My 2017 Finishes [photos]

Some years I get more accomplished, others much less, but I’m pretty proud of my 2017 finishes. I’ve been in a much better mental and emotional state this year, overall. The setbacks were horrid, but mercifully brief, and some truly good things happened to me this year that didn’t come about from fuckery, first. 🙂 Fingers crossed for 2018.

Not in chronological order, because you can’t expect computers to understand that kind of thing, I guess:

Hell Bats is my design, so it counts as two finishes. 😉

Art Nouveau Letters, by Ink Circles, on a piece of dusty pink 30 ct murano, a poly-cotton blend. This chart was a surprise gift from my adopted daughter, Rachel O’Gorman. I started it during 2017’s stitchy retreat with the other grimalkin here, Sue. 🙂

Rebel Princess was my first finish of 2017. It’s attached to my Ott lamp, in honor and memory of Carrie Fisher. Design by CatLadyXStitching on Etsy.

I made this from an old plastic casette tape box so my husband could take his favorite bulk tea along with him on overnight trips. The design came from an issue of Cross Stitch Collection.

Clitarita is another of my designs, and the first design I ever offered for sale. I stitched it on 28 ct black monaco.

This set of chess piece “coasters” was in an issue of Just Cross Stitch in 2016, but I finished the last of four for my husband this past year. Design by Marie Barber. The finished king is below.

This was another colorway for Mackintosh Roses, a design from Cross Stitch Collection. Design by Maria Diaz.

Sorry it’s sideways. Contortionist Santa ornaments for my daughter in law, step-grandchildren, and great-granddaughter.

This is for the “sea whore” stitch-along in the WTFYW XS group. Design from Makibird, on DeviantArt.

Another piece for one of the WTFYW stitch-alongs. Design by Makibird, on DeviantArt.

And this is what I stitched for my bestie, who has had a fucking rough couple of years and has never been far from my thoughts. The kitty alphabet is one for which I did not save the link, and I’m sorry for that. :-\

Except for one more small thing that I can’t post about because it’s not been delivered yet, that’s it. 2018 promises a couple of BIG finishes in addition to the smaller pieces, if the WIPs underway are any indication. Thanks for stopping by to take a look.

Some Late Progress Pics

I haven’t done much here with progress pics — Sue and I share this space, and writing endless little posts about the bits of progress we make on a daily basis never appealed to either of us. Lately, I’ve been sharing individual WiP pix on Instagram, but this week I found myself with a bundle to share. 

First up: Celtic Yule (nee Christmas). This is on white monaco, which is a 28 ct cotton fabric. I’m stitchin over two threads, with two strands of DMC cotton flosses for cross and quarter stitches, and one strand for backstitching. I’ve been working from left to right on the top half of this one and have the poinsettia’s cross stitches nearly done. Next time it goes up on the stand, I’ll be doing a lot of backstitching.

Design by Vickery Collections. Stitching by Alesia Matson

I have said it many times: I love the palette of colors Mike Vickery uses. It’s distinctive to my eye now, after completing two of his designs previously (I see I’ve got neither of them available here — I hope to fix that soon). After this one, I’ll very likely buy another to dream over for a bit — they’re addictive.

Next up: Caffiene Fix. Sorry for the blurry corner there. Linen is hard to stitch on, too. This 28 ct Irish linen, again stitched over two, DMC floss, two strands for cross stitches, one for back stitches. Originally, I liked the “illustrated” look of this, and I still do — but I’m finding the back stitching in this one tiresome, I have to admit.

Design by Rhona Norrie. Stitching by Alesia Matson

I only work on this one during elder care times. It’s one of the few things my mother in-law actually, visibly, and verbally likes every time she sees it — and it’s new to her every time, too. As much as I disliked her personally when she was still sane, she was one of the few people I knew personally who understood the effort it took to stitch something by hand, and always appreciated it when I gifted her with something I’d stitched. So, we have that, at least.

Next up: Trust the Grind, my homage piece to the San Francisco Giants. This one is my design,and I’m stitching in on “antique” 28 ct monaco, over two. DMC, two strands for x’s, one for |’s. I’ve just got the one last banner to do on the center bottom section. The top center will feature the iconic SF logo. In columns down either side I’ll be stitching the team’s retired numbers, some favorite short, pithy sayings, and something else that hasn’t quite made itself known to me, yet. 🙂 

My dream is to get this finished and framed in time to take it down to the Stitch & Pitch at AT&T Park on July 18th of this year, and find a way to get it to the team, somehow. The obstacles to seeing this one come true are many, but for now it’s just a matter of getting through the stitching. I almost feel like I cursed the guys by designing and stitching this for them this year, which has been awfully grindy already — culminating in that 17 inning marathon last night, that they won with Buster Posey’s walk-off homer. It’s super hard to trust that grind when you’re in the middle of it, but it’s really the only way to get through it. 

Last up is the family tradition stuff. I’m getting started on the “Contortionist Santa” ornaments early this year, since I’ve got to do four J’s and one K, and the best times to squeeze these in is when the baby dragon is down for her nap. The baby dragon is my great granddaughter. My elder son is joining his life with a woman who’s got three kids of her own, and a baby granddaughter. That’s how I got a great-granddaughter before I really had much practice being a grandmother. 

I offered to difference the J’s by color. 

They all like pink best. facepalms I made my peace with pink a few years back, but really….

DMC 956, I think

These are done on 14 ct aida. I used to do them on Rib-bands, but I’ve got some better ideas on how to finish ornaments now. They stitch up quickly, which is good, because that little girl doesn’t always sleep for long, when she goes down.

If you’re wondering if I have a thing for contortionism after a certain snarky farewell to 2016 I did, well, I probably do. 🙂

The last project I’ve got going is a Maleficent-inspired design I picked up on Etsy, but I’ve made a mistake in counts and have some frogging to do before I get a pic of it. 

Thanks for reading along!