Mary Update

Hi Everyone,

Here is my Mary. I have not made the progress I had hoped but I am still working on her.

Happy New Year!

Brenda

An update

Hi everyone!
Poor Mary has been languishing on the sidelines since June when I posted this pic:



I decided she needed some stitching time and that I want to finish her in 2011. Sooooo, over the Christmas holiday I pulled her out and got lots done. I'm hoping to get more done in the upcoming month -- maybe get her finished?? We shall see .....

Happy New Year!

Part One Completed

Hi Ladies,

Sorry for disappearing and leaving you all in the lurch. 2010 was not a very good year and when I wasn't fielding bad news and the after effects, I was gift stitching.

I just completed Part 1. I still have a long way to go!

I am stitching this on 40 count Lakeside Linens Fawn with assorted overdyeds. I am devoting the rest of this month to Mary and hope I can stitch and finish Part 2. We'll see how far I get. I hope you all are giving a little attention to your Marys too.

I definitely hope to have my Mary completed in the first half of 2011.

Valerie :)

Latest on Mary

Latest on Mary

Here she is as of last night. Cant wait to get home from school today and stitch some more.

I may have to wait to see how balanced the blue looks on the piece and may end up ripping out or just adjusting the upper left side.

Mary is out in the open again and has become my official UFO. Part 1 is almost finished after some frogging of a motif - I changed the colour to pale lilac from pale blue - much better! How is everyone else doing? Don't tell me you've all long finished and I'm left here on my own?

Another Mary Start

Yes, I know I have already started Mary, but I just started her again. LOL I actually do hope to finish them both one day. Here's a pic of my latest version:


Fabric: 40-count Antique White Newcastle Linen
Fiber: Blue Bunny floss from Hand Made by Nina
Stitched 1 over 2
Progress as of 1 August 10

The main reason I decided to start her again was because of the fiber. I saw it on Nina's personal blog and absolutely fell in love with it.

Here's my progress on my other over 1 version of Mary:


Fabric: 36-count Maritime White linen from Lakeside Linens
Fibers: Variety of GAST, CC, and WDW
Stitched 1-over-1 using tent stitch

Mary is ready for the Fair

Mary is framed and ready for the County Fair (Vanderburgh County, Indiana) next week. I had so much fun stitching her and adding my own family's initials -- they are color coded by family.
My Parents and In-laws, my own four children and their spouses and their children -- each is stitched in a different color (one per family) so I will know who belongs to who when there are duplications. -- ie my eldest son and his family are all in blue, son #2 and wife and offspring are green, dd and her brood are in yellow and my youngest and his are in rust.

In addition, if the person(s) are deceased, their initials are stitched in black. I put the date in the lower right hand corner as well.

Edy/NYC
http://grandmaelf.blogspot.com

MW Update

I picked up Mary last week and am finally making some progress. Here's the latest on Mary Wigham:

I am loving the Vikki Clayton silks! To see how far Mary has progressed, come visit my blog!

Update on Mary Wigham . . . in silk

I decided sometime ago to do my

Mary in silk threads. Because I decided

to do this I had to change the fabric, too.

It is from Week Dye Works a 36 count.

I decided to stitch it with Vikki Clayton's

hand dyed fibers. So I picked the

"B" series of luscious, soft threads.

Boy, do they feel wonderful.

Thanks, Vikki you do know how to

make wonderful silk threads.

One thread over two.

This is my progress so far. It

does take some getting used to

to stitch on a smaller count.

As, always thanks for looking

and all comments will be appreciated greatly.

God Bless ~

Lenna

finally some progress

I have not touched this in forever. I think it is the fabric. It is the first time I have stitched on 45 ct and I was really struggling. All of a sudden today it all seemed okay and I made some progress. This is done on Vintage Buttercream with Belle Soie conversion from the Attic. I stitched for a while last night and a little today and added a little bit of progress at long last. I am going to make this my Sunday stitching project for a while and see if I can't get going on it. The fabric color is warmer than it shows in the pic, it is overcast here and I couldn't get a good shot. Maybe with the next progress I will be able to do better. Marjo in Alaska

It's been awhile .....

Hello everyone!
I have finally returned to stitching on Mary. Unfortunately, I was side tracked for awhile with other things but here she is.

I took the time to get her on roller bars and now she's much easier to handle. Previously, she and I were hoop-ing it. That just wasn't working for me. This is much easier on my hands.

Glad to see I'm not the only one not finished :)

Happy stitching!

Miss Mary in Virginia

Miss Mary has not had much action lately but I did add a few stitches last week. She is coming along slowly but thats ok. She is a great piece to stitch and the little lady got me interested in Quaker style samplers. Now I have a few more waiting in the to-do-box all ready to stitch but there are many other things in there crying to be stitched. So many great things to stitch but not enough time to do them.

Happy Stitching every one

March Ann

Darla

Darla's Mary as of not quite a month ago. She's now back in the QSnaps at home where she's receiving regular attention.

Three motifs added

I thought I was going to go blind stitching that white motif on the bottom. But I didn't... so, I proceeded to add three more motifs. Here is my progress so far:


Happy Stitching, Everyone!
(Visit me at http://www.ivoryspring.wordpress.com)

Moving Right Along

Here is another update. Being a stay at home mom now really does wonders on my stitching. I can't believe how much I can get done in one day. Of course the rest of the day is spent entertaining my daughter, which I'm enjoying so much. When the weather warms up a bit more though, I believe we'll be spending the majority of the days outside. I can't wait for summer. Way up here in Northern Maine, it is another month away.

Happy Stitching,

Hillery

Progress on my Mary

Spring Break did bring some stitching! Never as much as I would have liked. The picture is terrible as it was taken with my phone. I cant find the cord to my camera to upload my pics. I am thinking about adding some blue like a DMC 930 or DMC 931. this colors would complement my living room colors. I am not sure if I have stitched too much now to try to add the blues...

A quick MW status for Friday

I finished up the vine/flower motif (stems in GAST grape leaf and flower in GAST berry cobbler) and moved to the squirrel area this week, which I have just about finished (just need to put a few oatmeal stitches in the design around Mr. Squirrel).

Once that is finished, I will begin stitching the last motif on the top right-hand side today. My goal is to get that finished by the end of the weekend before I have to put MW into hibernation for awhile, again. I need to start some exchanges as the mail deadline of May 1 is coming soon...and exchanging stitching of smaller projects will be perfect for airplane projects as I am getting ready to leave for Washington DC as a chaperon for my older son's 8th grade trip.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often! Lisa

Mary Update~Slow Going

Hello, I have been MIA from bloggerland for a long time. I have not done much stitching, but what I have done is on my Mary. The colors are a little darker in the picture than in real life. I am using the recommended threads minus a few substitutions. I am now 34 and a half weeks pregnant and have just got done working, so I may have more time to devote to stitching for several weeks. We'll see how things go.

Happy Stitching,

Hillery

MW update from California

With out any immediate "needs" to stitch exchanges or any other stitching "obligations", MW has grown over the last few weeks...and it has become something that has been very difficult to put down when the need of housework or exercising has come up :). This last week, I have been trying to finish up page one - the interior part of the project where the flowers are (that is what I have been calling those motifs - below is a picture of what I have been stitching this week).

Here is the "flower" area I have been working on the last few days. I used GAST butternut squash for the flower-in-the-diamond motif and for the flower buds on the stems, it is Berry Cobbler. I noticed last night, as I was stitching the upper flower, that my count was off...so I am debating whether to "frog-it" and start over or just leave it. It won't mess up the placement of any of the other motifs and unless I point it out to everyone when it is done, it is one of those things no one will even know...but I will. What would you do in this case?

Well, just wanted to share my status of MW. I will probably stitch on her for another week before putting her away for a while as some exchange deadlines are May 1 and I do have a trip to Washington DC coming up (chaperon for an 8th grade field trip) where it will be easier to haul some little projects for the plane ride.

Take care all...Happy Easter! and remember to Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often! Lisa

Progress Made

I am almost done with the second medallion. Have changed the colors a little.

My Mary Update

I have come to affectionately called my Mary Wigham project my “downstairs” project. I keep it downstairs to work on whenever I have a few moments in between house chores. Most days, I get by with barely five stitches. But the meager five stitches are better than none as I am five stitches closer to the finish line. Here is what I have so far:

The yellow and the dark blue are the latest additions:

The reason I am stitching Mary and hopefully a bunch of other Quaker samplers is because I want these samplers to compliment the Quaker Birth Sampler I am stitching for my daughter. I hope in about 5-6 year’s time, I shall have enough Quaker samplers stitched to fill up a wall… at least that’s the plan in my little head!

Happy Mary-Wighaming, Everyone! :)
Visit me at http://www.ivoryspring.wordpress.com

February Progress

The entire U.S. has had terrific stitching weather this winter, don't you think? Here's Mary in progress the morning after a Wisconsin snowstorm.

I dyed my own silk and linen for this project, and have been intimidated by choosing color substitutions; but the experience has been SO valuable! I'm growing increasingly confident in just intuiting choices for this motif and that -- just laying the skeins down and FEELING which one works.

My only regret has been lavender. All the other colors were deliberately dulled down. I was inspired by the glass of water in which I soaked my eyedroppers: The mishmash of dye leftovers colored the water to a deep, slightly warm, icky gray. I called that glassful "dirt." And every skein I dyed was subject to a wash in "dirt" to muddy the base color. But lavender somehow escaped this treatment! Amid the grayed-down colors, here's a blast of Disney-princess lavender! Argh. I've gone back and forth about taking it out, but this isn't easy with 65-year-old eyes. Still thinking about it, and still SO in love with Mary and the lovely winter she's given me.

March Update!

I am embarassed at the small amount of progress to show. The Vikki Clayton silks that are in this project are reasonably priced and very little to no shredding. And I like to use longer threads when possible.

Some project decisions have finally been made. Family initials will be substituted and since that was changing the original design, I could rationalize a few other changes too. Like using some other color than white for the blooms on the flower above--not sure what yet though.

Do you think I am being distracted by other projects? YES! There are 15 WIP's sitting out in my stitching area-way too noisy with them all calling to me! *Please visit my new blog-atwillowtreepond to see what else is calling! :)

Started!

Thanks everyone for all the recommendations for shops with supplies in DFW! I so appreciate the spirit of camaraderie here.  I ordered some linen online and was really pleased with it, but it failed to impress my mother who will be the recipient of my Mary.

My daughter and I went to visit Mom last week and stopped in at The Needlework Boutique just minutes from her house. Mom corralled Marlowe (my two-year-old) and I tried to take it all in. Mom selected some really lovely hand-dyed forest green linen and Suzette at Needlework Boutique helped me make sure there was enough for the finished sampler (of course Mom couldn't select something with the same count.)

Turns out Suzette is also working on a Mary. I hope we'll hear from her here.

My husband took my daughter out Saturday and I got started.

I hope to get at least an hour in each day before Marlowe gets up and while she naps. I'm in a bad mood today because I have to spend nap time getting ready for a neighborhood meeting tonight.

The Needlework Boutique is quite a drive from my house but I'm looking forward to future visits and with a built in babysitter minutes away it could be my new happy place.

Mary From January & Blog Update

I realized that I didn't post my latest work in progress photo of my Mary. This was taken at the beginning of January and I haven't picked her up since. She is screaming at me every night demanding to be stitched on but I am currently gift stitching. I'm stitching every waking moment I have on my sister's 50th birthday present! I am hoping to finish that by the end of the month so I can pick up my Mary again.

Thanks for looking.

I've spent some time revamping the look of the blog a little as well as developing a list of all participants with hyperlinks. This should make it easier for everyone to "visit" each other. =)

Thanks!
Valerie

Mary so far.....

Mary and I have been apart for a couple of weeks but we are reunited now! It's a peaceful stitch with not too much reverse stitching, lol! At first I was sorry I hadn't gone with the colours given but tucking a few different shades into the monochrome has definitelly given the piece a lift. For enquiring minds threads (so far) that I am using are Waterlilies Winter Wheat (monochrome part) together with Gloriana Sable and Silk n' Colours Fallen Leaves.

I'm rechallenging myself to a couple of needlefuls a day again. Let's see how I do!

My Mary

Shown below is my Mary. I haven't worked on her nearly enough lately. I have decided that I hate the fabric that I am using, but I have too many hours invested to change that...I think!

This was the official beginning to my "blue and green" period. I'm still there and it makes me happy. I would like to replace the original initials with the letters of the alphabet like I saw someone on the Needleprint site do.

I'm in the process of finishing up a BlackBird Design project with hearts, but am looking forward to getting back to Mary after that...at least on a part time basis.

Bobbi

Another New Member!

Hi, All -

My name is Bobbi and I live in the Cleveland area. I just came across this blog for the first time this morning and am thrilled to be able to join. I started my Mary quite a while ago, but she has gone to the bottom of the list a few times in favor of new starts and some actual finishes.

I am a widow, a mother to two, a grandmother to five, and will become a great-grandmother in July. Where in the world does the time go?

I have to run out to do some errands that I have been putting off for a couple of snowy days, but I will post a photo of my Mary over the weekend. I look forward to becoming excited about this project again and meeting the goal of having the project completed in 2010. I will catch up on all your photos and posts over the weekend, also.

Bobbi - Ohio

Hello

Another new Mary here. My name is Jennifer and I live in Dallas, TX with my partner of 13 plus years, our two-year old, an elderly boxer/pug and a middle aged fox terrier.
I have to finish a project (a service flag in honor of my nephew) for my sister in law before I can start my Mary. Little did I know that was not my only obstacle.
Finding the supplies has been a real pain! I am returning to needlework after twenty-year hiatus. I had no idea how hard it is to find quality supplies now! The WalMarts, JoAnns, and Michaels have made it really difficult. I've decided I'm done with them.
I have a couple leads on some far flung independent shops. A trip to any is going to have to be a planned adventure due to my little sidekick. Anyone in the DFW area with some favorite local shops, please email me. j.roberts.ratliff@gmail.com

Thank you to those of you that have posted about what materials you used and where you found them. While my daughter fought a nap, I placed my order today for some linen and thread - and a new, free standing scroll frame. (A huge splurge for me.)

This is the corner of our bedroom where I like to work. It's drafty and the view isn't so great (except in spring when the trees bud.) but the rest of our little house is behind my back when I sit here and so I can pretend that the mountains of laundry and towers of mail are someone else's problem.

Since I have no work to show, I'm posting this to ensure that I finish that darn needlepoint service flag and am ready to start Mary as soon as the supplies arrive. I hope to publish my first start (I usually have to rip out the first 2-5 starts.) here next week.

My thanks to everyone posting and following here. You have been a real inspiration to me since I discovered Needleprint just a month or so ago.

Jenny

A newbie and her MW

Hello, my name is Lisa D from California and I am new to USA MW blog. I started my MW Thanksgiving weekend 2009 and unfortunately put her down mid-December as exchange stitching took priority. I am stitching Mary on 40ct Maple Syrup Linen using 1 strand over 2. I started out using the GAST color conversion, but as I stitch motif after motif, I find myself changing the "assigned" color. I find stitching the motifs very relaxing and cannot wait to get back to stitching MW. I look forward to participating on this blog as I know it will inspire me to continue working and finishing MW.

Thank you Valerie for inviting me to participate.

Take care everyone and remember:

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

Snowy Weekend In Northern Virginia

Took Miss Mary to work with me this weekend, I was covering for some of the other Call Center Agents that couldn't get in because of our 20 to 25 inches of snow. I spent 25 hours working from 11:30 Saturday morning till Monday morning at 11am. Didn't get as much done as I hoped to since we where pretty busy. I am changing the colors a little so you can see them better on the 1st piece of tea-dye material I made. I am doing this on 25 ct evenweave with 1 over 1.
I hope we will be seeing more process pictures in the next few months and I promise to do my part to keep my updates coming.
Happy Stitching
March Ann

New Memeber

Thank you Valerie for letting me come aboard. I have just started my Mary a week ago and have a little progress to show. I have been drooling over everyone's project and just had to start myself. I will be using the recommended linen and DMC threads with maybe a couple color changes. I also probably won't be ironing this piece every time I post a pic. I heard it could mess with the fibers, so I apologize for the sloppiness.

Happy Stitching,

Hillery

Mary is still Alive and Well

I know it's been forever since I posted but Mary is still alive and working. I have just gone back over the many lovely posts you've all been putting up. It is just amazing how many different ways one design can look so beautiful! Keep up the wonderful stitching my friends.

Well, here is my Mary as of January 31, 2010.

clickable

Yoyo Progress 4 -- Mary Wigham Forever sampler.
Over 1 on 40 ct Lakeside Linens
V. Lt. Examplar Linen using over-dyed conversion threads (list posted here)

Intro and Blog Update

Hi Everyone,

As Shari announced, she has stepped down from being the group leader and I have offered to come on board. I would like to extend a sincere thank you to Shari for stepping up to the plate in the very beginning and setting up this blog for all of us. She did a great job! Soon after she became group leader, she became a grandma to triplet grandsons and she's been juggling lots of bottles and diapers! She's been busy.

I just started my Mary in November and have been loving her even though I'm still on Part 1. It's not too late to start! It's a New Year, the holidays are behind us and it's time to dig our Mary's out of the closet! I know I would love to see how yours are all coming along!

Announcements

~ There is one more spot available on the blog. If someone would like to be a member and is working on Mary or about to start, please email me for an invite. First come, first served. My email is on the sidebar in the "Welcome" section.

~ If there is anyone who is no longer interested in being a member, please email me and I can take you off as an author and open up some free spaces. Don't feel bad...life happens and frankly, I was supposed to start my own Mary back in June and didn't get to it until November. But I'm glad I did!

~ I changed the look of the blog a little and will probably change it around a little more. Don't be surprised if one day it's one way and the next it's another. I'm just playing around.

I think that's it. Please feel free to email me if you have questions or blog layout ideas.

Thanks!
Valerie

New Leader---Welcome Valerie

hello all,
I have been in contact with Valerie & she is willing to take over as the leader of the USA group for Mary Wigham. Thank you so much Valerie. I am staying on as a member of the blog, but I will not be the contact person any longer. Any concerns can be voiced to Valerie, who is in the member list.
Please, keep working on your Mary's!!!!
I have enjoyed getting to know some of you better, thru this blog!
Shari

Group Leader

I have been a terrible group leader. I have not worked on my Mary in eons & I haven't posted here either.
I would like to offer the leadership of this blog to someone else, someone who would like to make this a great place to be.
If you are interested, drop me an email or reply to this post. I will check it often for a while, with hopes of the right person seeing it & wanting to take over!
Keep up the great work, those of you still working on your Mary!
Shari