The Stitch Up

Organizing and Planning for the New Year

I’ve been doing some planning for 2023.  I've created an initial list of crafts I want to finish this year and I'm also trying to develop a process for tracking their progress.

 

My working list of projects for 2023 is:

 

-Predator Cross Stitch for the Husband

-Macrame Hat Rack

-Complete Spanish Ladies Quilt

-Tea Towel Placemats

-Complete Sashiko Quilt

-Leo Horoscope vintage pillow pattern (and complete making both the Leo and Taurus pillows)

-Stitch the Year Tea Towel

-Frank Lloyd Wright Saguaro Cactus Cross Stitch

-Start the Western/Cowgirl Quilt

-Sew a Mexican Tourist Jacket

-Participate in the 2023 Mystery Quilt a Long

-Create a New Textile Necklace

-Establish Mending Days (and work through mending 'to-do' pile)

 

A couple of highlights from the list:

 

I’m finishing this Predator cross-stitch project by Son of a Cross Stitch.   It’s a gift for my husband and while I don’t totally understand the Predator love, it makes him happy so I'm happy to make it!

 

I’m also going to start a tea towel calendar for 2023. In the past I’ve loved September House’s tea towel calendar kits but as she didn’t have one this year, I thought I’d try this "Stitch Your Year" template from Stitch Doodles Design where you stitch some thing each month to reflect what happened or what the month meant to you. I’ve only just made it to transferring the template onto a tea towel so I’ve got to get moving so I can do a little stitching for January – I don’t want to be behind the whole year!

 

 

I managed to finish all the quilt blocks for the Spanish Ladies Quilt this month but I still have several “mosaic” tiles to finish embroidering on the quilt and I plan to add some fabric to frame the squares.  There's a decent amount left to do, but I think I can get this done in the next month or two and check this long term “WIP” off my list.

 

The other big thing I’m working on is a plan to update my project documentation process.

 

Last year I worked out of a notebook: and I captured some information about my projects there, but I wasn’t great at updating the status of the project and once I'd completed something I would often just put all my thread and other supplies back in my “stash” before documenting what I'd used for the project in the notebook.  This defeated a lot of the point for me as there are some projects I think I'd like to recreate and I want to have all the details of the thread colors, fabric, pattern I used etc.

 

My plan for this year is to create a “stitch palette” at the beginning of each project to document the threads and colors I’m using and then use a form or maybe a spreadsheet to try to track the time spent on a project and my current progress. I’d like to regularly be keeping track of how long it really take me to finish a project and how much time I’m usually spending on them.

 

My “test run” for a stitch palette is here:

 

 

This obviously isn't all of the colors used for this project, but this was good practice to set up a standard palette template.  

 

I think these goals are pretty realistic. I know I will probably add to my “to do” list through the year. New inspirations inevitably come up and I sometimes just get excited and want to jump into something right that moment despite whatever I have scheduled to work on next.  If my project priorities change over the year I think that's fine, I'm just looking for ways to stay motivated and organized.

 

I hope everyone is enjoying lots of inspiration and new projects in the new year!

Spring WIPs and Current Inspiration

February and March have been a little more eventful than usual around here.  We actually took a little trip.  (Head to my Flickr page if you'd like to see some Vegas pics!)  Despite that, I've finished a couple of items on my WIP tracker here on the blog!

First up, the 2021 Tea Towel calendar from September House.  I was happy to kick my stitching off this year with another of her great patterns and I'm happy with the way my color choices worked out:

Next up - the gradient half pi shawl.  I had a much more complex pattern for this, but it was really too much for my skill level so I ended up just searching out a basic half pi pattern online.  I think the yarn itself really elevated the basic pattern though and I'm love the result.  I used a Cashmere Lace weight yarn from Pepperberry Knits in  "Kitten", "Tahiti", "Mrs. Smith" and "Smoke".  Because of how light weight the yarn is I had to knit with double strands which was new for me, but it's such a smooth, soft result I'll probably try something similar again.

Unfortunately I haven't made much progress on the quilt squares.  I've cut out a couple test squares, but I keep going back and forth on the pattern that I want to use so I'm still experimenting.  Hopefully I'll have more on that project soon!

In the mean time, it's onto a couple new projects.  The first is my "travel project".  This is fairly small so it's what I stick in my "carry-on" to stitch on the plane or during down time at the hotel.  As we traveled recently I had some time to work on it and I'm getting close to finishing it up, so I'm going to knock it out.

I think this pattern is from the Colonial Patterns Wild Wild West , but I really have been carrying this around for awhile so I won't swear to it.  The plan was to use it as part of "Cowgirl Quilt" I have planned - it could still be a part of that, but it would also make a nice patch so we'll see!

The next project I'm going add to my WIPs is my Ida Tunnell sampler:

As I understand it, the saying "It'll Never Be Seen On A Galloping Horse was a fairly well used saying back in the day, but it was one my great grandma liked and used regularly so I'm attributing it to her for this sampler.  I'm back and forth on filling in the horse with stitches.  I'll decide after I finish the florals on the side.

One of my goals this year was to blog about what is inspiring me and use that to help focus in on what really resonates with me and my stitching.  Since I haven't blogged for a bit, I decided to combine my recent inspiration with my WIPs for this post.  

My current inspiration has been a really fun and eye opening project I've been doing with my friends.  Each week, one of us picks a few pages from the book Journal Sparks for everyone to work on and then we are sharing what we've come up with in a google doc.  

Much like the Spoonflower Challenge I did with my friend in January, this is really getting me out of my safe space and offering the opportunity to work in different mediums.  It's also making me dig a little deeper into how I see myself, my future and the world around me.  It's a great book and fun if you want something to kind of shake up your creativity.  It's also showing me some new sides to my girlfriends which is especially wild.  I've known these women for 40+ years and yet they still surprise me with their talent, sensitivity, humor and depth.  A few of the things I've made that were inspired by the journal prompts:

I think we'll keep finding ways to inspire each other even when we're done with this journal project.  These ladies really are stabilizing and motivational for me and I'm grateful every day that they are my friends.

I hope everyone is finding inspiration in the beautiful Spring weather, the new blooms, and the new optimism that things will be returning to normal.  Happy stitching!

January Inspiration

I've already mentioned how January is the month where my Type A personality really gets to shine and I fully indulge in organization projects, making lists and reorganizing.  But on the flip side, it's also the time of year that I like to get cozy.  As soon as I take down the Christmas decorations, I start decorating with Hygge in mind: Candles, throw blankets, and the occasional fairy light.  I've got a few different resources I use for Winter/Hygge inspiration. 

 

First, I have a couple of Winter themed home decor/craft books I crack open this time of year to get some Hygge inspiration ideas.

 

 

Making Winter has some great ideas for Winter crafts to bring the outside indoors or knit up something cuddly. I also love Selina Lake's design book Winter Living Style. It has different decorating themes for Winter including Homespun, Rustic and Scandinavian. Each of the different design styles has great ideas for getting that perfect Winter feel.

 

In addition to craft and design books I also horde (or rather curate!) back issues of Marie Claire Idees Magazin and they come in handy for inspiration every season.  It's not ideal to hang on to stacks of old publications but I find something new to inspire me every time I flip through these magazines so it justifies the space they take up in the craft room.

 

 

I've organized these magazines by season so I can easily grab all the issues I want to flip through for inspiration at once. For the past few years I've been getting the publication in digital format as I'm realistic about the amount of space I can take up with old magazines, but as great as the new issues are, I really do prefer being able to physically hold the magazine and flip through the pages.

My last source of inspiration this month is the Spoonflower Doodle-A-Day Challenge. My friend Teresa and I are doing this together and its really fun to see the different way we each interpret the same prompt. I'm posting each day's doodle on my Flickr feed if you want to take a look. 

 

 

I hope January is bringing lots of inspiration and cozy warmth to everyone!

Summer is Actually Still Spring and Inspiration

I vastly underestimated how long it would take me to finish my Spring projects. Either that or I underestimated how much life in general would get in the way of my important crafting deadlines.  Since we are well into Summer, my Spring Bohemian projects are really now Spring/Summer Bohemian projects. It's a little bit of a bummer as I had some desert themed projects in mind for Summer, but there's always next year!!

WIPs

Despite not wrapping them up, I have made some progress on my projects. I'm close to finishing up the Art Quilt project "Little Selfie on the Prairie". This started with a sketch and then I more or less played it by ear to create a portrait with fabric.

I'd planned to give this a crazy quilt look with some finishing stitches.  This has ended up being a little tough with the appliqué layers.  I should have done a lot of the crazy stitching on the background fabrics first, then appliquéd the girl and wagon on after, but - you make, you learn right?  I'm almost done with the stitching now and I think over all I'm happy with the result.

The knit shawl is in progress.  I'm finished with the first color, and have just moved to the next, which is a darker grey.  Two more colors after that so it's got a ways to go but this was another project that involved some new techniques to me, so I'm happy to be learning as I go.

Last but not least, the needlepoint bag - it's so much stitching!!  I finished one side, I'm almost done with the straps and then it's just ("just") finishing the other side.

At this point I think I'll still be working on this needlepoint bag through the end of the year, but it's so pretty it's worth the time!

Inspiration

I've been reading a book by Lisa Congdon called Finding Your Artistic Voice.  It's really helping me identify ways to focus in on what I want my "voice" to be as an artist.  I'm realizing that a lot of the things I've been doing this year with the "Bohemian Frontier" articles, some of the WIPs I've prioritized, and the themes I've been creating for each season are all methods I've been using to pursue a concept - I just haven't put everything together into a cohesive "voice".

Lisa Congdon's book recommends some exercises to get you to work through your inspirations, practice what interests you and get to that original idea or style that makes your art your own.  One of the exercises she recommends is making a "Family Tree" of your inspiration - making each branch one of the things you're inspired by.  I loved that idea but decided to make it an inspiration quilt drawing.

Congdon also has lots of interviews with other artists who give great advice on the process of creativity.  Overall, Im loving the book and I think even as a hobbyist I enjoy what I'm making so much more when everything is kind of clicking together and I think her books helps get you to that place.

 

 

 

Cool Stitch Stuff

I just wanted to post some cool stitching things I've seen around the web.  First up is a cool article from Smithsonian Magazine about textile student Zsannett Szirmay who transferred classic cross stitch patterns into long strips of laser cut textiles which she then played on a hand cranked music box.  The video for the article shows the pattern as it's played.  The music really sounds to me like what the pattern looks like if that makes sense.  Check it out:

 

I loved the article as well as the idea of hearing stitching, not just seeing it.

Another quick link is for this beautiful embroidery exhibit at the Met:

It's embroidery on menswear before 1815 and I wish I had the time to make ANOTHER trip to the Met for more drooling over textiles.  You can look at several photos from the exhibit on the Met site so I'm going to just have to make do with those this time unfortunately.

So many pretty things to see - hope everyone is soaking up lots of cool stitching links and starting Spring with some lovely inspiration.

New Tools and Inspiration for 2015

I was the very grateful recipient of some Amazon gift certificates for Christmas so I bought a couple of things that I think will make blogging and crafting easier and more fun in 2015.

First up - the Artograph Light Tracer Light Box:

I am constantly transferring patterns onto any number of fabrics and even in bright sunlight it's sometimes tough to see all the little details in a pattern that I'm tracing.  This often means filling in some blank spots later which is can be hit and miss.  With this light box I think pattern transferring is going to be much easier.

Next up - a little photo studio:

This is the Foldio which folds up flat when you're not using it so it's portable and you can take it wherever you want to go:

I took a photo of my solar powered waving Queen Elizabeth to test out the Foldio.

It looks pretty great!  I'm excited to use it for nicer photos here on the blog!

I also downloaded iDraw.  This is a graphic design and illustration app which I'm excited to get started with.  This is all new to me but I really want to create and share some of my own embroidery patterns.  I've drawn a few free hand which have turned out ok, but I'd love to have a more crisp, defined, professional look to patterns so I'm going to get smart on the iDraw and see what happens!  If I come up with any useful tips along the way, I'll share them here!

For inspiration, the husband gave me a lovely book for Christmas: Embroidered Textiles: A World Guide To Traditional Patterns.  This book has so many beautiful photos of intricate embroidery it makes you want to dive into a big embroidery project.  The information provided on which stitches are used and how they come together in different parts of the world are fascinating and I've been soaking up every chapter.  I hope to share a little more about some of the specifc patterns and techniques from different regions over the coming year.

2015 is already shaping up to be fun!  I look forward to sharing lots of great projects and more inspiration.