A Fait Accompli

I have been following this grand scale project from the onset and so wanted to put in a stitch or two myself to help recreate such a work of Art and History. Thousands of hours by 260 needleworkers and 3 years later…The Plimoth Plantation Jacket is finished and you can see it in all its glory here.

Noh’eastah

I love those weather systems that bring the crappiest stretch of rain or snow (if I’m prepared) that leaves me hanging at home for the entire weekend. I’ve been stitching on the Skeleton Crew (Cross Eyed Cricket)…here’s the bowsprit and colorful witch figurehead:

I had a bit of a panic because the center mast seemed a little off from the center and I needed to stitch all the way over to make sure I gave myself enough of a buffer for framing. I’m a two incher rather than 3 and it’s times like this, I chide myself for being such a cheap Yankee. But it’s exactly two inches. I guess I bought a quarter cut and have about 5 extra inches on the other side. Whew! I’ve seen that happen with others and usually after quite a bit of work has gone into the piece.  
Anyway…I love these figureheads. There’s quite a history to them on ships particularly Whalers. I grew up outside of New Bedford and remember seeing figureheads either at the Whaling Museum or replicas around the area. So working on this piece I want to keep it colorful yet weathered, so naturally the majority of the colors have been swapped out for Weeks and Gentle Arts floss. This is a fun stitch and so perfect for it being Fall and Halloween.
Well I hope you are all having a good weekend and staying warm…and dry.

Fall is Here!

Fall has arrived. Although, the leaves have only begun to turn here in NoVA, apple season is in full swing and the temperatures say Fall has certainly arrived. So with the cooler temps and all the crops being harvested, Halloween is surely just around the corner. I couldn’t help but pull out a WIP that screams of ghostly fright:

This is Cricket Collections Skeleton Crew. As usual I swapped out the fabric and most of the DMC to Gentle Arts. Love that pumpkin.I couldn’t decide on a good combo for the checkered flag and what I ended up with just happens to be U of VA colors. Is it karma?
I have news…I was nominated by my boss and just learned I have been accepted to a program for a Systems Engineer certification (sponsored by my employer) which will enable me to pursue my degree far easier once I complete that program. UVA will be on the top of the list. This is pretty cool for someone who has made a side career of finishing my Bachelor’s degree and now surrounded by advanced degree co-workers. I guess it was pretty competitive process for others who are like me and well…my boss wants to see me advance my potential. So Yay Me!
I’ll close with one more snap of what was supposed to be a close up of the Skeleton Crew flag and ended up being an example of “Curiousity
killed the cat…satisfaction brought him back”

Dirty Jack (so named now after a friend’s Rock band)…the cat who, I have no doubt in a past life, prowled the deck of the Skeleton Crew ship. He drives me nuts with his devilishness.
He says, “Who??? Me”?!

Fall in NoVA

Well Howdy! HiYa! Hey There!…and whatever other salutations fit for bumping into someone you haven’t seen or heard from in a while. I can’t believe the summer is gone and 48 degrees outside this morning tells me Fall is definately here in NoVA. Where have I been? As a co-worker aptly puts it…this is the time of year that the Feds we work for back the truck up to our company’s loading dock (in a virtual sort of way now) to accept our “Deliverables”. So that means I have been wrapped up with work and writing several tech documents. ‘nuf said…I don’t want to lose you this early in the game. It’s all done now. After a work trip next week, I am free…free at last (until next Summer anyway).  So! Since I am back to trying to keep this dedicated to being primarily a stitching focused blog…here’s my latest installment of Quaker Gone Tropic:

I’m not going to win any speed stitching awards on this one. I am currently stitching on the sailboat (near the anchor) and I occasionally go back to the big medallion in the middle. I have had a few questions posted in regards to this, so here are the answers:
Fabric: The fabric is Lugana Iris Garden 36 ct.
Floss: I have changed out all of the charted colors. I’m using Thread Gatherer Silk’nColors mostly and the crab is done in Nantucket Bay. I love that color. I’ll be using more of that color with other critters that will appear on there. The big medallion is Caron Waterlilies Molten Lava. The variegated yellow and orange half medallions are Silk’nColors Yellow Blush.
Well, I’m off like a cheap shirt…Johnny is nickering for attention. Thanks for keeping me on your blog roll/reader…the intent is there to post a little more often, but I’m down to currently using this platform only for my stitching progress. I have moved much of my other social networking to Facebook, it has been a blast to reconnect with so many people on there! Regardless, hopefully you’ll see some of my stitching forays and progress posted a little bit more often now that it’s Football season and work has allowed me to return to a normal life. Oh!While I’m here…I am finally getting around to getting the ”Pay It Forward” gift in the mail too…that has been on the outer portions of my radar scope and finally moved  into target range. In other words, I’m finally getting my integrity in line and getting that in the mail.

Until next time (next weekend hopefully), enjoy this fabulous time of the year where here in NoVA, my favorites are apple and pumpkin season, the horses get a little frisky with cooler temps, sweaters reappear, an extra quilt is needed on the bed and best of all…the Blue Ridge Mountains turn all kinds of fabulous colors with Fall foliage.
Cheers!

Quaker Gone Tropic Update

Well hey there! I couldn’t believe that it has been a month since my last blog entry. Work has sucked all of my desire or want of applying my creative writing skills since I have spent the past 6 weeks writing two rather large annotated briefs. But this is supposed to be a stitching blog and I have a little update to show on Quaker Gone Tropic:

Well see what I get for being away from WordPress for a few weeks. They have changed photo formatting and Lord knows why I can’t see the HTML coding of the pictures which allows me to be a little bit more creative. Instead I get “gallery”. I’m too motivated to get back to my stitching to spend wasting an hour figuring that out.
Anyway…I took the picture twice under two different camera settings so that you can how the fabric can pop out and then in the second how the floss pops…or is it vice versa? I can’t see them now that I posted them, so you be the judge. If you click on each picture, you will get a better view. I pulled out my 3 other attempts at color on the big medallion at the top. Now the work begins, because although I’m using a variegated floss, the base will be purple and the upper fronds or leaves will be red and gold. So I’m doing a lot of mental stitching to envision the end result. Meanwhile the other smaller medallions and such have been fun to stitch. Does anyone else ever turn their project (and chart) upside down so that counting up blank fabric is eliminated? It doesn’t seem to affect the stitch much from what I can see. It certainly alleviates frog visits…that’s for sure. Now someone will probably tell me I’m doing some terrible thing that will make my project ultimately look wonky. Pretty cool concept if it works…it’s like surprising yourself at the end of a stitching hour to see your progress when you turn back right side up.

Off to tackle the big medallion. Mental stitching…yeah…that’s my excuse.