finish this piece up as a gift for her without many more years of delay!

It's called "Fabulous Feather," and it appeared in the January 2013 issue of the Cross-Stitch and Needlework Magazine.

Happy stitching!

Coming Down from the Mountain

I've returned from the mountain; I've left a "place apart," the real world, home. Here I am back at my permanent address after a summer that was more amazing and blessed than I could have imagined. I adored each and every camper, I was in God's beautiful creation all summer feeling closer to Him than ever, and I was awash in His joy and peace. I'm still trying to find ways to bring that world back with me from the mountain and let it seep into every part of my life here.

I've started and finished listening to The Old Maid, by Edith Wharton, while working on Love One Another, the famine relief chart. I've started reading The Giver, by Lois Lowry. I've also been singing camp songs, doing camp crafts, and engaging in vespers (evening worship) and praying out-loud. Thus go my attempts to blend my two lives now that I am (nominally) "home."

Here's Love One Another, before and after:

Happy stitching, and may God's peace wrap you up like a warm blanket!

A Quick Update

College has been wildly busy for me since Easter. Most days I wake up early and am in classes or the library (or outside studying, now that the weather is lovely) all day, until at least midnight, when I finally return to my dorm and get a bit of sleep. I love my classes and I'm passionate about my work, but it certainly doesn't leave any spare moments for stitching!

I've been writing long papers that involve huge stacks of source material, and I've been learning so many cool things in my research. Recently, I finished reading Aristophanes's Birds in ancient Greek, memorized and performed one of the choral odes from the play for my class in the original ancient Greek, read a lot of medieval Latin poetry and learned how it differs from classical Latin, and I've been working on two final papers: one is providing a ritual explanation for differences in the costumes of the chorus and the actors in Greek comedy, the other explores Augustus's Res Gestae Divi Augusti through monuments and other spaces in Rome.

Come May 14th, I will be done with the semester and be heading home for a bit before leaving for the camp where I'll be a counselor all summer. I'm sad my classes have to end, but I'm so excited for the summer!!

Happy stitching, y'all! I hope that you're not too busy to stitch, or if you are, that you're the good kind of busy! :)

2015 Turtle Trot: April Post

I've only made progress on one of my Turtle Trot pieces this month, but I managed to finish it! That's my second Turtle Trot finish this year (the first was the Love bookmark). I've decided not to replace the finished pieces with different ones in this list, so I can watch my original list of 10 shrink down and feel successful. :)

1. Tardis 3D: None

2. Blushing Rose: None

3. Santa's Village: None

4. Dream: None

6. Sing: None

7. Favorite Pony: Finished!!!

Before:

After:

8. Everything is Possible: None

9. Woodland Winter: None

10. Snowman and Friends: None

I bought a frame for Favorite Pony, which will be a gift for one of my best friends, over Easter break, but I didn't have time to frame it. Next time I'm home, I'll wash/iron/frame it and show y'all. I'm pretty happy with the $6.99 frame I found at Michael's. :)

Happy stitching!

2015 WIPocalypse: April Post

It's WIPocalypse time again! Or, it was a couple days ago, but I only just got back to school. I got to spend some wonderful time with my family and boyfriend, starting Good Friday evening up till today. It was so wonderful after a fairly hectic and draining week of projects, papers, and presentations to be with my loved ones. :)

The question for this edition of the WIPocalypse is this: "Which specialty stitches do you love doing on projects?  Which do you dread?"

I don't have much experience with specialty stitches yet, but I normally feel excited to learn a new stitch. It's fun to look up a YouTube video of the stitch and practice it a couple times. I love learning stuff!

I wouldn't use the word "dread," but I certainly get a little anxious about French knots in contexts where they need to be even (eyes, mostly). It's so tricky to make two in a row that look the same!

I haven't made much progress on my WIPocalypse pieces this month, but let's review them:

1. Honor Restored: Untouched

2. Love One Another: Untouched

3. Shell Collection: Untouched

4. Margaret Sherry Christmas Mice: Untouched

5. Bookworm Fairy: Progress!

6. Irish Grace: I've had a new start, which will become a priority. I've been hunting for a pattern of a specific Irish blessing that my brother Matthew loves for a while now, and I finally found the perfect one. I want to finish it in time for it to be a going-away-to-college present for him come August, but it's 9 pages! Here's a picture of the pattern and the little start I made on it yesterday:

Happy stitching!