Some stitching...

So, back in May of 2020, Part 1 of my Linen & Threads sampler looked like this:

And after adding most of Part 4, this busy little corner looks like this:

Never having exactly the same lighting when taking photos, I end up with slightly different shades of red showing up in the photos.  

Wishing now I had thought to take a larger (or whole) picture after every part was completed, I'm going to try to remember to do that - maybe I'll post that picture once a month.  Or maybe it will be more fun to just reveal it all when it's all completed.  I'll give that some thought. 

Meanwhile... this is what the whole thing looks like on this first Sunday in March.  Almost 1/3 finished:

While it's felt like I've let this thing languish and haven't accomplished much, it's kind of inspiring to see what the whole thing looks like to date - especially in a photo.   It inspires me to maybe be a little more diligent about working on it.   

A photo of the whole thing will also better show the smaller, extra motifs I plan to add to fill in some of the spaces - spaces that were originally designed to add initials of friends and family.  I didn't really want to have a lot of initials scattered throughout the sampler - so when I saw some other stitchers adding motifs in place of the initials, I knew I wanted to try to do that instead.  I'm finding motifs in a variety of places (some books I own, some OOP books I've found online, some free from blogging cross stitch designers) - the online sources I've linked to way down at the bottom of my blog.  👇  My hope is it will look a bit like an Eye Spy picture, and will provide on-going interest and even a bit of whimsy to the finished project.  Wish me well in that.  😉

~~~~~

And Tag No. 10 in the #52 Tag challenge was easily finished yesterday:

The "theme" of this one is Suffolk Puff (I've always known these as Yo-Yo's), and Lace.

And that's another wrap for another week!  It's gorgeous today, and supposed to be in the 60's several days this week!  I could almost cry with happiness.  😂

Goodbye February!

It's been a week!  A busy week and a beautiful week in our part of Indiana.  Sunshine, warm weather, an occasional spring-like shower...  The birds are singing, and I'm expecting tulips and daffodils to start popping through the soil any moment.  

But it's only February 28th.  And it is still winter.  So I'm cooling my heels doing estate settling stuff, slipping in a little hand-crafting when I can.  I kept Ruth company for a couple of hours one day - I have missed spending time with her during this COVID time.  In all the busyness and distractedness of February, my mindless knitting was dishcloths.  

The pattern for the solid cloths is Boxes, 

and for the variegated cloths I use the Darrell Waltrip pattern.

Since it was the month of "love" and "hearts" I gathered together a bunch of cotton yarns in pinks and purples and set myself to working through it.  On this last day of the month, I'm knitting up my 14th cloth. 

Someone usually asks if I have a plan for these cloths.  The answer is no, but a plan always seems to find my cloths somehow.  When the plan finds them, I am ready!

~~~~~

And this week's theme for the #52 Tags challenge was "Bits and Pieces" with a 'found' component.  Seems to me that every week's tag is made up of bits and pieces just found amongst my stash, so this one was relatively simple:

The "found" bit is the shiny beige strip of fabric, second from left, that I found as the lining of a tie of my brother's as I cut it apart - thinking the tie's outer fabric might be useful someday.  Actually, the lining fabric of the tie was much more interesting so I cut it out and put it in my stash.  There's a bit more of it, so it may show up in another tag at some point.   The rosette was made of a piece of crocheted edging that once upon a time was attached to a pillow case.

By the way, the pictures above were taken on the deck - where it was 60 degrees today.  The pictures in last week's post (scroll down) of crocheted snowflakes on top of snow were taken on the same deck.  Amazing the difference a week makes.  Yes, it's mighty nice outside right now.  

I hope you're enjoying some pleasant weather where you are!    😊

Small things...

 'Twas mostly a quiet, if busy, week at home due to the deep freeze many of us in the U.S. have experienced for a week now.  When I turned to crafting it was small things that caught my attention.

I decided to finish a snowflake I started back in early December.  It was one of the few advent crafts I did - remember that grand plan?  And while I had the crochet thread out, I decided to make a second snowflake by the same designer:

The Frostvale and Wispweave snowflakes are beautiful, if stunningly challenging (to me, anyway) on the last round.

And, actually, I think I also made the following two snowflakes in December, but I just recently blocked them:

Hesperiidae Snowflake and Merrymaker Snowflake

And, as often happens when I start crocheting with thread, my fingers just want more of it, so I looked through my 99 Little Doilies book and decided to make Doily #8 for the second time.

I gave away the first one, and I was missing it.

It's kind of crazy how much I want to make another doily.  Doilies can be addictive.  Until I make a really hard one.  Then I don't want to make another for a very long time.

And lastly, I finished Tag #7 for the 52 Tags Challenge:

The theme for this tag was "Hexis"

These cute little Hexis were made by starting with a circle and folding it and ironing it.  If you're at all curious, the video I followed is here.

And that's pretty much it!   This week will probably see my brother's house being listed for sale.   And then we wait...  hopefully, not too long.  I've already received one cash offer (it was too low), and am told there are two agents interested in showing it already, so we'll see!

Still lots to do on the homefront.  And the legal front.  And just keeping up with things.  

With the temps warming up a bit, I'm hoping I can motivate myself to get into a walking routine.  All that snow covering our yard will hopefully be gone by mid-week, and the piles maybe by next week.  It will be fun to see it go!

52 Tags Challenge continues...

Winter has finally set in to central Indiana - like it has in most of the eastern part of the US, it seems.  While it has had the effect of slowing me down, fortunately it doesn't appear that it will be sticking around longer than through this upcoming week.

Last week started off with some work being done at my brother's house, and me dealing with an eye infection.  Ugh.  It's the third eye infection I've had since October.  The first two cleared up pretty quickly within a few days by simply using hot compresses.  This time, though, I needed some help.  After several days of antibiotics, it's still there, but it feels much better.  Not quite as scary red and swollen.  

The reason I'm sharing this is in case it benefits anyone else.  The eye doctor said they've seen a lot more eye infections this year and they are wondering if mask wearing is contributing to it after all.   The fact that I didn't even see a doctor for the first two infections I had, I have to believe many infections clear up without ever being noted.  In other words, if doctors are seeing more eye infections in the office, there are even more likely going unreported.

Honestly...  listening to my doctor and doing some research about it, it now seems ludicrous to think masks couldn't be a factor to an increase in skin and eye infections (as some articles I encountered still suggest).  My husband also had a skin infection just under one of his eyes several months ago. I don't know if he was told his was staph, but he was treated for it and it took weeks to clear up.  

My point isn't to not wear a face mask.  I'm not there - yet.  If you have dry eyes and/or experienced eye infections since wearing masks, I suggest reading up on the problem, as it's multifaceted.  No one is suggesting that face masks directly cause eye infections.  Conversely, articles that dismiss the problem by stating "face makes don't cause eye infections" are misleading and don't get to the point or deal with the problem.  And worse, articles that simply call such claims false are written by lazy writers who do a disservice to people looking for real information. 

For me, a person with dry eye syndrome... this means, in addition to continuing to be fastidious about washing my hands and wearing fresh masks when one is called for, it may serve me well to take some extra precautions because those pesky sluggish oil glands in the eyelids (which is one cause of dry eyes) are more susceptible to infection.   I bought me a Bruder (eye) Mask to make warm compresses easier to do - hot, wet washcloths helped when I took the time to fiddle with them, but a mask that stays put and holds its heat longer makes it all much less tedious.   Bottom line:  take care of and pay attention to your eyes.  Dry eyes are more susceptible to infections.  If they're feeling dryer than normal, it could be more than just the dry winter air that's affecting them.  Regardless, it's wise to address the problem of dry eyes - not only for comfort's sake, but for the health of your eyes.

~~~~~

And with that PSA finished, now I'm on to what usually brings me in here on Sunday afternoons - my Year of Projects post.  After the busyness and not feeling so good the first half of last week, I found myself finally inspired on Friday to work on two more tags in the #52tagshannemade challenge.

The theme of Tag #5 is "Kisses"

Can you figure out how the theme "kisses:" is played out above?

And the 6th tag's theme is "Bevy of Buttons"

I think this one is self-explanatory.

If you're interested in Anne's Brooke's 52 Tags challenge, you can see her tags and videos here!

And that, dear reader, is all she wrote!

One step forward...

One step forward, two steps back, then maybe three steps forward...  Sparing you the details, that's what my life is at the moment.  The movement of settling an estate is always forward (there is no stopping or truly going backwards - at least not in my case), but unexpected things make it seem slower than it should really need to be.  That said, the week ended well, and resulted in moving into a new phase in the process - a phase where unknowns may lurk, but still I press forward.

And now, on to more enjoyable things...

Today's offering in my weekly Year Of Projects update is a simple tag.  The #52Tags challenge host made the theme of Week 4's tag the Fly Stitch.  I'd never encountered this stitch before, so I made my stitches the way the challenge host made hers. It was only when looking for a link to a tutorial for just this stitch did I realize that the designer (and I) made our fly stitches upside down.  

To be clear, I knew we were making them upside down (from the way we'd want them to appear when the tag was finished), but I didn't realize upside down isn't the typical way to make this stitch.   The host of the challenge is left-handed, so I wonder if that is why she stitches it the way she does.  Regardless, lesson learned...  I may want to seek out a separate tutorial for a new-to-me embroidery stitch when making future tags.  Here's the hostess's video for this challenge.  And here is a different video that is a tutorial for just making the Fly Stitch.   

All that aside, I did enjoy making the fly stitch, even upside down.  😅  It's a bit of a mesmerizing stitch.  The first sample I made (just below) was way overdone, but it was well worth having done it for what I learned - that, and it was just enjoyable to stitch:

While what I did above created a too-dense design that doesn't make a lot of sense to look at, I enjoyed meandering around the piece and crossing over earlier sections to create some depth to the "picture"  To be sure, there is a time and place for doing this, but I clearly need to learn some control.  😉

In my second attempt I didn't cross over previously laid stitches, but I did still enjoy meandering a bit and joining sections together.  I also enjoyed working with a variegated thread that had completely different colors in it - as opposed to the more subtly variegated threads above.

And since I haven't shown what the backs look like, here's a picture that shows more or less what the back sides of my tags will all look like:

Some people are writing short notes on the backs of theirs.  I'm just keeping mine plain - for now, anyway.  

And that's a wrap for this week!  

Even with several snows, we're continuing to have an exceptionally mild winter here - for which I am truly grateful.   How are things in your corner of the world?

The view down the street from my front door

~~~~~

Distracted...

My days right now seem to be spent going from one thing to another, so many details needing tending to as I work to wrap up my brother's affairs - in addition to minding my own home duties.   It seems this describes pretty much every day right now.   It has become the norm to go from room to room, heading into a task only to find myself sidetracked by another task, and at some point being confronted by some unfinished task I left on table or counter hours earlier.   

I know these days will eventually pass and the job of settling my brother's estate will draw down to something that doesn't require so much attention (or just thinking about) on nearly a daily basis as it seems to right now.  But for the moment, and with our having just wrapped up this kind of work pertaining to my mother-in-law's estate, it sometimes feels a bit mind-numbing to find ourselves here again - only this time, I'm in the decision-making seat instead of Hubs.

In the midst of so much distraction, I'm finding the simple 52 Tags challenge a nice reprieve from all the gear turning that goes on in my noggin' right now.  The gears slow down to a welcome pace as I sew, and before I know it, I've experienced a peaceful hour or two doing a simple, repetitive thing like hand-stitching that doesn't require much brain power.  

So, one more time, I finished a tag in the #52Tags Challenge hosted by Anne Brook

Tag 3's theme is "Scrappy".

These scraps:

got turned into this:

I confess, I got tired of stitching on all the little folded pieces of fabric, and decided to finish it up with some random strips of fabric hanging vertically, then sewed on three old buttons and called it day.  

If you're interested in seeing other tags from this challenge, pictures are found on Instagram.  It's fun to see the different interpretations of the challenge.  And I'm inspired to consider how to take more interesting pictures of these tags.  ;^)

~~~~~

There was a little stitching on my Linens & Threads sampler.  And also a bit of crochet happened.  The chevron blanket is growing slowly, but surely.  It will be done one day, too.   

This morning we watched church online, spent an hour zooming with our small group, and in just a little bit I'm planning on visiting friends, Jack and Ruth (Ruth is the elderly lady I used to help care for - before COVID), taking some banana bread I made yesterday.  Then I'll settle back in at home on this snowy day with some crocheting and maybe watching an episode of The Waltons.   And at some point, catching up with my blogging buddies.  😉

I hope you all have a good week.

A little crochet and a "tag" challenge...

This week saw me at home quite a bit, but somehow that didn't translate into much crafting.  I did do some crocheting on my chevron blanket, but I'll take another picture when it's further along. 

For some reason, this week I was inspired to give a whole new craft a try.   Jenny at Elephantz makes beautifully sweet embroidery patterns that I've admired for a while now, but this week she linked to a new challenge that just started up called 52 Tags hosted by Anne Brooke, a Textile Artist in the UK.  You can see more links at Jenny's blog above (and see her first tag), but I found this Youtube video that explains the challenge.

The stitching that will go into these is called "slow stitching".  Having watched a few videos I confess, I don't know how or why these are considered any "slower" than any other type of stitching or embroidery.  Shrug.  I suppose I'll learn more as I go along.  The real appeal of this challenge is that none of these tags are meant to take very long to make.  Truth be told, though, they can be as simple or complicated as a person wants to make them. 

Friday evening I made some tag bases from scrapbook papers that I have in my stash (using a brown craft paper for the back and pretty papers for the fronts):   

Just making these was kind of fun.  

Many people use pre-purchased tags, but I have so much decorative paper stashed, I couldn't see buying tags, and it was easy and fun enough to make my own.  It's actually interesting to see what some people are using as the tag base.   Some people have dye-cut machines they're cutting shapes out with.  I've seen hang tags from purchased clothing used.  One person is transforming a deck of playing cards into tags.  People are so creative...

At first I didn't think I'd manage to finish one to show today, but these were so quick to make, I actually finished two yesterday:

Tag 1 (the theme was "White"):

And Tag 2 (which I think was themed "Heart"):

If you're interested in just seeing a bunch of finished tags, the Instagram link is:  #52tagshannemade

We'll see if I actually manage to make a tag a week.    If I end up petering out, then the worst thing will be is that I'm left with a bunch pretty and fun paper tags to use for other purposes.  😊  It seems like a pretty low-risk investment on my part.