Friday, February 14, 2014

The 15 Minute Project Update

Monkey French Knot Scribble 10 days later

Here’s my monkey scribble after 15 minutes a day stitching since the last posting. Can’t believe I’ve gotten this far with him. I do need to add his ears. I don’t normally add anything to a scribble but I am making an exception to this one for the ears.

Nest in Tree 
My other 15 minute project has taken a detour, I’ll explain later when I have some photos to show. But this is where it is at for now. I won’t be stitching on it for a while. Need to do some planning.
One more thing I did this week was for a special order in my Etsy shop. These are hope rocks in felt pockets. My son does the etching and I make the heart pockets. And I finished them today so they are my FIF (Finish It Friday) for this week! 
Hope Rocks in Felt Pockets
My posts will probably be sporadic for now since I will be having surgery on Monday. I hope to get back to a more normal posting schedule in a few weeks.
Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts!

Happy Stitching! 
Rose

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

WWW - The 15 Minute Project

So I posted last Friday a picture of my scribble French Knot monkey that has been sitting in a pile of unfinished projects. I knew I had too much to do to be able to finish it in a Friday. So I decided to just work on it 15 minutes a day, you know, slow and steady. Here it is as of today.

Monkey Face 
Can you see the progress? I’m not the fastest stitcher for sure but I am actually enjoying my fifteen minutes a day with it. I read somewhere recently that our attention holds onto something for about 28 minutes. So we should set a 28 minute time limit for each project and at the end of 28 minutes go on to something else. Well I’m not sure that is really true as I know I can get started stitching and lose all track of time. Now when it comes to cleaning or organizing well yeah
about 28 minutes as all I can handle!

I’ve decided to take the 15 minute approach to some of my other projects that I have sitting around waiting for some attention. This is a piece I started back in 2012 while taking an online class from Sharon Boggon.
Bird Nest in a tree
It is a monochromatic encrusted nest in a tree. What you don’t see the encrusting? Right. It’s not there yet. I got stuck on the tree part. 
Here's a close up on the tree which I worked on today.
Tree stitching
I really would like to get it finished all though I’m not sure what I will do with it when I’m done stitching. I’ve added some more stitching (couching) to the main tree section and I’m happy with it. There is one stitch that sort of sticks out like a sore thumb but I think I know how I will fix that. Anxious to get started on the nest. You can read more background about this piece in this post

And I’m not sticking to my fifteen minutes on this piece. I may go over that time if I get really into what I am stitching on it. I think when I get to the encrusted nest part I will happily get lost in it.
Only time will tell.


Happy Stitching Wednesday!
Rose 

Saturday, February 1, 2014

FIF:Finish It Friday! Didn’t Happen!

Well this week Friday didn’t see any finishing. Not that I didn’t try! I had planned to finish the next three flash cards that I started a while back. So I finished embroidering the circles.
Circles finished

Love how the running stitch one turned out. I wasn’t sure when I started it but as I saw it progress I liked it more and more. I will have to experiment with doing the running stitch in multiple rows. I think it has potential!

Then I damp stretched the three. Friday I cut the inside stiffening material, and looked through my black and white fabrics for suitable candidates. If you look closely at the “T is for Triangle” one you will notice that I used a white fabric that had little tiny black triangles on it. Now I know I won’t be able to continue this theme if I decide to make more shape flash cards but I wanted to try for the next three. 

Fabrics to chose and inside stiffener cut
One is a very busy print but if you look closely (for a better look at any of my photos just click on them) it is made up of angles. Good! Next came the dots and I waffled between the tiny, tiny white dots on black fabric or the larger black dots on white fabric. I think I will use the tiny dots for the dot card. Next came the circles, the black fabric with the white circles in different sizes is good but the fabric is more of a silky where the others are cotton or cotton blends. I think I will look for a different fabric for the circle one and while I’m at the store (excuse to go shopping!) I will check for the other two also. Just in case there is something that will work better. I’m thinking if I do continue with more flash cards I may just have to design my own fabric and have it printed professionally!

Monkey from 2012
The other thing I did was decide to try and stitch French Knots for 15 minutes a day on my monkey face scribble I started back in 2012.He’s been staring at me for a while wondering when I was going to give him some attention. One day he too will be a Finish It Friday project.
Monkey today
Plus I had my grandson with me most of Friday and he’s my best reason for not getting more finished. Any time I get to spend with him is a joy filled day!

Well at least I didn't start any new projects on Friday!

Happy Finishing ( or almost finishing!)!


Rose