Eye Candy Friday/Finished Object, Catch-up...

 ...my week was interrupted by a planned trip to handle the last item in my mother's estate.

It was raining on the trip down and the clouds were really interesting. With the help of Siri, I was able to get this shot:

At my mother's old house, there were a lot of weeds in the yard. Among the weeds were a couple of rogue gazanias:

And there was a lone hibiscus near the front door:

Here's the finished object. I finished stitching CATrina. As with most Barbara Ana projects, it was fun to stitch and I love the way it looked.

Specs:
Started 9/10/2025
Finished 11/3/2025
Design by Barbara Ana Design 

When I finish stitching a project, I usually wash and press it. Because I mostly stitch on light fabrics, I want to make sure that I clean off anything that might have accidentally landed on the fabric. In general, I'm a clean stitcher - I wash my hands before I start stitching and I work in Q-Snaps or on scroll bars with a stand to keep the fabric as clean as possible. I simply wash the project as a precaution.

The CATrina design is shown stitched on purple linen, which I loved. I used Wichelt 28-count Linen in Lilac (which is really purple). I hadn't used Wichelt linen in several years; I usually use Zweigart.  

The project was done completely on scroll bars in a stand. Because I loved this design so much, I was extra careful with it. There were wrinkles on the edges of the fabric where I folded it to fit in the scroll bars. All it really needed was a press and it was ready to go. 

 I dampened the area and started to press it with my Rowenta iron. 

[RANT ON] 

1. When I attempted to press the edges from the back,  my iron stuck to it! Every place that was damp was also sticky. After a quick Google, I discovered that Wichelt puts sizing in their fabric and that's what was sticky. Yuck! 
2. The gunk wouldn't come off my iron, and I had to use Goo Gone to clean it.
3. I decided to cold-water wash the project (like I do for other projects) to get rid of the sizing because I couldn’t press it when it was sticky. As soon as I submerged the project, the purple started to run like crazy! Ack! This project has a LOT of white and it began to look lavender. No! 😱 Several rinses later, it was still bleeding purple and it was still mildly sticky. SO not happy!
4. I used a pressing cloth and managed to get bAfter the project dried, the white looked more white than lavender, but not as bright-white as before the wash. I'm going to leave it because it's still wonderful, but not as vibrant as before the wash. Sigh.

I won't be buying Wichelt fabric again!

[RANT OFF]  

WIPs Roll Call
Worked On:

1. Sea Plaid Wrap (weaving) [Ravelry]
   Almost half-way done,

No Work This Week:

1. California Red Poppy Handspun (spinning) [Ravelry]
2. My Recipes (cooking) 
3. Website (other) 

Queued for Starting

1. Moon Lets Sun Shine (or Luna y Sol) quilt (quilting)

Ready for Finishing:

1. Finishing work for some old crewel pictures (sewing)
2. August 1997 Hat-of-the-Month (cross stitch)
3. CATrina (cross stitch)
4. Happy Pumpkin needleroll (cross stitch)
5. Herding Cats quilt (quilting)
6. Horrified! mini (cross stitch) 
7. La Cat-trina quilt (quilting)
   
8. Peaceful Night (cross stitch)
9. Road to Chaos (quilting)  
10. Sea Dandelion (cross stitch)

IDJ (It's Dead, Jim):

1. Chaca II (needlepoint)

UFOs/Hibernation:

1. Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint)
2. Illusion Cube Blanket (knitting) [Ravelry] 
3. Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting)
4. Ocean Ripples Wrap (knitting) [Ravelry] 
5. Sky Lanterns Shawl (knitting) [Ravelry] 
6. Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch)