WIP Wednesday (Weekend Edition) - Busy with a Needle!

So, as I said in my last post, I have been a stitching machine. Part of it is the fact that I've started going to my LNS "Sit and Stitch" night every Thursday. It's a fun time with some great women.

I also have a tendency to go on crafting kicks where I will play with one medium forever and then cycle around. (Right now I couldn't tell you the last thing I really crocheted or scrapped.)

Since rehearsal for my latest production starts soon, I figured I'd get a WIP post out of the way and show you all the things I have been stitching lately!

I showed you this piece back in February. I've got a little more done and although I can see the finish line, the hardest bit is yet to come because it will come with some significant re-charting. So, here it is today.



You may notice that it is in a hoop. (I gave up hoops a while ago!) Well, there's a reason for that. I couldn't help starting a piece I've had in stash forever ....



It's a Phoenix and it is on some lovely fabric from Silkweaver Fabrics. I cannot wait to finish this and put it on my "Phoenix wall" in my craft studio. :)

My smallest WIP is this "Mini Pom & Pear" from Jeanette Douglas. I'm dragging my feet on it at the moment because it needs three more pears in the bottom row ... worked 1-over-1...



My last piece is a companion piece to "Pathways". To remind you, this is "Pathways":




So, it was time to work on a piece to go with it, especially since I had 2 almost full skeins of silk left over! I picked "Daffa-Down Dilly" by Carolyn Mitchell. I wanted to take the class a while ago, but was honestly a little intimidated by the piece. After "Pathways", I figured why not?



So, when this is finished it will be framed to match "Pathways" and they will both go in the bedroom.

Hopefully next time, I'll have some finishes!

WIP Wednesday -- Update - FINISH!!

In my very FIRST WIP Wednesday post I showed you a polar bear cross-stitch piece I had been working on for ... I dunno ... at *least* 10 years. So, it returned from the framer's on Thursday, so here it is! Despite the cost of getting it framed, this will be a winter decoration piece - I don't think I can look at polar bears year round. Maybe again, that's just me. But, since it's finished, here's some more pictures of it. :)And, since I can't get enough of those little bear cubs....I've been on a stitching kick lately and have gotten a lot done on some other pieces too. Those I'll actually post on Wednesday, for next week's WIP Wednesday. Since my April 12 for 2012 is already finished, I'll probably have some bonus finishes/early finishes for May in a couple weeks too!

12 for 2012 - April Finished

Okay, I will confess, for April I only had one project on my list.

April - Finish 2011 BOM top

It's been laid out on my studio floor for months now. Once I finished all the blocks and had the strips sewn together, I started to resent this piece. Yes. And now, even though the top is finished, I feel very much like an unfit mother.

I don't like my child.





I don't know what it is about it, the white sashing, the huge blocks, (they're 16" square), the fact that I didn't trim them up before I started assembling (one of my quilting teachers said that step really isn't necessary most of the time)-- but I feel very ambivalent towards it now.

I enjoyed the process, I like many of the blocks. It provided me a way to work on my piecing. But I don't love it. And I never will. To be honest, I only finished it so that I could claim it as a 2012 finish - and this list has been very motivating for me.

I just got one of my quilting magazines this weekend and there was a quiz about whether you were a rule-follower or rule-breaker. I'm kind of inbetween these two choices. I can and do follow rules, but I see them more as guidelines. The projects I tend to enjoy are ones that I come up with on my own, or modify to make my own. I think that's wherein my discontent lies.

And once I came to that conclusion, I slowly began to stop hating and criticizing myself so much. To be mad at myself for how I felt about it and just accept that for me, it served its purpose.

So, now, this quilt top is up for adoption. It's large and colorful and I'm sure someone will love it. It just won't be me.

So....next month at the quilt shop, I will put it up for donation/adoption. One of the local guilds has some members who come to open sew and do a lot of charity work with quilts, so I will offer it up for them to continue with and turn it into something wonderful. For someone else.