Projects in progress and on standby

'Project on Standby'.  Isn't that so much nicer and more positive a term than 'Unfinished Object', or 'UFO'?? =)  Sometimes I call them 'stalled projects' too.

Of course, long-time readers (you kind souls!) will know that I don't 'do' UFOs.  I always try my hardest to finish my projects as I dislike wasting work done in the past and the time spent on it.  Wasting time is soooo much worse than wasting money, and that's bad enough!  OK, so I'll admit that I have pulled out the work on a couple of small pieces and dumped the idea, but it gets thoroughly dumped, not just dropped in a drawer or box waiting for the elusive 'someday' as when we say, "Someday I'll finish that".  I do have a few 'Someday I'll start on that's though....  But that's another story.  After Janet Granger's post this morning on projects she wants to give attention to after a major finish, I felt a similar stock-take coming on, so let's talk about things that need finishing off and other things that I'm planning to get done soon for this summer's shows.

I really need to get back to and complete the little hardanger samples you can see here and that I plan to mount in small, coordinating cards.  Thankfully, one of the shows I hope to be entering (Heckington in Lincolnshire - where we'll be on holiday/vacation the same week), has a 'Handmade Greetings Card' class, so that will give me some impetus to get them completed so as to be able to exhibit at least one, especially as there are free exhibitor entry passes for anyone entering 15 or more items.

I also want to get that needle-painted violet finished off and, as my confidence in my needle-painting skills has been boosted by the success of the white roses, I feel more ready to get back to that one.

And, of course, there's still the old Paradise Island cross stitch, which I've worked a few hours on since we moved here 4 months ago and currently looks like this:

You might be able to see a tiny white dot on the very top edge of the photo, just left of the centre.  That's where, alarmingly enough, a hole has appeared in the fabric!  It's outside the design area and should be taken in under the finishing fabric when the time comes, but I'm keeping an eye on it in the meantime.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Perhaps I need to invest in some Fray Check.

However, before any of that comes back into commission, there are anniversary things to finish as it's our 17th on Sunday and, as usual, I'm making a couple of things for Sir.  This year, (after having bought him something he wanted earlier in the year), there's a card, for which this is the cross stitched piece.  Just needs pressing and mounting.  I'm going to have another go at surface mounting, I think, but I haven't fully decided yet.  Need to get my card blanks out and experiment a bit.

In addition to that, I'm in the middle of making him a new Bible cover, because his old one, as you can very clearly see in the first photo here, was incredibly worn and absolutely unfit to be seen.  I've 'lent' him mine, which is in much better condition, for the interim period as he's very much a cover fan and rarely goes without one.

Yup, you've guessed it - using up some scraps from the oriental baby quilt. =)  I just need to strengthen the machine zig-zag stitching on the outer edges where it could easily fray, organise some kind of fastening and then finally seam across the top and bottom including a lining.  These covers look so clever, but once you turn them fully inside-out, they're amazingly simple.  More on this one when it's done.

I'll also have some mounting of older pieces that I can enter in the shows to do (including a slight repair/improvement to the goldwork viola) and this hardanger cushion cover to start.  I'm not going to work the whole thing as, I don't know what you think, but I find it too 'busy' a design to be really attractive as it is.  I plan to do the central diamond and some of the squares abutting it, but probably nothing more.  Maybe one or two small surface motifs in the corners, but not cutwork.  What do you say?

A productive summer coming up!  What about you?  What are your creative plans for the next few months?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016