I missed my first quarter update but, hey, better late than never.

First, Dragon Ride by Teresa Wentzler is finished. This is stitched on 36 count Star Sapphire linen with the Anchor conversion published in the magazine originally. I added a Krenik to the reins and the backstitch may not be as charted because the colors on the chart were confusing so I did what looked good to me. Also, the celtic style border is not stitch and the addition to the tail to remove the border was charted for me by Dette.

Next up is progress on Stars for a New Millenium. I have it on my floor stand. The design is by Anthony Minieri and it’s stitched on 18 count rose canvas. This one is counted canvas work. It’s amazing on the shadow on the left border makes it look black but its the same lavender silk as the right border. This is worked in a variety of fibers. Mainly silk and Krenik.

Third is last year’s Stitch along – Into the Jungle by Frosted Pumpkin stitchery. It’s had a little progress since the first of the year but not much.

I don’t know why the fabric on this always looks grey in photos. It’s a 28 count antique lavender. The pattern this year’s SAL (Stitch Along) from Fuzzy Fox designs. You can see the start of the May monsters in the yellow blog on the right. I’ve done a bit of modification (hey, pattern is just a place to start). Burple is holding a fish charm that I picked up somewhere since it was in my button box. Also Jemima Jugglefish is juggling some buttons. I didn’t have the fuzzy orange for Pinky but I may get some and restitch her before framing if I get hold of some orange Wisper. I also added some eyes to those of Mr. Sprout’s friends who didn’t have them. I was going to add a some green to Mr. Sprout’s head but then it hit me, he sleeps with his feet in the air so the white hairy strings are appropriate unless they are a manifestation of Agrobacterium rhizogenes in which case, it will be interesting to see his transformation.

I was thinking of working on Tempest as I commuted on the train. However, the little bit of work I did on him while down at Stitcher’s Paradise in Las Vegas made me realize that the only way I could work on him on the train was if I took prethreaded needles. Instead, he’s going to be added to the Decision Wheel and go into the regular rotation. I’m using my commute time for some new starts from Armada designs. Tempest here is designed by Teresa Wentzler and was a freebie until she stopped selling her dragons. The color conversion was done by a good friend who started him and then gave up her stitching stash as her eyesight deteriorated.

And the final update for my Year of Wips work is Class Schedule. I have completed the Herbology block but haven’t really moved to any more of the classes. The borders and lettering are silks from Jo Mason Silks. The fabric is from Picture this Plus. We’ll see how this month moves as my Maynia goal is to put in at least one thread a day in at least one project besides my commuting piece.

So this is what I accomplished in the first quarter of the year along with looking for and finding a new job, starting same new job, finding and meeting lots of hubby’s bio family (thanks to winning 2 Ancestry DNA kits) which has been absolutely amazing, feeling guilty about not coaching or working on my book, working on the board planning for DevOps Days SLC (which is in 2 weeks), giving my first public speech at a tech conference, participating in the year of not resorting to fast food or eating out when things get busy (see Black Forge Kitchen), getting back to walking 10,000 steps per day (but haven’t made it back to the gym or yoga classes), and trying to connect more with hubby and kids while taking care of church callings (luckily related to geneaology) and the house.

So it doesn’t look like I did a lot of stitching but there was a ton of other stuff going on.