It all started...

It all started...

59 years ago today.  Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad.

May's WIPocalypse

It would normally be a WIPocalypse and Smalls check-in, but I did not finish a small by the cutoff date (I won't finish it before the calendar month end either).

While I only have a WIPocalypse write-up, there was progress on my small.  As of this afternoon, it was here:

It is coming along quite nicely, but I had to go searching for a color (I finally found a bobbin worth in a Just Nan project box) and got sidetracked (in a past life, I was one of those dogs that gets completely pulled off the trail be squirrels and butterflies).  Honestly with everything going on at work and the mental time I am allowing it, I haven't been doing much of anything.  My stitching has been minimal, my blog reading and commenting has been close to zero and I've been spending much too much time aimlessly clicking around Pinterest and playing Candy Crush and Bubble Witch.  I do have to get myself in hand and stop allowing work pressures to take over my leisure time.

So onto .  Melissa at Measi's Musings is the host (and a wonderful host she is too) and has since 2012.  It's very simple to participate, pick a few WIPs you'd like to finish up, stitch on them and post each month.  Melissa also provides us with topics each month so we can get to know the participants a bit better and, in some cases, get more stitching ideas.  This month's question is: Which designer's projects do you absolutely love, but are too intimidated to try?  Intimidated?  I'd say none. I tend to jump in with both feet if I like a design.  It's all just one cross after another and with all the resources available on the internet, even the most complicated specialty stitches can be mastered in short order (although those darn Queen stitches still elude me).

The one piece on my WIPocalypse list that has been getting what little attention I have been giving my stitching is A Glimpse of Santa.  It went from here (still can't get the photo to rotate):

to here:

It stitches up fairly quickly as it's all full crosses and fairly good sized blocks of color.  But, I do not much like the pattern - too many similar symbols.  Two different squares but one is fractionally smaller then the other.  Circles that are different sizes and bold or not, etc. so it's VERY easy to grab the wrong color (yes, that is the voice of experience speaking).  I think it's because it's a fairly old pattern and there just weren't as many symbol choices in pattern software at the time.  I prefer to think that rather than think the designer set out to deliberately confuse the stitcher.

May's Gifted Gorgeousness

It's the 15th of May which means Memorial Day and the start of summer vacations here in the US is in two weeks.  I suppose the two days of temperatures in the 90s later this week are a warning test drive for the next few months.  The 15th also means that it's time for my post.

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching and is a way for us to thank those that have given us stitching goodies or to show off pieces that we are giving as gifts or anything else we can shoehorn into the theme.  If you're interested in learning more, click here.  If that doesn't work, the icon in the left side bar should be clickable and take you right there.

Another huge thank you to Jo for the wonderful threads:

I have pinned the package up on my bulletin board and admire them whenever I look up.

I have spent most of my stitching time the last month working on A Glimpse of Santa a Christmas stocking for my niece-to-be.  I've decided to wait until it's finished before I go looking for all the sparkly bits that are supposed to be on it.  As of tonight, it looks like this:

No, I am not stitching it on its side, but for some reason Blogger is being stubborn and not letting me post it correctly.  Anyway, lots of white, beige and cream in this one so far.  I've gone in and done the light colored bits so I don't end up with dark fuzz on them due to stitching along side the darker bits.  I plan to start the tree on the right (bottom) side after I finish that one window pane and then I can do the backstitching around the window parts.  Lots more backstitching on the left (top) side for the wallpaper.  This is the third piece I've worked on that is backstitch heavy and I will be so glad to finish it.

The second piece I worked on is Carnations by Cross Stitch It.  This was one of the blocks from The Sampler Life SAL.  As it's a freebie from the designer, I am counting it as a gift.

This one is on its side too but it's not as noticeable.  I hope to finish off the blue and start filling in the flowers on Sunday when this comes out again. 

One last gift: 

No, it isn't stitched, but I had a great time putting it together.  DNiece and her fiance are very into board games so I sat down with a Scrabble game and started putting wedding/marriage/couple words together.  I bought a set of number tiles for the year and stole a couple tiles from an old game to finish up one word (If you're counting letters, there are too many Ps and Ts).  Thanks to DMom and DSister for the assistance with the frame and mats decision.  It was nice to have extra eyes and opinions as I am always nervous about my choices.

Back to the office tomorrow.  This is my short week but not sure how much stitching I will get in on Friday as I really need to do some yard work. 

Not Much

Not much stitching to post about, but I do have two SAL check-ins so there is something to talk about.


First off - THANK YOU to Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  The Hubs went to the mailbox the other day and said, "Whatever you ordered is here".  I was thoroughly confused because I hadn't ordered anything and said as much.  He said, "Well here's an envelope of something".     The first thing that caught my attention was the postage.  I didn't remember ordering anything and I definitely hadn't ordered anything from England.  Flipped it over and saw this .  Brain started to work a little and I remembered I'd talked with Jo about these threads and that I should check them out, but still didn't remember ordering.  It hit me then that Jo had made sure I tried them and had gifted me a skein or two.  Well I was right about the gifting but not the quantity.  She sent me a whole set!!.  This is the Halloween thread set - aren't they wonderful?  I had been leafing through my Halloween designs thinking I needed to stitch one or two of them and now I have a beautiful thread set to do it with.  Thank you again Jo.


Before I spend the day admiring the floss, I'd better move on to those SALs.  The first is WIPocalypse (my computer isn't letting me copy the badge, but you can see it there on the left).  Melissa at Measi's Musings hosts this SAL.  A very low stress, easy SAL it is too.  Just pick a few WIPs, stitch and post.  She even gives us questions each month just in case we can't think of anything. This month's is very appropriate to the SAL and is "What projects are in your UFO pile?".  My first thought was none as I expect to finish all my started pieces, but given that some of them are almost two decades old, I suppose they are technically unfinished objects.  The list of all my started pieces is on the right there.  I broke it down into Chatelaines, Other and HaEDs for no really good reason other than it made sense at the time.  The pieces that I am focusing on for WIPocalypse are in my Current Rotation list and the WIPocalypse Project List and 2017 Stitching Plan tab up top there.  In the last couple of weeks, I've only worked on two of the projects listed.  The first is Shakespearean Fantasy.   It went from here: 

to here:

Almost another column finish.  One more column and I'll have a page finish.  Moving along, but slowly.


The second is A Glimpse of Santa.  While it wasn't technically a WIP at the beginning of the year, I had plans to stitch it and planning is part of the process so it is squeezed into the SAL.  No before photo, but it is now here:

I really do need to sit down and focus a bit more on this.  It's an easy stitch and I should much more finished than I do.


The second SAL is .  The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather at the Stitching Lotus. It's a year long celebration of all those smaller pieces that we do.  We define what is small and WIP smalls count too.  I am focusing on finishing up The Sampler Life SAL for this SAL.  This month I finished Gold and Purple Corner from Scarlet Suen.

One more will finish this row.  I have six more pieces and the majority are not 50 X 50 as the rest have been.  I think I've worked out how to fit them into the piece so they don't look too out of place. 


I think my work schedule has settled down so I should be able to get back to my normal stitching schedule this week, but I think I've said that before, so please, nobody hold their breath for that.