All posts in category TW

Choices for the next WIP to work on…

I am hours away from finishing Fruit Bell Pull by Teresa Wentzler. I probably won’t finish it tonight but it will be finished tomorrow. I have only a little backstitching and the border on the last block left. That means it’s time to pick the next project or decide to move to an active rotation.

Being the data geek that I am I have multiple options when I sort my spreadsheet. If I go with the oldest projects I’m looking at Pegasus started in 1982.

pegasus

OR Rainbow Unicorn started in 1983

or if I stick with Cross-stitch Dragon Ride from 2000

If I sort by Percentage complete, I’m looking at the Dr. Who Quilt

Or The French purse kit I inherited from my Grandma

If I go with projects with the fewest remaining stitches. Those would be Tempest and Ecology

Or I go with the Carousel Horses which are on the highest count fabric and my eyesight is going. (Summer is the closest to complete)

It’s a good thing that I have an evening to decide what to work on next.

However, suggestions are appreciated.

3 Comments

by shondratasha on November 29, 2017 • Permalink

Posted in Carousel Horses, focus, Free time, hobbies, Stitching, TW

Tagged Cross-stitch, Cross-stitching, hobbies, Hobbies; Focus, quilting, rotation stitching, teresa wentzler, TW, TW Carousel Horse, WIPs

Posted by shondratasha on November 29, 2017

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2017/11/29/choices2workon/

January wrap up

So the month is over and I spent more time playing video games than stitching. But I did make progress. The goal was to finish the TWRR and get it mailed back. It didn’t happen but I’m over half done.

There is still some back stitching to do on the left side and then it’s just a matter of mirroring it on the other side. I also did a little work on the Dr.Who quilt.

Eve’s signature is almost finished. Colin’s is started and after last weekend, I have Karen’s and Billie’s to stitch. I think I’m done with the collection now. Unless I could get Eccleston.

So going into February -goal is to finish the TWRR and either work on the Fruit Bellpull or Tidepools.

2 Comments

by shondratasha on February 3, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in Stitching, TW

Posted by shondratasha on February 3, 2015

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/january-wrap-up/

Wednesday WIP pre-Olympic post

It’s Wednesday and the night before the Olympics which means I should have a ton of progress to report next week.

Kustom Krafts Fire and Ice

I’m at about halfway through the 10 hour rotation slot on F&I and I’m coming pretty close on my goal to finish pages 2 and 3.
Normally my travel piece, the Circus Carousel has received some love this week since I went to the phlebotomy class of my daughter by another mother and we had the boy scouts over to watch movies which meant I didn’t have access to my stitching stand.

I love the Olympics. Before I blew out my knee, I used to love doing moguls and ballet but that sledding accident ended my skiing since I can’t take the side pressure anymore. But I love watching them. I looking forward to seeing the competition and although I know that NBC is going to screw the pooch on the coverage, I’m hoping there is enough posted on the Internet from other country’s media to help me see what I want to see. So, just so you know, I hope you are doing something fun for the next two weeks since I’ll be glued to TIVO.

Working on challenging pieces or why over half of my WIP’s are designed by Teresa Wentzler

I was asked by Carla from Sceal Teach to answer a few questions about my TeresaWenztler stitching and a bit about myself. I’ve sent her some details but I’ve answered the other questions here. The interview on her blog is February 4th and she’s had some great interviews this month.

How many Teresa Wentzler patterns have you stitched?

Completed:

Think Snow! (on a sweatshirt for my brother – a skier during a drought year)
All Six Rocking Horses (Chestnut, Dancer, Diamond, Misty, Sweetheart, and Trotter)
Knotwork Bookmark
Stretch (on Pillowcases)
Tempest (on the pocket of a shirt)
FutureCast
All the freebie ornaments
Under the Evergreen
Fantasy Sampler – The 1994 DMC color change almost ruined this piece. However 6 years hanging in full sun fixed the issue.
Winter Carousel Horse
My piece of Peacock Tapestry for TW (a group on the board stitched it for her since she didn’t have it)
The Byzantine Ornaments
The TW Round Robin (Seven Samplers, Seven People)

On the WIP list:

Patterns I have all kitted up and ready to go once I finish something on the WIP list

The Carousel
Peaceable Kingdom
Carousel Rabbit
Carousel Goat
Holly and Ivy Sampler
Tracery Dragons
The Dragon and the Princess
12 Days of Christmas
Gentle Creature
Pegasus
Unicorn
Peacock Majesty

What made you decide to take on the Peacock Tapestry?

Teresa often came to her Yuku board and in conversation with some of the stitchers she mentioned that she didn’t have stitched copies of some of her pieces. Peacock Tapestry was one of those. So we hatched what was known on the TWBB as “an evil plot.” We decided to stitch PT for Teresa. There was an organizer who divided the pattern and gridded the fabric. We each did a section. I believe my section was 4 x5 blocks part of the border, some of the leaves and an edge of tail.

For you, what was the most difficult part of stitching the Peacock Tapestry?

Getting my section done in the 3 week time slot before I had to mail it to the next person. Oh, and I hate backstitching.

Any advice for those stitching or planning to stitch this pattern?

Teresa has said many times that PT is the hardest of her pieces. The Castle is usually the recommended starting piece after the freebies for getting into her designs. Teresa is often called the Queen of Blended threads with good reason. The detail in a Teresa Wentzler design comes from the subtlety of her color changes. She achieves that with blended DMC.

With all the confetti stitching, it’s really easy to lose count of where the stitches go and where you are. I find it helps to take either Sulky thread or Accentuate and grid out the blocks of the pattern. I pull out the grid threads as I finish the block in that area. I like the Accentuate because it’s difficult to pierce while stitching.

Oh, Please tell us about the World Wide TWBB GetTogether, how you ended up moderating the Diminutive Dragons forum and what you are doing with it now..

The cool thing about Teresa is she enjoys talking to her fans and she loves to see how they do her designs. Back in 2000, I was invited to Pennsylvania where Teresa suggested we have a get together for the stitchers on the board. It took some time but we put together an event in Las Vegas in 2004. Teresa gave us all the first shot at Knotwork Bookmark and Futurecast. We also had a lesson on Hardanger from Julie Norton, a trip to Stitcher’s Paradise and an awards night.

I was approached by an all board moderator and asked if I would be willing to take the diminutive dragon since I had stitched them all (this was pre-Rampant) . As for my plans for Diminutive Dragons, I would love to just get people visiting the TWBB again. It seems that since we all joined Facebook and Teresa had life hit her hard so she didn’t have a lot of designing time, the place is a ghost town. When it was active we used a lot of acronyms and there is an acronym page which is announced in one of the forum titles. Teresa does still answer questions in the Ask Teresa section but usually someone else knows the answer and will point you to where it is.
Also, 2011 was the year of Carousel Horses – feel free to browse the posts..Archive is on the right.

If any of the TWBB crowd see this and want to help support Carla with her year of TW stitching – feel free to leave comments here or on her blog.

6 Comments

by shondratasha on February 2, 2014 • Aside • Permalink

Posted in Carousel Horses, TW

Tagged Cross-stitching; feel like I'm bragging

Posted by shondratasha on February 2, 2014

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2014/02/02/working-on-challenging-pieces-or-why-over-half-of-my-wips-are-designed-by-teresa-wentzler/

Gotta love graphics programs…Voting requested…

It’s Wednesday!! Here is the WIP for this week.

Back in 1996 I really liked the work of a designer whose work was published by Just Cross Stitch. I started buying everything that I could of Teresa Wentzler and another Just Cross Stitch designer, Cathy Livingston. My Sister in Law saw my collection of patterns and asked me to stitch the Fruit Bellpull for her. She bought all the supplies exactly the way they were listed in the pattern. I started working on it and then got sidetracked. I had been making hand stitched ornaments for her and one Christmas when I went to deliver it and the presents for my niece and nephew, she couldn’t be bothered to come receive her present. So I stopped stitching for her.

Fast forward and I haven’t seen or spoken to her in over a decade and I have a nephew I’ve seen once from a distance at a funeral. I don’t know his name – I think it’s Bjorn. Anyway, with that history I had no reason to work on the Fruit Bell Pull. However, two summers ago I repainted my TV room and it’s about the same color as the bone Brittney on the bellpull so I now have a place on my wall that I could hang it so it’s time to work on it again. This is what it looked like at the end of 2013.

And this is what it looks like tonight.

So I have a bit of back-stitching and the border and I’ll be ready to work on the next block. Back in 1996, I planned on changing the order of the blocks and doing it peaches/grapes/apples/plums/pears/cherries instead of the original pattern pictured below.

In the intervening years, I’ve begun to understand the importance of weighting a design at the bottom with darker colors. If I stitched this the way it was originally designed, it would be the first piece in years that I’ve done exactly as charted, with the supplies as recommended. I’m not sure I can handle that. Maybe I should add some beads? Or I could swap the pears and plums as I originally planned. I’m just not sure how I want to do it…

2 Comments

by shondratasha on January 23, 2014 • Permalink

Posted in family, hobbies, Stitching, TW

Posted by shondratasha on January 23, 2014

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/its-wednesday-here-is-the-wip-for-this-week/

Wednesday WIP post (on time for once)

So here is my progress for this week. Apples are almost done and the leaves have progressed nicely. I didn’t have any scroll bars free so I’ve been working on it with a hoop and I left the hoop on the other night and I’ll need to do some ironing before I move to the next square. For a TW and limited stitching time it’s been moving quick.

Another Late Wednesday WIP post…

First off for show and tell is my Celtic Steps on 40 count silk gauze. I thought the penny made a good comparison for the size of the finished piece.

Next is a shot of my decade old WIP that I pulled out this month.

Okay that is odd it shows up with the peaches on top and not sideways in the file before the upload. I guess this is WordPress’s idea of “helping” me with an odd shaped vertical picture. Anyway, I’ve made some good progress on the apples block, I wish I had taken a before picture so you could see the progress but I’ll try and get a WIP picture on Wednesday because I have made progress since this picture was taken.

I also finished making my Lizzie Kate Halloween piece into a pillow on Saturday but I haven’t taken any pictures of it. So that was my week in hobbies, how did your week go?

3 Comments

by shondratasha on October 20, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in hobbies, Stitching, TW

Tagged Cross-stitch, Fruit Bell Pull, hobbies, silk Gauze, teresa wentzler

Posted by shondratasha on October 20, 2013

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/another-late-wednesday-wip-post/

Pulling out a really old WIP

It’s TWOctober – this means working on one of the numerous Teresa Wentzler patterns I have already started. For the past several years, it’s been the Carousel Horses but this year, I pulled out Fruit Bellpull. I’m not sure why. It’s an ancient piece and I haven’t worked on it for almost a decade (I think the last stitches were in 2004) but there are reasons for that. See back when I cared what my husband’s sister thought and when I was trying to be nice to his family since he was trying to be nice to mine, I agreed to stitch Fruit Bellpull for his sister. She bought all the supplies with the help of a friend who wouldn’t stitch it for her and gave them to me to work on for her. She bought Lugana as the fabric. Well, I don’t stitch on evenweave – I’m a linen girl. So I would work on it and then rotate it out as soon as I could.

Then came the year after DH’s mother died when his sister could not be bothered to come to the door to get her Christmas gifts and she changed her number without telling us and started sending her bill collectors to our door. Yeah, gotta love family. So I put up the bellpull and forgot about it. Although I did send it out for a round with a UFO exchange.

This year however, it’s been calling to me. And I’m finding that with my deteriorating sight, evenweave is actually pleasant to work on. I don’t need the magnifier I can use my reading glasses and see it just fine. I’ve done quite a bit of work this week. I’ll see if I can find a picture of what it looked like before I started but if not, we’ll just start posting progress pics from where I am now.

And I may have to rethink my opinions on evenweave as a medium.

1 Comment

by shondratasha on October 15, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in hobbies, Stitching, TW, Uncategorized

Tagged Cross-stitching, Fruit Bellpull, hobbies, teresa wentzler, WIPs

Posted by shondratasha on October 15, 2013

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/pulling-out-a-really-old-wip/

WED WIP update

Just so you know… my first doctor was Tom Baker and you never forget your first Doctor. However my favorite Doctor is a toss up between 9 and 11. Yes, that’s right – I’m not a Tennant fan girl, although I would love to get a copy of him and Catherine Tate doing Much Ado about Nothing. That’s a ticket I would pay for…

And that is the introduction for my focus project at the moment – –

For those who have seen the pictures from last week – You’ll notice there are French knots all over 6’s tie. Seven is complete and I went with one of the alternate eight patterns since I really didn’t like the official pattern put out by Fandom in Stitches. You’ll notice that even though 8 is not finished, I have traced 9 and it’s ready to start as soon as I get some time to stitch.

And on to my other piece.

This is the other piece which got some love, I actually got a full hour put in on Fall this weekend and there is a part of head in there. I got quite a bit of mane done and the corner grape vines are almost ready to be called done. I have 6 hours left on him this rotation slot and I’m really hoping to finish all the border on this first page.

Just So you Know