Category Archives: Cross-Stitch

World Cross Stitch Day

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Its a thing. Who knew? I certainly didn’t know until I heard it mentioned on a couple of YouTalube channels.

So – just like all the other days this week – I decided to do some cross stitching in honor of…. no really, I was stitching because it is so much more enjoyable than cleaning, organizing, or going to the post office.

So – here is the next entry in Witchy Stitcher’s Supernatural SAL – the Jinn. Of which I have started the frame

 

and the Barn Owl – with another 1000 or so stitches. Almost ½ way…

 

 

and the photos (which didn’t want to  load – finally got added on the 13th.

 

 

 

phones, zoom, stitching

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It looks like Thursday is going to turn into my socialization day. Or conference day. But with stitching.

I have had one standing Thursday night call for ? maybe a year? with a friend who lives in the middle of nowhere northern Idaho. One of those lovely, nature filled places with peace, quiet, and limited internet which arrives via Satellite. Now, if you travel in a lot of countries other than the US/Canada/UK/OZ, the idea of limited internet is par for the course. Out in the middle of nowhere means that you pay a much higher fee than those of us living in developed world major metro areas. Life continually on your phone isn’t an option when there is no cell phone coverage…

Anyway – I am adding in a call with a colleague from UC Hastings. She is working on legislation monitoring for health care and public health. I am not sure I want to volunteer for any heavy lifting for any alumni association/affiliation groups – but I am more than willing to be a sounding board.

Then there is the standing UCSF Thursday Grand Rounds for which I can get free CME. This is a good deal. Apparently there has been enough interest that it will stay in hybrid mode for the foreseeable future.

And now I will add a Zoom in with a fellow stitcher who lives in Florida giving me a couple of chances to chat, stitch, and generally socialize.

Not counting all the evenings I spend overlapping with Jill in Australia over FaceTime.

I am really not sure how I managed to get anything craft wise done in all those years I was working full type. Deployed time? Yes, but home? Maybe that is why I have so much “stuff.” All things I got to use “later.”

I finished From the Hearts January Mini Sampler.  – I have finally tracked down all 12 months and will be stitching them on the same piece of 18 ct. Aida from someone.

Then, I added 600+ stitches to the Spangler Dragonling

 

 

before shifting back to the BarnOwl.  This will be the last of this series I am stitching till the next three are out so I know in what order I want to stitch them.

Haunted Library – Prologue

Holly Doyne Posted on by

And all 5000+ stitches of the Prologue to Lola Crow’s Haunted Library SAL have been completed…

This is where I started

and it was 1046 stitches to finish this section.

you can’t seem them easily, but there are one stitch orange flames on the top of each and every candle… plus books, skulls & a skeleton cat…

Virgo

Holly Doyne Posted on by

There were a lot of things I could have done today. Most of them involved either being sociable or cleaning. Since I just returned from being out of town and potentially exposed to “who knows what,” that became my excuse to avoid people for almost all of the day.

And cleaning? Is there anyone who really loves to clean?

So I decided to spend the day on Virgo – the next of the Nora Corbet Zodiac Girls.

This is where I  was on the 2nd which was the last stitching before heading to Missouri-

and this is where I ended last night –

which was a total of more than 1600 stitches later including a lot of Kreinik. There are less than 300 stitches to go before this one joins her sisters in waiting for backstitch and beads. Then it is on to either the Barn Owl or the Haunted Library.

BNS – Camp Day 3

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Why are there games and challenges you ask? Because this is Summer Camp!

Ok, I did an attitude readjustment on myself yesterday evening and decided that watching was fun and not participating in some of the insanity was completely my choice. The lovely woman from Quebec who sits next to me and I have decided that we are observers and otherwise stitchers. When the room gets too loud, we take a break.

There are some amazingly talented people in the group and I am making the table rounds a couple of times a day to see what projects are being stitched. There was also a beginning knitting impromptu class being run. Two had decided that they wanted to knit socks. It was quietly suggested that starting with a washcloth or two might let be a better introduction. There was the snail hunt (don’t ask), prize drawings, the charity raffle, and a fair amount of noise.

I headed for my room about 2100 for a bit of quiet. There are no children running in the halls here, nor are there drunks partying after midnight – so definitely an improvement over the last retreat hotel…

I managed to complete more of one stairway in the Haunted Library SAL

With the first of four skulls plus the cat skeleton. Sunday will see this side finished and the second staircase side I think I will manage during the week.  Then I will be caught up till 2 Sept.

I am making steady but careful progress up the tail on the Owl. I am missing one color, as it was backordered when the pattern was shipped. That is ok, there are 6500 other stitches to complete…..

BNS-2, Independence, MO

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Day 2 of the stitching “camp.”

I am thinking that I just might be a bit old for summer camp. Not too old for stitching, not too old to enjoy chatting with other stitchers, not too old to appreciate seeing other people’s projects. But I am too old for “games.” But then, I think I hated such games even when I was a kid.

I don’t remember going to camp more than once in the “below” ten age group. I can vaguely remember absolutely hating the experience so my current attitude might just be a reflection of that long ago and absolutely best forgotten experience. Given the age range here – which is lending itself much more to parent of small to medium age child – I can understand why there just might be an appeal. But I am an older grump and am not going to:

  1. participate in a scavenger hunt that mostly consisted of grabbing selfies all over the place
  2. dig through my stitching stuff to grab a particular item before standing up and waving it. Especially cash – Who carries cash anyway?
  3. go outside in 37*C heat to make S’mores?
  4. hang out for a group photo?

 

You get the idea.

I came to meet a few people, see what others are stitching, stitch. relax. (I would add avoid cooking, cleaning, laundry but honestly, I don’t do much of that at home anyway.)  I wandered through the vendor room and bought little. And stitching…

Made progress on the Haunted Library SAL

the fifth monster, the Zombie dropped in the Supernatural SAL. Now all I have to do is finish up the black on the body and find a small strand of the three new colors which, of course, I don’t have with me…

and I put my usual one strand into Leo. Not bothering with a picture since I don’t think anyone could see the minuscule change.

 

 

the headless bear

Holly Doyne Posted on by

The Bear – from Cottage Garden Samplings – A Year in the Woods. There are a lot of stitches in this bear, trust me on that. I think, in fact, that he is the densest so far of the seven I have stitched. (Well, almost stitched in this case).

But he needs his head, along with the rest of the cattails and the cottage.

Why not his head? I was filling in areas while sitting in my car at the SFVA waiting to log in, get connected and “participate” in a scan. As I mentioned before, I drive in early because I would rather sit in my car listening to an audio book and stitching than I would leave later and spend time in traffic. At some point, it might just be reasonable to go back to BART – but I am not there yet.

Speaking of heads – I participate in a once a month Zoom meeting dedicated to “Fancy Folk stitching.” It creates a bit of an incentive to make progress. Since I finished Leo yesterday, I decided to work ahead on Virgo.

As mentioned – without backstitching and embellishment – zombie might just be the correct word…

Leo Completed

Holly Doyne Posted on by

well = all but beads and backstitching.

seven/twelve…

and if I get ambitious, I might just tackled beads and backstitch

But I have an early run to the SFVA and won’t be doing that tonight…

late to arrive, early to rise

Holly Doyne Posted on by

You would think that after landing close to 0130 in the morning at SFO. Having the “exciting” challenge of finding my suitcase and getting home after 0200 I would have crashed till midmorning. Oh, not so.

But first – EWR. We finally took off shortly before 2300 I believe. The flight was quiet and not as uncomfortable as it could have been. It doesn’t help that there was only one jetway. So all of us seated in cattlecar in the rear had the opportunity to see 1st class, business class, premium economy, and mid-range seating before finding our seats. The new 777 also has more headroom which is accomplished by smaller overhead bins.  (Queue unhappy people with wheeled cases greater than 19″).  I will say I prefer SW’s boarding process. It is much much faster and the isles are wider. I don’t know how anyone with either a mobility challenge or a significant number of excess weight manages to get to their seat.

On landing, I was greeted with a txt that said my suitcase arrived on an earlier flight. The baggage claim area was a mess. At least a dozen areas roped off packed with luggage. Three poor clerks attempting to help people locate luggage. No signs on any of the areas indicating origin of the luggage. The upset passengers performing for everyone wasn’t helping the line move. I left George in the line and went on a scavenger hunt. Finally locating my lonely little bag three areas past the service counter, I attempted to check out with one of the baggage attendants; no dice, the four of them were so busy complaining to each other they couldn’t be bothered.

I could have loaded up a luggage cart with all sorts of interesting bags and just left. Some security. I just wheeled back to George, we headed to the car and home. So why, I wonder, was I up at 0700 (PDT)?

Anyway, I spent the day upstairs in my craft room away from everyone. I am staying quarantined for at least a couple of days. Unlike my previous experience, no one here was ill, but I still don’t want to take any chance. A couple of nights sleeping upstairs aren’t going to hurt me any.

I managed a lot of stitches into Leo (the Seventh Zodiac girl). Other than backstitch, beads and a few random stitches, I have only the top of the “frame” to complete.

Tues-Thurs are going to be a lot of errand running. I am hoping to finish the Bear as well. .

 

Pizza Party!

Holly Doyne Posted on by

In case it wasn’t clear, this is a cross-stitch repeat. No trains, boats, or ships involved. I would say no planes, but that would be stupid since it is obvious that I flew out here and will be flying back on Monday. The idea is actually fairly simple; get a bunch of people together who have a love of a particular craft together. This particular retreat isn’t put on or sponsored by a needlework shop or professional organization. Instead, it is the work of a particularly dedicated needleworker & designer. Lot of work for the love of the craft. About ½ of the attendees live within reasonable local driving distance and are commuting daily. There are a number of others who drove from various locations on the east coast or south of here.  The maybe 1/4 remaining are from scattered location; two of us from California, one from Vancouver, one from Hamilton (Ontario), another Canadian, a woman from the Netherlands and one from Sydney (AU). I would have to look at the list to add in some of the other locations.

I am sitting at a table near the door. There might be more traffic in an out than I would choose, but the air circulation is great. Three of us are firmly and carefully masked. The other five at the table? Not so much – a three family generation group of stitchers who joined the first of us early this morning. This adds the oldest (82) and the youngest (14) stitchers to the mix.

Enough said on that.

This bear is still nowhere near complete:

I should be able to finish him today – which will just leave the cottage and all of the cattails.

The fourth “thing” dropped on the WitchyStitcher’s Supernatural SAL. I got as far as I could with the treads I had with me. This leaves about 150 stitches to complete once I get home.

My last project of the day is a present. I decided that this was as good a weekend as any to finally finish it (last picked up in March of 2020).Of course, the fiddly bits are left. I am planning on taking photos of some of the items on the brag table in the morning..

But I have saved the most important part to the end. Tonight’s Pizza party was an included activity. There were four choices of pizza, there was salads, cookies, and canned drinks. The three of us decided that “smart” meant we ate in the lobby. We also packed it in about 2000. Others I am sure stayed till 2200….

 

Woodbridge NJ

Holly Doyne Posted on by

is across the country from where I live. Duh.

It is about a five hour flight, give or take a few minutes. Plus boarding, taxing, take off, landing, hanging out till a gate clears, disembarking, locating the loo, finding baggage claim and hanging out till the baggage actually shows. up.

None of that counts getting to SFO for an 0700 flight. Nor attempting to find one’s Lyft driver in the total disaster area that is passenger pickup outside Terminal 3 at EWR (Newark for those not completely familiar with the most common US Airport codes) at 1600 in the afternoon.

Needles to say, it was an extremely long day.

And, as for the reason for the trip? Indulging in a stitching retreat. Yes, I know I did that last month. In all the years of intensive weaving, knitting, and spinning I was never able to get to anything remotely like this. Yes, such things existed, but I just never managed the time/distance/expense factors on top of family/work/living location. So this summer is my chance to go, meet, and do. Unlikely that I will repeat the experiences.

Ok – yes. Knit, Needle & Hook get togethers on ship fun. I have met wonderful people, many of whom I am in contact with 10+ years later. But it isn’t the same as a dedicated weekend.

We are at the Hampton Inn. Allegedly it is under construction, Unlike my last experience – this place is neat, clean, and extremely organized.

my room is spacious and significantly less expensive than what the same room was supposed to be in Cincinnati.

So I will see how it goes. At least once I get over being tired and what always proves to be 3 hours jet lag.

Leo

Holly Doyne Posted on by

as in the zodiac sign. If I am counting correctly, this is the seventh in the Nora Corbett Zodiac Girl series.

I started her yesterday, just a couple of days ahead of the sign shift.

I am a bit over half way. Unlike many of the other patterns in the series – this one is almost 1/3 Caron Waterlilies Silk thread – the two colors being named Papaya & Winter Wheat.  The fabric is 32 ct Vintage Country Mocha. Also, unlike several of the other patterns in this series, there will not be quite as many beads. (no, I am not crying about that). So far, the stitching has been relatively easy – blocks of color but it is about to switch to ribbons of alternating colors both below and above the girl’s head.

In case you might be interested – this is what she will look like when finished.

But I need to hang it up earlier to tonight – I have an 0700 flight out of SFO so it will be super early up and likely a Lyft to the airport.

Camouflage

Holly Doyne Posted on by

In case you were wondering the why of the coloring of California’s black tail deer – I present the following:

these two characters are the offspring of the doe who seems to spend an inordinate amount of time resting near our patio among the flamingo lawn ornaments.

Otherwise –

The Banshee is complete – I changed her coloring, eliminated the cross on the tombstone and added a belt.

And then there is more progress on the Bear – not being a tiny fellow – I am not even 50% done on him…

And a new tire

Holly Doyne Posted on by

After getting through my 0800 conference call and waiting on George to finish his, we went and picked up Dani’s car and dropped it off at the tire place. The guy there took one look at the old tire and said that there was no way it could be repaired.  Ok – so donut off and new tire on. Check. Return when we call, no later than 1400. Check.

So there I am on San Pablo Ave. in Richmond. Somehow it hadn’t sunk through till I looked around, that I was an easy walk from Shana’s house. Do I have enough sense to call? Nah, I just walked over to find that she wasn’t home. I made myself comfortable on the back patio and stitched for a while.  After they returned from story hour at the library, I had a chance to visit with Shana while Lev took a well earned nap. 

Car done early, I hiked back to the tire place then drove the car back to Dani’s work. Starbucks, at one end of this particular strip mall was almost deserted inside with a line practically around the block for the drive thru. Note- I live in Berkeley – I don’t know of a drive-thru anything in my town. But then, we really don’t have any strip malls either….

The rest of my day, after George picked me up, was quiet. Some organizing, some stitching. 

OH! Noah fixed my PC laptop (as opposed to the MAC that I use for just about everything). It had lost its internet ability. He had checked with the manufacturer – nothing there – it was part of a lot outright sold to Amazon. Amazon? This was more than 30 days…. So my choices were computer store or Noah. Queue the second choice. Turns out the connection card, located for some reason below the extra memory was loose. He seated it back where it belonged. Wifi back. 

Detour from The Bear –

to playing computer games….

Frog Pond

Holly Doyne Posted on by

and no lily pad.

There are days on which (in which?) attempting to accomplish anything is not a good idea. So it went today. Probably the only thing I successfully managed was cooking dinner. 

First I wanted to complete the Banshee – this week’s entry in the Supernatural SAL.

So I happily stitched the frame, then started the interior before electing to extend the outside border along  the side. Then I realized that the two boarders weren’t matching up the way they should.

See those little bumps along the inside of the Banshee’s frame? There should be four of them, not three..

So I carefully picked out the 350+ stitches that had been added today. So I moved on to the Bear (Part of the Cottage Garden Samplings series) and hit a “one stitch off section” 

Obviously, stitching is not going well today and it is time to move on to something easy, like simple mosaic computer games. Who came up on the first entry?

*both stitchers and knitters use the term “frogging” because you “rip it, rip it” all out.

the whole family

Holly Doyne Posted on by

and we wound up skipping the pictures.

It is Sunday. With George’s birthday tomorrow, it seemed more sensible to celebrate today. WIth all four of our adult children in the area + SILs + grandson we elected to hold a late afternoon BBQ.

Of course, if I had remembered to accurately tell everyone the timing ahead of today it might have gone more smoothly. We have a family WhatsApp group and if I post something there, I can blithely say that the responsibility just transferred to the recipients. But I didn’t. As a result, not everyone had enough advanced notice.

I had asked about food. That went well.

But right now, I am just glad that we have all come through the last couple of years with health intact. Yes, there have been challenges, stumbles, etc. But everyone is A&W.

So, obviously I stitched a whole lot less than I do on an average day. But then, I also lost time to cleaning and sorting which resulted in two packed small wastebaskets of papers&things to toss and an “organized for now” collection of ring binders of patterns, past & current projects, and reference material.

My next planned sewing project will be binder covers with the label embroidered on the spine.

With Cancer (Zodiac Girl) completed (photo tomorrow) I moved back to my only full cover piece – one of the Spangeler Dragonling book spines.

with just the purple& orange mob cap appearing. Still almost 11k of stitches to go, but I am making progress…

Cancer (the Zodiac Girl)

Holly Doyne Posted on by

and no reason for any panic.

adding in shading, face details and the start of her head piece makes her much easier to see. 30%, maybe, done and a lot of stitches to go. Especially Kreinik – 600+ stitches of that metallic twisty stuff. Not my idea of a good time….

another Zodiac

Holly Doyne Posted on by

just a small start on Cancer – which I would like to have finished by mid-month

Since this piece is stitched on 32ct linen in Vintage County Mocha – I started in the center with the called for DMC. 

which means without any other color playing in or backstitching – she is almost impossible to see!

Leshy Complete

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Pattern by the Witchy Stitcher

stitched on 16ct something or other with a combination of DMC and Forbidden Fiber Co thread substitutions along with a Ship’s Manor or two.

as promised a significant time ago – this will be heading to Miriam’s house to join Baba Yaga

It is a lot of black

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Rather than go on a rant about holidays, hypocrites, and contaminating the environment with fireworks, I dealt with DMC 310 practically the whole day.

DMC 310 (not that you are interested or anything) is the color number for black. I bought a cone of the stuff last fall when it was obvious that buying it a skein at a time was stupid. There are 8 meters in a skein. One pattern alone (The Cryptid one from WitchyStitcher) used almost 10 skeins. So I purchased my own “Cone of Doom.”

The above mentioned designer has a new stitch-a-long called Supernatural Monsters – or some such thing. It also needs a lot of black. The frame was released 1 June, and the critters will escape weekly pretty much through fall at the rate of 3/month with that fourth week being for catch-up. m

Siren is the first –

which I started yesterday and finished today.  I don’t have all of the frame done, but I will do it like I did with the last one and stitch it as I go.

So, while I was dealing with all that black, I pulled out Leshy which I have been stitching off and on for a number of months (same designer). By the end of the day – it was a matter of about 1000 stitches of black left. Blech.

See the side pieces – those are trees with a lot of branches. And all black…